Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Scripture

I titled this sermon, “Occupational Christianity”.

A Christian is a follower of Christ.

It is a disciple as we discussed last week.

A occupation is the act of taking possession (to occupy).

In the sense of your occupation, it is that which engages the time and attention of you.

It is that which you devote your time and study to…the principal business of one’s life, their vocation, calling or trade.

It is the business which is followed by one for the obtaining of a living and of wealth.

Again my sermon title is “Occupational Christianity” implying hopefully what the scripture is teaching and where we are going this morning and have been going over the past few weeks.

This is God’s Word - not the word of James.

This is the Word of God which we search and thus have revealed to us Jesus Christ.

This letter is written primarily to Jews scattered abroad, but the application comes all the way to us.

We will read in James that God begat us.

(v.18)

V19 -

MY BELOVED BRETHREN: Yes this is to Jews, but also we must note the application of “beloved brethren”.

That God Almighty would call us beloved.

That we would be the beloved brethren of Christ.

The perfection of the new creation.

There is only one you.

Made up of flesh and spirit.

The you has both a old and a new man.

The flesh can only sin.

The Spirit can only sin.

The old man is quick to hear.

The new man is quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to wrath.

Because God is working all things together for our good.

Because we are trusting in God.

SWIFT TO HEAR: The only way to be swift to hear is to be in this book, the Word.

You do not hear by what I say, but the Word of God.

Oh how much time we spend looking for someone that we like to listen to.

You are not to hear a man, but the Word of God.

SLOW TO WRATH: If God is working something in your life and that something makes you mad then in reality you are mad at God and you don’t want that.

MANS WRATH CANNOT WORK/ACHIEVE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD

Jesus Christ has accomplished the righteousness of God revealed in His faithfulness even unto the cross.

That is what works God’s righteousness, not the wrath of man.

Since mans wrath does not work God’s righteousness we should put aside the remains of wickedness (the flesh…you know if it is of the flesh), and receive in humility the Word implanted/ingrafted..(my sheep hear my voice)...able to save your souls.

In modern times save is considered redeemed.

But Timothy is already redeemed and Timothy cannot cause another to be born again.

There is no passage of scripture that declares that anything that you do can cause you to be born again.

However once you are born again, you need to be saved (delivered) from fear, from the law, from the flesh and so on...

It is only by His word that you know these things.

It is only by His Word that you know that those whom He has redeemed He has perfected forever.

Ephesians…He chose you

WORD IMPLANTED:

This is the word which is ingrafted or implanted, meaning the ingrafting is ingrafted…it has been ingrafted.

Leading to our text this morning is the making clear by the Holy Spirit that the ingrafting has been done.

Jesus Christ has accomplished for us the righteousness of God.

,

Do not leave verse 21 without realizing what is being said.

God has given you His Word which is able to deliver your life.

Nobody absent from this book has known that:

To die is better than to live or to be absent from the body is to be with Christ.

Nobody has known absent from this book that life is not an empty pursuit of self, but to live is Christ.

So

RECEIVE WITH HUMBLENESS THE WORD WHICH IS ABLE TO SAVE YOUR LIFE.

Without that you live in pagan rituals, fear, law fear of death, manipulations and demands of the world and so on..

Joshua

BUT PROVE YOURSELVES:

To become, to arise - to stand.

This is the hill to die on.

Take your stand here, make your aim this, seek this transformation…become....

DOERS OF THE WORD:

A doer is one who does.

It is one who performs or executes what is required.

It is one who observes, keeps or practices in this case…the Word.

The word for Word is logos…it is genetive.

It could be rightly said here to, make doing the word of God your occupation.

An occupation of any kind that requires ones total diligence makes it impossible to be an expert in any other field.

You have to decide…if your occupation is fleshly then you will not be an expert student of the Word.

And well in eternity what will that fleshly occupation gain you.

Make your aim, your goal, your occupation to be a student, a doer of the Word.

Friends that goes for every Christian, every hearer of the Word, every sheep of Christ.

No occupation that you can go to college or grade school for can offer you anything close to what is given to you in the Word of God.

Every Word is God breathed…what earthly occupation can compete with that?

If not…if we only profess to believe but do not make it our occupation…that is that the word has no application in our lives then all that we are doing with our lives is deluding or deceiving ourselves into thinking that the Word has made some effect in our lives when it hasn’t.

NOT MERELY HEARERS WHO DELUDE THEMSELVES:

The word for delude can also be translated as deceive.

If you say that you love the Lord or if you say that you trust the Lord and yet you spend no time with Him, have no hunger for the Word and the Word serves no part of you life then isn’t it right to at the very least suspect that statement?

You say you love, but your occupation is that other than the Word then you are deceived.

You say you trust, but your occupation is that other than the Word then you are deceived by your own confession.

Listen beloved: Our citizenship is in Heaven, our occupation is in being doers of the Word of God.

The type of deception spoken of here is clarified in the example given in verse 23-25:

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 A MIRROR; FOR (ONCE) HE HAS LOOKED AT HIMSELF AND GONE AWAY, HE HAS IMMEDIATELY FORGOTTEN WHAT KIND OF PERSON HE WAS.

What do you see when you look in a mirror: The flesh, the old man.

If one has not made the word his occupation then he is looking at his natural face in the mirror.

He can dress it up as much as He can, but it is still flesh.

The natural man only sins.

Only the new man can show the works of the Spirit.

When man looks in the mirror all of His attention is focussed on the flesh and He forgets the man that He is.

He forgets the new man that he has been made.

The contrast is between a mirror which displays the flesh,

and the ingrafted Word which reveals the innor man.

The mirror only displays the flesh, the Word reveals the inner man and the horror of the flesh.