When we get a new appliance, an owner's manual comes with it. It provides us with helpful instructions.
You can read the manual from cover to cover, but if you don't follow the directions, your appliance is not going to work. As believers, we've been given God's Word to guide our lives, but it's not enough for us to simply listen to it. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains why. I invite you to turn to James chapter 1. It might be helpful to know that we're going to turn to a verse in Jeremiah chapter 31, but that's just to be forewarned. Now, James chapter 1 and reading from verse 22 to 25. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves, do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does. Father, we pray that with our Bibles open before us, the Spirit of God will take the truth and write it in our hearts, convince us in our thinking, and change us in our living. We look alone to you to accomplish this, and we pray in Christ's name.
Amen. Well, we're continuing to pay as close attention as we can to the very practical instruction which James is providing for us in this letter. We began to look at the section to which we now return. We began to look at verse 22 under the heading Don't Kid Yourselves. And we noted that James is warning his readers, warning us, of the dangers of self-deception.
The dangers of self-deception. He has urged upon them the importance of listening. In verse 19, we saw that in verse 20, but now he warns them against merely listening. It's important that you listen, he says, verse 19, and in verse 22, it is important also that you do not merely listen.
Now, there's great wisdom in this, isn't there? Because it is possible to derive a measure of satisfaction just from listening if the person who teaches is enthusiastic or clear or concise or helpful or whatever it may be, then the listener may be caught up in the enthusiasm of the preacher, may actually deem the time of listening as being worthwhile, and may actually go out of the opportunity determining that it really was a good experience for him or for her to be here. But of course, if five minutes or fifteen seconds after the benediction, when the Bible is closed and the music begins to play, if that same individual who has determined that this has been a worthwhile exercise and has been profitable and good for them, if they themselves remain unchanged by it, then James says it's really a useless exercise in the extreme. In other words, it's possible to be charmed by the Bible being taught without being changed by the Bible being taught. And there are wonderful illustrations in the Bible of those who were hearing, who were listening carefully, and yet who remained absolutely unchanged. The picture that is used here in this verb for hearing or listening is the picture of the individual who in the first century would have attended lectures—for example, we have in Acts the scene in the lecture hall of Tyrannus, and this is representative of a number of these lecture facilities that were in existence at that time—and people would go regularly to listen to the lectures without ever becoming disciples of the one who taught.
And that is the word which is used here. The person who is happy to go along and listen but is only and merely listening without ever being changed by the truth. You, for example, have this classically in the life of Herod, who, in listening to what we might say was the second-best preacher at John the Baptist, Mark records of Herod, he used to listen to him and be profoundly disturbed, and yet he enjoyed hearing him. It's an interesting statement, isn't it? He used to listen to him, and when he listened to John the Baptist preaching, it disturbed him, it got him all jingle-jangle inside of himself, and yet when that all passed away, then he walked out and he said, You know, but I really enjoy listening to John the Baptist.
He was charmed, but he was unchanged. And when listening becomes for any one of us an end in itself, then any benefit that may be gained is inevitably imperfect and is inevitably short-lived. That's, as I say to you frequently now, the great danger of being somewhere like Parkside Church, where you're not being subjected to a seven-minute homily out of Newsweek magazine or somebody's rambling thoughts, but there is at least an endeavor—irrespective of who is behind this pulpit—there is an honest endeavor on the part of the individual to turn the congregation to the Bible and to look into the Bible so that we're all very clear that all of us is under the instruction of this book, that none of us is prescribing over it or from it in some way unrelated to it. No, we are all under the instruction and tutelage of the Bible. And therefore, if we merely listen to it, then we are in great danger.
Great danger. Because the more we listen to it, without being changed by it, the less likely we will be changed by it. I can pick out individuals who consistently attended to listen to the Bible and were unchanged by it. And the longer they went, the less likely they were to be transformed, because they became hardened to the truth that they heard, they became familiar with it, and they may even have said it was beneficial.
But no use to them at all. Now, the superficial casual glance of man number one here in verse 22—the superficial casual glance looks into the mirror and immediately forgets, fails to do anything about it—is a picture of the individual who treats the Bible, who treats the Word of truth in the same way. Tasker, a New Testament commentator for whom we have cause to be thankful, suggests that the forgetting that is referenced here, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like, is not the forgetfulness of lack of memory or lack of cognitive ability. But Tasker suggests that it may well be a purposeful forgetting.
So he writes as follows. If the man does see glimpses on his countenance of the ravages being wrought by sin, sickness, anxiety, or the inevitable passage of time, his instinct is to banish such a vision quickly from his memory and to turn at once to other things. That actually seems to make a lot of sense to me, because most of us routinely do not forget what we saw in the mirror unless we've got some problem. We usually remember. It's when we don't want to remember that we can deliberately put it aside and get on with other things. So I say to you again that fifty seconds after the benediction, you will get a pretty clear indication of what is going on in all of our hearts and minds when we want to immediately forget what has been said, we want to turn away from what we've seen of ourselves, we want to dispense with that which has confronted us, challenged us, and called us to change, and we want immediately to find somebody out in the corridor with whom we can talk about the Final Four, or whether the Doral is going to finish at six o'clock in time for the South Africa service, or whatever it might be.
And I don't say that to make any one of us feel guilty. Because I'm as good at it as the next person is. But it is a striking picture. When you see the end of a golf tournament, now that I'm there in my mind, and it comes down to that eighteenth green, you don't find that people are chasing off to catch the bus.
You don't find that when that putt has dropped, they say, Well, that's the end of that. Let's get on with life. You find that there is an almost holy awe that settles on the event. Wow! Can you believe we were here? Can you believe we saw this?
I want to sit here for a minute or two, because I don't want to ever forget what happened to me here. Have you ever had that experience, when the Bible's taught? Whatever passing benefit may be gleaned from a casual observance, the right response, says James, is the response of careful obedience. He moves very quickly from his illustration in man one to the man who, by contrast, verse 25, looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard but doing it, and he's the man who will be truly happy. He's the blessed man, and the blessing will come along the pathway of obedience. What we really have then in verse 25 is what we might refer to as simply the right response to the truth—the right response to the truth, or to the Word. And there are three words that I want to give you. But before I give you those three words, I want you to look carefully at what it is that James references in terms of our response to it.
What is the man looking into? Well, the man is looking intently into the perfect law that gives freedom. Now, James has already talked about the truth. He's spoken about the word of truth, which is a reference to the gospel as taught by Jesus and then as understood and taught by the apostles. But given the fact that he is writing to a congregation or to people, many of whom came out of a Jewish background, many of whom had a clear understanding of the law in its ceremonial aspects, in its civil aspects, in its moral implications to them, as summarized in the Ten Commandments, I don't think that there is any doubt that James here is making a very clear and crucial point necessary for all who read. Hence my reference to Jeremiah 31, from which I want to read right now, in verse 33. And here, the Word of God through the prophet Jeremiah is as follows. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. This is what I'm going to do for my people. I'm going to put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts. Now, the Ten Commandments had been written not on their hearts but on tablets of stone.
They had been given these tablets. Those Ten Commandments, incidentally, were not given to them as a means to get out of the bondage of Egypt. The Ten Commandments were given to them after they had been redeemed and come out of the bondage of Egypt.
The Ten Commandments were given to them to frame their lives. Now, when you go into the New Testament and you come back to James and you turn back a couple of pages into Hebrews, which is the most Old Testament, New Testament book, then you discover that the writer to the Hebrews, after he has made unmistakably clear that Jesus' death on the cross has once and for all made an atoning sacrifice for sins, that the reason he has sat down is because his work is completed, and in verse 14 of Hebrews 10, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. And then he says, And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. The third person of the Trinity has something to say on this. The Holy Spirit has spoken. How has he spoken, and what has he said?
Well, fascinatingly, he has spoken the Bible. And the Holy Spirit quotes Jeremiah 31. This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. He takes this promise, made first and directly to the people of Israel, and he expands it and explodes it, if you like, to fit with all who are the people of God by grace through faith, who are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the people belonging to God, as Peter puts it in 1 Peter 2 9. And he says, This is the covenant I make with them.
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds. In other words, this perfect law that gives freedom is perfect because it is God's provision. It's perfectly suited to our needs and to our natures. It is, if you like, just what the doctor ordered. Remember, Jesus says, It's not the healthy that need a doctor, it's the sick. I didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
And then the physician who heals gives, if you like, the prescription. And he says, Now I have redeemed you in order that you might become the firstfruits, that you might be dedicated to God. How are we to be dedicated to God? Well, we're to be dedicated to God by the doing of God's will.
Where do we find the doing of God's will? We find it in his law. What is this law? Is it external?
No, it's internal. Where is this law? It's written in our hearts. And paradoxically, the constraining impact of the law is what provides freedom.
Freedom. Now, unless we get this, we will be in all kinds of difficulty, and some of us, frankly, are, and I know that from talking with you. Because you've bought an approach to Christianity which uses terminology correctly in its phraseology but misapplies it. So, for example, you routinely say, We're not under law, we're under grace. Which, of course, is true. That's a quote from the Bible, but what does it mean?
In a significant number of people who say that phrase to me, this is what it means. It used to be in the Old Testament there was a thing going on about law. But once we got to Malachi and went through the four hundred years of the intertestamental period and got into Matthew, then we were finished with law, and all we do is grace. Under law, you were supposed to do what you were told. You had to obey the Ten Commandments. Under grace, you do what you feel like, and the Holy Spirit helps you to feel the way you want to feel. So really, you don't want anybody telling you anything that you're supposed to do or not do, because that's Old Testament stuff. If they're truly in the New Testament, they will never say that to you, and if they do, you will know they are legalists. So don't listen to them.
Don't pay any attention to them at all. Because the key is, you have been set free from all of that. You are no longer under law. You're under grace.
Now, that may be something of a caricature, but not too much. The fact is, we are no longer under law as a means of acceptance with God. All of our acceptance with God. And it always was as a result of grace—the grace of law. We are not under law as a means of acceptance with God. But we are under law as a means of living for God. Our freedom in Christ—and this is the paradox—is tied directly to our obedience. It is by our obedience that we're free. Disobedient people think they're free, but they're in bondage.
Obedient people may feel themselves constrained, but they're in freedom. Now, James is taking a leaf out of his brother's book, isn't he? Jesus said the same thing time and again. John chapter 8, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. This is verse 31 of John 8. If you hold to my teaching, you're really my disciples. Remember, we talked earlier about the people who listened to the lectures but didn't become disciples.
Jesus may well have the same thought in his mind. You come along to all these talks, he says, and you listen, but you go away. You're charmed by them, but you're not changed by them. If you hold to my teaching, then you're really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Now, I have to get back to the—this is a parenthetical journey here. If you want to think this through a little more, then let me commend a book to you called Pathway to Freedom. You don't need to read the whole book, but just the prologue. And in the prologue, the author there deals with Calvin's third use of the law. The third use of the law.
And, as I say, you will be helped by that. Cowper, in one of his hymns, succinctly grasps this in one stanza when he puts it as follows. To see the law by Christ fulfilled.
Okay? Jesus kept the law—every detail of the law in its perfection. He did what we in our sin cannot do, could not do. To see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice. And hear his pardoning voice. The rest of the quote in Hebrews 10, there is, and the Holy Spirit goes on to say, And their sins and their lawless acts I will remember no more.
Why? Because of the finished work that he's just referenced in the earlier part of the chapter. To see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice changes a slave into a child and duty into choice. To see the law by Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice changes a slave into a child and duty into choice.
I love your law, says the psalmist. I love it. It's not external to me. It's not a nuisance to me. It's not making me chafe at the bit.
Why? Because it's written in his heart. If you want to know freedom from guilt, lust, fear, loneliness, aimlessness, emptiness, as a Christian, it is dependent upon your obedience on obeying what you've been taught. That's why, you see, some people in a congregation like this go on to maturity, and others don't. It's the same seed that's sown. Everyone hears the same sermons.
What's the difference? Well, it's all in the parable of the sower. Remember, Jesus said, And the sower went forth the sower, and when he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside. It just landed on stony ground. It was on the hard bits of the path. It never had any root at all. The birds picked it up, and it was gone in a moment or two.
It hardly had a chance to hit the ground, and it was away. In the same way, the people who come and listen to the Bible taught, and they're out the door within fifteen seconds, they can't imagine why they would stay around for an iota longer. And others, instant bloom, all of a sudden they're enthusiasts.
Springtime enthusiasm wanes in the summer, dies by the autumn, and in the winter no one knows where they are. Others seem to be going along nicely, and the truth is choked out. It's choked out by stuff, by worries, and cares, and money, and possessions, and anxieties, because we've forgotten that godliness with contentment is great gain. And in actual fact, when you read the parable of the sower, it becomes perfectly clear that there's a tremendous amount of wastage in the whole process, isn't there? But the good soil, said Jesus, represents the hearts of those who receive the truth when it is planted in them, who obey it, and who go on. Alistair Begg reminding us today that we can't just listen to God's Word, we have to obey it.
This is Truth for Life, we'll hear more on this topic tomorrow. Alistair's message today ended with the parable of the sower and the seed, it's a reminder to us as parents, as grandparents, even Sunday school teachers, we have the great privilege and responsibility of planting God's Word in the hearts of our children and grandchildren. So don't wait to request a copy of the book we've been talking about called Bible Stories Every Child Should Know. This is a collection of more than 120 stories from both the Old and New Testaments, it's available through tomorrow and it's perfect for passing God's truth on to the next generation. Request your copy of the book Bible Stories Every Child Should Know when you give online at truthforlife.org slash donate or tap the book image in the app. Let me also mention if you'd like to purchase extra copies to give this book as a gift, the book Bible Stories Every Child Should Know is available to buy at our cost when you go online to truthforlife.org slash store. I'm Bob Lapine, it's not enough for us to hear or even listen to God's Word, we can know what it says but it's what we do next that makes all the difference. How are we to respond to the teaching we find in the Bible? Find out more tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-08-18 18:37:58 / 2023-08-18 18:46:37 / 9