Now let's stay right there in
the book of James chapter 1 and pray that the Lord will give
us a word from Him on these passages. I've entitled the message in
the form of a question that is taken from verse 24, talking
about the forgetful hearer there hears something from the Word
of God and then forgets it, walks away unaffected, And he forgeteth,
it says, what manner of man he was. And I got to thinking about
that. I thought, well, what manner
of man am I? And I want to look at that from
the scripture. And I want you to ask yourself
that question, you ladies. What manner of woman are you?
What manner of man, you men, are you? What does the Word of
God say? So let's go in that. Now, James
is inspired by the Spirit here to speak of the power of God,
the power of Christ to work effectually and powerfully and invincibly
in the lives of his people. And that's what he does in salvation. He doesn't leave it up to us.
It's not conditioned on us. It's totally a work of God. that
if that work comes to a center, it cannot be refused. Now, some
people say, well, that relieves our responsibility. Well, it
does not. But here's the thing, you're
hearing the word of God. You're not hearing my opinion.
And you may think it's my opinion, but you're hearing the word of
God. That's the authority that we have. And if it comes to you
in power, you'll believe it. You'll believe it. and it's by
the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ sends the Spirit to bring
us out of a state of lostness, out of a state of spiritual death
and depravity. That's what we are by nature.
Having fallen in Adam, we were plunged into a state of sinfulness. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God, the glory of God being the perfection of
Christ found in the law that he kept in his obedience unto
death. And by nature, that is as we
are naturally born. We're born lost, we're born blind
spiritually. We're born without eyes to see
and ears to hear spiritual things. And to see them means that you
see the glory of them. And so the Holy Spirit brings
us from a state of spiritual death and depravity to a state
of spiritual life, spiritual knowledge. Faith, faith in Christ,
that's the gift of God. Repentance, turning away from
everything that would rival Christ. Everything that we by nature
hold dear. That verse in Luke chapter 16
and verse 15 says, that which is highly esteemed among men
is an abomination to God. And when God brings us to faith
in Christ and repentance, repentance of dead works and idolatry, those
things which we by nature or naturally highly esteem unto
whom they are an abomination to God, they become an abomination
to us. They're no longer highly esteemed.
And you know what is highly esteemed? The glorious person and the finished
work of Christ for my salvation, his righteousness alone. And
he brings us to a state of godliness. Now that's not perfection in
ourselves. Godliness is not when we start
keeping the law perfectly, because we never do that. But godliness
is a state of knowing Christ, knowing God, and following him
and continually looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. And if you look at verse 18, now we ended there
last time, it says, of his own will, That's God's will. That's not man's will. People
today believe that salvation is based upon their will, what
they choose. But it's not. It's God's will. And we, by nature, are unwilling. And God makes us willing in the
day of his power when his will intervenes and his power. And he says, of his own will
begat he us, that's the new birth, begotten, from above, with the
word of truth. That shows us that the gospel,
that word of truth in Christ, is the instrument that God uses,
the Holy Spirit uses, to give life to a sinner and bring that
sinner to faith in Christ and true repentance and godliness.
And he says that we should be kind of a first fruits of his
creatures. And what I believe he's talking
about there is the fact that these were the first believers.
James is talking about that time period. They were the first believers
who came to Christ in the new covenant, when the new covenant
was established. For example, at Pentecost in Acts chapter
two. And then later on, as God began calling Gentiles into the
fold. But this is the case, the new
birth is the fruit and effect of the death and resurrection
of Christ. It's not the other way around.
And it's his righteousness imputed to us. I love that passage in
Romans chapter eight and verse 10, which says, if Christ be
in you, and it's speaking of a spiritual union with Christ
there. If Christ has revealed himself to you and in you, even
though this body, this physical body is dead because of sin,
you say, well, wait a minute, preacher, I'm not dead. Well,
you're dying. And some of you young people haven't realized
that fully. And I'm not trying to get you to have a death wish
or anything like that. Don't get me wrong. I want you
to live life to the fullest and have a good time, but in the
Lord. But this body is dying. As you
get older, you realize that more and more. But it says, if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit, the Holy
Spirit, is life because of righteousness. Now what that tells you, in order
for you to have spiritual, eternal life, you've got to have a righteousness. You understand that? And that's
not in you. It's not in me. I don't have
a righteousness by my works or within me. But where do we find
righteousness? In Christ. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
You see that? I don't have any in me, but I
have it in Christ as it is accounted, charged to me. My sins were charged
to him, his righteousness to me. And so to be born again,
we must have righteousness. And the fruit of that is the
power of the Holy Spirit in the Word of God. The Bible says the
gospel is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that
believeth. To the Jew first, the Greek also.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. from faith to
faith, from knowledge revealed to knowledge received, as it
is written, the justified shall live by faith. And what is it
to be justified? It means I'm forgiven of all
my sins, on a just ground. It means God cannot charge me
with sin. The non-imputation of sin is
on a just ground. What is that just ground? The
blood of Jesus Christ. Not what I do. That means I have
a righteousness accounted to me before the holy court of God
and it's the righteousness of Christ. Now, this is the power
of the word of God. Now, verses 19 through 21 here
speaks of how we should hear God's word. When you're hearing
God's word, when you're hearing the truth spoken, not just any
religious now, not just any religious organization, Not just anybody
who stands up like me and says, well, I'm a preacher and I'm
gonna tell you the truth. If the truth is being told, it's
according to the word of God. The Bible itself says if they
don't speak according to this word, there's no light in them.
But here's how you should hear it. Here's how I should hear
it. It says in verse 19, wherefore my beloved brethren, let every
man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. That's
how we should hear. We should be ready to hear. I
wanna hear. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God, isn't that right? And it says swift to hear,
slow to speak. And the sense of that is slow
to speak against it. Now if I'm telling you the truth,
And the way you can know that is by checking me out with God's
Word. And you walk out of here saying,
I don't believe that, you got a problem. Because your argument's
not with me. This is God's Word. And you say,
well, how do I know if you're speaking God's Word? And the
preacher down the road, how do I know? You've got to be a student
of the Bible. And it's not easy. And listen,
it doesn't come in a one, two, three, how do you do? That's
not how it does it. Seek the Lord. Seek him in his
word. And then he says, slow to wrath.
What does that mean? Anger. Now why does he have to
say that? Well, because the word of God,
the truth, goes against our natural grain. It takes things, the word of
God, takes things that we naturally think highly of and puts, and
I'm not being crude to say this, this is biblical language, puts
them on the dung heap of false religion. And that just, the
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
neither can he know them. It takes what the world highly
esteems You know, somebody will tell me all the time, they'll
talk about a person who's died or a person who's living even,
and they say, well, I know that woman or that man is saved because
look at their lives, look at how moral they are, look at how
dedicated they are, look at how sincere they are. Well, my friend,
listen, we ought to be moral, we ought to be dedicated to truth,
and we ought to be sincere in the truth. But that doesn't prove
my salvation or yours. And if that's what you're hanging
your hat on, your hope, if that's what makes up your righteousness
before God or even part of it, it's an abomination to Almighty
God. And it may make you angry, but
be slow. Think about it now. Think about
what the Word of God says. Luke 16, 15, I mentioned this
at the 10 o'clock hour. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. Remember Christ talking
to the Pharisees? You know who the Pharisees were?
They were the most religious, dedicated, sincere bunch in Judaism. Don't believe these preachers
who paint the Pharisees as if they had horns and a tail. Christ
said this about them. He said, they do indeed appear
righteous unto men. but they're not righteous. And
he spoke openly. He said, unless your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. You've got to have
a righteousness that is perfect. And you don't have one by nature,
and you can't work it by your works. And even the best people
that you know on earth, the most religious, That's why he concludes
this pure religion and undefiled. Religion will not make you righteous. Joining a church, getting baptized,
giving your tithe will not make you righteous. It will not cover
your sins. So where are you gonna find it?
In Christ, alone. It's his merits, his blood, his
righteousness, alone. Now does that make you angry?
Makes God's people glad. And he says in verse 20, for
the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. What
he's saying is there, the anger will not promote, it will not
receive the righteousness that God freely and fully provides
by his grace in Christ. Anger won't get it done. And so he says in verse 21, wherefore
lay apart all filthiness. Do you know that's the filthiness
of false religion too? Now you think about filthiness.
You can talk about the perverted, immoral person who everybody
looks down on and says they're sinners. But my friend, that
superfluity, look at there, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness. You know that word naughtiness
there, it's not just, you know, it's not Santa Claus and all
that, you know, don't be naughty children and you won't get presents.
The word naughtiness there is pretty close to the idea of depravity. The fullness of it. And it covers
all sin. But it also refers to the religionist
who doesn't know Christ. You know, religion without Christ. Even that which claims to know
Christ, but doesn't teach and preach and follow the true Christ.
Religion without Christ. Religion without grace. Religion
without truth. That's what he's describing down
here in verses 26 and 27. If any man among you seem to
be religious and bridle if not his tongue, but deceive with
his own heart, this man's religion is in vain. Now you can take
that a lot of ways. You know people who tell tales,
who lie, they don't bridle their tongue, but you know what he's
talking about mainly here? He's talking about false gospels,
false professions, false confidence, religious refuges that people
love to talk about. Bridal your tongue shut up and
listen. That's what he's saying. I Know
somebody out there may say well, I wish you'd shut up. Well, I'm
preaching the Word of God There's a time to speak and there's
a time to hear I've had people tell me that
believe it or not in the 40 years that I've been preaching I wish
you wouldn't preach that anymore. I He says, pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father, verse 27, to visit the
fatherless and the widows and their afflictions. You know what
he's saying? He's not saying that you gain salvation by visiting
orphans and widows. He said to keep himself unspotted.
He's not teaching salvation by works. But here's what he's saying. He's saying that grace in the
mind and in the heart will reveal itself in our attitude towards
people. And he picks the two classes
of people whom, if you help, will return absolutely nothing
to you, widows and orphans. And back then, widows and orphans,
they were destitute. They didn't have programs and
all of that. They were destitute. So what
he's talking about is very simple. A profession of religion and
grace and love for Christ without the attitude is just empty. It's empty. But go back to verse
21. He says, wherefore, lay apart
all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness. Receive with
meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Now
what is the engrafted word? That's the word implanted in
the heart by the Holy Spirit. In other words, it's not just
something you're hearing with the physical ear, but it's part
of you now. I've often said it this way,
it's like when the Spirit comes under the preaching of the gospel
and he convicts us, he convinces us of the truth. of who Christ
is and who God is and who we are. He convicts us of sin and
of righteousness and of judgment. And if this is engrafted in your
heart, written on your heart, your mind, your affections, your
will, your conscience, that's what the heart is. If that word
of God in Christ, the word of grace is written on our hearts,
the three things you can say. You cannot ignore it. You may
walk out today and never think about it again. But if it's engrafted
in your heart, you can't ignore it. And certainly you cannot
deny it. And thirdly, you cannot leave
it, ever, if it's engrafted on your heart. And so he says in
verse 22, be ye doers of the word. And not hearers only, deceiving
your own self. What is it to be a doer of the
word? It means to believe it. to believe
in Christ as the Lord my righteousness. Rest in Him, follow Him. That's
a doer of the word. He spoke of it in John 321. He talked about those who do
truth. How do you do truth? Well, you
believe it and you walk in. And that's a gift from God. Bible
says that by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
So when he says be doers of the word, he's not trying, now try
to be saved by your works, no. That's against the gospel, and
it's against what he calls the perfect law of liberty. But listen
on further. He says, verse 23, for if any
be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he's likened to a
man beholding his natural face in a glass, that's a mirror.
A mirror. Verse 24, for he beholdeth himself,
he goes his way, and straightway, which means immediately, he forgets
what manner of man he was. When you look into the mirror
of God's word, think about it. Looking into the mirror of God's
word, What manner of man am I when I look into the mirror of God's
word? That's what I wanna talk to you about just briefly. Think about that. Well, God's
word has a lot to say about us, doesn't it? Let me show you a
couple of things. Turn to Romans chapter three. And I'm just giving you an example
here. I'm not giving you everything. Now what Paul is doing here, he's showing the state of all
of us, Jew and Gentile, by nature. And he's showing us what manner
of people we are. in the mirror of God's Word. He says in verse 9, look at Romans
3 and verse 9. What then? Now he's drawing a
conclusion here based upon everything he'd said up to this point. Are
we better than they? Now what he's talking about is
the religious Jew and the Gentile. Are the religious Jews any better
off naturally than the Gentiles? Are the Gentiles naturally any
better off than the religious Jew? And he says, no, in no wise. He's talking about as far as
a relationship with God, as far as salvation is concerned. How
are we naturally? He says, for we have before proved,
both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. We are all by nature sinners. You say, well, I know I'm a sinner,
I know I'm not perfect, but I'm not as bad as this person over
here that you may have. Doesn't matter, that's not what
Paul's dealing with. He's not dealing with degrees of morality
and he's not dealing with some sliding scale that you can measure
yourself on because the Bible doesn't know anything about that
except that's false religion. Two things about false religion,
they'll always make salvation in some way, at some stage, to
some degree, conditioned on sinners, and they'll always measure righteousness
and holiness on a sliding scale. You can mark it down. God doesn't
do that. They're all under sin. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God, isn't that
right? And then it says in verse 10, he quotes from the Old Testament,
as it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's
none of us who are naturally, or by our works, righteous. The best of us, the worst of
us, and everybody in between. That's right. None of us. He goes on, verse 11. Now this
is the mirror of God's word. This is what manner of people
we are naturally. There's none that understand
it. That is understand God's way of salvation. There's none
that seeketh after God, the true and living God. Now you may seek
religion. You may seek righteousness, the
Jews did, but they did it by their works. So they weren't
seeking after God. There's none that seeketh after
the true and living God. If you've really sought the true
and living God, it's because he sought you first. He brought
you to seek Him. Verse 12, but naturally you won't.
I won't. They are all gone out of the
way. What way is He talking about? Well, what did Christ say in
John 14 and verse 6? I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That's the way that we've gone out of, naturally. We go our own way. It may be
the way of immorality. It may be the way of church going. It may be the way of religion.
But it's a wrong way, because the only way is Christ. Righteousness
in Him, forgiveness in Him, life in Him. He says they are altogether
become unprofitable. Spiritually speaking, you may
go into business and you may make millions of dollars, you're
profitable, but in religion, in a right relationship with
God, if you don't come by the way of Christ and His righteousness
imputed, you're going to be unprofitable. You're not going to get any profit
from that. And there's none that doeth good, no not one. Now he's
not talking about goodness as we compare to each other. He's
talking about goodness as God measures it in Christ. And you can go on down through
here. Verse 13, their throat is an open sepulcher. That means
an open grave. Whenever they preach their way
of salvation, their way of salvation by works, it's like an open grave,
not lie. With their tongues they've used
to cease the poison of Asp is under there. What they're preaching,
if you don't preach Christ and salvation by God's free and sovereign
grace in Christ alone, his blood alone, his righteousness alone,
it's like poison that kills. Whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. You wanna hear some real cursing?
Don't go to the movies, go to the false preachers. They won't
say a bad word. as far as the world says it,
but they'll preach a false gospel if they're not preaching Christ.
And their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are
swift to shed blood. I believe what he's talking about
there is the Jewish altars where they slew animals. They're quick
to be religious. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. The way of peace they've not
known. Who is the way of peace? Christ on that cross. died, buried,
risen again the third day. That's the way of, he's the way
of peace. And there's no fear of God, no reverence, no respect,
no worship, no faith in God before their eyes. Now we know that
what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are in the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, that all the world may
become guilty before God. What manner of man am I when
I look at the law of God? I'll tell you what manner of
man I am. I'm one who deserves nothing but death and hell. Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, who would stand? Not me. That's what manner of
man I am. You may look at me and you say,
well, you look like you're a pretty good guy. You're not perfect,
but you try to help people. You try to be moral, faithful. All of that, I'm telling you,
if I look into the mirror of God's word, God's law, his bare
law, and see how I stack up, I'm part of those that he describes
as none righteous, no not one. If God were to judge me based
upon my best efforts to worship, serve him, I would be damned
forever. That's what manner of man I am. It's kind of like the woman who
told me one time walking out that door. She said, you don't
ever have anything good to say about us. I said, well, I can't
argue with you there. But I told her, I said, I've
got a lot of good to say about our savior. The Bible says that God has appointed
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. Here's
the point. If I look at myself in the mirror
of God's law, I find that my supposed righteousness, if I
think I have any, falls short, way short of the perfection of
the law that can only be found in Christ. I'm a sinner. That's what I say. That's what
manner of man I am. That's what we are by nature.
But look back at James chapter one. I want to show you something.
Thank God that the mirror of God's word It doesn't stop there. He says, look at verse 24 again.
For he beholdeth himself, he goeth his way, and straightway
forgetteth what manner of man he was. But, verse 25, but whoso
looketh into the perfect law of liberty. Now what is the law
of liberty? Well the law of liberty is not
the Ten Commandments. It's not the bare law of God
because there's no liberty there. There's nothing but bondage there.
Read your Bible. The law gendereth unto bondage.
But he's talking about the perfect law of liberty and you said it
right. That's the gospel. That's setting the captives free
as the book of Isaiah chapter 61 spoke of. Freedom. You see, when I look into the
mirror of God's Word in the bare law, what manner of man am I? I'm a sinner who deserves nothing
but death and hell. But when God the Holy Spirit
brings me to look into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
a believer, this man shall be blessed. Now notice the language
here. This man shall be blessed, what?
In his deed, in his doing. Now notice it doesn't say this
man will be blessed by his doing. Or because of his doing. But
in his doing. And what that means, he's just
a blessed person. Blessed of God. And that law of liberty,
you know what it forces me to do? That engrafted word, that's
what he's talking about. It forces me, and rightly so,
and thank God it does, to look at myself to see what manner
of man I am in Christ. And it's a different story. Thank
God. Oh, I'm still a sinner now. Oh, I'm still one if God didn't
judge me by my works. I'd be damned forever, that never
goes away. What I quoted earlier, Lord,
if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? But I'm a sinner saved by grace. And grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life, not by my doing, but by Jesus Christ, the
Lord. What kind of man am I? What manner
of man am I in Christ? I'm a mercy beggar. I'm just
like a beggar. You see these guys on street
corners all the time down here, they're begging. Well, spiritually
speaking, that's what I am. I'm a beggar. Somebody said,
well, you're a proud beggar. There's no such thing. I'm in Christ, I'm justified. What does that mean? That means
God will not impute or charge my sins to me. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn? I'm not condemned. There's therefore
now no condemnation in Christ. I'm righteous in God's sight.
With a righteousness that I had no part in producing. And thank God that I did, because
it wouldn't be what God requires. I'm righteous in Christ. Blessed
is the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputed charges,
accounts, righteousness without works. I'm redeemed by the blood of
the lamb. How do you know that? Because
God has engrafted his word on my, I'm looking into the perfect
law of liberty, the gospel. of God's grace. I'm regenerated. I've got spiritual life now.
Converted, called, born again by the Spirit. How do I know
that? Because I have no hope, no peace, no assurance, no forgiveness,
no life, except in Christ. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I'm looking at myself, what manner
of man I am in Christ. I'm an heir of God with Christ. I have one, I'm one who has an
inheritance in glory that's incorruptible, and I'm one who has an irrevocable
reservation in glory. I have a righteousness that cannot
be contaminated or taken away. I'm free from the curse and condemnation
of the law. This is the perfect law of liberty.
I'm free from the power and dominion of sin. Not in the sense that
I'm no longer a sinner and that I can be perfect now in my work.
No, I can't do that. But I'm free from the power of
sin and Satan to deceive me and keep me in the darkness of unbelief
and damnation. I've seen the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. I'm free from the bondage of
the law. I'm not under the law, I'm under grace. I'm free to
approach God and commune with God and worship God readily,
confidently, assuredly, accepted in the beloved, accepted in Christ. Even my prayers are accepted
of God in Christ. I'm free to serve God, not by
obligation of debt and law, but out of love and grace and gratitude. I'm blessed when I look into the mirror of
God's word and that perfect law of liberty in which Christ hath
made us free. Remember what Christ said to
those who claimed to believe on him? He said, well, if you
continue in my truth, the truth will set you free and you'll
be free indeed. Perfect law of liberty. So look
into the mirror of God's word. Look at the law. What will it
show you? You're a sinner who needs salvation
by the grace of God through the righteousness of another. But
oh, to look into that perfect law of liberty, the gospel of
God's grace in Christ, doesn't that give you comfort and peace
and assurance? Doesn't that motivate you? Doesn't
it? Doesn't it, as one old preacher
said, put gas in your tank? And it's not as expensive as
the gas we put in our tanks. It's free. Thank God they can't
get a hold of, the politicians can't get a hold of that. It's
free because Christ has made us free. Okay.