JAMES 1:21-272009 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: James 1:21-27

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2009. Here as we finish up James chapter 1, James really gives us an incredible challenge.

He challenges us to be doers of the word and not hearers only. You could apply Nike's slogan to this passage, just do it. That's what we're called to do. We're called to do the word of God. We're called to put it into practice.

Now, I'm going to refer back to the book of Matthew a few times this morning as we consider what James has to say. And so if you'd like to turn there for a moment with me, we'll be back in James in just a moment. But Matthew chapter 5 says,

Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount. It's a famous message that he gives there on the Mount of Olives, and he's sharing it before the people, and God is doing a great work in speaking clearly and revising what people have always thought about the Word as Jesus is speaking. And he deals with a lot of different things, but...

One of the passages that we often refer to or that you'll often hear referred to in Matthew chapter 5 is the issues of the heart. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 21, Jesus says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you,

Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Jesus here says, listen guys, you've heard it said before of old, the teachers of the day, you've heard it say that you shall not murder.

But then Jesus goes on to explain that a little bit further. He's explaining the spirit of the law. He's saying, look, even if you don't commit the outward action of murder, well, there's the equivalent of murder spiritually or the equivalent of murder in your heart is hatred towards a brother or towards another.

We also see that in just a few verses later in verse 27, he says, look, you've heard it said that you should not commit adultery. But Jesus goes on to explain, if you look at a woman lustfully in your heart, you've already committed adultery.

Jesus is explaining and sharing that it's a matter of the heart. And there was many religious people who thought they were doing wonderful, but in reality their heart was not right with God. And there needed to be some issues that were dealt with within their hearts. The point here that Jesus is making is when it comes to wickedness, do not think that you are not wicked just because you do not take certain actions.

You can't say I'm not wicked just because you don't fulfill these outward things. It's really an issue of the heart. But at the same time, what James is dealing with here is that when it comes to righteousness, we cannot think that we are righteous because of what we say is in our heart.

There also must be the outward manifestation or the outward practice of those things. And Jesus will go on to explain that as well or to demonstrate that as well. As he goes on in Matthew chapter 5, he talks about marriage and to not commit adultery. I'm sorry, not...

well, not commit adultery, but also not to be divorced. But he also talks about simply letting your yes be yes and your no, no, about the oaths that you make and the promises that you make. He talks about, you know, lending those to those who are in need, not, uh,

retaliating when someone comes against you. He talks about going that second mile when someone forces you. He talks about loving your enemies. He talks about doing good. He talks about praying. He gives all of these instructions on how we're to live because there's to be some action in our lives. There to be some things that we do out of obedience to the Word of God and to our relationship with God.

The Bible, the Word of God, is an instruction manual. And as an instruction manual, it's meant to be obeyed. It's meant to be lived out. It's often been related this way. You use the letters that spell out Bible, B-I-B-L-E, Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

Basic instructions before leaving earth. The Bible is our instruction manual. This is what tells us how to live, how to do what we've been called to do. The Bible is not just a book to make us feel good. It's not just given to us so that we can have warm feelings, warm fuzzies, and feel like we're okay, feel like we're religious. It's not just for education to inform us. It's not just for winning debates.

The Bible is meant to be applied. It's intended to be practiced. It's given to us as commands that we would live it out. And so James challenges us this morning to be doers of the Word of God. When it comes to wickedness,

Do not think that you are not wicked because you do not do certain outward actions. It's a matter of the heart. But when it comes to righteousness, you can't just say, well, I'm righteous because of what I say is in my heart. There needs to be the outward actions that demonstrate and back up the things that you say are in your heart. The reality is we live what we believe. And so let's go back to James chapter 1.

And in verse 21, as he starts off, first of five points this morning, he challenges us to receive the word. Receive the word. He starts out saying, Before he actually gets to doing the word, he says...

Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Now I think that's a good question for us to ponder. Have you laid aside all filthiness? All filthiness and the overflow of wickedness. The idea here is like removing clothing or removing something from yourself. Take it off and set it aside.

Take it off and cast it away. Take it off and get it out of your life, James is saying. All filthiness, everything that is filthy, all of the overflow, or it also could be said the abundance of wickedness. Take it off, lay it off, lay it aside from you. Do you think that I have just a teeny tiny little bit of wickedness? Do you think that you have just a teeny tiny little bit of wickedness?

No, we're to lay aside the abundance, the overflow. There's an overflow of wickedness. As we talked about last week in Jeremiah chapter 17, Jeremiah tells us that our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Jesus told us that out of the overflow of our hearts, the mouth speaks. And that's why it's important that we be slow to speak. It's the overflow of what comes out of our hearts, which at the core is wickedness.

There's an overflow, an abundance of wickedness. And as God reveals it to us, as it manifests itself in our life, we are to lay it aside, to remove from us all filth, to get it out of our lives, to put it away from us. And then we will be able to receive with meekness the implanted word. The word receive it, it's the idea of something that is accepted deliberately and readily.

Much like we receive a gift. Usually we're not reluctant to receive a gift, right? We're excited about it. We readily say, yeah, gimme, gimme, gimme. I remember my cousin, one time when he was young, he was opening presents on his birthday and they were all loaded up on the coffee table and there was a runner that went down the coffee table and they were handing him presents and handing him presents and pretty soon they weren't handing them to him fast enough and so he grabbed the runner and just started pulling all the presents towards him.

readily and deliberately he's receiving these gifts. And that's the idea here. It's a deliberate and excited thing to receive with meekness, the implanted word. Meekness is also an important word because meekness is that attitude, that heart in which we accept God's dealings with us as good and we do not dispute or resist what he is doing. Meekness is that attitude, it's that heart of meekness

accepting what God has done or what God has said and not disputing or resisting it, not countering it, not justifying our disobedience to it, but receiving it without dispute, acknowledging that it is from God. And we're to receive with this attitude, with this heart of not disputing God, not fighting against God when it comes to what He has said.

When it comes to the implanted word. And when I think of the implanted word, immediately in my mind is the parable of the sower. You know that parable that Jesus told where the sower went out to sow and he's sowing seed. And he explains to his disciples later on that the seed is the word of God. And this seed is cast out and it's implanted there in different types of soil. The first type of soil was the path.

You remember what the path was. You know what a path is like. It's hard. The seed didn't penetrate the soil. It just kind of sat on top. It didn't really go anywhere.

And the birds came and ate the seed that was cast upon the path. Jesus went on to explain that that was the ones who, they'd heard the word, but they didn't receive it. There wasn't a reception. They didn't deliberately and readily accept this seed into their life, the word of God into their life. And so it was eaten up by the birds or taken away by the enemy. Some of the seed fell on thorny soil.

Soil that had weeds and thorns. It was full of these other malicious and vicious plants. And so the seed, it came, it landed, and it began to grow. But the problem was, the weeds began to grow as well and choked out the fruit or the growth that had begun in that soil. Jesus said, that's the cares of the world. Those who receive the Word of God...

But because of the cares of the world, because of the things going on around them, and the material things, and the issues of life, and because they're still tied to this life, the things of this life choked out the Word of God that He had begun to grow and work in their lives. Some of the seed then fell on the rocky soil. Now the rocky soil had a little bit of dirt, but it also had a lot of rocks. And so the seed that was sown there, it wasn't able to really grow properly.

Because the roots couldn't go down deep because of the rocks that were in the soil. And so they started to grow quick. The soils warm, but they didn't last very long. And when there became any kind of pressure, any kind of trouble concerning the word of God, they quickly died and fell away. And then finally the seed was sown upon, it fell upon the good soil.

And the good soil, it produced fruit, some 60 or some 30, some 60 and some 100 fold.

And that's the idea here. That's the kind of soil that James is telling us to have when he says, receive with meekness the implanted word. He's saying, look, you need to have good soil in your hearts so that you're able to receive, you're able to accept that you deliberately choose without disputing against God to simply receive the word that he has said.

receive the implanted word. Implanted, it means that it's already there. It's not so much that it's new information. It's not so much that this is bursting revelation for us and I've never heard anything like this in all my life.

No, these are things that we know. These are things that we've heard as we read through the Word of God, as we study week in and week out. These are things that we know and that we understand, but the issue lies in application. The issue lies in, are we living it out? It's implanted, it's there, but is it lying dormant? Or is it being choked out?

by the cares of this life. That there's things that we're not being obedient in because we care too much about this life and we care too much about the things of this world rather than obeying God. Or there are things in our life that we're not being obedient in these areas because, well, our roots aren't very deep there. There's a lot of rocks. There's a lot of obstacles and we have not accepted

the word of God. We've not received it deliberately, but we've got these objections and we've got these disputes and we're fighting with God and not willing to let God be God and just simply obey Him. We feel that we have to present our case, force our way, instead of just receiving with meekness, with humility, the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

Of course, when we're talking about salvation, one of the things that we're talking about is the gospel. In John 3, verse 16, tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It's a verse you know, it's a verse I know, but it's a verse that must be received. This is the Word of God, and we must receive this implanted Word.

that God loved us so much that if we believe in His Son that He sent to die for us, we should not perish but have everlasting life. Receive the implanted Word and receive salvation for your souls. But it's not limited to the Gospel. The seed is the Word of God that is sown. All Scripture, applying this to ourselves, we must deliberately and readily accept it without disputing it.

In Matthew chapter 5, verse 44, a little bit farther on in the Sermon on the Mount than where we first looked. But Jesus says, But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. This is the Word of God. This is the command of God. Now this seed is sown upon our hearts. Jesus says, love your enemies.

Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. And pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. This is just one example of a whole book of examples that we could look at.

The Word of God that is implanted in our hearts. Receive the implanted Word. This is for you. This is the instruction for you so that you know how to deal with and how to relate to these people who are your enemies. Do you have any enemies? Do you have anybody that comes against you so that you know how to relate to those who curse you?

Do you have anybody that curses you, that comes against you strongly in their words and their swearing? Do you have anybody that hates you? This is the implanted word for you and I that we would know then how to relate to and how to deal with those who spitefully use us and persecute us. Receive. Don't dispute. Don't reject. Don't object. Receive.

what God has said. Receive the word of God. This is God's instruction for you and I in dealing with and relating to those kinds of people. And so we see, first of all, that we're to receive the word, to accept it deliberately and readily. Next, he goes on to tell us to do the word. Look at verse 22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

We're to do the Word of God. He says, be doers of the Word and not hearers only.

Now hearing is important. He's not saying that hearing is not important. We need to hear the Word of God, which means the reading of it, the reception of it through our ears, but also through our eyes. We need to be involved in Bible studies. We need to be involved in a devotional life on our own, spending time in the Word of God, receiving the Word of God. That is very important. But

That is not enough. That's not the end of it. It's not just going to church and hearing the Bible study. It's not just reading through a portion of Scripture as a devotion for ourselves. If we stop there, he says, we're just deceiving ourselves. And there's this great threat, this great danger of self-deception. And so he says, be doers of the Word. Receive the Word of God personally.

Accept it. Don't fight it. Don't object to it. And now do it. Do it. Put it into practice. Live it out. Be doers of the word. Turn with me back to the book of Matthew for just a moment. Again, looking at the Sermon on the Mount, we could have looked at, you know, any other portion of scripture, but this is the one that continued to speak to my heart.

Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, you know, he told them about the heart, the issues of the heart. He'd been giving them instructions. He deals with some more things in chapter 6. But then in chapter 7 of the book of Matthew, still continuing on the Sermon on the Mount, he goes on to give them more instruction. And he concludes his whole message. He concludes the whole sermon with verse 21 and following. He says...

Notice that. He says, look, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, is going to enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.

He goes on in verse 22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And so Jesus deals with a specific group of people here as he's concluding his message there on the Sermon on the Mount.

And he wants them to know, don't be deceived, don't be confused. Just because a person says, Lord, Lord, does not mean that they will inherit the kingdom of God. Well, who's the one that's going to inherit the kingdom of God? He says, the one who does the will of my Father. The one who is a doer of the word. The one who is obedient and responds to the word of God and what God has given to us here in his word. And he says...

There's many who think that they're going to enter in. They're going to be surprised that they don't enter in. And they're going to say, didn't we do all these things? But Jesus says, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. And what did James start us out by saying? Lay aside all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness. We cannot, we must not continue to practice lawlessness. We must lay those things aside to remove that filthiness from our lives.

Jesus then goes on to compare someone who does the word of God with a wise man. Look at verse 24. He says, And the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock.

Jesus says, look, whoever hears these sayings of mine, whoever receives my word and does it, is like a man who built his house upon the rock. See the importance here of putting it into practice, of doing it, of living it out. It's not just about hearing it and feeling good.

It's not just about hearing it and being instructed and having more information or lots of knowledge. It's not just about memorizing verses and knowing where things are at in the Bible. It's about living them out. It's about putting them into practice. It's about doing them. Jesus went on to say in verse 26 and 27, Hey, but if you hear these sayings of mine and then do not do them,

Well, then you're like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. And you know the end of that story. It just goes kaplat. It doesn't last. It's unstable. The person who hears the word of God and does not do it, their life will collapse. It will fall apart. It will not last. And so Jesus says, look, you need to hear these things. You need to hear what I'm saying. And you need to do it.

So you're like the wise man who built his house upon the rock. Looking at chapter 6 of Matthew, we can see some of the things that Jesus had just been telling them. There in verses 1 through 4, he's telling them that they need to do charitable deeds to be seen by God and not man. Hear these sayings of Jesus. Hear these words of Jesus. Do charitable deeds, but do it before God and not before man.

Then he goes on in verses 5 through 13 to instruct us on how to pray. Pray. Put into practice the things that Jesus said. Follow the model and the example that he has given to us. Then in verses 14 and 15, he tells us to forgive people just as God has forgiven us. Forgive. Let go those people that have wronged you. Verses 16 through 18, he talks about fasting and how we're to fast before the Lord and not before men.

In the same way, we're to fast before the Lord and not before men. We're to put it into practice and not just hear it and say, oh, that's a nice point. Good job. I like the application or I like the illustration. But we're to then go and do it.

Verses 19 through 21, he talks about laying up treasures in heaven. Verses 25 through 32, he says, do not worry. That's something that we need to practice, especially in these days and these times. Do not worry. God knows what you need. He knows. He closed the grass and the flowers of the field. He provides for the birds of the air. Do not worry.

Now go do it. Now go put it into practice. Verse 33, of course, is seek first the kingdom of God. All these things, these are the things that Jesus has been saying and he concludes by saying, now everyone who hears these words of mine and then does them is like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. This is why James says, be doers of the word. Build your house upon the rock. Take what God has said in his word and live it. Do it.

It's about not just Sunday morning, but about Monday morning and Monday afternoon and Monday evening and all day Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. It's about taking this and then now letting it be demonstrated by our lives. Living it out. Putting it into practice. Going back to James, he says, Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Now there's a lot of people

who are self-deceived. And it's sad. It's tragic. There's a lot of people. We saw that in Matthew chapter 7 just a few moments ago there at the first part, verses 21 through 23. Jesus said, Many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy and cast out demons in your name? They were self-deceived. They thought. They were guaranteed in. I mean, look at all the things that we've done for God. They were self-deceived.

And Jesus said, look, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. They thought that they weren't wicked because of the outward acts. But there's an issue of the heart. They practice lawlessness. We cannot deceive God. We can only deceive ourselves. We cannot deceive God. We can only deceive ourselves. And so James says, be a doer. Don't deceive yourselves and just hear the word of God and then think that you're okay.

Don't just go to church and then think that you're okay. Don't just read through scriptures or passages and then think that you're okay. Now you need to do them. You need to live them out. Your obedience to the word comes out of a loving relationship with God. And when that takes place, you're like a wise man who built his house upon the rock. Be doers of the word and not hearers only. It's a challenge for us. And it takes work. It takes some action on our part.

And this is why, well, sometimes we fail. Many times we fail. We would love it if Christianity was just about reading a passage and then feeling good. My dad, I remember one time, was telling me and sharing with me a story of something that happened with one of his co-workers.

his co-worker wasn't a believer but knew about God and had some spiritual background and so his co-worker was telling him how he was driving down the street and

Then he just had this sudden urge, this sudden burden that he had to read the Word of God. He had to read the Bible right then and there. And so he was driving down the road. He pulls it off. He pulls off the road. And he gets out his Bible. And he reads two verses. And then he just kind of like clutches it to his chest and goes, Oh, I feel so much better. But then the rest of his life was...

Just lived however he wanted to live. That is not Christianity. Although that would be wonderful. Wouldn't that be great? If I could just read one verse in the morning or maybe two and then that's it. Like that's just all that it's all about and I can do whatever I want. Yeah, that would be a lot easier. But we'd be miserable. If you want to be blessed, we'll see this in a moment in James. Read the word of God and then figure out, Lord, how do I apply this? How do I make this real in my life? What do I need to do?

Based upon what your word is telling and teaching me here. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. There's a great danger of self-deception. And so we must be earnestly, diligently putting the word of God into practice. So we're to receive the word, we're to do the word, and we're to not forget what the word has said. Look at verse 23 and 24.

He says, Here James compares the Word of God to a mirror. The Word of God, the Bible that we hold in our hands, like a mirror, reveals the truth to us, whether we like it or not.

It reveals the truth to us. It shows us who we are. It shows us our hearts. And it shows us our motives. We love to think that the Word of God is a picture of someone else. We read and we say, oh man, James needs to hear this. Paul needs to read this scripture. Mary, she needs to understand what this is saying. We think it's a picture of someone else. Like, look at this portrait. This is exactly like my father-in-law. What's going on here?

But James says, no, it's a mirror. It's a mirror. It's reflecting your own heart in your own condition.

James Vernon McGee tells the story of a Tennessee mountaineer. He's a guy who lived in the mountains and didn't come across society very much. And so he's going about the mountains there in Tennessee one day and he comes across a campsite that someone had been staying at and then they left, but they left some stuff behind. And so...

Curiously, he's looking through some of the different things that they left and then he finds a mirror.

He'd never seen a mirror before. He goes on to say that he looks at the mirror and the guy says, whoa, I never knew my dad had his picture took. And so he's like, whoa, look, my dad had his picture taken. And so he takes it home and he puts it away. He's like, this is wonderful. My dad had a picture taken of him. And now I can remember what my dad looked like. But of course, it's a mirror, right? It's reflecting his image. He doesn't know he looks just like his dad.

Well, his wife sees him put it away and she doesn't know what it is. And so she goes and looks at it after he is gone. And she looks at it and she goes, so that's the old hag he's been running around with. That's the woman he's been, she thinks it's a picture of some lady that he's off with. That's how we treat the Word of God sometimes. We look at it and we say, oh, that's this person or that's for these people here. But in reality, it's a mirror. It's reflecting who we are.

It's showing us what God wants to do and what God can do in our lives. We cannot look at the perfect law of liberty and be pleased with ourselves at how good we look. The perfect law reveals our imperfection and it reveals our need to do what it says. And so James says, if anyone is a hearer of the word of God and not a doer, then he's like a man who looks in the mirror, he observes himself, he goes, hmm,

And then he walks away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. You know, this actually happens to me all the time. And my wife makes fun of me for it as well. But I rarely look at mirrors. It's one of the advantages of the hairstyle that I sport. I don't need to. There was, in my youth, when I was Zach's age, you know, I...

I would do the wave, you know, and I spent hours in front of the mirror and fixing it and doing those things. But now, there's not much need. I just kind of dry my head and then walk out the door. No need to look at the mirror and it's all foggy from the shower I just took anyways. So I rarely look at the mirror. And so the way that I look in my head, most of the time is very different than the way that I look in reality.

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And in the Nintendo Wii, you can set up your character. It's called a Mii. And all of my... The rest of my family is all like... We're very accurate reflections of themselves. But mine, of course, it's my visual of what I see when I think of myself. When I picture myself, I'm skinny and I have lots of hair. And so that's what my character looked like on the video game. And they're all laughing at me. I just don't look at the mirror that much. And so even if I do look...

I walk away and I forget. And in my head, I'm still this wonderful, you know, skinny, with this really cool hairstyle on the front here. And that's what I am. Well, that's what James says. Look, that kind of person is like someone who hears the Word of God, but then doesn't put it in practice. You see, we look at the Word of God and the Word reveals to us our own hearts. It reveals to us the bitterness that is there. It reveals to us the hatred, the jealousy.

It reveals to us the lust, the greed. It reveals to us the unbelief. It reveals to us those areas that need attention. Sometimes there are big glaring things right on our face and it brings them to our attention. But if we then don't address it,

and respond to it. If we just walk away like a person who just, you know, forgot what they look like in the mirror. We walk away thinking, I'm a wonderful Christian. Everything's good. I'm right with God. All things are well. How wonderful this life is. Without addressing the issues that God is seeking to bring to our attention. So James says, look, don't forget what God has shown you in His Word.

Don't forget those lessons that he's taught you. Don't forget those things that he's revealed to you. You know, God reveals things to you through his word for a reason. It's because we need to hear them. Sometimes there's warnings that God gives us and we kind of discount them like, oh, I already know that. I'm strong in that area. If God says take heed, then take heed. Don't be a forgetful hearer.

Don't walk away and forget what God has revealed to you of yourself in his word. But walk away and put into practice then what God has called you to do.

And so we must not forget the word. Fourthly, we must study the word. And you could add on there continually. Verse 25 says, But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. So in contrast to the man who looks in the mirror and walks away and forgets what he actually looks like,

In contrast to the Christian who looks at the word and then walks away and doesn't do anything, doesn't live out anything that God has shown him, in contrast to that person is the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. The word looks into, it's the idea of a penetrating examination. I like how one author put it, it's bending over to take a better look. You ever do that in the mirror? What in the world is that?

Where did that come from? Bending over to take an examination, a closer look. Let's really check this out. Let's see what this thing is that's being revealed on this mirror. The commentator Adam Clark says, This is the person who takes time to see and examine the state of his soul, the grace of his God, the extent of his duty, and the height of the promised glory. This is the person who takes time to see and

What is the state of my soul? Where do I really stand? What is my heart like? And he bends forward to examine the Word of God, to look deep and to study, to dig deep, to understand, where am I? Where is my heart? What is it that God wants to do? But not just that. It's someone who bends forward, who examines, who looks deeply into the grace of his God, who studies how great is our God.

It takes the time to meditate and to consider the grace of God or the extent of our duty.

What is it that God has called me to do? What is my calling? And how does God want me to use the gifts that He's given to me? It's the Christian who looks into the Word of God and says, Lord, I want to serve you. I want to be obedient to you. What is it that you want me to do? What is my duty that you have set before me? I need to understand this. I'm looking into the perfect law of liberty. I'm looking into the Word of God. I'm studying, examining the Word of God.

To understand the height of the promise of glory that you've given to me. It says, he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. And this really is the key to being a doer of the word. Continuing in it. When the Lord appeared to Joshua in Joshua chapter 1, verse 8, God tells him, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night forever.

You want to be prosperous? You want to have good success? Here's what God says. Let's back up again. This is the continuing in it that James is talking about.

meditating in it day and night. It's to be the thing that's upon our hearts and the thing that's in our minds and the thing that is in our mouths. We think about it, we talk about it, we meditate on it day and night. And then he goes on to say that, in order that, so that you may be able to observe, to do according to all that is written in it.

In order to be a doer of the word, it starts by meditating in it day and night, God tells Joshua. Fill your life with the word of God. As Jesus told his disciples in John chapter 8, abide in my word and you'll be my disciples indeed.

abide in my word. Fill your life, fill your heart, fill your mouth, fill your mind with the word of God and then you will learn how you will be able to put it into practice. You will be able to observe and do all that is written in it. We need to fill our hearts and minds and lives with the word of God. We need to lay aside the filth and in its place put the things of the word of God.

Lay aside the filth, the junk that comes in through our ears, through our eyes, and instead replace those things with things that will bring in the word of God through our eyes and through our ears. And he says, this one will be blessed in what he does. God told Joshua, then you'll be prosperous and have good success. You want to be blessed? You want to prosper and have good success? He says, here's what you need to do. Fill your life with the word of God.

that you may learn how to do it, that you may learn how to practice it. Study the Word. Look into it. Examine it. And continue in it, that you might be able to practice it and live it out. And he says, this one will be blessed, notice, in what he does.

The doer of the word will be blessed in what he does. Why? Well, because what he does is the doing of the word. And so as you practice the word, as you do the word, that will be blessed because it's God's word and it will not return void. It's God's word and it's guaranteed to be good and healthy and valuable. The doer of the word will be blessed in what he does. He ends the chapter by giving us a couple of examples.

Look at verse 26. He says, If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Again, we have this idea of self-deception. This one thinks he is religious, but his religion is useless or empty or vain. It's worthless. Now, the idea of religion, we kind of think of it often in negative connotation.

We often say, you know, Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship. And the intent of what we're saying is true, but religion of itself is not bad. The idea of being religious here is just diligently performing the ascribed duties of the service of God. It's really being a doer. It's a good thing. It's what we're supposed to be in that sense. We're supposed to be religious and that we're

doing the service of God, that we're living out the service of God. And so James says, look, if anyone thinks that he's religious, if anyone thinks he is a doer of the word, but he's not able to bridle his own tongue, he deceives his own heart. Now we're going to deal with the tongue more in depth in James chapter 3, and so I'm not going to spend much time here.

In fact, James chapter 3 verse 2 tells us, we all stumble in many things, and we could all say amen to that. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, James says. So he uses the tongue here because, well, the tongue is one of those areas that, hey, if you're able to keep your tongue, if you're able to bridle your tongue, then you're going to be perfect. Well, it's something we all fall short in. It's something that represents for us the rest of

of our Christianity, the way that we use our tongue. The rest of our spiritual state is demonstrated by our tongue. And so if anyone is thinking that he's religious, thinking he's a doer of the word, but he doesn't bridle his own tongue, so he thinks, hey, well, I contribute and I give gifts and I do this and do that, but I just say, you know, whatever I want. And I slander and gossip or bicker and backbite or... Bicker, is that a word? Bicker.

If he doesn't bridle his own tongue, he deceives his own heart and his religion is useless. David Guzik puts it this way, your walk with God is useless if it does not translate into the way that you live and the way that you treat others. He says, many are deceived in their own heart regarding the reality of their walk with God. James here, again, he warns us against this self-deception, thinking we're religious.

but our tongue proves otherwise. Verse 27, now he gives us a good example. He says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So here's the type of religion that God desires. Here's pure and undefiled religion. Here's

The religious duties, again, not a negative connotation, but good things. Here's what a doer of the Word of God does. An example of what a doer of the Word of God does is they visit orphans and widows in their trouble. And they keep oneself unspotted from the world. He kind of sums up, just gives two examples of what this type of religion, of what this type of a doer of the Word will look like. Spurgeon puts it this way, charity...

And purity are the two great garments of Christianity. Charity, taking care of those who are in need, the orphans and the widows. And purity, keeping oneself unspotted from the world. These are the two great garments of Christianity. These are the two main characteristics of a Christian's life.

orphans and widows in that day were in a especially needy state because they had no one to provide for them. There was no welfare system. There was no food stamps or anything like that. They relied completely upon the charity, the giving of other people around them. There was no provision for them. And so they were at the mercy of everyone else. And so he says to visit orphans and widows in their trouble even.

Not even in their regular days, which were when they were at the mercy of everyone else, but in their midst of difficulty. The idea here is that they have no ability to repay. There's no way they're ever going to be able to repay or compensate you for what you're doing or what you've given to them. But you're to visit them and to meet their needs and to be with them and to share with and be concerned for those who are in need and those who are in trouble. To love and have compassion. That's what we're called to do.

that's an example of doing the Word of God. Not only that though, we're to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. And this is more difficult than it sounds because the world is always trying to influence us, trying to creep in and cause us to compromise. We're familiar with Romans chapter 12.

to present ourselves as a living sacrifice. There in verse 2, he says, do not be conformed to the world. It literally means there to stop being conformed to the world because the world is constantly trying to conform us into its image. We need to keep ourselves unspotted from the world.

And how do we do that? We fill our lives with the Word of God. And we'll be obedient to what the Word of God says, despite what the world says. So we're to receive the Word of God, to accept it without fight, deliberately and eagerly, without disputing and arguing against God and what He has said in His Word. Then we're to do it. We're to put it into practice.

And we're not to forget the Word of God, not walking away and then just kind of forgetting all the things that God has just shown us and all the things He's called us to do. We're to study the Word of God. We're to examine it. We're to continue in it, to meditate in it day and night so that we do not deceive ourselves, but that we become like the wise man who built his house upon the rock. And then when the storms came, when the floods came, it stood. It lasted.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself. The worship team is going to come up and we're going to partake of communion at this time. And as they come up, would you turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 11. As we partake of communion together, we're practicing what we've just been studying, being doers of the word of God. Because Jesus, there in the upper room, gave some specific instructions. And those instructions were passed on to Paul by Jesus

And Paul records them. He relates to us through 1 Corinthians chapter 11, these instructions. He says there in verse 23 of 1 Corinthians chapter 11, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given things, he broke it and said, Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Notice this. Do this.

In the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, Here he gave us a simple step that we can put into practice, an element of the word that we can do right now. He says, He says,

Partake of communion. Do it in remembrance of me. Do it to remind yourself of me and my sacrifice and what I've done. And so we partake of communion out of obedience. We're taking what Jesus has said. We're taking his instructions and now we're living them out. And so as they lead us in worship, they're going to pass out the bread and the cup. Hold both portions. We'll partake together at the end. But let's remember out of obedience based on the instruction that he's given to us.

Let's remember His death upon the cross for your sin and my sin. Let's remember and proclaim His death until He comes. Let's worship the Lord together.