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Do you hear the Word of God presented to you and you agree with everything that is being said? That's great. But are you doing what is being said? If you hear the Word of God and don't do what it says, you deceive yourself when we understand the text.
Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text as an online ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty, visit our website at www .utt .com.
Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky.
And greetings, everybody. Welcome again to our study of the book of James. James chapter 1. We're going to read this whole chapter today as we continue to keep the things that we've talked about in context.
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. Greetings. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
But let him ask in faith with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.
He is a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation. Because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass.
Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. I love this chapter, and I thank you for letting me read it with you again.
We will finish up chapter one this week, by the way. James has issued some very direct instructions here. In fact, as we talked about in our introduction to the book of James, over 50 imperatives, direct statements that he gives to Christians as to how they should live.
But he's so very gentle and loving in the way that he presents these things. I need that reminder. When as a pastor, I am giving such instructions, whether it's to my congregation, or I'm talking one-on-one with another individual, to do this in a very loving way, like a big brother sort of a way.
You kind of get that tone that James is offering here. Because as we've gone through 18 verses, and we get to verse 19, he brings his love and his care for his hearers back into these imperatives. Know this, my beloved brothers, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
The way that we tend to use that verse, we'll use it to talk about how we interact with one another. And it's true that it has that dimension to it. Because if we follow the instruction that Paul gives in Philippians chapter two, that we need to put others' needs ahead of our own, do you care about another person's opinion more than you care about your own?
I mean, you already know what your opinion is, so why not zip your lip and let somebody else speak and offer their input and be interested in what it is that they have to say? Because what they share could help to shape you in your dynamic, in your understanding, your approach to certain situations and events, issues, views, those sorts of things.
So it does have that aspect to it. But primarily what James is addressing here is being slow to speak and quick to listen to the word of God. Being slow to complain about our circumstances—I was trying to put situation and circumstances in the same word—anyway, being slow to complain about our situation or to offer like extended commentary on our circumstances instead of talking to ourselves and jibber-jabbering on about this, that, and the other, being slow to speak and quick to hear what the Lord has to say.
There is a verse for every situation. Even though we live in a certain culture, in a certain generation, that does not mean that we are beyond the reach of Scripture. There were 2 ,000 years beyond when the last letter was written on the pages of Scripture.
It is still speaking to us even now. Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but my word will never pass away. So it is just as relevant to us now at the time when it was delivered or written down.
As a matter of fact, we can understand these things now better than the disciples did even at the time that they were walking around with Christ and saw him performing the miracles and saw him crucified and resurrected and ascended into heaven.
They didn't even understand the things that they were witnessing as they were witnessing them. But now that we have the completed word and we're able to go to the text and see what it is that the apostles have written down for us, we have a clearer picture of the things that happened from the Old Testament to the New than even they did.
And so there is something that is speaking to us through these scriptures oh so clearly. By the Spirit of God, we understand them. And so we need to be slow to offer our own commentary about our situation and instead listen to what God has to say.
Because though the scriptures that we read may be 2 ,000 or more years old, it is still speaking into our situation even now. There's a verse for that, as I mentioned earlier. So we're slow to speak and quick to hear the Lord's voice speaking to us from the scriptures.
For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And if our desire is to be producing the righteousness of God in our Christian living, then we need God's word to give us that. Because remember what it is that we read in verse 18.
Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Growing in maturity and in the knowledge of God happens in the scriptures. Paul said to the Colossians that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and we know about Christ according to his word.
So it is by the word of God that we are trained and God's righteousness is produced in us. Verse 21, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
Since I've mentioned Colossians once already, I want to go there because as James is painting this picture of taking off the old and putting on the new, that was exactly something that Paul said to the Colossians.
In Colossians chapter three he says, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.
In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave free, but Christ is all and in all. So you have this picture that Paul offers also of taking off the old self and putting on the new.
In church right now in our sermon series we're going through essential doctrines. And I've used an acronym that Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, came up with. He takes the word doctrine and each one of those letters represents an essential doctrine.
So when we're trying to summarize what fundamental doctrines are pertaining to saving faith, I think that Hanegraaff came up with the best example, that doctrine acronym. I took the liberty of adding an S to the end of it, so we have nine essential doctrines that are spelled out there in the acronym doctrines.
And they are deity of Christ, which is what I just preached on, original sin, canon, which is just another word for the Bible, trinity, resurrection, the incarnation of Christ, new creation, and I'll come back to that here, eschatology, which is the study of end times, and then salvation by grace alone through faith alone.
So those are the nine essential doctrines that we're covering over nine weeks. Now, when we get to that new creation, that is something that is necessary for every Christian to understand, because you came to faith not by praying a prayer and then going, boom, there it is, now I'm a Christian just because I prayed this prayer, I said the password, I said the magic words, and now poof, I'm saved and I will not be going to hell.
That's not how Christianity works, because one of the essential doctrines that we must understand as a follower of Christ is you don't just do this once, you don't just make a declaration one time and then you've punched your get out of hell free card and you're set for life, okay?
But you must no longer return to that old self that you were in before you came to Christ, you have taken off the old self. So Paul talks about that here with the Colossians and Colossians chapter three also mentions it with the Ephesians and the Corinthians.
It's a very common example that he uses to illustrate that we've taken off our old rags, the old clothes that we were wearing when we were a sinful person, when we were walking in worldliness and in desires of the flesh, we're no longer walking in those fleshly desires, so we take off the old self and we put on the new.
Jesus says in the book of Revelation to the church in Laodicea, this is in Revelation chapter three where he says, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourselves and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love, I reprove and discipline.
So be zealous and repent. So when we are in Christ, we take off the old self and we put on these new garments that have been washed clean by the blood of Christ and we no longer return to the old self, but we walk in this newness of life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So this is that same sort of illustration that that James is offering here when he says to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, the word of God, which is written on our hearts.
As we read in the Psalms, your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I will hide God's words in my heart that I might not sin against thee. So this is the implanted word on our hearts, which changes us down to our very core from the inside out.
And then we are seen on the outside living in righteousness, which is a change that has occurred on the inside. Christ has changed us. So don't return to the old self. We must walk anew in Christ. That's an essential doctrine that we are talking about in our sermon series.
And it is that implanted word, which is able to save your souls. And this is that process of sanctification, of growing in holiness. So then we go on from there. Verse 22, James says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
So remember, we have the word of God implanted upon our hearts. We need to do what it says, not just hear it and let it sit there. It is seen on the outside, the verses that we have written on the inside, being lived out.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, because just by hearing the word and not doing it, you deceive yourself. You say that you believe it, but you don't actually live it. And so therefore, you have deceived yourself, making you think that you believe it, but you're not really doing anything about it.
Okay, before I dwell on that too much, let's keep going and I'll expound on that. So verse 23, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. So what James is talking about here is that when we look into the word of God, we will see our sin because the Bible talks about our sins.
We've actually talked a little bit about that already when we were in Colossians chapter three, when Paul is talking about you once walked in these evil things. If you're in Christ, you used to be this, but now you're this.
You used to walk in envy and slander and obscene talk from your mouth. You used to pursue the passions of the flesh, sexual immorality and these other things. But if you are in Christ, you must put that all away.
So we've already seen some of our sins articulated here. If you're in Christ, those are former sins. But if you're not in Christ, then those are sins that you're still living in now. Those are pursuits and passions of the flesh that you are still living out.
And you must repent of those sins and believe in Christ and let him wash you new. Now, that doesn't mean you're going to be perfect right away. As Paul said to the Philippians, not that I am already perfect, but I seek to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
So this is that process of sanctification growing in holiness. We won't do it perfectly, but we need to seek to attain that perfection. When we look into the word of God, we see our sin and we know that we need to repent of those sins.
The apostle Paul talks about the purpose of the law in Romans chapter three, where he says that the law stops every mouth because in the book of Proverbs we read that every person thinks that he is right in his own eyes.
The law, when we read it, stops us from announcing our own righteousness, because then when we see ourselves in the law, we see our sins articulated. We realize, man, I've done all of that. When we see, do not commit adultery.
And Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter five, if you've even looked at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery with her in your heart. We read that and we realize, man, I've committed adultery.
And we read, do not murder. And we think to ourselves, well, I'm not a murderer. I've never killed anybody. But then we hear Jesus say, Matthew five again in the Sermon on the Mount, if you've even hated somebody in your heart or called them names, then you've murdered them in your heart.
We realize, man, I'm not innocent on that one either. So as we see these things, as we come to the word and we see our sins being announced and presented to us, it stops us from proclaiming our own righteousness.
And we also have knowledge of our sin. This is what Paul says in Romans chapter three, verses 19 and 20. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped.
And the whole world may be held accountable to God, for by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes knowledge of sin. So it is by the law of God that we become aware of our sins.
And the Bible, when we read it, serves as a kind of mirror that shows us our sins. It shows us how wretched we are and how fallen from the perfect standard of God we truly are. The apostle Paul presents to Timothy that we use the word in this way as well.
We read in first Timothy chapter one, verse eight. Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and the sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their mothers and fathers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
So these are things that we read about here. And Paul says to Timothy, this is how the law is to be used. It speaks to those who practice these sins so that they will see that according to God's perfect standard, they are sinning and they are under his wrath and they need Christ to wash them clean.
They need to turn from those sins and walk in the newness of life that is set before us by Christ Jesus, our Lord. If we see our sins articulated in the scriptures like this and we're convicted in our hearts, we hear our sins mentioned and we go, man, I've done that.
And I know that I have sinned against God. And we might even feel for a moment and be like, oh, boy, I need to stop doing that or I need to find a solution to this, because otherwise I'm going to perish in these sins and I will be under God's wrath.
And then we walk away from the situation and we don't do what it is that we have heard the Bible tell us that we need to do. Well, we're like that man that looks at ourselves in a mirror and then walks away and forgets his own reflection.
That's an absurd statement, right? Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and then walk away and you immediately forget what you look like? No, but a person who walks away from hearing the word and doesn't do what it says is like a person who does that very thing.
They see their own reflection in the mirror and then they walk away forgetting what they look like, what the scriptures said they look like in their filthiness of heart. And we do this in our church life all the time.
We go to church. We will hear the scriptures say articulating our sins and calling us to repentance. And we might feel a conviction on a Sunday morning, but then for the rest of the week, Monday through Saturday, we're living in worldliness.
Then we come back to Sunday morning. We get our little spiritual kick again and we live in our worldliness Monday through Friday. That's all week long. We are living as a man who sees his reflection in a mirror and then forgets what he looks like.
Do not merely be hearers of the word. Do what the word of God says. Jesus says in Matthew chapter seven, everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house.
But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell.
And great was the fall of it. Remember the word of God. Do what it says and you will be like the wise man who built his house on the rock, the rock of Christ Jesus. Join with me in prayer. Lord, I pray that we would remember these words that we have heard spoken today and we would do what they say, that we would turn from our filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with humility the word of God, which is saving our souls, shaping us more into the image of Christ.
Forgive us our sins and help us walk in his righteousness. And in the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
The world is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Both his covenant and his blood support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand.
But sound his righteousness alone, faultless to spend is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all earth is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all earth is sinking sand, all earth is sinking sand.
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