Doers of the Word (James 1:22-25)

I'm good to be with you. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer and we will begin. Father, we're so very grateful for your goodness, for your faithfulness, for your providence.

We thank you for this opportunity that we do have to gather as those who have been bought by the merits of your son,

Jesus Christ. We pray that as we go to your word now that your Holy Spirit would indeed do his work, that our mouths would be open.

You would fill our mouths with the word, the truth of your word, that it would find good purchase in our hearts, that it would sanctify us more and more and conform us more into the image of your son,

Jesus Christ. We ask these things in his name and for his sake. Amen. Amen.

Well, I invite you to take your copy of God's word and open to the book of James, chapter 1.

James, chapter 1, this is a sermon I've entitled Doers of the Word. James, chapter 1, will be in verses 22 through 25.

And as I have opportunities to come and preach, as many of you know, I've been working our way slowly through the book of James.

It is a slow progression, given that I'm only here two or three times a year. But James, chapter 1, our primary text will be verses 22 through 25.

But for context, let's look at verse 19. And we'll begin reading.

James says, this you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

So we have been working our way through the book of James. And our last time together, we looked at verses 19 through 21.

We saw that we are to be quick to hear the word of God. We are to be slow to speak the word of God, slow to teach the word of God, not in a reluctant way, but just in a careful way.

We should be very careful when we teach God's word. We shouldn't be like bulls in china shops, you know, rummaging around and breaking things.

We need to know what we are doing, be very careful with what we are doing. We are to be slow to become angry.

And slow to become angry is that we are to be slow to become angry at the word of God.

When the word of God reflects on us and it shows us who we really are, we are to not become angry at the word of God.

The object of our anger must be our own sin. In this sin, James says, we are to put aside, all filthiness, all wickedness, put to death the deeds of the body, as Paul says in Romans 8, verse 13.

And then James says, we are to receive the word implanted, which has the power, which is able to save your souls.

Receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. That is not to be missed.

In the Greek, it literally says, receive the word which has the power to save your souls.

Dear friends, the greatest miracle is not when the blind see, it's not when the lame walk.

God could make me run like a deer right now. But that miracle would pale in comparison to what he did when he raised me from the dead.

Not physically, but spiritually. Raised us from the dead when we are dead in trespasses and sins, raises us to newness of life in Christ.

That is the greatest miracle. And if the word of God implanted has that power, how much more are we supposed to obey

God's word? If it has the, thank you brother, if it has the power to raise us from the dead, then how much should we obey that word?

So now let us go to our primary text, verse 22. James says, but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Verse 22 basically begins a commentary on what we just read in verse 21.

What does receiving the word implanted look like? Well, it looks like verse 22.

We are to prove ourselves doers of the word. Receiving the word implanted fleshes itself out in obedience.

This is what receiving the word looks like. It looks like obedience when we obey

God's word. James is not opposed to hearing. After all, we are to study to show ourselves approved unto

God. He is not opposed to hearing the word. He is opposed to merely hearing the word.

That is what he is opposed to. And merely hearing the word, this was a common concept in this day and age.

The Greeks were known for their fascination and love of knowledge. And from time to time, various speakers would come through and they would gain a following.

But some people would come and they would listen to these speakers do their orations. And they would listen.

They wouldn't necessarily be disciples of these speakers or these supposed scholars.

They wouldn't be disciples of them, but they would just hear them. They would just sit there and listen to them without necessarily following them, without necessarily obeying them.

And you see this even in seminaries today. Seminaries have classes that they offer for an audit.

I guess colleges do this, I'm sure they do, but certainly seminaries do. You can audit a class.

And if you audit a class, you just sit in that class and you can listen to it.

You can take notes if you want to, or you could sit in the back of the class if you're auditing it and play some game on your phone.

You're not required to write any of the papers. You're not given any of the tests. You can just sit in there and listen if you want to.

But there's no objective measure for how much you're hearing, how much you're understanding.

There's no test given. There's no measure of how much of it is sinking in. And this is what

James is opposed to. There's no accountability when you just audit a class.

So James is not opposed to hearing the word of God. He's opposed to merely hearing the word of God.

Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Now if you have the NIV, it reverses this order a little bit. The NIV, by the way, the

NIV stands for the Nearly Inspired Version. The NIV puts a negative twist on this.

The NIV says do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. You see the negative emphasis?

Do not merely listen to the word. Whereas the Greek, and the New American Standard here gets it right, has a positive spin on it.

Prove yourselves doers of the word. This is a very positive, emphatic command for us.

So the NIV kind of blurs this, unfortunately, a little bit. And this is what the whole book of James is about.

It is about being doers of the word of God. James has been referred to as Christianity in Blue Jeans, a very practical book.

And all throughout James, the whole letter of James is filled with commands, it's filled with imperatives.

It is talking about being doers of the word. Be doing the word.

Dear friends, the real mark of a true born -again Christian is how much he obeys the word of God.

Obedience to the word of God is the true hallmark of a genuine

Christian. This is what separates genuine believers from false professors of Christ.

John chapter 14, verse 21, Jesus says, he who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.

Our love for God is not measured by feelings and emotions.

And a lot of people who profess to be Christians have this idea that my love for God is based upon how

I feel about him, or my emotions about God. Dear friends, our love for God is not measured by feelings and emotions.

It is measured by our obedience to God, not how we feel about God.

And yet so many people who call themselves Christians, they come to church and they sing these happy clappy songs and they think if they just feel something or if they get some

Holy Ghost goosebumps, then that's a sure sign, yeah, I really do love the Lord. Or they can sing these songs, one of them's called

I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God, he calls me friend. If you sing that song 79 times over and over, you just kind of convince, yep,

I really am a friend of God. Because of how I feel about God. Beth Moore, one of the most popular teachers out there today,

Beth Moore talks in one of her books about how she went out and made snowmen with Jesus.

True story. No, no, that's not a true story. It's true that she claims that. It's true that she claims that she did.

And she says that I could trace the smile I could see his smile and I could trace it with my fingers.

And it's this emotive, honestly, borderline really romantic kind of view of God.

In fact, she even says in her book that this was the most romantic thing she had ever experienced. She says that Jesus literally calls her honey and babe.

That's just gross. That's creepy. But you see these people that are so driven by their emotions and you hear

Beth Moore all the time talking about how much she loves God and oh, I just love Jesus so much.

Dear friends, if you truly love Christ, you shouldn't really have to tell people that you do.

It should be evident. It should be evident in our lives by our obedience.

And no matter how much Beth Moore and all these other people claim that they love for God, how much they love God, if their lives are not marked by obedience to God, then they can talk all day long about how much they love him.

But if they do not obey him, then they do not love him. One of the sure signs that Beth Moore and Joyce Meyer and all these others don't really love

God as much as they claim to do is that they openly teach men. Beth Moore gets up in flagrant disobedience to the word of God and in flagrant disobedience to 1

Timothy chapter two, verse 12, and she gets up and she preaches to men. On Sunday mornings, she did it just this last

Sunday at a church called Progressive Church, very aptly named church, Progressive Church.

So she can talk all day long about how much she loves God, but if she does not obey God, if she will not obey those biblical parameters for the roles of men and women, please don't tell me how much you love

God. I can tell by how you disobey the word of God that you don't love him as much as you claim to do.

Our lives should be marked by our obedience. The only objective measure that we have for our love for God is our obedience to God.

1 John chapter three, verse 10. The apostle John says this, by this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.

Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

Children of God and children of the devil are obvious. If you practice righteousness, if you live a life marked by obedience to the word of God, you know

God. If you do not, you do not know God. You're of the devil. 2

Peter chapter one, verse 10. Be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing, his election of you.

For as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble.

Yes, we believe in the sovereignty of God. Yes, we believe in God's sovereign election of us as his own, but we are also commanded to do what?

To examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13, verse five. One of the worst pieces of advice that has ever made its way into the evangelical culture is that when you accept

Jesus as your Lord and Savior and you pray this supposed quote unquote sinner's prayer, then you should mark that date down in your

Bible. And if you ever doubt your salvation again, you just go back, nope, I accepted

Jesus on March the 14th in 1979, and yep,

I know I'm saved. No, that is not the mark of whether or not you belong to Christ. The evidence whether or not you belong to Christ is do you live a life of obedience to the word of God?

Not emotions, not feelings, obedience. We are to obey the word of God both internally and externally.

Internally and externally. Now let me flesh that out just a little bit. First, internally.

Our minds are to be saturated with the word of God. You cannot obey what you do not know.

Paul says in Colossians chapter three that we are to let the word of Christ dwell richly within us.

And when the word of Christ dwells richly within us, when our minds are saturated with the word of God, it affects us internally.

We are able to control our emotions, for one thing. It is not that our emotions cannot from time to time get away from us, certainly they can, but it is that we as believers indwelt by the

Holy Spirit of God, as the word of Christ dwells richly within us, we are able to take every thought captive, we are able to control our emotions, we should be fleshing out the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, self -control.

This is what it looks like to have a mind saturated with the word of God, as the word of Christ dwells richly within us.

We are supposed to, we are to be able to control our emotions, we are to be able to control our thoughts, we should be able to control our lusts.

And guys, let me pick here a little bit. Because of the nature of my ministry, because I've preached so many different places,

I get emails pretty regularly, and sometimes phone calls from guys who will email me, and they'll say, well,

Justin, I love the Lord, and I go to church, and I believe I'm a Christian, but I just cannot break my addiction to pornography.

I can't break it. Well, for one thing, it's not an addiction, it's a sin issue, it's not an addiction.

It's a sin issue. And when they tell me that they just can't break it, no matter how hard they try, here's what

I'll usually tell them. I'll ask them this, what if I were to say to you, I will write you a check for $10 million if you will not look at anything that you should not look at for the next six months.

At the end of that six months, I'll write you a check for $10 million. Could you do it? And without exception, all of them.

We'll say, in fact, just a few weeks ago, I talked to a guy about this. I asked him, could you do it, and there was a pause, and he said, yeah,

I could, you're right, you could. So what's the problem?

It's a heart issue. It's a heart issue. The problem is, it's not that you can't, it's that you won't.

The problem is, is that you love your sin more than you love your Savior. The only objective measure we have of our love for God is our obedience to God.

Do you love your sin, or do you love your Savior, the one whom you profess to love?

It is not that a Christian cannot sin, dear friends. I'm not preaching here sinless perfection.

Christians can and do sin. First John 9, 1 -9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That was written to believers. This is not an evangelistic passage in and of itself.

This was written to believers. This is a relational forgiveness, not a judicial eschatological forgiveness.

This is a relational forgiveness. When we sin against God as believers, we confess that sin and that relationship is restored.

So it is, yes, Christians can and do stumble into sin, but Christians do not swim in sin.

Christians do not enjoy sin. Christians do not look for opportunities to sin.

When we do sin, it grieves us. The best way, the most effective way to increase our love for God is to increase our knowledge of God and let the word of Christ dwell richly within us.

As Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse two, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.

How do you grow in respect to salvation? How do you progress in your sanctification? How do you become more and more conformed into the image of Christ?

Read and study this book. Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you.

We are to obey God's word internally and externally. Externally.

We are to have righteous living. Dear friends, saving faith is transforming faith.

Saving faith is transforming faith. John the Baptist in Matthew chapter three said, therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

There will be fruit in keeping with genuine repentance. Paul in Acts chapter 26, he said, so King Agrippa, I kept declaring that all men everywhere should repent and turn to God performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

This does not mean we perform deeds in order to repent but when God has granted that initial repentance unto salvation, when we belong to Christ, when we are in Him, then that repentance that God grants will bear fruit, real tangible fruit.

Fruit that will be evident to everyone around us. Remember Luke chapter 19,

Zacchaeus. Remember the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.

Climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. You know, we have those songs that we sang as kids.

Cute little song but that's actually a very profound look at what real regeneration looks like, true repentance.

Jesus confronted Zacchaeus in his sin and Zacchaeus says, if I have defrauded anyone,

I will repay them four times over. This is real tangible fruit, real repentance bears real fruit when

God saves someone, he changes that person. You cannot go from being dead in trespasses and sins and alive in Christ and there be no change.

You cannot go from being dead to alive and other people around you not notice it.

There is tangible fruit. There's this ongoing debate within evangelicalism regarding what is called

Lordship salvation. John MacArthur wrote a book on this entitled

The Gospel According to Jesus quite a while back, it's a number of years ago and if you've not read that book,

I would commend it to you, The Gospel According to Jesus. But there's this debate about Lordship salvation, there's many and I would say that the lion's share of what portrays itself as evangelical today, say you can accept

Jesus as savior even if he's not your Lord. Making him your

Lord, that comes later. You know, hopefully if you progress enough later on in your

Christian life, then you can make him Lord but he can be your savior and not your Lord. It's great to have him as Lord but it's not really necessary, really.

Flip over if you will, 1 John chapter two. I can read it to you, 1 John chapter two, verse three through four.

1 John two, three through four. Apostle John says, by this we know that we have come to know him.

If we keep his commandments. How do we know that we know

Christ? Because we wrote the date in our Bible when we prayed the sinner's prayer 35 years ago? No, we know that we have come to know him if we keep his commandments.

The one who says I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him.

Put those verses in your anti -lordship salvation pipe and smoke it. The one who professes to know

Jesus as savior but does not know him as Lord has deluded himself.

Dear friends, the Bible knows of no other salvation other than lordship salvation.

If you think you can have Jesus as your savior but not have him as your Lord, then you have created a different Jesus.

You have made a Jesus after your own image. You're an idolater.

You've got a false Jesus, a false gospel and a false gospel does not save.

Let's look at verses 23 through 24 back in James. James says, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

Here James notes not only the conduct of the hearer only but also his character.

Conduct reveals character. Our outward conduct reveals what is inside of us.

It reveals the character behind it. And the lack of obedience to the word of God is fundamentally a heart issue.

Jesus says in John chapter 14 verse 15, if you love me, you will obey what

I command. Beginning to see a pattern here over and over and over.

How is our love for God measured? Our obedience to God. If you love me, you will obey what

I command. Dear friends, the Christian faith is not a passive faith. It's an active faith.

It's not like the Eastern religions that sit around and they ponder all day long on ephemeral concepts and platitudes and gaze at their navels.

Christian religion, true Christianity is an active religion. It's a religion of obedience.

It's not just pondering the meaning of the universe and contemplation.

Receiving the implanted word as James says in verse 21 that we looked at in our last together is not just intellectual assent, dear ones.

It includes intellectual assent. You cannot be saved if you do not intellectually believe that Jesus is who he said he is.

So it does include intellectual assent, but it is not limited to that. It results in tangible fruit.

Romans chapter two, verse 13, the apostle Paul says this. He says, for it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.

Now we do not obey the word of God to gain our justification. No, but when we are truly justified, when

God has made us just, when he has made us in right relationship with himself through the merits of Christ, through faith and repentance, then we will be doers of the law.

We will be doers of the word. A profession of faith in Christ that does not manifest itself in real obedience and tangible fruit is a false profession of faith.

Look at what James says. He says, one who looks at his natural face in a mirror. His natural face in a mirror.

This is kind of an interesting phrase. Literally in the Greek, his natural face, it literally says in the

Greek, the face of his Genesis. That's how it literally reads in the Greek, the face of his Genesis.

In other words, the mirror. What is the mirror? The mirror is the word of God. And when we look at ourself in the word of God, when the word of God serves as our mirror, not how we think we are, but what the word of God shows us to be.

When we look at ourselves in the mirror, in the mirror of God's word, we see who we really are.

We see who we are as God sees us, as God deems us to be.

Not that we are good people, not that we're nice, not that we're helpful, not that we help little old ladies across the street.

When we look at ourselves left to our own vices, left to our own sinful state apart from Christ, when we look into the word of God, it shows us who we really are.

That we are not good people, that we are not nice people, we are not kind people, we are sinners.

We are enemies of God. We are rebels against God, who deserve nothing but his wrath.

The one who is a hearer only, but not a doer of the word, is one who has been shown who he is by the mirror of God's word, and he sees it, he sees that marred image, he sees his sin, and yet he walks away and forgets about it.

Out of sight, out of mind. This is the double -minded man who is unstable in all his ways that James talks about in verse eight of chapter one.

This is someone who is lost. Don't be that person. Don't be one who looks in the mirror of God's word and you see who you are, but then you just walk away, you ignore it.

Out of sight, out of mind, you forget who you really are. This is what lost people do.

Dear friends, we will be held accountable for what we know. We will be held accountable for what we know.

Have you ever heard someone say that the reason that Jesus taught in parables is because that was a way of explaining deep theological truths in simple -to -understand everyday stories so that the common man could understand what

Jesus was saying? Have you ever heard that explanation of parables given? That's totally wrong, by the way. That's totally wrong.

That is not why Jesus taught in parables. His disciples asked him in Matthew chapter 13, why do you speak in parables?

Why do you speak in parables? Oh, so that I can convey deep theological truths so the common everyday man can understand what

I'm saying. No, he said, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of God.

But to them, it has not been granted. Jesus spoke in parables not so that everybody could understand what he was saying.

Jesus spoke in parables so that the goats would not understand what he was saying.

Teaching in parables was both an act of judgment against unbelievers so that they would not understand what he was saying.

It was an act of judgment against them. It was also an act of mercy for those same people.

It was an act of mercy for the unregenerate. How so? Because the more we understand, dear ones, the more we are accountable for.

The more we understand, the more we will be held to account. And the more we understand, we increase our own level of accountability and we increase what will one day be our judgment if we do not respond to that truth.

It was an act of mercy to prevent them from understanding any more than they already did.

Because if they did understand any more, their judgment would simply increase.

Does that make sense? I've heard John MacArthur say that he would not want to go to hell from Grace Community Church.

He would not want to go to hell from Grace Community Church because the teaching at Grace Community Church is so excellent, it's so deep.

He said, I would not want to sit in this church and go to hell from this church. Because the people at that church are being exposed to a lot of truth.

And you don't want to see that in the mirror and walk away from it. And dear friends, you would not want to go to hell from Kootenai Community Church.

I've been all over the world and I tell you, the preaching and teaching that comes from this pulpit, current, occupant, excluded, but the preaching and teaching that comes from this pulpit is some of the best you'll hear anywhere.

You don't want to go to hell from this church. You're being exposed to a lot of truth.

And we will all be held accountable for the truth to which we are exposed. Turning away from the mirror will not change the reality of what

God's word says about you. Out of sight, out of mind may work in some everyday situations, but it does not work with God.

Don't turn away from the mirror, dear ones. If you see something in the mirror of God's word, if God's word is showing you your sin, if God's word is showing you your need to repent, take action, be a doer, not a hearer only.

Let's look at verse 25. James says, but one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

So our last verses was kind of a negative example, showed us what happens when someone walks away from the mirror of God's word and forgets the face of his

Genesis, forgets what he looks like. This is more of a positive example. James says the one who looks intently at the perfect law.

Notice the contrast here. Something is different here. A negative example before, now we're seeing a positive example.

One who looks intently at the perfect law. The picture here is one who gazes over, leans over and gazes into a mirror and doesn't just flinch away, but you look into the mirror, you look hard into the mirror of God's word and you gaze at it intently.

You study it. One who looks intently at the perfect law.

One in whom the word of Christ dwells richly within. The law of liberty and abides by it.

This perfect law. This is the implanted word in verse 21. The perfect word of God.

Dear friends, God is the perfect creator. He created a perfect creation, but that perfect creation,

Adam and Eve, sinned against that perfect God. They were made in his perfect image and yet they sinned.

They marred that perfect image and their sin earned a perfect wrath from the perfect creator.

And this perfect creator sent his son, Jesus Christ, into this earth.

And Jesus lived a perfect life. The perfect son of God who lived a perfect life of perfect obedience to the perfect law.

And Jesus willingly laid down his life on the cross and he became the perfect sacrifice.

The perfect once for all sacrifice. And his perfect sacrifice from this perfect person satisfied a perfect wrath from the perfect God.

And he died on the cross. Three days later, raised from the dead bodily, proving himself to be who he said he was.

God in human flesh. And the one who merely looks into the mirror of God's word and then walks away.

One day this risen, exalted, perfect Christ will be that person's perfect judge.

And the perfect wrath of God will be poured out for all of eternity. But if you gaze intently into the perfect law, do you know what

God will give you? He will give you liberty, as James says.

Literally in the Greek, James says the liberty. This is not just a liberty.

This is the liberty. There's actually a definite article there, the liberty. This is no self -help kumbaya kind of motivational feel -good boost for the week.

This is the liberty, perfect liberty, perfect forgiveness.

Dear friends, it does not matter what you have done in your past. If you will gaze intently into the perfect law, this perfect Savior will give you a perfect liberty.

He will give you perfect freedom. Perfect and complete freedom from all of your sin.

Perfect and complete freedom from the wrath of God that you deserve. A perfectly cleansed conscience.

This is perfect forgiveness. And if you are in Christ, there is now therefore no condemnation.

That resides on you. Perfect freedom, perfect forgiveness from the perfect exalted

Christ. The liberty. The liberty. James says this man will be blessed in what he does.

Blessed in what he does, blessed with what? Health and wealth? Possibly?

Not likely. Possibly. But sometimes God does grant us healthy bodies and lots of possessions.

When that happens, we accept those as kind, unmerited providences of God.

But he doesn't promise those things. So what does it mean that he'll be blessed in what he does?

Blessed in tangible ways? Maybe. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Nazariah, Daniel chapter one, they were obedient to God.

They stood in the face of temptation. They stood in the face of real persecution. And it says that God granted them favor in the sight of the commander of the officials.

God gave them a friend on the inside of you, if you will, within this pagan kingdom.

So yes, God sometimes does bless us with things that are tangible, tangible results. Tangible blessings of our obedience.

Sometimes he doesn't. Oh, but Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 10,

I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. This is the abundant life. Health and wealth, nice job.

Nice car, nice home. A dog that obeys, you know, just everything. Abundant life.

John the Baptist lived a life of obedience to Christ. He was the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, make straight the way of the

Lord. This is the one who baptized Jesus. He had a life of obedience to Christ. What did it get him?

Beheaded. Paul had a life marked by obedience to Christ.

What did it get him? Stoned, beaten 39 times, 39 lashes, imprisoned, shipwrecked, beheaded.

Peter lived a life of obedience to Christ. What did it get him? Crucified upside down.

Stephen lived a life of obedience to Christ. What did it get him? Stoned. That doesn't sound like a very abundant life to me.

Oh, but it is. Oh, but it is. It is. You better believe

Peter, James, and John, and Stephen, and John the Baptist, you better believe they had the abundant life.

Look at how God used these men. Look at how God used these men and used their suffering for his glory.

Yes, they absolutely did have the abundant life because they lived lives of obedience to the glory of God and they glorified

God in their suffering. Whether or not

God rewards our obedience with tangible things, things that we can see, the niceties of life, whether or not he does that, being obedient to God is in and of itself its own reward.

Being obedient to God is in and of itself its own reward because at least, dear ones, when you are obedient to the command of God, when you are obedient to his word, you can go to bed at night and you can lay your head down on that pillow and you'll have the blessing of having a clear conscience.

We obey God and we trust him for the results.

We trust him for the results. James is not here talking about a works salvation.

I think we've made that clear. But with regeneration comes a renewed heart with renewed desires.

If you're in Christ, you will desire to obey him. That is one of the hallmarks.

That's one of the things that you should look for. As you examine yourself to see if you're in the faith, ask yourself, do

I joyfully obey the word of God? Is it something that I desire to do?

If you're in Christ, that is your desire. John says this in 1 John 5, verse three, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.

This is the love of God that we keep, that we obey his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome.

That does not mean his commandments are easy to obey. It means they are not burdensome.

They're not a chore. We should want to obey God. We should want to obey

Christ because he is our king. Look at what he has done for us. And it should be joyful for us to obey him.

Not that it's always easy, but it's not a chore. It's not burdensome.

We have this desire. Back in verse 22 when James says, be doers of the word, not merely hearers, only deceiving yourself.

The Greek word, paralegizamai, it means to deceive. You're deceiving yourself, dear one, if you claim to be a

Christian and yet your life is not marked by obedience to the word of God. You have deceived yourself.

Do not deceive yourselves. Those who consistently disobey

God with no remorse, with no guilt of conscience, those who would rather indulge in the things of the flesh than please

Christ and yet they call themselves a Christian, they're deceiving themselves.

They're deceiving themselves. If you live a life that is marked by habitual, unrepentant sin, habitual disobedience to the word of God, dear one, you have absolutely no reason to think that you are in Christ.

No reason. Because a renewed heart has new desires.

And I end with this. John chapter three, verse 36. This would be a good verse.

Circle it sometime in your Bible. John chapter three, verse 36. Jesus says, he who believes in the

Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the

Son will not see life. But the wrath of God abides on him.

Notice what he says here. He who believes in the Son has eternal life but he who does not believe, is that what he says?

You would expect him to say does not believe. If you believe in the Son, you have life. If you do not believe, you do not have life, right?

That's kind of what we would normally expect him to say. That's what we would logically expect him to say. He who believes in the

Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him.

Dear friends, the opposite of belief is not unbelief. The opposite of belief is disobedience.

The demons believe. Satan believes. The demons in Satan himself have made just as much if not more intellectual assent to the truth of who

Jesus Christ is as we have. He believes it. The demons believe it.

What's the difference? They don't obey. He who believes in the

Son has eternal life but he who does not obey the Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him.

The opposite of belief is not unbelief. The opposite of belief is disobedience.

Is your life marked by obedience to the word of God? Do you joyfully obey

God's word? Not that we do it perfectly. None of us does. But is that your heart's desire?

Are the commandments of Christ joyful for you to obey? These are the hallmarks of a true believer.

If you are not certain of where you are in your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, do what Paul says.

Examine yourself to see if you're in the faith. Has there been a change in my life? Do I have a love for the

Lord? Do I have a love for his word? Do I desire to obey the word of God?

Am I growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is the word of Christ dwelling richly within me?

Do I have a love for the brethren? If these things are not in your life, get real honest before God.

Examine yourself. Go to the Lord. Confess your sin before him. Confess your sin.

Ask him to forgive you. And if you come to Christ with a genuine desire to obey him, with a genuine desire to make him the

Lord of your life, if you will come to him, Jesus says, the one who comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

He will save you. He'll raise you from death to life.

Let's close in a word prayer. Father, your commandments are not burdensome to us.

They're not easy, but they are not burdensome. Lord, for all of us who have been bought by your son, who have been made alive in Christ, Father, may we rejoice in the responsibility that we have to obey your word.

And may we not judge how much we love you by our feelings, by how we feel from day to day because those change.

Lord, may we have lives that are marked by obedience. May we have lives that bear tangible fruit that is evident to others.

And may we glorify you in living these lives of obedience. If there is anyone here who has not truly come to saving faith in Christ, Father, I pray by your good mercy,

I pray that your Holy Spirit would do the work that only he can do. Would convict of sin, righteousness, judgment, convict of the truth of the gospel.

And make that person a doer of your word. These things we ask in Christ's name.