James 1:19-27 - Zane Satterfield

Good morning, church.

As uh Annette mentioned, uh, I am my name is Zayn.

I'm one of the pastors here, and it is my um pleasure and honor to stand before you this morning and read God's word with you and uh preach this word that is so clearly written.

Um I know sometimes on a Sunday we can come to church, and sometimes the passage that we're looking at is a little confusing, um a little lofty, but here in James, and as we see as we go throughout James, uh every single line, every single sentence packs a punch.

And every single sentence could in and of itself be a sermon.

So bear with me as I try to uh trim down on what all is here and to give you um what I believe is the most important um for us this morning.

But if you're a guest here with us this morning, I just want to thank you for being here.

I I am partial that this is the best place you can be.

I I love our faith family here.

I love Redeemer Church.

I love getting to sing uh songs together and pray prayers together and preach the word to you and hear the word uh preached every Sunday.

So if you're a guest here, I think you're in a great place.

Uh if you're exploring the matters of faith, I think you're in a safe place.

We may say something that may offend you, but trust me and trust Cam and those of us who are saying these things, we do this out of love.

We think that the word of God, as we will talk about this morning, is important.

It is the most important rubric for life.

It has in it everything we need to know about how to live and how to know this God that we we love.

So if you are exploring the matters of faith, you came on a good Sunday because we're gonna talk about the Word that is the cornerstone of the faith of Christians.

And at the center of this passage in particular, we have an illustration.

So sometimes we've got to think of our own illustrations when we come to Scripture.

Other times, Scripture's like, hey, here you go.

Here's a great illustration for you.

And this morning we have a mirror.

James brings about this mirror.

And we're first going to look at this imagery, because I think everything else in verses 19 through 27 is kind of hinging on this understanding of this mirror.

He says, starting in verse 22, says, But be but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.

For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.

But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer who works, this person will be blessed in what he does.

Now, this this imagery, this illustration, he's he's using, uh we've mentioned, Cam has mentioned previously, that there's a lot of proverbs uh relation in how James writes, so there's a lot of wisdom and folly in what he is talking about this morning.

And this imagery, this mirror, he's talking about a wise person and a fool.

A fool is one who looks intently at a mirror.

And what's the purpose of a mirror?

A mirror is to reflect what is looking at it.

It's to see what you're looking at.

The purpose of a human mirror is to look at it and see, technically, if there are any flaws in you and to fix those flaws so that you move on and someone else doesn't see those flaws.

Think you got a piece of broccoli stuck in your teeth, you look at a mirror to find it, to get it out, and then move on.

That's the intention of a mirror.

And he's saying a fool is one who looks at a mirror, sees the flaw, and then just walks away and forgets all about it, doesn't care a thing about what that mirror is showing him or her, but moving on, goes away and immediately forgets.

But he's saying the wise person looks intently at that mirror, sees that fall, and does whatever needs to be done to take care of it.

James is putting in in this passage that the word of God is a mirror to us.

We are not the mirror reflecting the word back to it and saying, do what you need to do.

The word is the mirror that we come to and it reflects, and we see what fallen nature really is like.

We see what true humanity really is, both fallen and in the Garden of Eden.

We have to go all the way back to Genesis to see when sin enters into the world.

And then we get to see also true humanity full on display in the life of Jesus Christ.

What a true, perfect human being should and did look like.

We come to this mirror, the word.

And he, James, is concerned about this word because he he believes that in it are the words of life, and that everything that we need is in the word of God.

And that when we come to the word and we see it as a mirror, and we see ourselves in light of the word, we can be wise in living in this fallen and broken world.

As Cam has preached several sermons so far in James, the topic has been trials and maturity and what sin really does to us.

And James is writing to this dispersed group of people who he loves dearly, who are strangers in a foreign land, who are seeking to live out the gospel in a fallen place.

And James is writing to them and saying, Look, you need the word of God.

Look at it, it reveals who you are in light of God.

And in order to do that, this is how we live out true religion.

So as you're dispersed, as James is writing to these people in a foreign and pagan land, he's saying, This is what true religion is, and this is what false religion is.

False religion is foolish.

It looks, it's like looking at a mirror and totally forgetting what you look like the next minute.

James is concerned about his people living out true religion.

The wise live out true religion, and the foolish live out false religion.

And as we come to this passage, it is a common passage.

So I want to start with saying with a warning, a word of caution.

The word of God is living and active.

It doesn't matter how much you have read over this, it doesn't matter how many tears you have shed in reading this.

We need the word of God fresh every morning.

So as we come to this, keep this in mind because this is our warning.

Matthew 7, 21 through 27.

Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?

Didn't we do all kinds of things?

Then I will announce to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you lawbreakers.

Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house.

Yet it didn't collapse, because it its foundation was on the rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn't act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

The rain fell, the rivers rose, the winds blew and pounded that house, and it collapsed.

It collapsed with a great crash.

So as we come to this common passage, let us keep those words in mind, lest we be like those who Jesus was condemning, lest we think we understand what it really means to live out this true gospel, and in a sense, be self-deceivers.

Let us pray.

Father God, would you open up our eyes?

Would you open up our hearts?

Would you open up our minds?

Lord, as we come to your word this morning, Lord, your word is weighty.

It is so powerful.

It is so meaningful.

Let us not take it for granted.

Let us not be ignorant and foolish in coming to your word.

God, would you help us?

Help me in this moment.

Help us better understand your word and in turn be better doers of your word.

That we would produce good fruit.

And so live in this fallen and broken world until return.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So my main point for this morning is true religion is hearing and doing the word of God that bears good fruit.

True religion is hearing and doing the word of God that bears good fruit.

Now again, James is writing to this group of people that's dispersed all throughout the regions.

They're going through various trials, various things.

So he's trying to encourage them as they seek to be like Jesus every single day of their lives, he's reminding them of the importance of the word.

And not just hearing the word, not just going to the synagogue and hearing the law of God read, but actually letting it permeate in them and in turn become doers, producing good fruit.

And under this kind of main point, true religion is hearing and doing the word of God that bears good fruit, I have three observations that we'll walk through.

There's a right way and a wrong way to hear the word.

There's a right way and a wrong way to do the word.

And when we hear and do rightly, we produce good fruit.

And the opposite is also true.

When we hear and do wrongly, we will produce bad fruit.

So let's look first at verses 19 through 21.

There is a right way and a wrong way to hear the word.

Says, my dear brothers and sisters, understand this.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

For human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.

Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

So first I want to look at the wrong way.

So there's a right way and there's a wrong way to hear the word.

So first I want to look at the wrong way.

What is the wrong way of being hearers of the word?

So we can take this verse and we can flip and hear the opposite.

Everyone should be quick to listen.

If you're slow to listen, that's a wrong way of hearing the word.

But under there's I as I was thinking through this, I would say there's two main wrong ways.

There's aimlessly hearing the word, and gaulibl, aimlessly or gollibly, so just taking whatever is said as gospel.

So you listen to any any sermon anywhere said by anyone, and you're like, well, he mentioned John 3.16, so that's good.

I should listen to that.

Meanwhile, 90% of his sermon is whack and totally not connected to scripture at all.

Or gullibly.

You just are drawn to charisma and you you you lean in and you listen, like, wow, this person really knows the Bible.

So I'm gonna trust them that what they're saying is true.

So you are slow to listen, in a sense, in light of the word.

You're taking whatever is said as truth, regardless of how at outlandish it may seem.

This is what happens so often in our world today, and just I think it was two weeks ago, maybe.

Um, maybe you saw the uh video of um this woman getting rebuked by her pastor for not giving enough money at the offering.

So just the whole scene is whack.

Like each person is coming up and saying what amount they're putting on their check to the pastor in their service, and the pastor rebukes her because he says, No, I said 2,000.

That's not 2,000.

It needs to be 2,000.

That's whack.

But that person is aimlessly and gullibly listening to this so-called man of God.

So that is a wrong way of hearing the word, and it happens so often.

That's that's how cults are formed.

That's how prosperity gospel pastors make a living.

They tickle itch itching ears.

So, as a word of warning in 2 Timothy 4, 2 through 5, says Paul telling Timothy, preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.

For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves, because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.

They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.

But as for you, exercise self-control and everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

So there's false teachers that can lead people astray.

So there's this aimlessly following those who sound like they know what they're talking about, but they really don't.

Or being gullible.

That is a way of being a wrong hearer.

And a second way of being a wrong hearer is with pride, with self-deception.

So instead of being quick to listen and slow to speak, you are slow to listen and uh quick to speak.

So you think you know what you need to hear.

You don't want to hear what you need to hear, you only hear what you want to hear.

So you are slow to listen.

And when someone is trying to correct you, you cut them off and say, No, no, no, I'm good.

I'm good, I know what I need, instead of letting them encourage and rebuke you.

Or another way that pride can hinder our hearing is by quickly dismissing anything that's hard.

How many of us are guilty of that?

We read passages like this one the true religion is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and we say, God, that's hard.

I can read my Bible, that's good enough, right?

I can share the gospel with my wife, that's good, right?

We quickly dismiss anything that's hard when we try to listen with pride.

I love this quote from Spurgeon.

And uh another way with that pride comes through is to only gain knowledge.

So I when I first came to faith, I was super zealous and I wanted to learn everything, so I got really puffed up in knowledge.

And I was really, really bad in evangelism, burned a lot of bridges because I wanted to gain all of this knowledge, and I was just spewing knowledge at people.

In my pride, I said, no, no, no, I know what you need to know.

This is what you need to hear.

Instead of letting the Word of God do the work of God.

But to come to the Word to only gain knowledge, to puff ourselves up is to hear the Word with pride.

Spurgeon says this wisdom is the right use of knowledge.

To know is not to be wise.

Many men know a great deal and are all the greater fools for it.

There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool.

But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.

So when we come, if we are coming to the word of God to just puff up our own knowledge, we're just being fools.

Now, I'm not saying that it's it's wrong to want to learn the depths of God.

I'm not saying it's wrong to go to school to learn, to seminary.

Like I'm not saying seminary is bad.

I'm saying if you're going to the word of God to puff yourself up and only picking and choosing what you need to hear or want to hear, you are coming to the word with pride.

And you are puffing yourself up and you are deceiving yourself in your doing.

Another way that this happens is getting defensive if someone tries to correct you.

And James mentions this in verse 20.

For human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.

When you when your initial reaction, if someone is correcting you based on the word, if your initial reaction is anger, then a good telltale sign of that is your pride is hurt.

That's really what it is.

You're not hearing with humility, you're hearing with pride.

How dare you say that I'm not being a faithful father, that I'm not raising my kids the right way?

It's like, but well, and that person is saying, well, look at the laundry list of things.

Like, bro, you need to live in light of the gospel.

You need to do these things that the word says to do.

So if our initial reaction is to get defensive, we're hearing with pride.

And all in all, in pride, what we are doing is we are making ourselves the center of attention.

If we're coming to the word with pride, if we're hearing with pride, we're putting ourselves at the center of attention of the word where we're not supposed to be at all.

That's God's spot.

And when you act like when you want to act like God, sin is creeping at the door.

When you make yourself the center of attention, you are molding the word around your own desires.

You're letting your own pride lead the show.

You are doing what Adam and Eve did in the garden, and all of the countless examples that we have in Scripture of those who did what was evil in their own eyes.

That is what we do when we come to the Word, when we hear the Word in pride rather than molding our lives around the Word.

So those are the some of the wrong ways.

Now I know there's more wrong ways to do that, and that can happen on a Sunday.

It can happen on any given Sunday, walking in here.

You can be listening aimlessly or gullibly or with pride.

I say this often, but it it was said to me early on in my faith: like, don't always take whatever is said from the pulpit as 100% true gospel.

Be like the Bereans in Acts 17, who, in hearing Paul preaching the gospel, they're like, Whoa, whoa, wait, where's how does that add up in scripture?

And they're like, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, that's that's adding up.

Like, no, that makes sense.

So, whenever I'm up here preaching, if I say anything that's contrary to this word, tell me.

Don't listen to me just because I said it, just because I'm a pastor.

If Cam says this something that is contrary to the word of God, follow the word.

At all times, follow the word.

Don't just follow us because we're up here talking.

Follow the word.

Lord willing, we are saying the things that align with God.

But as members of this church, members of Redeemer Church, that's part of the covenant that you say.

Like you're agreeing, like we're gonna guard the truth of the gospel.

That's why we think church membership is important.

It's not, don't just go to any church, like be committed there.

Guard the gospel.

If something is hard, dive in.

That's a right way of hearing.

If it's difficult, dive in.

Because the marker of that is humility.

So the wrong way, aimlessly, gallbly, and with pride, the right way of hearing the word is in humility.

The further along I walk with Jesus, the more and more I'm convinced.

The true mark of a Christian is humility in every area of life.

If pride is more rampant than humility, then I'm gonna question more in that person.

Humility is the true marker of a Christian.

So when we come and to hear the word, we come with humility.

And that's what James is saying.

Everyone should be quick to listen.

We are quick to listen.

That's a humble posture.

We want to listen quickly.

We want to be slow to speak, not jumping in and cutting people off.

We want to be patiently speaking.

So we want to know before we speak.

We don't want to just throw out things just because it sounds good.

We want to make sure, no, no, is the ad is the advice I'm giving just based on me, or is it based on the word?

If it's based on the word, give that advice.

Absolutely, 100%.

If it's just based on you and not rooted in scripture, hold off.

Pause.

Patiently think about it.

Because that's a humble posture.

If you're quick to speak, then you're that's a that's a form of pride in some ways.

Because you're saying, like, no, no, no, I've got what I need to say.

You need to hear this.

Be patient in your speaking.

And as we approach the word, as we hear the word, we let the word do the work.

As I mentioned, the word is sharper than any double-edged sword.

It pierces through both skin and marrow.

Like, that's what the word does.

So, in giving advice, in discipling, in preaching the gospel, we want to be rooted in the word.

It's the word that's doing the work, it's not the craftiness of your speech.

So in preparing for this sermon, I'm like, Lord, I don't want to say anything fancy.

Help me be just as plain as possible.

Because that's what the word needs to do the work.

The word can cut to the core.

So in in listening, let that word cut you to the core.

Let it cut you.

Let it cut you.

And as we hear in humility, James encourages his readers and us this morning, rid yourselves of all of moral filth and evil.

So that is a form of humility.

In coming to hear the word, we need to rid ourselves.

Why do we do a prayer of confession every Sunday?

Because we need it.

We need to confess our sins, not just on Sunday.

We need to regularly be confessing our sins.

We need to be actively pursuing holiness.

That's what James is saying.

By ridding yourselves of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent, he's saying, run that race that God has placed before you, throwing off the chains and things that are hindering you from running that race, that that pursuit of holiness, becoming more and more like Jesus.

In 1 John 2, 15 through 17, it says, Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one's possessions is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And the world with its lust is passing away.

But the one who does the will of God remains forever.

So that's as we come to the Word on Sundays, as we as we as you go to the Word in your quiet times, as you go to the Word at small groups, as you hear the Word, in any avenue, in any way, you approach the Word with humility, casting off any sin that is entangling you.

You confess to the Lord, throw those things off, because those things have no right to be around you when you are coming to the Word of God.

I love how 1 John puts that, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one's possessions.

That is an all-encompassing picture of what it means when James is saying, rid yourself of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent.

Think in those lines.

When you come to confession, think, God, man, what has my flesh been seeking after today?

What has my flesh been seeking after this week?

What accomplishments have I been straining for that really don't mean anything in light of eternity?

What ways has my flesh been failing before you?

God, in what ways have my eyes deceived me?

What ways have my eyes sinned against you?

What ways have my eyes lusted after other things, coveted other things, or looked wrongfully on a neighbor?

And God, where have I been prideful in the things that you have given me that are yours, not mine?

So as we rid ourselves of all moral filth and evil, we come to this implanted word.

I love this imagery.

But as we come in humility, we come as those under the authority of the author.

So with the wrong way of hearing the word, we are coming as if we are the authors and we're shaping this word of God around our lives.

But when we come in humility, we come understanding that God is the author of this book.

He is the creator of us, and we mold our lives around him, not the other way around.

We mold our desires around what this book says, not what the culture says is good at the time.

Because if you just just read history, it changes.

There's nothing new under the sun.

It's all going to just have its rounds.

The word of God will last forever.

He is the author of it.

So we come to the word, we mold our lives around this word.

So before we move on, I just want to just want to like what is the word and why is it important?

In case there are any any of those here who don't have a love of the word of God, what is the word and why is it important?

I have a couple of verses to talk about like why is James saying this implanted word, humbly receive it, which is able to save your souls.

So in Romans 10, verses 14 through 17, Paul is saying, How then can they call on him they have not believed in?

Romans 10:14–17

So talking about those who are who are dead in sin.

So Ephesians 2 is true of all humanity.

We were dead in our sins and trespasses in which we once lived.

Following the course of the Prince of the Power of the Air, like we have we were dead in our sins.

So Paul is talking about that.

How can they, who are dead in sin, how can they call on God if they have not believed?

Well, how can they believe without hearing about him?

And how can they hear without a preacher?

And how can they preach unless they are sent?

As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

That is the word.

But not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our messes?

So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.

And God is the author of this book, and it all points to Jesus.

So the message of the gospel, the word of God points to Jesus.

It is the way that sinners come to salvation by hearing the word of God and in God doing a work in them, that is how people are saved.

But not only, so in James, which is able to save your souls.

So he's talking about salvation justification, so being made right with God, but also the like James is writing to people who are already saved.

So he's saying that no, no, this word is able to save you from sin, but is also able to save you now until Christ comes again.

It is a progressive sanctification.

So we're justified upon receiving the implanted word in our hearts.

God gives us a new heart.

That implanted word of God.

And this word is also able to save as we continue on in our trials and in our maturity.

That word is able to save us day after day after day after day.

That is why we continually repent.

But that word is implanted in us.

The word of God, what James is talking about, is the at that time would have been the Old Testament if they knew.

What we have is the full Old and New Testament.

We have the full counsel of God.

That is the word of God.

We're not to neglect any of it.

James says it is the implanted word.

And I think what James is talking about, this implanted word, is a call back to Jeremiah 31.

It says, instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

The Lord's declaration.

So God, in his divine wisdom, thousands and thousands of years ago, declares that this is going to be true.

That one day the word of God isn't going to be written on stone of tablets that they would have been listening to at that time, hearing read among them.

But what would happen under the new covenant is that upon salvation, upon being made right with God, upon becoming a new creation, God would give you a new heart, and on that heart is the implanted word of God.

He would write the word of God on your hearts.

Because as Christians, we have the Spirit of God, right?

Who helps us understand the Word of God.

That was all throughout Ephesians.

Paul talked tremendously about God give us wisdom to understand these truths.

And in 1 Peter, we know that we've been given everything that we need for life and godliness.

If that's true, then God's law really is written on our hearts.

He is the author, he has put that in us.

And his Holy Spirit has come in us to help us understand that.

So when we hear the word rightly in humility, we're hearing words that are already written on our hearts.

That the Spirit is calling to remembrance and saying, Oh my goodness, God, you are so good.

I don't deserve this.

I don't deserve any of this.

I deserve to be nailed to a cross.

But Lord Jesus, you did that on my place.

You wrote the law of God on my heart, and you have given me this new song to sing, and as I sing it, it's in line with your word.

God, this is so beautiful.

This word is able to save because it's implanted in our hearts from the moment that we are saved.

And God is the author and perfecter of our faith, as Hebrews says.

So He started that work and He will make it continue until we are with Him in glory.

So that Word is in us, and we will see that Word face to face in glory.

Amen.

When we come to the Word, I love this from Spurgeon.

It says the word of the Lord is a revealer of secrets.

It shows a man his life, his thoughts, his heart, his inmost self.

The word of the Lord is a revealer of secrets.

It shows a man his life, his thoughts, his heart, his inmost self.

Because as Christians, when we come to the Word, we're asking God, create in me a clean heart, as David prayed.

Search out my heart, Lord.

Find out those ways that I'm not ridding myself fully of that sin.

Because when we read the word, God is moving in it and stirring our hearts to confess so that we can rightly say, Lord, you are my all in all.

You are my everything.

Now I I love this illustration.

A compass.

How does a compass work?

So a compass works off of the magnetic field of the earth.

So a good compass, I should say, not the cheap compasses that are like, you know, you can spin it around.

It's like, who knows what way north is.

I'm talking about an actual like good compass.

It's always going to be pointing true north because it's working off of the magnetic field of the earth.

The implanted word.

When we are saved, God gives us a new direction, a new compass, so to speak.

We are given this implanted word.

So we're not bound to this true north in the world's sense.

We're bound to this true north of God.

God is our all-in-all.

All glory be to Christ our King.

All glory be to Christ.

That is the true north of our lives.

So it's not just, okay, that way is north.

No, we look to the word and say, God, where are you leading in this?

That's the direction I go.

Not the way of the world, not the way that whatever the compass says, like you can spin a compass around, it's always going to be pointing that way.

We come to the word and say, God, where do you want me to go?

What do you want me to do?

What do I need to cast off?

What do I need to sacrifice that is keeping me from truly following you?

That's what every Christian should be praying and seeking and asking.

Your directions change when you receive the implanted word.

Your way of life changes because you're bound to a different magnetic field that is always pointing to Jesus.

That is what this implanted word of God does to and for us.

So a matter of just of practical application.

There's some simple things that I thought of just in light of being hearers of the word.

Here are some practical ways of playing this out.

Read good books.

We have resources on our website that will help you understand the Bible, but don't neglect the Bible.

You read other books.

I heard H.B.

Charles say it.

I think he was quoting somebody else.

But you read other books.

So when you open up a book, you read it.

The Bible is the one thing that reads you.

Like you don't, you're not really reading the Bible, it's reading you.

It's a mirror.

You're looking at it like, ah, dang, God, I need to confess right now.

Because you're pointing that out in me.

So read good books, but don't neglect the Bible.

Because you can read all the good books you want, but if you if you're just reading books, you're just puffing yourself up with knowledge.

The word of God is living and active, not what John Piper wrote.

John Piper is a great author.

Good books.

The word of God is living and active.

Those other books are helpful, but they are not the word of God.

Study the Bible with others.

Second thing.

So we have different avenues of doing that.

We have small groups that we offer.

There are discipleship groups, there's smaller groups.

You can study the Bible with your family.

So family worship.

If you're married, if you have a roommate, you can study the Bible with them.

It doesn't have to be organized.

You can just open the Bible one night and say, hey, let's look at Ephesians 1.

There's lots of good stuff in there.

Just dive in, study the word with people.

Third thing, I say this often, y'all are probably going to get just sick of me saying it.

Prepare for Sunday worship.

What do I mean by that?

Read the passage ahead of time.

Come ready to hear the word preached.

Ready your heart to be able to receive.

Listen to the songs ahead of time.

We send those out, they're always available.

Get here on time.

That's a practical one.

Get here on time.

That's a way of preparing for Sunday worship.

If you need to set out your clothes Saturday night, if you need to make your breakfast, like prep your breakfast, prep your lunch, whatever you need to do Saturday night to make sure you're here on time on Sunday.

That is a way of humbly receiving the word.

I might step on your toes by saying that.

Like, I've got kids, I understand it's crazy.

Sunday mornings are crazy.

Do what you need to do to try to be here on time.

Because there is good that comes from coming in uninterrupted, undisturbed, and ready to hear.

Number five, discuss sorry, number four.

I don't know how to count this morning.

Don't neglect Sunday worship.

So prepare for it and then don't neglect it.

So every Sunday we seek to sing the word, pray the word, preach the word, and see the word through the Lord's Supper, and when we have a chance through baptism.

So we shape our Sundays around the Word of God.

That was a conscious decision as we planted this church.

Like we are going to be a word-centered church.

Now, a lot of people are going to say they're word-centered, and then you look at the what does it actually look like in the actual liturgy of the church?

But we seek to do that.

In our songs that we sing, we want them to be rooted in the word.

In the prayers that we pray, we're often quoting scripture as we're praying those prayers.

We preach the word, we're preaching through books of the Bible.

Sometimes we'll do topical, but it's going to be on a passage of scripture.

And we're going to walk through that verse by verse.

And when we see the word, we get to do this week in, week out, where we come to the table.

We confess our sins to God and we and we proclaim his death until he comes.

So that is a major source of discipleship, personal discipleship in the Word every Sunday.

This is what we do.

We don't change things up because we want you to know this is what's happening on Sunday.

You're coming to sing the word, pray the word, preach the word, and see the word.

Those things are going to happen.

So don't neglect Sunday worship.

And just another sub note on that: take notes during a sermon.

It's helpful.

It's a way of actively listening.

I'm really bad about doing that.

I'm really bad at, like, if I have my phone, I'll take notes on my phone, but I don't turn it on airplane mode, then I'm distracted.

And then like something happens, and I'm like, then my brain's elsewhere.

So I'm talking literally in all of these things, I'm talking to myself too.

Take notes during the sermon.

Use a physical Bible rather than your phone.

There's less distractions when you got a paper copy in front of you.

Put that phone in your pocket, turn it on, do not disturb.

Listen.

That is a way that we can uh humbly come to the word.

And then the fifth thing, discuss the sermon or the passage of scripture after service with someone.

At some point, whether it be today or throughout the week, if you see somebody else that was here, hit them up.

Say, hey, what did you think about the sermon?

What are some takeaways that you had?

That's a way of being an active listener and a doer of the word.

So as we go into the doing of the word, there's a right way and there's a wrong way to do the word.

Before I get into the right way and the wrong way, I love this imagery that Paul uses or that James uses in this uh in the mirror.

He talks about in verse 25, but the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom.

The law of freedom.

So I just want to take a note that oftentimes, especially in our culture, the Bible, Christianity, is not seen as a religion of freedom.

It is seen as a religion of instruction, of uh not being able to do certain things that you want to do.

It is a uh a structure of of shackles, as often is said.

And it's just so far from the truth.

James says here that when the when when you look into the perfect law of freedom, what does he mean by that?

He means in act in looking in the word, actual freedom is found in the word of God.

It's not bondage, looking in the word of God.

So just thinking of speed limits.

Like this is where I think the argument that the Bible is just full of a set of rules and it just leads to bondage, there's no freedom in it.

Think of a speed limit.

So if you're driving on the interstate, speed limit is 70.

If you're approaching that speed limit with pride, you're gonna say, no, I can go over that.

They're hindering my freedom because I need to go faster.

I need to, I need to make where I need to go on time, so I'm gonna drive 80.

I'm gonna break the law, I'm gonna go over that speed limit.

And listen, I speed all the time, so I'm talking to myself here.

Uh but you're you're speeding, so you you are having a prideful approach to that.

You're saying, nah, that's that is a bondage, that's not a freedom.

I'm gonna do what I want to do, I'm gonna break that law, I'm gonna go faster.

When in actuality, there is full freedom to drive zero miles an hour up to 70 miles an hour within that speed limit.

But so often you want to think like, no, no, no, what's beyond that?

And that's that's the pride that comes in when we think of this.

If you for people that look at the Bible, I and I'm I'm this is my own perception of this, and what I think that they're coming at is they're looking at the Bible and saying, like, no, you're hindering on what I think is freedom.

When when in reality the Bible is saying, no, true freedom is found only in Christ.

So you can run after all kinds of other things you want to do.

You want to run after whatever the culture is saying is the most important thing, go for it.

That's actually bondage.

You're a slave to sin.

I listen, I'll be a slave to Christ every day.

Because that means freedom.

That's what that really means.

The law of freedom, when we look intently at it.

No, no, we're looking into the law of freedom.

True freedom is found in Christ, not in whatever the culture is saying is good.

Your truth is freedom.

No, it's not.

You're bound to something, you're bound to the culture's truth.

So you're a slave to the culture.

That's the reality of that.

So when we come to the word, when we want to do the word, I want to be careful on this because there is a wrong way, and I think just looking at church history, like non-Christians have every right to say Christians have been jacked up for throughout church history, even today.

And I uh let me just Christians have been jacked up.

Because there's a difference between true religion, what the Bible is saying is true religion, and those who claim Christ, who claim to be Christians when you have aimlessly, gullibly, or prideful hearers of The word, you have prideful, aimlessly gullible doers of the word that will produce bad fruit.

And it just runs rampant in the church.

And it I can't ignore it because it's so true.

It it seems like every single week there's another pastor somewhere that has been living a secret life that is deceiving many.

And how great the fall that is.

Like what I read in starting in Matthew 7, like how great the fall will be, how great the fall that really is.

For those who claim Christ and who are seemingly doing the Lord's work, but on the inside and in secret ways, completely throwing it in God's face and living their own way.

That is not freedom.

That is slavery to sin.

So when we come to the word, we hear the word through humility, we want to do the word rightly.

So wrongly, what's a wrong way of doing the word?

Lazily.

I'll get to it when I want.

That's pride.

No, we're to we're to pursue what the word says.

A wrong way is to lazily do the word or selectively doing the word.

I only want to do what I want to do.

The things that are convenient for me.

I love the book that we went through for Redeemer Institute, loving messy people.

Part of being a church, being a member of a church, part of being a Christian is we are all sinners, saints, and sufferers.

There's going to be messiness.

It's going to be hard.

We don't get to do just what we want to do in Christ because we have the word of God that tells us how we need to live.

We can't pick and choose just what we want to do.

Another major wrong way of doing the word is to receive a blessing.

So, what I mean by that, it's treating God like a vending machine.

Like, God, I'll do what your word says so that I'll be blessed.

And listen, James catches that.

He's like, listen, in verse 25, this person will be blessed in what he does, not because of what he does.

He'll be blessed in what he does, not because of what he does.

So it's in the doing that we're blessed, not the results of whatever it is that we're doing.

We're blessed by God in sharing the gospel with others.

We're not blessed just because we share the gospel with someone and they come to faith.

Praise God if that happens.

But fruit happens in us when we share the gospel with others.

The Lord is blessing that.

Listen, if if you save them, then like I'll read your word every day for the next 10 days.

Like, no, that's treating God like a vending machine.

That is not God's design.

That is not God's intention.

He's doing just fine without you.

He doesn't need you to do something to receive a blessing from him.

He is willing to give blessing, but we are blessed in our doing.

So a wrong way to do the word is to do it in order to receive a blessing.

So in our doing, we do it with eagerness.

We hear the word and we respond eagerly.

We don't wait.

We respond eagerly and with sincerity and with perseverance.

So James again mentions who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, not looks intently and just sits there and just looks at it and just waits for something to happen.

No, who looks intently at the Word of God and says, okay, God, this is what you're telling me I need to do.

I'm gonna go do it.

And regardless of how hard it is, I need to do it.

Regardless of how many times you've failed, no matter how many times this week you feel like everything that you do is just a loss and you're not getting anywhere with anyone, we're to persevere in it.

Because whatever the outcome is, that's not the blessing.

The blessing is being faithful to the Word of God.

That's what we're called to do.

And trust me, like I I come here this morning like weak and wounded.

Like, it's hard to be a Christian.

It is.

It's much easier to not, it's much easier to do whatever you want to do.

It's hard to live the way that the Bible says to live, but there is blessing in doing it.

There is blessing in doing it here and now, in knowing that we have a perfect, righteous, loving God who looks on us and calls us sons and daughters.

But we also have a future blessing that will come, that has prom that has been promised to us.

We will be with God in glory.

That is all the blessing we will ever need.

And in the meantime, he's given us his word that will help us go along in it.

So, thirdly, when we hear and do rightly, we will produce good fruit.

Let's look at verses twenty-six through twenty-seven.

If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless, and he deceives himself.

So he gives kind of three three evidences of pure and undefiled religion controlling of the tongue, caring for the least of these, and personal holiness.

That's what true religion really looks like.

R.

Kent Hughes, in a really helpful book, Disciplines of a Godly Man.

I if you've not read it, if you're a man, read that book.

He also wrote one with his wife, Disciplines of a Godly Woman, and then they have Disciplines of a Young Godly Man, like incredible book, but he says this about the tongue.

The tongue will inevitably reveal what is on the inside.

This is especially true under stress, when the tongue is compulsively revealing.

If you're a parent, you're like, yep, you're right.

If you got little kids, you're like, yep, yep, when I'm stressed, my my tongue is not controlled.

But pure and undefiled religion is this controlling your tongue, caring for the least of these, and personal holiness.

He says, Man, if you don't control your tongue, what you are doing, what you actually believe, is useless.

You're being a disservice to the name of Christ.

That that's essentially what he's put.

Like, that's a hard word, but if you don't control your tongue, you are doing a disservice to Christ.

Control your tongue.

As Christians, we need to be careful about what we are saying.

And I'm not gonna dive much into that because it as we go along in James, he'll talk more about the tongue, and I'll let Cam talk more about that.

But true religion is controlling your tongue.

True religion is caring for the least of these.

So he he he mentions the two groups to look after, that means to care for, not just to like, oh I'm looking after you and just keep walking.

Like, no, actually caring for them.

The orphans and widows in their distress.

At the time, that would have been the lowliest of lowly in their in their context.

So he's not saying you're only like true religion is only looking after those.

He's just saying caring for the least of these, as a general sense, caring for the least of these, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

And that is that's personal holiness.

Keeping yourself unstained from the world is ridding yourselves of all filthiness, all the moral filth that entangles you, and seeking to be like Christ day after day.

And I love that he's putting all of this together and saying pure religion is this.

It's not pure religion is keeping yourself unstained from the world.

It's also helpful if you care for the least of these.

It's also helpful if you control your tongue.

No, no, no.

He's saying all of those, it's all encompassing.

One is not more important than the other.

However, our personal holiness will dictate how we care for those and how we control our tongue.

So all of them are equally important.

I think we live in a day and age where there's a lot of talk of social justice and the church.

And let me just be cautious on this.

But what James is saying here is both are equally important.

We are to care for the least of these.

We are to care about personal holiness.

We're not to pursue social justice at the neglect of personal holiness.

We're also not to pursue personal holiness at the neglect of caring for the least of these social justices.

They are to be married.

We are to love the Lord God with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

And Jesus says, Our neighbor, who is our neighbor?

The least of these.

So care for them.

And in so doing, we control our tongue.

We don't live in a bubble, only focus on personal holiness.

But we also don't only think about social justice and caring for the least of these to the neglect of our personal holiness.

One commentator put it this way: a full-orbed biblical Christianity encompasses all of these dimensions, social justice, Bible study, personal holiness, and more, with Christ at the center as promised Messiah and sovereign Lord.

That's it.

Pure religion?

Care about all these things?

Christ has to be at the center as a promised Messiah and sovereign Lord.

And in this, there's good fruit, there's bad fruit.

I'm well over time, but as we seek to be hearers and doers of the word, when we hear rightly and we do rightly, we produce good fruit.

When we hear wrongly and we do wrongly, we produce bad fruit.

What does good fruit look like?

It looks like what James has been talking about.

But what what does it really mean is that our character aligns with the fruit of the Spirit.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control.

Those things are characteristics of us.

Not just something that we do, but it's who we are.

So as we produce this good fruit, as we hear the word rightly and we do the word rightly, we're producing this fruit that others are able to see.

And that's good.

You'll have more in common with Jesus than the world.

You'll be quick to listen, you'll be slow to speak and slow to anger.

Read the gospels, see how Jesus interacted with people.

He was He was sometimes quick to speak, but to the religious leaders who were getting it all wrong.

But when we produce good fruit by hearing the word rightly and doing the word rightly, we look more like Jesus, and we have freedom in the Spirit to live more like Christ.

But when we hear the word wrongly and do the word wrongly, we produce bad fruit and we look more like the world than Jesus.

And that is not a characteristic that should be the case for Christians.

We look more like slaves to sin than being free in Christ.

In conclusion, I I found this illustration really helpful from uh Kyle Worley, I don't know who he is, but book Forms for Fellowship.

But in this idea of perseverance, in living in this sinful world and hearing the word rightly and doing the word rightly and producing good fruit.

And we don't we don't just do the word to receive a blessing.

Uh we do the word and in it we're getting blessed, we're producing good fruit.

But he he says, Imagine you have a friend who one day gives you a call and say, Hey, I need I need some help with some yard work.

Um, would you mind coming over for the afternoon?

It's like, great.

It's a nice sunny day, sounds good.

Don't doesn't give you a timeline or anything.

Um, so you go and you arrive and you walk around the back side of the house and it's in the backyard, and you see a wheelbarrow, you see some shovels, and you see this mound, this huge mound of rocks.

And you're immediately regretting, like, what is what is this guy trying to get me to do?

And you're like, all right, so what are we doing?

And he says, All right, we're moving these rocks to the other side of the yard.

That's all the instruction that you get.

And you just start helping.

The summer sun's hot, your friend starts telling you, move the other side, move the rocks to the other side, and as you're going, the longer you're doing it, you're like, man, this just seems meaningless.

It's just hard, it's grueling.

And finally, you get frustrated.

You're like, why are we doing this?

What is the point?

We're just moving these rocks to the other side of the yard.

You're just making another pile in another place.

Your friend picks up a shovel and says, About two feet under our feet is a treasure chest full of gold and diamonds.

I figured I'd split it with you.

Two questions.

Do you pick up the shovel and finish the job?

Do you now look back on all the work you've done differently than you had a few moments before?

In this life, we are not promised blessing.

We're not promised anything other than Christ Himself.

But that doesn't mean the work is meaningless.

There is blessing that comes in the work.

There's blessing that comes in hearing and doing the word rightly.

In it, we're producing good fruit.

And the Bible says that we become a city on a hill, like to the world.

Like God uses his manifold, like his manifold wisdom is on display through the church, to the world.

That's that's God's avenue of showing the world who he is.

So this work is not meaningless.

Regardless of how hard it is, regardless of how grueling some days are, regardless of how many tears you shed, regardless of all of those things, there is treasure to come.

That's not why we're doing it now, but we receive this word that's implanted in us.

We have a new true north that we've run hard after Christ, and one day we will receive that blessing of being with Christ forevermore.

There will be no tears, there will be no more shame, there'll be no more guilt, no more, no more sin.

We will be free, truly free, to live with Christ our Savior, with God our King.

What a glorious day that will be.

So let us persevere in the Word, hearing and doing rightly to produce good fruit until He returns or calls us home, where we will receive our salvation in full.