Please follow as I read our text from James chapter 1. I'll read just verses 22 through 25. 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 who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. but the one who looks into 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." Draw nearer to God with me as we pray. Let's pray. Father, here we have the Apostle James speaking to us and urging us not to be forgetful hearers. And so Lord, we would pray that you would bring a level of intensity to us as we consider your holy word together. May we see that our great goal in our worship is to discover something within us that is defective and then to seek to transform it by your grace. Father, we don't want to be here for entertainment. We don't want to be here for some sort of ritual going through the motions. We want to be here to have careful dealings with you the God who has made us and redeemed us through the blood of your son. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Well, first of all, this morning I remind you of the dominant theme of James in this paragraph. And if we look just down through the words that are highlighted, we see that the word of God is central. There in verse 25, James is going to refer to those scriptures and their bread as the perfect law. and as the law of liberty, but it is nonetheless the focus on the Word of God. But then notice with me, secondly, the key response to the Word in true Christianity. It is not simply to go through the motions of hearing, but in verse 22, we are to be doers of that Word that we hear. We are, in the language of verse 25, be a doer who acts, and to know that as such, we will be blessed in our doing. But then thirdly, as we begin our meditation here, we remind ourselves that good works are an evidence or a fruit of saving faith. They do not cause saving faith, but they are an evidence. There is a place for works. There is a place for fruit. It is not before the equal sign. It's not before salvation. But once we are saved, something of the evidence, something of the fruit of that having been saved by faith is that we walk in good works. This is plainly the emphasis of Ephesians 2 and verse 8 through 10. And I highlight this as we come in this section. James is very practically emphasizing that we are to be doers of the word. Later on in chapter 2, he's going to talk about how he is able to show the reality of his faith by his good works. But the yellow is that of justification by faith. We are saved through faith. It's not your own doing. It's a gift of God, not the result of work. So Paul is saying, keeping with our figure, that you've got to keep the good works from being on the side before salvation. Works have no place there. but they do have a place on the other side, whereas in the green we see that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. Now, John Blanchard is one who has helped me in our study this morning, I give him credit. Here we hear his overview of this passage. There is an immediate danger that people will imagine that to listen to the Word of God is enough. Not only do many people think that they are Christians because they go to church, read the Bible, and pray, but there are undoubtedly many Christians who fondly imagine that they are making some kind of progress in the Christian life because they go through a regular routine of Bible reading and of listening to preaching. It is precisely this danger that James is anxious to warn us about. Of course, James has no objection to people listening to the word of God. He exhorts us to do the very thing. But his great concern is lest we might merely listen. do nothing else but go through an outward ritual, that is the general drift of what he is saying here. So with that, come with me if you like to the handout sheet and we begin by noticing Roman numeral one, the casual relationship with God in the non-doing hearer. the casual relationship with God in the non-doing hearer. And it's hard to bring about this heading and emphasize that, first of all, we need to be hearers, but then growing out of that hearing is a doing. We become doers of that word that we have heard. I like how Keddie does it, the non-doing hearer and the doing hearer. First of all, A, the key trait of his casual dealings. He is a hearer, but he is not a doer. He does actually interact with the scriptures. James is not dealing with the atheist who says there is no God and he's going to have nothing to do with God or his worship. But James, as a pastor of that church there in Jerusalem in early Christianity, he is concerned about individuals that come and they listen, but their lives are not changed. The word of God does not become his or her life. Secondly, B, not only the key trait, but the illustration of his casual dealings. That there is an illustration is very plain. The latter part of verse 23, he is like a man. Let me tell you what he is like, what kind of individual. He is like the man or the woman who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. Here we see the man or the woman looking at themselves in the mirror. A man gets up late in the morning, he stumbles quickly towards the bathroom, he hurriedly washes his face, and at least in a partial way addresses the bed head hair, but he's got to get out. And maybe he does what I did recently and walk out and there was a little bit of food right there. He forgets, even if he sees something, maybe a little bit of yellow from the egg is still at the edge of his mouth and he sees it, but he rushes on. And James is saying, no, we don't want to act that way. The professing Christian man or woman that James has in mind And now I quote from another, is the one who comes to his Bible, dashes hurriedly through a brief passage, skims over somebody else's pre-digested notes, bows his head for a moment of prayer, and then off into the mad world of business and busyness with as little detailed understanding of what he has read as the other man remembers what he saw in the mirror concerning his face. He has had some sort of contact with objective reality. The Bible is there as a mirror to show us what we are like. And the man sees his face by nature. He sees his own face. And James may be hinting at this when he sees his own face, his own face by nature, something of his own weakness. So there may be some light that begins to get in. He actually believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He can explain to you that God is sovereign in life. He sees at times his quick temper. He sees at time under the preaching, while he's there quickly in front of the mirror, he sees something that he tells lies to himself, that he blames others. But it doesn't stay with him. It's only a quick look. It's a casual relationship with God. So thirdly, see, come with me to see negative lessons from his casual dealings with the God of heaven. The first that you have listed there, number one, he thinks, but he does not know. He thinks he knows, but he does not know. He thinks he knows, Everything about the Bible, everything about God. But the language of verse 22, not yours only deceiving yourselves. If God has not given you a heart that not only receives the word by hearing, but then is glad to do it, you're still a natural man and you do not understand the things of God. deceiving yourselves. If your interaction with the Bible does not impact you over the course of the week, this is what I need to change. This is what will be more pleasing to God my Father. Think of the various hearers in Jesus' parable of the soils. You've got that Pathway here, where on the stone the seed comes but the birds come also and carry it away. The rocky ground here, the thorny ground here. It's only the good soil here at the end that has a profitable response to the word of God and that there is this fruit that is produced 30 times 60 times, 100 times, but James is saying the same thing as his divine half-brother, that when we hear the word of God, we want it to bear fruit for the glory of God. He thinks, but he does not know. Number two, he looks, but he soon forgets. He is a man who looks at himself, but he walks away in forgetfulness on a physical level. He gets so, I got to catch the train. I got to get my car. I got to get moving towards work or towards school. And he forgets to deal with the uncombed hair. He forgets to address that pregnant pimple on his forehead. Listen to Matthew Henry, now on the spiritual level. This is a true description of one who hears the word of God and does it not. How many there are who when they sit under the word are affected with their own sinfulness, misery, danger, acknowledging the evil of sin and their need of Christ. But when their hearing is over, all is forgotten, convictions are lost, good affections vanish, and pass away like the waters of a flooded land. The water may be there for a while, but it's gonna recede. And he soon forgets. This reminds me of my state from junior high until I was in 11th grade. I would sleep through most of the message, wake up at the end, and earnestly desire that God would save me, and I'd pray to that end. And then I would forget about God until the next Sunday morning. And when, after I'd slept the first part of the service, as I needed to do, Then I would get all earnest with God, pleading with him that he would save me because I knew in my present state I was going to hell. And then I forgot about God until the next week. That was the cycle of my life over the course of four or five years. His spiritual impressions are short-lived. Really, really feels it for a moment, for a while. So when we come to church, our interest is certainly not to be entertained. Our interest is not really even that we would be made to feel good about ourselves. Probably not even that we would have a lot of friends to interact with. That's nice. But what is James wanting? He's wanting an individual that is going to come to church and look at himself in the mirror of God's word, see what needs to be changed, what needs to be transformed, and then go to work on it. Johnstone. Now, Johnstone lived before TVs and cell phones, so we could update his quote here a little bit, but hear it as he gives it. The man gives little time to God's mirror. If each of us were to construct a timetable for any average week of his life, setting down honestly in separate lines the number of hours spent in secular work, the number of hours spent in recreation of one kind or another, in studying God's will, and some of us would need to add the time, Facebook, social media, television, it would be, a revealing chart as to how much time is truly spent on me hearing what God thinks about me and what I need as a means of grace to help me. If you are a Christian, if you are a true Christian, then the Lord Jesus is not only your Savior, He's also your Lord. And Jesus said to those early disciples, why do you call me Lord and not do the things that I tell you? He also said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. He said later in that same John 14, whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. Paul writes of the same. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new has come. Now Pastor James is not advocating works righteousness. And I need in our day to give this word of balance because there is such an allergic reaction among many professing Christians to the place of actually obeying God. Pastor James, in just a few verses, is going to say, in James 1, my brothers, hold no partiality as you, show no partiality as you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He understands about faith. He understands that we are justified by faith. But he also understands when God takes out the heart of stone and he puts in the heart of flesh, it's a heart that is beating for God and a heart that wants to do the will of God. Roman numeral one. So much then for the casual relationship. The casual relationship with God that is found in the non-doing hearer. He's willing to hear God, but that is its extent. Roman numeral two, the careful. The careful relationship with God in the doing here. And now we focus on verse 25. First of all, learning to look attentively. Learning to look attentively. And I've got three D words. Discernment, depth, and discipline. Little number one, discernment. but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty. First of all, James is saying you're going to need to look at the Bible with some real discernment. Why do you get that? Where do you get that? Well, do you see how he speaks of God's law? He speaks of the scriptures as God's perfect law, the law of liberty, the law of freedom. Is that how you as a non-Christian are going to think about the Bible? Oh, I love to hear God telling me what to do. Well, the natural man, probably not so much. Can you believe the Apostle Paul, the Apostle James is in such a state when he talks of the perfect law, he speaks of it as the law of freedom, the law of liberty. Well, we better have some discernment to know what he's thinking about here. James 1 verse 18, the word is that which regenerates. James 2 and verse 1, the Word is inclusive of the gospel of Jesus. But James 2, 8 through 11, the Word is inclusive of the Ten Commandments, and he quotes a few there. The natural man does not talk like this. For the mind set on the flesh is death, Romans 8, verse 6 and 7. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. It doesn't want to, and it can't. And yet, James is talking about the law of liberty. We need to be able to discern how these things fit together. And we know that all have fallen short of the glory of God. We know that there is no one who will be justified in God's sight by the keeping of the law. But we also know, for our sake, he the father made him the son Him who knew no sin to be sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. How does that work? Romans 10 and verse 4 says that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. And some take that, now that Jesus has come, absolutely nothing of God's moral principles still abide, but that can't be right, because that's Romans 10. And in Romans 13, Paul is going to say that the Christian, in his love, is going to fulfill these various of the 10 commandments. So Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness. Jesus is the one who has ended our work according to the law in order to get right with God. Having laid out, we are justified by faith, Romans 3, 20 through chapter five. He comes to our sanctification and he says there in Romans 8, And verse four, God has done his work in us in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. When we are walking according to the flesh, we will not call God's law a law of liberty. But Pastor James understands that wherever there is forgiving grace, there will be transforming grace. There will be the freedom of being what I was made to be. Listen to Psalm 119 and verse 45. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek your precepts. Do you need a little bit of discernment to understand how those two things can be true at the same time? I will walk at liberty. I will walk in freedom because I'm looking for your laws. I'm looking for your direction. Yes, but if I am a child of God, then me knowing how a child of God is to live is what I want. the freedom granted by the Lord Jesus in the new birth, John 8, verse 31. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So my relationship to God and his word is fundamentally different after I become a Christian. Before, I want my will, I want to do what I want to do, and I explicitly do not want to do what God wants me to do. As a believer, what is it that you want me to do? I become like Jesus, from the heart, who delights to do God's will. Here is freedom in serving God. The freedom of a new heart. The freedom of the Holy Spirit dwelling within me. The freedom, perhaps from a consuming hatred in my past. The freedom from the immorality of my past. The law of liberty. Discernment. Second word, depth. Depth. But the one who looks into the perfect law. This word has got an emphasis on looking intently, of stooping to look. It's actually used of both John and Mary when they come to the tomb. And when John is coming to the tomb, running there and outrunning Peter to get there, There's something glorious that has gone on and he stoops to look into the darkness of the tomb. It's not a casual sort of thing. It's an intent. Is the body of Jesus in there? No, it's not. Here's some grave clothes. That's all that is in here. It's a word that is used in 1 Peter 1 in verse 12, where the Old Testament prophets have spoken for our good, they've spoken of the gospel of Jesus, and Peter talks about things that angels long to look into. It's an intense sort of looking, so that's the reason for the word of depth. Psalm 19, more to be desired are they than gold, your commandments, your word, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Blanchard again. Are we prepared to dig deeply in order to lay hold of the precious truths of the Bible? Maybe here, You come to understand that you've got a problem with this deal of bitterness. Are you going to be intent enough to say, I need to know what the Bible says about bitterness, how you address it, how you are transformed to not be like the world? Are we determined to find whatever it is that God has for us in his word? Are we intent on finding help in the Bible so that we can be transformed with the help of the Holy Spirit? Discipline, depth, thirdly, discipline. I'm sorry, the first is discernment. Discernment, depth, and discipline. See it here in the text, verse 25, the law of liberty and observes and perseveres. Here's the perseverance of his looking. He started to look intently at the word and he continues to do so. Continues in it is another translation. It's not enough to get serious about the Bible in fits and starts. Three days here. Four months later, two more days. Now, this one who is a child who is living on the milk of the word, there is something of discipline in it. There is a perseverance in it. Sometimes there can be an actual aversion to the word of God and an aversion to biblical preaching of the word of God. You know, I went to that church and this preacher made me feel really bad about myself. Made me feel bad about my sin. And that's why I don't like to go there. I like to be able to walk out of church and feel wonderful about my life. Okay. Well, I think you and the Apostle James are looking for two different churches. because here he is talking about a willingness to see the fault and then to address it. What would you think of the doctor in the ER who had no stomach to look on flesh wounds? Especially if he's in a city area and there are car accidents that are funneled in and there are shooting victims that are sent in. Oh, I just, I'm getting a little funny. What do you think of that ER doctor? We need an ER doctor who is willing to look at it and remember and stay looking at it as he's trying to fit us back together and stitch us up. And the ER doctor who cannot look at this kind of fault, this kind of wound, is not going to stay an ER doctor. And if you only want to feel good about yourself, you may not stay with the Bible. Discipline, before that depth, before that discernment. But then, not only learning to look attentively, but we come, secondly, B, to learning to live accordingly. Here's the Bible, and here's me. This is what the Bible wants me to do. This is what I am going to do. Learning to live accordingly. Now, where do we get that? Well, the latter part of verse 25, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. Learning to live accordingly. First of all, the necessity of doing. There's a negative note. Being no hearer who forgets. If you're a hearer who forgets, that's substandard, James says. Not one who is moved under a sermon but then just forgets about it. Then the positive note. But a doer who acts. The mirror of the Bible lays out what I need to do. And one of the first things that we need to do is to believe on the Lord Jesus. Listen to Jesus. John 6, 28, And they said to him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent. Believing in Jesus Christ is the first work of every Christian. Believing in Jesus Christ is the ongoing work of every Christian. There is the necessity of hearing and then doing. Now, number two, not only the necessity of doing the work, but notice number two, the blessedness of doing. The blessedness of doing. Verse 22 through 25 is that it's the same message. And the message of these verses concludes with, latter part of verse 25, he will be blessed in his doing. Now our blessedness as Christians will only completely be realized in the life to come when we are made perfect, when we're in heaven. where there are no more tears, where there is no more curse. Yet even here and now, this is not so much, he is saying, you will be blessed often to the future, but there is that in my doing, as I hear the word of God and I do what it tells me to do, I'll be blessed. Are there any verses that support this way of thinking? Well, listen to Jesus, John 13, verse 17, the night of his betrayal. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. Psalm 19 and verse 11, where he's just said, David has just said, the word of God is like fine gold, sweeter than also the honeycomb, the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. When you respond to the word of God and you acknowledge your faults, your sins, to your God in heaven, there's a sense of satisfaction that you get from that, isn't there? And when you go to that individual, maybe your parents, maybe your sister, someone who has witnessed your rudeness, your meanness, and you look them in the face and you say, I'm sorry that I did such and such. I was wrong. It is sin. Will you forgive me? And when they say yes, There is a sense of satisfaction that we get that's very hard to measure. Think of the difference of pilling your head at night, knowing that you've done some stuff wrong, and knowing that you're too stubborn to admit it. That's one way to pill your head. And then on the converse, I'm hearing the word of God and I am doing what God tells me to do. And so I'm pillowing my head with a clear conscience. That's the here and now, that's the blessing that I will know. When you pillow your head in the midst of trial and persecution and it's painful, and you're able to say, it is well with my soul, and I know I am doing the right thing to trust my life to the God who has known me from before time began. And I know he's gonna cause all things to work together for good. When you pillow your head at night, knowing that you have pinched yourself in order to take that extended time to talk to your son or your daughter, not merely the stern discipline that has to come, but the loving entreaty, expressing concern over this one or that one's never dying soul. What will that dad feel as he pillows his head at night? He will be blessed in his doing. This is the delight that comes from constantly reforming our lives. There's a bit of a contradiction. I hear the word of God and I feel the pitch. and I would carnally not like to feel the pinch. But I know that I am a sinner saved by grace and this whole life is going to be largely me feeling the pinch and then saying, sorry Father, help me. This constant reforming of one's life is illustrated by Psalm 1 verses 1 to 3, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by the streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all he does, he prospers. He will be blessed in his doing. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the graphic and directness, the graphic and direct way of the Apostle James We all know what it is to look in the mirror, to see a pimple, to see the crust in the corner of our eyes, to see the bedhead. We pray, Lord, that you would give to us the grace that we would want to see what we are truly like spiritually. and then want to improve that over the course of our days, help us to not be the forgetful here, but grant that we will be the one who hears and does And we know that it's not due to our own ability, it's not due to our own strength, it's due to you regenerating us and sending your Holy Spirit into us, and Spirit of God, you working your fruit into our lives. May we experience this. We pray it in Christ's name.