Doers of the word (James 1:22-25)

Doers of the word (James 1:22-25)

 

22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

 

Intro)  

1. The main theme of James emphasizes importance of acting and doing as you heard and read in the gospel. 

2. Ezekiel 33 tells us how Israelis were ignorant towards gospel. The result was catastrophic and that is why disciple James tells us how important it is to listen to gospel and act accordingly.

  

Body)

A) Doers will be blessed

 1. Luke 11:27-28 says, “²⁷ And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. ²⁸ But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.”

   

2. I watched a Korean TV show about an actor who is 64 years old. What surprised me was that he maintained his diabetes for 30 years without any complication. How did he manage that? It was simple. He did what doctors and other people with prior experience with diabetes told him to do. For example, exercise every day and watch what you are eating.

 

3. Brothers and sisters, doing what the bible tells us to do is benefit us even though you might not feel it. Sadly, not all the people are do as what bible says but it is very important. James 2:14 says, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”

 

 4. Calvin taught his students, “Go where the bible tells you to go and stop where the bible tells you to stop.” James 1:25 sayd, “ But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” You are not going to be able to test when you only look at Jesus. People who are looking for the worldly things will fall on various tests.

 

B) There is no benefit in just hearing words without doing.

 

1. James 1:22 says “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” If you thing regularly things like going to church is enough you are lying to yourself.

 

James 2:14 says, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” and also James  2:26 says “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

 

2. Some Christians says they were blessed by listening to famous pastor’s preaching, however where is the benefit if you listen to that entire good things and not acting accordingly? 

 

3. Matthew 13:14-15 says, “¹⁴ And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:¹⁵ For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” 

 

The Israelites knew the gospel but their understanding was wrong. They used their messiah, Jesus, as a political tool. Their heaven was not up in the sky; they were looking in the wrong direction. So James 1:23 says “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:”

 

4. There are numerous people like Pharaoh or Ananias and Sapphira. These people actually knew God is real and they experienced him first hand but they defied God and tried to manipulate Him. None of those people had an happy ending.

 

5. Only people who experienced how actually doing accordance with gospel know the value of gospel.  Matthew 13 says " The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:”

 

6. Matthew 7:24-25 “²⁴ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: ²⁵ And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” 

 7. There is a story about two frogs fall in to a bucket of milk. one gave up and died but the other one never gave up and kept on going. At the end the milk started to turn into butter and it made out alive. Even though we feel like living life of true Christian is hard but we should never give up.

 

8. A farmer asked President Benjamin Franklin an autograph. President wrote “Do today’s work today” along with his autograph. So the farmer went back home feeling tired. However, the farmer who was inspired by president’s word started to harvest his grains and finished on the same day. The next day the area had a huge rain shower and flooded. So if he postponed his harvesting he could have lost all of his grains.

 

9. Judges 6:25~32 describes the incident of Gideon destroying statues of false gods:

²⁵ And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father's young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

²⁶ And build an altar unto the Lord thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.

²⁷ Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him: and so it was, because he feared his father's household, and the men of the city, that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

²⁸ And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was cast down, and the grove was cut down that was by it, and the second bullock was offered upon the altar that was built.

²⁹ And they said one to another, Who hath done this thing? And when they enquired and asked, they said, Gideon the son of Joash hath done this thing.

³⁰ Then the men of the city said unto Joash, Bring out thy son, that he may die: because he hath cast down the altar of Baal, and because he hath cut down the grove that was by it.

³¹ And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will ye plead for Baal? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his altar.

³² Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, Let Baal plead against him, because he hath thrown down his altar.

True faith is worth defending it with our life. Keeping our true faith with God is not an easy task, if it was easy everybody would go to the Heaven no problem. Queen Esther risked her life by breaking loyal laws to save her people.

 

 Conclusion)

Today’s text strongly recommends us to follow and do accordingly with the gospel. Do not love anything more than God. Do this or everything you built will be destroyed like a sand castle. You could still be saved but you won’t have any reward. Let’s not get used to just listen to the word. Let’s all become doers.

 Do you have anything in your mind that you promise to God or you feel like you should do for our God? Nonetheless of situation you need to do it if it is what God is asking from us. You will be blessed. Choose Jesus over everything.

  

I want to finish today’s sermon with this verse from Matthew 19:29, “29. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.”

 

By Ik sun Ahn  012917