But again, as we consider that portion, let us read the entire chapter to put it into the context. Particularly, pay attention to the context of He being the firstfruits of the creatures, and note how James is building upon that statement. In James, Chapter 1, Verse 1, we hear now the word of God. James, a bondservant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes that are scattered abroad, greetings. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, Let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. For let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field, he will pass away. For those who know that the sun rises with the burning heat, then it withers the grass, its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of lights. with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. 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. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. 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 is 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 hero 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 unspoiled from the world. In the wonderfully insightful and vividly written book, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, a work that is not only for children but for every Christian, it details very well the Christian pilgrimage and walk. A man who wrote that book, John Bunyan, was said to be so filled with the scriptures that if you pricked him, he would bleed the scriptures. That comes through in this wonderful work that he has written. And it comes through in the character talkative. If you've read this book, you'll know that the main character, Christian, and at times his companion, Faithful, and in this scenario they are both traveling together to the celestial city, and they come across this character named Talkative. And as Talkative begins to do what he is named to do, to talk with Faithful, Faithful is greatly encouraged, because the things that Talkative are saying are exactly true and right. Wonderful things about God about Christianity, about the Gospel, all these things. And Faithful is excited because he thinks, finally, we've come across another companion who really will encourage us in a way, who will edify us. One more like-minded person, one more like-souled man here that we can walk with and fellowship with. As he is excited about this new companion, he leans towards Christian, takes him aside, and says his excitement, expresses that intention, that excitement. A Christian is not so excited as you know if you read the story. On the contrary, he knows talking to Him. Not just the words that he speaks, but he knows His life and His character, and he says to his friend faithful, the reality is, and sometimes the reality should come and disrupt our superficial joy and In this case, it is true that the reality is this man speaks a good game, but his life is absolutely destitute of any of that reality. At home, he is known as a brutal father to his children and to his servants. At work, he is known to be lazy, and so forth and so on. There's not one shred of evidence, one shred of real fruit in his life that comes from the things he says. So Faithful is corrected in his view of that man talking And he returns and speaks with him in a different tact. He begins to talk about experiential religion, about the way we put it into practice, about the impact the truths of God's Word should make upon our lives. Very soon, talkative, he begins to blush. He's embarrassed because he knows in his heart of hearts that he's a pure hypocrite. And he does not like to speak about these things. And he begins to become indignant with such language and such accusations, such countenancing of rumors about his life and so forth. And so, in his self-righteous indignation, he walks away from faithful and from Christian. Well, John Bunyan's character is not unknown in the scriptures, is it? He is a man. who, when you picked him, would bleed the scriptures. He was a man who based everything he wrote upon the word of God. And you could find the resemblance between his work and the characters of the scriptures themselves at every turn, at every point. We come across talkative, for example, in the man King Saul in the Old Testament. There was a man who talked a good game. He said, I wanted to sacrifice to the Lord. And he did not do it with faith and obedience to the God to whom he is sacrificing. And he was rebuked by that by God on a number of occasions. Or the Pharisees in the New Testament. Here are men who speak a good game. And so good is their speaking, in fact, that Jesus says at one point, listen to what they say and do what they say. But don't do what they do, because they are positives. And again, we can see multiple examples of this in the Scripture. a biblical truth, this is a reality, there are many hypocrites such as talkative in the world. The world of the scriptures and our own world. In fact, we would dare to say that there can be no doubt about it, that there is far too much of talkative in our own lives. Is it not the case? Is it not true? That when we consider the things that we know from the scriptures, we must confess that we know far more than we practice. And we talk a much better game than we actually live out. That's the reality that James is impressing upon us this morning. He is impressing this reality of the necessity not simply to read and to know, but to practice what the Word says. He does so in ways that are very primitive. painful even, but he does so with good purpose, because he wants to impress upon us that we do have a new life. We are the first fruits that he spoke about before. We have a spiritual work in us, so that we ought to live in accordance with that new life, not in accordance with that other life that we have forsaken and is no longer the root of our heart and our soul. He wants to impress upon us that we can live out this new life, and it tests us. And ultimately, as we consider these sometimes painful truths that he impresses upon us, we can say in one and the same time that it's painful and yet it's encouraging. painful because we see the sins in our own heart and we must not ignore them or deny them, we must confess them, but at the same time we recognize that in the fruit that our lives do bear, amongst that fruit is sorrow for the sins we see, there is encouragement that we are the first fruits and we will therefore be one day fully and perfectly that work that has already begun in us. That's what James would drive us to consider this morning from this passage. He himself was no stranger to this truth. In fact, he recognized even before he believed in Jesus Christ that this was the essence of being a disciple. You remember when he and his mother and brothers went to interrupt Jesus' ministry in Luke chapter 8, for example, that the Lord Jesus rebuked his family by saying, my true family, my spiritual family, the family that is really the best and the dearest to me, are those who hear and do the Word of God. So James, even before he believed, understood the reality of discipleship was more than simply knowing, speaking, but it had to be doing as well. That's the fruit of the disciple. That is what James impresses upon us this morning. So we will consider this truth under two main categories. That James exhorts us to live out the spiritual life that we have. It's very important to recognize how he's building upon that term, birth roots. You may recall last week we considered that this was the beginning of the spiritual redemption. that we are the beginning of more to come. And so that spiritual life we have in us that has changed us is the beginning of a reality that is growing into its fullness one day in our own lives and in the rest of the world, which will be redeemed one day. It begins then to exhort us, based upon that reality, you are the firstfruits. Therefore, live in this way. Therefore, live out that spiritual life. But then, in the end, He especially does test us. He tests us and says, you who think that you are truly spiritual and religious, you are some pure tests of that, some practical tests. We don't want to leave things in a general nebulous manner. We can all say, yes, we're sinners, yes, we need to work out more than we do the things that we believe and so forth, and we can go away and forget everything that was said. And we can tuck all of our problems into that big blanket of that nebulous reality we admit to, but we're not really coming to grips with. James wouldn't have us to do that. He brings forth clear, specific tests to see whether or not our religion is really provable, is really true, pure, undefiled religion. So we'll consider these challenging truths under those two headings, the exhortation to live the Christian life that we do have in us, and then the specific text of verse twenty-six and following of that true religion. We begin then with verses nineteen through twenty, and this proverbial statement, this proverb, this general statement, see then, my beloved brethren, so then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rap. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." Now, this is a statement that no doubt can be applied very broadly to many situations in life. It's a proverb. It's a proverbial statement. Yet, why does James include it here, at this point, in his letter? What connection does it have with the previous? You'll notice that the version I read says, so then. Other versions might say, you know this, or know this. But what is the connection that is being drawn there? Is it so then, or is it something else? Well, I prefer the Byzantine, and so then is part of the Byzantine. But even if you don't prefer the Byzantine, you have to draw some connection between this and the previous. What is it we know? How is it that we know these things? The answer is that this reality of being able to bridle our tongues must necessarily be based upon having spiritual life. James goes on later on in this letter to say that he who bridles his tongue is a perfect And emphasizes how impossible this really is, unless the spirit of God is at work in us. And so what is it we are to know? And what is the conclusion that we are to draw? It is this, that if we are first fruits, then these exhortations or commands apply to us as things that we can live out and can practice. So that is the connection he is drawing, saying that we are Christians, and therefore, my beloved brethren, he can exhort us But also, why would he bring out this particular problem at this point? We could apply it broadly, as I've said, but why does he bring it out here and now? How is he applying this truth in this context? Well, you see, when we consider carefully what James has been doing, it applies perfectly to what he has said already. He has told us that we are to bear up under trials, even counting them joy. And he has dealt with the complaint that we might raise against God. You are tempting me. And then he tells us, in that context, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rap. In other words, it's within this context of trials that we are especially to apply this. We are especially to be swift to hear what God is saying to us in and through those trials, according to the Word of God, which interprets trials for us. We're to be swift to hear the promises of God to us in trials. We're to be swift to consider the character of God that we're to cling to during trials. We're to be slow to speak, slow and not rash, quickly to raise complaints against God and accuse Him of causing us to stumble. We're to be slow to wrath, be irritated at our circumstances and bringing that wrath up against God and accusing Him of tempting us. See, within this context, this proverb applies very directly and clearly to what James has been telling us. So let's consider it in that light, though it can be very broadly applied. Let every man be swift to hear. Swift to hear is the first part, but have you ever really considered what does it mean to be swift to hear, quick to hear? We could say, really, that technically, you can only hear as swiftly as a person is speaking. So how can he say, be swift to hear, when really, your hearing can only go as fast as a person speaking? Well, we know that he's saying something more than that. And we know by experience exactly what it means for a person to be swift to hear, don't we? We know what a person is sometimes daydreaming. When we're talking to that person, You see the glaze of their eyes, and their mind is clearly far distant from you. And when you say something that's supposed to be funny, they don't laugh, or something that's very sorrowful, they smile, or whatever it is. You can tell that they are not engaged at all in the conversation. They're not being swift or quick to pay attention, to listen to what you're saying. We know people who are the opposite, who seem to draw out of us everything we want to say. whose attention and eagerness is so evident that we are glad to tell them more and more and more. We know those people who are so aptly hearing us, so fixed upon us and focusing their entire attention upon us, that they respond exactly the right way at every turn of the conversation. And we know they're engaged. We know they care. We know they're paying attention to us. That's a sort of theory that James has of you being quick to pay attention, be quick to listen, be focused upon what God is saying. You see, sometimes when we're in the midst of trials, especially when we see them coming upon us, we panic. We don't carefully consider what God has said about these things. We don't go to the Word of God and swiftly and quickly and rapidly immerse ourselves in what God has said. What are His promises in this situation? What is His character? What is supposed to come out of this trial? we see the trial and we become like deer in the headlights and we don't then swiftly turn to hear what God would say about it. Which is our only real opportunity to benefit from it. Sometimes we are too quick to speak on the contrary and to say what we think is happening with this trial and the mistakes that God is making and so forth. Sometimes we're too quick to become angry and to become wrathful, even against God. Now, in this context, it's clear that the wrath of man here, if we are bringing accusations against God, is necessarily not righteous anger, but sinful anger. There is a type of righteous anger we should know in the scriptures, but this anger is not righteous anger, but it's directed against God, because anger is against perceived sin. It's a judgment against perceived sin, and when we are raising up angry complaints against God, we are essentially saying you have sinned. We perceive you have sinned against us, and we become angry with you. It's never right, therefore, to be angry against God. Of course, it's better to go to Him in anger than not to, but it's never right to be angry against God. But even when we have anger amongst men, and we begin to think it's righteous anger, we need to recognize that righteous anger is attended by righteousness. So for example, as we were studying on Wednesday evenings about the cleansing of the temple, how was Christ's anger manifested? It was manifested with patience and self-control. He went and he saw the temple at one night and he left. He didn't immediately act. He didn't rashly burst forth. He fashioned a whip. And he went back and And in all of this detail we see that He is carefully considering what He will do even then, before He begins that dramatic action. Self-control, care, diligence. That is what attends righteous anger. It's not this rash, bursting forth spontaneous response to something. It is something attended by the fruit of the Spirit, and by the other righteous graces of God. So it is clear when we are in a trial, when we become angry with God, that our anger is not righteous, that it does not produce a righteousness of God, but rather accuses God of sinning and ruins all the opportunity to benefit from the trial. That's what he's saying here. That's the context in which he speaks. But we know that this is very difficult to do. We know, in fact, that this is impossible to do. How can we not become irritated or frustrated at trials? How can we calmly investigate and consider the Word of God and draw what we need from the Word and not become angry, not speak out quickly and rashly in our pain and misery? That is what he addresses next, that is, he gives us the means to this end. He begins by saying what we are to put off and what we are to put on. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your soul. We want to respond in this way, and so James says, you firstfruits, you spiritually alive people who desire this, here's how you go about accomplishing this. First put off sin. One commentator rightly noted that if you are to paint anything, as you well know if you've done any painting, the most tedious part of it, but the most important part of it, is to scrape off the old paint. If you simply paint over loose paint, it will quickly peel, and the job will become a fruitless endeavor. It will not establish any good work for any length of time. Likewise, with this process, when we want to become righteous, a lot of the work we are to invest at the front end by putting off that which is there in our hearts. And notice what James says is in our hearts. He doesn't mince words, does he? He says, lay aside all filthiness, an overflow of wickedness. He's talking to us, beloved brethren. He's not talking about that person out there. He's talking to us. He's saying, lay aside all filthiness. This word filthiness is a term that is used in the scriptures for the worst, most despicable things. We encountered it back in Zechariah 3, at least in the Septuagint equivalent of that term. We encountered this term filthiness when we Consider Joshua the high priest standing before God in filthy garments. We noted then, as we note here, that this means the worst excrement in this world. Human excrement or vomit were the worst, most disgusting things possible. James is saying we need to recognize that we have those filthy things in us, and we need to put them off of us. We need to root them out of us. Can it really be that Christians, spirit-filled Christians, have filthiness in us? Surely but a glance over the scriptures will confirm that this is absolutely true. You remember how Aaron led the people in open idolatry? You remember how David committed adultery and murder? And for nine months he did not deal with those sins, at least, for the child was born before he even began to deal with them when confronted by Nathan the prophet. You remember how Peter, with cursing, with oaths, said, I do not know that man Jesus Christ. He denied him openly with curses. Or how the people in 1 Corinthians 5 were tolerating sin that not even the pagans would tolerate in their midst. You see what James is saying? He's saying, we need to understand. We need to face the reality, we need to come to grips with the fact that there is filthiness in us. Surely, you who know your own heart recognize this is the case. It doesn't need something from the scriptures to convince you of this if you have lived any sort of long time and examined yourself in any depth. You will begin to realize what sort of filthiness is in your own heart. when you gossip, and you intend to slander somebody. You want to devastate them. When you look at things you ought not to on the computer. These are filthy things. You know it. We know this is reality. And James says, don't ignore it. Don't deny it. You've got to recognize it. You've got to understand that there is an overflow of wickedness. That wickedness wells up within and flows out of us. That's the reality, even for the beloved brethren that James addresses. Even for you and for me, that's the reality. We're not to deceive ourselves on these things. We are to confront the sin in our lives. You see, what good is it if we pretend it's not there? What good is it if we sort of belittle it and minimize the real nature of our hearts? Then we cannot really turn to receive any satisfactory grace to deal with these things, can we? We cannot turn to the Lord and say, I need this much help. We can only say, I need a little help. But if we recognize what is truly, then we can say, Lord, this is a problem. Can you help me? And he will say, yes, yes, I can. And so we must put off these sins. We must confess them. We must recognize them. And then we are perfectly ready to receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. When we recognize the reality of our own hearts, there is only one response. It's meekness. It's to say, I don't deserve anything from your God. I don't deserve the least of your mercies. I have nothing that I can bring to you. To bow before him and say, Lord, can you help me? And that is when we are able to receive the implanted word. It's a word that's implanted in us. You know the parable of the sower and understand this sort of language in the scripture. It is that the word goes forth and God takes it by His Spirit and plants it in our hearts. And it begins to grow as a plant will grow and bear fruits in our lives. That's the imagery that's here. But remember that parable, only one out of four soils eventually persevered in that. James is saying there is this possibility of a seed in some sense to be planted in you. quickly to grow up and wither out and die away. So he's saying we've got to receive it with meekness and continue to foster that implanted world. Think about it this way, this analogy. If a woman is pregnant and has that child in her, what does she do? She wants to foster and to protect and to grow that child, that beloved child within. And so she doesn't go certain places that may be dangerous, that she might have gone in other cases. She doesn't eat the sort of food she might want to eat. She makes sure that it's nutritious food and so forth. Likewise, you see, we all have, as Christians, the precious seed of the gospel in us. And we ought to begin to foster it, to make sure we don't go places that would diminish the growth of that See that we feed it by the word of prayer and the means of God's grace daily. That it grow up in us into maturity. It is that which is able to save our souls. You see, it's a precious seed. The gospel truth that Christ has died for our sins. And we meekly come and say, that word which you have planted in us, we want to receive it and allow it to flourish. So James is saying, and he goes on then to explain more what he means by making certain that this implanted word grows, that we receive it not once but over and over and grow it up in us. Verse 22, but be doers of the word, not hearers, only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. where 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 would be blessed in what he does. We know this analogy is clear to us. If we look into a mirror, what is the purpose of that? We want to look and examine what we look like in the mirror. We don't usually go to a mirror for no purpose whatsoever. We examine ourselves. And if there is a great smear, a streak of mud across our face, we don't say, oh, I see that I'm muddy, and we walk away and do nothing about it. The entire purpose of looking in the mirror is to see if things are arranged rightly. If it looks proper, it's as much as we're able to make it. So if we see that smear of mud across our face, we clean it off and make sure, again, from the mirror, that we are then rid of that. That's what he's saying here. When we look into the Word and it says things about us, it gives us a reflection of who we are. And if we say, oh yes, I see that there's all sort of illness and all sort of weakness in me, and we walk away and we do not examine ourselves to find what it is, and we do not look carefully and seek by God's Word to deal with it, then we're simply looking into the mirror and walking away and doing nothing about it. Or, on the other side of that equation, We know that we are noble creatures, and the Lord made again in His image we are His children. And we are not impressed by that. It doesn't change our lives. We don't say, now I live in a way that is meaningful and right. And I have purpose in life. I have honor and dignity. We simply read these facts and say, well, it's very interesting to walk away and do nothing about it. You see, we're just like that person who looks in the mirror and the great mud splattered over his face, he doesn't do anything about it. The Word of God is a mirror in which we look, and it is more than a mirror, it is the means to beautify, the means to change. And so we look, notice how James puts it, we look into the perfect law of liberty. continue in it. Now that surely is a mistake. The law of liberty. The law constrains. It constricts. It puts pressures on us. It takes away freedom. It doesn't give us freedom. Right? We all know that. There's a law saying you can only go this fast on the road. That law's not there to give us freedom, is it? But to constrict and restrain Our speed. Or is it? Or is it saying that you're free to go this much? The law, you see, really depends upon how we view it. Is the law that which frees us to do certain things? Or is it that which restricts what we do? When we look at the law of God, he is saying The Law of God is intended to set us free. The Law of God, the Word of God, which comes to us with the power of the Spirit, those who have new life in their heart, is to set us free to do what God has called us to do. To set us free from sin. To set us free to repent. To set us free to walk in the way that is right and dignified and honorable. It's an old illustration. that I use especially for you children, but it's a good one. When is a train really free? Maybe you've seen and read books about trains and have personalities that are on the tracks. If such a train were to go along the tracks and say, I want to be free, and jump off the tracks, what would happen to that train? It would be stuck, wouldn't it? It can't go anywhere unless it's on those tracks. But as long as it keeps on those tracks, And as an engine working, it freely goes. The law of God is like that. It's intended to ennoble us, to free us, to give us true liberty in life. Think about how one commentator put it when he spoke about this very thing. If I can find this quote. He said this. Motier, true freedom is the opportunity and the ability to give expression to what we truly are. We are truly free when we live the life appropriate to those who are created in the image of God. The law of God safeguards that liberty for us, but it does even more, for obedience brings life and power. The law of God is the law of liberty because it safeguards, expresses, and enables the life of true freedom into which Christ has brought us. If we are dead, then the law simply comes and condemns us. But if we are alive, the law comes and the Spirit enables us to follow it, then it is life bringing and freedom enabling. We all know this. Our own experience has done it. But we haven't kept the law. That's when it becomes quite clear to us that it is a depressing slaving thing that we have come into. And we do keep it, by God's grace, because we love Him. We realize the fullness and joy of life we have. That's why James says, it's the perfect law of liberty. And he who continues in it will be blessed. That's the point that he's drawing our attention. The law and what he is saying, these probative truthies, painful truths are intended to bring us to a fuller, blessed life of freedom. But then he goes on very specifically to passages. It's one thing to say these things generally. And sometimes when we get together and talk, we have general statements. But unless we get into the specifics, we don't really know what we mean sometimes. And James won't let us get away with generalities. He's very pointed, isn't he? Because he really wants us to live this life he has set before us. So he says this, second point, the test. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, does not violate his tongue, but sees his own heart as one's religious, it's useless. Sure, it undefiled religion before God and the Father exists to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Now, two things about this test. First, James doesn't say, this is the priority of religion. This is the main emphasis of religion. Some have taken it to be that way, that this is really what Christianity is all about, and severed it then from the gospel foundation. That's not what James is saying at all. He's saying, if you want a real test where the rubber meets the road, here it is. If you want a pure, undefiled, practical test of true religion, here it is. This is it. Also notice that this test is strikingly similar to the character of God. We sang together Psalm 146, and how the Lord especially condescends and helps those who are needy, and takes care and concern for those who are in trouble. That's what he's saying here. If you are born again, if you are a child of God, then your religion will show that character of God in you. So He gives us this test. First, if you do not rattle your tongue, you deceive your own heart. That one's religion is useless. If we are constantly talking, it's only a concern about ourselves. If we are always lying or gossiping, if we are always using our tongue, for evil, not for good, then what is really in sight? Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. And so we can see, to a certain degree, in patterns that are purely manifesting sin and not righteousness, that there's nothing in the heart. We'll talk about that much more as we continue on. Notice that especially the necessity, the proof of true religion in visiting orphans and widows in their trouble. To visit means to go and to spend time with them and encourage them to relieve their trouble as much as possible. And this is but a category. Orphans and widows are one, and a prominent one. That's fine, but we can extend it to any who are in need, to those who are in prison, to those who are in nursing homes, to those who are homeless, or whatever it is. Are we visiting those in need, and especially those from our own membership who are in need? Are we visiting them? If we know someone's in trouble, are we going to them? Are we providing something for them? Are we speaking words of encouragement to them? Are we reaching out to them? Now, sometimes we come across these things and we think to ourselves, no, I'm not. And we should ask, when was the last time we did something like that? Let us also remember the times that we did. Because there is fruit in our lives when we are praying for those in need, when we are being merciful towards them, when we are extending compassion. We don't want to miss the reality that this is a test that in some way we should be able to pass. There should be some fruit. It's not what we want it to be. There should be some fruit where we respond to this and say, That's what I want. That's what I've done in the past. That's what I want to do more in the future. Because true religion is not inactive thinking and agreeing with the truths. That's what talking is. He can say the truth. He would agree with the truth. But there's no living out the truth of Islam. What James is saying is that if you have true grasp of the Gospel, it will change your life. One of the words he uses here is to hear. Don't be hearers only. The word that means is to audit something. What is it that you do when you go to a college course and you just audit it? Well, you listen to the teacher. You might take notes. You might be able to discuss things. But when the actual assignments come, you don't have to do those, and you don't. James is saying that's not what Christianity is like. We don't just come to lectures and hear the truth and say, I agree with that, that's a good idea, that's a good point, and talk about it. There are assignments that we need to be carrying out, because we love the Lord Jesus, and His character is seen through us. These are challenging truths, but there is encouragement. Because if we see this character in us, not as much as we want, but we see it, then we know that we have been changed. And this is the life that we are living now and living more fully days to come. And this is the life that we can live by God's grace. No one else can live this life. No one else has the spirit of God. No one else has the character of Christ. No one else is the firstfruits of the creatures. But we who know the redeeming grace of God Christ. And if we are such, then we can have this freedom, and this fullness of blessed life, and this activity that shows the very character of Christ. challenging words, but encouraging words. Let us hear and let us do what God has called us to do. Amen.