(This sermon is from the “A Faith That Works” series from the Epistle from James. It was preached on January 8, 2012 at Arapahoe Road Baptist Church, Centennial, CO. You may listen to this sermon at our sermon page here.)
Let’s pretend that you work for me. In fact, you are my executive assistant in a company that is growing rapidly. I’m the owner and I’m interested in expanding overseas. To pull this off, I make plans to travel abroad and stay there until the new branch office gets established. I make all the arrangements to take my family in the move to Europe for six to eight months, and I leave you in charge of the busy stateside organization. I tell you that I will write you regularly and give you direction and instructions.
I leave and you stay. Months pass. A flow of letters are mailed from Europe and received by you at the national headquarters. I spell out all my expectations. Finally, I return. Soon after my arrival I drive down to the office. I am stunned! Grass and weeds have grown up high. A few windows along the street are broken. I walk into the reception’s room and she is doing her nails, chewing gum, and listening to her favorite radio station rather loudly. I look around and notice the waste baskets are overflowing, the carpet hasn’t been vacuumed for weeks, and nobody seems concerned that the owner has returned. I ask about your whereabouts and someone in the crowded lounge area points down the hall and yells, “I think he’s down there.” Disturbed, I move in that direction and bump into you as you are finishing a chess game with our sales manager. I ask you to step into my office (which has been temporarily turned into a TV room for watching afternoon soap operas).
“What in the world is going on, man?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, look at this place! Didn’t you get any of my letters?”
“Letters? Oh, yeah—sure, got every one of them. As a matter of fact . . . we have had letter study every Friday night since you left. We have even divided all the personnel into small groups and discussed many of the things you wrote. Some of those things were really interesting. You’ll be pleased to know that a few of us have actually committed to memory some of your sentences and paragraphs. One or two memorized an entire letter or two! Great stuff in those letters!”
“Okay, okay – you got my letters, you studied them and meditated on them, discussed and even memorized them. BUT WHAT DID YOU DO ABOUT THEM?”
“Do? Uh—we didn’t do anything about them.”
Let me ask you, do you see anything wrong with this picture? If you were the boss, wouldn’t you be mortified—even angry—that someone treated your business that you entrusted to them that way? You see the purpose of this story—it’s an analogy of how our Lord (Boss) Jesus has gone away to another country (heaven—see Acts 1:9-11) and left His business entrusted to us (Matthew 28:18-20). And while we may gather for Bible studies (which is good), WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT THEM?
1. There is freedom when restrained by the Word of God (James 1:19-21).
Look with me again at James 1:19-21:
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
“Know this,” he tells the followers of Christ. He’s telling them, “You know this”—meaning that it’s something that has already been taught them, but a reminder does not hurt. First, he reminds them to be “quick to hear.” Quick to hear what? While it’s good for us to keep our ears open to what others are saying, that’s not the first place we are to look. Look with me at James 1:16-18:
Do no be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
People are not the first thing we listen to. Our culture is not the first thing we listen to. The leanings of our own heart are not what we listen to first. We listen to the Word of God first. God gave it from above (that “good and perfect gift”), it doesn’t change because he doesn’t change. And by His Word he brought us forth! We must be quick to hear that!
Next, ‘slow to speak.’ We must be more ready to hear God’s Word than to speak our own. Have you ever known someone that seemed to enjoy just hearing themselves talk? My 10th grade teacher, Mrs. Stephenson, had a poster on her wall in her classroom that I have never forgotten. It said, “You have two eyes, two ears, and one mouth for a reason.”
But this next part, “slow to anger,” is tough for so many in our self-centered culture who want to be slow to hear God and others, but quick to speak their own word. This word ‘anger’ has a type of impulsive anger—immediate, hair trigger reaction to things. It does not, nor will it ever, produce the righteousness of God.
Consider what can make us angry: it’s things that go against a standard we have set up. We expect our children to act our way, or others to drive our speed, or referees to call games our way. But righteousness can also mean justice—when we become angry, we are only concerned about our justice. But what about injustice that’s occurring all around us, especially to people we do not even know. Does that stir anything in us?
[21 ] “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ [22 ] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. [23 ] So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, [24 ] leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. [25 ] Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. [26 ] Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Don’t we see how this can affect not just our relationship with others, but affect our worship with God? When there is friction and something against you or you against another, Jesus says to leave the worship then. Even in 1 John 4:20, if we say we love God and hate our brother, God calls us a liar. We receive the seed of the implanted word that God gives to us, that God uses to save us, and now uses to sanctify us. Revivals: “Historically, there has been a close relationship between preaching and revival. Those revivals that have been the purest and most beneficial have given a preeminent place to the scriptural priority of preaching.”
2. There is freedom when doing God’s Word, not just hearing it (James 1:22-25).
Hearing the Word of God is a good thing! After all, do we not know that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God”? Does this not mean that we can only hear by the Word and that faith comes by the hearing that the Word causes us to have? Praise God when we hear sound, biblical preaching.
But notice what the Word says: “Be doers of the Word and not hearers only.” The word ‘only’ is key. Too often, people swing one way or the other. Some feel it’s OK just to come to church and heart. Others, however, believe it’s optional—it’s more about living and being the church rather than doing the church. Yet, only hearing and not doing is deception. And you cannot ‘do’ unless you hear and know what you are ‘doing.’ If we are hearers only and not doers, we deceive ourselves.
Here, James gives the object lesson of the mirror. All of us have heard of Glamour Shots™. Here is an introduction on their website:
At Glamour Shots®, our goal is to bring out your best in portraits. Our portrait studios specialize in makeover photography for women, families, children and high school seniors. Our specially trained make-up artists and professional photographers are skilled in creating the kind of look you want for your session, from a glamour portrait to something more casual.
The “specially trained make-up artists and professional photographers are skilled” is covering over any marks or blemishes.
A mirror doesn’t do that—especially first thing in the morning. It’s all there! Our culture doesn’t like mirrors, they like the touch-up, air brushed photography that covers the problems. When James uses this term, we see that it literally means, “Looks at the face of his birth/nature gave him.”
Kent Hughes rightly said once, “Truth acted upon brings more truth, but failure to respond to truth will ultimately result in a loss of truth.” He doesn’t mean that truth will cease to be truth if we don’t act upon it. But the effects of truth will be lost on us.
This is the benefit of looking into the ‘law of liberty.’ If you remember from a few weeks ago, we talked about what the law is: it’s a guardian, showing us what God’s boundaries are and how that we are sinners in need of a Savior (Galatians 3:23-25). But now we have another description of the law: the law of liberty. How can this be? We thought the law brought bondage because it reveals to us our sin! Yes, in one aspect it does—but it also shows us that, as believers (and remember, this is who James is writing to), the law is liberating.
Think about the 10 Commandments for the believer:
- It is liberating to worship the one true God and serve Him only—otherwise, we find ourselves in all sorts of turmoil with all our idols.
- It is liberating to worship God in spirit and truth, and not confine him to the ‘graven image’ of our own making.
- It is liberating to speak truth and to use God’s name rightly rather than loosely or profanely.
- It is liberating to take time to rest on the day of rest to contemplate on the things of God rather than keep rushing around.
- It is liberating to honor your father and mother.
- It is liberating to treat people as God treated us, rather than have the burden and guilt of anger and murder in our hearts and over our heads.
- It is liberating to stay faithful to your spouse and move in the freedom of that relationship rather than break that trust.
- It is liberating to be content with what you have rather than to steal from others so you may have it—or to even covet that which you wish you had.
- It is liberating to bear faithful and true witness to our neighbor rather than trying to keep up with the lies that come along with the false witnesses.
When God brings forth the word of truth, this word that we love and trust helps us to persevere. What’s the song?
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way.
Let us do his good will, he abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus—than to trust and obey.
3. There is freedom when the Word of God restrains our words (James 1:26-27).
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
As we saw before, those who do not bridle their tongue struggle with selfishness and unrighteousness to a high degree—and therefore deceive themselves into thinking they are religious! It’s a worthless religion! And later James tells us that we cannot tame the tongue (James 3:1-2). James writes to the Jewish Christians who had a long history of people who said they were ones who went through the motions of worship, but outside of that realm they spoke whatever and however they pleased. They served themselves—and their vocabulary showed it.
How does verse 26 tie in to verse 27? Whereas a person who’s tongue is not bridled, thus showing how his unhinged selfishness, the pure and undefiled religion is that where one looks out for the outcast and downtrodden of the world (the widow with no family and the orphan—the two groups in that culture who could offer the least of anyone, which is why they were outcasts). James remembered the words of Jesus:
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the lax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (Matthew 5:46-47)
If we develop relationships and surround ourselves with people who offer some benefit to us, there is no distinction between us and anyone else. But to befriend and minister to those who can give us nothing back? Now that’s Christianity! This is the point of when Jesus starts off his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” We are destitute of anything that’s becoming spiritually—we have nothing to offer God! “There is no righteous, no, not one!” his Word says. But that’s where it begins! When we are nothing, and then He comes and rescues us and brings us in to His Kingdom?
And we must remember that’s where we as Christians were—destitute, in spiritual poverty! And we as Christians must remember that God will bring people who are in this condition to us—has He changed our hearts into His image to the point where we will invest in them even when we may not have any return?
Conclusion
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to come and see Christa, Bill and Dee Dunn’s daughter, marry! It was interesting to see the relationships. There was Christa’s relationship to her friends, her former and present church family, her current pastor, and (more significantly) her parents who gave her away. But oh goodness when she came up and stood beside her groom, she was virtually giddy (as was he)! It reminded me of my wedding 13+ years ago. When Cindy walked in, everything else turned black and white—she was the only one in color.
I began to do things for her not because of what she could offer me in return, but simply because I love her. And I am free in living and loving her in that monogamous relationship not because I hope to have her love—but because I already have it! We operate as Christians under the banner of God’s love not in hopes to obtain it, but because Christ is that banner of love already given for us at the cross of Christ! Christ takes His bride (Christians) and throws away our filthy rags and clothing and gives us garments pure and white as snow that befits His bride. How could we not live in the light of His love and offer our bodies as a living sacrifice?
