James 1. James 1. I'm delighted to be
here. Yes, you know that. I love this
congregation dearly. I love your pastor and I count
him. I've got no dear friend in him
anywhere. I esteem him so highly. I esteem these men that are here.
I'm just glad to be here. I'm looking forward to this. Now, while you're there in James
1, I want to read one verse out of Acts chapter 10 to kind of
set up this passage of scripture I want us to look at for a few
moments. In Acts chapter 10, verse 33, we read where Cornelius
said to Peter, Now, therefore, are we all here present before
God to hear? Why are we here? We're here to hear. We're here to hear from the living
God in His Word. That's our purpose for being
here. I want to hear from Him. And that's why we've met together.
Now, with that in mind, I want to look at a passage in James
chapter 1. In verse 18, James chapter 1, we read, "...of
his own will begat, birthed he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures. Wherefore, in light of the fact
that it is of his own will that he begets the believer with the
word of truth, the gospel. Wherefore, in light of that,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Now, I want to be a preacher
of the gospel, whatever that is. I desperately want to be
a preacher of the gospel. But here's something that I can
honestly say I'm more concerned with. I'm more concerned with
being a hearer of the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God. And there's a passage in Hebrews
chapter 5 about people who become dull of hearing. And that scares
me to death. I don't want to be in that group
that becomes dull of hearing and unable to hear the Word of
God. Now, in light of the fact that
God of His own sovereign will births His people through the
Word of Truth, in light of that, let every man be swift to hear. Now, this thing of hearing is
not merely hearing audibly the message. How many people in this
room have walked into this room that are no longer here, that
heard audibly, but they didn't really hear? They didn't hear
the message. I want to be somebody who hears.
Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. May God give us grace to be swift
to hear. That's what we're here for, isn't
it? It's to hear from the living God, to hear his gospel. And
I mean hearing with hearing ears. How many times did our Lord say,
if any man has ears to hear, let him hear. Not everybody has
ears to hear. Let every man, verse 19, wherefore
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to
speak, Slow to say, well, here's what I think. Here's what I believe. Slow to pop off. Slow to wrath. Slow to get mad at what God says. For the wrath of man worketh
not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, since we need to be
swift to hear and slow to speak, lay apart all filthiness, all
dirt, clean out your ears. and all superfluity or excess
of naughtiness. You know, it's excess of naughtiness
that renders one unable to hear. Excess of wickedness is what
that means. Excess of sin. You know, the word obedience
actually means literally to hear. That's what the word obedience
means, to hear. Now, since that's so, let every
man be lay aside all filthiness and excess of naughtiness, or
superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted
Word, the Word planted in the heart, and that Word which is
able to save your souls." Now, the Word he's talking about is
the Word that is able to save your souls. Now, when we talk
about the Word of God, we're talking about this This is God's Word. We're talking
about the one message that this book makes known. This book has
one thing to say, that one message. This one book relays to us one
message about Him who is the Word of God. That's what we're
talking about when we're talking about the Word of God. We're
talking about this book that gives us the one message, the
Word of God. which tells us of him who is the word of God. In
the beginning was the word. Now, this is the word which is
able to save your souls. You know, our Lord said in John
8, 32, you shall know the truth. And the truth shall make you
free. Now, that doesn't mean your knowledge of the truth makes
you free. The truth himself is the one
who makes you free. This word is able to save your
souls. Verse 22, but this is a big but. But be ye doers of the word. And not hearers only. Deceiving
your own selves. Now, what's James mean when he
says be a doer of the word? Now, what we generally think
when we think of that passage of scripture, what I know I've
generally thought when I thought of that passage of scriptures,
well, there's there's more I need to be doing. I just I don't really
do enough. Now, I know salvation is by grace,
but still, there's more I need to be doing. Well, I'm not going
to deny there's no doubt a whole lot more we all ought to be doing.
I wouldn't argue that against that point for a second, but
that's not so much what James means here. when he's talking
about doing more, when he talks about being a doer of the Word
and not a hearer only, deceiving your own selves. And I tell you
what, that's a scary proposition, deceiving yourself. I remember at a very early age,
I can hear my dad say, did you do that? No. And I knew I did, but somehow
I was able to convince myself that I didn't. And after a while,
I became righteously indignant. How dare him accuse me of that?
It's called deceiving yourself. Lying to yourself. You ever done
that? Pretty easy to do. He warns us of being a hearer
only and not a doer. And if I'm not a doer of the
word, but a hearer only. He says we're deceiving ourselves. Now who is this fellow who is
a hearer only? Well, he goes on to describe
him in verse 23. For if any be a hearer of the
word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass, in a mirror. Now here, the word of God is
described as a mirror. You know what it is to look in
a mirror. Now, back then, they didn't have many mirrors. As
a matter of fact, I dare say there were many people that only
had a vague idea of what they looked at. Maybe they'd seen
some water somewhere and saw a vague reflection. And very
few people really had seen in a good mirror, and they didn't
know exactly what they looked like. And you know, really, the
only way you can really know what you look like is by the
mirror of the word. You know, the one thing you can't
do is see yourself without a reflection. And the only thing that will
really tell you what you really look like is the Word. Now, this fellow
who's a hearer only and not a doer, he's like somebody who beholds
his natural face in a glass. He sees himself in a mirror.
Now, when you see yourself in the mirror of the Word, what
do you see? Now, when you see yourself in
the mirror of the Word, all you see is sin in yourself. And if you see anything else,
you're looking in a distorted mirror. You haven't looked in
the mirror of the Word. If you really look in the mirror of
the Word, all you'll see concerning yourself, when you look at yourself,
remember this fellow is beholding himself, he looks in the mirror
of the Word and he sees sin. This is what this fellow does.
He looks at himself in the mirror at work, and he doesn't like
what he sees. What's he do? Verse 24. For he
beholdeth himself. And that word kind of means he
gives himself a glance. He looks and looks away. He beholds
himself. And what's he do? He goes his
way. And immediately, straightway,
He forgets what manner of man he was. Now, here's the man who's
a hearer only and not a doer. He looks into the Word. He sees
ugliness. He sees deformity. He thought,
I didn't know I really looked like that. He doesn't like what
he sees. So he goes his way, not God's
way. Not the way of the gospel, he
goes his way and immediately in going his way, he forgets
what he looked like. And in forgetting what he looks
like, do you know what else he forgets? He forgets his need
of the gospel. He forgets his need of Christ. He forgets his need of a righteousness
better than he can come up with. He forgets his need of grace. You see, he forgot his ugliness.
He gets away from the mirror of the Word and says, I don't
look that bad. I just had a bad hair day at
that time. That's not really what I look
like. He goes his way and he forgets what manner of man he
was. But, verse 25, Whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty and Continuous. Continues looking. Continues
there, and he doesn't lose that sight of his ugliness. Now, somebody
says, now, wait a minute, do you want us to always be seeing
our ugliness? Yes. Because it's only as you and
I behold our ugliness that we're going to look to him for beauty. That's why it's so important
to keep looking in that mirror. Now, this is the one who's a
hearer and a doer. But whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty and continueth therein. And when it says he
looks in, you notice it says he beholds in verse 24, but a
different word here is used. It says he looks, and that means
he looks intently. He stoops and peers and looks
into to see what's really there. And not only does he stoop and
look to see what's really there, he continues, he doesn't leave.
He continues seeing this ugly person that he is. And somebody
says, this seems so negative and so pessimistic. No, it's
not. No, it's not. We're going to
see more why it's not here in a few minutes, but it's this
man who sees his sinfulness. Beloved, It's easy to come to
Christ when you don't have anywhere else to go. It's easy to trust
him for righteousness when you don't have any, and you really
know you don't have any. It's easy to trust him for your
beauty when you have nothing but ugliness. It's easy to believe
on him when you've got no other options. And that's what this
is all about. This fellow, he continues in
this world. Looking in the mirror of the
word, and that's what this that's what he like to do, looking into
a mirror. Now, he continues looking in
the mirror of the word. He sees his ugliness and it causes
him to continue to look to Christ. But I want you to notice this.
This fellow, when he looks into the mirror of the word, what
does he see? Whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty. And continues there. The most liberating thing that
there is, is to see that I'm nothing but sin. Somebody says,
that just seems awful. No, it's the most liberating
thing there is. Because in seeing that, I see
the gospel clearly. And that's the only way I see
the gospel clearly. And I find this to be a perfect
law of liberty. This is so liberating. You know,
when you're under bondage, when you're stressed out, when you
have no rest, it's because there's something left to do. Something
left undone, something that needs to be done. There's no freedom
in that, is there? There's no liberty. But this
fellow who looks into the perfect law of liberty, he sees his ugliness,
that's That's a liberating sight to him because he sees the beauty
of Christ. He sees the perfection of the
gospel. He sees the sufficiency of Christ's righteousness. So
as he continues to peer into this mirror of the word, it's
a law of liberty to him. It's a law of freedom. And so looketh into the perfect
law of liberty and continueth therein. He continues looking.
He being not a forgetful hearer, he doesn't forget what he looked
like. He doesn't forget his sinfulness and his deformity. He being not
a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. Now, what's he talking about
when he talks about a doer of the work? Turn with me to John, chapter
six, and I'll show you exactly what he's talking about. I'm sure you're familiar with
this passage of Scripture. Then said they, verse 28 of John
chapter 6, Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we
might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is The work of God. That you believe on him. Whom
he has sent. That's the work he's talking
about. This fellow who continues in
the world, he continues seeing himself and. This thing of seeing your sinfulness,
this is not just trying to grovel in self-pity and misery. This is not looking for an excuse
for sin in any way. But it's seeing reality, seeing
what I am. And in seeing what I am and only
in seeing what, well, you know, I can't see what I am unless
I look into the word and see who he is. And seeing who he
is, I see who I am and see who I am. I trust him as my only
hope. And that felt that continues
looking in the word. The scripture says he's a doer
of the work. Remember, don't be a hearer of
the word only, but be a doer. Now, a hearer of the word only,
he can describe exactly what you need to believe. He can describe
exactly what you need to do. He may be very orthodox in his
doctrine. He's got it all down pat. He
can spout out everything just as it ought to be spouted out.
But he doesn't actually trust Christ himself. He's like the
fellow who can tell you what the pill's made of. He can tell
you all the properties of the pill. He can tell you what it'll
do for you if you take it, but he doesn't take it. And there's
another fellow that he knows will make him better. He might
not be able to describe all the materials of the pill the way
the other fellow can, but he knows it'll make him better.
He takes it. He's a doer of the Word, not
a hearer of the Word. Now, this man who's a doer of
the word, who continues in that law of liberty, he being not
a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, the work of faith
in Christ is simply resting in him. What's James say? This man shall be blessed in
his deed. Whatever he does, he's blessed. Paul said, now thanks be unto
God who always causes us to triumph in Christ. In the world's eyes,
he may fail, but oh, how blessed he is of God. He's blessed in
his deed. Now we're here to hear. That's
our purpose in this meeting. We want to hear from God, and
I hope that this will give us a whetted appetite to hear the
word. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. Give me hearing ears. The hearing
ear and the seeing eye are both of the Lord. May he grant us
hearing ears for the remainder of this meeting. Appropriate words in this meeting. I appreciate that. Let's turn
to number 42 in the hymnal. Jerry will come up. Thank you.