Our lesson this morning will
be taken from James chapter 1. James chapter 1. We'll be looking
at verses 21 through 25. My subject is, and I believe
this to be the subject of these verses, the engrafted word. Let's read these verses together.
James chapter 1 beginning with verse 21. Wherefore, lay apart
all filthiness, superfluity, or overabundance of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able
to save your soul. But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any man
be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a
man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth
himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner
of man he was. what he saw. But whoso looketh
into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed. There are three things that I
see in these verses that I want us to focus on this morning.
I want us to see what Word he's talking about. This looking into
the Word. This hearing of the Word. What
Word is he talking about? Word is a very broad term. Our
Lord's name is the Word. This book is called the Word. And the Gospel is called the
Word of Truth. So what Word is he talking about?
And what does he mean when he says, hearers only? He makes that statement. It's
a critical statement. And he makes that in these verses.
And I want us to see what it means to be a doer of the Word. What's he talking about? So let's
begin with this question. What is the Word he refers to
in our text? Well, James uses two phrases
concerning the Word to set before us what he's actually
saying. He uses two words. Now, remember,
this man is inspired by the Holy Ghost. He's not somebody like
me standing and declaring what I believe to be the truth. This
man's inspired of God. Everything he says is going to
be correct. Everything he says goes right
down to the particular. He's inspired of God. And he
uses two phrases here. He uses, first of all, the word
of truth. If you back up a few verses,
you'll see in there where he's talking about the unchangeable
God, from whom we receive every good and perfect gift. And of
his own will begat he us how? With the word of truth. The word
of truth. Secondly, he uses this phrase,
the engrafted word. In Colossians 1, verse 5, Paul
uses a single phrase. Listen to this. And it's the
same phrase, but it's a little deeper than what James uses. He talks about their having a
hope, which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard
before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Oh my. It's beginning to narrow down
now a little bit, what James is talking about. James uses
the phrase the word of truth as it concerns our being born
of God. of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. And so does Peter, over in 1
Peter 1, verse 25. He mentions it first in verse
23, saying we're born again not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible
by the word of God. And then he goes down to verse
25, and he said, but the word of the Lord endureth forever,
and this is the word which by the gospel is preached. unto you. You know, I could go over here
and I could read for you the book of Genesis. Word for word. Exactly as it is in my Bible. I can read to you the book of
Genesis. But you'll understand it better when you see Genesis
in the light of the gospel. And this is what he's talking
about here. He's not just talking about this book as a book of
history or science or genealogy. It's correct in all of those
things. It's not in error about anything. But a critical understanding
of this, something that's going to save our souls, has to do
with how this book is connected with Christ. This is the word which by the
gospel, Peter says, is preached unto you. And the word of truth
then is the gospel of Jesus Christ and the gospel of God's sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus. That's what he's talking about.
The second phrase he uses here is the engrafted word. Now, it's my understanding that
to perform a graft, you make an incision and you take something
foreign to that vine or tree, and you take it and you slice
it, you cut it, and you stick it into that thing and bind it
together, and it grows. It gets life from whatever you
grafted it into. And most of what I read on this
subject talks about this Word, this Word of Truth, being grafted
into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Almost every writer without exception
had that to say. And while that is true, that
is true, this gospel has to have a connection to you. This Word
has to, somehow we have to see its connection. It has to become
real. It has to become vital. We have
to hunger for it. We have to get to that place
where we can't do without it. It's our very life. So there
is some truth to that, but that's not what James is talking about. Why? Well, first of all, you
don't take a good sprout and graft it into a wild stalk. Huh? He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. You're grafted into me. I'm not
grafted into you, you're grafted into me. You see what I'm saying? You take a wild sprout and you
graft it into a good stalk. You're the branches, I'm the
vine. And the subject is a true hearing of the gospel. The engrafted
Word, now listen to me, is the Word of God as it's spiritually
connected to Christ. That's what he's talking about.
The engrafted Word. The Word. Now I see, through
the Spirit of God, I see this Word as it's in connection with
Him. Now we're talking about life.
Now we're talking about life. You see the difference? And you
read these men sometimes and you just, it sounds right, but
where's the experience of it? What's the practical use of it?
I'm waiting around for something to be grafted into me that's
never going to be grafted into me. I have to see the connection
of His Word with His Son. He is the Word. This book is
the testimony of God concerning His Son. You miss that, you miss
it all. Turn with me to 1 John 5. Verses 18 through 20, John gives
us three things that all true believers know. He said, We know
that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. But he that is begotten
of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. He despises sin. He knows what it is. He knows
who It's against. And he labors hard to keep himself
from it. Here's the second thing he said
we know. Verse 19. We know that we are God and the
whole world lies in wickedness. There is a difference. Is there
not in a believer and a man left in this world? There's a difference.
There's a vast difference. There's a distinction. Our Lord
said, if you were of the world, the world would love you. If
you're of the world, the world will hear you. I don't care what
you preach. You can preach the funny book.
It don't matter. They'll love it. We listened to a man this morning.
I wanted to hear this hymn. Beautiful words in this hymn.
And I was searching on YouTube for somebody, and I hit the little
arrow, and this guy got on there, and he went on for I don't know
how I finally turned him off. He never did get to them. He
was just all bubbly and religious and going on and on. There's a distinction. We know
we're all of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. We
know that. I'm not speculating about it.
It's not something I read in a book. It's so. It's so. We read the Word, we acknowledge
it in the Word of God, being inspired by the Holy Ghost. We,
through patience and comfort of Scriptures, we read these
things that we might have hope. But here's the thing, we not,
here's the third thing, we not, verse 20, that Jesus Christ has
come and given to us an understanding Oh, my. You know, one of the
best examples of that I ever read is the apostles after our
Lord was put in the tomb. And then he rose from the dead,
and they were on the road to a mass, and they were talking,
and he appeared to them, but he didn't let them know who he
was. And they were walking along. He said, what's the problem?
Why y'all so sad? Where you been? Huh? Where you been? You know, that's exactly how
I felt when the Lord first revealed Himself to me. Where you been?
Who you been listening to? Every page of this book is talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, and I missed Him completely.
All I found was religion. Oh, my. We know that Jesus Christ
is come, the Son of God, and given to us an understanding
that we may know Him that's true, know who He is and how He is
and what He is. We might know Him that's true
and that we're in Him that's true. Even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. You see what I'm talking about?
The engrafted word is when we see this book and the words and
the promises and all the things that are contained in this book,
when I see these things vitally connected with Him, oh my! Now they're accessible. Now they're possible. You look at the law, people find
hope in the law. The very first thing the law
says, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and
strength. Can you do that? Uh-huh. Then you can't have any
hope in the law because all the rest of the law hangs on that.
If you violate that, you're guilty of the whole law. You can't keep
any part of it. I must see this. This is critical
to understanding what James is talking about here. He's setting
forth a distinction between real saving faith and a false profession. And I tell you, whether I'm talking
about you or whether I'm talking about me, I don't want to go
to hell believing a false profession. Do you? I don't want to preach
to others for years and find myself a castaway. Paul feared
that. It's a possibility. I want to
know the truth. And this is what James was telling.
He said, I'm going to tell you. And I'm going to tell you again.
And I'm going to tell you again. And all through chapter 1, he
tells us. All through chapter 2, he tells
us. He tells us till he ends the book over and over and over. There's a distinction. Real saving
faith has works. And I'm going to tell you what
they are so that you'll know. You'll know. Alright, here's
the next question. What does he mean by hearers
only? As a man or woman, he comes to
where God's assembly meets. He takes part in the singing
and the hymns. He listens to the prayers. Then
he listens to the gospel as it's declared to everybody who is
willing to listen. He looks at the Word of God as
the preacher gives him the foundation for his remarks. And he's in
agreement with those things. He says to himself, that's the
correct interpretation of those things. And when the message
is over, he gives a cent, shakes his hand, says, I've heard the
truth today. And so he goes home with this
believing and being in agreement with what he heard as sufficient
to save his soul. Anybody who's willing to base
their beliefs on the Word of God is going to be in agreement
with the Gospel. I don't care who you are. If you're going to base your
remarks on the Word of God, you're going to be in agreement with
election because this book teaches election. And it's not hard to
understand it. You have not chosen me, I've
chosen you. Is that hard to understand? I
dare say the youngest person here today understands that. There's a remnant. That's the
only reason there is. But there is a remnant, and it's
according to the election of grace. God made provision for
us, Paul said, over in Ephesians chapter 1. He made provision
for us, choosing us in His Son before the world was. What provision
that we might be holy? Everything about me in harmony
with the character of God. You try to do that outside of
Christ. Perfect love, perfect righteousness,
perfect thought, perfect heart in Christ. You can't produce
it. But he did. And that's why he
chose you and him. Make provision for you. That
you might be without blame. Who's going to lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? God just does. And I tell you,
God don't make mistakes. And God's not fooled. You can't
hoodwink God. God can see the heart. He can
see the intents of the heart. He sees all things. But when
he looks at his people in Christ, they're without blame. He don't
blame them and nobody else is. So anybody willing to base their
beliefs on the Word of God will be in agreement with the doctrines
of grace because that's what the Bible teaches. Election,
predestination, the total depravity of man, irresistible effectual
grace of God, it's all on the pages of this book, plainly written. But these things, apart from
seeing them in Christ and having them pressed upon your heart
and made official to your very soul, will not have any effect
on you at all. It's just words. It's just words. What advantage then had the Jew?
Oh, he had a lot of advantage. He had the oracles of God. He had men inspired by God Himself
to speak to Him. They had the oracles of God. He said, are we better than they? Are they better than us? Not
in any way. Not in any way. Why? Because
we're all under sin. Under sin. This word, you have to be given the gift
of God. God has to put his finger in
the hole of your heart and stir up, put a new heart in you, put
a new mind in you. He has to teach us what the gospel
is. Most of us, I tell you, that's
how I started out with an interest in Christ, this man told me I
wouldn't know the gospel if I met it in the middle of the road,
and he was right. He was right. The gospel is just
a word to folks. They're hearers only, they hear,
they hear, they sit, they hear, but nothing happens. There's
no faith, there's no repentance, there's no works, there's no
nothing. Read Acts chapter 13 sometime
when Paul went up to Antioch to preach at that church. He
said, Beware lest that come upon you which is spoken by the prophets. You won't hear the message though
a man declare it to you. That's what he said. You won't
hear it. You'll come in and sit down and you won't hear it. You won't hear it here. That's
what he's talking about. I'm going to tell you something.
Some of the meanest, unloving, ungodly men I've ever met are
Calvinists. They'd fight with you in the
middle of the road on Calvinism. God's Word in the preaching of
the Gospel is engrafted into Christ and we see in turn how
this thing is, and then we're grafted into him. That make sense? Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creatures. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.
And then based on that, he says this, wherefore? Lay apart all
filthiness. Lay this apart. Everything that
comes from you, you need to get rid of it. If it's self-righteousness,
throw it on the dung heap. If it's some kind of a hope based
on this flesh, throw it on the dung heap. I don't care how close
it is or how far away it is. Get rid of it. That's what he's
talking about here. Lay apart all filthiness and
abundance of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted
Word. He doesn't tell us here to be
engrafted. He said receive the engrafted. It's already been
engrafted. It was put in him before the
world was. That's why his name is the Word. Then James gives us an illustration.
For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's
like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. He looks,
and then he goes his way, and straightway he forgets what he
was looking at. You know, you get up in the morning,
you look in the mirror, you see your natural face, and if it's
dirty, you see the tint of it, and if it has flaws, you see
the blemishes. You see everything that's reflected
in the mirror. The mirror is the Word of God. Word of God. And it sets before
you an image of yourself when you look into it. And it sets
it there in great detail. None righteous. Boy. Well, he must be talking
about, no, he's talking about you. He's talking about me. There's none righteous. None
righteous. None that understand it. None
that seeketh after it. They're all gone astray. They
together become unprofitable. None good. All ignorant. Destruction and misery in their
ways and no fear of God before their eyes. You get the picture? How long
does it take you to forget it? Oh, snap of a finger. The next word comes out of your
mouth, go south. Huh? That's what he's saying. This is not talking about folks
sitting under a false gospel. This is talking about people
coming under the sound of the gospel. And while hearing and
considering what he's saying, they see themselves as they're
described in the Word of God. He beholds his natural face.
He beholdeth himself. He looks, he sees, he turns,
and then he forgets. He don't spend much time at the
looking glass because he don't like what he sees. Somebody told me one time, he
said he was disappointed. That particular morning, the
Lord had zeroed in on me. on this thing about sin, and
I was really working on the sinner. And when he got done, he told
his wife, going out the door, I overheard him. He said, you
know, I think when a man goes to church, he ought to come away
feeling a little bit better than he did when he went. No, he don't
like to look in the mirror because he don't like what he sees. Another
thing I might say about this here Seeing himself or herself,
they might make certain resolutions to improve. Get in that time
of year, eh? New Year's resolution. I love
that one. Lasts about a week. Boy, I'm
going on a diet. Good for you. I'm not even going
to try. Man might even sorrow over what
he sees and make some temporary amendments. But not having the image now
before him, having nothing but himself and the world around
him, he soon forgets what he saw. But, I'll tell you, if you're
a believer, you're going to come to love that word, but. We were,
by nature, children of wrath, even as others, but. But. That's what this is, another
one of those buts. But whoso looketh, now listen,
into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he keeps
looking. Why? He likes what he sees. And being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Why? What's the difference? This man
sees himself in a substitute. When he looks into that perfect
law of liberty, he's looking at himself in a representative. And he don't see what he sees
over here. He sees it and acknowledges it,
but he sees himself here perfect. You see what I'm saying? He looks
into the perfect. Law of liberty. There's only
one law of liberty, that's grace and Christ. That's it. He sees himself standing guilty
before God and God in holy justice pouring out his wrath on him
in a substitute. He sees the God of glory forsaking
him. Forsaking him, but he sees it
in a substitute. Oh, you don't want to wait to
that day when he said, depart from me, you workers of iniquity.
I never knew you. You don't want to be forsaken
of God. Oh, my soul. And yet he sees
one dying in his stead, taking his place, bearing his sin, dying
his death, suffering his pain. He sees his sin, not just as
it affects him, but as they appear in a crucified redeemer. He sees
the reality of it. He hears the crack of the whip
as it splits open the back of the Savior and cuts into his
skin, and he hears the wicked laughter of the evil crowd and
the cold voice of the self-righteous religionists gathered there to
mock him. and crying for his destruction,
hungers for your blood. This man sees himself in another. And by the grace and mercy of
God, not being nailed to that cross, but being shown the one
who was. Huh? Boy, that's a whole different
law, ain't it? He looks and sees himself as
Barabbas. being set free because another
was chosen to die in his stead. This man sees himself perfectly
righteous and another perfectly justified. He sees himself loved
before the foundation of the world and that love secured in
the Savior. He sees himself chosen, adopted,
sought after, called, saved, watched over by angels and watched
over by pastors and watched over by God Himself. Huh? He looks into the perfect law
of liberty preserved in Christ. He has an
inheritance. He's been sealed. His adoption made known, led
to repentance, watched over, and he sees himself set free. Set free. He's like the bond
slave of old. His debt's been paid. Master
comes to him and said, it's been a pleasure knowing you. Been
a pleasure knowing you. You're free to go. And he just
stands and looks at him. He said, I don't want to go. No, you're free now. You can
go. Your debt's been paid. I don't want to go. Why? I love my master. I love my master. I want to stay. I want to serve him in love.
Don't you? And he stands him up before the
door so everybody can see. And he takes that off and he
bores that ear. And I know men hate ear rings,
but I just can't picture a hole in your ear saying anything without
a ring. I think you put a ring on it. And boy, when you looked at that
man, he wasn't just another. He's kind of like a sergeant
major in the army. He's somebody. Yeah, he's just
a grunt. Yeah, but he's more than that.
He's more than that. That man or woman begotten
of God has given better eyes than the natural man. And he's
not left to himself. He's not left alone in his looking. But the Spirit of the Living
God and the preaching of the Gospels had an effect on him,
and he can't stop looking. He can't stay away. He needs
to hear. He's thirsty to hear. He's desperate
to hear. He can't get enough. He looks into the perfect law
of liberty, the law of faith, the law of love, the law of grace,
and he continues to look. and then you can go down Spring
Hill. If you go straight, it still goes to Spring Hill. And
she never wanted to go straight. And I asked her one day, I said,
why do you like going this way? It's further. She said, because
my husband was killed down there, and I don't want to go down that
road again. Huh? God saved you. You don't want
to go down that road again, do you? Huh? That's where I died. I don't
want to go down there. I want to look to Him. I don't want
to look over here anymore. I want to look to Him. This is
where life is. This is where life is. This is
where security is. This is where happiness and joy
is. I don't want to look. I ain't
going down that road anymore. Oh, preached the message one
time, said, I'll tell you what, preacher, you keep that up, you're
going to run folks off. I said, you ever read John chapter
6? How many thousands were following
him that day? He run them all off. And he turned around, there's
his disciples, he said, you going to go too? What'd they say? Where are we
going to go? Thou hast the words, if you turn
around. You can't run a sinner off. He
ain't going to be running. In just a little bit, I'm going
to tell you about these two blind men, and the Lord totally ignored
them. No telling how long they followed, cried after him for
mercy. He never spoke a word to them.
He went on about his business. He's healed this one, healed
that one. Why didn't they just throw their
hands up and go home? Where else are they going to go? A sinner who knows he's a sinner
comes to Christ because he ain't got anywhere else to go. And
you can't run him off. You can call him everything but
a milk cow. He'll just sit there. Anything you tell him is better
than how he sees himself. Huh? That's right. The work of grace. This man,
this woman, they're not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.
What work? The work of grace, the work of
gratitude, the work of faith. Faith worketh by love. Oh, but
you say, now wait a minute, Pastor. We rest in Christ. We rest in
Christ. Yes, but the Word of God talks
about us who have rested in Christ. He said, for he that's entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works. That ain't
the end of that sentence. Can you quote it? As God did from his. Did God quit working? Concerning the salvation of sinners
he did, he rested in Christ. He rested his providence, he
rested everything in Christ. His purpose, all of it rested
in Christ. But God still works. My father worked with him, too,
and I worked. That's what Christ said. We cease
from our labors as God did from His. I rest my salvation. I rest all things in the hands
of Christ. But I still labor. Listen to this. Let us labor,
therefore. To do what? To enter into that
rest. God rested in Christ. And our
labor is to enter into that rest as God did from His. We don't
fold our hands and say whatever will be, will be, whether it
ever happens or not, what one old man told me. Christ died
for all his elect, that they which live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose
again. And a true hearer of the word
of truth of the gospel is a doer of the work. This man is going
to be blessed in his deed. What deed? His hearing, his believing,
his prayers, his worship, his charity, his giving, his life,
his behavior, his witness, his profession, his trials, his death
without faith. Paul says, it is impossible to
please God. And faith without works is dead. That's what James is teaching
in this book. Next week we'll look at it again
from a different perspective, but we're going to be saying
the same thing. And James never quit saying it. That's why I
believe his book is so left aside by preachers in our day. They
don't understand what he's saying. Oh, my God, give us an understanding
of these things. Thank you.