Doers of the Word

Tom Shrader examines James 1:19-27, addressing the problem of Christians who love to study Scripture but fail to apply it to their lives. He warns against the self-deception of being hearers only and calls for true faith to be demonstrated through three markers: self-control (especially of the tongue), care for the vulnerable (orphans and widows), and separation from worldly values.

“I haven't really let the word of God transform my life until I see life change.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: James (2011)

Recorded: 2011

Duration: 50 min

Themes: obedience, action, wisdom, self-control, service, trials, faith, compassion, struggling with consistency, new believer, biblical student, caregiver, facing trials, mentor, parent, young adult

Scripture: James 1:19-27, James 1:2, James 1:3, James 1:5, James 1:17-18, James 4:6, 1 John 2:3, Romans 12, Galatians 5:1, Galatians 5:13, Isaiah 6, Proverbs 17:27, Matthew 5

Theological Themes: sanctification, spiritual maturity, biblical application, practical theology, Christian living, perseverance, faith works, worldliness

Full Transcript

Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of James. If you need a Bible, raise your hand, and you can take that Bible, and you can take it with you. If you get a Bible from us, it's page 654.

The book of James—we have spent three weeks in this book. If you've been with us, you know we've spent three weeks working our way through the first 18 verses, looking primarily in the context of trials. So we're told in chapter 1, verse 2, that these trials have a when component—they're inevitable. Then there's the word encounter, which implies in the Greek the idea that they're unexpected. And then there are various trials—they're multicolored, all shapes and sizes.

So if you go into the doctor, and you get a call, and he says we've got the results of the scan, and there's some spots there we need to do a biopsy. They do the biopsy, and they say it's malignant—that's clearly a trial. What I want you to see is that if he calls and says the scan is clear, that's also a trial. And you're much more likely to respond to the first one by drawing near to Him than the second one.

The Purpose of Trials

It's Thomas Carlyle that said for every hundred people who can pass the test of adversity, there's only one who can pass the test of prosperity. So these trials come, and they come for a reason. Verse 3 is the key: You can count it all joy, because you know the testing of your faith produces endurance. These trials are spiritual aerobics.

Some of your translations will say steadfastness. When you say I want to grow deep in my faith, I want to break the tape, I want to go all the way to the very end of my life—"I fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith"—it's trials that are going to get you there.

Now in the second week we looked at verse 5 in particular, and said if anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask. Because in the midst of trials what happens is sometimes I lose perspective. So we can define wisdom in all sorts of ways. This is the one I use most often: it's the ability to connect the dots. So it's to see these things out there and be able to see how they are working in God's plan. And if I can't see the specifics, I can at least go "God either caused it or allowed it for my good and His glory—let's see what He's going to do. God give me wisdom."

The Problem of Knowledge Without Action

Don't need knowledge. We're teaching Jonah right now through the week in Priority Living. And we see Jonah—the word of the Lord comes to Jonah. Chapter 1 verse 1 it says go to Nineveh. He goes exactly the opposite direction to Tarshish. And it was clear he knew what to do, he just didn't want to do it. And we said often in our life that's our case. We know exactly what we're supposed to do. We just don't want to do it.

So in come these difficulties and they start to crowd in, and when they do oftentimes I get distracted. I lose my perspective. I need to recalibrate, refocus. So we said in the midst of this—and this is what we looked at last week. Justin did a great job. I was in Arcadia last week. Justin was here. He'll be here again. I'm not sure—I don't have a date yet. So in a week in February I'll be over there and he'll be here. But he did a great job talking about how what we get from God are not bad things but good things.

God Gives Good Gifts

Because in the midst of trials here's what can happen: we can start to blame God. So that's what happened right in the garden. Adam sins. God comes to him and says why did you do this? And Adam said it's the woman that you gave me—implying "God it's your fault." And God comes to Eve and she said it's the serpent—again implying "that you created God. This is all your fault."

And James says no no no no. Listen, verse 17: Every good thing is given and perfect thing is from above is from God. And the perfect example of that is verse 18: In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth. We were saved and redeemed by Him. That our salvation is utterly completely entirely a work of God from beginning to end.

That salvation is a gift. It's not something that I earn. I'm saved by grace through faith. That not of myself—it's not a work otherwise I would boast. That we intuitively humanly want to do something for God to earn His approval. But the scripture says there's nothing we can do to earn that approval. It's given to us and it's given freely to those that love Him, that are called according to His purpose—His people, His kids.

Moving Forward: Quick to Hear, Slow to Speak

Well as we look at today we're going to look at verses 19 through 27. And there's probably a little bit of a flow to this, at least I think there is. Verse 19 and 20 kind of fit together, probably, and there's a little speculation here that he's dealing with a problem that may be happening in some of the churches. And that is you got a lot of grumbling going on, a lot of talking going on, a lot of sniping going on, a lot of judgment going on. So he's trying to deal with that.

He also has a group of people that may represent honestly a bunch of you who love to learn but don't want to do anything with it. So we're going to try to address all of those, and really this week and in the next two weeks we're kind of dealing with this idea of faith and works. If indeed I'm a follower of Christ, I'll show it.

Verse 19: "This you know, my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God."

The Key Principle: Doers of the Word

Now I want you to notice from verse 21 down through verse 26 he's connecting thoughts. Look at the first word of each verse: "Therefore put aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save you. But"—and here's the key, this is the key verse to the whole book of James. You cannot possibly understand this book if you don't get chapter 1 verse 22—"But prove yourselves to be doers of the word, not merely hearers."

The Problem of Self-Deception

James addresses people who dilute themselves. I think he's addressing a problem: you have people who love to listen but didn't want to do, and you see here they were self-deceived.

Now he illustrates that point: "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But the one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides in it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does."

"If anyone thinks himself to be religious but does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit the orphans and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

James's Loving Correction

In verse 19, he uses the phrase "my beloved brethren." I can't remember the exact number—15, 16 times—he uses that phrase in this book. Oftentimes as he's getting ready to tee them up to give it to them, he's reminding them, "I love you, you're one of us, and because I love you I'm willing to tell you the really difficult things."

So I'm going to give you this, and as I said, it's welcome practical advice, probably dealing with a problem that he's hearing about. He says, "I want you to be quick to listen, but I want you to be slow to speak and slow to anger."

Against Our Natural Tendency

It's the exact opposite of our natural tendency. My tendency is to be slow to hear and quick to speak and quick to anger. So he's going to talk here, and I think in verse 26, about the idea of self-control.

Proverbs chapter 17, verse 27: "Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent." He said listen, you may be an idiot, but at least keep your mouth shut and don't confirm it. You may not be very bright, but if you just—

I'm not good with quiet people. I don't like soft talkers and I don't like quiet people, and part of the problem with quiet people is you never know. I always assume I've done something wrong. I don't know what's going on. But he said there's a wisdom to that: be very quick to listen. He's talking about communications here, and be very slow to speak and very slow to anger.

Learning Communication in Marriage

So I learned this when Susan and I got married. I learned this idea of communication, and I learned that it was more work than I thought. But we had this moment because I would come in and she would look—I don't know—grumpy, and I would say, "How you doing?" "Fine." "How's your day?" "Fine." "Anything wrong?" "No." Okay.

You know, she just told me everything's fine. It felt like it wasn't, but I know that she's not a liar. Then I learned that really everything wasn't fine and there was something wrong. So early on—we hadn't been married very long—I said, "Hey, listen, I'm not bilingual. I don't read body language. If I say how are you and you say fine, I'm assuming you're fine. If you got a problem, let me know."

So then I'd say, "How you doing?" She would say, "I'll tell you how I'm doing—sit down, grab a chair." I said, "No, give me fine. I can figure it out." But that's that process, and the whole art of communication is that idea of giving the other person the benefit of the doubt.

Miscommunication and Assumptions

So I come in and I say—this is perfect. No, no, no. Did you change your hair too? Oh, you had to be here for it. Glad you guys are here visiting from Pennsylvania. How was the weather? Yeah, it's good to be home. We're glad you're here.

So I say, "Is dinner ready?" And she hears, "Well, he thinks I've been laying around all day and haven't done anything and dinner's not ready yet." I'm simply saying, "Do I have time to go and do something else? When are we going to eat?"

Communication Problems in the Church

So in this whole process of communication, now within the church, be willing to listen to one another rather than fire off unsigned emails like I got this week—unsigned letters, critical unsigned letters. I wish they were signed because I'd love to sit down and have a dialogue and go, "Are you kidding me? You can't possibly be this stupid." But they're not signed, so I can't.

It's not you—I don't know who they were from. But I'd love to sit down and go, "Are you kidding? Are you that self-centered and that self-absorbed, and you got your head so far in the sand that this is how you think?" I don't know, but they're not signed. If they were signed, I'd love to sit and talk to you about it.

But it's quick. It's clearly not a reflective person, meditative person, non-confrontational person. That's what was going on. That stuff is so destructive because here's what happens: that grumpy person talks to another person, and pretty soon you have people who are divisive within the body, which is the greatest—

Listen, if you're in sin, Paul gives us a prescription, Jesus gives us a prescription: go to them, confront them. If you're divisive, He says throw them out. But that doesn't bother me because it's not signed, so I couldn't do that. But you see how that works?

The Danger of Electronic Communication

Fire off an email, especially in this day and age when you have these electronic—here's the problem with this communication with Facebook and everything else and unsigned: it's face to face but it's not person to person. So you'll type something that you'd never say. Well, they're saying it; they're not thinking about it. He said take a breath, man. Listen, in the process of this, be slow to anger.

Shedding Moral Filthiness

I feel better. Verse 21: "Therefore"—and we're going to camp on this a little bit—"put aside." And that's not just to set it over here. It's the picture of a snake that's crawling out of his skin and shedding his skin. So shed, get rid of "all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness."

Filthiness is any sort of moral defilement or impurity. Wickedness is the same idea.

Set that stuff aside, get rid of that, displace it, set that aside. But I want you to receive in humility the word implanted. The word implanted here doesn't just mean that's something that's dropped into soil, but it's dropped into soil and then it's nurtured, it's cultivated. I take that seed that I plant and I put it in the best possible environment for it to sprout and grow and produce fruit.

So receive the Word of God, this word, and receive it in your heart and plant it in your heart. But to put it in the best possible environment for it to grow, there's one key ingredient you see there. What is it? Humility. Some of your translations will say meekness.

The Importance of Humility

Draw near to God, He'll draw near to you. Chapter 4 of this book, verse 6: "God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble." There is probably the whole idea of love, and indeed love is a huge virtue. I put humility right there with it.

Let me just read you a couple of different quotes. One author writes this: "Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness." So it's comparing ourselves not to other people, but looking at God and who He is and His word and evaluating ourselves in light of that. So that it's that Isaiah 6 experience: I see God for who He really is, I immediately see myself for who I am. I'm not playing the game going side to side, I'm not doing the comparison thing.

Pride is when sinful human beings aspire to the status and position of God and refuse to acknowledge their dependence on Him. So that goes all the way back to the garden. Here's Adam, here's Eve in the garden, and what they did essentially had little to do with the fruit and had everything to do with who's in the absolute control, who's the authority.

Pride: The Root of All Sin

God said don't eat it. That's what made it wrong. When Adam ate, here's what he was saying: "God, thanks for the advice, thanks for the input, thanks for the counsel, but I'll be calling the shots from here on out. I'll seek your input every now and then, but if I don't like it I'm not going to do it. And God, your word will submit to me." Well the sovereign God will have no part of that.

Pride is when I begin to puff myself up. John Stott writes, "Pride is more than the first of the seven deadly sins—it's the essence of all sin." Again, start at every stage of our Christian development and in every sphere of our Christian discipleship, pride is the greatest enemy. Here's this: humility is our greatest friend.

Jonathan Edwards writes, "Pride is the worst viper that's in the heart. It's the great disruptor of the soul's peace and sweet communion with Christ." Edwards goes on and says, "Pride is the most hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts." So it's totally—you see it in verse 16, the word "deceived," verse 22, the word "deluded," verse 26, the word "deceived." He's dealing with people who are deceived. They think they're more than they are and they've dismissed God's Word. He said, "I want you to receive that word in humility."

The Fruits of Pride

I found a list—and I don't know where I got it—of 50 fruits of pride. So it's what he's dealing with here, when I'm operating in a prideful way versus a humble way. Here, and I'll read you a half a dozen of these or a dozen or so: I tend to be self-sufficient in the way I live my life. I'm anxious about my life. I'm overly self-conscious. I fear man more than God. I oftentimes feel insecure. I regularly compare myself to others. I think more highly of myself. I tend to be self-righteous.

So when we read "The Prodigal God," we tend to be the older brother. Pride—look at me, look what I do, I do this, why don't you? I'm super spiritual, and why don't you? We love the idea here you go of being insensitive to others, ungrateful, divisive, demeaning.

Here's what happens on a human basis: humanly, we look at each other and say, "I'm doing okay." We love to do that, and the key is to not hang around with people who are doing real well.

The Comparison Game

When I was in the eighth grade, we lived in Davenport, Iowa. The Mississippi's here, there's Illinois here, and there was a Catholic school on the other side of town. On the first Sunday night of every month, they would have a dance for eighth graders. In this dance they had certain dances—I don't remember what they called them—but for the sake of this illustration, let's say this microphone is a couple dancing. So either four girls or four guys could come and surround the couple. Let's say it's four guys. Then the girl would have to pick one of the four. It may be the most destructive thing you could do to a 13 or 14-year-old boy.

So the first night I'm there, I'm learning to deal with rejection. Well, I'm pretty smart about that kind of stuff. So I spent the entire rest of the night trying to find three guys uglier than me. That was what the whole night was about. So she'd look around and go, "This is a business—I hope this song is over," was her thought probably. But that's what we do. I'm not so bad compared to them.

Pretty soon, I'm so focused on me and my pride. I believe pride drives so much of what we do.

Pride in Our Children's Achievements

When Sarah was in the first grade, she took the Iowa Basic Skills Test. Even in the approach of it, she did better than Tyler. You know Tyler that runs around here, Tyler Johnson? Tyler, one morning, his mom tells a story—it's a great story—he's crying, he doesn't want to go to school. She said, "You've got to go to school, you don't seem sick." Finally, he fessed up and said, "I don't want to go because we're taking the Iowa Basic Skills Test and I don't know anything about Iowa."

So Sarah took the test about—I don't know, school's out, maybe the second or third week of June—I got the results that had her Iowa Basic Skills scores in them. Say for sake of discussion here, there's eight categories. So she's kind of middle to a little above average in six of them, and then above average in two of them. I was

devastated. Yet I had to sit her down and say, "Listen, here's a chart, let me give you a chart of this, here's what this means, this basically means you're average. Now I've got bad news and good news. The bad news is it comes from your mom's side of the family, so you're stuck with it. The good news is we can coach you through this. We can work through this, you can improve, you can do it."

I remember walking away, this is a great example. What did that show you? Not about her aptitude, but about my heart. My heart was in the wrong place. I wanted her to do well in Iowa Basic Skills, why? There's only one reason. I wanted you to think she had a heck of a dad.

Pride's Destructive Power in Our Lives

So many of you are in bondage. Let's say your problem is debt. Many of you got into a debt problem out of pride. You had to have a certain car, a certain house, a certain this, a certain that. I see people all the time, and unless there's some specific overriding requirement, to take on a bunch of debt to send your kid to college is just stupid. Why would you borrow 150 grand to get a job that pays 40? This makes no sense. Other than, you want to say, "My kid's going to Westmont, Brown." No one cares. No one cares. But see how pride gets in there?

This pride is wicked stuff. It'll even have you marry somebody, just so you can say you're in that family. We'll have that funeral, spend all that money on that funeral, that wedding. Oh, if we don't have a 14-course meal, what will people think? I'll tell you what I'll think, you're smart. That's what I'll think.

C.S. Lewis on Pride as the Ultimate Vice

C.S. Lewis, chapter eight of Mere Christianity. It's kind of an extended quote, but it helps kind of get this in focus. Many of you have Mere Christianity, probably haven't read it in a while, but you should read chapter eight again. And if you don't have it, go to the bookstore, not to buy the book, just read chapter eight. Unless you go to our bookstore and you buy it if you go here. I meant Barnes and Noble.

Lewis writes this: "There's one vice of which no man in the world is free and which everyone in the world loathes when they see it in someone else. And of which hardly any people except Christians ever imagine they're guilty of. I've heard of people admitting to their bad temper they cannot keep their head about girls or drink or even that they're cowards. I don't think I've ever heard anyone who's not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time, it's very seldom I've met someone who's not a Christian who showed the slightest mercy on it when they see it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have of it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others, it's called pride."

"According to Christian teachers, the ultimate vice, the utmost evil is pride. It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It's a complete, this is a wonderful definition of pride. It's a complete anti-God state of mind."

Pride's Competitive Nature

"Now, what you want to get clear is that pride is essentially competitive. It's competitive by its very nature while other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich or clever, good looking, but they're not. They're proud of being richer or clever or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich or clever or good looking, there'd be nothing to be proud about. It's the comparison that makes you proud. The pleasure of being above the rest."

Then he illustrates it. There's all sorts of illustrations he uses, but this is one. "Take it with money. Greed will certainly make a man want money for the sake of a better house or better holidays or better things to eat or drink, but only to a point. It's pride that I wish to be richer than some other rich man or still more powerful than another powerful man."

"The Christian is right. It's pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation, and here it goes, be more important here, in every family since the world began."

Pride's Isolating Effect

Think of this in the context of Super Bowl Sunday. "Other vices may sometimes bring people together. You may be finding good fellowship and jokes and friendliness among drunks or unchaste people, but pride always means enmity. It means enmity between man and man, between God and man. A proud man is always looking down on things, and of course, as long as you're looking down, you can't see that that's above you." So that's the point he's making.

He said, "I want you to lay aside this filthiness." How do I do that? By drawing near to Him, by coming to Him, by obeying Him, by following Him, but I'll never receive that word until my heart is broken. The beginning of the Christian journey that Jesus lays out in the Sermon on the Mount is blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who are spiritually bankrupt, those who have an accurate view of themselves.

Beyond Hearing to Doing

So now I hear this word, but that's not enough. Verse 22, "But prove yourselves." That word prove yourself, in the Greek, it's in the continual tense. Keep striving. You never achieve it once and for all. Continue, "prove yourselves to be doers of the word, not merely hearers who dilute themselves."

So he's addressing a problem, and the problem they had is that they had people who would come to things like this, or Bible studies, or gatherings, and they would hear the word of God proclaimed, and they thought they were really super spiritual, but in fact, they weren't at all because there wasn't any action that was going on.

So let me be clear. He's not saying be a doer, not a hearer, and he's not saying it's okay to be a hearer, not a doer. He's saying when you hear the word—

When I'm exposed to the word of God, I ought to see my life transformed. John writes this in 1 John 2:3: "By this we know that we've come to know Jesus if we keep his commandments."

Here's the danger in a good church. I happen to think Redemption Church is a good church, but we can become so focused on hearing the word, studying the word, reading the word, meditating on the word, that we never do anything. I haven't really let the word of God transform my life until I see life change.

Two Extremes to Avoid

There are two poles here. There's the one we're addressing - those who just hear and study and study and study, but never do anything. The other pole would be what you see in many mainline denominations and among many liberal Protestants - they want to do, do, do, do, do, but they never take in or hear the word of God.

What James is saying is there's a balanced meal here. I'm hearing the word, the word's coming in, I'm meditating on it, and it's changing the way I live. You can't say, according to John, you can't say you love Christ if you don't follow His commandments.

We have to always push back against religion. He's not saying do all these things so that you gain salvation or gain God's acceptance. He's saying because you are God's, because that relationship is in place, now start to live like it. You say you love Jesus, you say you know this gospel, you say you believe it - indeed you may be saved - I should be able to see it.

This doesn't mean perfection. It means that in your life there's something going on. You were this, now you're that. At the very least you're doing those same good works but with a new heart or with a new motive.

The Problem with Religious Performance

One author writes: "Our problem comes not from our reluctance to be heroes or heroines but from our reluctance to carry out the implications of the gospel in its tiny detail on the conduct of our life." In other words, if I'm saved I'll look like it.

Don't delude yourself. It means to set aside reason. It means an incorrect assessment. You're self-deceived. You'll walk around with a big old honking button. You got that ESV study Bible - it doesn't get any bigger than that thing. If you got one of those babies you don't need to go to the gym, hauling that dog around.

So you got this great big Bible. You're hauling around this great big Bible. You're wearing a cross. You got a fish on your car. You got all these things set up but there's no life change. You're still the same old person. That's not a shot against the ESV study Bible, a cross, or a fish. It's just saying those need to be followed up by actions.

If you're constantly in tension with everybody around you, something's probably wrong with you. If you're constantly worried about what men think and not about what God thinks, something's wrong with you. There becomes this whole idea of not being self-deceived, of understanding this truth.

The Mirror Illustration

Now James illustrates it. "If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer" - it's the very thing He told us not to be - "he's like a man who looks at his natural face in the mirror. For once he's looked at himself and gone away, he immediately forgotten what kind of person he was."

Here's what it's like. You look in the mirror. I don't advise this - in fact, just the opposite. I'd counsel against this. In my bathroom, there is at the end - so here's the sink, and the shower, and the tub, and the closet is behind these two doors. These two doors are full-length mirror. So that whole wall is mirror.

I see myself getting in the shower, getting out of the shower. I look, and I have a really accurate view. I don't look very good. I'm a short, fat old man. I see it and I know it, but then you go out and all of a sudden one of the young girls says, "You look good today." I go, "Really? I think so. Sounds right. I guess, maybe, I'm not a short fat - I'm just a little heavy, maybe."

He's saying, here's what you do. You come here. God convicts you. You hear what we say. You agree with it. You understand it. You accurately assess what needs to be done, but then you walk out those doors and you don't do anything with it. That's what He's saying. That's what it's like to be a hearer, but not a doer.

Looking Intently at God's Word

He said, "I don't want you to do that. I want you to have an accurate view of yourself." Verse 25: to look intently. It's the same Greek word that both Luke and John use on resurrection morning to describe Peter and John and then Mary as they came to the tomb, as they stooped and looked in. They studied every bit of data that was in front of them.

So He says, "I don't want you to take a glancing look. I want you to look intently at the perfect law." It's the law of liberty. It's where we find freedom. It's the Word of God. It sets us free from the bondage of sin and the consequence of sin and it frees us up to be the people that God loves.

Galatians chapter 5 verse 1, Paul says, "For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore. Don't submit again to the yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:13: "For you were called to freedom brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

We're free. You were bought at a price, Paul says, so don't enslave yourself to man. We look into this law and we don't find bondage there, we find freedom there. We find freedom to enslave ourselves.

The Freedom of Slavery to Christ

See how James starts this letter? Remember back in verse 1? James - He's the half-brother of Jesus, Mary His mom, Joseph His dad - and He identifies Himself as a bond servant, a slave. It's the lowest.

had different categories of slave. This would be the slave that owned nothing. No clothing, no food, no shelter, nothing. Everything this slave had was a gift from the master and in return his sole mission was to please his master. He's saying, I want you to be free from sin, free from selfishness, free from religion. God hates religion. God loves relationship. I want you to be free so you can enslave yourself to me. That's what he's saying.

So take this word and look intently into it and you abide in it. As you begin to study it, you see yourself more accurately. Paul identifies himself shortly after he's converted, he's now one of the Apostles, and he identifies himself as the least of the Apostles. A few years later he identifies himself as the least of the Saints. And in the last written communication we have from him, he identifies himself as the chief among sinners.

So Paul begins by saying, I'm the least among this group of 12 or 13. A little bit later he says, I'm the least among all those believers. And then he says, I'm the chief among sinners. Paul's witnessing here what we said to you before. Listen closely now. The holiest I should feel, probably, is at the moment of conversion. Because from that point on, every day God's revealing my sin more and more to me, and His grace corresponds with that.

Seeing Sin More Clearly

So if you're one of those, and you're comparing yourself around, and you don't see your sin as devastating as God sees it, you're just a little sinner, then you really only need a little Savior. But the Word of God opens my eyes to see myself as I really am. Look intently into this law. Study it. It's in it that I'm going to find perfect freedom.

Verse 26 and 27, he's going to talk about religion. And he's going to give us three things here that we should look for if we want to see that transformed heart. Here's what we ought to see. We ought to see self-control. We ought to see charity. We'll come back and define that. And then we ought to see a biblical worldview.

Self-Control: Bridling the Tongue

Verse 26, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet he does not bridle his tongue, he's deceived again. He's deceived his own heart. This man's religion is worthless." The issue here is not just the speech, it's the issue of self-control. When we get to chapter 3, verses 1 through 12, it's the longest continuous passage in the scripture dealing with the tongue. But he's saying, here's somebody, and their mouth is just exploding. See how he's kind of closing that loop back up to verse 19? Their mouth is just firing off. Their word is going like this. They can't control their mouth.

Then you have a proper, at least individually in your own life, let's do self-examination. Let's resist the temptation to start trying to examine the person to our left or right, or who needs the sermon. "Bob should have been here today to heard this." Let's skip all that. Let's you look at you. Can you control yourself? The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and what? Self-control.

I did a funeral here Friday. A young man, 22 years old, and met with the family. The family's terrific, by the way. Met with the family. They were terrific. And we talked about all sorts of the logistic stuff. But the overarching, they had two goals. We have two goals. We want people to understand and see who Will was, and we want people to understand why he was that way.

So the family and the friends spent time celebrating who Will was. My job was to say, this is why he's that way. Because the temptation is to say, oh, it's just his nature. That's just the way he's wired. No, it's because he knows Christ. So as they're describing him, and it was in the words they used, the words the family used. He was so meek. He was so gentle with his sister. He was 22. His sister was 5. He was so gentle with her. He was so kind. He entered the Marines, there was an element of discipline there, there was an element of self-control. How did he get that way?

The fruit of the Spirit is, and we listed them. He doesn't say, and I'm not saying it isn't good, but he doesn't say, "Boy, here's how you'll know: Bible study, church, redemption groups." He doesn't say that. He says the way you're going to know is you're going to see these components in your heart. They're going to be manifested in your life. Yeah, there'll be church, yeah, there'll be giving, yeah, there'll be redemption groups, but you're going to do that as an outflow, as a part of receiving who He is, understanding who He is, and to transform life.

Pure Religion: Caring for the Helpless

Here's the second thing, verse 27. "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is to visit the widows and the orphans." It's to visit those, and cut me slack here, it's to visit those that are the most helpless in our culture. They didn't have a welfare system. You didn't get two and a half years of unemployment benefits. You didn't have Social Security. A woman was a widow, she was going to fall immediately to the bottom of the economic chain. Because they're already there.

And what he's saying is, you have a sensitivity to those around you that are the most hurting. Those that are the most helpless. So it may be orphans, and it may be widows, certainly it's that. It's the people in the Broadway corridor. It's the people that are up here from Mexico that have nothing. But that's easy, because you can put, "here you go," it's the people in your office. Get the org chart. Very concerned, I'm sure, how the CEO perceives you. Do you care about what the receptionist thinks?

We were at summer camp last year, and it was the first night. So we had done the games, and had our first session together, and then we were going over and eating, and I think the gym was open and some other stuff. So there's 550, 600 of us, and I got hot dogs and whatever it is, and a big lawn out there. And there's one little girl sitting over

by herself. So I went over and said, "Hey, what's the deal? Are you from East Valley?" (now Redemption Church). "No," she said, "my grandma and grandpa wanted me to go. I don't know anybody here." I said, "Well, get your stuff, let's go." I took her over, introduced her to a small group leader, introduced her to some other girls.

Then I illustrated the point with the students and said, "How can that happen? You're strutting around here with all these Bibles and all this stuff, but you're so worried about your friends that you can't see that girl sitting over there by herself? Are you kidding me?" I said, "That's verse 27. You do the same thing somehow yourself." It's about looking for that person who's kind of the outcast—economically, socially—a person sitting all alone.

By the way, you don't have to be very perceptive to see it. If you come in here—because most of you try to get in here as close as you can at 10:30—but if you come in here at like 10:23, you'll see almost every Sunday somebody sitting by themselves, reading the Bible, looking reflective. Oftentimes it's people preparing for worship. Oftentimes it's people who are really hurting and they're all alone.

Reaching Out to the Vulnerable

There should never be an instance where somebody strolls on and off this campus, especially in a way where you can just see it. You see somebody coming on campus and they have kids and they're looking around—they're here for the first time. They don't know where to go. You don't need a little lanyard that says "greeter" to go over and say, "Are you here for the first time? Let me show you where you need to go." This is not just big stuff.

James also says to keep ourselves unstained by the world. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Paul writes in Romans chapter 12. We're on a collision course with the world. Our value systems and the world's value systems by and large are entirely different. The very characteristic of humility and meekness that the Scripture holds up as an ultimate virtue—really, that with love—is what the ancient Greeks saw as a weakness. And so does the world.

It means that I take control of my life and regulate how I interact with the world. I was at a retreat a few years ago for a church from Newport Beach. We were up at Forest Home, and I'm talking and I meet this guy and he's single, then I meet another guy and he's single. When I went to the session that night, I said, "How many of you guys are single?" Probably a third to 40% of the hands went up. That never happens. You don't see single guys at a church retreat. It doesn't happen.

Learning from Newport Beach Singles

So I said, "This means something. I don't know what, but I'll figure it out." The next morning, two guys come through and I see them. These guys are just studs—they look great. They asked me out for coffee, I'd go. But the guy said, "Did you figure out why the single guys are here?" I said no. They said, "In Newport Beach, you can get sex anytime you want it, wherever you want it. Drugs, anytime you want it, wherever you want it." He said, "Listen, the girls really—they're predatory." I said, "Yeah, man, I know." He said, "We discovered we can't go out there alone, because we're afraid we'll fall."

Now, there's huge tension here, because God didn't call you to just hang around with a bunch of other Christians at Forest Home and study the Bible. I can't be an ambassador to the world if I'm not in it. But what these guys realized is, if I'm not careful, the world will just suck me right into it. So I need to engage the world, but I need to put around me constraints.

That's why we say if you're not involved in a redemption group, a small group, you're really vulnerable. For us as a church, that's the primary way we minister to you. It's stunning how many people who come in for counseling, or parents who bring their students in—people who are hurting, people who need help—and we'll say, "Are you in a redemption group?" No. "Are you in a small group with the students?" No. Okay, some of this is your own fault.

The Elements of Real Religion

Here's real religion: There's self-control. There is a sensitivity to those around us who are weakest. And there is a separation. That's what the whole idea of a saint or the church is—I'm separated from the world. That's our tension: to be in the world but not of the world.

This brochure is all over campus. It's gospel-centered, outward-focused, and then two panels are on our seven values. These are so important that on the south side of the commons, there are now these seven values. See how the fourth demonstration ties into today's lesson: "True theology is lived theology. We must be doers of the word, not just hearers. We are an action-oriented church. Everything we do serves to propel our people into acting more like Christ. We evaluate all of our ministries and staffs based on how they are helping people enact the gospel in everyday life."

Listen to this last sentence: "This commitment moves us to cross boundaries in care for the vulnerable and to be courageous in confronting the idolatry and the injustice in the world around you." That's what James is saying here. James is saying, "Don't be just a hearer of the word, be a doer." Here's how I know I'm a doer: There's self-control. My heart is breaking, but beyond just breaking, there's action toward those that are the weakest. And then lastly in this process, I'm removing myself from the world's system—not the world itself. I don't think like they do. I see things differently. I see them through God's grid, not through just some earthly, secular grid.

my own selfish grid. All of that flows from the cross.

If you're listening now and you're over in the conference center, Matt Dresbach will be there in just a second to close your service. The people in the front of the conference center want to pray with you. Here in the chapel, Matt's going to be here now, lead us in communion, and then Tim and the band will close our time of worshiping here this morning by leading us in song.

So let me pray as the guys come. Father, thank You for these truths. We pray that we would be not just people, but we'd be a church who is driven not to just hear, but to do. That we wouldn't just say these things, but our hearts would be transformed, our minds changed. God, we pray even today, even in something like the Super Bowl, God, You may present opportunities this afternoon for us to be salt and light. Doesn't have to be a Bible verse, we just look and act and think differently than those around us. God, use that in our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name, amen.