It would be good to have your Bibles open at James chapter 1 from verse 19, and. Recently when we were looking at the Book of Galatians from the NT

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1 Listening and Doing (James 1:19-27) 17 th August It would be good to have your Bibles open at James chapter 1 from verse 19, and we ll be going through to the end of the chapter. Let me pray for God s help first though Intro Recently when we were looking at the Book of Galatians from the NT The apostle Paul went to great lengths to say that we are saved from our sins and receive forgiveness by God s grace in sending Jesus to die for our sin and by us having faith in Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead And Paul made it clear that we cannot work our way into a right relationship with God and work our way to Heaven he says works cannot save us. Then we come to James and in this particular section of chapter 1 and he seems to be saying quite a lot about us doing stuff in other words works! In fact the gist of James short book is that having faith without doing stuff is dead faith! [Powerpoint 1 faith without deeds] Skip to James 2:26 Here s what James says: 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead So James argument is that if we have faith we need to show some evidence of our faith by doing some good stuff to show we have faith. James and Paul are not disagreeing with each other. Paul is simply saying doing good stuff won t save you and get you to Heaven Page 1 of 12

2 2 And James is saying the same thing he s not suggesting doing good stuff will save us Jesus has already done this but he is suggesting we need to do good stuff to show we have faith (pause) When I drive on the freeway it s good to switch on Cruise Control Cruise control allows me to take my foot off the accelerator and to not worry about my speed and just sit back and relax (hopefully not fall asleep) and let the car do the work. As Christians we can be Cruise Control Christians! We know we are saved by Grace through Faith in what Jesus did And so we sit back and relax And say Ahh! Jesus has done it all. I ll sit back and relax and cruise to Heaven! (pause) But James is saying in this section NO! NO! NO! We shouldn t be Cruise Control Christians Our faith needs to show some evidence! So he basically tells us we need to do three things in this section And they are there in your outline. They are: 1. Practice Godly Behaviour 2. Practice God s Word 3. Practice Pure Religion Page 2 of 12

3 Practice Godly Behaviour (19-21a) 3 So looking at chapter 1 verse 19 James gives us 3 commands: We should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry [Powerpoint 2 James 1:19] So first quick to listen Often we are not good listeners we hear the words coming out of someone s mouth but we don t listen. The Greek for listen here has the sense of understanding and taking on board what someone has said. [Illustration: Heather and I watching TV with the kids] So when we listen we need to stop what we re doing and actually concentrate on what the person who is talking to us is saying. So stop watching TV as they are talking Stop looking at your mobile phone or your computer screen or the newspaper Put the book down you are reading look at the person and concentrate Second slow to speak That doesn t means s p e a k i n g s l o w l y It means waiting until the other person has finished what they are saying before jumping in and interrupting Page 3 of 12

4 It means not thinking about what you are going to say next and have your reply 4 all worked out and so you haven t even listened to half of what they were saying And it means THINKING before you speak and give your rely Now there s a novel idea Thinking before you speak! And it also means controlling what you say don t say things in a way that would hurt or offend the purpose or in a way that will cause a massive argument. Here s a good proverb to help with this: From Proverbs 15:1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. And third there s slow to become angry If you are having a conversation with someone And you soon become angry You say things that - you just can t unsay! [Illustration: nails in the fence] Once you become angry You become unreasonable you scare people you make it impossible to continue the conversation And James says at the end of v19 That sort of behaviour does not reflect the righteousness or right behaviour that God approves of. So we would be offending God by such behaviour Page 4 of 12

5 And we would be showing to fellow Christians and non-christians a very poor 5 example of Godly behaviour which could even be copied by our kids or grandkids or friends and family and that s not good either. The reason that James puts those 3 commands together: quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry is that they are critical to our lives. God created us to have a relationship with him and with others We are relational beings so for our relationships to be good these 3 commands need to be followed [Powerpoint 3 Getting rid of moral filth] Then in the first part of v21 James gives us another command to practice Godly behaviour by getting rid of moral filth and evil This has the sense of taking off filthy clothes and putting on God s righteous clothes [Illustration: As a boy working in Market Gardening] Don t let the world contaminate you Even if things or ways of thinking are acceptable by the world it doesn t mean that they are acceptable to God or that we should accept them! I ll say more about that later (pause) Page 5 of 12

6 Practice God s Word (21b-25) 6 So - If we are going to practice Godly behaviour We will need help so James at the end of v21 tells us where we can get that help [Powerpoint 4 Humbly accept the word] He says we must humbly accept the word (that s God s word) planted in us And notice he says humbly accept God s word We shouldn t have the attitude of when we hear God s word preached or when we read God s word that we already know everything and that we have nothing to learn or nothing that God s word can teach us And the word being planted in us has the idea that a seed has been planted in us from God s word and it s taken root and it s growing That s how God s word works in our hearts That s how Jeremiah put it in Jeremiah 31:33 I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts I shared with some people during the week that one part of God s word spoke to me and was firmly planted in me which led me to become a Christian At a time in my life when I felt alone and without hope I read Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us That verse literally saved me. Page 6 of 12

7 And that s what James is saying at the end of v21 if we humbly accept the word planted in us it can and will save us!!! 7 But James argument is that as well as accepting God s word We need to practice God s word See v22 he says it not just a matter of listening to God s word Don t kid yourselves into thinking listening is all that is required We mustn t think once God s word has saved us we are done with God s word. NO! James says there needs to be some doing after we have read or listened to God s word We need to put God s word into practice. [Powerpoint 5 mirror v23-24] And so in verses he uses the analogy of someone looking in a mirror when they see what they look like they remember and may have to take some action. For example before I leave to come to church and I look in the mirror and see I still have my Pajamas on I don t ignore what I see in the mirror and come to church like that I take some action based on what I see in the mirror And James argument is that it s the same with the Bible God s Word We don t just look in it and read it and they forget what it says we take action based on what the Bible says. So when you get home later on. Sit down and reflect on what this section of James is telling you to DO Page 7 of 12

8 Don t just ignore it. 8 You need to put into practice God s Word! [Powerpoint 6 Luke 11:28] Jesus puts it this way in Luke 11:28 Blessed (Happy) are those who hear the Word of God and obey it And that s basically what James is saying in v25 He saying that we need to put into practice God s perfect law Jesus summed up God s perfect law - as loving God and loving others So practicing God s perfect law will mean not forgetting what it says About loving God and loving others but doing it and continuing to do it. Practice Pure Religion (26-27) And practicing God s word by loving God and loving others will have practical implications It will show itself in our religious activities James says in v26 and v27 And by religious the Greek here means Worshipping or fearing God fearing God in a sense of being in awe of Him. If we truly worship and are in awe of God James says we will love God and love others [Powerpoint 7 Tight rein on our tongues] And one way we can show this is in v26 to keep a tight rein on our tongues Page 8 of 12

9 If we don t control our tongues and instead have angry outbursts, frequent 9 quarrelling and arguing and offer a tirade of damaging criticism Then we show that in our hearts we don t love God or others And so James argues in this case - our religious activity is worthless it s fake! And it shows we are just hearers of God s word and not doers Instead in v27 he gives 2 examples of what pure and faultless religious activity looks like. The first example of pure and faultless religious activities is it looks like looking after orphans and widows. [Powerpoint 8 orphans and widows] Why orphans and widows? Well - Because they are helpless and vulnerable and have no support. No family to help them so they need our help. This can be extended to all the helpless in our world As Christians we will imitate our Heavenly Father if we help the helpless Like Those who suffer in 3 rd world or war-torn countries Those in our community who are homeless, poor, unemployed And it will translate into our government showing greater compassion towards those who are helpless For example our government can do more For those who are poor and helpless and needy Page 9 of 12

10 And they can do more for - Asylum Seekers and Refugees and come up with a 10 more loving policy that simply Stopping Boats By practicing pure and faultless religion we are actually doing it for Jesus In his parable in Matthew 25:40 Jesus says: [Powerpoint 9 Matt 25:40] Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me (pause) The second example of pure and faultless religious activity is at the end of v27 at it s a biggy keeping away from being polluted by the world literally stained by the world. [Powerpoint 10 polluted by the world] [Illustration tags on garments from shops] If we allow things that the world values highly to creep into our lives They will pollute us and stain us - and take over our lives Some examples of world views which are contrary to a Christian view of the world are: The world says there is no need for God we can be our own God and we can rule our own lives The world teaches only the uneducated and superstitious need God in their lives Page 10 of 12

11 11 The world promotes sexual freedom same sex relationships and sex outside of marriage and sleeping around The world teaches humankind evolved not that God created humankind in his image and that humankind is responsible and accountable to God The world teaches morals and sin are relative depending on the person and the situation the Bible teaches morals and sin are absolute The world teaches that Christians are intolerant, judgmental, bigoted, hypocritical, superstitious and uneducated TV shows and movies bombard us with: soft-pornography, sexual freedom, anti-family commercials and shows, terrible violence, children disobeying their parents and so on all promoted as quite normal (pause) If we start to get sucked into the world s way of thinking we will start to think the world is right and disregard God s word The danger is we could end up loving the world more than we love God that s what James is warning about here Conclusion SO - To sum up then: James expects that anyone who professes Faith in Jesus will express it by putting that faith into practice by: [Powerpoint 11 Sum up] Practicing Godly Behaviour Page 11 of 12

12 Practicing God s Word 12 And Practicing Pure Religion So friends take a look in God s mirror the Bible and it will show you what you should look like and behave like as a Christian. Let s pray Page 12 of 12