S1 E4: A Life of Obedience

Today is the first Sunday of the month, first Sunday of March, and so our children are not in children's worship, they are in here with us, and we enjoy having them in here on the first Sunday and also the fifth Sunday of the month.

And so it is a blessing to have them.

Parents, thank you for helping model for your children worship.

And we are blessed that they are here with us this morning as we discuss maturity in Christ.

If you will, take out your copy of God's word and join me today in the book of James.

We're gonna be in chapter one of James.

We're taking a break from our march through the book of Mark.

And on the first Sunday, we are considering the measurements of discipleship.

And today we are in James chapter one.

If you don't have a Bible, there are some in the pew back there in front of you.

We're gonna be on page 1091 in that Bible, 1091, James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

In just a few moments, we're gonna pick up in verse 21 of James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

The goal of the Christian life is to be transformed into the image of God.

The purpose of God's call on our life, yes, is to save us from our sin and deliver us into his presence eternally, but the goal in his life is that we might reflect Christ clearly.

If you are a genuine Christ follower, if you have trusted in God's grace by faith, there will be evidence of that that displays itself in your life.

If your heart has been changed, if your life has been transformed, then along the way you will see attitudes that have changed.

You will see words that have changed, you will see actions that have changed, you will see concerns that have changed.

You will see yourself caring about the things of God more than you did in the past.

You will see the gifts of the Spirit showing themselves in your life.

There will be evidence of salvation in your life if you have genuinely trusted in Him.

Conversely, if you have not, then you will not see evidence in your life.

If you claim to be a Christ follower, if you claim to be a Christian and yet you see no evidence of it in your life, you may be deceiving yourself into thinking you're in a right relationship with God when in fact you are not yet there.

How do we know?

How do we know for sure?

How do we measure whether we are growing in our faith?

How do we measure whether or not we actually are doing the things that God has commanded us to do?

What metric might we use to determine whether or not I'm truly following Christ or not?

We have asked our church, we've asked you to do self-evaluation.

You know your relationship with Christ better than anybody else.

You know your relationship with God better than your core group leader, your friends, your pastor.

And so we want to encourage you to ask some self-evaluation questions.

The first one we asked you to consider in January was: is my character a reflection of Christ?

We looked at Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

We said that in view of God's mercies, we ought to offer our lives as a living sacrifice before God.

When people see us, when they hear us talk, when they see us respond to victory or tragedy, do they see something of the character of Christ revealing itself in our lives?

That was the first question.

Today we're going to deal with the second measurement question, and that one is simply this.

Am I living a life of obedience to God and his word?

Am I living a life of obedience to God and to his word?

In John chapter 14 and verse 15, Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14 · chapter mention

In John chapter 14, verse 21, he says, He who has my law and keeps it loves me.

John 14:21

In Luke chapter 18 and verse 28, we're told, Blessed is he who hears the word and observes it.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

A distinguishing mark of genuine Christianity is obedience to the word and commands of God.

It will demonstrate itself in how you live.

You will desire not only to hear the word, to read the word, but to respond to the word in action.

You will desire to obey it.

Conversely, if you can hear the word, read the word, and walk away unchanged and unencouraged to do anything, then my strong encouragement to you is to reevaluate your relationship with the Lord.

In the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel, we're told of a king by the name of Saul.

Saul was the first king of the nation of Israel.

When Israel was first delivered out of Egypt in slavery, and God delivered them through the Red Sea, and they were heading towards the promised land that God said was going to be theirs that he promised to them.

They traveled 600,000 men, plus women and children.

This could have been a million and a half people traveling through this land.

And there was a group of people called the Amalekites who came and attacked them.

This attack, though, was a very cowardly attack.

They didn't attack at their strongest point.

They didn't attack from the front or the side.

They attacked the stragglers who were at the very rear.

And as a result of that, God cursed the nation of the Amalekites, and he said that they would be stricken from the face of the earth.

Many years pass, and Saul is now the king of Israel.

And God sends his prophet Samuel to Saul and says, Here's what you're going to do.

You are going to go and you are going to attack the Amalekites because of what they did, and you are going to wipe them off the face of the earth.

No one is to survive.

You are not to take any of their cattle, you are not to take any of their treasures, you are not to profit from this in any way.

You just simply obey and you go and do.

And Saul did.

Saul took his army and he went and he attacked the Amalekites and he defeated them.

However, he kept their king, a king by the name of Agag, alive.

He captured him alive.

And some of the people took some of the best sheep and the best oxen, and they kept them.

Saul was so proud of what he had accomplished that he built a monument.

A monument to remember what had happened.

Not a monument to remember God, not a monument to give praise to God, a monument to himself.

Now, how arrogant do you have to be to disobey God and then build a monument to brag about it?

And yet that's exactly what he did.

Samuel came to Saul to confront him about his disobedience.

And Saul said, Praise God, I have done what he told me to do.

And Samuel famously said, Then what is this bleeding of sheep that I hear in my ear and the lowing of oxen that I hear?

And Saul made an excuse.

He said, Oh, oh, some of the people kept the best so that they might sacrifice them to God.

And Samuel's response was this.

Does God desire sacrifice more than your obedience?

Does God desire your rituals more than you just simply doing what he told you to do?

To obey is better than sacrifice.

To obey is better than to attend a public worship service.

To obey is better than putting money in an offering plate.

To obey is better than following a set of laws.

To obey is better than going through a religious ritual.

To obey is better than doing that which is outward that is not driven by that which is already transformed inwardly.

Romans chapter 1, verse 5 says that we were brought grace to bring about obedience.

Romans 1:5

Paul repeats it in chapter 16.

We were brought grace in order to bring about obedience.

And some of you may be thinking, well, Saul was mostly obedient.

He did what God said.

He went and attacked the Amalekites and he wiped them out.

He just left one guy alive and just took some of the stuff.

But you realize that partial obedience is still disobedience.

He was disobeying God.

There are many people that might attend a worship service today around our country and around the world who might rightly be asked the question that Jesus asks in Luke chapter 6.

Luke 6 · chapter mention

Why do you call me Lord and don't do what I say?

Why do you claim that I'm the Lord of your life and don't obey what I'm commanding for you to do in your life?

Now, before I go any further, let me make you let me make this crystal clear.

Christianity is not simply following a set of rules or laws.

Christianity is not just simply following the letter of the law and checking it off and saying, look what I have done.

The religious leaders of Jesus' day meticulously followed the letter of the law, but they did so in order to earn righteousness, not as a result of the gratitude of righteousness.

They smugly did so, thinking that they were doing God favors and earning his favor, when they should have been saying, God, thank you for grace, and because of grace, I want to reflect your image.

Because of grace, I want to observe what you tell me is best in my life.

It's not following a set of rules.

What they lacked was a heart that had been transformed by grace.

You cannot replace a life of heartfelt obedience with a few outward acts of worship.

You cannot replace a life of heartfelt obedience with a few acts of outward worship.

If you are a Christ follower, then it will demonstrate itself in obedience.

And if you're not obedient, then we might do some evaluating.

Now hear me.

I do not follow God perfectly.

You do not follow God perfectly.

Even those of us saved by grace, we are still fallible.

We are still in these sinful fleshly bodies.

We will not do this perfectly.

But our hearts will strive towards serving the Lord, and when we fail him, we will be broken over it.

The text for this morning is James chapter 1, and it discusses the difference between hearing God's word and hearing and obeying God's word.

James 1 · chapter mention

If you're willing and able, would you stand with me as we read?

James chapter 1, we stand in honor of the Word of God.

James 1 · chapter mention

We'll begin in verse 21 and read through verse 27.

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror.

For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

If any one thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the word, by the world.

Father, as we open your word, open our hearts.

Lord, let us be effectual doers and not simply hearers of your word, we pray.

Don't let us forget this.

Lord, take your word, apply it to our lives, and change us into the image of Christ we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you.

James is writing a letter to Christ followers, or at least people who think they are Christ followers.

The theme of his letter is living by faith in a secular world.

What does your faith look like when you're surrounded by a world that does not share the same faith?

What does your faith look like when you're surrounded by people who might be against your faith, might even be belligerently against your faith?

What does faith look like in the midst of a secular world?

And he wants to start off as he begins his letter with asking this question: Is your faith real?

Is your faith genuine?

Does your faith demonstrate itself in works?

Works do not save you, but a faith that works will work.

It demonstrates itself.

And he gives them, much like we have done, a list of scenarios, a list of questions that he wants them to answer.

And he starts off and he says, How does your faith respond to temptations in your life?

He asks them, how does your faith respond to trials in your life?

How does your faith respond when you don't understand the word?

Does your faith cry out for wisdom from God?

How does your faith respond when you hear the word of God?

Are you quick to give a response or do you slow down and listen?

Are you quick to give an excuse or do you slow down and hear what God's Word says?

He's walking them through just some self-evaluation questions.

Is your faith genuine?

And now he wants to know is your faith real?

How does your faith respond in obedience?

Three things I want us to see.

You say surprising, three things, three things.

He gives an instruction, he gives an illustration, and then he gives an inspection.

The instruction is simple, verse 22.

You've got this word implanted in you, the very word of God.

Therefore, prove yourselves to be doers of the word and not merely hearers who do what, church?

Deceive themselves, delude themselves.

He says, I need you to evaluate your faith.

I need you to look and see how you respond when you are confronted by the word of God.

Whether you are reading it personally or somebody is teaching it or preaching it to you, how do you respond to the word of God?

Are you merely hearers or are you doers?

In verse 25, he says, Are you forgetful hearers or are you effectual doers?

This is what he asks.

This is the instruction.

Hearing, in this instance, is doing.

Hearing implies doing.

Hearing is not just a passive action where sound waves go into our ears and hit our eardrums.

This hearing that he is referring to is active and it is activating.

It is active in that we are intentional about it, and it is activating in that this hearing means I am hearing with the intent to do something about what I hear.

When you were growing up, or perhaps even today, a supervisor or somebody that has authority over you, did they ever ask you this question?

Did you hear me?

The implication in that rhetorical question is if you heard me, you would be doing something right now.

This is the kind of hearing that James is referring to.

This is the kind of hearing that God expects when we come to his word and when we are confronted by his word.

It is a hearing that anticipates action.

Hearing, however, or doing, however, requires hearing first.

Hearing is a prerequisite for doing.

It equips us, it helps us, it enables us, but we must hear first.

Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn there, I'm just gonna turn there very quickly this morning.

Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

How will they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how will they believe in whom they have not heard?

And how will they hear without a preacher?

Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

How will they believe?

How will they call on them that they have not believed?

And how will they believe in whom they have not heard?

And how will they hear unless somebody tells them?

Faith comes first by what?

Hearing.

We have to hear the word first in order to respond to it.

We have to hear it.

This hearing.

Back in James, this this hearing is not a hearing that describes something that's an every now and then event.

It's not an every so often kind of thing.

This this hearing is characteristic of a lifestyle.

This hearing means I hear with the characteristics of a lifestyle that I hear it and then I act upon it.

We can get into a dangerous habit of reading God's word, hearing God's word, being taught God's word, and walking away unchanged.

When I was in college, I I took a course simply entitled Chapel.

In order to get my undergraduate degree, I had to attend chapel every Wednesday in a massive auditorium, probably a thousand students in there at a time.

It was a pass-fail course.

If you know what that means, it means all the only requirement to pass the course was to show up the required number of times.

If you showed up the number of times you're supposed to be there, you passed.

If you didn't show up the number of times you were supposed to be there, you failed.

That was the only requirement to pass the course, be there.

Be present.

There were probably some really amazing preachers who came in that semester and preached to that class of students.

I'm hesitating because I don't remember a single one of them, nor what they taught us from the Word of God.

I don't remember it because I was under the impression that no one was going to hold me responsible for recalling it, repeating it, or doing it.

No one at that academic level.

No one was going to come up to me and say, what did the teacher teach today?

What did the pastor preach on today?

What difference did it make in your life?

I passed the class because I showed up.

It wasn't until years later that I got convicted over it.

Where I realized I had wasted a wonderful opportunity that God had given to me to hear some really fine preachers and teachers come and pour into my young life.

But I became a laxadaisical hearer of the word.

Because I didn't think anybody was going to hold me accountable.

But what I should have been aware of is this that while the university wasn't going to hold me accountable, there is a God in heaven who certainly will hold me accountable for when I hear the word of God, not being able to repeat it, not being able to do it.

And we, I'm afraid we get so lackadaisical about our approach to the Word of God, and it is a dangerous, dangerous habit.

There are far too many times when I just, okay, it's my day, it's my time to do my daily Bible reading, and I do my Bible reading, and then I go, okay, check, I did it.

There have been far too many times, not just in college, where I've attended a worship service or a conference or something, and somebody has preached, and because I'm so distracted or because I'm not in tune, I walk away unchanged.

I'm afraid churches are filled with people today who will sit under the teaching of God's word and be hearers without ever becoming doers, without ever changing.

In verse 22, he says, prove yourselves doers of the word, not merely hearers who delude themselves.

To hear the word of God and walk away unchanged is like telling God, I don't care what you have to say.

It's like telling God, I know better what's going on in my life than you do.

And if that is our attitude, then quite honestly, we are deceiving ourselves.

It's bad enough to be deceived.

It's bad when somebody deceives us with bad theology or malintent.

But when we deceive ourselves, it's even worse.

When we go to God's word and we hear God's word and we see God's word and we know what it's telling us to do, and we walk away unchanged, we are deceiving ourselves.

A heart set on fire by the grace of God and by the word of God will demonstrate a changed life.

If you were put on trial and the charge against you was this person is a disciple of Christ.

This person claims to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ.

If you were put on trial with that as the charge, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Would a jury find you guilty?

The instruction is don't just be a hearer of the word, be a doer of the word.

He gives us an illustration in verses 23 through 25.

It's a pretty straightforward illustration.

He compares the word of God to a mirror, and he compares two different people looking in the mirror.

He said there are some who look in the mirror and they forget, and there are others who look in the mirror and they see and then they act.

He says the word of God is like a mirror in which we see ourselves.

Some of us have a love-hate relationship with our mirrors.

The older I get, the more I dislike my mirror.

But the more I grow in my faith, the more I love this mirror.

Because in this mirror we see God for who he truly is.

In this mirror, we see ourselves for who we truly are.

We see where we are being faithful to him, and we see where we are falling short of him.

God reveals himself and he reveals us in this mirror.

And sometimes we don't like what we see in the mirror.

What's the difference between a mirror and a picture, or a mirror and a video?

A picture shows us what happened at a point in time.

It showed us what was.

You can take a video, and as soon as the video is over, it's history.

What's a mirror show us?

It shows us what is.

It shows us what is going on right now.

Abraham Lincoln once famously sat to have someone paint a portrait of him.

And the artist was hibbing and hawing, and Lincoln finally said, Young man, paint me wart and all.

I want people to see me for who I truly am.

And we sometimes want to take the warts out.

We don't want to see the warts.

We want to eliminate the warts.

We don't want those.

He describes two different looks.

As people look in this mirror, the mirror is the word of God.

As we look in the mirror, he describes two looks.

One is a casual glance, and one is an intentional gaze.

The first look is just a casual glance.

He says, a person who looks in this mirror and sees their face and then quickly walks away and forgets what they saw.

That's a casual glance.

That's hearing it and then not responding to what they see.

Now, you guys are really nice people, so you would never say this out loud.

But have you ever thought in your mind, do these people not have mirrors in their home?

You would never say that out loud, but you think it, right?

Because you look at them and go, why are you in public like that?

Did you not notice your hair looked that way?

Did you not notice that stuff in your teeth?

Did you not notice that did you look at it and go, oh, okay?

You know, we would probably never do that.

We would never approach a physical mirror, look at our bodies and see something disheveled wrong, and not correct it before going out into public.

But how often do we open up the mirror of God's word, find something that's not wrong, and go and go on with our lives?

There are two looks.

There's a casual look, there's a casual gaze, and then there's an intent.

But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, verse 25, the law of liberty, and abides by it, having become not a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this one will be blessed in what he does.

This is more than just a casual gaze.

This is looking intently into the word.

It's looking with the intent to learn from what we see.

It's looking so that we might grow.

How can I know this?

James has given us the instruction, he's given us an illustration, a mirror, and then he gives us an inspection in verses 26 through 27.

He just gives us three areas of our lives.

These aren't, this isn't an exhaustive list.

These just these are three things.

He said, if you are an effectual doer, if the word of God is having its impact in your life, here are three areas of your life that you can inspect.

The first one is your conversation, the second one is your concern, the third is your conduct.

The first one is an unbridled tongue, the second is undefiled religion, and the third is an unstained life.

He says, just if you're following Christ, then if you're being obedient to the word, it will impact your tongue.

It will impact the way you talk.

It will impact the conversations that you have.

Verse 26, if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle the tongue, he deceives his own heart, and this man's religion is worthless.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 34 says, the mouth speaks out of the fullness of the heart.

Matthew 12:34

Ephesians chapter 5 tells us that as Christ followers, our language ought to be completely different, utterly different than the world.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Bridle is just something that you use to tame the power of a horse.

And the tongue, James describes, he has a lot to say about the tongue later in his letter.

We're just going to hit this one right here.

He says the tongue is like a fire.

And who can control it?

And a person who cannot control their tongue is evidence of someone whose heart isn't controlled by the Spirit.

Set a guard on my mouth, O Lord.

Keep watch over the door of my lips.

I don't know about you, but there are many times when I need to say that prayer.

What's going to come out of my mouth?

Is it helpful?

Is it useful?

Is it kind?

Is it right?

Is it true?

Do I use my words to build people up or to cut people down?

Do I build my word use my words to encourage people or discourage people?

Are my words used for criticism and gossip, or are they used for good?

He says, one way you can know is your tongue, your conversation.

And I don't know if any of you struggle with this, but maybe it's an area where you just say, God set a guard over my mouth.

Change my heart, so my lips will change.

Second area he talks about is concern.

Verse 27.

He says, Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress.

He says, What are you concerned about?

He's not saying that the way to righteousness is by good works.

He's not saying that the way to do uh to be right with God is to do nice things for people who can't do things.

He's saying that if your heart is changed, if you've been transformed, then you are gonna look out for the concerns of those who cannot care for themselves.

Your focus is gonna shift from self to others.

We talked about this in humility last week in Mark's gospel.

He says, your undefiled religion is to have a heart that cares about people the way God does, to look at people the way he does.

Thirdly, he says, your conduct.

He says, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

The world that he's talking about here isn't creation.

The world he's talking about here isn't people.

He's talking about the system that is in place that is designed to pull people and glory away from God.

And the Bible tells us that if we love the world, that system, we cannot love God.

He says, don't try to live your life with one foot in this world and one foot in the kingdom of God.

Demas is a famous example of this from the New Testament.

Demas was referred to twice in the New Testament as a faithful companion of Paul on his missionary journeys.

But in 1 Timothy, Paul wrote, and he said, Having loved this world, Demas has abandoned me.

James is not telling us to be isolated from the world.

He's telling us to be insulated from the world.

He's not telling us that we aren't to be in the world.

He's telling us to not be of the world.

The illustration is given this way: it's a ship on the ocean.

It's okay for a ship to be on the water.

It's not okay for the water to be in the ship.

A lady wearing a white dress wanted to go on a tour of a coal mine.

The foreman came up to her and said, Madam, I don't think you're dressed properly for this tour.

To which she said, What is going to prevent me from wearing this white dress into that coal mine?

And he said, Ma'am, nothing's going to prevent you from wearing it into that coal mine.

There are many things going to prevent you from wearing that white dress out of the coal mine.

And many of us want to walk around in the world and we want to dabble with sin and we want to get, and James is saying, Look, is your life unstained by the world?

How do I know if I want to follow the word of God, if I want to obey the word of God?

It changes my tongue.

It changes my conversation.

It changes my concern.

It changes whether I want to be tainted by the world or not.

James writes, prove yourselves.

Prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude yourselves.

I finish with this.

Matthew chapter 7, Jesus was having a conversation.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

The context of that conversation was this statement: not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

That's the context.

Not everybody who cries out to me, not everybody who thinks they're a follower of mine is actually doing what I'm asking them to do.

Not everybody who thinks that I am their Lord is actually going to get in.

And then he has this conversation.

He tells a parable.

Says there was a man who built his house on the foundation of a stone.

The winds came.

Slammed against the house, but the house stood because it was built on the rock.

He says, the one who hears my word and observes it, who does it, is like a one who builds his house on the stone.

When the storm comes, it stands.

He says, but there's another one who also built his home.

But he built his home on sand.

And when the winds came and the rains came and the floods came and it slammed against it, it did not stand.

This is the one who hears my word and does not do what it says.

One day we will face the storm of judgment.

Will your house stand or will it fall?

Is it built on the rock or is it built on sand?

If you hear the word of God and you observe it, if you do it, if you follow it, your house is solid.

But if you just simply hear the word and walk away unaffected, never doing what it commands, your house will fall.

It's better to be obedient than to offer a ritual.

No service can cover an absent, obedient heart.

No ritual is acceptable apart from the inward transformation of our lives.

Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.

The one who keeps my commandments is the one who loves me.

The goal of a Christian life is to become more like Christ.

As a Christ follower, that will become evident in your life as God transforms your attitudes and your actions.

How does that happen?

Happens through his word.

As we look into it as a mirror, we see him for who he is, and we see ourselves for who we truly are.

We see ourselves for when we live up to what he's called us to do, and we see ourselves when we fall short.

And if we just simply glance at that and go, well, I'm falling short, but and we go on with our lives, that's a problem.

Or we can look into the word intently and say, God, where am I falling short?

What do you need to do to change me into your image?

How can I be an effectual doer of the word?