James 1:19-27
Morning Greeting:
What does your Bible reading look like? Application? No application? Non-existent?
The Bible says “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.”
Introduction:
Do you ever ignore what you see in the mirror? Sometimes there’s not a lot you can do about what you see in the mirror! But if you see a smudge of dirt there, do you just ignore it and go about your day? Or do you clean it off?
Imagine if a fellow were to look into a mirror and notice a big patch of hair right on his cheek that he missed while shaving. And then he just went about his day as if it were not a problem. Nowadays we might just think he was trying to make a fashion statement or something, but it would look rather foolish.
Kind of like that children’s story – The Emperor’s New Clothes. The Emperor thinks that he is really something special and intelligent. Some con artists pick up on the arrogance of the Emperor and they tell him “We are willing to make you some very special clothes. These clothes are so special that only the enlightened will be able to see them. Of course, they will come at a hefty price, but we believe they will be well worth it…”
The Emperor thinks – Ha! I am certainly very smart. I’m sure I can see them. So he tells them “Go ahead, make the clothes, I will pay your price. Not only am I very smart, but I am also very rich.”
The con artists grab a loom and spindle and move their hands around for a while like they are actually doing something, and then present the Emperor his new “clothes.” The Emperor dresses down to his underwear and tries on the new clothes.
When he looks in the mirror though… he sees nothing. Just himself in his underwear. The crooks tell him “oh, the clothes are very wonderful.” But he sees nothing. Unwilling to admit to himself or others that he isn’t as clever as he thought that he was, he does nothing about his nakedness. He says “yes, the clothes are indeed wonderful.”
The crooks say “Might we suggest a parade, sir, to demonstrate your lovely new attire?”
“Of course, what a wonderful idea!”
And off the Emperor goes in his new clothes for the entire city to see.
The Emperor ignored what the mirror showed him. He deceived himself. It turned out; he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was.
We also must not deceive ourselves. God’s Word reveals truth to us. Will we act upon it or ignore it?
Knowledge is not the same as godliness. Just because you know a truth does not mean that you are obeying it. And it is possible, just as Solomon did, to have wisdom but to make ungodly decisions.
Text: James 1:19-27
Theme: Be a Doer of the Word and not a Hearer Only
Review:
But first, because you are probably wondering, what happened to verses 12-18? You may or may not remember this, but I actually preached on verses 12-18 about 10 months ago.
I could preach on it again, and that wouldn’t be a bad thing. We all need reminders. But, life is short and I only preach about once a week. Better probably to preach something new.
But quick review just so we keep up with James: those verses are about where temptation comes from. Temptation comes from inside of us. Sometimes, when a believer has a trial in their life, they – not God – turn it into a temptation.
The best example I can think of is what happened in the Garden of Eden. God created a wonderful environment for us that had all that we needed. In that garden, He placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told us not to eat from that tree. This was a test or trial. God’s intent was that we should of our own free will choose to obey Him. He did not stir or prod us toward disobedience in any way; He did not put it into our hearts to choose the bad. He wanted us to choose the good.
But, we were tempted. Our own desires for something other than God, a desire to do differently from what God commanded, came into our hearts – with some help from the devil. And then we took and ate from that tree. We sinned. We picked the evil.
Don’t be deceived by that as you think about and face trials. It is not God’s fault when we are tempted and sin. Sin comes from our own desire and we act upon it. God is a good God. He sends us good things.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
This is closely related to finding joy in trials and having wisdom to navigate trials – if you blame your temptation to sin upon God, then you aren’t going to have joy in trials and you aren’t going to be wise in trials either. We must instead confess our sin and follow God’s wisdom instead.
And that’s what James has to talk to us about in verses 19-27 today. We need to obey God’s wisdom. We need to be doers of the Word and not just hearers only.
We face a trial, we pray to God for wisdom in faith; we find wisdom from God in the Bible. Now what? That’s still not enough.
After discovering the truth, will you behave as the Emperor did and go on as if there is no problem?
Will you allow temptation to arise within yourself and obey its sinful desires?
Will you be a hearer of the Word only?
Or will you be a doer of the Word?
Theme: Be a Doer of the Word and not a Hearer Only
Verses 19-21
“The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
This is true on many levels. First, the righteousness of God is produced in people’s lives by receiving with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls, and then becoming a doer of the word and not a hearer only.
In short, the righteousness of God is produced in people by positive reception of and obedience to the Word of God. Can you think of one time that your anger has produced righteousness in either yourself or others? I’m talking about righteousness by the way, not obedience. Sure, you can yell at someone till you are blue in the face that they ought to be less selfish and go and do this and that. And because of your anger they might just go and do as you have demanded. But are they doing it out of a changed heart? Or are they doing it because they are afraid of the consequences?
*story of yelling at father*
Righteousness has not been produced, merely obedience. And there is definitely a difference. Righteousness is obedience to God from a pure and worshipful heart. The best that anger can accomplish is obedience to you out of fear, but often it just produces more filthiness and rampant wickedness.
And anger sure doesn’t produce righteousness within yourself either. It eats away at your thought life and your health, erodes your capacity to love, grows into unforgiveness.
Anger is such a common experience to us all that we have trouble looking at it as filthiness and rampant wickedness, but it is and we must treat it as such.
Elsewhere in Scripture, we read “be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” It is possible to have anger and not sin. It’s just pretty uncommon. You can be angry at sin in your life, or angry at the state of the world we live in or something – but even then it is pretty easy for that anger to morph into something sinful.
Application:
Wise counsel from Scripture: “do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Holding on to anger is where it starts morphing from an emotion into something more dangerous. If you are holding on to anger in your heart this morning or later today – get rid of it before the night falls. You’ll sleep a lot better for it and wake up much healthier spiritually.
Link: And having received the Word of God…
Verses 22-25
Follow through on the application of Scripture that the Holy Spirit reveals to your heart. Are you angry? “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Will you do that or just hear it? If you hear it and recognize it to be true, but do not do it – then you have knowledge, but there is a need to grow in righteousness.
Of course, “filthiness and rampant wickedness” is not exclusive to anger. Left unchecked, the smallest and most harmless seeming sins can grow into filthiness and rampant wickedness. The Bible has much to say about what things the Lord looks upon as sin. Time would fail me this morning to try to recite them all, but the principle is simple enough: when the Bible reveals to you that you should or should not do something, obey it.
Otherwise, you behave like a person who looks intently into a mirror to see precisely what they look like. You recognize all your features, all of who you are, good and bad, and then you just leave and forget all about it.
Why even bother looking into the mirror at all if that is what you are going to do? What is the purpose of the mirror? Life’s too short for empty rituals like looking at yourself in the mirror and then forgetting all about it. Similarly, life is too short for you to read the Bible and do nothing about it.
And it’s pretty easy for Bible reading to either be neglected or to become an empty ritual. I think this is because application is hard. Application often means a dramatic change to your life and old habits die hard. It’s very easy for lack of diligence to apply Scripture to turn into reading the Bible as an empty ritual or for Bible reading to stop entirely.
Application:
Has Bible reading become a neglected or empty ritual for you? Do you want to experience more of God’s blessing in your life? I have a challenge for you. It’s not a complicated challenge at all, but it will be a challenge. And it will be a rewarding challenge.
Try this. Find a verse in the Bible that you believe God wants you to apply. Maybe it’s a verse on not letting the sun go down on your anger. Maybe it is a verse about counting trials as joy. Maybe it is a verse about praying to God for wisdom in faith. Find that verse and now: apply it. Don’t just read the verse. Don’t just memorize the verse – although that could be helpful. Don’t just meditate on that verse – that also could be helpful.
Instead, become a doer of the Word. Try that for a little while for your devotionals. I like Our Daily Bread. I like yearly Bible reading plans. But here is an even better Bible reading plan: actually obey it. Then, you have a promise from God that you will be blessed in what you do.
Verses 26-27
These two verses James gives us some practical things to check ourselves against to see if we are truly religious or just deceiving ourselves. The first has to do with usage of the tongue. Do you exercise restraint over what you say? Or do you just say whatever you’d like? If your tongue has no bridle or filter, James has a brutal evaluation of your religion: it is worthless. Worthless. That doesn’t mean you aren’t saved, but practically speaking there is no value to the things you do.
That could potentially be a pretty heartbreaking thing to hear. But I have good news. That can change! That can change quickly even! Here, read James 1:26. Memorize James 1:26. Now go and do James 1:26. Your religion is no longer worthless. Problem solved.
Verse 27. I have to say that I am very glad that we have a pantry here. Because if we didn’t have a pantry this would be an embarrassing verse to read. The pantry is helping women and children who are in need. It’s a good work and evidence that we as a church are on the right track. Nevertheless, I think we could do better somehow in our care for orphans and widows. Not slighting the pantry there at all – they are doing the right thing. Just saying I think we could do more as a church. Pray with me about that.
The final practical check James gives us is in our relationship to the world. Is our faith and conduct being compromised by the world? Are we stained in some way? The culture around us practices some sin and we do as well because we see it as culturally OK? Make sure you follow the wisdom from above, from God, and not the wisdom that is from below.
Application:
A lot of stuff to think about today! Maybe even an overwhelming amount of things. Find what God wants you to work on and obey Him. You will be blessed in what you do.
Don’t be like the Emperor who had no clothes.