Untitled Sermon

Good Evening.

Will you please turn in your Bible’s with me to .

.

· My name is….

· Army time

· Attended Seminary

· Moved to Africa to work for SP

· Recently moved back here to Boone

Introduction:

When I was living in Uganda, I would sometimes start my sermons by telling the people that I was Ugandan. They would laugh but I would then insist that I was serious. I mean, after all, I lived in Uganda. My family lived in Uganda. I had a Ugandan Driver’s License. My wife and I have six kids – definitely a Ugandan-sized family. Usually my family would be wearing Ugandan clothes and, I reasoned, I liked to eat Ugandan food. So, that meant that I was Ugandan, right.

Well, the Ugandans would all laugh at the absurdity of my claim because they could tell by looking at me that I was not Ugandan. I was clearly not what I claimed to be.

Similarly, we can look at the life of a Christian and know if they are who they claim to be.

We know this by instinct.

We don’t really want to take our business to the mechanic whose car is always broken down or the landscaper whose front yard is covered with weeds.

Similarly, there are certain characteristics to the Christian life that we should look for and that others look for.

And that is what James is talking to us about here in this passage.

Read

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 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. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 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.

Main Point: Saving faith produces a noticeable change in a person’s life

Explanation

1. The 16th Century Theologian and Pastor Martin Luther referred to James as the “Epistle of Straw”

a. This is because the book lacks the clear articulation found in Paul’s letters that “Christians are saved by grace through faith.”

b. Instead of grace, Luther believed James was arguing for salvation by works.

i. Like we just read in – “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.”

ii. Luther interpreted James to mean that “visiting orphans and widows in their affliction” and keeping “oneself unstained from the world” were how a person became saved. That good works like these were and essential part to salvation.

c. Now if Luther had been correct in his interpretation of James, then his rejection of the book was right because we are not saved by our good works

i. – For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

ii. – for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus

iii. – For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

d. We are absolutely saved by grace through faith and not as a result of our own works.

i. Luther was right in his understanding that we contribute nothing to our own salvation

e. The problem that Luther had was in his understanding of the book of James.

i. James was not saying that good works are necessary for salvation but rather that good works are a result of salvation

ii. Good works come from salvation, salvation does not come from good works

Illustration

1. I ran into several misunderstandings like this when I was living in Africa.

a. There is a parasite in Lake Victoria called Bilharzia

i. This parasite gets into your body through your skin when you enter the water and then lays eggs and reproduces inside your liver and other organs

ii. Sometimes there can be symptoms associated with bilharzia infection but often times there are none at all.

iii. It is so common that the clinics do simply lab tests their at the office to check for the parasite

iv. Treatment is rather simple.

1. You take 2-3 days’ worth of medication to kill the parasites

2. But there are a lot of locals who refuse to take the medication

v. This is because for the first day or two of the medicine, it actually starts to make you feel worse.

1. Your symptoms like nausea and dizziness increase

2. If you didn’t have any symptoms to begin with, you will when you start taking the medication

vi. So the locals mistake cause and effect

1. They don’t take the medication because the medication makes them feel sick and they equate that with being sick.

2. They will say things like, those doctors are tricky. You go see them and the give you medication to make you sick so you have to go back and get medication to be made well.

3. They don’t realize that their symptoms are not caused by the medication but by the bilharzia infection in the first place.

a. They mistake cause and effect

b. Which is the same thing that Luther and others have made in reading the book of James

i. They believe James is arguing that a good works are the cause of salvation

ii. The reality is much different.

1. James is really arguing that good works are the result of salvation.

2. They are the symptom or evidence of the Holy Spirit working in someone’s life

Application

1. So the entire book of James deals with the change wrought in a Christian’s life after receiving the Holy Spirit.

a. James writes about the symptoms of true Christianity, the evidence of true saving faith.

b. So what is are the symptoms of saving faith? If someone is truly converted, what types of changes can we expect to see in their life?

Point 1: Saving faith results in a change of character

Explanation

1. Throughout this passage of scripture, James deals with the character of the Christian

a. Verse 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.”

i. Here James uses a mirror to help us understand the role Character plays in the Christian life.

1. The man looks in the mirror, sees himself as he truly is, but immediately forgets when he walks away

2. And just as a man can forget what he looks like after seeing himself in a mirror, so a man can also forget the reality of who he is, the reality of what his character is.

ii. James tells us that this is a mark of someone who is only a hearer of the word.

1. His character changes in different circumstances

2. He has no true essence or sense of self but is instead whatever the world wants him to be

3. Or he knows what right character looks like but lets his inner passions overrule what he knows to be right

2. In verse 26, the Bible says “if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.”

a. The primary point of the verse is how we use our tongue, our speech, but I want you to notice the words “deceives his heart.”

b. A person’s character is a matter of the heart and we act in accordance with our deepest held beliefs.

c. What James is saying is that we can deceive our heart. Notice that the one who does not bridle his tongue, that is the one who does not control his speech in what he says to others, “deceives his heart.”

i. This is a matter of character and again, a person lying to themselves about who they are.

ii. A person not acting in accordance with what they claim to be through their speech

3. In verse 21, James wrote, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.”

a. These seem like the same types of words in our English translation but they are meant to convey different meanings.

i. Here, the word translated filthiness suggests the essence of “moral defilement” or “spiritual stains on the soul”

ii. The word translated rampant wickedness on the other hand conveys the sense of “evil in character”.

1. Several commentators notes that it “denotes evil in character or sin that springs from bad attitudes within one’s spirit.”[1]

iii. In other words, what James is asking his reader’s to do, it to put off both external wickedness of a sinful life and the inner moral wickedness that comes from a deficient and evil character

Illustration

1. John Bunyan, in his classic book Pilgrim’s Progress, has characters that exhibit these types of inner character deficiencies.

a. There is a Mr. Talkative, who can talk with anyone about all the deepest things of religion and Christianity for hours upon end, but ceases to talk when the subject turns to application, that it what place the deepest things of Christianity have in his own life.

b. There is a Mr. By-Ends who is happy to claim Christianity when it is popular and politically expedient, but will just as quickly turn from the church when it is no longer advantageous to him.

c. Then there is ignorance, who makes it all the way to the gates of the celestial city but is cast into hell because he does not know or understand salvation

2. In the book, each of these men claim to be Christians but are exposed as frauds and liars because of their deficiency of character

Application

1. And we have the same type of people in the church today

a. There are those among us who can talk about religion all day long.

i. They say the right things

ii. They act the right way in public

iii. But there is no application

1. Their heart has not changed

2. They talk of doing good but never get around to it

3. They talk of prayer but don’t pray

4. They talk about the Bible but they don’t read it

iv. They show their true character by their actions

b. There are those among us who are happy to be involved in church because of political expediency

i. This is big in Africa and sadly many preachers and pastors fall into this category

1. Everyone is a member of a church because it is the proper thing to do

2. Leaders in the church are honored and therefore people desire the office for the wrong reasons

3. People attend services, they pray in public, and they keep Bible verses ready to use at the right occasion

ii. But their hearts have not been changed by the gospel message and they are quick to leave one church for another when better opportunities present themselves

2. And James is warning us against this type of Christianity

a. He is telling us that the character of a true Christian has been changed

i. Their heart has been changed from the inside out by the Holy Spirit

ii. Saving faith results in a change of character

Point 2: Saving faith also results in good works toward others

Explanation

1. In the beginning of this section of scripture James tells us to “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”

a. What James means by this passage is not

i. Be quick to hear my own thoughts and opinions

ii. Be slow to speak to God

iii. Be slow to anger about matters of God’s righteousness

b. Rather, James is concerned with how we act toward others

i. This is evident in the fact that just after this section, James goes on to talk about the sin of showing partiality to the rich and quotes Jesus in reminding his reader’s to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

c. But James is not concerned solely with how we speak to one another; although that is a concern.

i. James is using speech as an example of faith resulting in good works

d. In the same way James uses the example of caring for orphans and widows.

i. Verse 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.

1. Is James saying that true Christians will be involved in orphan and widow care ministries and those of us who are not are false believers?

a. Of course not

2. But James is using orphan and widow care as examples to show us what good works means in the life of a Christian

e. His point is that a person’s saving faith will be evidenced by the works in their life

Illustration

1. This is the entire point behind the organization that I work for, Samaritan’s Purse

a. Samaritan’s Purse was named after the parable of the Good Samaritan

i. The whole mission of the organization is to go into disaster areas, impoverished areas, and areas where people need help – and for us to be able to provide that help.

b. I can tell you many stories of how God has used this type of ministry to bring glory to Himself

i. Muslims who notice that the Christian aid organization is willing to help while their fellow Muslims turn a blind eye.

ii. Tribal people who notice that the work done by the Christian aid organization is better quality that the work done by other organizations

c. God is using the good works that Christians are doing to spread the gospel throughout the world

2. But there is a pitfall we must avoid in considering good works

a. The pitfall that our good works somehow bring us merit

i. There are some people in Samaritan’s Purse who have fallen into this trap

1. They ultimately believe that they are better than others because of what they do

2. They believe that their humanitarian work is a credit to themselves

3. And they look down on others who do not do what they do to help other people

4. Ultimately, these people believe that the peace corps and other charities are more Christian than the local church

Application

1. But this pitfall is not limited to Samaritan’s Purse

a. How many Christians in the pews of churches across this country believe that they are somehow better than others because of their service to the community or the church?

b. How many churches are filled with people who believe that they are right with God because they have a good church attendance record, they teach a children’s Sunday School class, or because they serve as a deacon?

c. All of these people have fallen into the ditch of trusting their own works for salvation instead of trusting in Christ

i. But what does Paul say, “for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

2. So here is a test for you to see if you have fallen into this trap

a. When you are asked about the good works you do, do you talk about and highlight the things YOU do and the impact YOU have or do you talk about and highlight the things GOD does and the glory GOD receives through the ministry as a whole?

b. Do you prop up your work in maintaining the church building, or do you prop up the glory God receives from the church itself?

c. Do you prop up your work every Sunday in the children’s ministry, or do you prop up the fact that God is bringing children to salvation?

d. Do you prop up your work on a church committee, or do you prop up how God was glorified through the work of the church body as a whole?

Point 3: Saving faith results in obedience to God

Explanation

1. There are three steps here in this passage that James tells us about obedience

a. First, James tells us in verse 21 to “receive with meekness the implanted word.”

b. Second, James tells us in verse 22 to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only”

c. Third, James tells us in verse 27 to keep ourselves “unstained from the world.”

2. I would like to suggest to you tonight that this is a three-fold formula for living the Christian life

a. Step 1, receive the Word of God with meekness

i. This means accepting what God says to be true and humbly submitting yourself to it

b. Step 2, do what God says

i. If I say I love my wife but persist in chasing other women, my actions don’t match my words.

ii. It is the same for the Christian life. It is not enough just to hear God’s Word but we must also put it into practice

c. Step 3, keep ourselves unstained from the world

i. That is, don’t sin.

ii. Don’t live a sinful lifestyle

iii. This is the inevitable result of properly applying steps 1 and 2.

1. When we receive God’s word with meekness and do what God tells us to do, we keep ourselves unstained from the world.

Illustration

1. This point, receiving God’s Word with meekness and obeying it, is the number one problem I saw in the African church

a. Most Ugandans would call themselves Christian but very few even own a Bible

i. Part of this is because of poverty but it cannot all be attributed to poverty because I know some very poor Ugandans who saved up enough money to buy a Bible

ii. Part of this is also because of the Ugandan fascination with the flashy preacher

1. They watch Joel Osteen on television and want a Ugandan version of him

iii. So most Ugandans don’t read the Word of God but instead rely on listening to preachers

1. Then, when they are confronted with the Word of God, they don’t accept it meekly because their favorite television preacher interpreted the passage differently.

2. In other words, they are an example of what Paul wrote in , “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”

Application

1. But the American church is not much different.

a. We have more Bible’s in our homes than we can count but we don’t read them anymore than the Ugandans do

b. We follow our favorite religious teachers, politicians, celebrities, or personalities and rather than judge them by the truth of the Word of God, we try and fit the Word of God to support who we like to hear

2. And every church in America has people who dress up nicely on Sunday, participate in Sunday School, sing in worship, listen to the sermon and then go home and look at internet pornography all week. Or beat their wives. Or get drunk. Or gossip and slander other people. Or people who simply put the Bible on the shelf and fail to pick it up again until getting ready for church next Sunday.

3. These are not the marks of a true Christian according to James.

a. People who are saved receive God’s Word through a regular diet of Bible reading in addition to listening to preaching on Sunday. They accept what the Bible teaches and they then try to apply that teaching to their lives.

Conclusion

1. Is this where you are today?

a. Can you honestly say that since you have become a Christian your character has changed and that has resulted in good works toward others and obedience to God and His word?

b. If the answer is yes, they you can be assured of your salvation. Your life reflects the picture James was writing about in terms of being a true, saved Christian.

2. But if not, I want to offer you some hope.

a. We have to first realize that James was writing to Christians who could not say they were acting in a very Christian manner either.

i. James wrote to tell them what “right” looks like so they could change.

ii. And if this is where you are, then James is the book for you.

1. For us, salvation is easy but living the Christian life is not.

a. It is hard work but if you are truly saved then you have a desire to please God and the Holy Spirit enabled power to get there.

b. And if you are not saved.

i. If you have listened to this point and come to the realization that nothing in your life reflects salvation.

ii. There is still hope for you.

1. Repent of your sin, believe the gospel, and turn to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and He is faithful and just to save you, no matter what circumstances have led you to this point.

Will you please pray with me?

Heavenly Father. We come before you this evening with thanksgiving for the book of James. Thank you for inspiring James to write this book and thank you for faithfully handing it down through the centuries so that we could benefit from its instruction to us today. Father we pray that you would help and enable us all to do a better job at living the Christian life. We pray that you would wrought a change in our character, through the Holy Spirit, to help our hearts and our inner beings to be more of a reflection of you. We pray that you would help us to find ways to live our your commandments, to be obedient to you and to show your love to others. We pray that you would use our lives as a testimony to the power of the gospel, the power of your Name, and the power of your saving grace. Father we ask that you would help us all to grow to be more like Christ in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

It is in the mighty name of Jesus Christ that we pray. Amen

1 Davids, The Epistle of James, 94, as quoted in Blomberg and Kamell, James, 87.