All right, our text this morning
we're going to study is in James chapter one, and the title of
the message is The Engrafted Word. The Engrafted Word. That is in verse 21 of James
chapter one, where God, the Holy Spirit, by James, writes, Wherefore,
or for this reason, lay apart or set aside all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness, that's the overabundance of sin and
evil, and receive with meekness, that's submission. That word
meekness is submission. Receive what with submission?
The engrafted word. The engrafted word. That's the
title of the message. And this engrafted word which
is able to save your souls. Now, it's impossible to overestimate
or over-preach the issue of the importance of the Word of God
in the salvation of sinners. We've talked about that before,
back up in verse 18 of James chapter 1, where it says, "...of
his own will," that is, of God's own will, "...begat he us," that's
the new birth, And with the word of truth, that's the gospel of
God's grace in Christ. And what he's talking about there
is the work, the sovereign, invincible work and calling of the Holy
Spirit in the new birth, which is sometimes called regeneration,
which is the giving of spiritual life under the preaching of the
gospel as he applies the word of truth to his people. And that application of the word
of truth is summed up in this term, the engrafted word. You know what grafting is all
about. You know, like when you take a plant, one plant, and
you graft a limb or a leaf into another plant, and it becomes
part of that plant. And what he's talking about is
the power of the Holy Spirit to implant and graft the word
of God. The preaching of the cross, the
preaching of Christ and him crucified and risen again, the truth of
how God saves sinners. He implants that and engrafts
it into the heart of his people so that it becomes a part of
them. And the heart is, it's not that, I know I don't have
to say this to you because I know you're smarter than this. I hope
I am too. But it's not that he shoots the
word into our physical bodies in some way. It's our heart.
Now, the heart is the mind and the affections and the will,
what the Bible calls the inner man, what you really are. And what he's saying is here,
when the Holy Spirit engrafts this word into your heart, you
can't get away from it. Now, you may lose sight of it
for a while. We see that in many of the Old
Testament and some of the New Testament saints, where they
get away from it for a while, but you can't get away from it
forever. It's part of you. And the Lord,
you know, He may let you go for a while, but not altogether. So that's the engrafted word
which is able to save you so. It's implanted in you. You can't
get away from it. And what James is talking about
here is he starts off with the necessity of the word, the word
of the gospel, the good news of salvation through the Lord
Jesus Christ, conditioned on Christ in our salvation in the
new birth. The Bible in Romans chapter 1
and verse 16 says this, it says, the gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to the Jew first and to the Greek also, to everyone
that believeth. And what that shows you is not
just the preaching of words, like a dictionary or the reading
of words, but it's the preaching of the gospel in the power of
the Holy Spirit. You see, many people can hear
the gospel with the physical ear, but they don't have spiritual
ears to hear. That's why the Lord told His
disciples in Matthew 13, when He began to speak in parables,
He said, blessed are your ears. For they hear. I mean, they really
hear what I'm saying. And that hearing there is not
only just hearing with the physical ear, but it's a heart submission
and belief of what's being preached. Really believe it. It's not just
something I come to sit down and just hear with the physical
ear. And he said, blessed are your eyes, for they see. You
see things that other men don't see, other women don't see, because
you have spiritual eyes. You've been born again. By the
Spirit, you have spiritual life. And these things that the natural
man will not receive because he will not receive that which
is freely given, all of salvation freely given in Christ. You'll
receive it. And that's what James is talking
about. Receive with meekness. You submit to God says it. It's true. I believe it. If he
says I'm a sinner. Then I know it's true. Now, somebody
else may say I'm a good guy. But if God says I'm a sinner,
then I'm going to believe it. I believe it. It's true. Because
God sees like nobody else sees. He sees me and knows me even
better than I know myself and see myself. A lot better than
you know me and see me. God says I'm a sinner. God says
that I need mercy. I believe that. God says that
I'm unrighteous in myself. I believe that. God says that
it's impossible for me to be saved by my best efforts to do
good, because there's none good, no, not one. I believe that.
You say, well, when I look around and I compare myself to other
people, I seem like a pretty good guy. Well, that's your testimony. What's God's testimony? You see,
that's the engrafted word. This is the word of God, not
the word of men, not the opinions of men, not the theology or the
philosophy of men, not the ways of men. That's what Psalm 1 that
Brother Joe spoke of there. Turn back to Psalm 1. It sets
the tone for all the Psalms. And that's what it's talking
about. In fact, you could say Psalm 1 is a parallel passage
to this passage in James. When he says, blessed is the
man. Who blessed him? God did. Not
some man wearing a funny hat and a robe. Not at the dinner
table. This is a man blessed of God. What is it to be blessed of God?
It's to be saved by the grace of God in Christ. It's to be
washed in the blood of Christ, washed clean from all my sins
in the blood of Christ. You can't see that in me. You
can't see that on me. How do we know it's true? How
do we believe it? God said it. We receive the word
with meekness. We submit to it. God says everyone
who rests in Christ, everyone who believes in him, as our whole
salvation, that person is blessed of God. That person is washed
clean in the sight of God. Not in the sight of men now.
Not even in the sight of myself, but of God, and I believe it.
I'm clothed in his righteousness. You're looking at a righteous
man. Now, if you watch me day to day, you're going to say you're
anything but a righteous man. And if I watch you from day to
day, I'll say the same thing. And I may be trying to do my
best that day, but I'm still going to mess up. And you are
too. But you see, this is God's testimony as He sees us in Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. You see that? That's the grafted
word. That's part of me. That's part
of you who believe. And we are blessed of God. Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly. Who are the ungodly there? That's
unbelievers. What do they tell you to do?
How do they tell you about salvation? Whatever they say, you don't
walk in their counsel. You walk in the counsel of God.
You receive the engrafted word with me. What God says, not what
man says. And he says, nor standeth in
the way of sinners. What is the way of sinners? Now,
when you think of that term, the way of sinners, what do you
immediately think of? Most people immediately go to
the lowest dregs of society. That's the way of sinners, and
I don't do that. Now, let me tell you something.
The way of sinners is any way other than salvation by the grace
of God in Christ. Even their religion. Even the
person who stands up behind a pulpit and encourages people to be saved
by their efforts to keep the law, or by their works, or by
their doing good. That's a way of sinners. That's
a way of damnation. There is a way that seemeth right
unto a man, but it's a way of death. And then he says, nor
sitteth in the seat of the scornful. You know what it is to scorn
something. If I pulled out a, I don't know much about diamonds,
but if I pulled out a, what a Would a five-carat diamond, that'd
be pretty big, wouldn't it? Now, if I pulled out a five-carat
diamond and laid it up here, a lot of you ladies would be
real impressed, wouldn't you? But let's just say there's a
man who stands up and says, that's not worth anything. That's not
worth a dime. He's scorning it. And that's
what it is to sit in the seat of the scornful. I'm preaching
to you this morning The Word of Life. The only thing that really means
anything eternally to a sinner. The way of salvation by the glorious
Son of God, the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how valuable
is it? How valuable is it to me? Or
to you? Or, you can take it or leave
it. That's scorn in it. You see what I'm saying? And
let me tell you something, if I don't scorn it this morning,
you know why? Because I'm a pretty good fellow? No. It's because of the grace
of God. And that's the only reason, isn't
it? And so he goes on, verse 2, His delight is in the law
of the Lord. The law there is the Word of
God. That's what that means. This is the engrafted Word. His
delight is in the engrafted Word. Now, we're fickle people. We
always are. We always will be in this life.
Sometimes we're up. Sometimes we're down. Sometimes
we're on the mountain. Sometimes we're in the valley.
Sometimes we feel good. Sometimes we feel bad. Sometimes
everything seems to go right. Sometimes everything seems to
go wrong. And I'll admit to you that when everything seems to
go wrong, my delight is in the law of the Lord, the Word of
God even more at those times. Should not be. That shouldn't
be. It should be all times. But you
think about it now. You who know Christ, this is
the engrafted word. You know, even though we may
not show it all the time in our actions and our attitudes, we
know that the only thing of real value that we have, the only
thing of real value, eternal value, is the Word of God in
Christ. There's going to come a day when
that five carat diamond will not impress you at all. That's
right, isn't it? It will not impress you at all.
Days are days. But there's coming a time when
it'll have no value at all. You remember the parable of the
rich fool where he accumulated all this stuff and he said, well,
what am I going to do? Well, I'm going to build bigger
barns. to fill it with more stuff. And what happened? This night,
thou fool, this night, thy soul shall be required of thee. No value at all. The only thing
that will matter then, that's why Paul said in Philippians
chapter 3, O that I may be found in him. That's the only thing
of value, to be found in Christ. That's why our delight is in
the Word of God, because the Word of God doesn't condemn The
sinner who rests in Christ, whose hope is in Christ. Now, the Word
of God may correct me in a lot of ways. It may tell you, Bill,
you're not what you should be. And I'm not. But my only hope
is Christ. And that's what this Word of
God always, ultimately leads me to. And it says, and in His
law does He meditate day and night. He shall be like a tree
planted by the rivers, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season."
Now, the book of James is going to talk a lot about the fruit
here. Now, what's the difference between
the fruit and the root? Well, the root is the source.
The root is the cause. The fruit is the result. Christ
is the source. God's grace in Him is the source
and the cause of all of our salvation. What we are in Him and what we
do that honors Him is the fruit, not the cause. We're not saved
by our works. We're saved by God's grace in
Christ, the work of Christ. Now, go back to James 1. Now, it's necessary that we hear
this truth in the power of the Spirit to be born again. And that's a work of God. It's
a work of the will of God. It's not of the will of man.
We read that last week. Not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of man, nor the will of men, but of God. The
new birth, as all of salvation, is all of God. Salvation is of
the Lord. It's not conditioned on me, or
you, or any man, at any stage, at any time, to any degree. That's
what grace is all about. Grace in Christ saves me. Grace
in Christ brings me to Him. Grace in Christ keeps me. And grace in Christ will bring
me to glory. And it's all attributed to God
and none to me. And this is a gift from God.
And so he says in verse 19 of James 1, Therefore, be swift
to hear. This is the Word of God. investing in the stock market.
And I saw this the other day. They were having a little panel
discussion at a college on investments and the stock market. And you
know who was on the panel? Two men. Warren Buffett and Bill
Gates. And they were listening. Those
folks were listening. Because these guys know what
they're doing when it comes to investing money. Well, they'll
listen because they're interested. They have an investment here.
Well, this is the Word of God. And your money is not at stake
here. My money is not at stake here. But my soul is. My eternal
destiny is at stake here. So be quick to hear. Be swift
to hear. And be slow to speak. Do more
listening than you do talking. Don't be so ready to give your
opinion or your comments. And then slow to wrath, because
what's said in the word of God makes a lot of people angry.
Number one, it makes unbelievers angry, the natural man. It says
the word is light, and man hates the light and loves darkness,
John chapter 3, verses 19 and 20, because his deeds are evil. A man who's sitting here, a woman
who's sitting here who's so proud of what he's accomplished and
thinks it impresses God or thinks it recommends him unto God. I've
gone to church all my life. I've been baptized. I've given
my tithe. I wear the Sunday school pin,
and that ought to count for something. And when a preacher stands up
and from the Word of God tells you that as far as your salvation,
as far as your justification before God, it counts nothing. Less than nothing. And in fact,
if you think it does, it's evil. Huh? That makes a lot of people
mad. But don't be quick. Listen to
what the Word of God says. And then it even makes believers
mad sometimes because it'll convict us. It'll admonish us. It'll
correct us. We all like to justify ourselves
in what we do and think and say. We've got a right. That's what
we think, Ed. But you see, we have no rights
in the Kingdom of God. The only thing we've earned and
the only thing we deserve is damnation. Anything we have by
way of blessing is of pure mercy. It's of the Lord's mercy that
we're not consumed, even the best of us, as well as the worst
of us. And so, he says in verse 20,
the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. My
anger, your anger, anybody's anger, it's not going to promote
the gospel. It's just going to reveal us to be what we are.
Sinners. So, he says, for this reason,
cast it all off, all the filthiness, all the abundance of evil, naughtiness. He says, receive with meekness,
submission, the engrafted word which is able to save your souls.
Now it's God who engrafts this word into our hearts. And if
God engrafts it, it will be received. You can bank on it. And yet we
are commanded to receive with submission this word which is
able to save our souls. Why is this word able to save
our souls? Because this word leads us to
Christ, who is our salvation. That's why. We read it last week,
John 5.39, when he was speaking to the Pharisees, the Lord said,
he said, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of
me. They testify of Christ. The Word of God shows me who
God is, his holiness, his justice. He must punish sin. It shows
me who I am, a sinner who has no claim upon God. None at all. The wages of sin is death. That's
what I've earned. And then it leads me to Christ
for my only hope. The only way that a sinner like
me can be saved and be glorified in heaven is through the merits
of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's
able to give us spiritual life in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the new birth. It's able
to deliver us continually from evil again and again and again
in the power of the Spirit, in our preservation, in the lives
of believers. We have to be delivered every
day. We have been saved by the power of God in Christ, by the
blood and righteousness of Christ. We are being saved. We're being
kept by the power of God's grace, by His Spirit, through the Word.
And we will be saved. We will be glorified eventually.
Now, here's the here's the question, though, that James confront confront
us with. How do we know the word has been
engrafted into my heart? How do I know it? How do you
know the word has been engrafted in your your heart? Well, first
of all, there's the evidence of faith in Christ and true repentance. And I would ask you to consider
this for yourself. Do you have any other hope? Do
you have any other assurance, any other claim? Do you have
any other? Merit, do you have any other
way other than Christ and Him crucified and risen again? If
you have, if you have any other way but the way of mercy and
grace in Him and by all that He accomplished at Calvary for
the salvation of our souls, any other way, then I can tell you
right now without fail, the Word has not been engrafted into your
heart. Because if the Word of God has
been engrafted planted indelibly and irretrievably into your heart,
into your mind, affections, and will. You will sing that song
that I so often quote, and I love. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, no matter how sweet it seems, no matter how sweet people
say it is, the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. God, our salvation, our Savior.
On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground, all other ground,
all other ground is sinking sand. Even the religious ground is
sinking sand. Nothing but Christ. What can
wash away my sins? Nothing, nothing but the blood
of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace.
This is all my righteousness. I have none but Him. That's the
first evidence that the Word has been engrafted into your
heart. You can look back to your experiences. You can look back
to your professions. You can look back to your religious
duties. If you can and find peace there,
the Word has not been engrafted into your heart. You can find
peace anywhere but in Him. Is that right? His blood and
righteousness. And then there's a second evidence,
and that's the evidence of obedience motivated by grace and gratitude
and love. And that's why he says in verse
22 of James 1, But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving your own selves. To be a doer of the word. Do
the word. You hear that phrase? Doer of
the word. How does that fit with the truth of all of salvation,
not by our doing, but by the doing of Christ. How does this
fit with that? Well, it fits very well. He says,
be a doer of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your
own selves. And to be a doer of the word, now listen to me,
it does not speak of sinless perfection. To be a doer of the
Word, you see, a person who is sinlessly perfect in themselves
doesn't even need to hear this Word. You see, this Word here,
from Genesis to Revelation, is a Word of grace for sinners. So, in other words, if being
a doer of the Word means that you have to be a perfect doer
of everything in the Law of God, or in the Word of God, if that's
what it means, well, first of all, none of us have any hope.
Some of you might be surprised, but you don't have any hope there.
I don't. And listen, if being a doer of
the Word means sinless perfection and obedience, then we don't
need this Word. You see? Because this is the
Word of Grace. This is a book written to sinners
who need mercy. Sinners who need Christ. And
it's from Genesis to Revelation. When Adam fell and brought the
whole human race into ruination, into damnation, God spoke forth
His word of grace in the promise of the woman's seed who would
come and bruise the head of the serpent. In other words, Christ,
by His work on the cross, would cancel, kill the work of Satan
in His people. He would bring them to justification
of life. And then the word of grace came
through Abel, who brought the blood of the Lamb, picturing
and typifying the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, worthy of the
Lamb. And here comes Cain, who brought his own words. That's
the way of sinners. And then it talks about Noah.
The first thing it says about Noah is, Noah found what? Grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Why did Noah need grace? Because he was better than the
rest of humanity who deserved damnation? No, if he was better
than the rest of humanity that deserved damnation, he wouldn't
have needed grace. He would have just simply said,
well, but he looked down, there's Noah, and he's a good guy. He didn't even need the ark if
he wasn't a sinner. Noah was a sinner saved by the
grace of God, a preacher of righteousness. That's a preacher of the gospel.
of God's grace in Christ. So doers of the Word doesn't
mean sinlessly perfect. It means to walk by faith, seeking
to follow Christ and His Word by the grace of God. That's what
it means. Walk by faith in Him, seeking to follow Him and His
Word by the grace of God. So be a doer of the Word and
not hearers only. We must hear the Word of God
to be saved. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. But hearing alone will not do
it. We must obey the word by the power of God. Now, those
who do refuse obedience are only deceiving themselves. And, you
know, there's two extremes in religion when it comes to men
trying to understand what the Bible is teaching on their own
now, not by the power of the Spirit. You see, true understanding
of the word of God only comes by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It doesn't come naturally. But in men groping in the dark,
and I know this because I did it for so many years, and many
of you did too, in trying to understand what the Bible teaches,
there's two extremes. The first one is those who come
away from the Scriptures, believe it or not, who come away from
the Scriptures thinking that they're saved in some way, in
some form, to some degree, at some stage by their works. And that's not so. Now, if you're
trying to be saved by your works in any way, then number one,
the word has not been engrafted in your heart. And number two,
you're not a doer of this word. You're a doer of somebody else's
word, your own word, but not God's word. Because God's word
says this in Ephesians chapter two and verse eight, for by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It's the
gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast." And
that's not the only verse that it says. It says that all the
way through. But that's one extreme. The next
extreme is this. To believe that we're saved without
works. To believe that we're saved without
works. Now that's what James is leading up to here. Look at
James chapter 2 and look at verse 14. In other words, a person who
would say, well, if salvation is by grace, then it doesn't
matter what we do or how we live or how we think or what our attitude
is. We can go out and sin all we
want to, and it doesn't matter. That's the next extreme. Well,
James says this in verse 14 of James 2. What doth it profit,
my brethren, though a man say he hath faith? A man says he
believes in Christ and have not works. Can faith save him? Can that kind of faith, that
is just a mere profession, without any fruit or evidence save him?
No. No. That can't do it. In the book
of Ephesians, chapter 2 and verse 10, right after, it says, for
by grace are you saved. Remember it said, through faith,
that not of yourselves, not of works, lest any man should boast.
That's verse 9. Verse 10 says this. Now listen
to it. Mark it in your Bibles if you
haven't already. Ephesians 2.10, right after that. It says, For
we are his workmanship. Now, who's the we there? That's
a sinner saved by grace. That's a believer. That's a born-again
person. That's a justified person. Sanctified
person. One who's certain for heaven's
glory in Christ. A believer. For we are his workmanship."
In other words, all those things that are the blessings of God,
if I can claim them for myself, I'm not my own man. I'm not the
product of my own will or my own works. I'm his workmanship.
God is the worker there who worked that workmanship, that product. And then it says, created in
Christ Jesus. There's the ground. There's the
cause of it. It's by Christ. In other words,
God couldn't save sinners without Christ. God couldn't have mercy
on sinners without Christ. God couldn't show grace and love
without Christ. And the reason is God must be
just when he saves. He's holy. He can't listen. God just can't look at you and
snap his finger and say, now you're a saved person. I heard
a preacher say that one time on tape, believe it or not, a
sovereign grace preacher. He said this, he said, Christ
didn't have to come down here and die and shed his blood. God could have, if he wanted
to, just snap his finger and say, all my elect are saved.
That is blasphemy. And the reason it's blasphemy
is because God must be God. He must be true to himself. He must be just when he justifies. That's one of the things that
sets him apart from idols. He must be both a righteous judge
as well as a loving father. He has to be both. He can't just
snap his fingers. Without the shedding of blood,
there's what? No remission of sin. Do you think
God just sent His Son down here to suffer and bleed and die just
because He chose to? No. It's because He had to. And
you know why He had to? Because He's God. And he must
be just when he justifies. He must be righteous and truth
when he saves a sinner. And the only way he could do
that is sending his son to stand in the place of his sheep, his
people, his elect, and die under his justice for our sins. That's
the only way he could do it. Because he's God. He's God. Always remember that. So he says
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. That speaks
of his work on the cross. He brought forth the new man
there. That's the church. Read Ephesians chapter 2 the
whole chapter sometime. That's what it tells you. His
church brought into existence in time. They were chosen before
the foundation of the world, justified in Christ. But they
were brought into existence in time on the cross. redeemed by
the blood of Christ, the church that he redeemed, made righteous
in him. And this is created in Christ
Jesus. And then the next line on Ephesians 2, 10 is unto good
works, not because of good works, not conditioned on good works,
but unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them. That's the fruit. Look at James
1 verse 23. He says, 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. Now that would be like a mirror.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway,
or immediately forgetteth what manner of man he was. That's
the negative. That's speaking of dead faith
right there. hypocritical, false faith, the
word of truth, the gospel of God's grace in Christ, as I said
before, exposes us for what we are. It exposes all false refuges,
all false hopes. Turn over in the Old Testament
to Isaiah 28. Let me show you this. I remember Brother Mahan
preached a message on this passage in Isaiah 28. entitled, A Refuge
of Lies. And I'll tell you, it hit me
right between the eyes. But here he's talking about Jerusalem,
Israel, or specifically the southern kingdom of Judah. Israel wasn't
in existence, or they were at this time, but they were getting
ready to be obliterated. But he says in verse 14 of Isaiah
28, now listen to this. Wherefore, hear the word of the
Lord, ye scornful men. Now remember what a scorner is.
That rule this people which is in Jerusalem. So he's talking
about the rulers of Jerusalem who scorn the word of the Lord.
Because you said we've made a covenant with death and with hell, are
we at agreement? When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. When God's
wrath comes through, it won't touch us. Because we're okay.
Now, these are scorners of the Word of God. They scorn the Word
of His grace. They scorn the Word of the Gospel.
They scorn the Word of Christ. But they think they're okay.
Speaks to our generation today, doesn't it? They think they're
fine. Well, I've done enough. You know,
I'm good enough. I mean, I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad
as others. I certainly haven't done anything to deserve going
to hell. So with death and hell, they're
at agreement. That's what he means. They made
a covenant within themselves. And he says, For we have made
lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Now, they
don't say this, but this is the word of the prophet. Verse 16,
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation, he that believeth shall not make haste." Now, who's
that talking about? Well, you can go over to the
New Testament, you can go to 1 Peter chapter 2, you can go
to other passages, and it tells you that's talking about Christ.
Christ is the foundation stone laid under his church, Zion. He told Peter, upon this rock
I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. He's the
cornerstone. That's the stone in the building
that holds it all together. Everything's measured by that
cornerstone. Christ is the cornerstone. He's a tried stone. He's been
tested. He was tested throughout his
lifetime, tested by Satan, and he conquered Satan. Tested in
the Garden of Gethsemane, and he passed the test. Tested on
the cross, and he passed the test. We fail. He was victorious. A sure foundation, one that cannot
be moved. And he that believeth shall not
make haste. In other words, if you're in
Christ, you're safe from this overflowing scourge. But if your
foundation is anything else, anyone else, look what's happening. Verse 17. Judgment also will
I lay to the line and righteousness to the plummet. You see, God
must be just. And the hail shall sweep away
the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow the hiding place.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it."
What's the lesson there? What's the prophecy? Without
Christ, there's nothing but wrath and justice from God. Go back
to James 1. There is coming a day in which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead." Acts 17 31. You see, my only hope
to get out from under the wrath of God is to be in Christ. Look at verse 25. You see, if
you truly hear and do the Word of God in the power of the Holy
Spirit, when you hear it, you'll flee to Christ. That's the engrafted
word. And look at verse 25. Here's the positive. But whoso
looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein,
he be not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be blessed in his deed. When the Word of God exposes
me for what I am and shows me the disease of sin that I have,
If I walk away from that word, unaffected, in unbelief, then
I'm not being a doer of the word. The word has not been engrafted.
It'd be like a person who goes to the doctor and gets x-rayed
or gets the MRI. There's a disease there, but
they walk away and say, oh, I'm not going to do anything about
it. But whoso looks into the perfect
law of liberty, now you can put out in the concordance, put the
gospel. The perfect law of liberty, the
complete law of liberty. That's the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. That's the positive. There's
true faith in Christ. The word not only exposes our
disease, but it reveals the cure. Christ and him crucified and
risen again. Paul wrote in Galatians chapter
5 and verse 1, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. You see, what James is teaching throughout the book
of James is not works salvation or salvation by works. It's not
legalism. It's grace and the power of grace
in Christ. It's the law of liberty. wherein
Christ frees his people from the curse and condemnation and
bondage of the law by his blood and righteousness, wherein he
frees us from the power and dominion of sin when he brings us to himself
by the power of the Spirit in the new birth, and where he gives
us freedom to approach God by his blood, Hebrews chapter 10,
free access into the presence of God through the blood of Christ,
where he frees us to serve God Not to be saved, but because
we already are. Not to earn blessings from God,
but because we're already blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Christ will one day free
us from the very presence of sin. But here, when he brings
us to see that gospel of his grace, his unmerited, unconditional
love towards us in Christ, From then on, the true believer's
life is a life of continually running to Christ, continually
being convicted and sorrowful over sin, continually struggling
in the warfare of the flesh and the spirit and worshiping God.
And then he says, he says here in verse 25, who so look at the
end of that perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer. You see the words been engrafted,
but a doer of the work. What work? The work of grace. the work of believing in Christ,
resting in him. This man shall be blessed in
his doing, in his deed." Notice it doesn't say they are blessed
by his doing, and that is a good translation of this, the literal
word. He is blessed in it. In other
words, everything that we do as believers that redound to
the glory of God in Christ, not to bring attention to ourselves,
Not to earn anything from God, but to glorify and honor him
because he loved us and gave himself for us. That's a blessing.
That's a blessing. At the end of this chapter, he
uses two examples to give us the substance of faith. Let me
just read them to you. If a man among you seem to be
religious and bridle, if not his tongue, but deceive us his
own heart, this man's religion is vain. A religion here would
have to do with the trappings of ceremony and religion, the
outward show of religion. And the issue here is hypocrisy
in religion. A person who's concerned with
the outward show, the ceremony, the trappings, but no truth,
no heart, no obedience. You see, religion without Christ
is evil. Religion without heart. Without
grace. Without heart obedience. Legalism. It's evil on the side of God.
Christ told the Pharisees this in Matthew 23, 23. He says, Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. You pay tithe and
mint and anise and cumin, but you've omitted the weightier
matters of the law. Judgment. How does God judge? On what basis? By what standard?
Mercy. I'm in need of mercy, and I'm
to show mercy and faith, faith in Christ. These ought you to
have done and not to leave the other undone. Religion can be
no substitute for faith, for love, for obedience. And those
who profess to be religious or godly, but do not seek to control
their tongue. And what I believe he's talking
about mainly here is those who boast by their tongue in their
own works. In their own piety. which causes
them to speak evil of others, to be critical of others, to
sow discord among brethren, speak in wrath, unkindness, gossip. He's a fraud. He's a phony. He's
a hypocrite. Now, this doesn't mean that anybody
who tells a lie or spreads gossip at any time is lost. If that's
true, then we're all lost. But it's simply talking about
seasoning our speech with grace, walking wisdom. Let your speech
be always seasoned with grace. And James picks two things here.
He picks these examples, verse 27, pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. He picks two of the most destitute
situations in that day, widows and orphans who had no way of
support. And those who were in the church
were to be taken care of by the church. And those who would claim
to love Christ and love God and love their neighbor and love
their brethren, who wouldn't take care of such, their religion
is vain if there's no love. Now, listen, James is not giving
us this so that we can get out of this and check it off. And
you might be sitting there thinking, well, how many widows and orphans
have I helped this week? And have I done enough? Well,
you know my answer to that, what I believe the scripture answers.
Have you have you done enough? Have I done enough answers? No,
we'll never do enough. Somebody said, enough to what?
Enough to be saved? No, we'll never do enough to
be saved. We can't be saved by our doing
enough. Somebody says, well, have I done enough in love? No,
we'll always owe a debt of love to God and to our neighbor. We'll
spend eternity showing that love. But he's saying the same thing
that John said in 1 John chapter 3, that hereby perceive we the
love of God. because he laid down his life
for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But
whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need,
and shutteth up his vows of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love
of God in him? My little children, let's not
love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth." That's
what he's saying. What's he saying here? Faith
without works is dead. And keep yourself unspotted from
the world. That's the religious world and
their legalistic, self-righteous religion, and the immoral world
and their scorn of everything that God is. And God reveals
of himself in Christ.