Legalism and Licentiousness

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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January 10, 2019

00:00: I open our Bibles to James chapter 1.
00:13: This was supposed to be our lesson on the day that we ended up talking about translations.
00:19: And the Lord saw fit to lead us in a different direction that day.
00:26: So, I'll go ahead and write these two words up here just like I did last time.
00:37: But hopefully this time we'll actually get to their meanings.
00:40: We're going to read, beginning at verse 18, even though we've already gone over verses 18 to 21, I want to set the context and read from verse 18 all the way down to 25.
00:52: That's what we're going to try to get through today.
00:55: It says in verse 18, James chapter 1, And of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
01:09: Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
01:20: For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
01:23: Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
01:33: But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
01:42: 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.
01:50: For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
01:57: 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.
02:17: Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
02:20: Now as I begin to offer an exposition of it, Lord, I pray that you would first and foremost by your grace and mercy keep me from error.
02:29: For God, that is my goal and desire of preaching always is to be kept from error because I know how fallible and sinful I am and how easy I am to wander off into my own opinions.
02:40: So Father, I pray that you would keep me from that.
02:43: I pray that you by your Spirit would speak through me today, speak to the hearts of these men.
02:48: Lord, for those who are brothers in Christ who are believers, Lord, that this would be to them like water on a flower that would help it to bloom, that it would be encouraging.
03:01: Lord, for those who are not believers, Lord, I pray that this word would be to them a striking at the heart, that it would call them to repentance and faith in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can save.
03:14: And I pray, God, that through this lesson that you would do that, that you would encourage the faithful and that you would capture the faithless and use this all to your glory and honor in Christ's name.
03:27: Amen.
03:30: Alright, guys, well...
03:33: In our last lesson, which was several weeks ago before Christmas, we talked about verses 18-21 where it says, Know this, my brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
03:50: And in reality, that is a statement of how we ought to respond to the Word of God before anything else.
04:01: We ought to be quick to hear the Word and slow to respond with our own words.
04:09: We ought to be quick to hear what it says and slow to offer up our own vain opinions.
04:15: And we ought even be more still quick to hold back our anger because often that's what the Word does.
04:25: The Word encourages us to get frustrated because of our sin.
04:32: When I say the Word encourages us, let me back up, I don't mean the Word is encouraging.
04:36: What I mean is our sinful flesh encourages us to get angry at the Word.
04:41: Because when the Word tells you that you ought not and your flesh tells you that you should, there's an immediate conflict there.
04:49: The Word says no and your flesh says yes.
04:54: That's where the battle begins.
04:56: And so what do men usually do with that battle? Go ahead.
05:02: They give in to the flesh, but in what way? They either give in to the flesh by just denying the Scripture.
05:09: You know what, my flesh wants this, the Scripture says no.
05:12: I'm just going to do what my flesh wants and put the Scripture away, I don't care.
05:17: That's what a lot of people do.
05:19: In fact, I've said this before, I don't know if I've ever said it here, but the parts of the Bible that bother people are usually not the parts that they don't understand, but it's the parts that they understand and don't want to do.
05:30: They understand full well, the Bible says, do not commit adultery, but she's good looking.
05:35: They know well, the Bible says, do not get drunk, but that alcohol tastes good.
05:40: They know full well, the Bible says, love your wife as Christ loves the church, but she is ornery and I'm tired of it.
05:47: Right? So we know what it says, it's not hard to understand what it says, and yet our flesh wants to do something else, so we either say, no, I'm not going to listen to Scripture.
05:57: But there's a more insidious way that people do that, is they twist the Scripture to agree with them.
06:05: Scripture twisting is much more prevalent than Scripture denying in the church.
06:11: There's not many people walk into the church and say, hey, I don't believe the Bible.
06:18: I mean, there are some.
06:19: I had a guy sit on my couch one time, he came over to my house and I was talking to him, and he said, well, Keith, I don't believe the Bible's true.
06:28: I said, well, you're in the wrong church.
06:32: Because he was talking about our church, things he didn't like, blah, blah, blah, about halfway through the conversation, he said, I don't believe the whole Bible's true.
06:37: I said, well, you're in the wrong church.
06:38: Our statement in Covenant says we believe the whole Bible's true.
06:41: I said, there's 15 churches, I can throw a rock and hit one of them.
06:44: Go there.
06:46: You are in the wrong church.
06:48: Just leave.
06:52: So not many people are as brazen as him.
06:55: Not many people say, I just don't believe the Bible.
06:57: What they do is they have something their flesh wants, the Bible says, no, so I'm going to twist it.
07:03: I'm just going to make it say what I want it to say.
07:08: Over the last few years, that's become very prevalent in the homosexual community.
07:12: Because the homosexual community wants the Bible to agree with them so that they don't have to give up their desire for that aberrant sexual behavior.
07:22: And so instead of seeing where in Romans 1, it says it is an unnatural thing that a man would leave the natural use of the woman and burn with lust for another man, and that's an unnatural thing, they say, okay, no, that's not what it means.
07:38: What it means is in the first century, there were men who had slaves, and they used those slaves for sexual action, and so that's what it's talking about.
07:47: That's what's unnatural.
07:48: It's not unnatural for a man to be with a man.
07:50: It's unnatural for a man to force another man through sexual slavery.
07:54: Is that what the text says? No.
07:57: Is that even close to what the text means? No.
08:01: Sorry, I'm not feeling well, so I'm going, no.
08:05: I think I just became a teenager.
08:11: But that's what they do.
08:12: They twist the text, make it because they want what the flesh wants, and so they force it.
08:20: And this is why James admonishes us, and that's why I say I think you can put the word in here, where he says be quick to hear the Word.
08:27: Be slow to speak, responding to the Word, and be even slower to anger when the Word confronts you in your sin.
08:39: Alright? So having said all that, we then go into the next section, which is verse 22, where he says, but, which is the adversative now, it's saying, but having said that, put away all filthiness, rampant wickedness, and receive the Word which is implanted in your heart, and be doers of the Word, not hearers only.
09:09: Within Christianity, from the very beginning of the church, and we can argue covenantalism and things, and say well the church was in Israel, but from the beginning of the Christian faith, there has been a divide on two divergent positions.
09:32: And the two divergent positions are legalism and licentiousness.
09:39: I put those words up on the board for us to consider for our lesson today.
09:45: What is legalism? Can somebody give me a short definition of legalism? Because I mean we could sit here and talk all day, but does anybody have a pithy definition? Yes sir.
10:00: Okay.
10:02: Putting faith in the law.
10:04: I like it.
10:05: It's not exact, but I do like where you're going.
10:08: Putting my faith in the law, meaning putting my faith in my keeping of the law.
10:12: That's what you mean, right? Yes.
10:14: Yeah, I would go with that.
10:16: Brother, do you want to add to that? Gaining favor with God by obedience, and also practicing commandments that God did not give.
10:23: Yeah, and I would go into your second point there.
10:27: That's pharisaicalism, because they added commandments to the scripture.
10:31: That's what Jesus said.
10:32: The damning thing about them was that they were teaching as commandments the traditions of men, which is a dangerous thing, right? They're adding to scripture.
10:39: They had how many steps you could take on the Sabbath.
10:43: Right? Because if you took too many steps on the Sabbath, then those steps became work.
10:48: But if you had this many steps, it wasn't work.
10:51: You know? Yes sir, brother.
10:52: How many? Yeah.
10:57: And you're getting closer.
10:59: Oh, sorry.
11:01: No, please.
11:02: I'm sorry.
11:03: We've got to have some kind of works, because it's pointless to call yourself a Christian, and you don't do the things that a Christian is supposed to do, number one.
11:13: And I'm super guilty.
11:14: My mom talked about this this morning.
11:16: I had a long conversation with my brother here.
11:20: But the thing is, it's like, legalism, man, you know, what I understand, you know, like, legalism is like, you hear the real strict doctrines, you know, man.
11:34: They all say, oh, you know, like Pentecostals, they're like, oh, yeah, Baptists are legalists, you know, as little as they can.
11:42: And then they'll reply to us, like, well, you know, no, Pentecostals are, because they, because, like, they're legalists, because you've got to do all of these things to have salvation.
11:59: But like, man, I mean, I know there has to be some kind of happy balance there.
12:04: Okay, well, we're going to talk about, when we get to James 2, where he talks about works being a part of faith, and faith without works being dead, we're going to talk about the balance.
12:13: But my question to you, though, was, what is legalism? And it sounds like what you're saying, legalism is saying you have to do.
12:19: I think legalism is like, I think what a lot of churches today do, in today's society, is they try to escape by with as minimal, as little as possible, and still be saved.
12:33: That's, legally, I accepted Christ, so, I can go and do whatever I want, and still go to heaven.
12:40: that's actually licentiousness.
12:41: We're going to get to that in a minute, okay? Brother, you had your hand up.
12:44: I'm just guessing, legalism, like, following man's law, or something, man created.
12:49: Okay, and all of these are good.
12:53: You had your hand up, brother, and then I'm going to.
12:54: I think it's like, putting more importance on traditions than it is on.
12:59: Okay.
12:59: I would say, almost pharisaicalism, though, when you're saying that.
13:05: Brother, you had your hand up, or did you? Oh, I thought you did.
13:09: If I could describe legalism, it would be, works for salvation.
13:12: Yeah, and I, and that's, that's really, really close to where I would be, and this is what I'm going to say.
13:17: Legalism is this, justification by law.
13:21: Right.
13:22: Justification by law.
13:24: Okay, so, that's why I say pithy.
13:27: Short, right? As usual, it's short.
13:28: Yes, sir.
13:29: I don't think it has anything to do with God.
13:31: I think it just has, just do what's legal.
13:34: Okay, but in the sense of how I'm using the term, and how the church uses the term, legalism is the idea that you can be justified by keeping the law.
13:43: That you can be justified before God by keeping the law.
13:46: Can you be justified by keeping the law? The answer is no.
13:50: Paul tells us the answer is no.
13:52: The answer is no.
13:52: Why is the answer no? Because you can't keep the law.
13:56: How do you know I can't keep the law? Have you ever lied? Yeah.
14:00: You've broken the law.
14:01: You can't keep the law.
14:05: It's not against the law to lie.
14:07: Sure it is.
14:07: The ninth commandment, thou shall not bear false witness.
14:10: That's against the law.
14:12: That's the law of God.
14:13: It's not in the justice system.
14:15: If you perjure yourself in court, that's against the law, and you will go to jail.
14:20: I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be argumentative, but what you're saying is untrue.
14:23: Okay, well, I've been jailed before.
14:27: Then you've broken the law, so there.
14:32: So having said all that, oh, my water.
14:36: Like I said, I don't feel real good this morning, so forgive me if I'm being a little straightforward.
14:41: The point is, legalism is that you believe you can be justified by the law.
14:45: You stand before God.
14:49: You will stand before God.
14:51: It is appointed unto man once to die, and then comes judgment.
14:54: You will stand before God.
14:56: That's not an opinion.
14:57: That's not my thought.
14:58: That's not what I think.
14:59: That's what the Bible says.
15:00: You will stand before God, and you will be judged.
15:03: You will be judged by His law.
15:06: His law says, do not commit adultery.
15:08: Jesus said, if you ever looked at a woman with lust, you've committed adultery in your heart.
15:12: Every man in here who hasn't looked at a woman with lust, I would probably say has broken the ninth commandment.
15:18: You're a liar.
15:21: Or you're gay, which again, I was in Burger King one time, and I was talking to the guy behind the counter.
15:30: I said, do you believe you're a good person? He said, yes, I'm a good person.
15:33: I said, have you ever told a lie? Yeah, I've told a lie.
15:35: I said, what do you call somebody who tells a lie? They're a liar.
15:37: I said, have you ever looked with lust? And he said, no.
15:40: I said, you've never looked at a woman to lust after her? He said, no.
15:43: I said, are you gay? And he stopped, and he looked at me, and he goes, no.
15:48: Yes, I have looked at a woman.
15:49: It took him a second to think.
15:52: I said, so you've sinned against the Holy God? Yes.
15:55: When you stand before God on judgment day, are you going to be guilty or innocent of breaking His law? You're going to be guilty of breaking His law.
16:01: Will you go to heaven or hell? Well, before we even get there, if you just are being judged on the law, you'll go to hell.
16:11: Thank you.
16:12: And you're right, brother, and I'm going to get there.
16:14: I promise.
16:15: But the point is, if you are judged on the law, you will always fall short.
16:22: Right? That's what Romans says, right? Romans tells us that all have sinned and fallen short.
16:29: What does the word sin mean? It means to miss the mark.
16:34: It's the word hamartia.
16:36: It's in the Greek.
16:37: And it was an archery term.
16:39: It was a term for if there's a target, and you shot the bow or the arrow with the bow at the target, and the arrow fell short of its intended target.
16:53: Hamartia.
16:54: It's a Greek word.
16:54: It means to fall short.
16:56: It means to miss the mark.
16:58: If there's a target, you've missed it.
17:01: And boy, have you.
17:03: That's right.
17:03: There's the bullseye, and you fell short.
17:05: The arrow fell short.
17:07: Right? So that's what legalism says.
17:10: It says you can justify yourself before God with the law.
17:19: And there's a Greek word for that.
17:22: Baloney.
17:24: That's right.
17:25: That's just baloney.
17:27: You cannot be justified before God by keeping the law because you've already failed.
17:33: You come into this world dead on arrival because you come into this world as a fallen son of Adam.
17:38: Adam broke the law in your place.
17:40: The Bible says Adam worked as our representative.
17:43: And when he sinned, his sin affected everybody.
17:46: You arrive, DOA.
17:50: So you are sinner by nature and by choice.
17:54: You choose to sin.
17:55: Nobody here has ever been coerced by God to sin, but we do sin because we want to sin because it's our nature to do so.
18:02: And we love it, and we do it.
18:05: And then we say we can be justified by law.
18:08: Absolutely not.
18:09: That's legalism.
18:10: Absolutely cannot be justified by law.
18:12: Now what's licentiousness? Licentiousness is this, and it goes with what my brother in the hat was talking about.
18:20: You said people say they can be a Christian and do whatever they want, right? Yeah, but that's licentiousness.
18:27: Licentiousness is the idea that because you are not justified by the law, the law does not matter.
18:36: But here's the thing.
18:38: Jesus said, I'm not going to do away with the law, but I'm going to fulfill it.
18:41: The ceremonial law may have been done away with, but the law still applies to the same.
18:49: That's what I said, brother.
18:51: We can go straight to God.
18:53: We don't have to go into the Holy of Holies one day a year.
18:58: We don't have to have a priest mediate for us.
19:01: We don't have to slay a bullock or a lamb.
19:07: But we have some forms of the law that we have to obey.
19:12: Yeah, so let's look at this.
19:14: Because you are not justified by the law, the law doesn't matter.
19:17: You've heard people say that, right? You've heard people say, because you are not justified by the law, we don't have to worry about the law.
19:24: This is why somebody would say, and I've had this happen.
19:30: A man living with a woman, not married.
19:36: And I say, brother, you're fornicating.
19:39: I call him to repentance.
19:41: And he says, hey, I'm under grace.
19:42: I'm not under law.
19:44: That's garbage.
19:46: That's garbage.
19:47: Hyper-grace.
19:48: Yeah, hyper-grace.
19:50: Yes, thank you.
19:50: I could have put that.
19:51: I could have put hyper-grace under licentiousness.
19:53: That would have been more pithy, and I would have liked it better.
19:57: I like pithy.
19:58: I like short, easy-to-remember things.
20:01: And because you're not justified by law, the law doesn't matter.
20:04: It's a little longer than hyper-grace.
20:06: So we'll put hyper-grace under it.
20:09: Because I like that.
20:11: Yes, hyper-grace.
20:12: Now, I will say this.
20:14: The term hyper-grace, I think, was first coined by Michael Brown, Dr.
20:19: Michael Brown.
20:20: And he talks about it in his book.
20:22: And I dig kind of what he's saying, but I want to be careful as to say this.
20:27: We can never have too much grace.
20:29: So when you say hyper-grace, I think sometimes you can...
20:32: But the idea is this.
20:34: And so to make sure we're clear.
20:36: The idea of hyper-grace is this.
20:37: Because you are saved by grace, you have no more responsibility to obedience to God's commands.
20:46: A buddy of mine used to live with a man.
20:48: They were roommates.
20:49: And the man was a TBN junkie.
20:52: You know what TBN is, right? Well, he was a TBN junkie.
20:57: And what he would do is he would watch all these TBN programs.
21:01: He'd get his mind so warped on bad theology.
21:04: But he would spend his nights on his computer looking at pornography and whatnot.
21:12: And he would go on to what used to be the social media of the day.
21:16: It was kind of before Facebook.
21:18: You know, these little web chat rooms and stuff.
21:20: And he would find people in the area, women who were willing to have sexual rendezvous with him.
21:28: And so not only was he engaging in pornography, but he was engaging in illicit fornication.
21:34: And he would say on his way out, because my friend who was his roommate would hear him say this, he would say, well, I'm going to sin so that grace can abound.
21:48: I mean, watch out, brother.
21:50: What a word.
21:51: What a thing to say.
21:52: I mean, have you ever been so brazen? I mean, I've sinned willfully.
21:56: But I've never said it in the midst of I'm going to do this! And spit in God's face! That's the idea, right? That's licentiousness.
22:07: Licentiousness says that because I am saved by grace and because I am justified by faith, nothing that I do is of consequence and so it does not matter.
22:22: Both of these are unbiblical.
22:26: Both of these are ungodly.
22:29: And both of these have historically been condemned by the recognized church, by the church of Christ in the world.
22:40: And so my reason for bringing them up is because I believe specifically James' point here, beginning at verse 22, going down to verse 25, I think sort of deals with this issue.
22:55: He begins in verse 22.
22:56: He says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23:07: Be doers.
23:08: That's an active participation.
23:12: Oftentimes when people look at the word and I'm talking to people, it's a focus on what they're not supposed to do.
23:19: Right? We talk about the sins of commission.
23:23: You shouldn't be lusting.
23:25: You shouldn't be committing adultery.
23:27: You shouldn't be getting drunk.
23:29: And everybody says, Oh man, the Bible just becomes like a list of rules, sort of like a party pooper.
23:35: You know, the Bible's just telling me all these things that my flesh thinks is fun and I just can't do them anymore.
23:42: But notice James doesn't say don't do, but he says be doers of the word.
23:55: And it becomes the positive rather than the negative.
23:59: I would say most of us sin more by what we don't do than by what we do.
24:05: What's two great commandments? Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
24:13: By the way, you've never done that perfectly.
24:15: But the thing is, a lot of people say, I got this friend in Indiana and she's always saying like she gets herself in these situations and she'll call me and I'm like, yo, dang man.
24:26: And I would like try to tell her and use the word, you know, like, yo, you can't do that.
24:33: You can't live in fornication.
24:34: You can't be continuing to do acid, you know, and trip in the woods and go to church.
24:40: And like, it'd be great, but we can't.
24:43: And like, and so...
24:44: Would it be great though? No, well, no.
24:46: I mean, yeah.
24:48: I don't know.
24:49: That's just the way I said it.
24:50: I know.
24:51: I don't even do well in those situations.
24:53: So, but the whole point I was getting at though, you're right.
24:56: Like, I feel you, man.
24:58: I'm a little sick too.
25:00: But, uh, so like, it's hard to explain things this morning.
25:03: But the whole point I was getting at is that like, she'll say, well, so I'll say by grace, as long as I'm like, love God and I'm good to people and I don't have hate, then I don't, you know, and I'm like, dude.
25:18: Uh, so, and...
25:19: But how do we define love of God? Jesus said, how do we define love of God? If I were talking to this woman and I don't know who she is, and she said that to me, I love God.
25:30: Jesus said, if you love me, you'll do what? Keep my commandments.
25:33: Keep my commandments.
25:34: And you're, you're disobeying him.
25:36: So do you love him? I mean, that would be my, I would say that to her in a loving way.
25:43: Jesus said, if you love me, you keep my commandments, right? So, so if you tell me, I love God, but I spit in his face every day because I really don't care what he told me to do.
25:54: It'd be like this.
25:55: Let's say my child, right? And then, uh, y'all know who Francis Chan is? Francis Chan has a really good video on this.
26:02: Sometimes I wish I could show videos in here because I like little clips sometimes.
26:06: And he has a great video.
26:07: This, this father comes home and his daughter's sitting on the couch.
26:12: And he says, uh, daughter, did you do what I told you to do today? And she said, uh, she said, what'd you say? And he said, well, I, you know, I gave you, I, I told you I wanted you to clean your room.
26:24: And she said, well, you know, I, I meditated on it.
26:29: And, and, and, and, and, and he said, but I wrote it down for you.
26:35: And she said, you know what? I read your writing and I memorized it.
26:42: He said, yeah, but did you clean? Well, I, I had some friends over and we had a study group about what it means to clean your room and how that's a metaphor for my heart.
26:53: He said, yeah, but did you clean your room? You know what else I did? I learned how to say it in Spanish.
26:58: And I learned the original Greek of what it means to clean your room.
27:02: But did you clean your room? No.
27:07: That's the problem.
27:09: That's the problem.
27:10: You, you, you, you, you, you, and that's what Bible studies often are.
27:15: We're going to gather together.
27:16: We talk about the Greek, the Hebrew.
27:17: We're going to get together and talk about what these words mean.
27:19: We're going to memorize scripture.
27:21: But when it comes time to do, we don't do.
27:27: And James says do.
27:30: Not to get saved.
27:31: And that's the problem.
27:33: People get all mixed up.
27:35: That if you do this, you're going to get saved.
27:38: No, brothers.
27:38: If you do this, it's because you is saved.
27:42: If you ain't saved, you don't even want to do this.
27:47: You know, one of my professors used to talk about a new wanna.
27:51: He said, before I was saved, I want to do all kinds of stuff.
27:55: But when Jesus saves me, I got a new wanna.
27:57: And now I want to do what He wants me to do.
28:01: And so the new wanna comes in and things change.
28:04: And so that's what James is talking about.
28:07: And this is not about how you get saved.
28:10: But this is about what happens when you get saved.
28:14: When you get saved, God changes your heart.
28:24: Ask the question quickly.
28:25: Go ahead.
28:25: Sorry, man.
28:26: I don't want to interrupt you getting into this.
28:28: I was just talking this morning to one of the guys who were reading Proverbs.
28:32: That's right, God changes your heart.
28:34: And He didn't change my heart when I first came to Him.
28:37: And they had a back slit, women, drugs, you know, blah, blah.
28:40: You know, like why we all did, you know, here.
28:45: And the thing is like a lot of hate and anger built up in my heart that I didn't realize and it kind of like slapped me in the face today.
28:53: And, you know, you know all the scriptures.
28:56: I mean, I can go on.
28:58: Like, we talked about that.
28:59: What am I supposed to do? Like, I mean, am I, like, it makes me feel like a castaway because the thing is, it's like, never mind, man.
29:12: No, go ahead, brother.
29:14: He had his hand.
29:15: You ask what you should do.
29:18: Well, it might be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to become angry.
29:30: Listen to God's message when He gives it to you.
29:33: I mean, I wasn't trying to interrupt.
29:35: No, you're good.
29:36: That's where I'm coming from.
29:38: You ask for help when I'm trying to help you.
29:44: Is it too late? You're still alive, so it's not too late.
29:48: It's never too late.
29:49: No, I'm serious.
29:50: There's going to come a time when it's too late.
29:52: There's going to come a time when you see God and you'll be dead.
29:54: I'm not saying where you are spiritually because I don't know you.
29:57: What I'm saying is though people ask me sometimes is it too late? Man, when that guy was hanging on that cross next to Jesus, it was too late.
30:06: But it wasn't too late for Jesus.
30:08: So it's never too late as long as you're breathing to trust in Christ.
30:12: Now you say I trusted in Christ, but I backslid.
30:15: My question, and I don't want to get into this with you right now, but my question for you to ponder would be did I trust in Christ and was there a legitimate change in my life or did I have a moment that Jesus talks about where the seed fell into soil and it sprung up for a time but then it withered away because it had no root? If that's the case, then that's where you at this moment you recognize where you are and you repent and you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
30:43: That's what I'm saying.
30:44: You can't go back to where you were.
30:46: You can only start from where you are.
30:49: So that's why I would say start from where you are.
30:51: Don't wonder if you were saved before.
30:53: Know that you can get saved now by trusting in Jesus Christ.
30:57: Did you have your hand up brother over there? Okay, alright, alright.
31:01: So here's this.
31:05: Once we are saved, once the Lord changes our heart, the desire to do comes along with that, but it's easy for the flesh to still be there and encouraging us rather than to do, to just hear.
31:26: And that's what James says.
31:27: Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves because those who only hear and don't do are really deceiving themselves.
31:34: They're deceiving themselves into thinking that they're right.
31:39: I mean, I tell you, and I don't mean to just keep talking about scenarios, but I've known so many people who come into church, they hear the word and they're very excited to hear the word.
31:53: But then they leave and have no desire to let the word change them.
31:56: Have no desire to see the word bear fruit in their lives.
32:00: And they say that.
32:01: I mean, they'll say, that was a good word, Pastor.
32:05: I hear people say that all the time.
32:07: Yeah, but is it going to bear fruit? Because if it's just a good word, if it's just hearing it, then it's not a good word.
32:16: It's speaking damnation.
32:18: The word of God is either the water that's going to help you grow or it's the anvil upon which you are going to be crushed.
32:26: The word of God is the same sun hardens the clay and melts the wax.
32:32: Alright? The sun's either going to melt your soft heart or it's going to harden your hard heart.
32:38: And the person who hears and does not respond with a desire to do is a person whose heart is steadily being hardened.
32:48: Man, I've seen people in church 50 years.
32:51: I knew a man.
32:52: I've been in church forever.
32:58: When I started preaching and I was preaching the Word of God, he began to get hardened against it.
33:06: And what it was was he'd been sitting in church, but he'd never been confronted himself.
33:11: He'd always been willing to say, yeah, that's for him or that's for him.
33:16: I love when people come up to me at the back of the church and shake my hand and say, Brother, I sure wish Sister So-and-So was here.
33:21: She needed to hear that.
33:23: What do you mean she needed to hear that? You didn't need to hear it? No, that's Sister So-and-So.
33:30: She's the real one.
33:31: She's the problem.
33:35: We'll hear it, but we don't do anything.
33:39: And James says we're deceiving ourselves if that's the case.
33:42: You guys hear the Word all day long.
33:44: You have different preachers come from different places.
33:46: All these men love you guys.
33:48: They come here.
33:49: They don't come here to be seen.
33:50: I don't come here because I'm trying to get any attention.
33:53: I come here because I care for you.
33:55: And we're here because we want to help you.
33:58: To me, there's nothing more precious than the Word of God.
34:01: There's nothing more important than preaching the Word of God, so this is what we do.
34:06: But it shouldn't just be, hey, he knows Greek, or hey, he can do this.
34:10: Who cares? Are we doing it? The commands of Scripture say the same thing in Greek they say in English.
34:19: That's why you don't have to know Greek to understand them.
34:23: I'm serious.
34:23: All this stuff.
34:27: The commands are really easy.
34:30: And it does boil down to loving God and loving your neighbor.
34:34: That's the two great commandments.
34:36: You can press those out into the Ten Commandments.
34:38: You can press those further out into the law of God as a whole.
34:41: But it falls down to this.
34:43: Are we loving God and are we loving our neighbor? I'm preaching through 1 Corinthians 13 at my church right now because I'm in 1 Corinthians.
34:51: What is love? Love is patient and kind.
34:56: It doesn't envy.
34:57: It doesn't boast.
34:59: It's not arrogant or rude.
35:03: It's not resentful or boastful.
35:08: That's what love is.
35:10: And yet, if you ask yourself, can I say, Keith is not arrogant or rude.
35:16: Keith is patient and kind.
35:19: Keith is never boastful and never keeps a record of wrong.
35:24: No.
35:25: But that's the goal, right? That's the call.
35:28: As a Christian man, I am called to love other people.
35:32: And the hardest part, I'm called to love people who don't love me back.
35:36: I'm called to love my enemy.
35:39: You know, the inference of that is I'm going to have enemies.
35:44: Not because I'm a mean and hateful and vindictive person because I preach the gospel and people hate people who preach the gospel.
35:50: And so you have natural enemies and yet you pray for them.
35:53: Yes, sir, brother.
35:54: Hey, would you agree with this? It's not like are we doing it, but is it proceeding from faith? Would you agree with that? Yes, absolutely.
36:01: And that's kind of what we're going to get to in Chapter 2 because he talks about faith without works.
36:06: James is often misunderstood on that because people think the works themselves become in some way justifying for us.
36:13: No, the works are the result of the faith.
36:17: If I truly believe God is God.
36:19: I mean, have you ever thought about this? Have you ever just thought about God as God? It is unfathomable and yet we try to fathom.
36:32: We try.
36:33: We sit and we meditate on God as God and it's overwhelming.
36:39: And then you start thinking about God in the fullness of time.
36:44: God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, for what purpose? That He would keep the law for us because we can't.
36:55: That He would have that truth in Himself, that law righteousness in Himself and then gives it to us.
37:04: And now we sit here not being justified by what we do, but justified by what He did.
37:10: His righteousness becomes mine.
37:12: You know, this is the thing.
37:13: That's why the pastor and the person in the pew and everybody, we're all level at the foot of the cross, man, because none of us deserve anything.
37:24: I don't get to say because I'm a pastor, I'm first in line or anything.
37:30: Jesus' righteousness is the only reason why I go to heaven.
37:34: That's what, when somebody, you know, I think I've told you this before.
37:37: There's a guy in my church who wanted some food.
37:39: So I took him in the kitchen, was making him some food.
37:41: And we were talking.
37:43: And I was trying to explain to him, I said, when you go to heaven, or when you face God, you're either going to face God with your righteousness, which is dirty, filthy rags, or you're going to face Him with Christ's righteousness, which is the only righteousness that is true righteousness and whereby you can be saved.
38:03: And he said to me, he said, well, pastor, you can't think like that.
38:06: You've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.
38:09: And I was like, first of all, dude, you're here getting food.
38:12: Because you don't have much, and that's fine.
38:17: I said, so that's a little ironic.
38:19: But the other side of that too is I don't have any boots, I don't have any straps.
38:24: I don't have anything when I stand before God.
38:26: I am lowly, naked, shameful, and sinful.
38:30: And bless me to God He wrapped me in the righteousness of Christ.
38:33: He clothed me in His righteousness.
38:35: And that's how I stand.
38:36: Not by my righteousness, but by His.
38:41: Remember the parable of the feast where the guy comes in and he didn't have the clothes that were right? You realize if you read that parable, it's the king who provided the garments.
38:53: And he didn't wear the garment that was provided and the king sent him into outer darkness because he would not wear the righteousness of the king.
39:02: He wanted to wear his own garments.
39:04: And if you wear your own garments before God, you will be damned.
39:11: Because they are filthy rags.
39:18: So that becomes the impetus to be a doer and not a hearer only.
39:26: Because I've got the righteousness of Christ and that's why I'm saved.
39:32: And what I do doesn't make me more saved, but more than anything in the world I want to please Him who saved me.
39:40: More than anything in the world I want to live for Him who rescued me.
39:45: I want to stand for Him who died for me.
39:50: That's why I do.
39:51: Not because I think it's going to save me.
39:56: Because I've already been saved.
39:57: Therefore having been justified by faith.
40:02: Past tense.
40:04: We have peace.
40:06: Present tense.
40:08: With God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
40:10: Because of what happened in the past, I presently have peace with God now.
40:15: And because I have peace, I can live in peace.
40:20: I can live in Christ and be a doer and not a hearer only.
40:24: And I love the illustration that James gives.
40:26: He says, Look at verse 23.
40:31: For anyone who 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.
40:36: For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
40:41: This is the picture.
40:43: I love this illustration.
40:44: Because what James is saying.
40:46: And they didn't have mirrors like we have today.
40:48: Real perfectly clear mirrors.
40:50: Their mirrors back then were like polished metal.
40:52: So there was a little distortion there.
40:53: But still you get an idea of what you look like.
40:56: And if you get up in the morning, you got the kind of crusties around the mouth.
40:59: You got kind of crusties around the eyes.
41:00: You get up in the morning, you look at your face in the mirror.
41:02: Your hair is all like this because you went to bed watching Netflix or whatever.
41:06: And you are all tired and everything.
41:08: And you are looking at yourself in the mirror.
41:09: And you say, Boy, that hair needs to be fixed.
41:12: My eyes need to be washed.
41:14: My mouth and teeth need to be brushed.
41:16: And then you turn around and walk out and didn't do anything.
41:20: You walk around all day thinking you are fine.
41:22: But you got the messed up hair and the gunky eyes and the hot breath.
41:27: Because you didn't do anything.
41:29: Because you looked at the mirror and then you left and you forgot what you saw.
41:33: The law of God is like a mirror.
41:35: It shines back to you what you need to change.
41:38: It shines back to you what in your life needs to be brought into subjection and submission to Christ.
41:43: It mirrors back to you what repentance and faith looks like.
41:47: And you then have a choice.
41:48: You look at it and you say, Yep, I need to change it.
41:51: And we are going to by the grace of God work towards that change.
41:54: Or we say, Whoop, I don't care.
41:57: Or you leave it.
41:58: You say, I care where you are looking at it.
41:59: But you only care where you are looking at it.
42:00: When you walk away you forget.
42:01: That's what James says.
42:02: He said, When you walk away you forget it.
42:07: So that's the illustration.
42:08: Would you do that? Would you get up in the morning and see yourself in the mirror? Know you've got all this funkiness that you need to fix? And you just say, I don't care.
42:14: Maybe you would.
42:15: I don't know.
42:15: I try to at least comb it down.
42:18: Brush it up.
42:19: Whatever.
42:20: Going down and down in Jacksonville.
42:22: Yeah, a lot of guys don't have the ability.
42:27: There is the ability.
42:28: That's life.
42:29: Well, okay.
42:31: You are probably right about that.
42:33: But they don't care, right? They don't care.
42:36: They see the mirror, they don't care.
42:37: They don't care.
42:39: And that's the way it is with the Word.
42:41: They see the Word, they see what they are supposed to change, they don't care.
42:45: What is a heart that doesn't care? I will say this.
42:49: This is if you, I don't know, have me take notes or whatever.
42:52: What is it in a heart that doesn't care if it is not unbelief? What is it in a heart that doesn't care if it is not unbelief? What is it in a heart that doesn't care if it is not unbelief? If somebody doesn't care, they read the Word, they don't care.
43:15: It's unbelief.
43:16: I'm saying, what is it if it's not unbelief? It has to be unbelief.
43:18: At that moment, it's saying, I don't believe it.
43:22: It's saying, huh? Why read it? Well, I don't know.
43:26: Sometimes people read the Word of God because it's traditionally acceptable to do so.
43:30: Some people are in a program where they are forced to read the Word of God.
43:32: Some people read the Word of God because they get some type of devotional high out of it.
43:37: They read it because they, they say, this is my charge for the day.
43:41: But if it commands them to do something they don't want to do, what do they say? I'm going to do what I want to do.
43:46: That's what I say.
43:47: If the Bible commands us to do something and we don't want to do it, that's unbelief.
43:51: Because God is speaking.
43:53: It's not going to command you to do anything if you don't believe.
43:57: it commands you whether you believe or not.
43:59: I don't understand.
44:02: No, that's fine.
44:03: The command of God, though, is to all men.
44:06: Was your question to point us towards like unbelief here? Yeah.
44:11: Yeah, I'm simply saying this.
44:12: If a person looks at the Word and it doesn't change them, that's a product of unbelief.
44:18: Maybe not, maybe not that they're unsaved, but they don't believe at that moment that that applies to them.
44:25: They don't believe at that moment that that applies to them.
44:27: What was that? Absolutely.
44:31: And at that moment, they're saying, what I know is better than what God says.
44:35: You know, I coined a phrase a few years ago as I was talking about some very unpopular things that the Bible commands.
44:43: And I said, you know what, though? To do life the way the author of life intended life to be done is obviously the best way to do life.
44:53: To do life the way the author of life intended life to be done is obviously the best way to do life.
44:58: But people don't believe that.
44:59: They believe their way is better.
45:02: My way is better than the guy who invented life.
45:06: My way of life is better than the one...
45:08: I say guy, I shouldn't call God a guy.
45:10: The Creator of life had a way that life should be done, but I know better.
45:17: That's looking at the mirror, walking away, and forgetting what you see.
45:23: So let's finish up and I'll draw to a close because I'm ready to go home.
45:27: I don't feel good.
45:28: Verse 25, 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.
45:41: You want blessings? First of all, what is a blessing? People get mixed up.
45:46: Blessings is nice cars and parking spots and houses.
45:50: The blessing is waking up this morning.
45:53: The jet.
45:55: That's right.
45:55: Waking up this morning is a blessing.
45:57: But the blessing that James is talking about here, I believe, is the peace with God that we have in trusting in Him and doing what He says do.
46:06: And sometimes that's accompanied by poverty.
46:09: And yet, some of the most blessed people in the world have next to nothing in their name.
46:15: Some of the most blessed people in the world have lost everything they have.
46:20: Look at Job.
46:22: He lost everything.
46:24: His wife said, Just curse God and die.
46:29: What did Job say? Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
46:34: Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.
46:39: That's understanding God.
46:42: That's understanding who God is.
46:44: God owes me nothing.
46:46: God owes you nothing.
46:48: People say, God's been unfair to me.
46:49: What did He owe you to be unfair to you? That's right.
46:53: The only thing God owes you is hell.
46:55: Because that's what you earned.
46:56: The wages of sin is death.
46:59: So if God gives you anything other than hell, it's more than you deserve.
47:03: Yes, sir.
47:05: I want to read a proverb we did this morning.
47:08: No, please.
47:09: Oh, yeah.
47:10: I don't have a New Testament.
47:12: I only have my New Testament.
47:14: Verse 2 and 3.
47:17: Proverbs 10.
47:18: The treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.
47:24: Absolutely.
47:24: The Lord would not allow the righteous soul to frame Him, but He cast away the desires of the wicked.
47:29: That's right.
47:30: Some people have a difficulty with that passage because it says that the righteous won't suffer.
47:36: That's essentially what it's saying.
47:38: And they say, but wait a minute now.
47:40: I've seen missionaries.
47:42: A missionary recently got killed going into the mission field.
47:46: He didn't make it off the boat, but a few feet and got hit with arrows and died.
47:53: You say, well, that proves that proverb wrong.
47:55: No, it doesn't.
47:58: There's no more blessing in the world than to die for the truth.
48:03: You say, I don't understand how that can be a blessing.
48:06: That man, as soon as that arrow hit him, he was in the presence of Jesus Christ.
48:11: That's hard to understand.
48:12: See, that's what I say.
48:13: We don't understand God.
48:14: We want everything to be like we think it ought to be.
48:21: God...
48:21: There was a...
48:23: I don't remember the name of the islands, but there was an island chain.
48:28: I think it was out in the Pacific.
48:30: And there was a missionary who wanted to go see these people.
48:34: This is not this last story.
48:35: This happened over 100 years ago, but it's a similar situation.
48:38: No, in Papua New Guinea, it's a different set of islands, but there were cannibals on this island.
48:45: And they'd never been reached.
48:46: And it was in the mid-1800s.
48:48: Two missionaries went.
48:50: They got off the boat.
48:51: They went to shore, got to where they were going.
48:54: Immediately, they beat them to death with clubs and ate them, ate them, ate them, ate them, ate them.
48:59: Ate them.
49:01: That's a rough way to go.
49:05: I mean...
49:06: About 10 years later, another man, heartbroken for these people, these lost tribes who never heard the gospel.
49:18: He goes to his church.
49:22: I want to go to these people.
49:25: I want to go preach the gospel.
49:28: I want to engage these people with Jesus Christ.
49:32: And they said, Didn't you see what these people knew? It was within 10 years of the guys that got ate.
49:44: He said, Either I'm going to go and proclaim the gospel or I'm going to die.
49:49: But I'm going to go.
49:52: And he went.
49:54: Now, a little over 100 years later, those islands, those islands, 90% of the population of those islands knows Christ.
50:05: Whether it's by profession or membership in a church, not all the same, because some different denominations have moved in and there's a little bit like that.
50:13: But because of that one man, he saw that, he could have looked at them guys and said, Those guys weren't blessed.
50:19: They was ate.
50:21: Right? Willing to count the cost.
50:29: Willing to serve the Lord and understand that blessing on this side is nothing to be compared with blessing on the other side.
50:40: In fact, the Bible says even our sufferings are not to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.
50:50: So we say what? Be a doer of the word.
50:54: Don't just be a hearer.
50:56: Don't leave this place having heard this and not let it change you.
51:00: Do what the word says and you will be blessed.
51:02: And do what the word says, not just because you're going to get a blessing, but because the blessing itself is Christ himself.
51:11: He is the greatest blessing of all.
51:14: Let's pray.
51:16: Father, thank you for your word.
51:18: I thank you for the truth.
51:20: Father, forgive me for any errors that I've made.
51:23: Wipe them from their minds, Lord, and encourage them in the truth.
51:27: Lord, may we never be legalists who say, do this and be saved.
51:33: May we never be licentious and say, Lord, because we're saved, we don't have a responsibility.
51:38: But Lord, let us see what the word says.
51:40: We are saved by grace through faith and not ourselves.
51:43: It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
51:46: For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, that we should walk in them, which were prepared beforehand for us.
51:56: God, may we walk in the works that you've prepared for us.
51:59: In Christ's name, amen.