It was truly amazing grace, and it's a great joy to celebrate that grace we have in Jesus Christ. Great singing this morning, and it's been a special morning together already. And now we turn our attention to the Word of God, and I invite you to open your copy of Scripture that you brought with you or might be in the pocket in front of you there with the hymnals. Open your copy of Scripture, the James chapter 1, with me this morning. James chapter 1. A little boy by the name of Larry stopped by the corner grocery store and he had a list with him. And so he went to the clerk at the grocery store and he started reading this list to the clerk. He said, sir, I need 10 pounds of sugar at $1.25 a pound, 4 pounds of coffee at $1.50 a pound, 2 pounds of butter at $1.10 a pound, and 2 bars of soap at $0.83 each. And he put his list away. And then he asked him, sir, what does that come to? And the clerk said, $22.36. And Larry said, OK. So if I give you three $10 bills, how much change would I get back? And the clerk said to him, $7.64. And now the clerk was getting a little irritated with all the questions. And then young Larry looked at him and said, OK, I'm not going to buy any of this stuff. This was just my math homework, and I needed help. I don't know what happens when I say math to you, But when you say math to someone, you either pucker or duck. You either love math or you hate it, right? And one thing that I struggled with, I mean, I made my way through math class and physics class and all that barely with Bs. But you become familiar with the concept of story problems if you're studying math. A story problem drives home what you've been learning. It drives home, listen, the application of what you have been taught. That's a good math story problem. And that concept is showing up here in James as well. Not for math class, but as we watch the pastor there in Jerusalem by the name James, pastor his flock through his pen, We're seeing him give them a story problem as we come to the last two verses of chapter 1. What James is wanting to do is drive home the application of what he's just taught to them. Now remember, his readers are persecuted. They've already had to leave home that they loved because of persecution, and now they've landed in worse persecution. Now it's not just the Jews, but the Gentiles are joining in on it. So they're away from home, they're very vulnerable, and they're hated. And it's so unnerving to them that now they're starting to fight amongst themselves. And James is pastoring them through this letter. He's only been away from them about four or five years, but he's reaching out. And he doesn't reach out as a pastor to stroke them. to say, I know this is hard, I know life is difficult for you now as Christians where you are. He does have that pastoral warmth and love to him, but right out of the gate of chapter 1 he's saying, understand that God is over and in what's happening to give you strength and to give you endurance. Now a lot of Christians would like for Him to put the period at the end of the sentence right there. God's with you, hang in there, and you're going to become more mature from going through this. But James puts a comma. He says there's something bigger going on in your life than what's happening to you. The biggest thing happening in your life is what's happening through you and in you because of what's going on in your circumstances. He says you need to take a hard look at what's coming out of your heart. And James is using difficult times in the lives of those believers then and today to say, look what difficult times bring out of your heart. And it's there that we need to spend our focus. Don't be quick to anger. Don't be quick to speaking. Be a doer of the Word. That's what he's been teaching them. And we've spent the last three studies in our Sunday morning series on verses 19-25. We're going to look at it again in a moment, but you're familiar with this text. It has the illustration of the mirror. And the importance of being a doer of the Word and not merely a hearer. James has spent a lot of time teaching. Now it's time for a story problem. Now it's time for homework. It's time for application. And that's exactly what we will see in verses 26 and 27 of chapter 1. I mean, basically, what he's going to do in these two verses is he's going to ask them and us this question. Do you know how to do the doing? You're concerned with not just being a hearer of the word, but do you know what that's going to look like? Do you know how to do the doing? And what James is going to do in these two verses is he is going to unpack three realities. And if you're taking notes on the sheet that's in your bulletin, here they are. He's first of all going to show them the misunderstanding of doing. then secondly he's going to show them the manifestation of doing and then finally he'll give them the only true motivations for doing. So he starts unpacking these realities. First of all I want you to consider the misunderstanding of doing. You see, Christians like them and like us here in the West, in Southeast Michigan in 2018, just like every generation between us as Christians, it's possible, listen, to be a doer only as it's possible to be a hearer only. You get that? I mean, up to this point we've been talking about, don't just be a hearer of the Word, be a doer. But some people always overcorrect. and you can now become only a doer and be still disconnected from the Word. You say, well, what does that mean? Well, look at verse 26. If anyone thinks himself or herself to be religious, stop there. Whatever's coming up in this verse, we can think that we are religious. and still be falling short of being a doer. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. This word, if any man thinks, it's a particular word that just means I'm putting my mind down. I really believe this to be the facts. I really believe this. Well, what are you believing that you think makes you a doer of the Word when in fact you still are not a doer of the Word? And if you're taking notes, I encourage you to jot down three things under number one here. There are three misunderstandings of doing. The first misunderstanding I'll call the cycle of hearing. The cycle of hearing. Now, you say, well, give me an illustration of what you mean by the cycle of hearing. Well, let's use James' illustration of the mirror. We'll look at it in a moment in verse 22 to 24, but you know what a mirror is. Most of you, it looks like from up here with this lighting, made your way to a mirror today. Mark mirrored this out of town today, so I can't get a look at him. That's usually iffy. But the rest of you look like you spent some time in front of a mirror. What I'm saying here, using James' illustration, is that it's possible to get into a cycle of hearing the Word, making increased trips to the mirror of God's Word, yet still not be a doer. Remember this illustration, because we can't interpret verses 26 and 27 separate from verse 22 to 24. Look at verse 22, but prove yourselves doers of the Word and not merely hearers who delude themselves or deceive themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. And that's not just a glance, it's a careful look, it's a study. Verse 24, for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. And it's here, I just want to remind you of this illustration from James and let you know that Christians like you and like me can confuse constant and increased hearing of God's Word as being a doer. You say, well, is hearing God's Word important? It is. It is. It's important for you to hear it preached and taught constantly. It's important for you to be reading it on your own without being forced. It's something that you believe that you need. What is that? That's hearing. But we can get really caught up in thinking this, that I spend a lot of time in the Word with my coffee in the morning. I spend a lot of time in attendance at churches. I spend a lot of time going through extra Bible studies or listening to Bible podcasts. I love the Word. I love to study it. I love to hear it. I might even love to teach it. But I constantly love to have it coming at me because that's supposed to be important. It's possible to live with those thoughts and think you're religious in God's sight. and still not be a doer. Just the myriads of cycles of hearing that you submit yourself to. I love preaching too. I'm always up here running my mouth in front of you. But I love to hear preaching. Every chance I get, every two or three years, I like to go out to John MacArthur Shepard's conference and for three days hear about 16 sermons. I like to podcast sermons while I'm on a treadmill. I love it too. But I have to realize that merely having the words coming at me or coming up from the page for me, I cannot walk away from those moments and think that I'm a doer. That's important. But I can't just walk away from the mirror. So I call those cycles of hearing. But there's a second manifestation of being thinking that you're religious when in reality you're not a doer of the word. I call the second one depth of insight. Depth of insight. Say, what do you mean by this one? Well, I'm still staying with James Muir illustration as we just studied that. And again in verse 23 it says, if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks at his natural face in mirror. That word look there. I just want to land on that again and remind you that's a careful study. You understand it's possible to be in churches like ours and really like the deeper things of Scripture and demand exegetical and expository preaching. It's possible to get advanced degrees in Bible interpretation and systematic theology. It's possible to have a real helpful discontent with just a few translations. And you know that there are literal translations out there to sharpen your understanding of Scripture. So we have libraries of Bibles. I think most of us could side our houses with Bible covers. We have so many Bibles. It's possible to say, I've got to get all the study tools I can, not only on my shelf, but on my computer, and I have to trace all of the recommendations of my favorite teachers of Scripture, and I have to amass all these abilities to study Scripture. You know you can do that, spend a lifetime doing that, and still not be a doer of the Word. That's a depth of insight. I'm not saying that's unimportant. But if we walk away from the mirror after that unchanged, we're not a doer. There's a third misunderstanding of doing. Not only is there the cycle of hearing, which is merely increasing your trips to the mirror. And there's also the depth of insight, which is merely increasing your scrutiny at the mirror. But thirdly, there's the participation at services. Your participation at services. This is merely increasing the activity in front of the mirror. Now we're in verse 26. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, now this word religious here is going to show up twice in two different forms in this one verse or in these two verses. It's going to show up at the beginning of verse 27 as well. It's the same word form. In this word religious, you can't think about it in merely the Ecorse Road context, or in our Southeast Michigan context. What did James mean? What did his readers think when they saw this word religious? This was a word that was used primarily in false worship. Now here we're using that word to the worship of the true God. That's what James is doing. Paul uses the same word to talk about the false worship of angels. In Colossians 2 verse 18, that no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship or religion of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, etc. You see the same word used by Paul in his defense to Agrippa in Acts 26 verse 5, where Paul says, they knew me from the first if they were willing to testify that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. This word religion was not just used by Jews back in that day, but was used by false religions as well. You say, well, what did it mean? What specifically is James reaching for that word for? It means simply this. It means to be busy about religious stuff. The idea behind this particular word that James is using is that there is much external ritual going on. There are religious observations going on. Most often this word religious is used in a public context. One guy says it's an external awe of deity that's on the move. It's in motion. I like to just say it's busy activity in the name of worship. So James says, if anyone thinks himself to be religious, if you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off and your t-shirt reads, Calvary Baptist Church, and you're just so busy, you're just so busy in the ministry, it's possible, it's possible that you can be that busy in a ministry, externally on the move for Jesus, and still not be a doer of the Word. Religious? Yes. Doer? No. It's a frightening reality. You know, a lot of times churches buy into this. And so what they do is they surround the hearing events of the church with even more and more activity. And then we say, well, you've got to be involved in absolutely everything, and so people buy into that, but they go home and they're not working on their marriages. They're not working on their personal, private purity. They're not applying what they're hearing from the Word of God and employing it in the context of parenting. They're still struggling with sinful anger, with unbridled lust, with profanity in private. They're so busy, but there's no life. One commentator says, it's right here that James rebukes a religious doing that leaves the inner life unchanged. So there are very common misunderstandings of what being a doer is. I'll say this about those three misunderstandings that you've jotted down. These misunderstandings of cycle of hearing and depth of insight and participation at services, I'm not saying these aren't important. Please don't hear that. But if they end with these three activities, we've got a problem. I look at those three activities and say, they're actually kind of safe. I mean, if you're busy hearing God's Word, taking it in, and you're studying it carefully, and you're breaking a sweat moving in all eight directions at the same time in the name of religion, these are safe. They put out a facade of piety. They're respectable. Therefore, they're easy. And that's the problem. Because James says, if you think you're a doer of the Word, Only because of your exposure to God's Word and your careful study of God's Word and your busyness, you are self-deceived. You say, well, what in the world is doing? And that brings me to the second point he's pulling out here in this story problem. The manifestation of doing. I mean, again, I don't want that trilogy we just went through in point one to go away from your mind as we go into point two. I want you to keep the constant hearing of the Word and the careful study of the Word and the busy activity in the name of religion, I want you to keep that fresh. Because all three of those, listen, help you stand out from the crowd of others. You see, not everyone here is concerned with daily exposure to the Word of God, or to the careful study, or for being involved in ministry. So if you're showing these three manifestations we saw in number one, I mean, you're going to stand out from the crowd. That's the danger. But there's another trilogy coming up in point two. And this trilogy is not concerned with the opinion of the crowd. This trilogy is only concerned with the eyes of God himself. I want you to write down first of all for this one, you want to know what's true religion in the sight of God? Here it is. Control of speech. Control of speech. Now look at verse 26 again. If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is what? It's worthless. I hope you feel the weight coming down in verse 26. You know, it's fun to go to Briarwood Mall. I don't know where you go when you go to Briarwood Mall. I lose Lori in the parking lot. I know I'll find her in the loft. right? But she knows where to find me, in the M den. Do I need one more Michigan hat or t-shirt? No. But it doesn't mean I can't look and see what they have and know what I should be wanting that I don't realize I should want, right? I love going to airports and malls though because you just get to watch people. And it's interesting, if you think about it, now I'm gonna ruin all your trips to the mall. Next time you go to the mall, look at what's hanging out of people's mouths. Not only in the buildings, but in the parking lot. I mean, personally, I don't smoke or vape, but smokers and vape people have stuff hanging out their mouth. Okay? You go to the restaurant, you're going to see something else hanging out of people's mouths. You're going to see a toothpick. If you go down to the Starbucks in the middle of the mall, you're going to see something else hanging out of some people's mouths, and it's a coffee stirrer from Starbucks. And then if you go outside of the mall, and then you drive back to Ipsy, and you go out to the farm, you're going to see something else hanging out of people's mouths. It's a piece of grass. And then you come to church and watch some of the musicians, and every once in a while you see something sticking out of their mouths, if they're playing the guitar, and it's a guitar pick. It's interesting. We use our mouths to hold stuff. And there are some things that don't shock us anymore when we see them coming out of people's mouths, like the things I've mentioned. But one thing that would stop me dead in my tracks if I saw it hanging out of someone's mouth is a horse bridle. I mean, I'm probably starting a fad now, right? I mean, what? A horse bridle in your mouth? I mean, that is so intrusive that it would forbid any clear communication from coming out of your mouth. And James is like, mm-hmm. That's my point. He says, you want to know what is a true manifestation of the doing of the word? You have to start with your mouth. Control your mouth. Put a horse bridle, and he's onto this horse bridle picture, because he's going to use it again in chapter 3, verse 3, same word. We'll see it again there. He's going to say to control the tongue, listen, to control the tongue is to control the whole person. Chapter 3, verse 2, for we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he's a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. Now, if we put the bits into the horse's mouth so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. His point is, you control what comes out of the mouth, you control the entire person. See, what does that mean? It means this. Maybe you can remember this simple, simple principle. Your mouth is the only speaker hooked up to your brain. If it comes out of your mouth, it was in your heart first. Now listen, don't turn here, just let me read it to you. Listen to what James' older brother, Jesus, taught during his earthly ministry. Just write down Matthew chapter 12, but listen. Jesus said, you brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak what is good? For the mouth, listen to this, the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what's good, and the evil man brings out of his evil treasures what is evil. But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you'll be justified, by your words you'll be condemned." Say, so is this just a call to have self-discipline as to the nouns and verbs that come out from my teeth? No. If you stop there and say, I just got to try harder and clean it up, you're missing what they're saying. You miss what Jesus is saying. You miss what James is saying. They're saying this. Get at the source of what messes up your mouth and your speech. And that's where you apply the word. That's where you become a doer of the word at the level of your heart. John MacArthur agrees. He writes these words. The tongue is not the only indicator of true spirituality, but it is one of the most reliable. It has been estimated that the average person will speak some 18,000 words in a day, enough for a 54-page book. You could write a book every day. In a year, he continues, that amounts to 66 800-page volumes. You're smarter than you think. And many people, of course, speak much more than that. Up to one-fifth of the average person's life is spent talking. I don't know who did that research, but I'll trust them. We spend one-fifth of our life talking. And at any time I open my mouth, what is in my heart finds a way out. My mouth and your mouth are the only speakers we have hooked up to our brains. of our mouths can come insults, slander, gossip, vulgarity, lying, innuendo, vitriol, or when the gospel of Christ and Christ himself in control of our hearts and our mouths. Paul says this is possible, Ephesians 4 29, let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. Proverbs 12 18 is very honest with us. There is one, there's a type of person who speaks rashly like the thrust of a sword but tongue of the wise brings healing." You want to be a doer of the Word. You want to see the Word start to transform you. James is saying, and the Spirit of Christ is saying through James, you're gonna have to start with your mouth because your mouth is connected to your heart. My favorite commentary on James is written by a man named Doug Moo and Mu says this, the religion, quote unquote, that people who do not control their speech have is no better than idolatry, end quote. So what does a doer look like? How does it manifest itself? Well, first of all, there's a control of speech, but secondly, there's initiative in ministry. Initiative in ministry. Look at verse 27. pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, here it is, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained or unspotted by the world. Interesting. I want to make a couple notes here. As we think of orphans and widows, who are we talking to? Who's James writing about? You say, well, he's talking about the orphans and widows down the road. Perhaps in a secondary sense, remember who he's writing to. This first layer of Jewish Christians have been run out of town from Jerusalem, and now if they're in a community and they happen to not be homeless anymore, they're still trying to get involved in the economy there, and yet they find themselves being persecuted and extremely vulnerable. And I'm sure with that first layer of so many thousands of Christians, there were some who had lost their husband and some who had lost their father. James' first manner of concern with orphans and widows are those of the church who are needing help. And they're missing the opportunities of ministry because they're reacting to all the bad stuff going on in their lives. So these two categories of orphan and widow represent those with the greatest needs. A second note. And the people in their greatest needs, listen, are in their worst circumstances. Because it says, visit the orphans and widows, and look at the next three words, in their distress. This is a Greek word, flipsis, which means pressure, affliction. Not only are they vulnerable and poor, but they too are getting hammered. I think James has already talked about them in chapter 1, verse 9, when he's talking about the poor and people of low means, humble circumstances, verse 9. So you have the most vulnerable of people in the most difficult of times. And James says, you want to be a doer of the Word? Minister to them. You take the first step towards them. By the way, the orphans and the widows or anyone else who's vulnerable and in need won't be able to repay you. We're not working in a trade or an economy here. We're seeing a need and moving towards it. It could be a need for a word of encouragement. It could be a need for financial assistance. It could be a need for just needing time. Does anyone care about our circumstances? Initiative in ministry. And I gotta be honest with you, that this kind of ministry can be dirty work, most often it's unscheduled work, but it's a delight. It's an absolute delight. And I find it interesting here. It says to visit the orphans. widows and their distress this word visit has pastoral overtones to it not that it's for pastors but it's the word from which we eventually get Episcopal and it means to look upon them and to provide help it means to move towards them beyond just being aware that they're having a hard time and beyond just taking a one-time love offering form It's moving into their lives. He says, you find those believers around you who are enduring what you're enduring, but they have far less than you do. And you take initiative to go to the helpless, and I note that, God says. Actually, when you do that, you are imitating God. Psalm 68 verse 5 says that God is the father of the what? The fatherless. And He is the defender of the widows. Or Proverbs 14.31 says, He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors the Maker. What does it look like to be a doer? There's control of speech, starting with your heart. And then there's an outlook. There's initiative in ministry. But there's a third manifestation. of being a doer, and it's holiness of life. Holiness of life. Again, look at verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and then here it is, look at this phrase, and to keep oneself unstained or unspotted by the world. I mean, there's nothing hidden in that word unstained. It means unstained. It means without being soiled. I remember when Jared got into a tackle football league from when he was like 13 until he was like 16 in the city of Chesapeake. That was fun. I've told you stories about the helmets and all that. But my wife wasn't super excited when she found out what color the team pants were. They were white. And I don't know if you've worn football pants, but you have to put pads in them and tuck them in the pockets and this and that. They're tight as it is. And then you put pads in them. I mean, they are just right next to the skin. Keep you aerodynamic, I guess. I don't know. I don't think I would look good in a pair. And now I just ruined your lunch, right? But here's the deal. He would come home from practice and from games, and we'd want to ask him, Jared, did you leave any mud at all on the field? Because it looks like it's on the pants here. I mean, sometimes they come back and they would be just totally, just totally wasted. My wife would work her magic, of course. But what James is saying is this, you and I have to move around in this, and did you see the word world? James is going to use this word, you've heard the word before from Pastor Graham, kosmos. He's going to use that word at least four times in this epistle. He's very much aware that his congregation is having to live and just kind of hack it out in the world. You say, well, what's so significant about the world? Are we talking about the globe? Are we merely talking about earth? Well, listen to Jesus. John 14 30 I will no longer talk much with you talking to his disciples listen to this for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me listen to John in first John 5 19 we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one John will also say in 1 John 2 that all that's in the world, what are the values of the world? They live for the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. That sums up their priorities of the world system. James will come back to this again in chapter 4 verse 4 of this epistle and say if we love the world, we are adulteresses. So we can't glance over this phrase and say, well, it just means the globe. We can't glance over this phrase if we're from more conservative backgrounds and say, well, this is if there's hair on your ear, there's sin in your heart, men. That's not the worldliness we're talking about. We're talking about living in the values of the world system. You say, what's significant about the world system? Satan is the ruler of the world system. And listen, the world's values are the whole reason that wrath is still coming to this earth. And if we live our lives tipping our hat to the values of the world system around us, James is saying, look down at your pants. You've got stains everywhere. And the stains are of the world. I'm not talking here of music and what you play in your car. I'm not talking about the length of your hair, man. We're talking about are you living and talking in a way that reflects the values of this world? then you're self-deceived. You're self-deceived. He says here, you must keep yourself. It won't happen on accident. It won't happen passively. You must keep yourself unstained from the world. Now we're not talking here of perfection, but the direction of your life. I don't know about you, but as I look at those three realities of a doer of the word, I'm a little uncomfortable. I can't do it. I struggle with my mouth every day. And if I didn't that day, it's just because I kept it closed and there weren't people around me, my same heart was messed up still. Every day I struggle with that. So I'm frustrated already. And initiative and ministry? No, I want to go down to my basement, drink my coffee, and read my new book on Teddy Roosevelt that I got for Christmas, that I'm only 100 pages into still. And you say holiness of life? Well, I've got to tell you, the world gets my attention. I don't know about you. So I look at all this and I'm like, I can't do that. But I know someone who did perfectly. And his name is Jesus Christ. He had perfect control of his mouth because his heart was holy. You talk about initiative in ministry towards difficult-to-love people, he's got that down perfectly. And you talk about being holy in a world that has wrath coming, Jesus did it perfectly. And watch this now. Though I can't do it perfectly, I get credit and you get credit for how perfect Christ has lived that out. And Christ has fully suffered for my messed up mouth and heart, my propensity to gaze at the world and live by its values, and my propensity not to reach out to people. He's already paid the penalty for that. So when James gives you and gives me these marching orders, brothers and sisters in Christ, You already have credit as if you've lived this way. And you and I need to close the gap between our position in Christ and our practice in Christ. You say, I can't do it. You say, well, he did. And since he did and he tells us to, we can. We can. You say, well, is there anything that can prod us forward In this story problem, is there anything that can motivate us forward from day to day with our tongue and our ministry and our holiness? From conversation to conversation, from need to need, from battle to battle, is there any motivation and encouragement that can prod us forward? And that's, yes, that's the third point, and then we're done. Here it is. There's two of them. First of all, under motivation for doing, see the first one. the real possibility of a worthless pilgrimage. Write that down. The real possibility of a worthless pilgrimage. Look at verse 26. Look at this real possibility. If I'm just a hearer and not a doer, it says, I deceive my own heart and my religion is worthless. I mislead my own heart And I am involved in something that is worthless. And this Greek word for worthless is a word used to describe idolatry. Acts 14, 15, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men in the same nature as you and preach to you that you should turn from these useless things to the living God. Romans 1.21, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, listen, but became useless, futile in their thoughts. I mean, that warning at the end of verse 26 tells Jim Newcomer that there's a real possibility, even at 51, that he could go his entire pilgrimage and deceive himself the whole time. I think he's a doer and he's not. Someone once said, life is a one-way street. And you're right. We don't get to come back for another lap. We're pushing through the years and through the decades. Pastor Daniel Davey always reminded us in his sermons with this phrase, the tomb of time. After today's done, tonight at seven o'clock, if we all live to seven o'clock tonight, this day will be in the tomb of time. We don't get to live today again. And you string these days and years and decades together, suddenly we're finished. And there's a real possibility that people that profess Jesus Christ get to the end of their life and realize, I was self-deceived. I thought merely being at the preaching, or even being involved in careful study, I thought that was it. We find out we were deceived. Maybe the psalm writers are making more sense now. Psalm 90 verse 12, teach us to number our days, that we may present to you a heart of wisdom. That's a warning motivation. The real possibility of a worthless pilgrimage. But there's one more motivation, and this is a positive one. God's presence and gaze. God's presence and gaze. It says this, look at verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion, look at this, in the sight of our God and Father. God's there. The God who not only reconciles you to Himself through Christ, but the One who is giving you grace to live the life of a doer. To guard your heart and mouth. To move towards others in ministry. And to maintain holiness. He's there. And He's not just there to turn you in if you mess up. He's there with His grace to empower you. Psalm 119.168, I keep your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. Psalm 139 verse 3, you comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. God's presence himself will pull you through the most difficult of times. Last I heard, you weren't driven from your home because of persecution and landed in a different place in Michigan to receive worse persecution. But even if you were, This is how you would be a doer by God's grace. This is the homework assignment James writes, the story problem of application. And I can imagine that it landed with his readers like it did with us today as a jolt, as a jolt. And he asked his audience, his readers and his hearers today, do you know how to do the doing. You know what the invitation is to a message like this? Go home. Go back into life now. You know what can deceive you and you know what a real doer looks like and acts like by God's grace. We've got to go home now. We have to go back out into our week thanking God for helping us see again today.