Let's get to work. James chapter 1. If you have your Bibles, turn to James chapter 1, verses 17 through 25. Lord willing, this is the text that we will be in this morning. James chapter 1, beginning in verse 17. And just before we read this, I want to set it up. James is writing, the half-brother of Jesus, writing to Christians in the middle of the first century, scattered all over the known world of its day. He's writing to them in all kinds of difficult circumstances with all kinds of challenges. Many of them would be similar to ones you and I face today. Of course, a different context, different culture, all of those things. But many of the same questions, challenges, circumstances, difficulties, and things that would challenge our faith, James' readers have those questions. They have those challenges. They live in those circumstances. And James is just an intensely practical book. This is Christianity. This is what it is. This is how it's lived. This is what it looks like. And so this is the context as James is writing this morning. There's been an argument he's already addressed about circumstances and how to to live through them. People tend to say, God, why are you causing me to do this? Why are you tempting me? Why have you allowed this to happen? James has dealt with that already in chapter 1. And we come to verse 17, and he teaches us on what it means to receive God's word.
Verses 17 through 25: Every good and every 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. 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. Verse 21, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But, verse 25, 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.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer once again. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is forever settled in heaven. We thank you, Father, that you've been faithful to watch over, to protect, and to hand it down to us. Father, we thank you that it's living and it's active and it's sharper than any two-edged sword. Father, we thank you that your word accurately divides between soul and spirit. Your word actively and precisely shows us what is of us and what is of you, what is righteous, what is unrighteous. Father, your word reveals and glorifies and displays the magnificence of your holiness and your righteousness. Lord, your word tells us the truth about who we are. And Father, most magnificently, your word bridges the gap between those two in the form of your Son, Jesus Christ. And so, Father, I pray for anyone that would be here today that doesn't know the forgiveness of sins in Jesus' name, that doesn't know the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross, Father, that is living in condemnation, Father, one that wouldn't know their eternal state if they were to pass from this earth today. Lord, I pray that you would do what only you can do and open eyes as your word is proclaimed today, that you would save. As only you can save. We trust you with that this morning, and we thank you for your word. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.
Well, verse 17, once again, James tells us that all good things, every good and perfect gift, comes down from the Lord. And James is, is using some things that his readers would have been aware of. He's using illustrations that we can understand, like any good teacher and good Bible teacher does. For our purposes, we would look to a clock. They would look to a sundial. We can look to a modern clock. Something that's always changing. A sundial with the shadow. A clock as each second and each minute passes throughout the day. Those things are always changing. And what James wants us to know, what he wants us to understand is that God never changes. In terms of a sundial, it's always high noon concerning God. He is always on His throne. He is always at His zenith. No matter what circumstances are coming towards us, no matter what we're going through, no matter what we think, no matter how we feel, the Lord is always at His zenith. The Lord is always on His throne. Although everything that He has created, the stars, the planet, the solar system, the world, it's always in a state of change. Always, always devolving. Always, always moving. Always shifting. But the Lord— and know this, brothers, James refers to us as brothers over and over. Beloved brothers. Brothers and sisters in the Lord, know this. As you learn anything about the Lord, know this: He never changes. He's rock solid. He is a firm foundation. He's not given to any form whatsoever of degeneration or the whims or the weaknesses or the nature of man. God suffers no such lack. He is always perfectly ensconced on His throne.
And here's the greatest thing: In Him, because of what He's done, He's our Father. We look to Him as our Dad, our great loving Heavenly Father. And He never changes. He never moves. Everything in this world— man, when we come to the city anymore, we lived in a city years ago, but when we come now, we're so used to being out in the country. I don't know how you folks do it. It's hard for us to get used to once again. Everything just moves so rapidly. Every time we come, there's old buildings tore down, there's new ones going up, there's new roads tore out, there's new ones laid down, and it's always changing. The way we used to get one place, we don't get there anymore. We can't get there because there's construction going on. Always changing, always. God, in the midst of that, remains steadfast. And sure and stable, and he never moves. He is rock solid.
And understand this, whatever gift— and you may not— you may this morning may be going through the most difficult time imaginable that I or no one else here could imagine. That could be a gift from the Lord. We think in terms of the things we like. As gifts. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Lord, from the Father of lights. And this is what you can know: even that difficult gift, God always, always— this is one of the best definitions of agape love that I ever heard of the Lord— God always seeks our highest good. That may not feel what like what feels good to us or for us, but that's always God's, that's always His intent. Always. Always. And He will not allow anything that He won't also supply the grace and the strength that you need to get through. God's love, God's gifts are always designed for our highest good.
6 · The pastor signals a structural shift from God's unchanging nature and good gifts to a specific emphasis on the greatest gift: salvation through new birth
And James emphasizes that point by taking us back and reminding us once again how good this Father of Lights has been to us.
7 · The pastor expounds James 1:18, explaining the birth language as God giving spiritual life where death once resided
Look at verse 18 with me, James chapter 1, verse 18. This is, this is how gracious God has been to, I pray, each one of us here this morning. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James taught earlier in chapter 1 that sin gives birth to death, always. You can write that down somewhere. Sin always gives birth to death. However, James points out the Father of lights, the perfect giver of gifts, gives birth to life. When James says in verse 18 that he brought us forth. This is birth language. It's birthing language, not weird birthing in the Spirit stuff that gets tossed around sometimes. This is God, the Father of lights, giving life where before all that resided was death. James reminds us of the greatest gift that we could ever be given, that could ever be given to any human being, the new birth, new life. He brought us forth out of darkness. Into his marvelous light. He brought us forth, he lifted our feet, he lifted us up out of the miry clay. He set our feet upon a solid rock. He gave us life of his own will. It's a gift. It's a grace from God by the word of truth.
8 · The pastor asserts the sovereignty of God in salvation, contrasting Arminian mixture with pure grace, using the analogy of physical birth to demonstrate that believers contribute nothing to their spiritual birth
I hope you know this, and I know you do because I know your pastor. The fact that you and I are believers has nothing to do with our will or our goodness or our righteousness. It's by God's will. It's by his grace. It's his good and precious gift. It's all about him. It's all from him. I want you to think of just a moment. Sometimes we have a hard time with this and that The tradition that I came out of, much more Arminian than Sovereign Grace or Sovereign Redeemer where I certainly pastor now, we understood or we said we understood the gospel and we understood grace and it was all about the Lord, it was all about Christ, but there was always just this mixture. We had to add a little bit to that. And I want you to think about this gift that God has given. And if you could, I know it's impossible to do, but think about what you contributed, what you added to the day of your physical birth. Was it by your will? Did you have much to say about it? Did you have much to do with it? Did you determine your birthday physically? No, the Lord did that. The Lord created that. God gave you the gift of physical life. It's the same with your spiritual birth. God brings us forth by His will. It's 100% grace given to you and given to me by someone completely outside of us. Someone transcendent from us, someone greater than us, someone indescribable. James calls him the Father of Lights. This is glorious good news for us, and by the way, this is good news for your neighbor as well. It is beyond good news. Verse 18, and this is what James is reminding us of. God, by His own will, reaches down and by His Son, whom James calls the Word of Truth, raises us from the dead. He gives us life. He births us, if you will. He regenerates us, cleanses us of our sin, saves us, gives us everlasting life. James' original readers of this epistle would have been among the first, the first fruits to receive this good and perfect gift of the new birth. 2,000 years later, here we are, grateful recipients from the Father of lights. I hope you understand this truth this morning. I hope that this gospel, this good news, every time you hear it, I hope and pray that it thrills— we used to sing this old hymn, 'All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me.' I hope when you hear the gospel over and over and over, you feel and you sense the wonder of it, the majesty of it, the grace that is contained within it.
9 · The pastor uses a personal pastoral encounter to illustrate the test of authentic salvation: response to the gospel
Do you know, James, as he goes through his epistles, is subtly and not times so subtly giving all of his readers test after test after test about the authenticity of their walk with the Lord. People ask pastors all the time, 'How do I know? How do I know I'm saved?' Well, what's your response when you hear the gospel? Are you glad all over again? Are you grateful all over again? Does it thrill your soul? Maybe not emotionally. Some of us are more emotional, some of us are not. But does it take you back to that time when God graciously opened your eyes, raised you from the dead, and gave you life? That's a great indicator that there's new life there, that there is new birth there. A few years ago, it was the saddest thing in the world. I had a It was an older lady that had been in the church where I was pastoring a few years. She'd been in a whole bunch of other churches a whole bunch of other years. We were the latest in a long line of churches. We were in a meeting one time, and Lisa was with me, and she was agitated. And this is a lady who has heard the gospel over and over, but something was missing. And at a certain point in our conversation, she literally, she put her hands over her ears like this, and she said, 'I am sick of hearing the gospel!' I mean, she literally screamed that. 'I am sick of hearing the gospel!' And for a pastor, you couldn't hear sadder words. For any believer, you couldn't hear someone say something more discouraging, more sad than those words. How could this be to a believer? How could it be? And the answer is, it couldn't. It couldn't.
10 · The pastor signals a shift from salvation (past tense) to ongoing reception of God's Word in the Christian life (present tense sanctification), preparing to expound verses 19-21
God gives us this great gift of salvation, of new life. This is just the beginning. It gets better. You see, God gives us His word and we just keep receiving it in multiple ways.
11 · The pastor reads James 1:19-21, emphasizing that God continues to give His Word after initial salvation and that the same word of truth that saved believers continues to work in them through sanctification and into eternity
Look at verses 19-21 again. James says, 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. God the Father of lights keeps giving, and we keep receiving. The same word of truth continues to work in us after we're saved. After we're born again, and will continue to work in us all throughout eternity.
12 · The pastor articulates the three-tense structure of salvation: past (justification—being saved from sin's penalty), present (sanctification—being saved from sin's power), and future (glorification—being saved from sin's presence)
You know, God's Word really teaches us and points us to 3 different tenses of salvation, of being saved. We were all— hopefully, prayerfully, we've all been saved at a point in the past when God raised us from the dead, when God saved us. That's salvation. And then God continues to save us. I know your pastor teaches it and knows it. Theologians call it sanctification. It's the present tense. It's where we're at today. We're working out our salvation. God is working His word in us and we're working it out as we commune with Him as we fellowship with each other, as we live our lives, as we leave here today and go into our workplaces and schools and occupations and vocations, we continue to work out. God continues to grow us. One day when Christ returns, we will be glorified in Him. So salvation works in 3 different tenses in our lives: past and present and future. James deals very much with the present tense of salvation. He deals with the work of sanctification, this process of God making us more and more Christlike in our walk, making us more like him, drawing us closer to him, growing us, if you will, in Christ.
13 · The pastor asserts that ongoing reception of God's Word is just as important as the initial reception at salvation, acknowledging that God leaves believers in the flesh with challenges to Christian growth that James addresses in the following verses
And so it's just as important, and this never changes, just as that day you initially received God's word. It's important that you continue to receive God's word and that you continue to grow by it. But what you have found, as I have found, because you walk in this world— God doesn't— when we get saved, God doesn't zap us out of this flesh. He leaves us here, and there are some challenges to our Christian growth, and James is dealing with those.
14 · The pastor expounds James' command to be quick to hear, confessing his own conviction and struggle with listening—first physically (age-related hearing loss) then spiritually (self-centeredness in conversation)
First of all, he tells us in verse 19, he says, brothers— and once again he's saying beloved brothers. I love this about James. He identifies with us. He loves those he's writing to. He understands he's with them in this walk. He says, be quick be quick to hear. Specifically, let's be quick to hear God's Word. Be quick to hear it. Now, as I have aged, and when I read this, when James commands me to be quick to hear, immediately I am convicted. And again, as I've gotten older, I have this convenient excuse: my hearing is failing me. It is going bad. Just ask— if you get a chance to meet Lisa after the service, I hope you do, ask her. She will tell you the old man doesn't hear so well anymore. But I have to confess to you that that's not why I don't hear well. Even when my hearing was good, I wasn't always quick to hear. Truth is, when my hearing was perfect when I was younger, I was a lousy Listener. And I think all of us can use some help in this area. The person I am by nature most interested in is myself. I'm anxious to tell you about me, my family, my activities, my opinions. Too many times in conversation— and this is just good for us as We fellowship with each other to hone this skill of being quick to hear, quick to listen. It's too often that I can easily walk away from a conversation, and because I was thinking about what I wanted to tell you the whole time, I didn't hear a word you said. And it's sinful, and it hurts our fellowship. And I don't know, I hope you're not like me, but I think all All of us can work on this and do better in this area. And try it in your next conversation. Just try talking about your least favorite person for a while. See how difficult it can be. But it's such a blessing to other people. Determine to learn about the other person. Direct the conversation to learn what's going on in their life. And it's hard. Again, I don't have to look any further than the nearest mirror, and I see that guy real quickly. There's a reason it's been said that God has given us two ears and one mouth so we'll listen twice as much. And I need to take that advice often. But the point and what James is really teaching in this passage and it affects our relationships with each other. But what he's really teaching is for us to slow down and listen to God's word, to be quick to hear God's word.
15 · The pastor illustrates the principle of slowing down to truly hear God's Word through his experience teaching inductive Bible study to children, showing how repeated observation and writing of the text forces careful listening rather than merely checking off a Bible reading requirement
The last 6 months or so, I began teaching the 4th through 6th grade Sunday school class at our church, and it's, it's been so much fun for me, and I love those kids. So much, and I've learned way more than they have learned, I know, teaching them. But one of the things I'm teaching them, we're going through the catechism together, and I'm also teaching them how to do inductive Bible study. And one of the things that is so beneficial in learning inductive Bible study is that we go over the passage multiple times. And we're looking, we're observing, we're interpreting, and we're applying. So we're going over and within observing the text, we're looking for all kinds of things, commands and contrasts and what different words mean and keywords and words that repeat themselves and all those things. And we find ourselves just writing the passage out literally a number of times as we're doing that. I know you've done that too sometimes, you're studying and you're going, The kids are going, 'Why are we doing this? We already wrote that word down. We already wrote that. Why are we doing this again?' There's a brilliant exercise in all of that. In all of that, we slow down. We just slow down. And we hear the Word. We really hear it instead of just getting through it. 'I've got to do my Bible reading today. I'm going to get through this passage.' And we zip through it. It's just like, 'Okay, that was good. That was good. I did my deed for the day.' One of the great advantages of really studying God's Word is that we hear it. We slow down and we hear it. James commands us to do this. He says, 'Be quick to hear, slow to speak.'
16 · The pastor expounds James' command to be slow to speak by cross-referencing Proverbs 29:20's warning about hasty words and quoting Alistair Begg's poetic reflection on the volume of our daily speech
Ouch! More conviction for me. I don't know about you, but more for me. This corresponds beautifully. In Proverbs 29:20, we're taught this: Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? Again, James is telling us, be slow to speak. Proverbs asks, do you see a man who is hasty in his words? This is Proverbs' summation of that man: There is more hope for a fool than for him. There's more hope for a fool than one that just blurts out whatever he thinks or whatever comes to mind. That's good teaching. That's wise counsel from the Proverbs. That is wise counsel from James. I don't know about you, I love listening to Alistair Begg preach. He's one of my favorite preachers. Alister Baig says this, and I don't know, I couldn't find that he referenced this anywhere, so I don't know if this is unique to him or if he got it from somewhere else. I'm getting it from Alister Baig, alright? He says this about the words we speak each day. If all that we say in a single day, with never a word left out, were written each night in clear black and white, it would make strange reading, no doubt. And then just suppose that before our eyes would close, we would have to read the whole record through. Then wouldn't we sigh and wouldn't we try a great deal less talking to do? And I more than half think that many a kink would be smoother in life's tangled dread if half what I say in a single day were to be left forever unsaid. That's good stuff. That's wisdom. We should think. Before we speak. We should be much quicker to listen to the truth. And this really hurts for us preacher types. Before we go proclaiming it to others, we better have listened and listened well. Once again, all I have to go is the nearest mirror and I'm convicted. And I'm reminded of my propensity towards sin once again. Quick to listen, slow to speak.
17 · The pastor expounds James' command to be slow to anger, identifying the root cause: failure to listen creates no room for God's Word, and when Scripture finally confronts the self-absorbed listener, anger naturally follows
James goes on and he also commands us to be slow to anger. If I never listen, if I'm always talking, there's precious little room to hear and receive the voice of the Lord through the Scriptures. And when I finally get around to doing it and then it doesn't agree with me, anger can naturally follow. You see, the worst enemy of God's Word for we who are a part of the body of Christ is not out there somewhere. Those are easy to identify. Those are easy to rage against. Those are easy to rally a crowd against. The enemy, the real brutal enemy of God's word is me. My ego, my opinions, my lofty thoughts of grandeur about me. And again, God's word cuts right to the middle of this. If I will not listen to it, I can be sure of one thing. Look at verse 20. Once again, verse 20, it says, 'The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.'
18 · The pastor directly applies James' teaching on anger to the listener's posture toward Scripture, calling for self-examination about whether one receives correction wholeheartedly or deflects it to others, and modeling the proper prayer response: asking God to apply His Word personally and work transformation
How am I going to respond to God's word? Am I going to see it and wholeheartedly agree with it, or am I just going to get angry at it? God, that's my neighbor. God, that's someone else. No, Lord, slay me with it. Work in me. Help me, Lord, to receive God's Word in this way.
19 · The pastor characterizes James as intensely practical ('gospel with shoe leather on') and introduces the next command in verse 21: putting away filthiness and wickedness to receive the implanted word with meekness
And in verse 21, James just doesn't let up. James has been called the gospel with shoe leather on. I mean, it's just like, strap it up, brothers and sisters, and let's get to work here. James doesn't let off the gas at all in verse 21. He goes on teaching us how to receive God's word. He says, therefore, because all of these things are true, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. If closed ears, if loose lips, if anger at God's word need to go, so does A dirty mind. So does filthiness.
20 · The pastor asserts that believers have genuine power to obey James' command to put away filthiness and wickedness because God does not command without enabling—the indwelling Holy Spirit provides the power, guidance, and teaching necessary to obey in a filthy world
Look at verse 21, the Lord commands us, He says, 'Put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.' Brothers and sisters in the Lord, let me encourage you this morning, you can do this. I can do this. God doesn't command us to do something and then just leave us out dangling, helpless and powerless. The Spirit of the Lord lives inside of us. He's given us His Word. He leads us, He guides us, He teaches us, He directs us. This is possible in this filthy world that we live. It's possible for us to put it away.
21 · The pastor establishes a fundamental incompatibility between filling up on worldly filth and receiving God's Word, asserting that believers cannot have both simultaneously—they were not designed for it, and attempting to maintain both will fail
And simply put, you cannot fill up on filth. I don't have to define any of this for you. Immediately you know what this is. You can't fill up on filth, you can't fill up on wickedness, you can't fill up on all this world has to offer and at the same time receive God's word. It just— as they say out where we live, that old dog just ain't gonna hunt. It won't happen. It will not happen. And we need to understand this. We can't have it all. We weren't designed to have it all. It doesn't work if we think that we can have it all. And these things must be put away. These things James is teaching must be learned.
22 · The pastor uses a personal story about spoiling his appetite with junk food before his wife's prepared meal to illustrate the spiritual principle that filling up on worldly offerings leaves no room for God's Word—the so-called nourishment of the world must be forsaken to have appetite for Scripture
You know, I've had this happen, and I know, I'm certain I'm much more wicked than most of you. But this is me. This is what happens. Lisa faithfully prepares a wonderful meal. But before the meal, I decide to get a few things done before we sit down to eat. And so I decide I'll take advantage of the few moments I have before the meal is ready, and I'll run down, go ahead and fill the car up with gas and check the oil and get it all ready for the next day and all of those things. And while I'm filling up with gas at the convenience store, while Lisa is faithfully preparing a delicious meal, I'm already hungry. And I don't know about you, but I have this great— I have this great— I have very little resistance when it comes to king-size Snickers bars or Kit Kat bars. In fact, more than once I've gone inside and purchased both and ate them both while my car is filling up with gas. And then it's just so hard to understand why when I get home I'm not that hungry for the wonderful meal that my wife has faithfully prepared for me. There's no room left for a meal. I'm full of the junk that I purchased in the convenience store. You see, it's no different spiritually. The Lord desires that we would receive His Word. We can't fill up on all that the world parades before us and still have any room left for God's Word. It just will not work. We must humbly forsake all the other so-called forms of nourishment.
23 · The pastor expounds the metaphor of the 'implanted word' in verse 21, explaining that the same word that saved believers (past tense) needs cultivated soil in a sanctified life to continue saving (present tense sanctification)
If we're going to receive God's word, as James says in verse 21, implanted. Implanted. That same word that found good soil when it saved us needs the cultivated soil of a sanctified life to continue its growth in us. And the end result of that, in the end of verse 21, is that it saves our souls. It saves our souls. James is talking to believers. Once again, you say, 'Well, haven't they already been saved?' Yes. Past tense. Thank God. But they are being saved. James is teaching for our sanctification. How to receive God's word implanted so that we grow in Christ, so that our minds, our wills, our emotions are brought into conformity with God's word. Put the filth and wickedness, the filth and all the wickedness, put it aside. And you can do this, you're his child. Receive his word, for when you do, you receive him daily. And when you receive him daily, then and only then, you're ready to go on in God's word with what James teaches in verse 22 and 25, to become a doer of God's word.
24 · The pastor reads James 1:22-25 and establishes the proper sequence: receiving and hearing God's Word precedes doing it
Look there again. James 1:22-25, 'But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But,' verse 25, '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. We receive God's word, we hear God's word, we take in the nourishment of God's word, then we are prepared to leave here today as doers of God's word. And it's imperative imperative that we understand this. It's imperative that we let God's Word generate us to actions. But only once we've received it. Only once we're born again. Only once we're children of the Lord. That's how this works. James is teaching to believers.
25 · The pastor uses the Titanic disaster as a historical example illustrating the fatal consequences of hearing truth but failing to act on it—the captain received accurate warning of icebergs but refused to change course because of false confidence in the ship's superiority, resulting in catastrophe
Do you know that hearing and not doing are what sunk the Titanic? The captain of the Titanic received a message of dangerous icebergs ahead. But he just barreled on full speed ahead. He heard a right report. He heard the right word, if you will. But he believed the ship was unsinkable. He believed he was different. He believed the ship was different. Hearing and not doing will always lead to spiritual shipwreck.
26 · The pastor directly warns the congregation about the unique danger of their privileged position—sitting under faithful expository preaching can breed complacency, with repeated hearing without action leading to spiritual shipwreck
This is the danger that you have of being in a really good church with a really faithful pastor that really expounds the Word in a wonderful way. You see, you must take what is given to you and put it into action. There's a danger of just hearing over and over again, hearing over and over again, and just saying, 'Someday, someday I'll get to that.' We easily do this with God's Word. It will lead to shipwreck. But I know Providence Community Church isn't like that. You don't just look at God's Word, you don't just hear God's Word, and you don't just walk away.
27 · The pastor expounds verse 25's imagery of 'looking into' the perfect law, explaining it as close inspection and careful examination rather than casual glancing
Look again at verse 25. 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. You look into God's Word here, I know that this is a picture of just getting down and really inspecting, taking a better look at, looking at it closer, trying to get a clearer picture of what it is. The great Yogi Berra said, 'You can see a lot by looking.' And you're privileged to look a lot into God's Word. Look into it and let it generate life in you. Let it generate love in you. Love for each other. Love for your neighbor. Love for the world that is out there.
28 · The pastor expounds 'the perfect law' in verse 25 as the law brought to completion and embodied in Jesus Christ, who fulfilled every requirement and declared 'It is finished
And what we get to look into is the perfect law. The law that was finished. That was brought to its end or its completion. Embodied in the full revelation of Jesus Christ. He dotted every i, He crossed every t, and He said, 'It is finished.' He did what we could never do. And in Him, in His power, in His strength, we're sanctified.
29 · The pastor expounds 'the law of liberty' as freedom that comes from Christ's completed work—He fulfilled the law and imputed His righteousness to believers, accomplishing what they could never do
And we have the privilege of being doers of God's Word. Be one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty. And perseveres. Persevere in the law of liberty. This is not just speaking of salvation. It's not speaking of salvation particularly. It is looking to Jesus, the perfect one. It's looking to him, the one who completed the law and then imputes his righteousness to us, to believers. Now you're free. You and I can't do this. We could have never accomplished it, but he did. He was perfect. He pulled it off, and he stood and died in our place. This is the law of liberty. This is why David could say in Psalm 119:7, oh, how I love your law. Law. Not because he felt forced to do something, but because in it he saw a perfect Savior.
30 · The pastor defines the blessing promised in verse 25, explicitly rejecting prosperity gospel interpretations (mansions, cars, money, stuff) and asserting instead that blessing means possessing God and therefore possessing everything necessary for this world and the world to come
When a believer grasps this, when you and I grasp this, it's an exceedingly good gift from God. And we have the liberty, we have the freedom to live and to persevere in it, to remain beside it, to tenaciously hold on to it. James says this one, he closes with this, that this one is blessed. We're blessed as we receive God's word and we go and we have the privilege to do it. And blessed here doesn't mean what I'm afraid it means in many churches across our land this morning. Blessed here doesn't mean mansions. It doesn't mean better cars. It doesn't mean more money. It doesn't mean more stuff. No, what James means here, what it means, it's describing the state of those who believe in Christ and in so possessing God possess everything necessary, not only for this world but the world to come. This is God's will for us. As we receive God's Word.
31 · The pastor closes with a doxological charge, calling the congregation to look anew to Jesus (the author and finisher of faith), to receive Him through His Word, to be sanctified in Him, and to look forward to the glorious hope of eternity with Him
May it be so for each and every one of you this morning. May you look anew and afresh unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Keep your eyes on Him. Receive Him through His Word. Be sanctified in Him and look forward to the glorious hope we have. Of eternity with Him.
32 · The pastor closes with a prayer thanking God for His Word and mercy, asking that the congregation would receive God's Word properly, be filled with the Holy Spirit to be a blessing and proclaim life to those experiencing death, and expressing gratitude for the privileges of being God's children, part of His church, and gathering together
Let's pray. Father, we thank you this morning that you are a great and merciful God, and you've given us your word. And Father, as we look to you this morning, I thank you for each one here, and I pray that we would be those that receive your word in the manner in which your word prescribes for us. And Father, as we leave this day, fill us with your Holy Spirit Fill us that we may go from here and be a blessing, that we may be those who proclaim and give life, Father, to those who are only experiencing death. We thank you for the privilege of being your children, for the privilege of being a part of your church, and thank you for the great privilege of meeting here this morning. And we thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.