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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skip. As we begin our study today, let me introduce you to somebody you already know, another James. Uh from history, Jesse James.
So, Jesse James, about 150 years ago, a notorious criminal. Here's what you need to know about him. Pastor's kid. Raised in church. was a baptized member in good standing First Baptist Church in Kearney, Missouri.
The day he got baptized, I think it was the day he got baptized, right before his baptism, he went and. killed someone in a robbery, then got baptized. In his lifetime, Jesse James killed About 20 different people. Uh loved church. Loved singing.
in church. In fact, he was in the church choir. And there are even reports that Jesse James was a Sunday school teacher.
So how would you like to drop your kids off at Bible Island and Hi, I'm your teacher, this Jesse James.
So One biographer In his book, The Rise and Fall of Jesse, James wrote this concerning him. He expected to go to heaven when he died. For he believed that he had lived the best life he possibly could live under the circumstances and therefore was entitled to salvation.
Now I'm opening up. With him, because I think this is a pretty obvious example. I think everybody will agree that this guy was a hearer. of the word But not a doer of the word. If you were pulled over This afternoon, by a police officer, and I hope that doesn't happen to you.
But if you are going too fast, and a police officer pulls you over. As that officer writes you a ticket, That officer may point to the speed limit sign and say to you. Do what it says.
Next time. And you won't get a ticket. If you go home and you have an appliance that is not working, and you pull out the instruction manual. If you want that appliance to work, You need to Do what it says. If you go to the doctor and the doctor writes you a prescription for some medication, And on the medication, It tells you what it is and how often you should take it and how much you should take.
If you want to get healthy, you should. Do what it says.
If you go to school and you have a teacher, Who is nice enough to print out some instructions of how to make this class that you have enrolled in a success? And how to pass this class. If you want to pass the class, you better. Do what it says.
If you have a problem with your car and you go and watch a YouTube video on how to get your car fixed, If you want to drive your car and solve the problem, you better do what it says. This is God's Word. This is God's revelation to humanity. It is life-changing. It is inerrant.
It is timeless. It is practical. It is powerful. If you're wise, You will Do what it says. That is the theme of today's message.
because this is the bottom line. experience for every true believer. is called to be transformed and obey God's word. The theme of this entire section that we dealt with last week and this week is. is the Word of God, the Word of God.
And when I say the Word of God, and the Bible speaks about the Word of God, it is speaking about God's revelation of Himself to us. principally found in the Bible. but culminating in the living word who is Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.
So, the word of God is what we call God's revelation centering around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, the gospel. Here's a little review from last week. Look at verse 18. We've heard the word of God.
We've been changed by it. It's the word of God that gave us spiritual birth. Verse 18 says, Of his own will he brought us forth. or birthed us by the word of truth. Because of that, We should be very quick to hear the word.
Very slow to speak against the word. Or against God who gave the word, or against messengers who. Preach the word. That's the next verse.
So then, my beloved brethren, let everyone be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Whenever we hear Or read. or exposed to the truth of God's word. We should humbly receive it like Planting seed in good soil. Verse 21, therefore lay aside all filthiness.
and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
So far so good. But there's another step. At some point, we can't just hear it, say amen to it. We have to actually do What? It's a little bit.
Says And that's why James continues this thinking into the next paragraph. to be a doer.
Okay. I discovered something this week. I knew there were a lot. I didn't know there were this many.
So, guess how many? Bible translations are available today. in English only. English translations, 900. 900 different Bible translations available just in English.
Now, here's the question I always get asked: which is the best one? I want to buy a Bible. What's the best translation to get? Here's the best translation of the Bible you can get. It's called the Doers' Translation.
The Doers Translation, that's where it's not a Bible covered in cowhide or goatskin, but shoe leather. It's people who walk in the truth and display the truth. by their very lives.
Now We're going to look at in James chapter 1, verse 22 to the end of the chapter. Five areas of life. Five categories, and because there's five, I want to move through it swiftly. in which the Word of God should be preeminent. First of all is submission.
We should do what it says. Look at verse 22. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, He is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man He was.
Did you know there's no virtue at all in Just owning a Bible. I've had people say, I've got ten Bibles at home. Woo! No virtue in owning a Bible. No virtue in even reading and studying a Bible or taking the Bible as literature class.
and knowing a lot about it. And here's why. The Bible is different from every Other Book.
Some books give you information. Other books give you Intellectual stimulation. Other books will entertain you and give you inspiration, but the Bible, the Bible promises transformation. It can change you. But it can only change you.
If there's action. The transformation comes when We take Action.
So, you can read history. If you read a history book, It asks nothing of you. You can read a novel, there will be no imperatives for you to obey. You can read a science text. That text will make no demands on you.
You can read a cookbook filled with recipes, but you don't have to cook. But once you acknowledge the Bible is the authoritative word of God. It requires that we are conformed to it. We translate it By doing it.
So an intellectual knowledge, apart from an experiential knowledge of the Bible, is relatively useless. That's why he says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
Now, Who is James writing to? Is he writing to unbelievers or believers? He's writing to believers because he says at the beginning of this book, my brethren, he's speaking to fellow believers.
So Unbelievers are never asked to do anything. They're only asked one thing, and what is that to do? To believe, not to do anything, but to believe.
So remember when they came to Jesus and they said, What must we do to work? The works of God, Jesus said, this is the work of God. That you believe in the one whom he has sent.
So the gospel to the unbeliever is not that they must do something, but that God has already done something. for them. Yeah, yeah. Once you're his child. Once you are enjoying all the riches that are yours in Christ, once you are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and it's active in your life, then.
Then you are called upon to do something. This is Connect with Skip-Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, have you ever wondered what it really means to grow up spiritually? In Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip Heitzig walks you through 21 powerful teachings that show you how to live a mature, Christ-centered life, one shaped by conviction, consistency, and character. This practical and encouraging series is yours when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig and share teaching like this one today with more people around the globe.
Request adulting as a CD package or digital download at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Let's return now to today's message. Here's an example. When I was a kid, my parents would pick me up from school at the end of the day. Mom would do it, or dad would do it.
If mom did it, It was good. It was good because all it meant is I could go home and do some homework and then go play. If dad picked me up from school, it usually meant I had chores to do. Dad would pick me up. He'd have that look in his eyes, so I had to go home, do chores, and homework, and if I had any time left over, okay.
So here's the thing. When dad would pick me up at school and I was playing with my friends, my dad never demanded that any of my friends come home and do chores with me. Because they were not his.
Sons, I was.
So, because I was a son in that family, there were certain things demanded of me in the Heizig family that were not demanded of. people who were not his kids.
So we are his kids. And we are called upon with changed lives to do something. And this is what he says: be doers of the word, not hearers only. The word that he has decided to use here for hearers means somebody who listens. Passively.
Passively. It's sort of like if you go to college and you take a course. You can audit a course. It means you've got to pay the money to take it, but nothing is demanded of you. You just got to sit there.
You don't have to take any tests. You don't have to turn in any papers. You just show up and listen passively.
Some come to church like that. They come to church. They're auditing the class. They're taking God 101. They sit through it, but never Allow the word to confront them, to change them from who they were to what God wants them to be.
What James wants you to know is if you do that, the end of verse 22 tells us you are deceiving yourselves. Any response to the word short of obedience. Yeah. Deception. In 1 John chapter 3 in the New Living Translation, John writes: So now we can tell who are children of God.
and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not obey God's commands. And does not love other Christians, does not belong to God.
So here's James just sort of jumping right into being very practical. The first area is that of submission. Then In what we just read, he gives us an example. And the example is a man looking in a mirror.
Now, some of you are reading that.
Some of you men are reading this verse. And you go, oh, wait a minute, didn't James have that wrong? A man looking in a mirror, shouldn't he have said? It's like a woman looking in a mirror. I just want to bring that up because a lot of men kind of put that on their wives.
Well, you know, my wife's always looking at herself in the mirror. Did you know that men look at themselves in mirrors far more than women do? Just a little FYI. Um A little study was done over in England. They took a thousand Brits.
And they studied them. They discovered men look in the mirror 23 times a day, women look in the mirror 16 times per day.
So Men are just as vain, even 75% more so. Than women.
So, all that to say, the Bible's pretty accurate when it puts it this way. It's like a man. Looking or observing his natural face in the mirror, he observes himself. And then goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. Here's what you need to know.
2,000 years ago, when this was written, they didn't have mirrors like we have. You know, we have modern, nice mirrors. Back in those days, a mirror was a piece of metal beaten with a hammer. Polished. as good as they could do it, so the image was dim and distorted.
And the homes that they lived in weren't well lit with nice windows like we have. They were tiny little windows because they didn't have glass.
So, if you wanted to look at yourself in a mirror, you had to take the mirror into your courtyard, usually outside, position it just right to get a reflection.
So, it took a lot of time and effort to see yourself. In a mirror.
So The audience that James writes to would be probably chuckling about this point. Because they would realize if you really want to see yourself in a mirror, you better remember what you look like. Because it takes time and effort to see yourself in a mirror. I am liking mirrors less and less. I just want it to be stated.
Mirrors are not my friend as we age. Uh mirrors are just Brutally honest. And some of them, frankly, should be outlawed. Especially when there's bright lights that accompany those mirrors, because they tell us the truth. I heard about, this is in a J.
Burnham McGee book. He talks about these two hillbillies, a husband and wife that lived in the hills of Tennessee. And this guy used to like to go, and whenever campers would come in the area and the campers would leave, he would forage through the campsite to see if they left anything, and he'd take it home.
So one day, a group of campers was in the mountains, they left. in the old hillbilly Uh left his cabin, went through the camp and found a mirror. He had never seen a mirror before.
So we held it up and looked at it. longingly and said I never knew my daddy had his picture took.
Well, he took the mirror home. Hit it. Under a pillow. to hide it from his wife. After all, I thought it was a picture of his daddy.
His wife saw him hiding something when the guy left the room. She went and found the mirror and looked at it, and she said, So that's the old hag he's been running around with. You see, it's easy to read the Bible and think that it's picturing somebody else. It just means you've forgotten what you look like. And here's the point of all this.
Unless a Christian acts promptly When they hear a Bible study or a sermon. They're going to forget what needs to be changed. You see, unless you are intentional and active in hearing, and you actually make a little note down to, oh, I'll remember this, I'll make a mental note. No, you won't. Unless you are intentional and actively listen.
To immediately apply, you will forget what needs to be changed. When I go to the gym, they have along one whole wall. A mirror. And Guys like to look at themselves in the mirror when they're working out, and I'll notice guys walk up to the mirror. Whenever they do, they stand a little bit taller and straighter, squared shoulders, and they go sideways and they suck in the gut, you know, so they look really good and trim.
And then they walk away and they let it out again. They've forgotten what they look like.
So Jesus said this: if you know these things, Happy are you if you do them. If you know these things, happy are you if you do them. And then, do you remember on the Sermon on the Mount? Jesus ended this sermon by saying, Whoever hears these sayings of mine, and does them I will liken him to a man who builds his house on the rock. And the winds blew, and the storms came, and the house stood because it was built on the rock.
But whoever hears these sayings of mine and doesn't do them, He's like a man who builds his house on the sand, and when the storms of life blow through, Great. will be the fall. of that house.
So James says, Be doers of the word, do what it says. Submission is the first category. Second category is study.
Okay. If you're going to do what it says, you've got to know what it says, right? You have to get an accurate picture of what the Bible is saying.
So look at verse 25. But he who looks... Key word, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it. and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does.
The word look is a key word. It means to look Intently. Or to look attentively or to look penetratingly. It it is somebody who studies Gazes at is the idea. It's the word used in the Gospel of John when the Apostle John came to the tomb of Jesus and it said he looked inside.
He looked and believed. That is, he gazed, he studied, and he thought, There's only one explanation for this. A resurrection. That's that kind of look.
So, James is describing somebody examining the word closely to discover its deepest meaning. And for this person, it's not a exercise in curiosity. He's not a forgetful here. It's not like, yep, good message. I'm scale of 1 to 10.
I'll give it a 6. It's somebody who's swift to hear. Swift to hear.
Now you know that hearing God's truth builds up our faith, right? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But, as I mentioned, there's a couple of different ways to listen. You can listen actively. You can listen.
Passively. Actively is What is this saying? I'm going to study it carefully. I'm going to apply this diligently. Um passively is I'm auditing God 101.
Auditing the class.
So Jesus Said two different things. In Mark chapter 4, he said, take heed what you hear, but in Luke chapter 8, he said, take heed. How you here. Take heed what you hear. Be careful what you allow yourself to listen to.
But then, once you listen to the good stuff, Do it the right way. Take heed how you hear.
So here's an example. One time Jesus told his disciples he was going to the cross, he was going to die. They had no idea what he was talking about. Went over their heads. They're not really listening to this.
They didn't want to hear it. He did it again. They didn't want to hear it. So on one occasion it says, Jesus said this to his 12 disciples: Let these words sink down into your ears. Let these words sink down into your ears.
We're so glad you joined us today for Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Before we go. Don't miss this opportunity to request Pastor Skip's series Adulting, a study through the book of James. This 21 message series dives deep into what it means to live a spiritually mature life. full of faith, character, and Christ-like purpose.
Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God. Thanks for spending time with us today, and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heidseg. Make a connection.
Make a connection never fully. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
