DBD - Be Doers of the Word

Series: Don’t Be Deceived

Series: Don’t Be Deceived

Lesson Title: Be Doers of the Word

INTRODUCTION

We are continuing our series titled Do Not Be Deceived. Deception is one of the many dangers that we face as we go out into the world on a daily basis. Whenever we are go to work or to school or college, Satan is on the prowl and wants to see us be deceived. He brought deception into existence, and he has been hard at work since the beginning deceiving God’s people. He deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree that God had forbidden, and even at the time of Paul and the other apostles, the fear of God’s people being deceived by Satan was present. We need to keep in mind the ways in which we can be deceived, whether that be directly by Satan or by our own self-deception.

For our lesson this hour, I would like to consider a passage from . Both of our lessons today will be based on passages in . James talks a lot about how we can be deceived in this chapter. Last week, we looked at how we can respond to temptation and trials in a way that we can deceive ourselves… Today, we will look at the wrong way to respond to truth.

Let’s look at verse 22:

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (, ESV)

I would like to look at three points in our lesson this morning regarding this passage and it’s context.

POINT 1 — Don’t BE Hearers ONLY

Satan does all that he can to try to stop us from obeying God’s word. He probably does not mind when we go through the motions and get into the word and hear it multiple times every week. He doesn’t mind as long as the word is not being obeyed. He has found many ways to deceive GOd’s people into thinking that just reading the word or hearing sermons and Bible classes, by themselves, is good enough. He has deceived so many people into thinking that just coming into a building a couple times per week is good enough. He has deceived God’s people into thinking that just being emotionally convicted, challenged, or encouraged is good enough. He does not mind the emotional responses as long as we don’t take the next step and make changes…

Just hearing the word is not good enough. Just hearing 100 sermons a year is not good enough. Attending about 100 Bible classes each year is not good enough. We will only be blessed if change comes about based on our time int he word. Growth must come. Repentance and confession must come. Obedience must be the result of hearing the word.

In , in the parable of the soils, it is important to see this idea that just hearing is not good enough. When Jesus interprets the parable, showing how the four groups of people respond to the word of God, do you know one thing that is the same in all four soils. Do you know what is the same about all four groups of people? They all HEAR the message. Each heart, no matter how hardened or distracted, HEARD the message and had an opportunity to respond to it. The word was spoken to all of these people. They all heard it, but only one group of people of the four actually bore fruit to maturity. Only one group of people obeyed and grew and matured spiritually!

So James shows us that hearing alone is not good enough. If all we do is hear and not obey, we are deceiving ourselves. But he does not just show this fact, he also shows us how it is we can guard ourselves from being deceived hearers of the word. I would like to look at these in our final two points…

POINT 2 — Receive the Word w/ Humility

The word of God is the emphasis in verses 19-27. Actually, James began emphasizing it in verse 18. One of the great and perfect gifts that we have been given by God is that we have been brought forth into new life by the word of truth. It is his word, taught to us through the Gospel, which radically transformed us from slaves of sin into his children. With this wonderful thought in mind, James begins exhorting these brethren (and us) how we can make sure we respond rightly to the word.

First, he shows us that we need to receive the word with humility. Obviously the word of God is not going to make any impact on our faith if it does not get into us! As Paul says in , faith comes by hearing the word of God. This is where we must always begin… But the thing is, just because we hear the word does not mean we have really received the word. Our attitude when listening can stop us from receiving what is spoken.

In verse 19, he first tells us that we need to be swift to hear. We need to hurry up and listen to the word. He also says to be slow to speak, which sure does make it easier to listen. Be quiet and listen. And third, he tells us to be slow to wrath/anger. These are all things we need to do if we are going to receive the word with meekness and humility. We need to listen humbly, not with our defenses up, not thinking to ourselves that we ALREADY know what we think about what is being taught, not thinking about what our response to what the person teaching us is going to be. Try this: listen to what is being said. Even if you think you will disagree with a conclusion: listen. You may learn something that is true even among other things that are wrong…

But this also happens when we are listening to things we agree with! Have you ever thought this: “man, I have already heard a lesson on this subject or this passage a thousand times already…” (then we check out for the rest of the lesson and don’t listen to God’s word)… I think these things happen way too often in my own life. Maybe this is the case for you also… As we are being taught, we already often have our minds made up about how we want to live our lives and exactly what we are going to do when the word makes us feel uncomfortable in certain areas of our lives.

Let me give a couple of examples.

First example… this is one that always hits close to home… This one is from our lessons last week… Jesus told the rich young ruler, “Go and sell everything you have, give all of the money to the poor, and come follow me…” Too often, we don’t allow what Jesus is saying to really penetrate our hearts. We don’t let it in… We don’t receive the teaching. We are quick to point out that Jesus is not talking to me or that he does not expect this of every disciple… this is true to a point… but if we actually do receive the word in this instance, letting it penetrate into our hearts, won’t we begin to actually question how much of our hearts we have given to our possessions and how Jesus may actually say this to some of us if He were talking to us? A second example… evangelism… How often do we hear preaching and teaching about our mission to share the gospel with the lost and it just goes through one ear and out the other because we in our own minds make excuses why those passages don’t apply to us? “Those are for the Apostles and for the evangelists, not every Christian, right” Those are only for those who want to evangelize! How we receive the word makes the lessons on this topic make no impact. We don’t receive the word because we are already thinking how it doesn’t apply to me and how I am going to respond to each verse that someone shows me to make it more comfortable for me; so I don’t have to feel awkward talking to people about their souls…

These are just two examples of how we can often try to find ways around some of the uncomfortable stuff instead of letting it penetrate and make a difference in our faith and trust in God. As we approach the word of God, we need to be slow to speak… and instead listen to what is being taught to us, and we must make sure we keep our emotions in check so that we do not, because of frustration and anger, reject what is true as we try to justify ourselves and try to get out of things we just don’t want to do.

OTHER HINDRANCES TO RECEIVING THE WORD

James also says that we need to remove some other hindrances to receiving the word in verse 21; things that can get in the way of us receiving the word with humility. “Therefore put away all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness.” I don’t want to talk a lot about this point because we have already dealt with it in detail, but we need to remember that sin in our lives can create a huge barrier for us receiving the word of God. It hardens our hearts… it at times keeps us from spending time in God’s word because we don’t want to see how bad we really are…

So, concluding our second point, if we are not quick to listen and slow to speak, and if we are not working on getting sin out of our lives, then we are not receiving the word with humility.

POINT 3 — Remember God’s Word

Now, our third point: After we receive God’s word, we need to remember it… We need to keep it in us if we want it to continue to impact us.

How often is it the case that the word of God does not change me because so quickly after I am taught I forget everything that was taught to me? Whether it is a sermon we hear that convicts me, or an encouraging Bible class, or some good time spent reading or studying at home, too often it is a matter of hours before I forget so much of it. This happens often for all of us. By dinner time on Sunday evening, most weeks, we probably couldn’t remember more than one or two points in a sermon. Maybe by the time we go to bed we vaguely remember one point or one thought from the sermon. By the next Sunday, we may not remember what was taught at all or even who taught! And because we forget what was taught, we never really get around to letting it impact our faith… James comically likens this in verse 23 to a man who looks at himself in a mirror for a time, then after he walks away he cannot remember what he looked like… How ridiculous is that!

But this is not too much different than how we are with God’s word, even at times when the word convicts us… It often does not change us because we forget the pain we felt as the word was getting taught to us… We don’t continue to meditate on or review what was taught to us… But this is what we are instructed to do in scripture… Remember what the psalmist says in ? Talking about the blessed man, he writes:

“…but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” (, ESV)

This man really considers the teachings of the word of God! He meditates on them day and night. It is what fills his thinking and his time… and because of this, it impacts his life. In the next verse, we are told that this leads him to be like a tree firmly planted by the river, collecting all of the nutrients he needs and bringing forth fruit. James says the same kind of thing in 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.” (, ESV)

I like how the NASB translates . He uses the phrase “looks intently” into the law. This really gives a good sense of what is being said in the Greek. It is the idea of stooping down and really looking at something, studying it well, investigating it, gazing upon it… This is how we need to examine the law of liberty; or the law that gives freedom. We really consider it, meditate upon it, and let it saturate our lives so it can make an impact on our faith. James contrasts the one who looks intently into the law of liberty with the forgetful hearer in verse 25. Only if we look intently into the law of liberty, allow it to penetrate our hearts, and KEEP it there, can it make a difference in our lives. If we forget God’s word, especially after it challenges us and convicts, we have not really received the word as we should.

CONCLUSION

If we really hear the word and let it get implanted into our hearts, it will bring forth fruit/life. If there is not any fruit that comes, then we have not really accepted and received the word as we should as His people.

The picture that James paints is very clear… if you think you are receiving the word by merely hearing it and agreeing with it, and there is no obedience, you are deceived… The NASB says you delude yourself thinking this way. You are delusional to think you are being pleasing to God when you are not obeying God! What does Jesus say in ? “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.” (, ESV)

Jesus and James both show the importance of obeying the word of God if we are going to be blessed.

As we bring this lesson to a close, let’s ask ourselves an important question: Which group are you and I in? Are we the deceived, forgetful hearers; those who don’t apply God’s word, or only do when it is comfortable or convenient? Or are we those who look intently into the law which gives freedom, remember it, and obey it no matter how uncomfortable it may be to do so?

Once again, it is great that we get together to study God’s word and hear God’s word be taught. It is great that we spend time on our own reading and studying God’s word. We must continue to do these things. But if we never really receive, remember, and obey the word that is being taught to us, we are deceiving ourselves if we think we are being pleasing to God just going through the motions of coming here to hear the word of God.

As we listen, we must receive it with humility, remember it, and obey it.

Will you pray with me?

Our God and Father in Heaven, The thoughts of this passage are challenging. Too often we have allowed ourselves to forget your word, that which we claim to love and delight in. We don’t look intently into it and, because of this, forget it so often. We have many times allowed our presuppositions, our selfishness, our desire for comfort, and our sin to keep us from listening humbly to your word. This has stopped us from being fruitful and obedient to you. Father, we pray that you would help us see the thorns that are choking the word out of our lives and that you would give us the strength, through your Spirit, to get rid of these thorns and to remove the pride and selfishness out of our hearts that keeps us from obeying the law of liberty. Father, please help us be pleasing to you. May we not deceive ourselves into thinking that we can be pleasing to you by merely hearing your word and studying your word. May we be moved to obey you so we can have freedom from sin and receive the salvation you have promised. To your glory in Christ Jesus, Amen.