Be Doers Of The Word | James 1:19-27 | Pastor John Miller

I often do I want to read the whole passage beginning in verse 19 so would you follow me please in your Bible James says wherefore beloved brother and let every man be swift to hear and slow to speak and slow to wrath why for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God wherefore lay apart all filthiness King James have superfluity of naughtiness or overflowing wickedness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls but be verse 22 doers of the word not hearers only deceiving your own selves for if any man be a hear of the word and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror and he be holds himself and goes his way and immediately forgets what manner of man he was but whosoever looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues there and being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man or this person shall be blessed in his deeds if any man among you seems to be religious and Bridals not his tongue he deceives his own heart this man's religion is vain pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the fatherless in there and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world what are the marks of a mature Christian what is it that characterizes a Christian that has a strong vibrant active faith we're learning that in the book of James the number one the mature believer has joy in the midst of trials one of the indications that you're growing in your walk with God is that when things go wrong in your life you still have the joy of the Lord that your joy is an artesian well it's not dependent on outward circumstances it's dependent upon the relationship you have with the Holy Spirit springing up within so we learned that we can have joy even in trials and then secondly the mark of a mature believers that they are triumphant in temptation rather than being the victim they become victors they've learned to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh doesn't mean that they have arrived and perfection we still stumble and fall but it means that they're growing they're maturing so they're joyful in trials and they are triumphant in temptation this morning we look at the third mark or characteristic of a mature Christian and that as a mature Christian is a doer of the word so three marks of the believer number one they're joyful and trials number two they're triumphant and temptation and number three they are doers of the word you cannot be a mature believer without a right relationship with a Bible God's Word I am a bible thumping preacher that's what I am I believe in the Bible I preached the Bible and we need to live by the Bible God's Word every word is true God speaks through what he has spoken Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and it is profitable for how to live our lives amen and because of that you cannot grow without being rightly related to the Word of God you say well I'm a Christian I'm a mature Christian but I don't read the Bible you're deceiving yourself you might even say I read the Bible but if you don't obey the Bible if you're not a doer of the word you're here only James made it pretty clear in this text that you are self deceived now I want you to notice that we are to do three things in relationship to the Bible and we're going to go back and look at them individually first we must hear the word look at at verse 19 therefore my beloved brother and let every man be swift to hear mark the word here it's key the second thing work to do is work to receive the word verse 21 receive with meekness the engrafted word and then thirdly we are to do the word notice verse 22 be ye doers of the word so we have three references there we are to hear verse 19 we are to receive verse 21 and we are thirdly verse 22 to obey God's Word by the way each one of those are imperatives in the Greek that means they're Commandments these are not optional God is commanding us here to hear his word to receive his word to obey his word and he tells us in kind of a real important way that without that we're not going to mature and be blessed and grow as believers so what is your relationship to the Bible what is your relationship to the book we call the Bible God's Word first of all write this down we are to hear God's Word verse 19 and 20 I want to go back and let's read those verses 19 and 20 therefore or wherefore my beloved brother and let every man or person be swift to hear there it is slow to speak and slow to raph he gives us the reason verse 20 for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God now notice verse 19 starts with a wherefore or are therefore now you know the drill whenever there's a therefore find out what it's there for right and is therefore because as you back up one verse verse 18 of his own will begat he us that is God begat us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures and we looked at that two weeks ago God by a spirit through his word gave us new life theological term is regeneration or we call it born again a Christians a person who has the life of God in their soul they've been regenerated they've been given new life they're born of God and the thing that brought about that rebirth is the Word of God and the spirit of God they came together and there was the born into the family of God so we have now this the word being like seed planted in the womb and at bringing forth new life now because verse 18 says that we were born again through the word of truth therefore he begins to speak in verse 19 about hearing the word of truth hearing the word of God so the Bible is called the engrafted word it's called the perfect law of Liberty and this is what were to listen to the word of truth the grafted word the perfect law of Liberty now notice again in verse 19 he's speaking to Christians beloved brethren so it's very clear that this passage is commands for believers he's not talking to unbelievers he's talking to believers and he tells them three things he says you need to be swift to hear then he says you need to be slow to speak and then thirdly you need to be slow to wrath all three of these by the way are commandments be swift to hear it means a readiness or an eagerness verse 19 to listen to God's Word how about that story of the boy Samuel in the Old Testament the little boy Samuel and Hanna his mother gave him to the Lord and so he went to live at age five with a priest Eli and Eli put him to bed that first night and he was laying in bed and Samuel heard the Lord he didn't know it was the Lord he just heard the voice saying Samuel Samuel and in little boy five years old here's his name he jumps out of bed runs down the hall and he goes to Eli's bedroom and says yeah what do you want you called me he goes no I didn't call you go back to bed don't wake kids you bother me kind of a thing go back to bed he goes back to bed and he hears the voice again Samuel Samuel and he gets up thinking Eli is calling him he runs down the hall yes what is that you caught no I didn't call you but then Eli perceptive as he was he realized that God was calling the young boy he said next time you hear those words you're calling your name safe speak Lord your servant is listening well there's a little five-year-old kid Samuel goes back to his bed and he ain't gonna sleep now his eyes are as big as saucers you know he's freaking out he's got the blankies up around this neck II Samuel Samuel and I love that Samuel says speak Lord your servant is listening I love that may I suggest to you that that should be the prayer of our hearts when we open the Bible when we hear a sermon when we hear God's Word should we not with young Samuel say speak Lord I am listening I believe we come to church so often we just kind of go through the motions where we read the Bible and we don't really hear the Bible you ever read even a chapter of the Bible you close it and think what did I just read kind of goes in one ear and out the other this is a call to listen with a receptive earnestness when we read the Bible we need to read it with listening ears are you listening to God speak through his word did you know this is a love letter from God this book is written about God for you to know him this is a self revelation of God and God cannot be known apart from him revealing himself and the chief way by which God has chosen to reveal himself is in his word you want to know God read the Bible it's God's autobiography now not only should we be receiving the word or hearing the word excuse me slow to speak but we serve swift swift to hear but next in verse 19 we need to be slow to speak all three of these commands go together so we need to be swift to hear and then slow to speak you know one of our problems in our culture today is we like to talk don't we we like to hear ourselves talk when you're with peeps the conversation and you can't really get a word in edgewise it's kind of hard to maintain a friendship if it's all one-sided conversation instead of them saying well how are you what's been happening with you you know it's always like either just talking about themselves and they're not really listening and we're kind of geared that way today to just want to talk and not listen it was the Greek philosopher Xena who said that we have two years in one mouth therefore we should listen twice as much as we speak good advice you think God trying to say something he gave us one mouth in two ears and we should listen twice as much as we speak heard the story about a monk who joined a monastery and took a vow of silence he could only speak two words every five years at the end of the first five years of silence he said is two words foods bad next five years ten years later is next two words beds hard 15 years down the road he gets to speak another two words I quit the head monk said no surprise all you've done is complain since you got here [Music] it's funny though how much we complain and we gripe and we talk you know we're gonna be learning a lot more if we be quiet listen you know you don't learn when you're talking you learn when you listen and God wants us to hear his word Psalm proverbs 10 verse 19 he that refrain of his lips is wise that's so good and then thirdly notice in verse 19 slow to wrath so swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath now the word wrath there is a harboring of angry resentful feelings the word doesn't really emphasize the explosion of wrath which is a bad thing as well it's talking about the harboring of resentful feelings you know a lot of people aren't receptive to the Bible because they're just angry they're just go through life angry they don't want to listen to anyone let alone God and when they hear God's Word they get angry at God's Word the Bible says husbands all of your wife's right I don't like that I do not like that verse wives submit to your has all that verses of the devil I had a woman come up to me once she goes I don't I don't agree with Paul really you can straighten him out when we get to heaven yeah Paul hated women that's why he told women that's the wife's to submit he he wasn't married and he was a male chauvinist and he he hated women that's why he wrote that in the Bible I don't think so when we come up with these clever little arguments to keep us from obeying God's Word listen when God speaks we're gonna see in a moment we must obey amen so God tells us how to live in our marriage how to live in our family how to live in our jobs what our attitude should be we need to listen and be receptive don't show wrath be slow to wrap put wrath far from you keeps us from hearing and receiving God's Word and notice he tells us why we should be swift to hear slow to speak and slow to wrath the reason or rationale verse 24 the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God if you're living with anger in your heart you're not producing the righteousness of God so we need to be swift to hear now I want you to notice second thing we need in our relationship to the Bible is we need to receive the word verse 21 by the way the word of God demands our hearing and it demands secondly our attention and our receptivity notice verse 21 wherefore lay apart all filthiness and overflowing not enos so in other words we need to get the weeds out of our life if God seed his word is going to be planted in good soil and bring forth flute fruit so lay apart overflowing wickedness and what receive there it is with meekness the engrafted word which is able to your souls are bring blessing to your life now I want you to note the command in verse 21 receive with meekness the engrafted word that's God's command to you and I today speak Lord your servant is listening whether you're reading it or you're hearing it or it's being preached you want to be receptive to God's Word it speaks of a welcoming and appropriating reception it means to embrace to make it your own was used to the Bereans in acts 17:11 who received there it is the word with all readiness of mine and then they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether those things were so we we use that as an expression today let's be Bereans let's be Bereans what does that mean it means let's study the Bible let's be open to the Bible let's search the scriptures let's discern let's see whether those things are so it's also used in 1st Thessalonians 2:13 where the believers in Thessalonica receive the word not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which works effectually also in you that believe you know the Bible will work in your life I heard people say I read the Bible it doesn't work problems not the Bible the problems your receptivity the problem is you need to hear and you need to receive and you need to obey several times in the scriptures you read that statement let him that have ears to hear let him hear right and is talking about spiritual ears to hear what God has to say in his word remember Jesus told the parable of the sower and the seed it's actually a parable of the soils representing man's heart he said the sower went out to sow seed in the seed in the parable a heavenly story with an earthly meaning actually represents the Bible or the Word of God of the gospel and it first landed on a hard path or hard heart and it didn't penetrate and birds representing Satan flying overhead they swooped down and they stoled the seed so you're sowing seed and it lands maybe on the sidewalk or in the concrete and the birds are able to eat it off the side of this of the concrete because it doesn't penetrate you know a lot of people's hearts are like concrete they're like a hard beaten path they hear the word of God and it doesn't penetrate and Satan comes along and he steals that seed that is sown the second soil is the shallow heart or South shallow soil it's a thin layer of Earth with rocks underneath that lacks depth and so the see the word is sown again this represents men's hearts and it takes root but the roots cannot go deep and the branches begin to come up and when the Sun beats upon it because it lacks depth and can't draw moisture the plant withers and dies this is the shallow part this is the emotional here there are those that don't even get it and there are those who respond with emotion but after a time when trials and temptations come then they are getting wiped out and then there's a third category of here's there's the crowded heart lot of Christians fall in to this category the crowded heart the seed has sown it lands in the soil it takes root it starts to grow but there are all these weeds and it chokes it out and the plant becomes unfruitful and it dies you know a lot of times people let things in their life get in the way and choke out the Word of God too much TV - too much social media too many activities maybe work is a great thing but maybe you're working too much and you ought to spend more time meditating on God's Word now you're to be commended you're in church this morning and you're hearing the Word of God and my commitment is always when you come to this church you will hear the word of God you'll hear it read and you'll hear it expounded and explained and applied to how you should live but the question is how are you listening it's not a matter of how am i preaching it's how are you listening it's possible to come and hear the Bible every Sunday but you life doesn't change there's still those problems in your marriage you still have those issues in your life so those attitudes and that anger that's keeping you from being receptive to the Word of God you have a crowded heart cares and the deceitfulness of riches choke it and it becomes unfruitful but there's a fourth heart represented in the soil I call it the fruitful heart it's soft not hard it is deep not shallow it is clean not cluttered and the seed takes root and thank God for these individuals and thank God if you're this person today you hear God's Word and you receive God's Word and God's Word has taken root in your life and it's changed your heart he meant change your attitude and your actions and your words it's change your marriage and your home and your family change everything about you the Word of God has power to change our lives that's the fruitful heart now I want you to note the condition to receiving God's Word in verse 21 go back there with me in your Bible he says we have to lay apart all filthiness and overflow of wickedness in other words we need to get the weeds out I hate weeds how many of you love weeds if there's anybody here that loves to pull weeds see me after church I'll give you my address don't you hate to pull weeds I pull a weed and another one's gonna come don't you wish you could weed your yard once and never ever again will there be another week but they just keep coming I'm not a fan of weeds but you know if you're gonna plant a garden which I don't do on that in the gardening but if you're gonna plant a guard you first have to get the weeds out right and so if God's gonna plant a garden in your life he has to get the weeds out all the wickedness the things the Bible condemns must be forsaken you can't grow if you are unwilling to give up the sins the Bible condemns did you hear what I said you cannot grow as a Christian if you are unwilling to give up the sins the Bible condemns when you read your Bible you need to ask yourself are there any sins I need to forsake is God speaking to my heart is God saying something to me or when I see something that God convicts me do I skip over it well let's go to the next chapter that's that one's on marriage let's don't go there ha ha let's find something about God loves me you know wants me to be happy you can't pick and choose this is not a smorgasbord as you're reading the Bible if you don't respond to get the Bible if you don't repent when God speaks he's not gonna give you more light he's not gonna give you more understanding you know the key to going deeper in your knowledge of God's Word is responding to what God has already revealed to you you want more light and you haven't responded to the light he's already given not going to happen you're stuck you're in a rut you can't grow we need to say Lord I'm listening lord I will obey Lord changed my life and when you respond properly you must get the weeds out of your heart and life so that the garden can grow I want you to know the manner in verse 21 in which this seed can be received into your heart with meekness underline that statement with meekness now meekness is not weakness jesus said I am meek and lowly in heart you know what meekness is meekness there's the best definition I've ever discovered on meekness meekness is power under control [Music] you know they refer to horses that are obedient to the rider when you pull on the reins and they respond it's a responsive obedient horse you know what they call that horse a meek horse not a weak horse but a me course of course when I'm on the horse they never do what I want it to do that's another reason why I don't do gardens and I don't do horses either scare me to death what if it steps on me and they never do what I want them to do and they can tell that I'm freaked out when I'm on that thing it's like it knows it knows it's got a scared pastor on its back so it just does whatever it wants but we're to be meek when we hear God's Word what it means is that we don't resist it do you resist certain passages in the Bible certain things that God shows you or wrong now notice the reason to receive God's Word verse 21 it is able to save your soul man don't miss that it is able to save your soul do a study on the ability of God's Word to change and to bless a person's life what does it mean save your soul it means save your life the word soul we get our word psyche from it a lot of people spending a lot of money going to psychologists and psychiatrists and laying on the couch and talking to them yeah about just get on your knees and talk to God and then open your Bible that God talked to you let God speak to you words of in comfort encouragement or rebuke or whatever it might be in Acts chapter 20 verse 35 the Bible says that it's that the Word of God is able to build us up build us up and give us an inheritance among the Saints the Word of God welcomed in the soul and in the heart can bring fruit salvation sanctification and service I am so convinced that if a person simply will hear God's Word receive God's Word and then be a doer of God's Word as the Bible says that person will be blessed and all that they do and here's my third and last point verse 22 doers so verse 19 here verse 21 receive and verse 22 do be ye doers of the word not hearers deceiving your own selves that's the command and it's actually an imperative in the Greek be doers of the word true hearing and true receiving must result in obedience if you only hear and you're not doing then you are self deceive you deceiving your own selves verse 22 and how many people are like that they hear the Bible they might even believe the Bible but they haven't done the Bible you see that's where we circumvent what God wants to do in our lives and maybe this morning you're not growing as a Christian or maturing because of this third phase oh yeah III hear the word oh yeah I read the word okay are you--oh doing the word that's the part we don't like matter of fact up to this point you probably kind of liked a sermon you're kind of hoping that I'll just close in prayer right now and dismiss you but the text isn't over Dewar's oh you know I gotta love my wife as Christ loved the church that was written before my wife was born I don't think that they understood my situation yeah thou shalt not covet ooh man I really wanted that new car Lord it's convicting me right now Oh Lord this is the part we don't like be doers you know the book of James is written like a preacher that just really tells you like it is he doesn't mince words he says it listen you got to do the Bible you got to be a doer of God's Word it's a commandment if you only hear you're deceiving yourself so if you do not put it into practice Jesus gave a parable in Matthew chapter 7 at the end of the Sermon on the Mount the greatest sermon that Jesus ever preached and when he ended that sermon he talked about two Builders one was wise and the other was what foolish a wise and a foolish builder and the wise man built his house upon rock and when the wind came and the floods came and the beat upon his house it was built on a rock and his house stood strong the foolish man he built a house just like the wise man but his foundation with sand and when the flood came and the wind's house fell over it was destroyed Jesus told us the difference he said the wise man is the person who hears my word and obeys it the foolish man is a man who hears my word but doesn't obey it or put it into practice now I know he's talking about his Sermon on the Mount but I think it has a broader Universal application to all of Scripture you're either a wise man or a foolish man you're as a wise builder or a foolish builder every one of us are building and you're building on either the rock which is Jesus Christ and obedience to his word or you're building on sand wise and foolish builders are you a foolish builder or a wise builder are you hearing receiving and obeying God's Word now it gives us an illustration of the danger of just hearing and not obeying and verse 23 actually runs down to verse 25 for if any be a hearer of the word verse 23 and not a doer this is what he's like this is an illustration he's like a man who looks at himself in a mirror the word glass and my King James Bible would be better translated a mirror they didn't have glass in those days but the mirrors were polished metal they would take a metal and they would polish it and it would be a mirror so if you look in the mirror and then says that you see what manner of person he is up verse 24 he be holdeth himself and then he goes his way and straightway he forgets what manner of man he was but whosoever look means to stoop down and bend over and look closely intently whoever looks into the perfect law of Liberty description for the Bible and he continues therein not just a casual glance but you habitually continue to look deeply into God's Word and being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man or this person shall be what blessed in all his deeds are all than he does that's one of my favorite illustrations of the Bible it's a mirror aren't mirrors brutal why you laughing every time I look at a mirror it doesn't doesn't do me justice by the way the problems not the mirror you're going man I need a new mirror every time I look in that mirror I am ugly I need a new mirror sorry it's not the mirror don't you hate those mirrors that are well-lit bright lights all of them you gonna oh man lord have mercy have mercy on my soul I like to dim the lights and like him looking good and someone flips the light suit and that's kind of like the Bible you again do it it tells it like it is it doesn't it doesn't lie mirrors don't lie it shows everything and she opened God's Word and you see your sin and you see your attitude and you see the problems in your life that need to be corrected and God speaks to you through his word but the problem is it will close it will put away the mirror and then we forget what we saw is like a man looks in the mirror he's all messed up he forgets walks away forgets what he just saw the problems in his own life that's what it is to hear and not to be obedient to God's Word so we need to continue in the perfect law of Liberty verse 25 and if we do that I love this this man shall be blessed not might be blessed not hope to be blessed shall be blessed in all his doings this just makes my heart ache it makes my heart ache because I think so important if you just if we would just get it just hear receive and be obedient to God's Word you know as a father that's what I want for my kids I want want it for my grandkids as a pastor I want that for our congregation I want you to be blessed I want you to have joy and I want God's blessing on your life and it will come as you hear and receive and obey God's Word if you're a young person there's nothing more important for you than to get wisdom in God's word spend time in God's book the Bible says that if we acknowledge God in all our ways he will direct our paths amen so as a young person as a middle-aged person there's an older person you can't get away from this book the Word of God you must spend time meditating day and night and you will be blessed isn't that what it says in Psalm 1 don't you love Psalm 1 the happy song oh how happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly doesn't stand in the way of sinners doesn't sit in the seat of the scornful but his delight is in that what law of the Lord and in his law what does he do meditate not Medicaid's he meditates a lot of people medicating now we're meditating it means to think over and over of God's err it's not Easter meditation either where we empty our minds it's Bible meditation where we fill our minds filling our minds and our hearts and our minds renewed by the Word of God and His Word doth he meditate day and night and here's what the psalmist says in Psalm 1 he'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water whose leaf will never wither and everything he does will prosper it's a prescription for prosper and blessing save his soul it's not just talking about salvation going to heaven it's talking about God will save your whole life you have a blessed life if you honor God by obeying his words now it puts it into shoe-leather and closing verse 26 and 27 let's read it again he says if any of you seem to be religious and I would paraphrase that and I think that this is the conveyed meaning if any of you think you're a good Christian but you bridle not your tongue then you are deceiving your own heart and your Christianity is empty or vain pure religion or Christianity is undefiled before God and the father is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and then notice in closing verse 27 and keeping yourself unspotted from the world this is how it all comes together if we give God's Word its rightful place if we give it our attention hearing it our reception receiving it our application doing it it'll affect our lives in three ways I want you to see them in your Bible your words verse 26 your words will be under the control of the Holy Spirit if you do not bridle your tongue you're self deceived don't tell me you're a spirit-filled Christian when things come out of your mouth that are dishonouring to God from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks what if whatever's in the heart will come out the mouth you can tell it Cristen by their words words that are gracious and kind and glorify God thoughtful and consider it holy unto the Lord your speech will change and then secondly your works the way you live your life your service you'll have wise words and a loving heart notice verse 27 you'll visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction now this isn't just restricting Christian activity to orphans and widows which God by the way takes the side of God is concerned for orphans and God's concern for widows and if he is so should we a men what it's basically trying to say is that we have a caring heart that we are reaching out and we're loving and we're compassionate this is a mark of a mature believer and then the third area that will be affected in verse 27 is your walk of separation or a holy life and to keep himself or herself unspotted from the world if you are a growing maturing vibrant Christian you're hearing God's work you're receiving God's Word you're obeying God's Word and it will affect your words it will affect your work and it will affect your walk you will not be living like the world you'll kept your keep yourself unspotted psalm 119 verse 9 and 11 says how can a young man cleanse his way here's the answer by taking heed according to God's Word and then the psalmist cries your word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you I love that you know John Bunyan who wrote the famous spiritual allegory pilgrims progress from that Bedford prison it is said that in the Flyleaf of John Bunyan's Bible he wrote these words this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book I'll true this book will keep you from sin but sin can also keep you from this book it works both ways you know there's Christians were to be men and women of the book and here it is in this passage that we're to hear we're to receive and we're to be doers of the word not hearers only

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Length: 39min 44sec (2384 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2018