The Obedience Test

So this morning, we’re jumping back into a previous series that we had started. It’s our Real Faith series. We just finished up a series on the greatest story, is what we called it, where we looked at the main highlight points of what the Christian narrative is, going from Genesis to Revelation. It was kind of a 10,000-foot flyby. We finished that up last week. So today we’re going to continue our Real Faith series through the book of James. And I didn’t realize this until I looked a few days ago, but it’s been three months already since we were in the book of James.

And if you recall, the theme of the book of James is all about real faith and helping us test whether or not our faith is real. See, what we do, how we act, doesn’t give us faith, but our faith works. If we have saving faith, we will produce works. So that’s what the book of James is all about. It’s all about real faith and testing whether it’s real or not, which is extremely important because what that tells us is there are many people who think they have real faith who do not. And in fact, I’m going to read from Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23. This is Jesus talking, and he turns and he shockingly says:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do mighty works in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21–23

Now, who is it who can do the will of the Father? Only the one who has real faith. Only the one who has been born again, which is what James is talking about. See, a lot of people think James conflicts with the book of Romans, but it doesn’t. They complement one another perfectly. And in James, we find a series of tests to help us see whether that faith is genuine or not.

Now, it’s been a while, and so I just want to give us a brief overview quickly of what we looked at, because it’s been, you know, three months since we looked at it. And as we do that, I want to read the first chapter of James for us. It’s a little longer, so I’ll read that for us. In James chapter 1, verse 1, the Holy Scriptures say:

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations. Greetings.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds. Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded, and they are unstable in all they do.

Believers in humble circumstances ought to take pride in their high position, but the rich should take pride in their humiliation, since they will pass away like a wildflower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant. Its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich will fade even while they go about their business.

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

James 1:1–21

In our text today:

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 someone who looks at his face in a mirror. And after looking at himself, he goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do.

Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their 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 1:22–27

This is the Word of the Lord.

So far in the book of James, we’ve looked at three different tests to see whether or not faith is genuine. If you remember, we looked at the test of suffering first, and then it was the test of temptation. And then finally, we looked at the hearing test. And just to give you a quick reminder, unless you want me to preach through all those sermons, I could go grab my notes, but we would be here until probably 9 o’clock. I’ll give us a quick review here.

With that first test, the test of suffering, we saw how real faith turns trials into triumph. When we face suffering as Christians, we turn that suffering and those trials into triumph. Though everyone goes through them, Christians face them in a completely unique way, which leads to a greater good for us, even though it’s difficult. As Christians, we need to expect trials and suffering. Jesus suffered, and the Bible promises that we too are going to suffer if we follow Jesus. But just like Jesus, our suffering leads to a greater good beyond our wildest dreams. A glory that is so great that if we saw it right now, it would completely blow our minds.

We then saw how, if we are going to pass the test of suffering, we also need wisdom, which, as we just read from James, comes from God. If any of you are lacking wisdom, ask God and he will give it to you. Because wisdom enables us to face those trials and those sufferings in the midst of terrible pain and not be defeated by them. And we’re not defeated by them because we remember and understand that God is faithful and that we can hope and trust in his promises, that they will all come true.

We then looked at the test of temptation, and we saw how real faith overcomes that test by not blaming everybody else for your problems. You blame yourself. You realize that sin doesn’t come from God. It doesn’t come from your environment. Sin comes from your desires. Real faith understands that sin rises up from those desires as we try to take shortcuts to satisfy them instead of satisfying them the way God designed us to satisfy them. So real faith remembers God’s goodness and that God’s ways for satisfying our desires are always the best.

Finally, the last test was the hearing test. And in this test, we saw how real faith is eager to hear God’s word, but it’s also slow to speak God’s word. We don’t just read a passage and say, “Oh, I think it means this,” without even looking at it. We’re speaking on behalf of God. We shouldn’t do that. And also, we need to be receptive to all of God’s word. We don’t pick and choose the parts we like.

And that leads us all to this morning’s test. The test of real faith this morning that we’re going to look at is the test of obedience, where we’ll see how real faith doesn’t just hear God’s word, but real faith does God’s word. Verse 22, James says:

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:22

As James tells us, to be a doer of the word means you love and do what God’s word says, which will result in a person who controls their tongue and cares for those who are suffering around them.

Would you pray with me and for me as we go to God’s word this morning? Father, I pray, Lord, that you would speak through your word, as we just sang. Help us to be changed by these truths. Help us to live by them through the power of your Spirit. We’ll praise you for it. We pray these things in Christ’s name. Amen.

Food was his passion. Food was his passion. In fact, food was his career. As a chef, Jonathan knew how to make some of the most delicious cuisines you could imagine. Mouthwatering wonders that people shelled out their hard-earned money to eat as he prepared spectacular meals for them. But this chef had an unusual but very serious problem. Though he delighted to make food for others, he refused to eat it himself. Why? Because Jonathan was anorexic. He was an anorexic chef.

See, it first started for him when he was a teen. He struggled with low self-esteem, but by the time he was in his late 30s, he had slowly lost the battle and had become a skeleton of his former self, where he survived on just two cracker breads a day, which is not much. In fact, it got so bad for him that he could barely walk uphill because his knee joints had become so weak. His family tried to help him. They tried to step in. They asked him if he knew what he had come to look like. They asked if he realized that he looked like a skeleton. But Jonathan insisted that he looked fine. And he refused to get the help he needed, as he was in denial about the severity of his malnourished condition.

Eventually, his body continued to fall apart and he became so weak that he couldn’t even do his job as a chef, and so they fired him. But losing his job actually just led to more severe depression, and his weight eventually dropped to below 100 pounds. The result of all this was that one day his heart gave out from the chronic malnutrition, and this led to his death.

Church, I bring up this illustration for us because, in the same way that preparing food cannot bring us physical nutrition, merely hearing God’s word cannot bring spiritual nutrition. You can’t do that. And that’s why in James chapter 1, verse 22, James writes, “But do not be hearers of the word only.” He says, “Be doers. Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Though Jonathan knew the art of culinary, though he knew how to make mouth-watering, delicious foods, though that food laid there right before him, none of that mattered at all, not in the end, because he didn’t eat it. As James might have put it, he wasn’t a doer of the food. He wasn’t an eater of the food. He understood the food. He knew how to put it together. He did, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t eat it, and so he was not changed by it. But he was changed by his continual lack of food, which eventually led to his death.

Similarly, church, if you are not a doer of the word, make no mistake, you will suffer a greater death than even Jonathan faced. For to not be a doer of the word leads to a death that is much worse than mere physical death. In fact, the Bible tells us, as we’ve looked at the last couple of weeks, it leads to what the Bible calls the second death, which is hell itself.

See, so far in the book of James, as we talked about at the start here, we’re looking at what real faith is, what saving faith is. Because as we mentioned, there is such a thing as counterfeit faith. There is a faith that might feel real, that might look real, that might smell real, even though it’s not. A faith that is just as fake as a counterfeit $20 bill. And that is a faith that does not have the power to save our souls.

And so this morning, we’re going to look at James chapter 1, verses 21 through 27. So if you have your Bible, I encourage you to turn there. And here in this passage, we’re going to see that real faith passes the obedience test by doing three things:

1. By humbly receiving the word.
2. By personally applying the word.
3. By joyfully being freed by the word.

1. Humbly Receiving the Word (v. 21)

In verse 21, James writes:

Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

James 1:21

If you’ve ever gardened before, you know that if you want your garden to flourish and do well, what do you have to do? You’ve got to pull those weeds out. That’s a part of gardening. That’s one of the reasons I’m not into it yet. That and young kids. But you’ve got to pull those weeds out if you want to have a garden that’s going to produce crops. And here, James is giving us some farming terminology to help us understand what wickedness does in our lives. It prevents us from receiving God’s word, which is the only thing, as James says, that is able to save our souls.

Let’s look at this idea. I want to look at it from 1 Peter chapter 1. I’ll read it from verse 23. But Peter says this about this, and this is kind of a mirror passage in a way. He says:

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again—

See the condition there? Since you have been born again. And how?

Not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower fails, but the word of the Lord remains forever.

1 Peter 1:22–25

What James and Peter are letting us know here is that the power of salvation isn’t based upon the musical talent of the worship team. That’s not it. The power of salvation isn’t based upon how fun your church’s children’s ministry is, it’s not based upon the relationships even that are developed between all of us as a church body. And this might surprise you, but the power of salvation isn’t even based upon how charming your pastor’s personality is. Praise God for that, right? Don’t say amen. The power of salvation is based upon what then? The word of God. Period. The Holy Spirit works through God’s Word as it is implanted into us, which is able to save our souls.

And so, 1 Peter 2:1 through 3, Peter says this also. This is just like the book of James where we’re reading right now, our passage. He says in verse 1:

So put away all malice and deceit and hypocrisy and envy and slander.

Slander is a form of gossip.

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

1 Peter 2:1–3

It’s God’s word that is our nourishment. And without it, just like Jonathan, we’re going to wither away spiritually. We have to have it. The word is our food.

Did you know that the Bible has a pastor’s job manual built right into it? It does. The pastoral epistles, which are 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, that’s a pastor’s job description. And in these letters, we find Paul writing to two younger pastors, and he’s telling them, “Here’s how you pastor. Here’s what you do. All right?” And in 1 Timothy 4:16, here’s what Paul, an older Paul, tells a younger Timothy. He says:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourselves and your hearers.

1 Timothy 4:16

Church, this is so crucially important, especially right now. As a pastor, I follow this stuff more closely than most, but right now we are surrounded by so much false teaching. Literally, it’s in every town, every city, as false teachers are spreading damnable lies. And the platform of the internet has made it worse, right? Because now, if they can’t get traction in their community, they just go online and they find people. It’s almost weekly right now where there’s another pastor who has begun to preach and believe those lies too. Pastors who have failed to keep a close watch on themselves and the teaching as they begin to believe things that may be culturally accepted, but biblically are not accepted. They’re not true biblically. They start to say things like, “Doctrine divides, but love unites.” And then they begin to embrace other false teachers who teach things worse than they are, because they don’t want to appear judgmental. They don’t want to appear legalistic. And we can certainly become those things, but not simply because we stand on truth.

We are surrounded in our culture by people who are unwilling to call out false teaching, unwilling to say what God’s word actually says. And here’s the justification for this. This is so common right now: “I know their heart, they’re just so sincere. I talk to them. They really love Jesus.” It doesn’t matter if all their doctrine about Jesus is completely wrong. “They’re sincere. They’re such a loving and caring person. Have you seen how much they help the poor and people like that? Clearly, they love Jesus. Who am I to judge them?” That’s the kind of language that’s floating about all over right now. And hear this: sincerity of belief is not the litmus test for a born-again heart. It doesn’t matter how sincere you are. Satan is extremely sincere in his beliefs. He believes what he believes fully, but it’s not God’s word.

I like how one pastor put it. He said, “Christianity is so much more than getting your doctrine right, but it is not less.” Did you catch that? Christianity is so much more than getting your doctrine right, but it is not less than that. Because truth matters. The word of God, which is truth, it’s God’s word, is what is implanted into us, which is communicated to us through the written word, the Bible, which changes us, which saves us. We must pull the weeds of unbiblical belief out of the garden of our heart in order to make room for the implanted word of God. You can’t have both of those growing up together, they don’t mix. For the word of God is the only thing that’s able to save our souls.

Recently, our kids were playing outside, and they had the hose out, and they’ve been doing the pool and all that kind of stuff. But they put it in the spot where there’s a whole bunch of mud, made this humongous mud pile, and they were jumping into it, and they were just completely filthy when they were done. They were full of rampant dirtiness. And so we brought them inside, and like good parents, we said, “Well, this is a problem. We got to deal with this. You know, they’re going to make a big mess in here.” So we grabbed them some clean clothes. And what did we do? Well, obviously, we took those clean clothes and just put them right over on top of the dirty clothes and covered it up, and it wasn’t even a problem anymore. Right? No. We didn’t do that, obviously, because that wouldn’t have solved the rampant filthiness problem of my children who were playing in the mud puddle. Instead, we had them take their filthy and rampantly dirty clothes and throw them into a clothes basket or a hamper, had them bathe, and then had them put on clean clothes.

That’s the picture James is giving us here. Not to simply cover up our filthiness and our dirtiness by doing good things. You can’t do that. Okay? It’s casting off our filthiness and wickedness to receive God’s word into our hearts, which is implanted into us by grace through faith, which enables us to be a doer of the word and able to put on Christ’s clothes of righteousness. It’s a totally different thing. That’s the idea James is giving us here: putting off the clothes of wickedness so that we can put on Christ’s righteousness.

And that’s the pattern for receiving God’s Word. We must turn from our sin to receive it, which is a very unpopular idea today. It’s called repentance. We have to repent of our sins. We have to turn from them. And what do you need to repent of your sins? What is a condition of that? James tells us it’s humility. You need humility to turn and look at yourself in the mirror and say, “Whoo boy, I really am a filthy mess full of rampant dirtiness.” You need that because pride prevents you from doing that. And then in humility, you turn in repentance to Christ, who takes your sin-stained garments, and in return, he gives you back his clothes of pure white, spotless righteousness as you receive the implanted word within you, which is able to save your souls.

2. Personally Applying the Word (v. 22)

Real faith passes the obedience test. One, by humbly receiving God’s word, but two, by personally applying the word. Verse 22, he says:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

James 1:22

As a preacher, as much as I enjoy hearing about how the sermon blessed you and how you understood it in a new way, there’s something I would much, much rather hear, and I think this is what God would much rather hear as well. I would much rather hear about what you plan to do in light of what you heard from the text. That’s what it means to be a doer of the word, to hear it, to understand it, but then go change your life and do what it says.

See, you can come to church every time these doors are open, you can listen to the sermon. You can nod. You can say amen to it. And you can even walk away feeling charged, feeling emotionally excited by what you heard. You can be somebody who reads their Bible through every year or even every six months, like some people do. You can be in Bible studies and you can walk away from those Bible studies truly understanding what the text says. Like you could write a commentary on that thing. That’s how well you know it. You can graduate from seminary. You can preach every single Sunday, but you know what? All of that doesn’t do a single thing if you’re not personally applying it to your life. It is worthless. You are deceiving yourself, is what the text says.

We have to take God’s word and have it, it has to be implanted in us so that I do God’s word. Not so I go around and find all these other people who aren’t doing it quite how they should when I’m not. I as a preacher, every time I prepare a message, this thing needs to be preached at my heart first before it’s preached at yours. And that goes for all of us with God’s word. If we don’t do that, it simply leads to our deception, James says. It can lead you to believe that your faith is real when the truth is, if you don’t apply the truths of God’s word, your faith is not real.

In Luke 11:28, Jesus says this:

Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.

Luke 11:28

In James 2:26, this is the next chapter, we’ll be there in several weeks, I would guess, but he says:

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James 2:26

Basically, what James is saying is that to accept the word of God is to do the word of God. You can’t, those are not mutually exclusive. Those go together. James says, you say you have faith. He says, you know what? I got works. Let me show you my faith by my works. For faith without works is dead.

In verse 23, James writes:

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he is like.

James 1:23–24

Okay, what is James talking about here? All right. When you wake up in the morning before you head to work or to school or wherever you’re headed off to, what is one of the first things that you do? Look in the mirror. Because you want to see the damage that was done. You want to see, you know, all the problems that you’ve got to try to cover up and deceive people with, you know, and hide them. And that’s what James is talking about. He’s talking about how God’s word, like a mirror, reveals messy hair or puffy bags under our eyes that indicate we didn’t get enough sleep the night before. God’s word reveals to us the areas in our life that require some doing, some changing.

And the person who’s a hearer of God’s word and not a doer is like a person who looks in the mirror, they see that, and I have this problem sometimes, but I’m doing better with it. You see the little paste from the toothpaste here on the side of your lips, and they say, “No, I should change that.” And they just walk out right on their way to work. They don’t grab the washcloth. They don’t wipe it off. They just take off and, “And yeah, I should do that. That’s a really good idea.” And then they don’t do it. That’s what it’s like to be a hearer of the word and not a doer of the word. To hear God’s word and to not do God’s word is just like being a chef who prepares all the food, gets it all together, sets it up on the table. You understand all the details of how to make that food perfect and what it takes to make it, but then you walk away starving because you didn’t actually eat it.

If you’re going to be a doer of the word, then that means you need to do two things. One, you’ve actually got to look in the mirror. All right? If the Bible is the mirror, if the word of God is the mirror, you’ve got to look at it. Otherwise, you’re not going to know you got toothpaste on the side of your lips. All right? James also describes this looking. He says, not just glancing. He describes it, look what he says, looking intently, gazing, staring into it. Not just the, boom, read through the few verses, got it, checkbox, boom, I’m righteous, I’m a good, strong Christian. I’m doing my thing on my way. No. Gazing into it like we look at a mirror to try to find all the blemishes, the hair that’s sticking up that we might not have noticed on the first glance. That is how we need to look at God’s Word.

And so we have to ask ourselves, am I doing that? Do I spend time in God’s Word like I should? Intently gazing upon God’s Word? Or do I just show up to church and expect the preacher to explain to me God’s Word? I mean, that’s good, but not on its own. We need to all be in God’s Word, looking intently. As the psalmist says in Psalm 139, verses 23 through 24, and this needs to be our mentality:

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me into the way of everlasting.

Psalm 139:23–24

You got to look in the mirror, and that has to be our attitude.

The second thing you got to do if you’re going to be a doer of the word is you got to use the mirror to look at yourself. All right? Because it’s so easy to grab these little pocket mirrors and run around, right? And be like, “Oh, hey, let me show you something. You’ve got a problem with you right there. Yep.” You don’t do that thing to somebody. All right? That’s not our primary task that we’re called to do with God’s Word. Our primary task is to examine ourselves with the Word of God. Not run around hypocritically pointing out everybody else’s problems. Well, I have the same problem going on.

Does this also then mean, though, that we should never use God’s Word to help somebody else? Well, obviously not. Look what Jesus says in Luke chapter 6, verses 40 through 42. Actually, I’m going to begin in verse 41. He says:

Do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take that speck that is in your eye out,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite. First, take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

Luke 6:41–42

See, our culture will say you should never do that at all. You should never come along to your brother and say, “Hey, you’ve got this thing here. Let’s talk about this. I love you. This is important.” Our culture will say you should never do that because that’s judgmental and legalistic. Jesus says that’s not true. Jesus says his point is don’t be hypocritical in doing that. Don’t walk around with this massive log in your eye and then try to take the speck out of somebody else’s eye. He’s saying, “Deal with your problems first so you’re not a hypocrite so that you can then help others around you.” So that’s how we’re supposed to use God’s word. Always primarily for ourselves first and foremost, and then afterwards, when we’re doing that, then we can look around to try to help other people.

James then gives us three examples of how real faith leads to being a doer of the word. First is an obedient tongue. Second is a caring heart. And third is a clean heart. All right? An obedient tongue, a caring heart, and a clean heart. So let’s look at those real quickly here. Look at verse 26:

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

James 1:26

James has already told us, and this is what we looked at the last time we were in the book of James, all right? He told us that we should be quick to hear God’s word. We should be quick to run and glance intently into God’s word and to hear it and to absorb it. But then he also said we’re slow to be angered by God’s word. I don’t look in the mirror and get mad at the mirror because it showed the little, you know, toothpaste line marks on my face. I don’t get mad at the mirror about that. I say, “All right, mirror, thank you for showing me that. I’m going to wash that off.”

But the third thing James told us, as we saw last time, was we need to be slow to speak God’s word. Look online in the comment section of many Christian articles and think, are people slow to speak God’s word? To claim truth about God’s word? Not even close. And James tells us we need to be slow to speak God’s word. We need to go to it. We need to process it. We need to meditate on it and not just, you know, loose out whatever the first thought is that comes to our mind. And that also means, I’m a big fan of Bible studies, but that also means when it comes to our small group Bible studies, the one that has everyone sitting around throwing out whatever speculative idea just pops in their mind is in very dangerous waters. To speak God’s word comes with a great responsibility. In chapter 3, verse 1, James says:

Not many of you should be teachers of the word, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.

James 3:1

And so we must approach God’s word with great care, responsibly, and we should never do so quickly or carelessly.

And so James goes even further. Now, after having warned about speaking God’s word, just throwing it out bluntly, whatever comes to our mind, he goes even further and he says, “You know what? In fact, now, you need to be cautious with all of your words.” Yes, you should be cautious saying God’s word, but you can be cautious with all your words. Did you know that on average, in a day, we speak about 16,000 words? It’s a lot of words, right? In a single week, this is a really big book. You could write a 400-page book. That’s what all your words would make up. I don’t think anyone would want to, any one of us would want to read our own book of the words we said in the last week.

But do you know what Jesus says about our words? He says that they matter. In fact, he says they matter a lot. In Matthew 12, in verse 36, here’s what he says:

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give an account for every careless word they speak.

For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.

Matthew 12:36–37

Our words matter a lot. And so we need to use God’s word to examine ourselves, to pause and reflect and ask, “What am I using my tongue for?” The tongue is a dangerous thing. We’re going to look at that further when we get farther into the book of James. But the tongue is a very dangerous weapon. What are you using your tongue for? Do you use it for gossip? Do you use it for slander? Here’s a question. Do you use your tongue to let everybody know what you think about every single issue the second you think about it? The second the opportunity arises, somebody says, “I think this,” and you say, “Let me tell you why I think otherwise.” What are you using your tongue for? Do you use your tongue to encourage or to be perpetually critical? Constantly making sure people know, “I don’t agree with you. That’s a problem. Let me fix you. Let me pull this mirror out and bring it around. We’ll fix you right now.”

Two go hand in hand. As Ephesians 4 calls us, instead we ought to speak the truth with love. And if we don’t, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, you know what? Even if we speak all the truth, I have all truth, but I speak not in love, I’m a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Colossians 4:6 says this:

Let your conversations always be full of grace and seasoned with salt.

Colossians 4:6

You know, a really good indicator of whether or not you do this is how does it go when you talk with people who are of the opposing political party? Would that person who has terrible, awful politics, unlike yourself, would that person walk away from that conversation saying, “You know what? Your politics stink. In fact, they’re awful. I hate them. But I really appreciate how gentle, how sweet, and how gracious you spoke to me in our disagreements. You didn’t come off as a know-it-all. You didn’t come off haughty. I legitimately enjoyed our conversation.”

How about when it comes to discussing church or theology with those you disagree with? I’m not talking about core doctrines here because that’s a whole different ballgame. Somebody comes along and says, “I think Jesus was a lady who wasn’t God.” All right, it’s going to be a different conversation. But the lesser stuff, how do you talk with people about that stuff? Would your friends and family have the same response? Would they say, “You know, we don’t agree on doctrine, but every time we discuss it, there’s just humility and grace and patience and open-mindedness that I get from that”? What this really all boils down to is haughtiness, pride, arrogant know-it-all-ness. Which is, if we look at the book of Proverbs, it says, haughty eyes are detestable. They’re an abomination in God’s eyes. It’s a big deal, church. This is a huge deal.

How do you use your tongue when conflict comes up? How do you use your tongue when somebody is inconsiderate towards you? Or maybe they sin against you? You tell them off? You let them know, you tell them how it is. Proverbs 15:1 through 2 says this:

A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise adorns knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.

Proverbs 15:1–2

In James chapter 3, he gets into the tongue in much more detail, which we will eventually do. But he explains how deadly the tongue is. And I would encourage us all, even just for preparation for when we eventually get there, but even just for today, to go home and read that chapter. Read James chapter 3 and gaze into that text intently. Focus on it. And ask God to show you if there be any wicked way in you, any haughtiness in you in the way that you use your tongue to communicate to others.

And in that passage, James’ point, in our passage, even, James’ point is that the tongue is an indicator of whether or not we are a doer of the word or merely a hearer of the word. Our tongue indicates whether or not our faith is real or not. It does. You believe that? That’s what James is telling us. And why would that be? Because what comes out of the mouth tells you what’s in the heart. See, I can mask it by good behavior. I can mask it by going to church. I can do all this stuff. But then when conflict hits or something arises, you’re going to find out what’s in my heart. It’s going to come out of the mouth. That’s what Jesus says. Out of an abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. James asks in verse 11, this is from chapter 3, he says:

Does a spring pour forth from the same opening, both fresh and salt water?

James 3:11

The answer is no. It doesn’t. You don’t have fresh and salt water coming from the same spring. It’s one or the other.

Not only does real faith produce an obedient tongue, but real faith produces a caring heart. In verse 27, now James talks about pure and undefiled religion before God. He says it is to visit the orphans and the widows in their affliction. In Matthew 22:36–40, they asked Jesus, what is the greatest commandment? What is the greatest commandment in the entire law? And here’s what Jesus says. He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.” He says, “This is the first and the greatest commandment.” But he doesn’t stop there. He says, “You need a second one, because these two go hand in hand.” He said, “And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. for all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

He’s saying, all of the hundreds of Old Testament laws can be boiled down to these two commandments: love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. And so, if we claim to love God, we claim to have the love of God in us, that means we’re going to care for those around us. We’re going to love them who are around us, just as God loved us.

See, in James’s day, there was no welfare system, all right? There was no system like that to take care of the orphans and the widows. And so, these people, above all else, needed the church’s care and support. And so, James uses the lowest denominator, all right? You have nothing to gain by reaching out and being friends to widows and orphans. You’re not going to get anything out of that relationship that’s going to benefit you. It’s going to be all give. It’s going to be no take. All right? And James is pointing out that if you can’t care for the lowest of the low, all right, if you can’t care for the widows who don’t have husbands or the orphans who don’t have fathers, then that means you don’t actually know the heavenly Father that you claim to know. Your religion is worthless, he says.

We don’t have time to look at the passage, but I would encourage you to write down and read Isaiah chapter 1. You got two homework today. Two sets of homework to take home today: James 3 and Isaiah 1. All right? In Isaiah 1, it’s very clear God’s disdain towards Israel and their worship. He says, “I don’t even want your worship anymore.” And why? Because they refuse to do justice. They refuse to correct oppression and care for the poor and the needy, to bring justice to the fatherless, to plead the widow’s cause. Now, why does God care so much about this? Because as Psalm 68 tells us, God is a father of the fatherless, he is a protector of widows, which means he cares for the downtrodden, the outcasts of society. And we’re going to look at that more next week.

But we as Christians ought to know more than anyone else the importance for caring for these people, for caring for the social outcasts. Why? Because we were the needy. We were the spiritually destitute. We were without hope. We were under the wrath of God until Christ died for us and saved us. And what James tells us is that the person who can look at those who were destitute, just like we were spiritually destitute, and feel no empathy, to say, “Be on your way. You’re good.” You know, they come to you asking for food, is the illustration he uses in the next chapter. And they come to you asking for food, and you don’t give them any. You say, “Bless you, be on your way.” He’s saying your religion is worthless. You don’t actually have real faith that understands the love of God because you don’t have the love of God in you.

And so, to be a doer of the word means to care for the downtrodden, because we were the downtrodden, to care for the needy. It means that if you have real faith, it means that you don’t spend all your time, all of your money, on your selfish ambitions. It means that you use your time, your money, and your energy to love God and love others. And you do that because you actually have the love of God through God’s word implanted in your heart.

Not only does real faith produce an obedient tongue and a caring heart, but real faith also produces a pure life. And in verse 27, it says:

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:27

That brings us back to kind of where we started, doesn’t it? To be a doer of the word means doing what the word calls us to do, right? That’s pretty straightforward. Even I can figure that one out. And it also means not doing what the word forbids. Okay, that’s super important. These go hand in hand. 1 Corinthians 6, 9 through 10 says this:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9–10

A doer of the word lives a pure life, is what James is telling us. Not a perfect life, but a pure life. And those are vastly different things. All right? They live a life that continually strives and desires above all else to live obediently to God’s word. We must do that. But that leads to an even more important question, which is, this comes from our last point: how can we do that? Real faith passes the obedience test by first, as we saw, by humbly receiving the word, second, by personally applying the word, and finally, by joyfully being freed by the word.

3. Joyfully Being Freed by the Word (v. 25)

And this point comes from verse 25. And I’ll read that for us. It says:

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James 1:25

What is the perfect law? And why is James calling a law liberty? He’s calling a law which restricts behavior. He’s saying that’s liberty. Why is he doing that? It’s because God’s law, for those who have real faith, used to be a burden. But because of the implanted word within them, it’s now a delight. The law of God is not a bad thing. The law of God is a great thing, provided we have come to experience the grace of God. For without the grace of God, the law of God crushes us. But for those of us who have experienced the grace of God, who have the implanted word in us, that is why James calls this the law of liberty. Because before, the law crushed us, but now this law liberates us. It doesn’t restrict us. In fact, it frees us to bring us immense joy.

We’ve got God’s Spirit within us, and we now can live according to the word of God. And God doesn’t give us his law as this, “All right, here are the arbitrary rules I’m going to give you because I want your life to be terrible and boring and awful, and I want you to hate it, but you just got to do it.” No. God’s law leads to our flourishing. It leads to our joy. It leads to our happiness. Like how C. S. Lewis put it, he said, the laws of God are the instructions for running the human machine. Right? If you take a car and try to run that normal engine off diesel, it’s not going to go so well. All right? But for those of us who have the implanted word within us, the law of God is now the law of liberty. And we rejoice in this law.

Yes, we still sin. No question about it. Anybody who comes along and tries to preach or argue sinless perfectionism is telling you a lie. We still sin, but there’s a major difference now for those of us who have real faith. We sin, but we now hate our sin. We sin, and afterwards we look at our sin with disgust. And as Josh read for us before from Paul, we cry out in our hearts, “Who will save me? What a wretched man I am.” And then we turn to Christ, which is exactly what Paul does in that passage. And why do we hate our sin even after we do it? It’s because we long for righteousness. Now, why do we long for righteousness? Well, it’s because we long for our righteous Savior. We long for our righteous Savior, who, as John 1 tells us, in fact, is the Word of God who became flesh. Christ is the Word of God. And he became flesh in order that he might live the perfect life that you and I could never live. Even with regenerated hearts, we can’t live a perfect life. We need his perfect righteousness imputed, given to us, to be righteous in God’s eyes. Because Christ has planted his Word deeply within our hearts, we desire to obey and serve him. Not out of compulsion, but out of delight.

And so I ask you this morning: have you humbly turned in repentance from your sin to the Savior? Have you been joyfully freed by Christ so that his law is no longer a duty, but a great, joyful delight? Are you a hearer of the word? Or are you a doer? For to be a doer is to actually be nourished by the word. It is to devour and eat the spiritual food that nourishes us into action, into doing. You can’t do that in your flesh. And if you try, you will fall flat on your face every time. As the psalmist says in Psalm 34, verse 8:

Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Psalm 34:8

Let’s pray.

Father, I thank you for this text, the powerful truths in it. Father, I thank you that we don’t have to be a doer of the word in our own power, for we could never do that. But we thank you for your Holy Spirit that works within us and wills us to work because of the grace that you’ve given us, which comes by faith. Father, if there’s anyone here who feels especially challenged by this text, who says, “You know, I’ve been hearing the word for a long time, but I can’t say I honestly do it very often.” Or maybe somebody, Lord, who’s feeling convicted about their use of their tongue. Or maybe somebody, Lord, who just basically their whole life revolves around their little pet projects, their career, their family, and they rarely look out to others. Father, I pray for these people especially. Help them by grace through faith in Christ to come to have assurance that their faith is real, their faith is genuine, so that they can take the law of God and not follow it in just a pure, obedient way, but that it may truly become a delight to them. Help us as a church, Lord, to have unity, to be gracious towards one another, to love one another, but to also, Lord, never become a holy huddle that just sits within our four walls and doesn’t look out to help those who are needy, whether that be financially needy or spiritually needy. We pray these things in Christ’s name.