[SPEAKER_01]: As is so often the case, our entire service moves together and seems to be, as if we chose these verses specifically for our special presentation today, but as you find the book of James in your Bible, we'll open with a word of prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I guide how we thank you and praise you for the tremendous gift of your love, of your gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for your Word that makes so clear your character, your design, your desire for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we listen this morning, please, O Lord, might our hearts be ready to hear, to grow, and respond appropriately, properly, to your Word and obedience.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, Christ, and we pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: France Kafka wrote a famous story that some may have read and some may have been mystified by, called The Metamorphosis, and it begins with one of the strangest lines in opening of all literature, it starts as Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams.
[SPEAKER_01]: He found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got grab, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: It takes a, at least makes a vivid mental picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can only imagine waking up one morning as a cockroach, and some people really seem to do a good job at it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: will leave politics out of it for the moment.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what makes the story disturbing is not just the transformation, in fact, that would just be a weird sci-fi story, but it's actually a very powerful story in many ways because of Samsung's response.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sees what he has become.
[SPEAKER_01]: He recognizes the reality, but he doesn't ever really deal with the fact that he is now a giant cockroach.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of worrying about what happened to me, he starts worrying about being late for work.
[SPEAKER_01]: And instead of confronting his conditions, he tries to continue to live life, as if nothing was wrong, even though he's a human-sized bug.
[SPEAKER_01]: And slowly, tragically, his life collapses around them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kafka's story is of course fictional, but spiritually it describes something very real.
[SPEAKER_01]: People can see what they are and still do nothing about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as believers, we can know who we are and still choose to do nothing about it, to go about trying to live our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: as we once were, or as the world, would suggest that we are.
[SPEAKER_01]: So today's passage of James 1, 21, through 27, we will look at in three basic needs of mankind.
[SPEAKER_01]: First is to receive.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second is to respond, and third is to reflect.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we start off with this idea that we must first receive the word.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would you please read James 1, 21 with me?
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive the meekness, the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we want to never want to lose our connection or a context when we study these verses, especially important in James, because James really reads like a great
[SPEAKER_01]: divinely inspired sermon, moving from theme to theme, not as kind of solid chapter stops, but as a continuing flow of ideas.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we'll remember that we've just had this huge discussion of how Christians are to respond to trials, difficulties, temptation, and tribulation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it came to last week's sort of,
[SPEAKER_01]: Pinnacle in stating that maturity, Christian maturity looks like people who are quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath.
[SPEAKER_01]: hope you found that passage as convicting and encouraging, as I certainly did, as we got to ponder it throughout the week, and continuing to recognize that measure of or standard of maturity causes us hopefully to have a sober view of our own limitations and growth in Christ, knowing that it is by Christ power alone, that we might achieve this kind of maturity that makes us maximally effective.
[SPEAKER_01]: both in our times of trouble as well as in our times of ease.
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, this is what spiritual maturity looks like in trials.
[SPEAKER_01]: To be quick to hear, specifically here, God's Word.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we come to understand what is going on and try to contextualize what the Lord might be doing or teaching us through this difficulty, we must be quick to hear what He has to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: If we're not reporting to the Word of God, as our lens of truth, then we are inevitably going to fall to self-deception, which James deals with repeatedly in the section.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next being slow to speak, that willingness to pause before responding, but actually speak with a humble willingness to accept that we don't know everything is always helpful and finally slow.
[SPEAKER_01]: to wrath again within the particular context of trials and temptations, wrath is our or anger excessive anger especially is our kind of natural response and we can get clouded with that kind of anger but this is the exact opposite of what James first exhorts us to which is to consider
[SPEAKER_01]: when we face these trials.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this verse calls us to be free from things that halt our spiritual growth.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, James is trying to spur all of his readers on towards greater maturity and that involves two basic steps in this first verse.
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, laying aside sin and second of all, receiving the Bible or receiving the Word of God more than just hearing but actually
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you remember?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, James remembers, he's talking to believers.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's not giving people tests of salvation, nor is he giving them tests of superb status.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is simply giving encouragement to his brothers and sisters who have trusted in Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when it comes to dealing with the sin issue, he assumes that they've already had this basic gospel information.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now our message goes through the digital world to the very ends of the earth, and we never want to take that assumption for granted.
[SPEAKER_01]: James knew exactly who he was writing to, and with exactly what it meant.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even know if you have understood or trusted the gospel.
[SPEAKER_01]: So today we're going to go over that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, as we often do, because it is so important to understand this basic message of our salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, God created mankind with a desire to be in a right relationship with him, to make mankind, all of us, stewards over his creation and earth and made in his image to
[SPEAKER_01]: govern in a way that reflected him.
[SPEAKER_01]: But man, unfortunately, disobeyed God, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God by listening to Satan and eating of the apple, and that caused a chasm between God who is holy and righteous and just and must punish wickedness and man who is sinful.
[SPEAKER_01]: and hopeless and helpless.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we find that the only just because God is absolutely just punishment or response or result of man's rebellion is that penalty of physical death.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we have men separated from God by a chasm of sin that is too great to cross by any of our efforts.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether that is good works and trying to do our best to be a little bit better, that is not enough to attain God's full righteousness and holiness to gain standing before God.
[SPEAKER_01]: neither religion or the man-made works and churches and opportunities whether that's baptism, communion or any other church membership or any other right.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of these rights can provide any semblance of true salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: None of them can pay that penalty for sin that must be paid.
[SPEAKER_01]: We cannot give a certain amount of money nor can we attain it by morality.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no hope for man to achieve salvation of his own means.
[SPEAKER_01]: And praise the Lord, Jesus Christ entered into our world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything from Genesis 315 forward is looking forward to this one who would come, who would pay the penalty for our sin, who would make it possible and open the door for us to cross this chasm between a sinful man and a sinless and holy God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we see Christ's payment on the cross covered our sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is why it is so important that we understand that Jesus Christ is fully man.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we could identify with us to take our penalty, but also fully God.
[SPEAKER_01]: So being eternal, he could pay an eternal payment and thus absorb and fully and finally pay for in an infinite or infinite amount of time, the eternal consequence of sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're told in the Word of God that once we place faith in Him for salvation, once we trust in Jesus Christ, His payment for sin and stop trying to earn it on our own that we have eternal life, a life that is everlasting.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're told that there is therefore now no condemnation, all sins paid for.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no running tab that could yet continue.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we have passed from death to life.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, James' audience had already dealt with sin in this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: And their sin was no longer their challenge or problem to deal with for Christ had paid that payment in full and that is good news.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is good news indeed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when a person trusts in Jesus Christ for salvation, they are free from the penalty of sin, past, present, and future, or as the hymn says, Jesus paid it all.
[SPEAKER_01]: all to him, I owe, sin had left a crimson stain.
[SPEAKER_00]: He washed it white as snow.
[SPEAKER_01]: But our salvation doesn't just stop there.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just a forgiveness ticket or a get out of hell free card, quite to the contrary.
[SPEAKER_01]: It comes with a genuine spiritual transformation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Roman six makes it extraordinarily plain along with Ephesians two and various other passages that the believer in Jesus Christ, the one who's trusted in Jesus Christ, isn't just forgiven.
[SPEAKER_01]: but also transformed, identified with Christ in His crucifixion, in His burial, in His resurrection, in His sentient ascension, and now seated at the right hand of God, positioned eternally, and permanently within Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now at the right hand of the Father, you have a position in heaven, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that means that who you are fundamentally has changed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who you were the day before you trusted Christ and who you are the day after you trusted Christ are different could not be more different or more distinct and so Hebrews has very similar advice for us on the basis of this major spiritual transformation He says therefore we also since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let us lay aside every weight
[SPEAKER_01]: and the sin which so easily and snares us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who, for the joy that was set before him and dured the cross, despising his shame and a sat down at the right hand of the throne of God,
[SPEAKER_01]: James, Paul, the author of Hebrews, wants you to change your entire perspective to match the reality of what God has revealed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of seeing sin as something that you get away with something pleasant, see it as an encombrance, as something that inhibits you from living the life that God wants you to live.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't view sin as the secret pleasure you get away with, quite to the contrary, view sin as something that is keeping you from running your race that is holding you in bondage, hobbling your steps and your ability to keep your eyes fixed on the prize, the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, oftentimes, use these little memes because they make me laugh, but also, they teach some important spiritual truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the first one.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the immature or carnal Christian, the Lordship Christian, whatever you want to call them, the one who thinks.
[SPEAKER_00]: deep down that sin is really getting away with something.
[SPEAKER_01]: Is this really freedom?
[SPEAKER_01]: If I could indulge my every sinful selfish desire would that be freedom?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's because they don't understand that sin is never freedom.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always bondage.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's never celebratable, it's always embarrassing and shameful, and you've been made free from that bondage, and yet our confusion in our immaturity and in our folly is to think that we need something to scare us away from sin instead of just understanding a horrifying sin is as it plays out in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, while inevitably get the same question that Paul answers in Roman 6 is constantly, so you're saying I can just sin all I want, and the question with a good slap should be, or the answer with a good slap should be, why do you want to sin?
[SPEAKER_01]: Once speaking to a legalist Christian from one of the well-known cults, he said, well, the law tells me not to murder you and take your wife captive.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, that's the only thing keeping you from mourning to murder me and you suck at this.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what you want and that's what really your internal drive and desire is to just murder and rape.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you've got a problem, son.
[SPEAKER_01]: You do not understand what true godliness and what life in Christ is.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet here we sit, day in and day out, confronted with the existence and persistence of an old sin nature that continually asks through deception for our obedience.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it is only when we are fooled into thinking that sin has something to offer or has some authority that we fall under its sway and guise.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, James can say with all certainty, lay aside sin, lay aside that sin, it's no good for you, it's not anything that you enjoyed, you're not getting anything out of the equation, lay it aside and rather receive the implanted word.
[SPEAKER_01]: James goes even further than just saying listen or hear as he said before, but now he wants that word to be received or taken within ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this implanted word gives this idea of the implanted word gives organic imagery to the situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, the Word of God is different than any other book in this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are helpful Christian books and documents.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are helpful manuals and guides to doing and accomplishing all kinds of tasks.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are tasks, there are repositories of all kinds of knowledge and encyclopedias and on the internet and like.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the Word of God differs from all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hebrews 412 says,
[SPEAKER_01]: For the Word of God is living in powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intense of the heart.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Word of God alone cuts so deeply.
[SPEAKER_01]: to get to the division point between your spirit and your soul.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's why we teach the Word of God without fail here.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is why I hope you read the Word of God without fail.
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to the clear teaching of the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: because it is what gives us the ultimate understanding.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's important, as we've said before, how you read that, reading it with a desire to be changed from your perspectives to gods.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we highlight this method we sometimes called of how to study the Bible.
[SPEAKER_01]: You see, if you're just reading to discover how the Bible makes you feel when you read it in, you are going to be deceived.
[SPEAKER_01]: because your feelings were not designed, not given to you, to lead you into the truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Rather than going to the word, as we looked at in previous weeks, to try to find some kind of confirmation bias, or see what I already believe, or respond to some sort of weird jumblies in your tumbling that happened one time when you read it, and you reinforce at the next time, we look to the word of God to find out what it actually says.
[SPEAKER_01]: to bring truth.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we do this through a very simple method that has been kind of standardized, but it's very common and very familiar to all of us tell you read everything from a novel to a science textbook to a newspaper article.
[SPEAKER_01]: You make observations about the language and about the context.
[SPEAKER_01]: You make a single interpretation coming to understand what the word is saying, not what I wanted to say, not what does that my denomination says, not what some other person says.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then finally, you come to application and that's what James is highlighting today.
[SPEAKER_01]: As he's saying, be one who takes in the word and applies it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, in many ways, we can apply the word in any given passage, while singular interpretation has untold numbers of applications.
[SPEAKER_01]: We could talk about a theological application.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does this verse, as previous verses in James chapter 1, tell us something about God's character that he is untenable and he does not tempt us to evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: See, that's a theological application.
[SPEAKER_01]: It might not change anything you do, but it reminds you.
[SPEAKER_01]: that the God of the universe will never be the one who is tempting you to witness to fall or to evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a theological application.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just changes how you think, how you understand something, consider it pure joy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a theological, we can say, or theoretical, application.
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, it doesn't change the fact that there are trials.
[SPEAKER_01]: It changes how you choose to respond, think about.
[SPEAKER_01]: those trials.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then we have direct applications, the wonderful book of James holding so many direct applications to all believers, as well as indirect applications.
[SPEAKER_01]: So when we look at James, because he's writing to believers in a Christian context, we see quite a lot of direct
[SPEAKER_01]: But when we're reading about maybe in the Psalms as we are in Wednesday nights, we'll find a lot of indirect application because you're not a king of Israel and you're not living under that rule in that time and under the laws they were.
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's going to be some distinctions, but there's indirect applications towards all because the same God is the God.
[SPEAKER_01]: of both old and new testaments.
[SPEAKER_01]: Finally, we can look at applications as personal and corporate.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are individual applications that we can all appropriate and change an attitude and action, a behavior, a desire, or there is the corporate application as West was so well pointing out that we have the opportunity to enact the will of God and live out the will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: obedience to what he has revealed.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why it is so important that we talk about frequently what the Bible has to say about the future, about the end times, about the church, about our mission, about the clarity of the gospel, and the opportunity to build one another up in love because we want to be about what God's word has us to be about.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he tells us that this implanted word is able to save your souls.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, wait a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: Didn't you just say that we're already saved?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, I absolutely did.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I be saved by trusting Christ according to John 316, John 524, John 2031, Romans 116, Ephesians 289, 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 5, and a host of others, and still be hoping to be saved.
[SPEAKER_01]: By the time we get to James 121.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, remember that salvation is by no means a technical term.
[SPEAKER_01]: Whenever you see the word salvation, you have to ask being saved, who is being saved, and what, from what, are they being saved?
[SPEAKER_01]: If we say that David saved a little lamb from a lion, we certainly aren't to assume that the little lamb received a eternal salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: We know that he saved that lamb's life, right, from the lion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Context dictates interpretation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, when we look at the words saved as used throughout the New Testament, when it's regarding spiritual salvation, it's oftentimes using physical salvation in some way.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when it's talking about spiritual salvation, we see that there are three major components or phases to our salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we just talked about, we could say is phase one or justification.
[SPEAKER_01]: A person is justified or declared righteous before God, the moment that you place faith, that you trust in Jesus Christ for salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is a done deal, a final set issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are born again, you're a new creation, you're a new creature in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: because of the grace of God and the working of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Done, finished, can't be undone.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in our second tense of salvation, we find we are being saved, not from sin's penalty, as in phase one.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we are in, as a matter of process being saved from sin's power or authority.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd go a step further and say, we are actually free from sin's authority forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there's a growth process whereby we are growing out of its effects.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as you look at the collection of verses,
[SPEAKER_01]: that talk about this, James 121 is one of the primary passages, and so that is all holding up against phase three, where we will be saved from sins presence when we are glorified with the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to come redeem his church, he's going to at the rapture or if you pass away before then.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is going to take us unto himself.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are co-ares in his kingdom.
[SPEAKER_01]: We serve and reign with him for a thousand years.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a glorification phase.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're all promised by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this passage is talking about how the implanted word, how responding to the word of God in faithful obedience, is able to deliver you from the consequences and realities of sin, the power of sin in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the two things in this verse that you want to do is think rightly about sin and put it off, lay it aside and think rightly about the word and take it in and let it change how you view this world.
[SPEAKER_01]: Having moved from reception, we are ready to go on towards how we are to respond.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a bit of a bigger passage, but you can do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please read along with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face and a mirror.
[SPEAKER_01]: For he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful here but a doer of the work.
[SPEAKER_01]: This one will be blessed in what he does.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is of course one of those challenging passages, those who do not understand the nature of salvation in scripture who don't understand the nature of spiritual growth will inevitably try to use this to
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, the works of mankind, the works of our hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we want to note here that he starts with a picture of the danger of self-deception.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'll argue that for humanity, Christian saved, unsaved, self-deception is our default mode.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee, nearly, if not all of us, but probably you, certainly me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's chiefly unaware of the things that we do and are about that are most painful, frustrating, and obnoxious to others.
[SPEAKER_01]: Self-delusion is the language that we speak, it is the way that we live, it can be from as simple as the self-delusion of
[SPEAKER_01]: thinking that we're younger or more beautiful or more intelligent than we are all the way to downplaying our most selfish and sinful and grotesque attitude.
[SPEAKER_01]: Self-deception is the way of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why the Psalmist must pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord seek out any unclean way in me because he also knows.
[SPEAKER_01]: that we're more likely to deceive ourselves than be honest with ourselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: We struggle above all things, to be truthful with our own shortcomings, our own challenges, those things that make us difficult or at least inhibit our growth in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this deception brings about most of our troubles and delays in our growth with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: The desire to try to see ourselves is the strong, the better, the more righteous, the self-righteous.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what exactly what brings about the most painful attitudes in Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to be winners.
[SPEAKER_01]: We want to be seen as winners, and that causes us to delude and really discuss, to delude ourselves and discuss all around us.
[SPEAKER_01]: But he describes this in relationship to a mirror.
[SPEAKER_01]: A mirror is a common picture in Scripture,
[SPEAKER_01]: little hand mirror, the pocket mirror that you got or the mirror that's in the bathroom, those are all second-surface mirrors.
[SPEAKER_01]: They work and reflect rather accurately and beautifully.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're a good tool.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the first century, James would have had this first-surface mirrors.
[SPEAKER_01]: And essentially, this was a piece of metal that would be buffed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would come with a little shining cloth.
[SPEAKER_01]: He tried to shine it up to just try to get a little bit of a clearer image, a clearer picture of your reflection to see yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it wasn't, don't think of the ease of our modern mirrors, realize that there's a picture here of some kind of process and imperfection in what you're seeing in a way, but at the same time, the Bible is constantly utilized in this image as a mirror, and whenever this mirror comes up in the New Testament, it is always talking about the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: First Corinthians 1312 says,
[SPEAKER_01]: for now we see in a mirror dimly but then face to face.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I know in part but then I shall know just as I am known Paul is talking about the completion of the canon.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying we see in part we prophecy in part we kind of get these little funky ideas and we have to evaluate the spirits and the prophets and it's all very difficult, but he eludes to the completion of the canon that perfect coming that we have that you have in your lap.
[SPEAKER_01]: A perfect, complete mirror to show you the character of God, the nature of His plan, and His power in your life, able to teach correct, rebuke, exhort, and train and righteousness.
[SPEAKER_01]: Second Corinthians 3-18 is the other time when this uses, but we all with unbuilt faces beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the spirit of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we find here, and second Corinthians 3-18, that the Word of God is the tool through which we look at as just as a person looks in the mirror, and the Holy Spirit uses that to reflect back
[SPEAKER_01]: who we are in Christ and give us the opportunity to be who we are who God says we are rather than be deceived by self or the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he comes up to this really interesting phrase, the perfect law of liberty.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now every time we start talking about the law things bring about a strong response.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are many Christians still trying to live by the law, living constantly in the fear and frustration of Romans 7 failure, trying to knock out getting more points with God and remove more failure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does J. Meen, however, the believer is under the law of Moses, well, let's just compare this with a little bit of scripture.
[SPEAKER_01]: Roman 614 says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
[SPEAKER_01]: It sounds to me, like he is saying, that if you're putting yourself under the principle of law in the sense of the law of Moses or other spiritual man-made laws, that you will be slave to sin still.
[SPEAKER_01]: Roman 74, therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ that you may be married to another, to him who is raised from the dead that we should bear fruit to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now we are dead to the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 7-6, but now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll now get that new picture.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Spirit of God is guiding our lives and actions in the way that the Old Testament Saints lives were guided by the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a difference.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 10, 4 for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
[SPEAKER_01]: The law is no longer the tool to bring about righteousness or righteous, rewardable behavior in the life of Christ or in the life of the believer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians 216 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: For by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is no declaration of righteousness in phase one or phase two by keeping the works of the law.
[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians 219 for though I though through the law I died to the law that I might live to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians 310 for as many as our out of the works of the law are under a curse for it is written cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians 3, 15, 13.
[SPEAKER_01]: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us for it as written cursed as everyone who hangs on a tree.
[SPEAKER_01]: Galatians 3, 23, through 25.
[SPEAKER_01]: But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept by the faith which would afterward be revealed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Relations for 21 through 21 to 31 begins with this wonderful phrase.
[SPEAKER_01]: You desire to be under the law Why do they what it what's the point of that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you they want to be under the law?
[SPEAKER_01]: But they're not he's telling them you fools you're trying to claw your way back under some law or legal system
[SPEAKER_01]: you want to will you even listen to it and he proceeds to give his illustration Galatians five one stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with what he calls the law a yoke of bondage and Galatians five eighteen but if you're led by the spirit you are not under the law
[SPEAKER_01]: We could go on and read the rest of these passages, but in the interest of time, I'll let you read them on your own.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're on your handout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I printed it out so that it would highlight only the important things.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you've got that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what then is this law of liberty?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first of all, like the word save or salvation, law is not a technical term.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can mean the law of Moses, but it can mean several other things, such as the rules of a government or a religious code.
[SPEAKER_01]: It can be a standard that stands out or a principle.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Paul uses all these different ways in Romans 7, interestingly enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the observation of a principle like the way things happen, the law of gravity or such like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: This law that defined, this is the law that defined as being one of liberty or freedom.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, if he wanted to bring them into the law of Moses, he could have said the law of Moses, it would have been ultimately plain.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, even just the law would be more plain than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this is a new standard, and this new standard is the believer's freedom in Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is interesting, like I think James is making very clear separate from any other law or law idea of law that they might have.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is this new standard of freedom that they have.
[SPEAKER_01]: Freedom from sin, freedom from the standards of the world, freedom from Satan.
[SPEAKER_01]: saying, look into the Word of God and see the liberty that is yours in Christ, free to be godly, free to grow, free to be free from sin and its evil and oppressive reality forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that believer who walks according to that law of God's liberty and the Holy Spirit within them, working with the Word of God to produce a Christlike character is happy.
[SPEAKER_01]: blessed spiritually, ultimately, in the best place possible.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we're told to receive, we're told to respond by applying the word, letting it change, how we live, and what we do, and how we think chiefly, and most importantly,
[SPEAKER_01]: And now, we're called the reflect.
[SPEAKER_01]: I realize that this is a little confusing because we just talked about mirrors and reflection, but this is the kind of reflection that you get to do and I get to do on our own and without it, we fall short of applying this passage appropriately.
[SPEAKER_01]: So please read with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridal his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, it is critical that we take a moment to reflect when we hear the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The English concept of religion is familiar to us and is oftentimes used to describe man's attempts to reach God rather than the relationship of Christ reaching down to save us that is clear in biblical Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we are not wrong to say about our faith that it is not a religion that it is a relationship with the living God as one through the work of Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: reflect that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But here it is used to describe the devotion, or level of maturity within the context of the audience that he's reaching.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's saying, do you think you're a mature, he's using a different word for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the idea is, you think you're mature, you think you're devout.
[SPEAKER_01]: You think your Christianity has reached a meaningful point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well here are three little litmus tests to judge, not your salvation, but you're maturity level.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what a mature Christian looks like as we saw, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we see it broken down into the most plain, a bridal tongue, the visiting of orphans and widows, and cleanliness are being cleaned from worldliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, this idea of a tongue in control is a wild picture for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, our tongue is difficult, possibly the most difficult thing to control in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: The last study focused on the importance of being slow to speak, so we won't repeat that study there, but we'll reference you back to it if you have interest.
[SPEAKER_01]: What has happened, however, when we fail to control our tongue?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, first, we find that we've deceived our own hearts, and now that our religion or our devotion is useless.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's deal with these one at a time.
[SPEAKER_01]: First of all, the fact that we have deceived our own heart means that we are not living as we have been positioned and created, instead of living in our new state of being born again and made a new, we continue to deceive ourselves and try to live and speak and talk like we once were after the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the statement, almost troubling, our religion is useless.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, that can sound rather extreme, even shocking.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can wonder, oh, it's one failure to bridle the tongue.
[SPEAKER_01]: Mean that everything that you've ever believed, all services rendered useless.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, useless here may be slightly hyperbolic, but really he's trying to point out that you're not applying your faith at that time.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is not having the use that God designed for it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we see that a perfectly saved person can live in immaturity, or even a mature person can live out of fellowship with the Lord.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's experience a time when their faith, what we believe our salvation is not having.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's full of fact.
[SPEAKER_01]: is not being seen by the world that cannot see what you believe internally, but only can judge by what it sees externally.
[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be a continuing theme in this letter, in this epistle.
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't some sort of threat or veiled threat at your salvation.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a statement that there are times if we're all honest, that our faith does not control what we do, what we say, specifically what we say.
[SPEAKER_01]: where we are not in control of the Holy Spirit but rather in our own sin natures control.
[SPEAKER_01]: And at that point, our faith is not doing what it was meant to be doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: next visiting orphans and widows.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now these are the most or some of the most disadvantaged people at the time, orphan or a widow would be two people who could not fend for themselves or represent themselves legally or in business.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were deeply frightened.
[SPEAKER_01]: The word visit in the New King James is definitely not preferred the idea of Episcopause.
[SPEAKER_01]: or overseer is what is being used here as a verb.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's saying oversee, or we could say help, as many of your translations will have, helping those widows and those orphans.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we wouldn't want to stop there in our understanding of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is anyone that is particularly challenged or disadvantaged in life, time, or society.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is having a honest and honest compassion for those who struggle and suffer, and a desire of a godly mature Christian is to help is to serve, is to bring those people into better circumstances or help them in their difficult circumstance.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's just a natural result.
[SPEAKER_01]: of mature Christianity, of growing Christianity.
[SPEAKER_01]: And finally, clean from worldliness.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world is the second of three major enemies of the believer and the ungodly world system pits itself against God and enslave the unbeliever.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world has its own standards and it has its own temptations as first John two, 15 through 17 explain our desired response.
[SPEAKER_01]: So do not love the world or the things of the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father
[SPEAKER_01]: For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the father, but as of the world, and the world is passing away, and the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.
[SPEAKER_01]: When it comes to being free from worldliness, we can look at certain petty sins or things that might be done, or we may be tempted to do, but it's a far greater exhortation.
[SPEAKER_01]: Loving the world is so easy to fall into.
[SPEAKER_01]: We love the things that the world offers, it's pleasures.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are drawn into its standards.
[SPEAKER_01]: We are slowly, and sometimes quickly, but slowly brainwashed to accept its viewers and perspectives on what is right and wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And before long, we value the opinions and viewpoints of the world that crucified Christ over the one that died to save us.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lifelong difficulty where pack animals, we depend, we rely upon being the approval of others.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet here we see the commandment of God, the desire of God is that we would not love the world or the things that it provides.
[SPEAKER_01]: Romans 12, two likewise says, and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renaming of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: The world system is trying to conform you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the word of God can transform you into what God wants you to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: So simply put, receive the word of God, respond by listening to, allowing it to change your mind, your thoughts, your actions, your words, and reflect on the maturity that you see in your life.
[SPEAKER_01]: with humility and honesty, recognizing that any point you fall short of biblical maturity, it is another moment that you've relied on yourself.
[SPEAKER_01]: As one person always said, if you're ever disappointed in yourself, it showed that you believed in yourself, stop that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you'll never be disappointed in Christ, that you rely upon Him, His word, His resources.
[SPEAKER_01]: in a strange twist on Kafka's great short story.
[SPEAKER_01]: Gregor Samso awoke to find himself a bug and understandably couldn't deal with it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you have been transformed as well if you've believed in Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've placed your faith in Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are now a child of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are a co-er with Christ.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are a new creation.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are bought with His blood and you are made His child.
[SPEAKER_01]: The choice that you have before you is to simply stumble around trying to fit in with all the unredeemed or live this new life and heritage, which is yours by the grace of God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's close with Lord of Prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, how we thank you for your tremendous blessing, your gifting.
[SPEAKER_01]: your son and his work upon the cross, the life which is given us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Please, O Lord, be glorified as we respond to that life which you've given us, the new person that you've made us to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: Might we have courage, wisdom, and strength to respond to life's difficulties in such a way as we'll bring glory to you and Christ and we pray, amen.