Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of James. The book of James. The name of the message today
is, Doers of the Word. doers of the Word. We'll continue
our study in the book of James. It's been such a profitable study. I said to Vicki, I've loved going
through the verse-by-verse this way, and I've learned so much
myself. It's just been incredible. And I really like this instruction
that we're going through now, these admonitions, because, you
know, we as the people of God, we desire to grow in grace and
grow, and this is all part of it. And isn't it amazing as we
go through this, we see the difference between grace and religion. Because
religion takes some of these verses and they use them like
a hammer. But when we. When God's showing
us grace, we look at these verses and we see that, yeah, there
are admonitions to us to be slow to speak and to be swift to hear
and slow to wrath, and those are good things that we need
to learn, right? All the time, but it's not a
hammer like in religion where it's like, you know, they're
taking you apart with those things. And even this verse today, the
doers of the word, this is one of the most tore-out-of-context
verses in the scripture. There's many of them that people
use to prove different things. But this is definitely one that
people who are works monitors use to put people under bondage. And really, that's what that
is. That's just one man putting another man or woman under bondage.
That's all that is to their personal convictions. And I speak from
experience because I was there. I was not only one who was under
that yoke of bondage, but then I was also one that put others
under that yoke of bondage as well. And I'll tell you what,
it's awful. It's awful, because you know
what happens? You never measure up. You never measure up. You can't measure up to other
people's standards, let alone our own, right? let alone our own, but praise
be to God, we're gonna see that there's a perfect law of liberty,
which is in Christ in him alone. Now this book is written to God's
people. It's written to God's saints.
It's not written to the unsaved. It's written to God's people,
those who are the elect, who are scattered abroad, Jewish
brethren who were the true Israel of God. the true Israel God of
those who are born again. And the true Israel God is comprised
of both Jews and Gentiles. But this book is written to the
Israelites who have professed Christ and accepted Christ as
Messiah. They've been granted faith to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and accept him as Messiah. And I'm sure James didn't just
have in mind the Jews, but all believers in general. And all believers of his own
nation. Again, they were the true Israel.
Those who believe in Christ are the true Israel of God. And the Gentiles are not excluded
from this salutation, for we too are strangers and sojourners
in this world, aren't we? Right now, we're strangers and
sojourners as we go through this world of woe right now as believers. We seek another country, don't
we? We seek a better country. We're citizens of another kingdom.
Let's read verses 17 to 22 of James chapter one. Look at this. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. We've studied that out, and that's
Christ. But also, think of all the gifts we have in Christ.
Regeneration, right? Repentance, faith, justification,
those are all precious gifts that we have in Christ. Let alone
the air that he gives us to breathe and the things that he gives
us every single day. Every day we're reminded that
all that is good comes from God. All that is evil comes from us. All right? But all that is good
comes from God. Look at this. And coming down
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variable of this,
nor shadow of turning, of his own will begot us with the word
of truth, so it was God's will that we be born again by the
Holy Spirit of God through the preaching of the word. That's
a wonderful verse, isn't it? That we should be the kind of
first fruits of his creatures, his chosen people. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, divinely loved brethren. Isn't that wonderful? If you're a believer, you're
a divinely loved one. I can't get over that. I'll be honest
with you. It's wonderful. I love, every time I see this
beloved brethren, I always think that. Divinely loved. Let that
sink in your heart. Every time you see in the scriptures
beloved, divinely loved one. I got that from a commentator
a few years back, and I haven't let it go. It's wonderful. Let every man, again, so he's
writing to who? The beloved brethren, the divinely
loved ones. This is instruction even for
you and I today. Let every man be swift to hear.
When you come to hear the gospel, come with a readiness of mind.
Slow to speak, slow to wrath. And look at this again, for the
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. I was listening
to Henry yesterday, and he confirmed exactly what I told you guys
when we went through that verse, that our wrath will not lead
anyone to Christ. Getting mad because someone doesn't
agree with you on election will never lead someone to Christ.
Because they're blind, remember? Just like we were. So be gentle
with them. Put the truth out there, absolutely,
put it out there. That's what we're to do, but
let God, leave it with God, let him do his work. Don't argue
and debate about it, just say, well, this is what the scripture
says. You're fighting scripture, not fighting me. Right? Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the
engrafted word which is able to save your souls. but be doers
of the word, not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Look
at that. Now, a quick note about verse
21 that I didn't bring out last week. I did a little more studying
on this verse here. And we're born again by the word
of truth, right? In verse 18, and we're therefore
to be swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath, because
the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Again,
getting mad will never lead someone to Christ. Never bring someone. The Holy Spirit has to do the
work and bring that person to Christ, right? But we're to be
gentle with people. We're to be gentle with people.
But notice here in verse 21, it gives us a description of
what our wrath really is. What it is in God's sight. And
God, the Holy Spirit, is the true author of these words. So
he's giving us insight into our true self. Into our true self. Now, note the first phrase of
verse 21. It's a true description of what
our wrath really is and how we struggle with the old nature.
We might think that getting mad is just an adrenaline rush. We
might think that, right? Because that's what happens,
isn't it? We do get a rush of adrenaline when we get angry.
And we usually lash out, don't we? But look what our Lord describes
it as. Filthiness, which is pride. Vanity, wrath, malice. And in
superfluity, there is excess more than is asked for. or more
than is needed, and in naughtiness, which is malice, evil, wicked.
I dug a little deeper into the Greek to see what these words
mean. We see our natural depravity
on display. See the word filthiness there?
It means filthiness figuratively. In a moral sense, we are absolutely
filthy. Absolutely filthy. And then see superfluity, it
means an overflowing of something. Something above the ordinary.
Now this is an exhortation, an admonition to believers. And
then see the word naughtiness there, you know what that means?
This absolutely, I didn't see this until I looked into this
word, it means depravity. So when we get angry, when we
get, We're going back to our natural self, beloved. We're operating in the flesh,
not in the spirit. Now we know then, with that in
our minds, now we know why the wrath of man does not work the
righteousness of God, because it's our flesh. It's our flesh at work when we're
being wrathful. That ain't convicting, is it?
Oh my goodness, right? So we operate in the flesh when
we lash out, when we're angry. It's not a fruit of the Spirit. So each time we are angry, our
wrath demonstrates our depravity. Our wrath demonstrates our desperate
need still for Christ. We need Him all the time, don't
we? And I'll be the first to admit
how quick we are to run. Just have somebody turn in front
of you when you're driving. Boom! We go off like a cannon,
don't we? And I'm in the passenger seat
most of the time and I'm still going off! Oh my! But it's true, isn't it? It just
demonstrates to us over and over again how much we need Christ. And we're to lay that stuff aside,
beloved. That's what the scripture says.
We're to lay it aside. And again, this is speaking in
the sense of the gospel being preached too, though. But we
can take this and use it in our everyday lives too, can't we?
Remember when I said I'd get dinged right between the eyes?
That's what happened to me. Listen to Brother Henry on this, ding,
right between the eyeballs. My oh my, how quick I am to get
angry when someone just cuts in front of me. I remember Henry
saying, two places that you can see the depravity of man on display.
He said when people are driving and on the golf course, he said
it's incredible. He says that the property of
man comes out so quickly, it's not funny. He says it's just,
oh my. Yeah, it just happens, right? So people get angry. We all do, we're all guilty of
it. So our sinfulness is evidently brought forth here in these admonitions
to us. It brings us, and what does it
do? It brings us back to Christ, doesn't it? It brings us right
back to our savior. Brings us back to it shows our
desperate need, just like the law does. The law shows us we
need Christ. Hems us up to him. We have nowhere
else to go but but to our great king and our great God. And then we receive the engrafted
word and this teaches us that the Spirit put the word in us.
Last week we saw that it's implanted in us. I did a little more studying
on that. Spurgeon brought out that it's like a gardener. He
just makes an incision and puts that grafted vine in with the
other vine and binds it up and then they end up growing together.
It's incredible. The gardener does that. Up you've
got this vine growing with the other. But it's engrafted in. It's incredible. It's absolutely
incredible. I've never done that, so reading that was fascinating.
It's incredible. And we're to receive God's dealings
with us providentially with glad thanksgiving and praise. Again,
that's not always easy for us to do, is it? We'll just be honest,
it's not always easy. But we're admonished to do that. We're to hear the word with meekness
when confronted. And again, this returns us to
the experience of the new birth in verse 18. And our Lord said,
it's so important, the new birth, that our Lord said, you must
be born again. You must be. And the word in our text here
is the gospel. That was the instrument that
saved our souls. God revealed himself through
the preaching of the word to us by the power of the Holy Spirit
of God. And so we're to receive that
with meekness. We're to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to wrath. We're to cast aside the wrath which can bubble up
from within us. It's not hard for that wrath
to bubble up within us, is it? It's not hard at all, but we're
to cast it aside and I'll say this, may God give us grace to
do so. May he give us grace to do so.
That's a hard thing for us to do, but may God give us the grace. So now let's read verse 22. But be doers of the word and
not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Now verse 20 and
22 are two of the verses which are often lifted out of context. Verse 20, for the wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God. And in the side note
here it says, does not produce the righteousness of God. doesn't
produce it. So these verses are often taken
out of context by those who seek to justify themselves by their
own works. Don't let someone do that to
you. The context of this verse is not speaking of something
that you have to do to obtain salvation. It's an admonition
for us to believe the word. to believe what the Word of God
says. That's what this is. This be doers of the Word and
not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. What does the Word of God tell
us? Repent or you're gonna perish. Word of God says, look to Christ.
Word of God says, from the Master's own lips, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Right? Are we looking to Him? Are we receiving what the Word
of God says? Or are we just hearers and saying,
well, I don't really believe that. You know, which one are we? Right? My, oh, my. The gospel is the
instrument again that God used to bring us to Christ. And when these people bring these
verses out of scripture, these worksmongers, again, they're
wrestling the scripture to their own destruction. Look at verse 26. We will see
the self-deception of being a hearer of the word and not a doer. Look
at this. If anyone seems to be religious,
not browning his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion
of this one is worthless. Look at that. If any man among you seem to
be religious and brattleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his
own heart, this man's religion is vain. It's worthless. They're a professor, but not
a possessor. They say they believe the word
of God, but they don't. How do we know this? Talk to
somebody about the sovereignty of God. Talk to someone about
the absolute sovereignty of God. Talk to people about election,
which is in the scripture. Talk to people about limited
atonement. And I'm talking, talk to people
who are religious about those things. And you will quickly
find out that they're hearers, but not doers of the word of
God. They do not receive the word of God. They do not receive
what it says. Instead, they've cooked up a
God of their own imagination who loves everyone and who is obligated to save
everyone, which he's not. That's the wonder of salvation,
isn't it? That God is not obligated to save anyone. But because of
his mercy and grace shown to us in Christ, he has saved us. So we can say, each believer
can say with Paul, I have obtained mercy. That's what I've obtained. Tom Harden says we're mercy beggars.
I really like that. That's what we are. We're mercy
beggars. Now let's read verses 22 and 26, and we see three characters
brought forth here before us. Those who hear the word of God
and are only hearers of the word. and not doers, those who hear
the word of God and are doers of that word, and those who are
religious but cannot bridle their tongue, and they deceive themselves,
being a mere professor of Christ and not a possessor. Look at
this, James chapter one, verses 22 to 26. but be doers of the word and
not hearers only, deceiving your own self. So there's some that
deceive themselves, that they say, well, yeah, I believe the
word of God, but when you bring them certain doctrines about
Christ, certain truths, they say, I don't believe that. I
went through with someone one time in John chapter 10 and went
verse by verse and looking at this, and they looked at me and
said, I don't believe that. But they profess to be a Christian. Think of that in light of what
we're gonna read right here. For any 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. But look at this, but whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty, that's freedom in Christ, beloved. That's freedom
in Christ right there. And continued therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to
be religious and bridle not his tongue, but deceiveth his own
heart, this man's religion is vain. So broken down here, and
that, what I read you earlier about, James 1.26, this is in the literal
Greek Bible. If anyone seems to be religious,
not browning his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion
of this one is worthless. That's what the literal Greek
says in James 1.26, worthless. Those who do not hear, or those
who do and hear nothing, those who hear and do, Only the last
one is acceptable that we see in this text here. The word in
our text, beloved, is the word of God, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The word in the context is the
same word of truth, the word in the context of verses 22 to
26, when it says, a hearer of the word and not hearers only
of the word, doers of the word and not hearers only, that's
talking about the gospel, that's talking about the word of God. The word in this context, again,
is the same word of truth that God, by his own will, begot us
in verse 18. See, you gotta look at the context
of this whole section, right? People rip these verses out of
context and they say, see, you gotta do this, because I told
you you had to do this. My oh my. And we see that it's
able to save our souls in verse 21. So this being so, we can
be assured that the things declared here do not diminish the hearing
of the word. Verse 23 brings forth the only
acceptable response to the word of God are we are not to be hearers
only, but doers of the word. Otherwise, we deceive ourselves.
So the question comes to you, do you believe the word of God?
Do you believe what it says? If you do, you're a doer of the
word. Isn't that amazing? That'll fill
you with joy, won't it? How's the only way we believe
the word of God? You must be born again. You must be given faith to believe.
Did you believe the word of God before the Lord regenerated you?
Nope. Just paper and ink before that.
Now it's a totally different book, isn't it? I was talking
to a brother this week. He said, I was reading something
and it just came alive. I said, isn't that wonderful? Never saw it before. Read it
100 times and never saw it before. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. Oh, my. Turn, if you would, to
1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Now again, as I said, this verse,
verse 22, being doers of the word and hearers and doers, is
often taken out of context by works mongers. And carnal men will take this
out and just use it like a hammer. And basically all they're doing
is self-justification. That's all they're doing, it's
just self-justification. And they conjure up all kinds
of things for men to do in order to be saved. And in doing that,
in conjuring up all these things that men and women have to do
to be saved, do you know what they're doing? They're negating
the finished work of Christ. That's what they're doing. That's
an awful place to be, isn't it? See, we believe and proclaim
the finished work of Christ, don't we? The Bible says when
Christ said it's finished, We believe that, right? The work
of salvation's finished. There's nothing for us to do.
It's finished. And we believe that by God-given
faith. See, it all goes back to our
king, doesn't it? We're gonna look at this morning, and later
in the AM message, we're gonna look at who gets all the glory.
It all goes to him. It doesn't go to us. We are to
glorify God for what he's done for us. We are to glorify God
and enjoy him forever. So we glorify God while we're
here on this earth, and then we're gonna glorify God forever
in glory. It's gonna be amazing. And so there's nothing really
new under the sun. When Solomon wrote that there's
nothing new under the sun, we see that in religion, don't we?
You see, the enemy, he just takes things and wraps them up in a
new package. and renames them, the same things
that made people trip up 2,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago, 5,000
years ago, and 6,000 years ago is the same things that make
people trip up now. There's nothing new under the
sun. Men are naturally wired for works. And if you add anything to the
finished work of Christ, it's no longer grace. And again, that's done in religion
even today. Thousands of years this has been
going on. What'd Cain bring? He bought the works of his hands,
didn't he? What'd Abel bring? The blood of a lamb, which pictured
Christ. See, the proper sacrifice. Who
do we put our hope and trust in? God's lamb. God's lamb, whose
blood was shed for us. And Abel looked to Christ way
back then by offering that proper sacrifice. Let's read, keep your finger
there in 1 Thessalonians. I'm gonna read again verses 23
and 24. 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 the glass. For he beholdeth himself and
goeth his way and straightway forgetteth what manner of man
he was. Then verse 25, but whosoever
looketh into the perfect law of liberty continueth therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be blessed in his deed. Now we have a wonderful example of one being a hearer and a doer
of the word in 1 Thessalonians chapter one. Again, do you know what being
a doer of the Word is? Believe in it. Believe in what the Word of God
says. How do we know that? Well, look at this in 1 Thessalonians.
They're trusting and resting on the Lord Jesus Christ, just
like we are as believers. Look at this in verse 4. Brethren,
beloved, your election of God. Now there's election right there.
So clear. It means chosen in the Greek,
that word. So clear. See, we don't have to debate
and argue. We just present the word of God. For our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power. Whose power? Well, the power of God, the Holy
Spirit. and in the Holy Ghost, and in
what? Much assurance. Look at that. When you start
doubting, just look to Christ. As you know what manner of man
we were among you for your sake, and ye became followers of us
and of the Lord Jesus of the Lord, having received the word
in what? Much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. So they
received the word of God. They were being persecuted by
their own countrymen, They were just being tore apart by their
own countrymen. And they received it, though.
They received the Word of God. Why? Because it was implanted
in them, wasn't it? We saw that, that we received
the engrafted Word, which means, engrafted means implanted. Well,
who did that? God the Holy Spirit did that.
Isn't it wonderful? All goes right back to Him. And
then look at this, so that you were examples to all that believe
in Macedonia and Archaea. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Nicaea, but also
in every place your faith is God's word, is spread abroad,
so that we need not to speak anything. They were going to
places, and people already heard about the gospel of Christ, because
these Thessalonians were so excited about the word of God, so excited
about what Christ had done for them, they were telling everybody.
No wonder they were being persecuted, right? For they themselves show
of us what manner of entering in we head unto you. And look
at this, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living
and true God. Well, the word of God tells us
to turn from idols, doesn't it? They believe what it said. And
to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath that come. Now
turn over one more chapter and look at verse 13 of chapter two. And again, we see this truth
brought forth. For this cause, also thank we
God without ceasing, because when ye received the word of
God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of
man, but as it is the truth, the word of God, which effectively
worketh also in you that believe. So they received the word of
God by the power of God, the Holy Spirit we saw in chapter
one, right? And they believed it. They were
hearers and doers of the word of God. Repent ye, or you'll
perish. Well, by God-given faith, and
remember, repentance is a gift too, right? They turn to Christ, they look
to Christ, they believe what they heard. And what does the
gospel do? The gospel tells the truth about
who we are, and it tells the truth about God. It tells the
truth about how God glories, in the salvation of sinners,
how? By the bloody death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And to truly
hear the word of God by revelation is singly the most profound and
life-altering thing that will ever happen to you in your life. Because it's all by the power
of God. We can't receive the word of
God unless we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God, unless
we're granted faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the gospel is not heard where it does not kill or make alive.
The gospel's not a religious dissertation. It's not a theological
paper. It's not a trustee, it's a reckoning. It's a revelation of who God is and of what we
are. And then, again, a marvelous
thing what the gospel does is tells us about what's already
been done for us. It's finished. Christ has saved
his people from their sins. And when we're granted faith,
we believe that, don't we? Did you believe it before? You
didn't even think we were sinners, did we? Didn't even think we
needed a savior. Something happened, though, didn't
it? By the power of God, something happened. We're born again, and
then we see ourselves in a desperate state. Oh, Lord, I need you! I need you, and we keep crying
that out, don't we? We still cry that out as we're
showing how much we need him. And it's important to note that
those here who are described are hearing the true gospel and
what God declares as his gospel and his salvation. And we see
that the Holy Spirit, remember, he's the true author of these
verses. He uses a metaphor here. that each of us use every day. We wake up, we brush our teeth.
What are we looking into? A mare. Well, I wake up with
a bad hair day. I got some hair going this way
and some hair going that way. I look in the mare and I comb
it up and, okay, well, that looks good. But it's a mare, right? It shows a reflection of myself,
doesn't it? Look at this. Look what it says
in verse 23 and 24. For if any man be a hearer of
the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholden, his
natural face in the glass. For he beholdeth himself, and
goeth his way in straight way, forgetteth what manner of man
he was. So therefore, hearing the gospel is like looking into
a mirror. When you hear the gospel, you truly see yourself. We see ourselves as Depraved
and in utter need of Christ, don't we? Because that's what
the gospel tells us. And we see ourselves as we really
are. And then the balm of Gilead is
applied and we see Christ as he really is. Oh, my, what a
savior. He's all I need. So I got a reflection
on myself, right, because we're looking in the mirror. We see
ourselves. And when the gospel speaks, we
see ourselves. We get a hint of our own depravity.
We catch a glimpse of the glory of our Savior, but those who
hear and are not doers, they just forget about that. They
may get a glimpse of the Savior. They may get a glimpse of the
depravity, but then they just go on like nothing's wrong. And hearing the gospel may, for
a moment, make one consider the sin. They may, for a moment,
consider Christ, but that's as far as it goes. They're like
Felix on Mars Hill. They say, well, we'll hear you
another day, Paul. But that day never comes. The gospel becomes, to them,
a savior of death. They hear, but do not do. They
cast a careless attitude upon hearing the word of God. But I'll tell you what, hearing
the gospel is a matter of life and death. It's a matter of life and death.
Hearing the gospel and not being a doer is seeing Christ and seeing
yourself and turning away, forgetting what man or woman you are. It's deceiving yourself to be
confronted with eternal things and count them as if they were
but temporal things. They don't possess any more importance
than your reflection in the mirror. I don't see myself, I'm gone. I bet we'll never look at ourselves
in the mirror again the same way, will we? Oh my. But look what it says in verse
25. 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. So here the mayor of
the gospel is described as the perfect law of liberty. A hearer and a doer of the word
sees more than just a glimpse of Christ. They see more than
just a glimpse of their own depravity. No, they see their utter need
for Christ. They see in the mirror a man
or a woman who desperately needs Christ. When the gospel is preached and
proclaimed to us. And they see that something that's
being accomplished concerning his self or herself, they look
into the perfect law of liberty. They see Christ as having accomplished
their salvation. It's finished. It's finished. I've been set free by the perfect
law of liberty. I've been set free by Christ.
Have you? It's wonderful. Rejoice, beloved. It's wonderful. This is truth. This is a true
statement. And nothing anyone says, remember,
who can bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies
me. Let them rail. Let them rail. Say whatever they want. I'm justified
by God, hallelujah. I've looked into the perfect
law of liberty. By God's grace, I've looked there. And by God's
mercy, he's caused me to look. Isn't that wonderful? So the
hearer and doer by God-given faith takes hold of eternal life,
and they love God, they love their neighbor, they weigh their
deeds and actions in light of their relationship with Christ.
and the beloved of God are blessed in their deeds and they're not
forgetful of what they hear. They remember God's mercy to
them. They want to hear each week about God's mercy in Christ. It's wonderful. Isn't that wonderful? It's not about what we do. It's
about looking and seeing our depravity and going, oh my Lord,
I need you. And then just believing what
the word of God says. Isn't that freeing? Isn't that
true liberty? Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not again
entangled in the yoke of bondage. Praise be the Lord Jesus Christ.
In him we are absolutely free.