The book of James is an important book for us. It speaks to us today, just like all the scriptures do. And we're reminded of the fact that there is a life to be lived and a doctrine to be confessed in balance with one another. And we're reminded of that this Lord's Day as well, as we look into chapter one, verses 22 through 27. So with your scriptures open to the book of James, we'll begin reading with verse 22 to the end of the chapter. Here's the reading of God's word, his inerrant inspired word. 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. 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. May God bless the reading of His Word to our hearts this day. Well congregation, there's been always an argument in theology and practically speaking in Scripture. Is the Lord God's love conditional or unconditional? I guess it depends on the definition that you give when you say God's love. What do you mean by that? His benevolent love or his special love that he has for his own. It would define, also be important to define what we mean by conditionality. It depends on the biblical text or context. Sometimes the answer is, according to the context, yes, it is conditional, and sometimes it's no. Sometimes it's a both and. Our Lord Jesus was asked an important question in John's Gospel, John chapter 14, verse 22 through 23. Listen to this. Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to them, If anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him. We will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine but the father's who sent me. Our Lord's words are profoundly troubling for many today in our culture. it is a conditional statement. Again listen to Jesus' words, if anyone loves me, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. There's no way around that verse. this is a conditional statement by our Lord. Jesus' words go along with many other conditional passages of Scripture. Like John chapter 14 verse 15, if you love me then keep my commandments. Again Jesus' words in Matthew 5 verse 20, I say to you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. In this verse, John 14, 22 through 23, our Lord is describing the particular intimacy that the Holy Trinity has with only those who trust and obey or believe and live. For the believer, there is an intimacy of the indwelling of the Trinity in the heart of every believer who obeys the Word of God. This is the promise of complete and glorious intimacy with the Father and the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, to those who believe but are not trusting, not obeying, not holding fast to a holy thirst for life in accordance with God's word, the father and the son leaves impoverished, abandoned, and with no experience of God's trinitary in love. Jesus reminds us today that where the Trinity finds no home in the heart, the devil will dwell and be a horrible taskmaster in this life and the life to come. Well, why so much emphasis on the if clause or the conditional element? Well, we see that in our text today. In our text today, in James chapter one, verses 22 through 27, we're reminded of the relationship between faith, that is what we confess, what we believe, and works. we believe that justification is by faith alone. The Scriptures remind us also that faith in the heart is never alone, but is accompanied by other saving graces, like holiness, or separation from the world, and love for God and neighbor. Oh, this is a hot issue today. Can you confess Christ on this hand? and yet walk in unbelieving and unholiness attitude, disposition. Matter of fact, that's been a problem in the church for many years. Really, really from the beginning, when sin was introduced into the world. There's always this idea that we can split the faith. This is what I confess. I confess my Savior, but I'm going to live a wretched and worldly life. Sorry, it doesn't happen like that. And James is going to remind us of that today. Our subject today is trust and obey. The sermon points are first, doers, and James uses that word and the noun, and we want to look at who is he addressing. And secondly, liberty, and then third, religion. What does James say about religion, and how does he define it? So first doers, second liberty, and then third religion. Well first, the first point of our sermon. Life of a faithful obedience is a habit formed in us by the Holy Spirit to thirst for the kingdom of God in every aspect of life. While there may be days better than others, our daily thirst is to walk in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Note the words in verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. It's rather interesting that James's point He uses the noun doers as opposed to the verb doing. For emphasis is placed on the noun doers, points us away then from the simple task of doing. Now there's an important point there. The noun points us to the habitual activity of life experience that arises from a heart of true faith. In other words, many can go through the actions of doing, while not being moved by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, or by the implanted word, as James has described. Anyone, anywhere, can complete a task and look like he's a believer. only God's people can perform works of gratitude day in and day out. The emphasis is not on doing as if you do the task you get the reward. The idea is one that one has a habit of living to Christ day to day. He's not a task oriented person. Now some people, you get them a task oriented person. Have you ever met those people? They always have to have a task. And you lay out the task. A, B, C, D, and E. And they're great people. They get it done. A, B, C, D, and E. And guess what? They aren't going past E. F, and G, and L, and M, and all the rest, they have no idea of. They're just task oriented people. And we need task oriented people. Especially in a democracy. That's not true in the faith. It isn't that we're just simply going through the motions of getting it done. It's not just simply going through the motions of going to church. Well if I just keep going to church then everything will work out. Doers is a person who habitually does things because he has a change in his heart. It's a heart issue. manifested in life. Anyone can complete a task, but only God's people can perform works of gratitude day in and day out, which James will talk later. A doer then is a person who lives by faith day in and day out through the challenging experiences of life. Obedience to what God has commanded floods into everything about them. their values, their words, their conduct, and their relationships. One time a trucker told me that the task is not just getting to the destination on time, but includes everything in between. The reason why he told me that is I was working for a trucking time, a trucking agency. I was just driving a van around, but he wanted to emphasize something. It's not just getting to the destination. Oh sure, that's part of it, but it's everything in between. That you drive respectfully and kindly and graciously. That your attitude in the van is one that respects the company and so forth. A doer is a person who looks at the whole task of life for the glory of God. in every aspect of his life. It's not just in his marriage or his job. It's not just when he's out of company with Christians, but every aspect of his life floods with the conduct that pleases Christ. And it's important to remind ourselves of the proper order that James is teaching us here. In order to be a doer you must first be a hearer of the Word of God. In order to be a doer, you must first be a hearer of the Word of God, of the Gospel. It's impossible to be a doer only, just as it is impossible to be a hearer only. The Holy Spirit's gifts to us as hearers and doers are not enemies. the Holy Spirit opens up our hearts to hear and to do are not to be considered as enemies. These two gifts, but they're intimately related. They're like two brothers who constantly uphold one another. In the Christian, in the believer, hearing and doing are gifts, virtues of the Holy Spirit. A true Christian would never be a hearer only. He's deceiving themselves. He'll never be a doer only. A vital mark of a counterfeit Christian is to be only a hearer. He comes to church to hear the Word of God. He may know a lot about the Word of God. he just can't wait to walk out the church as fast as he can. He's paid his dues, that's enough. A mark of a counterfeit Christian, according to James here, is not only a doer, where he just does things, he's task oriented. But when it comes down to understanding what the gospel really means, he knows nothing. Remember James's admonition in verse 21, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Don't be deceived. The scriptures then are not given so that you and I can impress others, but they're given to us to glorify God in faith and practice. Understanding God's purposes draws us to experience it in life. Our goal is to intellectually honor God by His Word and Spirit and living a holy life by His grace and for His glory. This is how we are to be truly blessed of God. Congregation, it's important for us to be reminded that right doctrine or right behavior must never be elevated above the other. On the other hand, one must never be subordinated to one another either. Biblical theology must never be played off or against biblical behavior. And boy, do you hear that so often. Good behavior must never be sacrificed for theological clarity and precision. if ever there was the necessity of a both and in our life as a Christian. It is here between confessing the truth intelligently, this is the gospel, and living the gospel. That's a both and. I remember somewhere in the writings of Archibald Alexander a first professor of systematic theology at Princeton Seminary. He wrote that no one will ever graduate from this seminary who is not living a life of piety. By piety he meant religious life, a spiritual life of holiness. You see, at seminary in particular, students can come and pass their Hebrew exams and Greek exams and systematic theology exams and history exams, pass all their exams and walk out the door with the degree. Well, academically, they fulfilled their responsibility. They get their degree. That's a secular way of understanding the academics. In a seminary, we're not here just to produce people who could speak the truth but also live the truth. What a tremendous thing, isn't it? To prepare men who not only know the truth intellectually, but also are living the truth in their life. Well, secondly, those are the doers. The doers, again, are those who have a habit in their life to live day to day, not only in the truth of theology, but also in practice. Our second point is liberty. When our life is characterized by sound theology and practice, we will hold them in balance as the scripture teaches us to do. When we do that, we are set free to obey God out of gratitude and thankfulness. Oh, how true that is. I don't know how many people have been in my life that have tried to subordinate biblical theology to practice in life. You cannot live what you do not know. How popular that is. I live according to my feelings, or I do it this way. But is it in accordance with the Word of God? You see in verses 23 through 25, James proceeds to illustrate his point. He uses a word picture of a mirror in verses 23 through 24. He is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, where he observes himself, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of a man he is. You see, one may look at one's face in a mirror and then go away without doing anything about the blemishes or scary image that it reveals. The problem is this. Why look in the mirror? If you're not going to do anything about it, if you're not going to do anything about the blemishes, in the scary image in the mirror, then why look in the mirror? In other words, the scriptures are like a spiritual mirror to us, designed to expose and reveal our condition. The principles of God's Word tell us what is in or out of sync with God's will. So let us do something about it. So when we read Scripture, let us do something about looking into the mirror of Scripture. Let us do something about those blemishes in our spiritual life. This examination of our spiritual relationship with our Heavenly Father often brings conviction on the one hand and encouragement on the other. We read of this mere metaphor in 2nd Corinthians 13.5. Listen to Paul's words. Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves? That Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed You fail the test. See that? If you're going to look in the mirror, let's look in the mirror and do something about it. You know when I was fixing my tie this morning, I was looking in the mirror and I was thinking of this passage here. Now what am I going to do about my tie? Well I'm going to tuck it over to the side, it's too far over here. Well I went in the mirror and look, oh man I've got to move it over. I've got to do this. my collar's not right. Well do something about it. Oh yeah, I'm doing something about it. Brush my hair, try to look good. I did something about it. When we look into the Scriptures, what are you doing about it? What are you doing about those blemishes? They often characterize your spiritual life, that lack of prayer, that lack of going to church. that laziness. Do not stand in the mirror of God's word, James says, and do nothing about what you see. What we are to do is explain further in verse 25. For it is found in the words, the perfect law of liberty. The phrase in verse 25, the perfect law of liberty is a reference to our true freedom we have in the gospel. We cannot earn or win God's favor by the law. Our Lord Jesus fulfilled the law for us on the cross to live freely. The gospel though, which is free and gracious, makes us free on account of Christ to serve the Lord in faith. In other words, in the gospel we're free now to adjust the tie properly. I can do it through the power of the Spirit of God, through the truth of the gospel. The gospel has set me free to deal with those blemishes, to straighten my tie. The gospel has set me free to worship the Lord, not according to my own selfish feelings, but according to the Scriptures. What a wonderful truth. I've been set free. And I'm not going to allow anybody to put me under the bounds of men's traditions or any other thing. I've been set free. So when I look in the mirror and I see a blemish, I could do something about that in the power of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, in the power of the indwelling Trinity with inside of me. I have strength in Jesus. The congregation, the believer, is under the law in the sense of an evangelical sense, because our relationship with God is based entirely on grace. Our works are what we call the fruits of gratitude. That's our liberty. Our works do not earn our salvation. Christ's merits alone satisfy that demand. But our works of gratitude, of thanksgiving, are ours because of grace. Free and sovereign grace as it is. Our works of the fruits of gratitude instructs and empowers us to service. You see this is true liberty of body and soul won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. The whip never changes anybody's heart, never does. You know that in your own children. You know that in your own heart. But grace melts the soul. The grace of Christ in the gospel gives us the ability to live in liberty, to please the Lord Jesus Christ and being doers of the word. Well, lastly, when we examine ourselves for the fruits of gratitude, we ought to come up with biblical and Christ-centered evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. Well, be doers. What does that look like? Well, first it looks like what it comes from, what it's sourced in, is looking at the scriptures and testing ourselves. In verses 27 through 28, James gives us a definite evidence so that our light may shine all the brighter in being both hearers and doers. Well, what's it look like? Well in one sense here the word religion or religious in our text seems to not mean denominational affiliation. See religion is taking on a bad term today. You're not religious are you? You must be some kind of nut if you are. Have you ever been told that? Oh I hear that so often. I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. And I don't know if if the Twilight Zone guy is going to walk by, or what's going to happen at that point. I have no idea what these definitions mean. But the culture in which we live in today, religious or religion is something evil. But spirituality is good, whatever that means. So we need to be careful. And so the word religion here, or religious, in our text seems to mean not denominational affiliation or ritual, but the confession of our lively faith in the Lord Jesus. If you are religious, this is how your faith is to express itself. That's James is saying. As a doer and hearer of the word, as you look in through scripture to test as of whether or not you're in Jesus Christ, this is what it is to look at. This is what it looks like. When you read some of the 19th century, particularly 18th century or 16th century, 17th century literature, they'll often say something like this. The true religious life looks like. Edwards often uses the word religion. True religion looks like this. Now what he's saying there is he's using the word the way James uses it here. Religion in the sense that this is what my faith is about. if I was to give evidence about it. This is what it looks like. He's not talking about denominational affiliation. He's talking about the confession of our lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What's it look like? Give me something practical so when I walk out, James, I know at least a little bit about what it looks like. It's as if James seeks to answer this question by using the word religious. How do I know that the implanted word is in my heart? What are some of the evidences that show forth my regeneration or conversion to Christ? Well, James presents us with three crucial and indispensable Holy Spirit virtues that are continually worked in the heart of the believer. The first Holy Spirit virtue that's continually worked in the heart of every believer by grace is holy speech. James writes in verse 26, 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. Now he's not talking about the occasional bad word or expletive that's used. Most of us have problems with that a bit. some more than others, but that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about something that is a part of your life. There are some jobs, for example, or occupations, that they swear from beginning to end, like construction. It's just a part of how they communicate. I think that's nonsense, but nevertheless that's reality. What James is saying here, briefly stated, is that if you say you love Jesus, but do not bridle your tongue, but are continually given to gossip, slander, profanity, your faith is worthless. You're deceiving yourself. Your so-called religion amounts to nothing. to put it more bluntly, you're a hypocrite, a liar, and most of all not part of the new creation. Wow, what do you think of that? The filthy language that comes out of some people's mouths today is horrible, horrible. They don't care who is there. I always take offense, and I don't take offense to a lot, But I always take offense when someone says you shouldn't use that language around women and children. I always like to raise my hand. What about men? Are they included in that too? Or how does that work? Just the women and children, the guys they can handle it, but the women, that's nonsense. I don't want to hear it. I've worked in factories where a guy swore his brains out from beginning to end. That didn't last long with me. I remember the time he told me you can't tell me how to talk. I said no I'm not telling you how to talk, but I will talk to the supervisor and he'll tell you how to talk. And he did tell. Your so-called religion James says is nothing if you don't learn to bridle your speech. The second Holy Spirit virtue so worked in the heart of every believer is to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. In other words the point is to perform works of service to those who are in need. He specifically points to orphans and widows as representative of those who are usually taken advantage by society and culture in which we live in. Briefly stated, maybe we could say it this way. We are to carry the burden of those who are in need as if it was our need. James's point is not the special visit that we do occasionally, but investing our time in the help of others, especially believers, as we're told in Galatians 6.10. So then while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who are of the household of faith. Now providentially right, providentially. We just had the open closet yesterday. You're looking to be blessed of God? Participate in open closet. We need help. James says, if your faith is real, open closet is an avenue to express that faith. It doesn't mean you have to say anything, it's just your presence is there is just as good. Lastly, the third Holy Spirit virtue that James mentions here, so worked in the heart of every believer, is to keep himself or to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Boy, you knew that this was coming. You knew that this was coming because this is the substance of really of all Scripture. all believers, which is the mark of the indwelling Holy Spirit, of the converted, of having the word implanted into the heart, are to guard their hearts to keep worldliness out and the Word of God in. I'm always mindful in my own particular ministry of the words of Robert Murray McShane, I find myself convicted to no end. The great Scottish pastor of the 19th century, Robert Murray McShane said this, the greatest need of my people is my personal holiness. If you're a pastor in the church, an elder in the church, deacon in the church. Scriptures look at you and I and say the greatest need in this church, in covenant reform church is for you and me as a council and consistory to see and to have our personal holiness. But this is not only true of the minister, of the elder and deacon. but it's important to the father and mother. The single person, young and old. These words apply to all of us because it is the sum total of true religion or our faith in Christ. Be on guard For the care of your soul is your first duty. But how can we guard others if we fail to guard ourselves? A little while ago, anecdotally, I was talking to Nate about the first responsibility of our first responder, police officer, fireman, paramedic. What's their first responsibility? You know, you know what it is? Well it's not Superman. It's not the John Wayne mentality. It's personal safety. That's the number one issue. Because you are no good to anyone if you don't get to the scene. If you get in an accident. You're not good to being a first responder if you're dead. Personal safety is number one and will always be number one. It's the same thing in our lives as Christians. In order to be hearers and doers of the word, in order to look in the mirror of scripture and to do something about it, We need to bridle our tongue. We need to bear the burdens of others and to live a life of holiness. And congregation, the Holy Spirit reminds us through the words of James that we need to be hearers of the gospel first and foremost. then and only then can we be doers of the word. So we need to be faithful in the preaching of the gospel. If you go to church and the preacher is not preaching the gospel, there's something wrong. We need to be hearers when we read the Bible privately in our own homes, or to my wife, or to our children. We need to be hearers. then we become doers. And doers means setting the example before others. Be mindful of this, in order to be a true believer, regenerated from the curse of the first Adam, you must be both a hearer and doer of the Word. A mere doer or hearer is nothing but a wolf in sheep's clothing. Congregation, let us bow before the Lord. Let us beg Him that we would be hearers and doers of the Word of God, and that it would transform our lives into the image of Christ. May the Lord be gracious to us in implanting His Word continually upon our hearts to be both hearers and doers, for only they are the people of God. Amen. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we thank you that James reminds us that we must first be hearers and then doers. And that doers is an outgrowth of the hearing. They are not enemies with one another, but they are examples of this Holy Spirit's virtue at work in our hearts and true regeneration. Oh Lord, God bless us as your people to bear one another's burdens, to bridle our tongues, and to keep ourselves holy from this wicked world we live in. We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen.