gets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. The reading of God's word. Let's pray and ask for the blessing upon it. Father, we've read your word, and now we ask that by your spirit, you'd be working in our hearts, that we might understand it deeply, that we may take hold of it and be people who obey your word with great joy and gladness. It's in Christ we pray. Amen. As I focus this morning, we're in the midst of a passage of scripture dealing with the primacy and the centrality of the word of God in the life of the believer. James is telling us to experience a productive Christian life through trials and temptations. You must have your life centered on the word of God, grounded in the word of God. For as we've seen in verse 18, it's for the beginning, the word of God brought forth life in you. It's the word of God that must be intently listened to in verses 19 and 20. And then verse 21, it's to be received with humility because it's able to save your soul. And James doesn't stop there, and we cannot stop there. For in just hearing the word, And not putting it into practice, James tells us, is self-deception. We're deceiving ourselves. And what the Lord is telling us tonight is that you need to be a doer of the word. You need to be a doer of the word. It's a simple statement, but very profound. And dare I say, a difficult proposition. You need to take what God tells us in his word, and you need to put it into practice. Take what the scriptures teach concerning what you're to think about, how you're to speak, and how you're to act and put them into action. That's what the Lord is calling us to do tonight. And James doesn't state this in a question. He states it with an imperative. Be a doer of the word. So to perform what God says to do, it does not require a seminary education. It doesn't require great theological knowledge. It simply requires a ready and a willing heart to obey. So may God give us that here this evening. As many of you I could see around, you're pretty good listeners. And that's what we've talked about this morning. You could be very good listeners. You're attentive when the word of God is preached. You really try to understand the Bible and everything that you read. You have vast amounts of knowledge of the Bible. You're studying the catechisms. You're studying the scriptures. You're learning, memorizing scriptures. And I think that's why James speaks in this way. Because it's not just knowing, not just knowing the truth. He wants us to be a doer of the word. And that's important, not just hearers only. We can't just hear what God says. We need to put it into practice. And that can be a very big danger for you and me. I want you to see this in just a simple illustration. Maybe you remember your first year of college. or maybe when you began a new job. When you started, things seemed pretty difficult. You're trying to get your bearings when you need to be at class, what time, what building, what building number, how you're going to fit into your schedule, all the meals and your social time. You knew where you needed to be, but after a couple days or a week or so, you kind of understood. Things became more clear. and you understood things in their proper perspective. You knew where to go, you knew how to get there, you knew how to squeeze everything in. You knew in your new place of work, when the reports were due, who you should talk to, who you shouldn't, when you needed information. You knew a lot more then than you did previously. Well, it didn't take me long in my first year of college to know my schedule. But doing was a different story. I started off as a math education major. And I'm not gifted in math, I found out. I had calculus class every morning at 7.50 a.m. Five days a week. You see, I knew I had class then. I knew that in order to learn calculus, I had to be in class. I had to do the homework so I could understand it. But doing was a different story. Maybe that's true for you children. Mom and dad give you a task to do around the house. Or maybe in homeschooling or your teacher at school tells you to do certain things, certain homework assignments. The struggle is not knowing what to do, although sometimes it is. The struggle was doing what you were commanded to do. Knowing's the easy part, but doing is much more challenging. Studying, showing up for class, doing the homework, that's the challenging part. And your relationship to God and his word and respect to doing, I believe, is where most of us fail. We know what to do. Doing is most often where our relationship with the Lord breaks down. So in order to understand this more fully, James uses an illustration. He breaks down for us both the positive and the negative. So first, in this illustration, we hear of those who are hearers only. Those who hear the word and disregard what it has to say. And then we have the positive. Those who hear the word of God and seek to do what the word of God commands. So this evening, we're gonna look at each in turn. So first, let's look at the here only, verses 22 through 24. For hearing is important, that's sure. And James used the previous verses as we looked at this morning to make that focus very clear for us. But hearing is only part of the equation. You may think tonight, as we discuss this topic, that I'm advocating for some type of legalism. That I'm saying that by keeping the commands of God, that this provides some type of standing before God, and therefore forsaking the grace of God. May it never be. For James told us previously, it was only through the sovereign will of God that you were brought to faith That he did this through the implanting of the word of God in you. And now given that reality, the reality of who you are now in Jesus Christ, James moves us forward. How are you now to live in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you remember the stories of the Old Testament, one in particular, After years in bondage and slavery, the people of God were delivered out of Egypt and God used these mighty signs and miracles to deliver them. He took them into the wilderness. And what did he do? He gave to them his law, his instruction for them. He was saying this, now you have been saved. This is how you're to live as my people. This is what it means to be the people of God. This is how to live holy. The law was not given to save them. Rather, the law was given to teach them how to be the people of God, how to be holy, a holy people. And so I think James is saying We need to be thinking differently as God's people. We are not to be deceived by the foolishness of this world. So be a doer of the word and not a hearer only, deceiving yourselves. People, that's the deception of the evil one. He wants to deceive you, thinking that God's laws are burdensome upon you. Don't be deceived. for that is of the evil one. And verses 23 and 24, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. James says that if you're a hearer only, you're like a man who gets in front of the mirror, takes a good hard look at himself, The Greek word here that is used means to be intently looking at oneself. You study, you contemplate on what you see. I'm guessing most of you looked in the mirror today. Some of you, maybe. And when you looked in the mirror, what did you see? It's not a trick question. What did you see in the mirror today? You saw you. You saw you. And when you saw yourself, some of you gazed a little longer. You looked into the mirror, and you saw if things were as they ought to be. You checked to make sure your clothes fit like they ought to. Maybe you checked your teeth to make sure you didn't have any food in it. See, you and I, we have this ideal of who we are. But when we gaze into the mirror, the reality is shown. We see who we truly are. We see the real self. It challenges us. It reveals the truth. And I think what James is saying here is you see the real you in light of God's word. When you look at the mirror of God's word, you see God's great holiness. and you see your lack of holiness. You see your own sin. It exposes us. And so I'm guessing this is what went down today. You looked into the mirror, you saw something wrong, you saw something was out of place, and then you said, well, too bad, and you just walked away. That's exactly what James is saying happens when you hear the word of God preached, when you read God's word, and yet, You don't do what God commands of you. You're like a man or a woman who looks at the mirror, you see the problem, you see the inconsistencies in your life, and yet you make no change. You forget what you've seen both in yourself and you forget what you've seen in the truth of God's word and what God requires of you. So is this you? Are you looking at God's word? Are you hearing God's word preached? Are you reading the scriptures daily? And yet you're not doing what God commands. Daily, you read the Bible, yet there's no change. Daily, you come and hear the word preached, and yet there's no change. That's why it's so important to ask yourself, What am I supposed to be thinking differently as I've read your word, God? How do I need to change? How am I supposed to act differently in context of what I've heard? So people of God, don't be a hearer only, rather be a hearer who acts. So now let's look at the positive side of this illustration in verse 25. Be the hearer who does, a hearer and a doer. But the one who looks in the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. The one who looks in to the word of God and seeks to do what God commands is a self-aware person. He does not forget what he sees. You notice here the transition in language that James gives us. Up to this point, James referred to the word of God or the implanted word. And now he transitions to the use of law. Hebrew, which means to give instruction. James did not call it the law only. He didn't just call it the law. What does he call it? He called it the perfect law, the law of liberty. For James, the doer of the word looks into the law. And what do you see? You see liberty and freedom. For us, as Americans or Westerners, we tend to see law as oppressive. It's a hard concept for us to understand. Laws take away my liberty. And we confuse freedom and liberty. We think of absence of laws. We see law as oppressive. See, laws keep me from doing what I want to do. I want to express myself in this way or that, and yet law prevents me from doing it. We seem to believe that law is opposed to liberty. And there is a sense in which it's true. There are laws that are oppressive. And I want you to understand what the scriptures do teach about laws. What they tell you is that you are free from the restrictions and the commandments of men. For it was that was the great charge that Jesus gave to the Pharisees. The Pharisees bound people up with their own teachings and set of rules. And they said, this is what it is to be a godly person. All the while they forsook the weightier matters of the law. You are free from the condemnation of the law. The law of God reveals your guilt before him. But in Jesus Christ, you have been freed from the condemnation of the law. You've been set free from the penalty of the law. But don't that don't brothers and sisters be confused that you're free from the obligation to obey the commands of God. For biblical liberty is not a liberty from God's law. Rather, God's law is liberty. God's law is not something that you can be freed from as God's commands are burdensome or holding you back from being something that you want to be. I hope you understand how ludicrous that sounds. Yet often, that's the way we live our lives. No, James is quite clear. God's law is perfect. And God's law is liberty for it to set you free. Brothers and sisters, what you need is not freedom from the law. Rather, what you need freedom from is the bondage of sin and death. Your problem is not God's law. Your problem is sin. Sin is slavery. Sin is captivity. Sin, as John describes it, is lawlessness. We often get this backwards in society, and even in the church at times. You think you're a most free when you're free from God. But Peter warned us against this in 2 Peter concerning false prophets and teachers. They promised all types of things, and this is what he said. They boast of folly. They entice of sensual passions of the flesh. They promised them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever ever comes a person to that, he is enslaved. It's not just Peter, but Jesus as well. In John chapter eight, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciple and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Lest you think this is a new problem. It started in the beginning of time with Adam and Eve in the garden. Satan tempted them, said, you will be like God. You get to make your own rules, live your life the way you want to. You can determine what's right and what's wrong. You're free. Did their disobedience to God bring them freedom? Not at all. Sin led to their condemnation. led to their exile from the garden, out of the presence of God, and ultimately to their death. In Adam and Eve's sin, work became hard. Relationships became hard. Childbirth became hard. Their sin led to bondage. And it's the same for you and me. But know this, in the gospel of Christ, you have been set free. You've been set free from slavery. You've been set free by the grace of God. And now as God's people, you can walk in the commandments of God. You can be a doer of the word. God's law is liberty. You can do what God commands. Gospel freedom and liberty makes it possible for you to live in accordance with God's word, to live as God intended you to do. So don't be deceived, particularly for you young people. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived by this world, thinking that sin will set you free. And when I live in my sin, I feel so alive. It's not true. It's deception. It's only bondage, and that bondage leads to death. No, brothers and sisters, be free, free from the bondage of sin, free to live as God intended you to. For God says through Paul, for freedom, Christ has set you free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit to the yoke of slavery. This freedom is yours in Christ Jesus. You, who were once sons and daughters of Adam, are now sons and daughters of the God most high. And as Paul says in Ephesians, you are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Now James is saying, go, do, in light of the gospel of Christ. And he finishes off in verse 25 and he says, persevere in doing this, continue doing what God commands. He's not speaking here of perfection because we do stumble, we do fall. Life is difficult, but he calls you to press on despite your failures, to press on despite the obstacles you might encounter that can be overcome, to press on despite the pressures of the world. To give in and to conform. To press on despite the consequences that you might face in following after Christ. To press on for the prize for which you've been called heavenward in Christ Jesus. For in pressing on, James says, there's great blessing. Look at the end of verse 25. Being no hearer of the word who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. Blessed is the man or woman who does what the word of God requires. Often when we make decisions, we'll lay out pros and cons. What's the benefits? What are the negatives? We're brothers and sisters in Christ. In following after God's commands and doing what he requires, there are no negatives. There's only blessing. Yes, there may be consequences for following after Christ. You may miss out on all the fun. You may be ridiculed. You may even lose your job. You may even be called to lose your life. But people of God, there's only spiritual blessing for those who follow after Christ and do the will of your Father in heaven and obeying his word. There's far unsurpassed joy for the people of God when you do God's word. They far outweigh the pleasures of this world and the ridicule of this world. So people of God, I encourage you, be a doer of the word. Like the Psalm says in Psalm 40, to do the will of God is my great delight. Be like Jesus. Seek to do the will of the Father. In that, press on despite all the obstacles, for there's great blessing that awaits for you as God's people. Amen. Let's pray. Fathers, we've been challenged by your word to be a doer of the word, continue to expose the sins of our hearts where we're fighting back. where we've been enamored by the world, where we want to do what's wrong, we ask for greater strength to overcome temptation and sin and be a doer of the word, to become more like Jesus Christ, our Savior, in whose name we pray, amen.