Turn with me to the book of James this morning. And I've been encouraged to go back through this again, and the history here of this sermon is we were at a church that was really dear to our hearts. And it was a church plant. And it was a very busy time where you have to do everything. Set up for church took two hours because we were in a school. And everybody jumps in and helps. And just a real treat to be at that church. And at the end of that time, it was my last sermon. And I was trying to think of what is maybe the most important truth or principle that that church needs to hear before I leave. And so I literally took a long time to reflect on what I think would be best for them. And in doing so, I just came to the conclusion that the church really needed a better understanding of the importance of Scripture in their life. They talked often about Jesus, I think, as we might do as well. But I didn't see the Word having the importance in first place that I think it should have. So I went to James chapter 1, which is where we're gonna be this morning, to talk about the importance of the Word of God. And I've just titled it, Look Into the Word. The person who is Christ-centered is the person who is Word-centered. I think there's a distinction, but they're inseparable. The Spirit-filled person is the person who is filled with the Word of God, and we've talked about that in the book of Galatians. I know I keep holding off finishing Galatians. We're almost there in chapter five. But look with me at James chapter one. We're gonna look at verses 18 through 25 this morning. And I want to let James exhort you, obviously it's inspired scripture here, but James to exhort us on that which is most important. Now, before we look at the text, I really think the book of James is often neglected. I think it's one of those books that maybe we read during the course of the year if we're reading Scripture through the year, but we don't think about very much, we don't go to very much, we don't know very well. Maybe we think it's a legalistic book, it's a lot of do's and don'ts, and it doesn't have as much Jesus as maybe Paul's letters do. And so it maybe is not as warm and inviting of a book. But that might even be the case for what we sometimes call the general epistles, Hebrews, James, John, Peter. Yeah, I often gravitate to Paul, Paul's letters. I think a lot of us do today. But James sometimes can be neglected. It doesn't seem to have a lot of Christ in it or gospel or grace, really, in the book of James. But I think it has maybe more of Christ than any other book. I think it shows us who Christ is and what it means to walk in the Christ likeness. We can know this with certainty, that the person of Christ and the fruit of the gospel are clearly displayed in the short book of James. James shows us how to live practically. Because it's easy to say we need to be gospel-centered, we need to be Jesus-centered, we need to be Christ-centered, and that's true. And Jesus should be the center of our life. But the question is always, how does that look, though? How does that work out? And I think James does that for us in showing us how we live like Christ. And James has a lot of subjects. Trials, wisdom, humility, endurance and patience, temptation, issues of the heart, prayer—he begins and ends the book with prayer— God's goodness, and also the Word of God itself. And all those things I mentioned are in chapter 1. If you jump in James, there's all kinds of subjects there. So I don't think the problem is with James, I think it's with us. Maybe a book that we need to get more familiar with. But here's a little bit about James, though. I've always been fascinated by James. This is not the son of John. This is not one of the 12 disciples. This is James, the brother of Jesus, who the Gospels record earlier in his life did not believe that his brother was the Messiah. They did not believe Jesus was God, very God. until later, 1 Corinthians 15, Paul mentions the resurrected Christ appeared to James. And I think it's a reference to the James the author here. I don't know when James was saved, when he was converted, but can you imagine not believing your brother is Christ, the Messiah, for 33 years, and then he appears to you in resurrected form? I think that would probably convince you, if nothing had convinced you, all the miracles hadn't convinced you. But imagine his insights into the person of Christ, seeing Jesus all those years, watching him with no sin in his life, If you have a brother or sister in your life, you probably know they're sinful. You see all kinds of imperfections in their life. And they see yours, too. But to imagine a brother who was not just man, but God. Well, James 1.1, he says, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice he doesn't even say, I'm his brother. I think I would be tempted to say that if I wrote a letter. I was the brother of Jesus. Because then people are going to listen to what I have to say. But I think we have a humble man in James. He calls himself, literally, doulos, a slave. That's how he views himself. He has no higher standing because he was, at one point there, related to Jesus and to Joseph and Mary. He's a humble man. Salvation isn't genetic. For those children here, you don't automatically become Christians because mom and dad are Christians and because they go to church, and you have to make a decision for yourself what you're to do with the person of Christ. And God is the one that saves. But he went from conversion to leadership. So let's fast forward here, what was James's position in the early church? Many, most people would agree that he was the head of the Jerusalem church. If you look at Acts chapter 15, and I'll turn there briefly, Acts 15, that James was living in Jerusalem, was one of the elders, if not the first elder of the church in Jerusalem. However, I think he was more than that. I think that James was the head of the church at that time. I don't think Peter necessarily was that, though he was very recognized. Because in Acts 15, verse 1, This is why we've been looking at Galatians, right? It's the same issue in Galatians. They're saying you have to submit to the Mosaic law You have to become a Jew if you are to be a Christian. And so here in Acts 15, you have all the, in a sense, the greats come together. Peter's there, and Bartimaeus is there, and Paul is there, and James is there, and the elders of the Jerusalem church are there, and they're discussing this very issue. What is the church's decision on the issue of circumcision? This was a critical moment in church history. Because in a sense, they were asking this question, can a Gentile, simply by faith in Christ, be in the family of God? Or do they need to become a Jew in order to be in the family of God? That was the issue on hand. And after Peter gives his defense and Paul and Barnabas, verse 12, after they finish speaking, verse 13, James replied. Brothers listen to me he says and he explains how simian here is related how god visited the gentiles And he quotes the old testament here in verse 19 james says therefore My judgment is that we should not trouble those of the gentiles who turn to god You know what james just said? He says it's my judgment that a Gentile can be saved through faith in Christ alone. They don't need to become a Jew. They don't need circumcision. They don't need to submit to the Mosaic Covenant. And James says that. So I think he had a significant authority here, not just in Jerusalem, but even, it seems, over the 12th, over Peter and Paul and Barnabas. So this is some of the background here of the James that we're looking at. Paul mentions James in Galatians 2.19 as one of the three pillars of the church. He says, James, Cephas, and John. And if you look at your New Testament, you have James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 and 3 John, right? There's the pillars right there. Who are the pillars of the early church? James, the brother of Jesus, Peter, and John. And Paul mentions that. And I think even the order of the Greek is significant, that James' name is mentioned first. Well, how about extra-biblical literature? Josephus, if you're familiar with Josephus, he mentions two men of the New Testament, Jesus and James, the brother of Jesus. James was well known to Jerusalem in the first century. Even though the Israelites, the Hebrews there, did not believe in Jesus the Messiah in general, they had a great respect for James in that city. And his nickname was Camel Knees. So I'm guessing visually, if you saw James, he had really big knees. Because he prayed a lot, is the assumption, right? If you pray a lot on a hard floor, you're probably gonna have some big, strong, thick knees. And he was nicknamed Camel Knees. Where did James learn to pray that much? I was just thinking about that this week. Probably seeing his brother pray. All the time, praying in a different way than the hypocritical Pharisees. So, is the book void of Christ? Well, James mentions here in his book the Lord's name only twice. I don't think that means it's not a Christ-centered book. My conclusion to that is James uses the Lord's name with reverence. That the name of his Messiah, his Savior, meant so much to him that he did not mention it all the time. And I think that may be a better conclusion than just assuming it's void of Jesus and his book. Well, there's a lot can be said about the book. I think it's about wisdom, chapter 3, verse 17. Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere, and a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. I think James is a book about Christ-like wisdom, how you live out the Christian life practically. Some even call it the Proverbs of the New Testament. because there are so many similarities with Proverbs. But there are also even more similarities with the Sermon on the Mount. So here's your homework, if you want to do homework. I know it's summer, you're not supposed to mention homework. But go home and read the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7, and then read the book of James. And it seems as if James is dealing with the Sermon on the Mount and explaining it and applying it. because there are so many parallels. Well, here's what I'm going to do that's going to be frustrating, especially for my brother Raymond. I have no outline this morning. No two points, three points, four points. Here's the progression we're going. This is just how I preached it back then. Maybe it's because of 1 John. There's no outline of 1 John. It's affecting me. But I would rather you just listen. You can take notes if you want. But I'm just going to go through James 1, 18 through 25 here. If you are a Christian, then you were saved by what means? Certainly the Spirit of God regenerated you. But also the gospel. The gospel was brought to you. Someone in your life communicated to you the truth of the gospel. the word of God. And James says there in chapter 1, verse 18, of his own will, that's God's will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. It was by the means of the word of God that you were saved. Maybe you read it, maybe you heard it on a radio, Maybe somebody came to you sitting next to you on the bus, and you were immediately annoyed, there's another Jesus freak that's talking to me, and you heard the words of the gospel, and it was different than you expected, and it was, that means that God saved you. And James says here to them, and he's sending this to the church, that he brought us forth by the word of truth. So, verse 19 is where we pick up. This is what James has to say to us. Notice the first two words, know this. Now, if you're a Christian in the first century and James says, know this, you probably should listen, right? Like Acts 15, because Peter listened and Paul listened. Know this, my beloved brothers, he's talking to Christians here. Listen to me, he said in Acts 15. Here he says, know this. Would you listen to a man who is not only a Christian, but has knew Christ for 33 years, a man of prayer, a man who knows the word of God, a man who led the church in a first century which had severe persecution, and which an entire unsafe city respected him. I would say, yeah, I think we could listen to James. And he says this, verse 19, Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." So hear this, be slow to speak, be quick to hear on the other end. And slow to anger, he says there, saying that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. This isn't just anger for men. The assumption is that men struggle with anger. Maybe that's true. This is for anybody, James says, and I think a sinful anger here, that anger no matter even initially with good motivations, does not actually produce the righteousness of God. It doesn't sanctify you. It doesn't perform the will of God in your life. And I think, again, it's sinful anger here as a response. And why do we get angry? Well, there's a variety of reasons. It might be good intentions, there's injustice that we see, there's something that concerns us greatly, and then our anger becomes out of control and then it becomes sinful because of that. Or maybe we're just angry because we're selfish and we want something a certain way and it's not going our way. And even if we don't explode in anger, we have a sinful kind of anger inside of us. But I don't think here, that James is just speaking about a general principle about anger. I think he's talking about something very specific here than just simply being angry about circumstances or people in our life or if things don't go the way that we want. I think if we admit that we often are sinfully angry in our life, even if people don't know that about us internally, we complain, we get angry with how things go in life. And that is true. But why does he address anger here? Well, I believe in this immediate context here, his focus is the Word of God. And I think what James is saying here is, when the word of God is read in the church, and it's preached in the church, to not respond in anger to what God says. I believe that's what James is getting at, because it's all centered around the word of God here. How do you respond to the word of God? Doing God's will is not always easy. It's not always fun. It gets in our way, doesn't it? God tends to get in our way often of what we desire. But I think these are instructions on how the church is to handle itself. We can be upset with what we hear from God's word, or from the preaching and teaching of God's word. It bothers us. We resist it. We fight it. We push against it. We suppress what we hear. We suppress the word of God. The very word of God, verse 18, that God used to bring us to become new creatures in Christ. So I believe the anger here is not simply a general anger, but a godly response to his word. Don't be quick to be angry. Be quick to hear. To hear what? Well, certainly we want to be quick to listen to each other. But here, I think he's saying, be quick to hear the word of God. Slow to speak, slow to respond. Rather, we should have a listening ear. James is concerned about this, that you rightly respond to the Word of God in your life. He's calling for a proper response to the Word. How do you respond to the Word? How are you responding to the Word right now, assuming you're awake and you're not sleeping? Everybody looks awake. Sleeping does happen, by the way, on Sunday mornings. How are you responding to what you hear in the Word of God, or in Sunday school class, or in the small groups during the week? Back then, You had to listen carefully to what you heard on Sunday. I want you to think about this. They did not have it in codex form, in book form. And I often feel guilty. I have dozens of copies of the Bible in my nightstand, in my car, in my office, and everywhere. Hey, it's a wonderful blessing, and we're thankful that we have copies. But back then in the first century, that was not the case. You came on Sunday. The Scripture was read. Even Paul tells Timothy, make sure that the reading of Scripture happens. And then you heard that word or the word explained or preached. I think Hebrews is a sermon, for example. Hebrews is something they would have heard, a sermon preached. And then you thought about what you heard all week. So you had to work out your memory, right? Which is a challenge. You know, what did the pastor preach on last Sunday? I don't know. I'm not sure if I remember. But they had to. And what was read from the Word of God then? In fact, it said in church history that church members in the first century had to memorize the Gospel of Mark to be a member of the local church. I like that idea. Some of you have been holding out your applications, so get them in now before I have you memorize the Gospel of Mark. I haven't memorized the Gospel of Mark, so I'm in trouble, too. But that was the case, and back then, they were used to memorization. A lot of the kids, the educational system would memorize large chunks of information, especially a Jewish child would memorize huge portions of scripture. They likely used Psalm 119 to learn the alphabet. So they were used to that, and it was much more common to memorize then. But you had to listen on Sundays. You had to remember. You had to even memorize in order to keep the Word of God with you rather than having it on your phone or in your hands. So verse 19, be quick to hear the Word of God. Be slow to speak. It's often the opposite, isn't it? Do you find in yourself the tendency to be quick to speak and slow to hear? Ask your spouse if that's the case. Harder to listen well. It's harder to control the mouth. But that's what we're called to do, particularly in regards to the Word of God. And this isn't just simply actions, but the attitudes of the heart. Do we have an attitude of the heart that we're ready to hear God's Word? It's precious to us. And we're slow to make judgment, we're slow to respond, especially sinfully, of course. And slow to speak here is the idea of not being quick and hasty in our reaction to what God says. Rather, James says, be quick to hear, quick to listen, meaning you have an eager, attentive, teachable attitude. That's how we're to approach Scripture. Even if you're sitting at home reading your Bible, you should have a teachable heart, because Scripture's going to instruct you. It's going to convict you. And you should be ready for that. In fact, often the word hear in the New Testament is not simply how we understand the word hear to mean. It actually means to respond. It actually means hear in such a way that it changes what you're thinking and desiring and doing, that you respond to it. And that could be here what James means by being quick to hear, especially in the context. Think carefully about what you hear. Meditate. Take it in. You might have to slow down. It's going to be painful at times. I love what Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy 2.7. He says, think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. So Paul's telling Timothy information, but he says, think over what I say. As we say, don't let it go in one ear and out the other, right? Our parents would often tell us that when we were kids. Well, I think that's what James is saying here as well. Like Paul told Timothy, to meditate on it. Take it in. listen to the Word of God. It requires a humble, teachable, dependent spirit. And be teachable and attentive before both the Scripture read and preached as well. And instead of reacting in anger, take in God's Word." Now, notice here, verse 21. Therefore, Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Somebody put the clock back. I was enjoying not having a clock at the back of the service. It must be quick to hear. Verse 21. What is he saying here? This sounds a little bit like Paul, doesn't it? Therefore put away Filthiness and rampant wickedness. This isn't an exhortation for bodily cleansing. This is the sin that's within our hearts. We are to put it away. In fact, the language is that it keeps coming back. It's like a disease. It's like leprosy in the Old Testament. It can return, and the rampant wickedness just comes back on you constantly. Isn't that the idea of sin in our life? It's not like you deal with one specific sin, and then you're done, and you put it away, and then it's no longer an issue. We know that's not the case, that often it's not just sin in general, it's the same sins in our life that we continue to fight. Sometimes it's been called besetting sins. There are particular sins each of us struggle with, and it's not over in a night. It takes years often, decades. Sometimes we really never stop struggling with particular sins. But we can make progress by the grace of God. But here, he's saying, put this off, put it away, the rampant wickedness that continues to return to you. You continue to find in your own heart. It's overflowing. Your fight never ceases. Proverbs 19.27 says, Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge. If we cease to hear instruction, we cease to hear what God has to say in his word, Proverbs says that we're gonna stray from that. Our natural tendency is to stray away from the Lord, not towards the Lord. Solomon says there in Proverbs 19, put it off, mortify it, kill it. This is what I was saying last Sunday. Galatians 5, the works of the flesh. We walk by the Spirit and the Spirit is working in us and through us, but that doesn't eliminate the reality that we also are fighting against sin by the power of the Spirit. Make a definite break from it, then receive with meekness humility, the implanted word which is able to save your souls." Receive what? The implanted word. I think James is saying what he said in verse 18. You already have the word. It's implanted in you. You've heard the gospel. You are saved by it, but receive it. You see the difference there? We can know the gospel, you're a Christian, you do know the gospel, you know the Word of God, we often know what God's will is in the Word of God, but are we receiving it with meekness, with humility, a teachable heart, ready to respond to God? He's saying this Don't be angry in response to God, be humble and teachable. Put away evil desires in your heart, in your life. Put away unrighteous anger and humbly submit to what God says." And he really uses an illustration here of the seed This implanted word, as if it's a farming illustration here. It's already in your heart, and it has a sense of urgency. Receive it. Welcome the scripture as God's infinitely powerful, active tool in your life for your sanctification. God uses the word to transform your heart. And he's saying, be about this. So you could say the first duty in discipleship is to hear, understand, and respond to what God says in His Word. People ask, is there a secret ingredient in spiritual victory? Maybe you've thought that yourself. Maybe there's this one thing I'm missing. If I only prayed five hours a day, right? If I only went to church every Sunday, if there's something there that would make all the difference in the world, well, I think James would say, receive the word. Receive it with a humble, meek heart. Let God do his work in your heart. Let the gospel have its impact. And what does God's Word have the ability to do? Well, Genesis 1.1 says it has the ability to create everything in the entire universe. That's the power of God's Word. But notice verse 21, it's able to save your souls, is what he says. He's not saying here, it's not a reference to your conversion now. The idea is saving. is able to continually save you on an ongoing basis is the idea. It has the ability, because it's the inspired word of God, to continue to sanctify you, to continue to change you into more the image of Christ. What is he continually saving us from now that we are in Christ? From that rampant wickedness he just mentioned. That's what it does. You know, something that I think you probably have experienced in your Christian life is the power of sin. That none of us are more powerful than the power of sin. It is beyond powerful, but the Word of God is more powerful. God Himself, His Spirit, using the Word overcomes the sin in our heart. We need Christ and his word. So the word delivers us continually, he says, from the presence of sin and its destructive power. Verse 22, he says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. This is the convicting part. Don't just hear what the Bible says. Don't just hear the preacher. Do what the Word of God says. Respond to it. This is vitally important. This is the deception, the trap, is I'm just hearing what God says, but there's no action, there's no response, there's no doing. James gives another illustration, and he compares the Word to a mirror. Look at verse 23. 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. So you have the image of a mirror here, no pun intended. It reminds me one of our mission trips in Africa that I saw a mirror and it was a poorly made mirror. It was just cloudy, It was warped, but that was the mirror they were using there. And so you could not really see a true reflection of reality, which actually could be very encouraging to some of us on our mission trip, because it had been weeks we hadn't showered and shaved and that kind of thing. But I couldn't tell in that mirror who we really appeared to be. But the Word of God is the perfect mirror and it reveals who you truly are. Sometimes that's why we stay away from the Bible. Because it's really convicting. It pierces into our hearts, as Hebrews says. And he says here, it's as if it's a mirror. But if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man looking intently at his face in a mirror. The problem isn't the mirror here. It's a clear mirror, he can see. But the problem is, verse 24, he looks at himself and he goes away, and at once he forgets what he was like. I love Mexican food. But I always have a problem when I have cilantro. Because cilantro will be in my teeth, guaranteed. And I often, my spouse or, you know, people will remind me, usually after a long time, that you have something in your teeth. It's, how long has it been there? But what if I knew that was the case and I'm not going to do anything about it? It's kind of a silly picture, isn't it? A man staring in a mirror, there are problems that need to be fixed. but he's not going to do anything about it. We handle the Word of God that way, right? The Word is clear. It tells us who Christ is. It tells us who we are. It tells us what we should do to walk in a gospel-worthy manner, and yet we can turn away from it and forget. And I don't think it's a natural forgetfulness. I think it's a willful forgetfulness here. You know, we actually have better memories than we think we do. It's easy for us, for example, to remember the injuries against us by other people in detail. but not remember our own sins? Right? Isn't that true? We can have a long list of the imperfections and sins in other people, and our list is really short if it's existent. And that's the truth. The mirror reveals we're a sinful people. We trust our hearts a lot. We think ourselves in the best light often, and other people are not such a good light. We don't want to walk away from God's word, from his grace, not changing how we view ourself, not changing our lives and our hearts. What does he forget? The truth. The truth about God in himself. We are so quick to forget how sinful we are, that our hearts are idolatrous. We so quickly trust our own hearts. And left to ourselves, even as new creatures in Christ, we have a tendency to wander from God. That's why we need to constantly hear what God has to say in his word, both privately in our own life and corporately as a church. This is why the elders say that we need to have the Scripture read. Now we know you could read Scripture at home, and we want that, we encourage that, but we haven't even read as a church so you can hear it as a church. Well, he says he forgets what he's like. He forgets who God is. True repentance begins with an accurate assessment of our own sinful, idolatrous hearts. Our hearts are idol factories, always craving things that we shouldn't have, wanting things too much, more than God. And true repentance begins when the Word begins to convict us and we begin to respond to the conviction of the Word. We are to not only hear God's word, James says, but do it. Thomas Watson says this, doers of the word are the best hearers. I think that's what James is saying. God graciously through the mirror of his word lays the motives of our hearts bare before him. That's a gift. It's painful. But it's really good. It's what God intends to do. Verse 25, a last verse from Camel Knee James. He says, the one, 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. I think James has been building up to this point. I think verse 25 is his central point here in this context. Look into the law of liberty. This works really well with the Fourth of July. I didn't plan this. But we talk about independence and liberty. Freedom. He says here, look into the law of freedom. Look into the law of liberty. Look into his word. Simon Kistemaker says this, ancient mirrors rested horizontally on tables. so that the person who wanted to see his reflection had to bend and look down. We put our mirrors on walls, right? Then the mirror was there on the table. You had to literally look down into the table to see your reflection. And I think that's the idea here of the Word of God. We're looking here, we're looking down into the Word of God, and transformation begins to take place by the Spirit of God using that word. That's what James is saying here. Look in. The idea is peering in. It's the same word used in the Gospels. Remember when Peter and John and the women show up at the tomb and they That's the idea here, looking carefully into the Word of God. This man looks, he looks for a long time into the Word of God to see the glory of God and His glorious will. And he sees himself and where he needs to change. And he sees himself and where he needs to change. And he calls it the law of liberty. How can a law be liberating? Doesn't seem to make sense, does it? A law restricts me. It doesn't give me freedom and liberty. Well, this is interesting about this law. The law, which is the word, which is the gospel, those are synonyms, changes my heart so that I want to do the will of God. That's the way the law liberates. That's the way the gospel liberates you. It doesn't just tell you, here's what you do. It changes you on the inside, so you want to do what he tells you to do. That's when you experience freedom. You experience freedom when you do what you want to do, right? That's when you're truly free. 1 John 5, 3, his commandments are no longer burdensome. They're not a burden to me anymore. Doesn't mean they're not difficult. Christian life is very difficult, and we struggle with sin, but now I want to do the will of God. He's done something in my heart. So the gospel, the law of liberty changes my very desires. Edmund Hebert says, men are free when they want to do what they ought to do. He says, this is the splendid paradox produced by a living faith in the gospel through the indwelling Holy Spirit. And that's what James is saying here. Well, look at those two words, and perseveres. And perseveres. That's probably the hardest part, isn't it? You might do well on Sunday. Maybe on Monday. By Tuesday, certainly by Wednesday, it's harder to persevere into taking in God's Word with a humble, teachable heart. But we must persevere in looking into the Word of God. Well, we're getting towards the end here. Notice what he finally says there. Being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." Do you notice James is saying the same thing again and again? That's what preachers do. We repeat ourselves constantly. James is doing the same thing. Being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." James's emphasis here is on doing the will of God, applying the Word of God to your life. Studying the Word of God is not an end of itself. It's important, it's necessary, We pray for Bible studies. We encourage Bible studies. We encourage you to get highlighters and to mark your Bible up and to study your Bible diligently. But the study of the Bible is not the ultimate goal. It's not just to know more things. It's to do what God has said. God's will is that we do it. And what's the promise there in verse 25? You'll be blessed in your doing. Not just blessed in your Bible study, Not just blessed with those beautiful markers and highlighters. Blessed in the application of the Word of God to your life. And again, let's go back to the first century. You've heard the Word on Sunday. It's been read, it's been preached. You don't have your Bibles with you. What are you gonna do all week? You're gonna focus on doing the will of God that you heard on Sunday. That's gonna be your goal this week. And so it should be our goal as well. God's will is that we do it and the blessing is. Blessing, he says. Blessed. Are you noticed in your doing? You know what the word blessed means? It's a really deep theological idea. Happy. That's what the word means. Happy are you and you doing? It's the exact same word Jesus uses at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who thirst and hunger for righteousness. He's saying, happy are you. You want to be happy in your life? You want to experience the blessing of happiness? Obey God. It's really that simple, James says. Do the will of God. So here's my translation. of the whole passage. If it helps, I hope. but I'll just translate it to you, starting at verse 19. Therefore, continually strip off the filthy clothing of immorality, and continually strip off wickedness which is overflowing in your heart, and urgently, with great teachability, take in the word which implants itself in your heart, and which is continually able to sanctify your soul. The man who stoops over to take a penetrating, intense look to the perfect law which liberates man to love God's law this man who continues to take a Penetrating look into the perfect law will be happy as he continues to look and obey So friends here's the best advice I can give you as a pastor and it's the advice of James never let go of the book and Be in the word of God as much as you can. Delight in it. Hear the word of God. Have a meek, teachable heart. And receive it and respond to it. Always be diligently applying it to your life. Now, in closing here, some might still think James is legalistic, because he's just telling me what I need to do. And that's legalism. But I thought it fitting to end with the closing words of the greatest sermon that's ever been preached, and that's the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus in Matthew 7. Verse 24, Jesus says this, probably where James got it. And everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." The closing words on the Sermon on the Mount are the same words. Blessed is the man, blessed is the woman, who does what Jesus says. This book is your life. Don't just be willing to die for it. If it comes to it someday, be willing to live it, is what James has for us this morning. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we want to delight in your word. The fact that You have spoken to us, the fact that throughout history You've preserved Your Word providentially is a gift, is a gift of grace from You. And we want to be faithful. Lord, we struggle with sin, there's an internal battle. We do see ourselves in the mirror of the Word, and We want to forget what we see. We don't respond to it. We don't change our life. We don't change our desires and our thoughts. So Lord Jesus, we pray, would you please help us to hear your word with a humble heart and respond to what you tell us, to respond by faith and to trust your promise that we will receive blessing and joy while we're doing it. We pray all of this in your name. Amen.