6 Doing The Word James 1:19-27

Doing The Word
James 1:19-27
Adapted from a Tim Bond sermon
http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/doing-the-
word-tim-bond-sermon-on-bible-influence-48605.asp

At the age of 33, Erik Weihenmayer is a
phenomenal athlete who loves to skydive,
snow ski and climb mountains. Mountain
climbing is his specialty. Among mountain
climbers there is a goal to join the elite by
climbing the Seven Summits. The 7
Summits are the highest peaks on each of
the continents. Erik is one of 275
(http://7summits.com/info/7stats/)
mountaineers in all history who have
accomplished this feat.

In 1995 he scaled Mt. McKinley, in 1996 El
Capitan, in 1998 Mt Kilamanjaro. In 1999 he
climbed Argentina’s Aconcauga. January
2000 Antarctica’s Vinson Massif. On May
25, 2001 he reached the summit of Mount
Everest, a peak that 90% of those who
begin to climb never finish. Since 1953, 165
people have died trying to climb Everest,
but Erik made it.

In June 2002 Europe’s Mt. Elbrus,
September, 2002 Australia’s Kosciuszko.
On August 20, 2008, he stood on top of
Carstensz Pyramid, the tallest peak in
Austral-Asia/ Oceania.
Now these are extremely significant feats,
but you don’t know the half of it.

Weihenmayer suffers from a degenerative
eye disease, and when he was 13 he
became totally blind. All of his climbs have
been without the benefit of his eyesight.
Weihenmayer is a blind mountain-climber!
I Google the 7 Summits & it seems Erik is
the only blind mountaineer to ever climb the
7 Summits.

Now you have to ask yourself, “How is that
possible? How can a guy who can’t see
climb the highest peaks in the world?” If you
ask him, he’ll tell you. He has learned to
listen well.
- He listens as a bell tied to the back of the
climber in front of him shows him which
way to go.

- He listens to his climbing partners who
shout back to him, "Death fall two feet to
your right!" so he knows what direction not
to go.
- He listens to the sound of his pick jabbing
the ice, so he knows whether his footing will
be secure or not.
For Erik Weihenmayer, being a good
listener is a matter of life and death.
(source: www.touchthetop.com)

The truth is, according to James, the same
is true for every one of us too. Listening, I
mean really hearing, is the only way any of
us are able to follow the pathway that God
has opened up for us. My hope is for each
of us to become better listeners, even
straining to hear what God has to say to us
and willingly deciding to follow His direction.

James 1:19 NET Understand this, my dear
brothers and sisters! Let every person be
quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
20 For human anger does not accomplish
God's righteousness. 21 So put away all
filth and evil excess and humbly welcome
the message implanted within you, which is
able to save your souls. 22 But be sure you
live out the message and do not merely
listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

23 For if someone merely listens to the
message and does not live it out, he is like
someone who gazes at his own face in a
mirror. 24 For he gazes at himself and then
goes out and immediately forgets what sort
of person he was. 25 But the one who
peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes
his attention there, and does not become a
forgetful listener but one who lives it out he
will be blessed in what he does.

26 If someone thinks he is religious yet
does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives
his heart, his religion is futile. 27 Pure and
undefiled religion before God the Father is
this: to care for orphans and widows in their
misfortune and to keep oneself unstained
by the world.
Did you hear what James is saying to us?
He is challenging us to take faith in Christ
seriously enough that it changes our
behavior.

James is addressing Christian people. He is
saying that we have to be willing to listen to
what God says to us and then modify our
behavior to conform our will to God’s Will. In
order to do that, we have to do 3 things,
HEAR GOD’S WORD,
ACCEPT GOD’S WORD, and then
DO GOD’S WORD. It’s really as simple as
that. Having said it, we could conclude the
message and be the first ones to the buffet
this morning.

HEAR THE WORD
However, since we have some more time
let’s consider those in a little more detail.
James might have easily pointed out here
that it wasn’t by accident that God gave us
2 ears and only 1 mouth. He expects us to
spend more time listening than speaking.
But it’s hard, isn’t it. We believe that what
we have is so important that it is just
begging to be said. It is just our nature.

While the late Justice Brewer was judge in
a minor court he was presiding at the trial of
a wife's suit for separation and alimony. The
defendant acknowledged that he hadn't
spoken to his wife in five years, and Judge
Brewer put in a question.
"What explanation have you," he asked
severely, "for not speaking to your wife in
five years?"
"Your Honor," replied the husband, "I didn't
like to interrupt the lady."

I’m sure you worked very hard to help your
kids learn not to interrupt when someone
else is speaking. And it was a slow process.
You & your spouse would be carrying on a
conversation in the car and all of the
sudden you couldn’t hear each other
because of questions or comments being
hurled from the back seat. That really is
frustrating isn’t it?

When James wrote verse 19 he wasn’t just
talking about our willingness to speak and
not listen to others. He was talking about
our willingness to speak and not listen to
God. You can’t miss it from the context. 19
Understand this, my dear brothers and
sisters! Let every person be quick to listen,
slow to speak, slow to anger.

20 For human anger does not accomplish
God's righteousness. 21 So put away all
able to save your souls.
The only “message implanted within you,
which is able to save your souls” is the
Word of God. Remember James is writing
to fellow Christians.

He is speaking of the Gospel, the Good
News from His Word planted in them when
they were taught to accept Christ & the
salvation He offers.
Don’t miss his point. We need to be more
interested in hearing what God has to say
to us than telling Him what we think!
We need to hear the Word of God.

It seems people are much more interested
in talking to God than listening to Him.
Statistics bear that out. According to
George Barna, a Christian pollster, in a
given week about 37% of Americans will
read their Bible, but 85% will pray. (barna.org)
It sounds to me that we are quick to speak,
but slow to listen to what God has to say.

“The ears are always open, ever ready to
receive instruction; but the tongue is
surrounded with a double row of teeth, to
hedge it in, and to keep it within proper
bounds.”
(See Benson. So Valerius Maximus, vii. 2.)
Don’t get me wrong! God desires our prayers.
Paul was inspired to write much about our
need to pray. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 NET
constantly pray, Colossians 4:2 NET Be
devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with
thanksgiving.

Ephesians 6:17 NET And take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God. 18 With every prayer
and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit,
and to this end be alert, with all
perseverance and requests for all the
saints.
Following the context of the previous verse,
prayer "in the Spirit" is prayer within the
sphere of the Word of God. It is not
possible to read into this phrase a
charismatic utterance.

Our prayers and requests are to flow out of
our alert minds and concern for other
believers. We are to apply the Word of God
actively "at all times" and in all manners of
requests, but always within the revealed
Word of God. (CBC) Can you see how
listening to The Word of God is a
prerequisite and primary component of our
conversation with God?
The more we listen to Him through The
Word of God the more we learn about Him
& His desires for us.

Because of our gained knowledge of Him
our prayers will be more effective. That
knowledge gives us a better frame work on
how to pray & what to pray about.
Which conversations are better, more
profitable & satisfying? The ones you carry
on with someone you barely know or a
deep, heartfelt conversation with someone
you know intimately?

Have you noticed that people are very
respectful not to interrupt when someone is
praying? If you are chatting and someone
begins to pray aloud, if you are like most
people, you will stop talking until they say
“amen.”
Have you also noticed that people are
nowhere near as respectful when the Word
of God is being read? People will continue
to chat just like someone was reading from
the newspaper.

So what is more important for us to respect,
when people talk to God or when God
speaks to us?
We need to make ourselves available to
God’s Word!
We need to hear it by reading it for
ourselves, hearing it preached and hearing
it taught. Solomon wrote The one who gives
an answer before he listens — that is his
folly and his shame. Proverbs 18:13 NET

We need to be listening for the Word of God
like Erik Weihenmayer listens for those
bells, the warnings from his fellow climbers,
and the sound of that pick in the ice. We
need to be listening as if our life depends
on it,
because it does!
James goes on to say that it’s not enough
just to hear the Word. You have to move
beyond hearing to…

Accept The Word
There was a Bible with a very insightful
inscription in the front cover. It said, “This
book will keep you from sin; Sin will keep
you from this book.” It’s true isn’t it? The
more we allow sin to control our lives, the
less we are willing to expose ourselves to
God’s Word because we don’t want to be
chastened.

We don’t want to be convicted. It’s not
pleasant to be confronted with the fact that
we are not living up to our potential, so we
avoid the subject all together and find ways
to miss worship, to bypass Bible reading
and to be busy when Bible study is going
on. It is by an act of the will that we choose
not to accept the Word of God into our life.

But on the other hand, it is by an act of the
will that we position ourselves to accept
God’s Word into our life. 21 So put away all
able to save your souls. Notice that James
says we must get rid of some things before
God’s Word will grow and flourish in our
heart. We have to rid ourselves of “filth and
evil excess.”

The KJV has a great phrase here, “lay apart
all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.”
What James is saying here is that our heart
is like a garden, and the things that we plant
within it are the kind of fruit that we will
bear. You don’t plant potatoes and reap
corn. One of the absolute axioms of life is
that you reap what you sow, and if you want
to reap godliness you will never do it if you
are sowing ungodliness.

Let me ask you, what habits are you sowing
in your heart? Do you lie regularly, or are
you conscientiously honest? Do you lean
more toward greed or generosity? Have you
trained your mind to meditate on God’s
Word, or are you more apt to stew over the
wrong that someone has done you? Is
something draining you of your spiritual
vitality so that you can’t imagine what it
would feel like to be in a vital, growing
relationship with God?

James says, “Make a choice to rid your life
of that filthy weed and allow God’s Word to
grow and prosper in your life.”
That is so easy to say, but so hard to do.
Let me give you a tip on how to do it. If you
are really serious about this, find someone
you trust and make yourself accountable to
them. Say, “Look, I’ve got this problem and
it is destroying my vitality. Will you keep me
honest on this? Check with me about this.”

We all know we will have to answer to God
about our lives some day, but if you know
that this week you will have to look
someone in the eye and answer for what
you’ve done, it will keep you from sin and
get you into the book more. Now James
dives into the conclusion of his discussion
by urging us to do more than just hear
God’s Word. He even challenges us to go
beyond simply accepting God’s Word. In the
words of Nike’s old ad campaign, he says
“JUST DO IT!

Do The Word
James is very insightful. He is an elder in
the church in Jerusalem. He no doubt sees
people coming to worship who hear the
word, and even accept the word, but who
continue to live the way they want. Notice
what he says in verse 22 But be sure you
live out the message and do not merely
listen to it and so deceive yourselves.

There is no value in just listening to the
Word. Don’t think there is some value in
simply accepting the Word as true. You
must act upon it.
Several years back, the annual convention
of The American Heart Association met in
Atlanta. That year 300,000 doctors, nurses,
and researchers gathered to discuss,
among other things, the importance a low
fat diet plays in keeping our hearts healthy.

Some smart-aleck researcher did some
checking around and found that during meal
times, those people consumed fat-filled fast
food—such as bacon cheeseburgers and
fries—at about the same rate as people
from other conventions. When one
cardiologist was asked whether or not his
partaking in high fat meals set a bad
example, he replied, "Not me, because I
took my name tag off."
(Boston Globe [11-10-93] as quoted in
PreachingToday.com)

Isn’t it amazing how we can disconnect our
behavior from our knowledge? We can hear
something, even accept it as true, and
never let it change our behavior. That’s
humorous to me when we are talking about
doctors and researchers. It’s disheartening
and incredibly damaging when we are
talking about our ability to hear and accept
the Word of God and yet live lives of
disobedience.
Let God’s Word change you!

You see, there are a lot of Christians who
mark their Bibles, but there are all too few
who let their Bible mark them. It is so easy
to hear a Word from God and say “Yeah, I
hear that, and I accept that as true,” and
that is the end of it. But to let God’s Word
dwell in you, and grow within you, and swell
within you until it motivates you to do
something, that is a challenge.

James says that we become motivated to
change by looking into the mirror of God’s
Word. 23 For if someone merely listens to
the message and does not live it out, he is
like someone who gazes at his own face in
a mirror. 24 For he gazes at himself and
then goes out and immediately forgets what
sort of person he was.

25 But the one who peers into the perfect
law of liberty and fixes his attention there,
and does not become a forgetful listener but
one who lives it out — he will be blessed in
what he does.
Men and women look in the mirror for
different reasons. For men it is usually to
shave, then inspect the razor damage.

Women look at the mirror to fix their hair
and find ways to perk up their face with
powder and stuff. I’m not complaining, don’t
get me wrong! But every once in a while
there is a time when you check yourself out
in the mirror and you really see yourself.
Maybe it is the appearance of a new worry
line, or a sag where your flesh used to be
firm.

When that happens it can profoundly affect
you. You look in the mirror a little differently.
That reflection makes you think about who
you are, what you have become, how you
have used your years on this earth. That
kind of introspection is all too uncommon.
James says it should come when you look
at God’s Word.

Now there are two ways of looking into the
mirror of God’s Word. Sometimes, in a very
superficial way, we read a chapter and are
proud of our accomplishment. We move
from the listening to the talking phase of our
conversation with God and pray. When we
do that we are glancing in the mirror.
But it should be more than that.

When we read God’s Word, it is the time for
God and us to consider who He is and who
we are. You don’t do that in a glance. It
takes some inspection, some pondering.
We need to listen to God’s Word as if our
life depends on it, because it does.
Notice again what James says will happen
if we do that.

25 But the one who peers into the perfect
law of liberty and fixes his attention there,
and does not become a forgetful listener but
one who lives it out he will be blessed in
what he does. We don’t go beyond the
surface because we don’t want to see the
imperfection. But God says, “Keep looking,
intently! I will bless you and remold you into
who I want you to be!”

Listen to Jesus words.
The person who has my commandments
and obeys them is the one who loves me.
The one who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him and will reveal
myself to him." John 14:21 NET
Isn’t James getting the same point across?
Jesus said, “my commandments” James
“the perfect law of liberty” Jesus “obeys
them” James “lives it out”

Jesus “The one who loves me” James “fixes
his attention there, and does not become a
forgetful listener” Jesus “will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him and will reveal
myself to him” James “he will be blessed in
what he does”
Is there any doubt the words James wrote
were heavenly inspired? God wants us to
obey, live…out His commandments, perfect
law of liberty, message, The Word of God.

An amazing thing happens when we look
intently into the mirror of God’s Word, when
we hear the Word, accept the Word, and
then choose to do the Word. A
transformation occurs.
In the book of Exodus there is an account of
when Moses was able to enter into the
presence of God. It says that his
countenance was changed, you might say
he glowed from experiencing the presence
of God.

When he came back among the people he
wore a veil to hide the glow because God’s
people feared the powerful glory of God.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the saints in Corinth he
reminds us of that occurrence and then He
essentially tells us that if we are hearing,
accepting and doing the will of God, a
supernatural transformation occurs in our
lives.

2 Corinthians 3:18 NET And we all, with
unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the
Lord, are being transformed into the same
image from one degree of glory to another,
which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
So when you look in the mirror today, is
what you see more like the Lord than what
you would have seen 2 years ago? If you
are really listening to God’s Word it is.

Just in case you don’t know what life looks
like when God transforms you, James
points it out.
26 If someone thinks he is religious yet
does not bridle his tongue, and so deceives
his heart, his religion is futile. 27 Pure and
undefiled religion before God the Father is
this: to care for orphans and widows in their
misfortune and to keep oneself unstained
by the world.

When you let God’s Word affect you, when
you not only hear it and accept it, but you
determine to do it, it will cause you to seek
purity in your own life and it will drive you to
find ways to help others, especially those
who can’t help themselves.
You see, the more like God you become,
the less self absorbed you will be. The more
you listen to Him as if your life depends on
it, the more you will be captivated by God
and motivated by the needs of others to
help.

That is when you are most like God, when
you are loving others so much that you
can’t help but help them when they can’t
help themselves.
Thank God He is like that, because we
need His help. Our life does depend on His
mercy and grace. When we were separated
from Him by our sin, helpless in our state of
death, God reached out and spoke.

“The Word became Flesh” the apostle John
wrote, “and dwelt among us.” (John 1:14)
How foolish we would be to not listen to the
one who came to direct us from this life into
the next one. He called us to follow, then He
gave His life away on our behalf. Now that’s
what He calls us to do on His behalf.

6 Doing The Word James 1:19-27

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6 Doing The Word James 1:19-27