Today, we will be reading from the book of JAMES. So if you want to open your Bibles to James, chapter 1, we will begin in a few minutes.
The book of JAMES was written about 48 years after Jesus ascended back into Heaven. And even though there were several men by the name of ‘James’ at that time, it is highly believed to have been written by James, the brother of Jesus.
James wrote this letter to Christians everywhere as a teaching. He was teaching us the practice of being good Christians. He says if we have real faith, we will show it by acting as Christians should act. James gives practical advice in this letter about things that still bind us today; things like quarreling, showing favoritism, speaking negatives, bragging, and how we need more patience and more prayer.
A lady was late for work and she was driving behind a man who was intent on not exceeding the speed limit. She would get close to him and honk a few times but it didn’t do any good, as he just kept the same speed.
They were approaching a light, and it turned yellow as they got to the intersection. It was one of those times when you could still get thru if you pushed the envelope a little. Well, this man slowed down and stopped as it turned red.
This was the last straw for the woman. She went ballistic and started yelling, blowing her horn, cursing, and much worse. A policeman pulled up and ordered her out of the car with her hands in the air. He arrested her and took her downtown, where he put her in a holding cell.
About two hours later, he came back and let the now calm woman out. He apologized to her and said he verified the car was hers. She asked him why he arrested her in the first place. He told her that when he pulled up behind her she was cursing and yelling, calling names and much worse. He said he looked at the Christian license plate holder, the silver fish emblem, and the honk if you love Jesus bumper sticker and said he thought it was obvious that she had stolen the car from a Christian.
Sometimes, Christians react to the circumstances around us in such a way as to appear like we are not Christians, don’t we? What kind of impression do you think that makes on other people who hear us talk about Jesus but not working at showing Jesus?
Let’s read JAMES 1:19-27
‘My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
‘Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
‘But the man who looks intently into the word of God, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, will be blessed in what he does. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: To look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’
James is telling us to spend time in the word of God and study it; get to know it; and understand what it is telling us. He is directing us to take God’s word so seriously it literally changes our behavior. This is a very profound thought, and we need to know that there are three steps involved in accomplishing this.
The first step is …
1. TO LISTEN
It wasn’t by accident that God gave us two ears and one mouth. We should be listening twice as much as we talk. Yet how many people are there who start talking and never know when to finish? Do these people use good judgment or are they being considerate of others?
To their defense, let me say that I don’t think they do it on purpose. I don’t think they realize just how uncomfortable they make other people feel when they have these nonstop monologues.
Is it important to learn how to listen as much as we talk? Let’s see what God’s word says about it.
ECCLESIASTES 5:1-3
‘Walk carefully in the house of God. Enter to learn. That is better than talking aimlessly, which does more harm than good. Do not be quick to ramble, speaking because you like to talk.
‘Don’t be quick to tell God what you think He wants to hear. God is in charge and we aren’t. The less we speak in the house of God, the better off we will be.
‘Just as working too much will make you have a sleepless night, talking too much will make us appear very foolish.’
Our problem is we feel other people will find our words as interesting as we do, and usually quite the opposite is true. James isn’t trying to get us to be quiet and never speak. He is trying to get us to use our minds and speak much less than we do now, so we can listen that much more.
For instance, people do not like to be cornered into a long conversation, especially with someone they do not know. That is the reason the Greeters and the congregation should be polite, but only say a few words of welcome to new visitors. I have heard it rightly said that the surest way in the world to keep a new visitor from coming back to church is have somebody talk their ear off.
Not only do we need to learn when to talk, we need to remember how to talk. People do not like to be interrupted. Nor do they like to hear someone boasting about how much they know or how much they have accomplished. Godly words are few and always focused on others, not self.
That is how we need to speak to others in our lives, whether it be in or out of church; with more respect and more focus on them instead of on ourselves. When others see that we are interested in them, they become happier. And when they are happy, they will listen easier as you tell them the story of salvation.
When James wrote this passage, he wasn’t talking so much about our interaction with other people, but with God. In verse 21, he tells us to get rid of every moral filth and the evil that permeates our lives and to humbly accept the word that has been planted in us. What does that mean?
Our lives are embroiled in the evil that surrounds us. We call that evil “the world” and we are all susceptible to it. That is where the sin in our lives originate from – the world around us. What do our daily lives show we love more; the world or God? In 1 JOHN 2:15, it tells us that we cannot love the world and God at the same time. We need to turn away from this world and turn towards God.
How many of us feel that we aren’t really all that bad? After all, there are people out there who are doing things that are much worse than what we do, right? Well, let me say this: God does not judge us on what somebody else is doing, but on what we do. We aren’t accountable for somebody else’s choices, just our own.
Too many of us feel that if we are okay with our sin, God must be okay with it, too. The problem with that way of thinking is that God is holy and we are not. What is there in your life today that you are doing that you KNOW God does not want you to do? Now let me ask you this: Why are you holding on to it knowing you are being disobedient to God? And if we to choose live in disobedience, doesn’t that show that what we want is more important to us than what God wants? And we wonder where God is when bad things happen to us.
Verse 21 goes on to say that we need to humbly accept the word that has been planted in us. Did you know that every time you read the Bible, or every time you hear it quoted, those words are planted in you? But for them to do any good, we must accept them, don’t we?
Listen to me very carefully. If your heart is not humbled, you cannot accept God or His word. The word, by the way, is Jesus Christ. If your heart is not humble, the only other thing it can be is selfish and prideful. And God hates a prideful heart.
We need to be more interested in hearing what God knows rather than telling Him what we think! We need to hear the Word of God. I am convinced that people are much more interested in talking to God than listening to Him.
Someone made a comment a couple of weeks ago that my sermons tend to be on the negative side. First of all, I think that if you were to read most of my sermons, they are not negative at all. But I need to say this: I cannot apologize for what I say or how I say it.
God has given me a heart to tell you that the most important thing in this world is your soul’s eternal life, and not what happens to you as you go through this life. And I will never back down from telling you that most people are more willing to keep the sin in their lives instead of giving it up so they can get God in their lives. Now, where do you think these people will go come Judgment Day?
But James goes on to say that it’s not enough just to hear the Word. You have to …
2. ACCEPT IT
We are talking about God’s word versus the sin in our lives. There are a couple of old sayings that fit into this discussion.
“Dusty Bibles leads to dirty lives”, and
“Just as sin will keep you from the Bible, the Bible will keep you from sin.”
Both of these statements are true. The more we ignore the Bible, the more our lives are filled with the moral filth of sin, aren’t they?
Many people do not know how to read the Bible. They open it, read a verse or two, and then close it. There is a problem with this kind of reading.
A man once wanted to know what God wanted for his life, so he decided to close his eyes, open his Bible and read whatever verse his finger pointed to. He did this and the verse his finger landed on said, “Judas went out and hanged himself.”
Perplexed, he decided to do it again. The second verse he pointed to said, “Ye go and do likewise.” Getting frustrated, he decided to do try it one more time. The last verse read, “What you are going to do, go do quickly.”
That man read three different verses, but have no idea what they meant because he failed to read the story the verses were in. This leads to a totally fragmented view of God’s word, and makes it virtually impossible to humbly accept it into our lives.
To accept God’s word, we must do it on purpose. In other words, we must make a conscious decision to want to absorb His word into our lives. But each of us has things in our lives that we must get rid of before those words will take hold and grow.
That reminds me of the seeds the sower spread out over rocky soil. Those seeds could not grow enough to survive because the rocks blocked the roots from taking hold. We need God’s word in our lives. That is where the hearing part comes in.
But we also need to let those words grow. To do that, we must get rid of the rocks in our lives first. That is where the humbling of heart comes into play. We must be willing to get rid of the sin in our lives. We must be willing to be honest enough to know that what seems like it is no big deal today, could very likely send us to hell tomorrow. And then we must get rid of it – for God’s sake and for our own eternal sakes.
James tells us to get rid of the moral filth in our lives so God’s Word can grow and prosper. Boy! If that isn’t one of those things that is easier said than done. But we have to do it if we are to be obedient to our heavenly Father.
James tells us the only way to do that is to hear the word and then to accept that word. But once we do that, there is a third step involved. We must …
3. ACT UPON IT
James went from thinking his brother Jesus was crazy to being one of the most insightful leaders of his time. He was the first pastor at the church in Jerusalem, which numbered in the thousands.
What kind of sermons do you think James preached? I don’t see him preaching any that dealt with daily anxiety or stress. I don’t think he spoke about how people should go to church and let the church worry about spiritual things. No, I think Peter preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its seriousness. I think James cared so much for his congregation he wanted them to know exactly how to get to heaven.
He probably saw people come to church who heard the word but then went out and lived the way they wanted to live, just like many people do today. These people always seem to think that they go to church and they are basically good people, so they have it made in the shade – spiritually speaking. They think God will wink at them and turn His head so they can just waltz right into heaven.
What does James say about this? In verse 22, he says to not just listen to the word and thereby deceive yourself. What he means is that there is no value at all to be found in God’s word unless you put them into some kind of action in your life.
I am amazed at how many people can read the Bible and even accept it as truth, but refuse to let it change our lives or our behavior. Too many people mark in their Bibles, but don’t ever get around to letting their Bibles make any marks in them.
In verses 23-25, James equates some Bible readers to a man who looks into a mirror, sees his reflection, and as soon as he turns away, he forgets what he looks like. I used to read my Bible, and as quickly as I would close it, I would forget about what I had just read. What was my mistake? I didn’t pray for my reading; I didn’t pursue God’s word; in short, I read it like I read directions on a bottle of vitamins. I took no real interest. And I forgot.
Why do we look in the mirror? Most of the time it is to make ourselves look better. We make sure our hair is combed just right or that our make-up is on just so-so. I am not saying that is wrong, but I also think that every now and then, we need to look in the mirror and concentrate on what we really look like – to see ourselves as we really are.
There are two ways to read God’s word, too. One way is to read a passage and then admire ourselves because of our accomplishment. This is simple, but very sinful, pride. The other way to read God’s word is to pray that He helps us understand and remember what we read so that we can change our lives to be more Godly. You can’t do this with a quick or occasional glance either.
As long as we are in our earthly bodies, we will always be held under the sway of sin. And as long as we are here on this earth, there will be a constant struggle to break away from that sin. Even the Apostle Paul struggled.
But when we pursue God; when we chase after His precepts on purpose; we will draw closer to Him, and He promises that when we draw closer to Him, He will draw closer to us.
James says we look in the mirror but do not like to see our imperfections. But God says to keep looking, be intent, and search for those ways in which we need to change. And when we do that, a transformation happens.
In the book of EXODUS, there is an account of when Moses entered into the presence of God. It says his countenance was changed. His face glowed and when he went back to the Israelite people, he had to wear a veil over his face. That same kind of transformation happens to us when we invite God into our hearts through a belief in His son, but our transformation is primarily in our hearts and minds.
In 2 CORINTHIANS 3:18, Paul wrote,
“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
So when you look in the mirror, what do you see? Is what you see look more like the Lord than what it used to? Or do you see someone who is holding onto sin with all their might, trying their very best to justify it, thinking that will somehow make it right?
So, the more we really pursue God, the more like Him we become. And then all kinds of transformations take place.
We no longer have any need to talk incessantly, taking twenty minutes to say what would normally be said in five; the whole focus of our conversations are on other people and not about what’s happening with us anymore; and perhaps the most amazing transformation is that we now have more of a desire for God than we have ever known before.
We need to listen to God’s word and then to accept it as if our lives depended on it … because it does.
INVITATION
