Being Doers, Not Only Hearers - James 1:19-27

[Music] we're making our way through the letter of James and we come now to chapter 1 verse 19 where James is continuing on giving wisdom for very practical Christian living in the previous section he's discussed about how we can love and honor and serve God even in the midst of trials and there's hardly anything more practical than that in the Christian life now he's giving us the wisdom of what we need to do to stand firm against unrighteous anger and much like the pattern is for example in the Old Testament book of Proverbs here James

is giving us wisdom on how to deal with a anger problem look at here verse 19 James chapter 1 he says so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God now you've heard us say before in some of our previous studies here through the book of James how many people make a similarity between James and the New Testament and the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament and verses like verse 19 our reasons why you

could pretty much just lift that idea from other ideas that we see expressed in the book of Proverbs so then my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath I mean as I said before that sounds like something that just fit right in in the book of Proverbs and again we can learn how to be slow to wrath in other words slow to losing our temper slow to anger by first learning how to be swift to hear and slow to speak you know it's a very important point there

isn't it a lot of our anger comes from being self-centered and not being others centered now Jesus being the ultimate others centered person that ever walked this earth he really not only fills our life and gives us the power and the heart to do this but he really shows us the way as well that Jesus was a man who listened to people go through the Gospels and look how many times Jesus was asking questions of others why because Jesus was just looking for an excuse to speak although he was a great speaker and preacher but

Jesus was also a man who listened so again as it's been observed before and it's somewhat of a cliche but some of these cliches are pretty good actually the cliche being is that God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we should always be listening twice as much as we speak and again that fits very much in the idea of what James is speaking about here in verse 19 be swift to hear slow to speak and even slower to wrath we're gonna be others centered if we're Swift to hear we're gonna be slow

to speak if we're gonna be others centered now again add on top of that at the end of verse 19 being slow to wrath and why look now at verse 24 the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God you see in light of the nature of temptation in light of the goodness of God which was spoken of in the previous verses we have to take special care to be slow to wrath why because our wrath does not accomplish the righteousness of God now it's kind of funny because I always like to think

that my wrath accomplishes the righteousness of God that whenever it is I'm getting angry I'm getting angry out of some really righteous cause and God Himself would be just as angry if not angrier than I am etc etc listen the truth is most the time when I get angry it's about myself most the time when you get angry it's about yourself our wrath almost always simply defends our own agenda or promotes our own agenda I'm not saying that it's impossible for us to have a righteous wrath I'm just maybe speaking personally here when I say

most the time when I say it is a righteous wrath it's really just my own selfish wrath my wrath is not promoting or producing the righteousness of God and so using this wisdom we are going to be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath but then going on now in diverse twenty-one where we read therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls you see I love how James does this again very much similar to the pattern of the book

of Proverbs we're just one piece of wisdom is linked to another very much like its pearls on a necklace just one next to another these beautiful jewels of wisdom that we see on how to live in honoring life before God and what do we do well we lay aside all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness you see this has in mind an impure manner of living and again we talked about the nature of temptation in previous passages there in the letter of James we talked about the goodness of God and when we contrast the nature

of temptation with the goodness of God that that means we want to lay aside all impurity we want to put those things far from us and so it's sort of like one thought is suggesting itself to another as James goes on in his letter I kind of like I can't get too far in reading this verse without thinking of the old King James Version translation of verse 21 here of James chapter 1 it translates the phrase overflow of wickedness here in the New King James it translates it with this phrase the superfluidity of naughtiness look

friends I don't even know if I can tell you exactly what the superfluidity of naughtiness is but man that's a memorable phrase and again it's the idea simply of an overflow of wickedness its filthiness it's stuff we should put away I like what John Trapp the old Puritan commentator said when speaking on that idea of putting away all filthiness he said it in a very picturesque way he said this quote the stinking filth of a pestilent ulcer sin is the devil's vomit the soul's excrement the superfluidity or garbage of naughtiness as it is here called

by an allusion to the garbage of sacrifices cast into the book Kedron that is the town ditch he says those things that are marked by things that we would just throw into a dump get rid of that filthiness in your life and do what instead look at the end part of verse 21 receive with meekness the implanted word you see in contrast to an impure manner of living we should receive the implanted word of God doing it all with meekness that is a very teachable heart and that word is able to save us both in

our current situation and eternally you see God's Word is so pure God's Word is so strong God word that's where it has such a force with it that it can preserve us even in an impure age and you know if I'm marking up my Bible here in James chapter 1 when I come to verse 21 if there's any line that I'm gonna underline it's that line right there receive with meekness the implanted word that's the first thing to do isn't it to receive I like what Charles Spurgeon said along those lines he says the first

thing then is receive the word receive is a very instructive gospel word it is the door through which God's grace enters to us we are not saved by working but by receiving not by what we give to God by what God gives to us and we receive from him and that's exactly what we're supposed to do understanding the impurity that there is in the world understanding the impurity that there is within me and the need to walk right with God the first thing I need to do is receive with meekness the implanted word and again

in the whole phrasing of this James is explaining to us the spiritual power of the word of God when that spiritual word of God is implanted in the human heart what is it able to do look at it right there in verse 21 it's able to save your souls the Word of God carries the power of God having the ability even to rescue us in this present age and in the age to come now having brought up that idea of receiving with meekness the implanted word now starting in verse 22 he's gonna talk to us

more about how to receive the Word of God are you ready for this starting now verse 22 but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed

in what he does Wow what a section there in James chapter 1 and this is one of those sections that is very James Ian if I could make up a word right there these verses 22 through 25 really give us a lot of the heart and the vision behind James in this letter he tells us in verse 22 be doers of the word and not hearers only you see when we receive God's Word as verse 21 told us to do we need to receive God's Word as doers and not only as hearers nobody should think

that James is putting down the idea of being a hearer you can't really be a doer until you've been a hearer but get the point being a hearer of the Word of God is not enough it has to translate into our life we need to be doers of the word and not only hearers if you take comfort in the fact that you've heard God's Word when you haven't actually done it that's deceiving yourself you know I think about this as this teaching goes out in recorded form you're listening to it online you're listening to it

over some kind of podcast or something like that you may take comfort in the fact that you're hearing the Word of God and you're hearing somebody teach the Word of God it's a good thing that you're doing that but you can't stop there you can't merely be a hearer of the word of God have to go on to be a doer you know it was common in the ancient world for people to hear a teacher and if you followed the teacher and tried to live out what the teacher said you are no longer just a

hearer you were a disciple you are a doer we can say that Jesus isn't just looking for fans he isn't just looking for people to approve of him he isn't just looking for people say hey yeah team Jesus I'm all for you he's not just looking for hearers he's looking for doers he's looking for disciples and what I find interesting is we find throughout this letter of James so many allusions back to the Sermon on the Mount Jesus used this same point to conclude his great sermon on the mount at the end of Matthew chapter

7 Jesus said at the end of Matthew chapter 7 that the one who heard the word without doing it was like a man who built his house on the sand but the one who heard god's word and did it was like a man who built his house on the rock when you both hear and do that gives you a strong foundation able to withstand the inevitable storms of life and said this is what we have to look at you see it's not enough just for us to hear great sermons we as Christians we can't become

a sermon appreciation society we have to be those who hear the word and then do the Word of God again if I could quote something from Spurgeon he said this quote I fear we have many such in all congregations admiring hearers affectionate hearers attached hearers but all the while unblessed hearers because they are not doers of the word of God and remember if you are only hearing and not doing what does James say to you he says that you are deceiving yourselves in verse 22 and surely this is the worst kind of deception look it's

one thing for me to deceive somebody else but in some ways it's an worst thing for me to lie to myself I need to at the very basis be true before myself and before my god the worst kind of deception at least in some ways is to deceive myself no I don't want to fall into that trap now to build on this point in verse 23 James says that the one who does that is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror now verse 24 for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets

what kind of man he was you see the kind of person who only hears God's word without doing it has the same kind of sense the same kind of stability as the man who looks into a mirror and immediately forgets what he saw what would you say about the person who looks in the mirror and immediately forgets I look in the mirror and I see that I have a great big black mark on my face that needs to be cleaned up I see it and then I immediately forget I don't do anything about that big

black mark on my face that should be cleaned off the information I received from the mirror did not do any good in my life and that's why it seems that there are people who hear the word of God they seem to receive the Word of God but it doesn't do any good in their life why because their hearers and not doers and by the way there is a phrase here used in verse 23 where he says if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural

face according to the Greek commentators that I read the ancient Greek word translated observing here has the sense of a careful scrutiny so what James is talking about by analogy is people who may give a careful scrutiny to the Bible yet nevertheless they're not doing it brother and sister this is wake-up call this tells us that you can be a real student of the word yet fail to walk in God's wisdom fail to be blessed by the word why because you receive it only as a hearer even if you're diving in deep you're just a

deep hearer but you are not an actual doer of the word of God you know when we understand how powerful the Word of God is and how when it is heard and done this makes us responsible to not hinder the power of the word of God in any way we do not want to get in the way of what God wants to do in and through his word and so this gives us a solemn responsibility we want to be those people who hold up the mirror of the Word of God and lift it up before

people's lives and when I say we I mean we as preachers and teachers so that people can look into the mirror and do something about it let me put it to you this way a healthy person looks into the mirror not only to admire themselves but just to do something well what would you think of a person they go and they look into a mirror and you why are you looking in the mirror oh I don't know I just love looking at myself what are you gonna do anything you're gonna brush your teeth you're gonna

comb your hair you're gonna put on makeup whatever oh no I'm not gonna do any of those things I just love looking at myself in the mirror you'd say whoa wait a minute there's some real trouble here even so a healthy Christian looks into God's Word to do something about it not just to store up facts not just to gain informations that can win an argument or debate or a game of Bible trivia no but to be a doer of the word of God now continuing on in the thought he says verse 24 for he

observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was now verse 25 but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does now if we do study the Word of God intently and by the way I am all into intense Bible study you could say that in many ways I've given over my life to intense studying the Bible when we intensely study the Bible when we look into the

perfect law of Liberty when we continue in it the reward there in verse fifteen is that this one will be blessed in what he does if we continue in it if we are doers of the word and not only hearers of it so again let's not forget James is emphasizing the idea of doing the word but he is not against Bible study he wants us to intently look into the perfect law of Liberty he wants us to give it a penetrating examination and what are we looking into the perfect law of Liberty you know I

think that is a wonderful description of the Word of God don't you think so I think it's wonderful to say that the Word of God has given to us in the New Covenant God reveals to us a law that there's obedience required of us under the New Covenant but it's a perfect law of Liberty because our hearts are transformed under the New Covenant by the Spirit of God by the law written in our hearts we have a law we have an obligation to obedience but it is a perfect law of Liberty I love that phrasing

describing the Word of God in those terms now one other thing that I want to point out here about verse 25 before we go on to verse 26 notice what it says here but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty the Word of God and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does you know I find fascinating about there I want you to notice in verse 25 that phrase a doer of the work I can't tell you how

many times I read James chapter 1 verse 25 and assumed that the phrasing was a doer of the word now of course James has been talking about in context the idea of being a doer of the word but it's not all said and done when we are doers of the word we also need to be doers of the work God has given each one of us a work a calling a destiny to fulfill we need to do our very best to discern before God what that calling what that purpose what that plan he has in

our life is and do the very best we can to be people who are a doer of the work I have to say that that I have a strong sense of the work that God has called me to in my life you might say well David that's simple for you because you know here you are you're a pastor you're a Bible teacher you write Bible commentary others and I understand it I get all that but listen God has a calling a purpose a destiny for each individual person maybe it's within the realm of business maybe

God's called you to own a small business maybe he's called you in the field of education maybe God has called you to focus very much on the raising of your children and building them up in their young years and equipping a new generation maybe God has you I could keep listing things on and on and on but you get the general idea don't you God has a work for you to be doing and he wants you to be a doer of the work so again let me read that to you he who looks into the

perfect law of Liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does look I want to move on it we're gonna conclude our time with verses 26 and 27 but I don't want to miss that point this one will be blessed in what he does God wants you to know God wants you to have that blessing of a person who feels like I have some sense of why God has me on this earth I have some sense of what God

has for me to do in his kingdom don't you think God has that for you God wants that for you and listen I'm not trying to say that any one of us has it perfectly figured out although I gotta say I feel like I have a pretty good sense of it but I don't have a perfect understanding of it you could say that it continues to unfold but this is what God wants us to be to be doers of the word doers of the work that he has given us to do we begin with hearing

we begin with receiving but it has to move on to beating doers of the word and the work now what does that look like what does it look like in practical everyday life what's almost as if James says to us I'm glad you asked that question because in verses 26 and 27 he's gonna give us some very concrete examples of what it means to be a doer of the work and a doer of the word what might that look like in an individual life James is gonna explain it to us right here in verses 26

and 27 are you ready for this here we go if anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world Wow there is a lot for us to unpack in those two verses let's begin out verse 26 he says if anyone among you thinks he is religious okay because James had been talking to it says of people

of the word James kind of assumes that at the very least were interested in receiving the word were interested in hearing the word he's telling us don't let it stop there but it just kind of assumes that were religious people who are interested in the Word of God he says there's now okay if you do think you are religious but you don't bridle your tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless Wow you see James has just shown us that real religion is not shown by merely receiving or hearing the word but

by doing it and one way that you can be a doer of the word of God a doer of God's work I didn't say it's the only way but it's certainly one way it's the way that James brings up first here it's to bridle the tongue now if you fail to bridle your tongue if you fail to have control over your speech this one's religion is useless that's a heavy thing because more than a generation ago it seems like there's a generation of Christians today who don't give much thought to bridling their tongue I hear

a lot of profane speech from a younger generation of Christians then I don't want to act like holiness it's just a matter of not saying naughty words but I just want to know no how do you bridle your tongue and again I don't want to restrict this just a profane speech because it goes far beyond that somebody may speak the King's English without a hint of profanity at all and at the same time they may be spreading such lies such bitterness such slander such gossip through their words that they need a bridle their tongue when

it comes to that oh no this goes far far beyond profanity but the need to bridle our tongue what we say how about this how about bridling your tongue when it comes to social media it's embarrassing sometimes how Christians believers how intemperate they are how wild they are and the things that they say and the things that they write and the things that they post in social media they're not bridling their tongue or maybe they're not bridling their thumbs when it comes down to whatever it would be that they would post on social media when

they get that phone in their hand you see your walk with God is useless if it doesn't translate into the way that you live and the way that you treat other people and there are many people who are deceived in their own heart regarding the reality of their walk with God that's why he's warning us your religion is useless if it doesn't translate into some practical effect in your life and one practical effect again I'm not trying to say that it's the only practical effect but one practical effect of the way it would translate into

our life is bridling our tongue being moderate temperate self controlled in what we say in what we post in what we send out over social then he goes on to verse 27 to describe more of what this kind of walk is like he says this pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this now just stop right there isn't that something each and every one of us want if you would say do you want pure and undefiled religion before God and the father you say yes absolutely I want pure religion I want undefiled

religion okay well then what is it James says I'll tell you what pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father what it is it is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world Wow I see two things in verse 27 first of all he's telling us that it is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble brethren sisters this means in a very practical demonstrated way reaching out to those who need our help now proverbial in the biblical world were orphans and widows those were proverbial in

those biblical cultures and beyond for people who needed help to reach out to the helpless to reach out to those who need a hand up who need assistance who need someone to come beside them to come beside the defenseless and the helpless that is pure and undefiled religion before God and can I say I praise God that it is because this goes against the spirit of social evolution social Darwinism this goes against the spirit that just says hey everybody just gets what they can get for themselves and and survival of the fittest and let the

weak die off no that is not the teaching of Christianity the teaching of Christianity right here is this that pure and undefiled religion before God and the father of this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble to do it not only to visit them but to visit them in their trouble to go out and to meet their needs where they're at one of the things I am very happy about out in the modern evangelical world at least in America that's where I am right now that's kind of what I have a vision for even

though I know it extends into other nations as well there is an increasing desire for Christians to be involved with orphans with people who don't have parents or proper parents if you want to use that phrase I know that's kind of a you know not a pleasant phrase to use but I think you know what I mean by it and I see this wonderful thing through adoption through foster care through supporting those who are in adoption foster care doing whatever they can to fulfill this command of what real pure and undefiled religion is it is

to visit orphans and widows in their trouble in their time of need so there's very practical help of the needy this kind generous heart to those in our society those in our culture who might need it the most those who are vulnerable and at least have some sense of innocence about it all the orphans and the widows that is pure and undefiled religion but let me say this it's not the only thing James mentions the very last line of verse 27 is also quite instructive to us do you see that he says pure and undefiled

religion before God and the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world in other words pure and undefiled religion also has an aspect of personal holiness to it keeping oneself unspotted from the world now we could think of a hypothetical case where somebody does visit orphans and widows in their trouble but they are steeped in the filth and degradation of the world James says there's a problem there in one part it is a reflection of pure and undefiled religion but not in the other aspect

God wants us to have both a loving concern for the needy in the world and a concern for personal holiness these are the kind of things that will show us to be true doers of the word doers of the work and not hearers only let me just wrap it up with this thought from verses 26 and 27 number one he says that there are three marks that James gives and again I want to stress we should not regard these as the only marks of doing the word as the only marks of pure and undefiled religion

but they're the marks James gives us in this particular message here they are number one you know how to bridle your tongue number two you have a heart of generosity and kindness towards the most needy and vulnerable in society and then number three what is it you have personal holiness you keep yourself unspotted from the world those are three measures again among many but three ones that James points out by the inspiration the holy spirit that someone is a doer of the word and not only a hearer brother sister I'm glad you join us for

today's Bible study I don't know if you can tell I love teaching the Bible I love talking about the Bible but this hits my life I hope it hits yours it's not enough for us to be students of the word it's not enough for us to be hearers of the word we need to be doers of the word and as verse 25 says also doers of the work those things abound in our life we'll have that pure and undefiled religion that will be a blessing in our own life and a beautiful testimony for the world

we're gonna end it right here next time we get together we're going to pick it up in James chapter 2 I hope you can join us for that you [Music]