Doers of the Word

Introduction

Good evening. My name is Sam Shwetz. Many of you may not know me. I have been attending FBC for most of my life. I was even once in Crossroads, although only for a few months between graduating High School and leaving for the Navy. Back then I think it was called College and Career. Different name, same basic idea.

I am currently in my third year of the Training Center here at FBC and I’m in the preaching track. Two years ago I never would have seen myself standing before you to handle and preach the Word of God. I had no idea that this was an area that the Lord would have me serve the church. But, here I am and it’s an honor to be here with you all tonight. Thank you for having me.

I can remember being in High School and College and these guest speakers would come and a lot of the time it felt like they would just dump on us for no reason. They would pick these passages that just felt like they wanted to come and make me feel bad. It wasn’t always encouraging.

I preface this message tonight that was because if you aren’t familiar with this passage, let me warn you that it contains some of the most sobering words in all of Scripture. I know you guys are going through James and Nathan asked me to pick up where you guys are in the book. I didn’t choose this passage, I was simply asked to be here on a night that Nathan couldn’t be here and providentially, I was given James 1:22-25 to examine with you all here tonight. In fact, verse 22 essentially sums up the entire book of James in a single sentence. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only.

It also has an incredibly encouraging message to those that live out their faith. But first, we must address the sobering, eye opening warning before we can see the promise of blessing. This is how James was divinely inspired to write it and so this is is how we will examine it tonight.

Last week, you guys saw how to receive the word, and this week we will see how to put it into action.

So let’s first read our passage and then we will get into it.

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 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 pray. Father, thank you for your word which both convicts and encourages. I pray that you would speak through me tonight. I pray that I would only say what your word has already said. That I would only teach the message that you intend to convey. This very book that I am about to preach from, Father, has a warning for me - that since I am teaching, I will be judged with greater strictness. Oh Lord, let me not get it wrong. Eternity hangs in the balance. I am your humble servant. Please take the study that I have done leading up to this and let it manifest itself in a profitable message to your people before me. Use it also Lord, to break through to those in this room that do not know you. Remove all distractions for the next few minutes, Lord. Give me clarity and give us all wisdom an understanding. It’s in Jesus’ name that I pray, amen.

Well, there have been some epic miscalculations in human history. Not least of which was a NASA mission to launch the Mars Climate Orbiter into orbit around Mars to collect data about…well it’s in the name, the climate or Mars.

I don’t know if you have heard of this before, but in 1998, the Mars Climate Orbiter was launched into space to embark on a 416 million mile journey that would take 9 and a half months to reach Mar’s orbit. The total cost for this project was $327 million dollars. Now these are 1998 dollars so in today’s dollars, the cost was over $500 million. Half a billion dollars to get the Climate Orbiter into orbit around Mars.

Everything went fine with the launch. The craft made it into space and was on the right trajectory to reach Mars. It lasted the entire 9 and a half months. That is until a miscalculation of epic proportions was made.

You see, Earth was sending course correction commands in imperial units while the Orbiter was programmed to receive metric units. The result? The course correction commands were miscalculated. This led to a fiery end for the Orbiter, which burned up as it made its final approach since it was too close to the surface of Mars.

A space craft of immense value, obliterated because of a mathematical miscalculation.

My friends, your life can be just like the Orbiter. Immensely valuable, chugging along, looking good all along the way. Only to end in fiery destruction because of a spiritual miscalculation.

To be clear, I’m not talking about your life being more difficult than it has to be or missing out on some physical blessing from the Lord in this life, or even missing out on an eternal reward because of some small miscalculation. Just like the Orbiter met its fiery, eternal end, never to be recovered, I’m talking about your life ending in a fiery, eternal damnation in hell, because of your spiritual miscalculation.

I don’t say that because it’s easy or fun to say that. I don’t want that for you. I don’t want that for myself, or for my wife, or my kids, or anyone in the world, frankly. But how do we know it won’t end like that? How can we know that we will reach heaven and not burn like the Orbiter after our final approach? Our passage tonight answers these very questions, and I am excited to mine the depths of Scripture tonight to discover those answers with you.

Propositional Statement

So tonight, we will examine the danger of being hearers only as well as the reward of being doers so that we can examine our own hearts to see where we stand before the Lord.

The Danger of Being Hearers Only (vv. 22-24)

First, let’s examine the danger of being hearers only in verses 22 to 24.

You guys have been studying James for a while so hopefully you know the context of the book and the background of the author. James is writing to Jewish Christians and he has a heavy emphasis on how we respond to the Lord. Whether it’s trials, or good works, or relationships with each other, James is very concerned about our actions. About our response to Scripture.

James was the brother of Jesus, which I want you to remember because he is going to echo the very words of Jesus in his exhortation.

Last week, you saw how to receive the word, and now we will examine how to act on that word. Look at verse 22 with me. It says James 1:22 “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

When I said we were going to examine a sober text tonight, this was what I was referring to. This verse is one of the most sobering in all of Scripture. I’m not exaggerating when I say that. You must be a doer of the word, not a hearer only, otherwise you are deceived.

Which begs the question—deceived about what? The word for “deceived” here is essentially a mathematical miscalculation. The Orbiter made a mathematical miscalculation and was essentially deceived. Deceived about what? About its final destination.

The engineers at NASA and Lockheed Martin thought that the Orbiter would reach orbit but instead it burned up because of their miscalculation. The team was deceived about the destination. They thought for sure it would happen, but it didn’t. They thought it was a sure thing. They never saw it ending like it did.

This is the type of miscalculation that James is warning us of here. Getting it wrong means we are deceived about our own final destination. Getting it wrong means we are deceived about our own salvation.

If you do not obey the Bible…if you do not do what it says…if you simply like to listen to good preaching or engage in theological debates, or read Christian biographies, but you don’t obey the Bible consistently in your life, then the word of God has a name for you. Hearer only. Deceived one.

Maybe you like Christian podcasts. Christian audiobooks. Christian TV shows and movies. Maybe you are fascinated by end times and you like to look at what’s going on in Israel at this very moment and hypothesize about where we are in the timeline of Scripture. Maybe you even read your Bible every single day.

And yet, you don’t actually obey what it says. Sure, you know it well. You went through AWANA and then One28. Now you’re here at Crossroads. You go to church every Sunday. You have Scripture committed to memory. But if we could see the way you live your life, especially when no one is watching, we would see someone who doesn’t obey what the Bible says.

The Bible has a name for you. Hearer only. Deceived one.

And the tragic part is, since you are deceived, you think you are on the straight and narrow path, when in reality you are on the broad path that leads to destruction.

Have your read Pilgrim’s Progress? If not, you need to. If you have, recall how many people Christian encounters that seem like they are doing the right thing, on the path to the Celestial City, but in reality, they are deceived. This world today, is just like that.

This is the point where you need to remember how close James was to Jesus because this verse sounds a lot like Jesus’ own words in Matthew 7.

Jesus speaking, says Matthew 7:21–27 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

Notice the emphasis on doing what Jesus says? The one who does the will of my Father. Everyone who hears these words of mine and DOES them.

In case our passage tonight and these words from Jesus aren’t enough to convince you, consider the following:

John 15:14 Jesus speaking again “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

John 14:23 Jesus again, “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

1 John 2:4 “Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,”

Billy Graham, perhaps the greatest evangelist of all time, hypothesized on national television that somewhere between 75% and 85% of church goers are not saved. 75 to 85% of church goers who genuinely believe that they are saved, are, as AC/DC put it, on the Highway to Hell.

Billy Graham isn’t God and Billy Graham doesn’t know the hearts of the people he was speculating about, but if he is correct, those numbers should absolutely shock you.

If we have 500 people in our sanctuary on an average Sunday morning, by that estimation, best case scenario that 125 people in the room will be in heaven. 375 will not.

Or in a room this size. 40 or so people in here. 10 are saved. 30 are not.

I don’t know this for a fact. Every single person in this room can be saved. I pray that is the case. But the amount of warnings in Scripture seem to indicate that a lot of people will think they are saved when in reality they are not.

So what am I saying? That works are somehow required for salvation? That if you don’t have good works or obedience to the Bible, you aren’t saved? That if there is absolutely 0 fruit in your life, then you aren’t a Christian?

No, friends, I am not saying that. James and Jesus are saying that.

WAKE UP!!!

If you are a hearer only, you are deceived. Not in an innocent sense but in the most significant way possible. It doesn’t matter how much you know about the Bible. It doesn’t matter that you go to Church every Sunday. It doesn’t matter that you memorized Scripture in AWANA when you were a kid or that you won the Bible drills. It doesn’t matter that your parents are saved. It doesn’t matter if you think Jesus was a really great moral guy with a lot of really nice things to say about how to love one another. It doesn’t matter that you are here tonight. If you don’t obey the Bible, then the Bible itself is the one that says you are deceived!

I’m sharing the very words of life with you. I’m pleading with you. Wake up! I was providentially placed here, with this text, and with this God-given burden on my heart. Statistically speaking and by many good estimations, not just some of you in this room but a majority of you in this room may be deceived.

I don’t want that for you! I don’t take pleasure in telling you this. This isn’t easy to stand here and rain on your parade! I’m not trying to ruin your night or make you doubt your salvation if you are truly saved. But the whole word of God and specifically the passage here before us says that if you are not a doer of the word, meaning if you don’t live a life that is characterized by consistent, ongoing obedience to the commands found in this word, then you. are. deceived.

You think that you are a Christian, living the Christian life, with a desire to obey God’s word. But you don’t actually obey it at all! If I am to claim that I have any love for you at all, how can I come to this passage and just breeze over it?

Don’t you see that this is a manifestation of God’s great grace? That he gives us passages like this that show us how we can know if we actually know him? That he is the one who works in and through us for good works so that we will see our own good works and know they are not of ourselves, but a result of the Spirit regenerating us and working through us for the glory of God?

And the reverse is also true! If we lack these things, we lack the Spirit. We lack salvation.

This is a gift that God gives us this self-test ability to check our own hearts!

James goes on to describe what this hearer who does not do is like. Look at verses 23 and 24.

James 1:23–24 “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.”

This illustration is meant to be ridiculous. The man who James is describing doesn’t just glance at himself in the mirror. He looks intently at his natural face. Intently implies that he looks long and hard. He studies his own natural features. He fully knows and understands what he looks like.

But then he goes away and forgets over a long period of time what he looks like? No - he at once, that is immediately, forgets what he looks like. He leaves the mirror and has no recollection of his own appearance.

This is a description of the hearer. She fully comprehends what Scripture is commanding her to do.

She has studied the Bible. She isn’t confused about the Gospel. She understands it and she understands what it looks like to live a life that is in accordance with the Scripture. She knows that she must obey Jesus in order to be able to credibly claim that she loves him. And yet, she sets her Bible down, or walks out of the church service, or leaves Crossroads, and immediately goes back to living a life in complete defiance of the Word she fully comprehends.

The hearer even feels conviction. His own conscience bears witness against him. Maybe that is happening to you even now. And yet, he walks away from hearing the Word and goes right back to living exactly like his non-Christian friends. To cheating on his exams. To committing time theft against his employer by doing personal tasks while on the clock. To looking at pornography or indulging in fantasies or essentially engaging in foreplay with his girlfriend. I mean we didn’t go all the way. We didn’t actually have sex. So what’s the big deal? Ignoring Scripture’s commands for purity, that’s what’s the big deal. Not living in obedience. Not being a doer of the word.

Hearer only. Deceived one.

Scripture is also clear that the more you know, the more you will be held accountable for.

Luke 12:47–48 “And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

My friends, if this is you, a hearer only, you are in a very perilous position.

To be clear, you are not saved by your works. You are saved by grace alone through faith alone. Not of your own doing, so that you can’t take any credit for it as Ephesians 2:8-9 says.

You are not saved by your works. But if you claim to be saved, if you claim to be a Christian, literally a little Christ, a follower of him, a disciple of him, and yet you do not do what he commands. You do not obey the Bible. You do not walk in the good works that were created beforehand that you should walk in them as Ephesians 2:10 says. How can you claim to know and love him?

You guys will get to James 2 and get into this in a lot more detail. But this is a great preface verse for that clear passage.

So, we have seen the danger of being a hearer only. It is that you are deceived. Thinking you are on the narrow path to heaven, but in reality being on the wide road to hell.

But it isn’t all doom and gloom. There is great blessing for those who are not hearers only, but doers of the word.

The Reward of Being a Doer (v. 25)

So now, we will see the reward of being a doer of the word and not a hearer only.

Look at verse 25 with me. James 1:25 “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.”

He will be blessed in his doing.

I don’t know about you, but after hearing all that about being deceived. About miscalculating and getting it wrong. I want to know what I need to do to get it right!

What are the rewards of walking in obedience? Of being a doer of the word? That you will be blessed in your doing. Blessed with salvation. Blessed with the ability to see Christ.

So what does this look like?

There are four characteristics of the blessed one given here.

First, he looks into the perfect law. This is the exact same word used to describe John stopping and looking into the empty tomb. Remember this scene from John 20? It’s super dramatic. Mary Magdalene runs up to Peter and John and says John 20:2 “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then, Peter and John race to the tomb and John pulls ahead and gets there first and what does he do when he gets there? it says John 20:5 “And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.” Stooping to look in is the same verb here for the blessed one who stoops and looks into the perfect law. How do you think John looked into the tomb to see if what Mary said was true…that Jesus’ body wasn’t there? A casual glance? A quick, indifferent squint? No! He stoops and looks in, eyes wide open, looking frantically all around. Is it true? Can it be true that the body is gone? What does it mean? This was probably the most intense looking of John’s entire life. This is how the doer of the word treats Scripture. He does not casually read it. He stoops to look in. Peering intently. Gleaning all that he can. Learning, and then putting that learning into immediate action. The law is used to describe all of Scripture, both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The perfect law implies that all of Scripture is perfect, which we know from 2 Timothy 3 it is because it is all inspired. This law is also described as the law of liberty. This isn’t a legalistic, slavish obedience. This is obedience to the law of freedom! How? Because it is the Holy Spirit that enables you, a redeemed sinner, to actually keep the law of the Scripture and in so doing, please the Lord. You can’t do this on your own! It is impossible to please God without God himself enabling you to please him through your obedience which is caused by the Holy Spirit within you. That is why it is the law of liberty. You are not legalistically enslaved to it. You are not obeying it of your own strength. You are free from the consequences of your sin. You are not under the law but under grace. You are enabled to keep the law only because of this fact. Only because Jesus kept the law for you, perfectly. And then died for you to pay the penalty of your own inability to keep this perfect law.

So first, he looks intently into the Scriptures. Second, he does this all the time! He perseveres. This isn’t one and done obedience. He does this again and again, day after day, even when he fails! The law is perfect, but the doer of the word is not! He will still stumble. He will still fall. But he perseveres. He comes back to it. He consistently and constantly obeys to the best of his Spirit enabled ability. He does not give up. He perseveres to the end because Jesus keeps him to the end. It is not his obedience that saves him but Christ’s. And so he perseveres in keeping the law because he loves Jesus and wants to please him, which only can be done by obedience to him.

Third, he remembers what he hears. It says, being no hearer who forgets. Unlike the hearer who sees himself in the mirror and then immediately goes and forgets, the doer does not forget. He remembers. Not because he has an amazing memory that the hearer lacks. But because of the second characteristic. He perseveres.

Fourth and finally, he acts on what he hears. He is a doer who acts. This is the primary difference between the hearer and the doer. The act itself. This is the differentiator between the one who hears only and the one who hears and does. The act of obedience. This is not an optional step. It is required for that ultimate blessing. It is the necessary fruits of repentance.

Again, this is the grace of God. He provides us, through his word, with self-tests so that we can see if we are in the faith. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” It is good to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith or if we are deceived.

A person who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit, who has been buried and raised with Christ, will necessarily look different! They will obey the word not because they are saved by their obedience. But because they demonstrate the effect of the saving work of Jesus Christ in their lives by their obedience. They are enabled by the Holy Spirit to actually desire the word of God. They can’t help but obey because they aren’t obeying in their own strength! It is Christ working in them that enables them to obey.

Instead of going away from the Scripture or a church service or crossroads and immediately forgetting, a doer contemplates what they have heard. A doer puts into action the commands that they know to be from Jesus himself.

A doer refuses to cheat on an exam, even when it means certain failure.

A doer shares her faith, even if she knows it means a loss of her reputation and friends.

A doer is willing to gouge out his own eye by trading his smartphone for a dumbphone or living without internet in his apartment or refusing to go on the Internet alone so he can fight against the temptations of pornography.

If you are truly regenerate, how can you not obey? It is impossible.

I’m not talking about perfection. But consistent, ongoing obedience to the word of God.

So we have seen that the reward of being a doer is blessing. Eternal blessing.

Conclusion

Guys, this is not an easy passage to preach. I had to wrestle with this this week. How can I tell you anything other than what the word of God actually says? It would be an act of actual evil to let you go from here without feeling the full force of not just the blessings and promises of Scripture, but the warnings as well.

If this has convicted you tonight, my plea to you is don’t go from here and try to do this in your own strength. Don’t go from here and try to pull yourself up by your boot straps and grit your teeth and just obey more. Obey harder. Don’t turn into a legalist with your intensive obedience. You can’t do it! You can only obey because he enables you to obey, not of your own strength.

The good news of the Gospel is that there is one who obeyed perfectly. Who was tempted in every way and yet did not sin. Who was born of a virgin, under the law, and kept it all without stumbling, even in a single point. He obeyed all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross. And God proved that his sacrifice was sufficient when he raised him from the dead on the third day, according to the Scriptures. He defeated sin and the devil in the process of his perfect obedience and then ascended in heaven to take his rightful place at the right hand of the Father. And he did this for you. His name is Jesus. All that is required is that you cry out to him for mercy. Repent! Turn from your sin and plant your flag of alignment with Christ.

And then go, and obey. Be a doer of the word. Prove that your faith is genuine by your Spirit-enabled obedience! Obey even if it costs you everything. Your reputation. Your worldly success. Even your life. Oh that we would all be willing here to obey even if it meant our own deaths! That we would never deny him but would be true to him, by his power, even if we had to die for it.

The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation. Go to the leaders here, your friends who are exhibiting obedience. Ask for help. Ask them to pray for you. Seek out mentors in the faith. Don’t try to do this by yourself.

Don’t make a spiritual miscalculation like the Orbiter team made a mathematical one. Rest in Christ for your Salvation. Rest in his finished work on the cross that was on your behalf. And go forward in obedience to what he has commanded you. Go forward as his friend.

He is worthy of your obedience. He is worthy of your life and your everything. He gave his own life for you so that you could be justified and made right before the Father. If you believe this. If you truly believe this, how can you not love him? And if you love him, how can you not keep his commandments?