All right thank you Chris, thank you band. I love worshiping together through song, especially looking back to how we started this year with Chris teaching us, maybe reminding some, but for some maybe learning for the first time what worship is and what it is we do when we sing. And then we went from there, as we learned about worship through song, to learning how to read God’s word – what is God’s word, how should we read it? And then we moved into actually hearing from Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount.

So that’s where we’ve been this year in student ministries, and we’re going to continue in the Sermon on the Mount in the future. I do hope that over the next year or so we finish Jesus’s sermon, we’ll see how long it takes. But I wanted to again slow down, back up and evaluate our interaction with the word of God.

I’ve heard from many of you that you are reading God’s word on your own. I have been so encouraged to hear that you have been faithful in opening up God’s word every day, or at least aiming for it, and that you have a plan. I’ve even heard from some of your parents that you’re doing this as families for the first time, or more consistently. That is so encouraging. Keep going, keep going.

And if you’re not reading God’s word on your own, if you heard those lessons – today’s a good day to start. The sheets we give you, they’re a tool, they’re helpful, use them. What they do is give you a format to open God’s word and say – what does it say? What does it say about God? And how must this affect me? It’s a simple format to open God’s word chapter by chapter, every day. And you know what, if you start now, at the beginning of student ministries, by the time you finish, you will have read through the New Testament six times. If every year you add a little more to your reading plan, maybe you will have read through the whole Bible a few times. And if you keep doing that year after year, when you get as old as me, think about how many times you will have read the Bible. You can’t get it all at once, you’re not supposed to. You get it little by little – sometimes verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. But bit by bit, God will use his word to accomplish his goals in you if you receive his word rightly.

Hearing and Doing God’s Word

And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Instead of me telling you how I want you to receive God’s word, I thought it would be helpful to go directly to God’s word, to Jesus’s brother James. He opens his book by saying “I’m a slave of Christ”. He was a faithful pastor. And in the Book of James he is helping a church in trial, a church in difficulty – with brand new believers learning to live the Christian life. They didn’t get an easy start – most of them went straight into trials, straight into persecution. James wants to help them know how to live, how to interact with God’s word. Actually, you’ll see, he wants to teach them what true saving faith is.

Some of them thought they were Christians. They said “I follow Jesus, I have faith” – they thought “I’m reading God’s word, I have faith, I’m saved”. Part of James’ goal in the book is to help them know – is that real, or are they deceiving themselves?

So open up your Bible to James chapter 1 verse 19. If you don’t have a note sheet can you raise your hand, Kiki will run one down to you. I think most people already have one. Good, James chapter one.

Upcoming Schedule

Today we’re going to have a shorter lesson than normal. Next week we’re all going to be in the big service, the evening service. It’s going to be a special night of singing together. That doesn’t mean it’s a night off, that doesn’t mean we don’t have student ministries – it means student ministries is together with the body. What we do here is like its own church. I’m wanting to prep you to grow from being under your parents to life in the church. So we’ll do this periodically, joining with the evening service, with the big church. Next week is a special night of singing worship through song and we’re going to be there.

The week after is going to be Q&A. With everything we’ve covered – the anger stuff, the God’s word stuff – you guys have dropped some good questions. I’m going to try to go as efficiently as I can, I know I’ve been long-winded on some answers. I’ll do my best to get to as many as I can in two weeks. And then we’ll be, Lord willing, either doing another Q&A week or back into the Sermon on the Mount. So that’s what’s ahead of us.

How to Receive God’s Word

Today, the reason we’re here, is we’re backing up and saying – we’ve talked about receiving God’s word, we’ve talked about putting ourselves in front of God’s word every day. Every day with God’s word open on your lap, every week sitting down listening to sermons. You have a lot of God’s word coming at you. James helps us know how to receive it.

Let’s look at James chapter 1 verse 19. He says “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 soul.”

He gives a command. He says “know this” – that’s a command. Know this Christian, you have to know this. You have to be quick to hear, be listeners. And in the context it’s actually God’s word that is in view – be quick to hear, be slow to speak, be slow to anger.

And then, if you are to do that, because you’re to do that – therefore… right? Whenever we see “therefore”, what do we say? What’s it there for? This next command is tied back to the command “be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger”. If that is how we must be, and we’ve actually heard about that for the last two weeks, right? We’ve learned about the danger of anger.

And if you are to be quick to hear, slow to speak, therefore here’s what you must do. First, put away sin. Put away sin and receive with meekness the implanted word. So the way that you get to this “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” is through receiving the word. How must you receive the word? Look down at the text – do you see how James says you’re to receive the word in two ways?

One – putting away, he says, filthiness, rampant wickedness. If you receive the word while there is known sin in your life, you’re doing it wrong, right? That is not the way that you are to receive God’s word. That’s why, as you sit down, as you come into church to hear a sermon, as you sit down to read God’s word, look at your life and say “is there anything dirty here? What a hypocrite I am if I sit down and say hey God, can you show me your word, how I’m supposed to live? Can you show me in your word who you are? Can you protect me from the anger that will destroy me? Can you give me the humility that I need?” All the while you know that you’re in sin, right? That doesn’t even make sense. If you’re saying “God I’m going to open up your word, show me where there’s sin,” but you already know there’s sin in your life.

Repent of the sin first. Go in and evaluate – every time you open God’s word, as you’re praying LUBOT right? God help me listen to your word, help me understand your word, make me believe it, obey it, trust it. Evaluate – is there any filthiness? Any wickedness that I’m aware of? Set it aside.

And then what does it say? Receive the word – the implanted word, the word not out there but the word that God’s spirit will put inside of you, right? That’s what we’re praying when we pray “God help me listen, understand, believe, obey and trust your word. Take this word that’s on the pages, pass it through my eyes, through my brain, down into my heart. Holy Spirit can you do that?” Receive the word, having put away filthiness.

How do you receive it? With meekness. Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. So what does meekness mean? That’s not really a word that we use much. Maybe your translation says “in gentleness”, others say “in humility”. Those are all words – meekness, gentleness, humility – that get at the heart we must have when we sit down and say “God, I need your word”.

A good definition is, it’s hard to put this in one word. The definition of the Greek word translated here is “the quality of not being overly impressed by one’s sense of self-importance”. How would you translate that? Well, meekness might be one way that gets it, part of it. Gentleness, that gets a part of it, especially in contrast with anger, right? Anger and meekness.

Anger – we already saw this in the last two weeks – anger coincides with thinking highly of yourself and thinking in a judging way towards others. But if you receive God’s word saying “God, I actually am not that big of a deal. I’m not wise, I need your wisdom God. I’m not powerful, I need your help God. God I’m actually sinful, I need your cleansing.” That’ll make you receive God’s word with meekness.

And receiving God’s word that way is a mark of faith. Receiving God’s word that way actually results in saving your soul. Salvation is by faith alone, right? You know – you are not saved by works. You’re not saved by reading your Bible, you’re not saved by coming to church, you’re not saved by doing more good things than bad. You’re only saved by grace through faith.

And if it’s saying here that receiving God’s word like this is able to save your soul, what that means is this is a mark of saving faith. Christians receive God’s word with gentleness. Not receiving God’s word saying “hey, how can I speak about it?” That’s why James says “not many of you should become teachers my brothers, this is a dangerous spot I’m in. I’m held to a higher standard.” I ought not read God’s word primarily saying “oh where can I get a sermon out of this, how can I talk about it?” You shouldn’t either – “hey how can I, oh this is something good my brother needs, my sister needs, my friend needs.” You open God’s word saying “I need this”.

What does anger do? Anger says “oh man, that person is doing something wrong. There’s all kinds of verses I have for that person. Let me go to God’s word so I can put that person in their place.” Don’t do that. Anger doesn’t accomplish the righteousness of God. Actually, if you’re going to be the kind of person who’s going to help your brother, the Bible’s really clear – you have to apply God’s word to yourself first.

Jesus said “get the log out of your own eye”. Why? Not because you’re not supposed to worry about others. Get the log out of your own eye, receive the implanted word with meekness, with humility. Look into your own self so that you can see clearly to get the speck out of your brother’s eye. A Christian comes to God’s word saying “I need this”. Sin set aside, saying “I need the word, I need to be saved, I need to hear this”, right? The first command is “be quick to hear”.

Hearing and Doing

And then James moves on, verse 22. So you want to hear God’s word with repentant humility – that was the first command, hear it. But don’t hear it only – do it. Don’t only hear God’s word, do God’s word, right? He just said, look back at the commands in verses 19 through 21 – be quick to hear, receive the implanted word. Don’t only hear it, he says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only.

You see what it means if you hear God’s word and you don’t do God’s word? If you’re that kind of person, who are you tricking? You might be sitting here, your parents might say “oh man, Little Johnny, he’s doing so good. He opens his Bible every morning”. He says the right things, look he’s doing so good. You might come and tell your discussion group leader and all your friends “yep, I’m reading God’s word every day”. You show up to sermons and you’re taking notes, you’re taking notes right now, and you walk out unaffected.

I’ll tell you who you’re not tricking – you’re not tricking God. Maybe you’re tricking me, maybe you’re tricking your friends, maybe you’re tricking your parents. Who does James say you’re tricking? Yourself, you’re deceiving yourselves. You might be deceiving yourself, right? You can actually get really comfortable feeling good about yourself that you read God’s word. That’s a good thing to do, that you listen to sermons. That’s a good thing to do, maybe you even study hard, take notes, figure out what it means. It’s even possible for me to be up here explaining God’s word to you, deceiving myself.

You can know God’s word and that’s why we have introduced the LUBOT prayer, right? Help me listen, help me understand, but don’t let me stop there. I have to believe it, I have to trust it, I have to obey God’s word. So let me tell you a story.

The Mirror Analogy

You might laugh because you maybe remember this, it was a little bit embarrassing. So I was at church, somehow I made it all the way through service, through pre-service, through service, and I’m back at the coffee table. And people are just interacting weird with me. I’m talking to them and they seem distracted, they seem off. Like what the heck is going on?

And finally somebody really nice walks up and they say “Jake, you got something really big in your tooth”. And I did. I said thank you, went into the bathroom and I had this big old black thing right there. I think whoever I was talking to, it was so gross, they were just distracted by it. They couldn’t hear what… Kiki’s laughing because apparently I do that all the time.

So it was so distracting. Not only that, I had sauce on my face. I managed to go all the way through before service, during service, after service – I had stuff in my teeth and on my face. It was there whether I knew it or not. And somebody really kind told me, I was able to go to the bathroom, get it out of my teeth, wipe my face off, and then I was out of distraction. I needed help, I needed a mirror, I needed a friend.

James says God’s word can be like that. Let me read this next part. He said “For if anyone is a hearer -” we’re in verse 23 – “if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer -” means that they’ve heard it, they know what it means, and they just aren’t doing what it commands. They’re not living in light of God’s word, they haven’t received it in the right way. What is that person like? “He’s like one 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.”

What would it have been like if I went to the bathroom, I’m like “yep, sure enough, that’s why everyone’s been distracted. I have a big black thing in my tooth and I have sauce on my face.” And I leave the bathroom and didn’t do anything about it. Did that mirror do any good? You’re rolling your eyes. It would be stupid, right? You’re like, that’s foolish. That is not the purpose of a mirror. That’s not the right way to interact with a mirror. If you see something on your face, if you see how you are in a mirror, you should do something about it.

And what about a person who looks at God’s word, sees the truth about what it says, who it says you are, what your problem is – that you’re actually separated from God, that you need to respond to him in faith, that you’re a sinner, that you can’t come to God’s word as a means to get righteousness, that you ought not relate to each other in anger, in judgmentalism? James goes on to say that your stuff isn’t yours, that you should share your stuff. And all these other commands, you ought to be humble, a peacemaker.

We could go through the whole book. If you look at God’s word and it doesn’t change you, that would be like somebody who looks in a mirror, sees the problem and goes away without fixing it. I fear that this is really easy to fall into when we read the Bible. That’s why we have that last question on the note sheets. You remember what that last question is? “How must this affect me?” Don’t get up until you’ve asked that question.

Have you ever read, you’ve probably done this, I know I have – I’ve read the Bible, I’ve read it for the day, maybe I even understood what it meant, and I’m like “Okay I gotta get to work, I gotta get to school”, close it up and leave. You just read God’s word that revealed who you are in relationship to God, revealed who God was, and it was written to affect you, to change you, to make you a worshipper, to have you respond in faith, to have an opportunity to trust God, obey God – and you and I get up, walk out. It’s as foolish as me looking in the mirror, seeing the thing in my tooth and the stuff on my face, and going away and forgetting that it was there.

The Law of Liberty

But the one, it says in verse 25, 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.

You and I need a mirror. Not only a mirror, we don’t need to look at ourselves, we need to look at God. Which is why it doesn’t say “the one who looks at God’s word and remembers”. You see how he changed the analogy? He doesn’t say “looked at God’s word and then remembered how he was and had his mind on himself”. But he looked at the perfect law, the law of liberty.

I wish I had time to go into all that that means, but I just want to say that by referring to God’s word as the law of liberty, James is focusing on the power of God’s word to free us from the bondage of sin, freeing us to righteous obedience.

Think back to Jesus’ commands that he’s referencing – James actually, I think in this section, has Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount in mind. You could look at Jesus’ words as an impossible mountain to climb. “Oh I stare at this and I go away just totally discouraged.” Or I go away and say “God, you have provided for me what you demand. You’ve given me the Holy Spirit. If you’re a believer, you’ve actually given me Christ’s righteousness, so I no longer have to, I don’t have to get to you by keeping the law perfectly, because you can’t.” If you try to come to God by saying “God tell me what to do and I’ll do it, I’ll do every last thing perfectly” – that’s a law of bondage. That is not the way that God’s word is intended to relate to the believer.

Rather, you look into God’s law and you say “God, this is what you demand, this is what you require, this is what you want from me. God, will you form that in me? I want to receive your word with meekness. I don’t want to do your word on my own power God. Take your word, implant it in me and make me the kind of person who can have a shot at accomplishing this. I won’t do it perfectly. Where I sin, I’m going to confess it. And where I do what you demand, I’m going to give you glory, because it’s all from you.” That’s the way you’re supposed to look at God’s law, at God’s word.

And when you face a trial, this is the context, that’s why he says you look into the law of liberty and you persevere. What’s the perseverance he’s talking about? At the beginning – trials of various kinds. You’re going to have hard things hit your life, like Josh was saying this morning. And if you say “God, I trust what you say in your word, that you are good and you’re sovereign, I trust that you’re actually using these trials for my good, I’m gonna persevere, I’m gonna count it all joy” – that only comes from looking at God’s word. And if you do that, if you act in faith, you’ll be blessed in your doing.

The other persevering is just before this. He talks about temptation. If you look at sin and the opportunity to be deceived with sin, and then you look at God’s word and everything that God’s word says about sin and about obedience, and you choose obedience, you will be blessed in your doing. A Christian cannot look at God’s word, receive it rightly, and not trust God. A Christian must look at God’s word, trust God, and then obey him. That’s the only kind of response for the Christian.

Examine Your Response

So what I want you to do is consider this – are you interacting with God’s word with stuff on your face, stuff in your teeth? Reading about it, peering intently, learning what’s wrong with you, learning who God is, and then going away like it doesn’t matter?

Think back to the way that you’ve interacted with God’s word over the last months, the sermons that you’ve heard, the Bible that you’ve read. Think back and say – what difference has that made in my life? You ought to have an answer to that. I actually know a number of you do. So I ask for you to be able to say “yep, here’s how God’s word has changed me, here’s how God’s word has affected me, here’s how I’ve responded in faith to God’s word.” If you can say that, give God the glory – you didn’t make that happen, God did that in you.

At the same time, if you look at the way that you’ve interacted with God’s word – you come every week and hear sermons, I hope that you’re reading God’s word every day – if you say “you know what, I read it and I went out and not much changed” – who are you deceiving? Yourself. How foolish is that?

There is a better alternative – receive God’s word with repentance, humility, and be a doer, not a hearer only who deceives himself.