Hello and once again we want to welcome each and everyone to the service today at the Grace Missionary Baptist Church. Certainly today we are missing those that can't be here today for safety precautions here among our church. So most everybody understands that. So tonight before we get started into the message we do want to go to the Lord in prayer. I would ask that you bow your heads with me. Our dear Lord and Heavenly Father, as we come before you today, Lord, we thank you for the day that you've given us, Lord, and this time that you've allowed us to come together, Father, to share in your word. Father, I pray that we'd honor and glorify you tonight in the words that are spoken. Father, I pray that you might be with those that hear. Father, those upon our prayer list and those, Lord, who ask for prayers from week to week, that, Father, that you might touch them even tonight and, Lord, give them grace where grace is needed, whatever it might be, whether it be for healing or peace or, Father, we know that you are the great physician of not just illness but in everything. And, Lord, we just pray that you'd be with your people tonight. Father, I pray that you would Again, uplift me as I speak your word. Father, especially as we think about this message tonight, Lord, help us not to say anything that we are also not prepared to do. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. Alright, let's be turning in our Bibles over to the book of James, the book of James in chapter 1. Chapter one is where we're at, and tonight we are going to continue on in this study of this little book that we've been in so far, this being our seventh week already in this book. This is our seventh week, of course, in this chapter, and Lord willing, this will be the last week in this chapter as well. Now, I've told you that James is one of those books that gets very serious real quick. It gets real for us very quick. It is a book truly of great comfort. There is no doubt about that. And some of you all have latched on to much of the comfort that is found within these verses already. But it is also a book that is going to stomp on our toes. And tonight, James is going to stomp all over them. And we need that sometimes, folks. We need that. Sometimes preachers and teachers, I fear, go out of their way to make people feel as comfortable as possible when they hear the Word of God, that you're never supposed to offend anybody or say anything that might get somebody upset. But the fact of the matter is, is sometimes the Word of God offends. Sometimes the Word of God offends. In fact, if we were to go all the way back to the garden, we would find that God spoke some words that were a little bit offensive, right? When He said, get out of the garden, right? Sometimes the Word of God is hard to hear when God calls sin, sin. When He calls us out on our disobedience. So, yes, it's true that God's Word is full of promises. And God's Word is full of snippets of hope and peace and things that we look forward to. But the fact of the matter is, is God's Word is also full of reproof and rebuke. And the fact of the matter is, is if we pay attention, it's probably there far more than all those blessings that we like to talk about. That's one of the things that I like about having book studies. It's one of the things I like about exposition because you don't get to skip the hard stuff. And when I say the hard stuff, sometimes, yeah, the hard stuff's doctrine. There's no doubt about that. But you don't get to skip the hard stuff that's hard for the flesh to hear. When you go verse by verse studying the Word of God, you take what's next the next week. And folks, if it is convicting to you tonight, I want you to understand it is first convicting to me as your pastor. I'm not beyond having my toes stepped on for the glory of God. Now James, in our chapter, is talking about things that Make for a better Christian life. Make for a better Christian life. He's telling us the things that should be present in the life of a true believer. True belief leads to a what? Change in character, a change in desires. True belief, understand folks, true belief is not raising your hand at the end of a service and going along your merry way and never having a change in your life. True belief is not repeating a prayer and going back to the same way that you've lived all of your life. True belief produces true changes. And listen, that is the underlying tone of James chapter 1. And please understand what he's saying on the flip side of all these things that he's saying. If this isn't in your life, you are not a Christian. Is that comfortable for us to hear? No. I think in most cases we don't even like to question the validity of someone's salvation, somebody's profession of faith. We don't like to question that at all. But listen, we are called to be fruit inspectors and understand that fruit inspection first begins in our own lives. Yes, our own lives. Last time, Brother Austin began in verse 19 of chapter 1 and considered the topic, the test of hearing, the test of hearing. And he did a fantastic job, I thought. He did a fantastic job. you know, he preached it in the context truly in which James writes it. And certainly when James writes this and tells us to be quick to hear, he's not telling us just to be quick to hear any old thing. He's telling us to be quick to hear The Word of God. Quick to hear the Word of God. And slow to speak. That means not just taking your time and speaking in a conversation. That might be some good advice too. But James is talking about being slow to speak what? Expound on the Word of God. Teach the Word of God. Preach the Word of God. Do so reverently. Do so slowly. And of course, being What, slow to wrath? That speaks not of our getting upset with other people necessarily, though again, that's a good thing. But it is slow to wrath when we hear the word of God being preached and it convicts us of who we are and our failures. Just like as Austin gave the example even of Stephen as he was being stoned and he began to say that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God and they began to gnash on him with their teeth. They were angry at the Word of God. Everything that he talked about last week centered on what? It centered on hearing. Centered on hearing. Being faithful to hear the Word of God. quick to hear the word of God, but scripture tells us that being a good hearer is not enough. You gotta be a good hearer, but being a good hearer is not enough because we must be also what? Doers. We must be doers. Tonight we're going to begin our reading in verse 19 where Austin started last week, and we're doing this just for the sake of context, but our message is going to start in verse 22 tonight and run through the end of the chapter. James 1.19 says, My beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves. For if any man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Let's return our attention to verse 22. It says, James, having elaborated again on the necessity for the Christian to hear, now centers on the fact, again, that hearing is not enough. In fact, I want you to notice what it says here. He says that if we are hearers only, If we only come and listen to the word and leave and never do, we are what? We are deceiving ourselves. What are we saying when we say that we are deceiving ourselves, folks? It is saying that we are not truly Christians. We are not truly Christians. We are not truly saved. This coming Sunday, this coming Sunday, I suspect that millions of people will attend church somewhere. And many of them will walk out of service and they will nod to their pastor and they will say, that was a good message. That was a good message. And they will get in their car and they will drive home and an hour later, they couldn't tell you what the message was about. They heard it. It went in one ear and right out the other. They were not invested in it. They were there because they were seeking to feel good about themselves. They were there because they wanted to make someone else happy in the household. They were there because they grew up in church and it seems like a rotten thing to skip church and go to Sunday brunch. But understand the message of James and hear the message of James. That man and woman who leaves the service and is never convicted by the Word of God that they hear is a life that has never been born again. You say, but I come to church. And I said the prayer. I was baptized. Listen, God doesn't care if you checked a few boxes on your own. He doesn't care if you're the one that gets to church before everyone else and turns on the lights. And He doesn't care if you're the one that stays and makes sure the doors are locked when you leave. Listen, folks, if you do not obey the preached Word of God, if you do not obey the taught Word of God, If you do not obey the red word of God, then God is not pleased. I want you to hold your place in James, if you're there with me, and I want you to turn with me over to the book of Isaiah, the book of Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse number 11. We're going to read a few verses here, and I want these words to kind of sink into you because some of these words are just going to kind of come back in some of the other verses that we read today. So Isaiah 1 11 says, To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am full of burnt offerings. of rams, and the fat of fed beast, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When you come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations, incenses, and abomination unto me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with it. It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together. Saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient... Did you get that? If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." What were they doing? They were going through the motions. They were going through the motions, right? And were they doing what God, in many cases, had required? Absolutely. They were showing up at the right time, and they were making the sacrifices like they were supposed to, and they could have a little checkbox list, like, check, did that, check, did that, check, did that. But God said, those sacrifices, those sacrifices don't please me. Your prayers, they're not getting past your own head. You have not ceased from doing evil. You have not cared for your fellow man. You are hearers and not doers. But God said, if you are but willing and obedient, He would bless them. and promised, if they were not obedient, that he would do what? That he would take them away from the land. And of course, we know that they did not heed the warning of God, and God, as always, is faithful to his word, and carried them out of the land. But what I want you to see, what I want you to see in the text that I read, is that obedience Obedience to the Word of God trumps everything else, even in the Old Testament. Obedience trumps everything else, even sacrifice, right? Did Samuel not say to Saul, hath the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. Obey. Doing. Doing what the word of God tells us to do is of utmost importance. And folks, it is the mark of the Christian life. It is the mark of the Christian life that he is a doer and not just a hearer only. Jesus told the apostles the night he was betrayed. He told his apostles He said that if you love me, keep my commandments, right? If you love me, keep my commandments. And just a few verses later, in John 14, 21, he says, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him. Now, folks, I hope that in reading that so fast you didn't miss it. But if we have a desire to react to the Word of God, it's a mark that we love Christ and the love of the Father is on us. And I'm telling you folks, the Word of God is filled with passage after passage to show this principle and I almost hate to labor on it so much because it seems like we've done that over and over again over the last 12 plus years, right? But I understand there may be some people listening tonight on the internet that have bought into this, what we call, easy-believism. That is, show up to church. Show up to kids' church, right? Show up to kids' church, drop the kids off for a whana, put your money in the plate, and in the meantime, live like everybody else in the world. And folks, it's not Christianity. It's not real Christianity. And I understand that's hard to hear, but folks, it's what the Word of God says. It's what the Word of God says. Jesus taught us that the true believer has the desire to obey the Word of God. Which means, folks, our obedience comes from the Spirit that is within us that changes our heart and gives us the desire to follow after God. Why? Because the grace of God is working on the inside. Because why? If the grace of God is not working on the inside, if we're not filled with the Holy Spirit, we're never going to seek to do His will because we're still in the flesh. We're still at enmity with God. I want you to look with me over to the Gospel of Matthew for just a few moments. Matthew chapter 7. This is worthy of our turning to. Matthew chapter 7 beginning in verse 15, Matthew 7, 15. And it says here, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bringeth forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them. Do you see what Jesus is saying here? He is teaching us the evidence, the evidence, the outward evidence of who we are. To validate who we say we are is the fruit that is produced in our lives. And the fruit that we produce in our lives, folks, is being in obedience to His Word. It is doing what His Word tells us to do. And here in just a few verses, Jesus lays it out in parable form for us. Look down in verse 24. In verse 24, it says, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, Did you hear that? Are you quick to hear that? Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, and doeth them. In verse 25 it says, And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded. upon a rock. This man who has truly been converted in life is not just a hearer, he is a doer. He built his house there upon the rock and his salvation is sure. But next Jesus tells us about the ones that are hearers only. Hearers only. In verse 26 and 27 it says, And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came up, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. That is the hearer only. He is the man who raised his hand when everybody's eyes were closed and said, yes, I want to be a Christian. But never came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their life. Never was truly changed. Scripture again says, what if we love Him? We will keep His commandments. Let's return our attention back to the book of James again. Back to the book of James. James chapter 1, now looking down in verse 23. It says, For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. James now teaches us this principle by illustration. And illustrations are good. They help us to remember the things found in the Word of God even better. Now, here our illustration is someone whom, like what we would think of, is looking into a mirror. Now, back then they didn't have mirrors like we have them today. Back then, if you were a wealthy person, you might have a very polished piece of silver or even gold that was used to look at your reflection. Somebody who was poor might have something a little less valuable. But again, a polished piece of metal typically is what they would have. The principle of application, of course, is the same. Odds are when most of you got ready this morning you probably spent some time looking in the mirror. Time to brush your hair. Time to put on some makeup. You looked into the mirror and you made some kind of evaluation about what needed to be done and I suspect that most of you all did that. But did you ever have one of those moments where you're going about your normal routine in the morning, and you look at yourself in the mirror, and then you get distracted. Maybe the dog's barking, the cat's meowing, the baby's crying, or somebody calls, and you kind of forget where you left off. And you drive to work, and you Stick your finger back to scratch your head and you get a finger full of shaving cream. Or maybe you forgot to shave at all. For you ladies, maybe you penciled in those lips, maybe, and forgot to put the lipstick on, which is always a wonderful look when you see that. James says this is just like the hearer. The one who hears the truth of what is in the mirror. sees what the mirror is saying, and yet fails to listen. The mirror says, brush your hair. The hearer says, that's a good idea, I'll do that someday, and never touches it. But now, look at what the true believer does in verse 25. It says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." This man shall be blessed in his deed. I love this verse, and I love it for multiple reasons. We've been talking about this man who is swift to hear, and of course we found that in verse 19, right? And here, he calls that word, the perfect law of liberty. The perfect law of liberty. Now, when I mention the law, what is the first thing that you think of? You probably think back to the books of Moses. You think back to the Pentateuch. You think about the commandments, all the thou shalts and the thou shalt nots. Maybe you just think of the Ten Commandments. But somehow you go back to that time, and of course we know that when Christ came, Christ fulfilled that law. And even though he fulfilled that law, we understand we are not at liberty to do what? Live recklessly. We keep the things by nature that are in the law because what? We have a desire to be pleasing before God. We are at liberty to please Him. And if we're saved, the Spirit gives us the desire to do just that. Again, I remind you, Christ said what? If you love me, then keep my commandments. So notice what James is saying. He says, if you look into the mirror of the Word, and you do the Word, not just here, but if you do the Word, then this man, this man shall be blessed in his deed. All right, brothers and sisters, I want to share with you a secret that should not be a secret, but I'm convinced that many Christians don't get it. God's Word promises blessings in this life and the life to come if we are obedient to the Word of God. God promises in His Word that if we are obedient to it, that He will bless us. And I know that seems like a draw-jopping thought. If we want to be blessed of God, we must first obey the Word of God, not just hear it, not just say, I'll get around to fixing that someday in my life and continue on in our disobedience. If we want to be blessed We must obey. And that is not a new principle found in the book of James, is it? Moses wrote in the word of God, out of the words of God, in Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 26 and 27, he says, Behold, I set before you this day blessing and a curse, a blessing if you will obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day. It's not a new principle. You want to be blessed at home? Be obedient to the Word of God as a father, as a husband, as a mother, as a child. You want to be blessed in business. Run an honest business before man and God and your fellow worker. You want to be blessed in school. Don't follow after the things of this world, but put God first. Put righteousness first. Does that mean your obedience will suddenly mean that there'll be no trouble that ever comes into your home or to your business or you'll graduate at the top of the class? No, I'm not trying to say that because trials come. And the fact of it is, is we're not there by ourselves. We're surrounded by other people who come into our lives and we're dealing with that too. So we're not saying that everything is going to turn out rosy all the time. But in general, folks, in general, obedience brings blessing. And not always the kind of blessings that we can see in this temporal earth. Because what? Some of the blessings that we will receive for our obedience will be in the life to come. Our reward in heaven. Getting closer to our end. Verse 26. It says, If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but he deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain. Now I must admit that my initial thought was to break up this study into two sections and handle these last two verses by themselves because it seems as if there's almost a natural division that takes place here. But the verses are still talking about not just being a hearer, but being a doer as well. And just as James gave us example using the mirror, he is going to give us some examples here of how we are faithful doers. James in verse 26. James in verse 26 speaks about the tongue. He spends a lot of time about the tongue in this book, so we're going to come back to this thought. We're not going to leave the tongue alone. We're going to come to it in greater detail later. The tongue is the example that he uses, not because it's, again, the only example that he could use. But he's using an example that stands out because many men and women fail at the use of their tongue every day. Did you realize that you speak, on average, around 15,000 words a day, typically? 15,000 words. Now, some of you may be doing less than that, but I know some of you I know some of you are doing a whole lot more than that. I think I'm probably one of those people that do way more than that. And folks, if you could listen to me all day long, if, you know, your transcription was on and listen to me speak, your Google transcript or whatever, and recorded for me everything that I said in one day. Well, you could read that in a couple days and you'd have a pretty good idea of who I am. You'd have a good idea of the kind of jokes that make me laugh. And you'd realize that many of my conversations revolve around food or what meal is coming next. There's a reason for that. It's because I like food. In fact, the mouth speaks what the heart desires. The mouth speaks what the heart desires. One of my favorite things is food, so I spend a lot of time talking about it, more than I should. But now if you go back and you start reading through that catalog of words that you've said every day, what does your speech show the world that's listening? Does your speech tell the world, I'm a Christian? Or does your speech tell them something else? Again, I tell you, brothers and sisters, before we finish this book, James is going to get on us about our speech and understand he's not just talking about our verbal speech. It's the things that we write down for people to read. It's the things that we text as we write to other people. It's those messages we post on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Snap and all of those things. Whatever else is out there now, who knows what it is? When the world sees us, do our words say again, am I a Christian? Or does our speech sound like the drunken revelry of everyone else in the world? We need to think about what we say. And yes, don't miss it. Because James is saying, if you are a Christian, at least if you say you are a Christian, and you go through this world, and you sound just like everybody else, then you were never saved at all. Now, does that mean that the true Christian always sounds like a Christian? No. I know we know that too, right? We know that Peter's speech betrayed him, and he cursed Christ, denying Him. Yes, we know there are going to be times that we fall in our speech, but listen, the pattern of our lives should be that we not just talk the talk when we're at church and on the front steps of the church and with those buddies that we have at church while we're here. But truly that is the pattern everywhere we go. And then our last verse for the night. It says, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Here James points to two examples out of, again, many that he could have chosen of what real genuine obedience looks like in the Christian life. Number one, here he mentions showing affection for orphans and widows. Remember Isaiah chapter 1, again, what we read? God brought out that very example of how they weren't taking care of the widows and the orphans. The Word of God is full of provisions for those who cannot depend upon a man, a husband, a father, to take care of them. The Word of God speaks about care for the poor. And we're going to be talking a lot about that in the next chapter. So understand, again, James is not just picking out, you know, the only thing that is pure religion is taking care of orphans and widows. That's not it. There's more. There's lots more. So James in general, is saying that we should care for people, no matter who they are, and we should especially care for whom? One another, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Remember, Christ has given us the commandment to love one another as He has loved us. The apostle John wrote in 1 John, Chapter 2, verses 10 and 11. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes. John and James are saying the same thing. Your love of others Your doing for others is a mark of who you are. It shows to everyone that you're not just a hearer, but you are a doer as well. And then our last little phrase here speaks of keeping ourselves unspotted from this world. What's he talking about? Well, he's talking about sin, plain and simple, right? If you hear the word when it says thou shalt and thou shalt not, and yet you go on and do the thou shalt nots, you are here only. You're here only because the perfect law of God is not convicting you of the sin that is in your life and is not producing within you a desire to walk according to the will of the Word of God. Now I told you from the beginning of this message tonight that James is going to step on our toes. I told you that he was going to get up in our business, and I've told you that from the very beginning. Because I want you to understand, James is not here to play nice. He is not here to make us feel good about ourselves and pat us on the back as we walk through the church door. His message is clear. God's people ought to hear the Word of God. And God's people should do. the word of God. And folks, if there's a breakdown in your desire to hear or the desire to do, understand James is saying you need to rethink what you call yourself. God help us to examine the fruit in our own lives. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Our dear Lord and Heavenly Father, as we come before you again, Lord, we thank you for your word. And Lord, I pray that we've been faithful to preach it. And Lord, I pray that you would be with us to do it. Go with us, Father. Be with our membership, those that are sick and ailing once again. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.