I wrote this sermon for Methods of Bible Exposition at Bob Jones University on April 5, 2002.
FCF – Professing Christians often content themselves with an understanding of and “belief” in God’s Word.
Proposition – Because God has given you new birth by the Word, you must have a proper response to it.
I. Because God has given you new birth by the Word, you must prepare to receive it (19–21).
A. You must listen (19).
1. Be quick to listen (19a).
2. Be slow to speak (19b).
B. You must put off evil (19c-21a).
1. Be slow to anger (19c).
2. Anger does please God (20).
3. Put off all other sins (21a).
C. You must humble yourself (21b).
II. Because God has given you new birth by the Word, you must put it into practice (22–27).
A. You must choose to obey the Word (22–25).
1. Mere listeners (22–24)
a. Hear the Word
b. Forget the Word
c. Don’t obey the Word
2. Doers (25)
a. Hear the Word
b. Remember the Word
c. Obey the Word
B. You must show your obedience to the Word (26–27).
1. You must control your tongue (26).
2. You must show love for the needy (27a).
3. You must pursue true holiness (27b).
Scripture Introduction: Turn in your Bibles this evening to James 1. We will be considering verses 19–27. This passage is a call to all professing believers concerning hearing and doing the Word of God. James makes the emphatic assertion that obedience to God’s Word is not an option. You need to take careful consideration of yourself and see if you are a mere hearer of God’s Word or an obedient doer. Look into this passage with me pray that God will open your heart to see who you really are in light of His Word. Follow along closely in your Bible as we read our passage together, James 1:19–27:
“Be knowing this, my beloved brethren. Now everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. 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. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
Let’s all pray together now and ask for God’s help and blessing upon our time in His Word. Dear Father….
Sermon Introduction: Have you ever stopped to consider that you may be self-deceived? What a thought—that you may be living a life of self-deception! There are few things worse than being deceived. For example, wouldn’t it be horrible to wake up one day and find out that your spouse had never really loved you and now was leaving you? Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing to find out that your son or daughter was living in a lifestyle of sin like homosexuality, drunkenness, drugs, or some other sin—all the while you thought he or she was a good kid doing well in school and active at church. Maybe someone deceived you into making a big financial investment or purchase of some sort and ran off with all your money. There are few things worse than living in deception. But the worst kind of deception is deception concerning your spiritual state. You see, if you were to be deceived in one of the above ways, your losses are only temporary and physical, great as they may be. But spiritual deception is of an infinitely greater seriousness. What a tragedy it would be to go all the way through your life, thinking that you have been born again and are a child of God, only to find out when you stand before the Lord that you had been deceived your whole life. You see, this deception is something that all men are susceptible to because professing Christians often content themselves with an understanding of and “belief” in God’s Word. Yet they often regard the practice of the Word as optional—something for the spiritually elite. How often has this been your attitude? But James tells us something quite different. And as always, God’s Word has the answer. Because God has given you new birth by the Word, you must have a proper response to the Word.
I. Because God has given you new birth by the Word, you must prepare to receive it (19–21).
Illustration: Good counselors must be good listeners. For the past two years, I have had the privilege of being a dormitory counselor at Bob Jones University. I have had hundreds upon hundreds of meetings with guys. Especially at the beginning of a new year when the new freshmen come in, I am particularly busy. At the beginning of this year I met with close to 125 freshmen and new students in a matter of a few weeks, sometimes as many as five or six a night. On a number of occasions I would be trying to listen, but would often find my self thinking about a previous guy or what I was going to say next, and I’d find that I was not even listening to what he was telling me. I would quickly get back on track and begin listening. We would chat for a while, and I’d deal with him about his spiritual needs. Everyone went fine. But then comes the end of the meeting. He is about to leave my office, but what’s wrong? Oh no! I can’t even remember the guy’s name—the easiest and most important piece of information to remember. Oh, I had heard it, but I wasn’t diligently listening and paying close attention, and therefore I had forgotten. Is this not often how you treat the Word? We have so much else on our minds that we hear it without really diligently paying attention to it, thus we forget it and fail to heed it.
Application: You must have a longing to be prepared to hear the Word of God. This means that you need to approach it with reverence, humility, dependence, and a desire to obey it. Next Saturday night you will have the choice of what you will do with your evening. Will you have a late night, struggle to get up in the morning, get to church ten minutes late, and be in a state of frustration totally unready to hear the Word of God? Or will you prepare yourself by getting to bed at a decent time, rise up early in the morning with plenty of time for everyone to get ready, have breakfast and a brief time of prayer and reading of the Word to tune your hearts to receiving and obeying what God has to teach. There must be preparation for listening to God’s Word. Maybe it is that you need to deal with some sin that you are harboring in your life, maybe it is your tendency to not be quick to listen, maybe you don’t have a humble receptive attitude that realizes that you need the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. Whatever your area of struggle, you must start getting serious about hearing the Word of God so that you can obey it. Ask God for His grace to make you receptive to His Word. Call upon Christ to enable you to deal with those things in your life hindering you from being a good hearer of the Scriptures.
Transition: That you must rid yourself of sinful behavior and have a receptive mind and heart for the Word of God is plain enough, but this is not the end. You must go further.
II. Because God has given you new birth by the Word, you must put it into practice (22–27).
Illustration: How we admire the obedience a dog shows to its master! I recently read a story about and man and the commitment of his dog. This man often worked out-of-doors, so he often took his dog with him. One morning, he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to stay and watch his lunch bucket while he went into the forest. His faithful friend understood, for that’s exactly what he did. Sometime later a fire started in the woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where the dog had been left. What do you think that dog did? Surely he would have run to protect himself from the flames, right? But this is not what happened at all. The dog didn’t move. He stayed right where he was, in perfect obedience to his master’s word. With tearful eyes, the dog’s owner said, “I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it.” What a shame it is that a dog can be oftentimes better known as being obedient to his master than Christians are to their Master! It is quite amazing to us that that dog did what his master commanded him, but how much more should the Christian’s life be characterized by unshakable commitment to his Master (sermonillustrations.com).
Application: How undeniable is it from this passage that a true Christian must obey the instruction that God gives to him! You must make it your habit to take great care to hear the Word that God is speaking to you in order to put it into practice. If you do not plan to obey, you are better off not even listening. For example, you pick up your Bible tomorrow and begin to read it as you customarily do. As you read you are confronted with a truth that commands you to speak in kindness to others. In your head you agree to it and you say you know you should do it, but will you when the time comes? Later that day, when you receive a phone call from a bothersome telemarketer, will you heed the command that you read, or will you continue on in your self-deception? God calls you to obey and do what His Word says. Call upon Him for His grace to be a doer of the Word. Maybe for you it is simply a matter of reading the Word. Maybe it is failure to share the gospel or negligence in teaching your family the things of God. Whatever the case might be, God requires that all who have been born again by the Word also live their lives in obedience to it. And His grace is sufficient to enable you to do so.
Conclusion: In spite of man’s natural inclination to content himself with merely hearing the word of God and professing to believe it, it is clear from our passage that you must prepare yourself to receive it in order to obey it. Listening alone promotes self-deception. You must obey. Imagine that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, “Look, I’m going to leave. And while I’m gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. You manage things while I’m away. I will write you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do from now until I return from this trip.” Everyone agrees. He leaves and stays gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess—weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the gal at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people engaged in horseplay in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, “What happened? Didn’t you get my letters?” You say, “Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We’ve even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have ‘letter study’ every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters.” I think the president would then ask, “But what did you do about my instructions?” And, no doubt the employees would respond, “Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one” (sermonillustrations.com). Have you seen yourself in this passage tonight? How will you respond to God’s call to be doers of His Word? For the true Christian there is only one option—you must obey. Call upon God for His grace to commit yourself to obey the Word that you read and hear this week—whether is be to not respond in anger, to not worry, to share your faith, to show love to your family, or to speak to others in kindness. And when you are in the midst of decision, look to Christ for the grace to obey Him.