Sermon Tone Analysis

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 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.

24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

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.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Hearing and Doing the Word

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 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.

24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

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.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Hearing and Doing the Word

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

23 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.

24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

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.

26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.

27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

Intro.

Story about hearing and doing

Write a note to tell the kids to do something…

they spend the whole day thinking about the complexity of my note and not doing what i asked them to do.

This morning we are going to finish our ch. 1 of James.

This is a fun, and sometimes painful little book.

James does not hold anything back.

He just puts it all on the table.

I wanted to take a min to think through where we are so far… set some context for where James it taking us..

This is a letter, and was (and is) intended i think to be read in completion… we are taking this a few verses at a time… but i encourage you to read the whole letter in one setting, its not very long…

As we are finishing up Ch 1 we are closing out the sort of into to the rest of this short letter.

He is going to expound on the ideas we have touched so far in more depth as the letter progresses.

Arc

v18 - brought forth by HIS word

v19-21 - Our words matter.

v21b - RECEIVE the implanted word

v22- DO THE WORD (not just hear)

v23-25 - the Word produced action

v26-27 - this is what it looks like to do the word.

As Martin Luther once said "The world does not need a definition of religion as much as it needs a demonstration."

Spurgeon observes that…

James has no speculations.

“By their fruits ye shall know them,” seems to have taken possession of his mind, and he is always demanding practical holiness.

He is not satisfied with the buds of hearing, he wants the fruits of obedience.

This morning we are going to finish our ch. 1 of James.

This is a fun, and sometimes painful little book.

James does not hold anything back.

He just puts it all on the table.

I wanted to take a min to think through where we are so far… set some context for where James it taking us..

This is a letter, and was (and is) intended i think to be read in completion… we are taking this a few verses at a time… but i encourage you to read the whole letter in one setting, it’s not very long…

As we are finishing up Ch 1 we are closing out the sort of into to the rest of this short letter.

He is going to expound on the ideas we have touched so far in more depth as the letter progresses.

As we’re going through the book of James

Let’s be listening for the echoes of Jesus

James actually is an ideal place to start for something like this.

Even in your personal Bible study, this series of the book of James could be a great place to start and read the Scripture with a greater ear toward perhaps the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings and what he lived and modeled and said while he was among us.

Because James, even though it only mentions Jesus twice…

vs 1 and 2 mention Jesus, and it mentions him again at the front of chapter 2.

28 But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

Those are the only times you find Jesus as a name explicitly in the book of James.

If we’re not careful, because of that… and because of how practical this letter is

what we can begin to do is read the letter of James or any other letter in the New Testament in this sort of moralistic or therapeutic way without even knowing it.

It becomes wisdom but wisdom that’s actually detached from the person and the work and the voice and the teaching of Jesus.

What’s amazing about the letter of James is

even though it only mentions Jesus twice explicitly, the whole letter is actually like a little commentary on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

if you read the letter of James with that in your mind and really with that echoing in your ears and in your heart, you will begin to see and to hear the teaching and the imprints of the Lord Jesus Christ’s ministry all over the book of James.

The book of James really is this long application letter of the Sermon on the Mount

James (the brother of Jesus) is reflecting on what the Lord taught, and he is applying that into the churches of his day.

In our text today James, really does come forth out of the summary Jesus gave in his teaching on the Sermon on the Mount.

If you’re in , we’ll get there in a moment,

but I just want to read this from .

This is how Jesus concludes his sermon in through 7.

He says this.

After he said everything he said, he says…

Build Your House on the Rock

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

25 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.

26 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.

27 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.”