SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, First Baptist El Dorado, Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: It's a joy to be with you this morning, and I do appreciate the invitation that your pastor extended to me to come and to continue this series in the book of James, talking about authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: I've known Brian, yeah, at least 11 years, and uh your pastor I've known for probably 10 years or longer as well.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's just been great to watch him grow and develop, becoming one of the best young leaders uh in the state.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not telling you anything you don't already know about him, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I also want to say this he knows how blessed he is to be here leading uh this church.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you are one of the best churches in our Arkansas Baptist State Convention.
SPEAKER_00: So, on behalf of Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Sonny Tucker and all those who serve at the convention, thank you uh for your support of our work.
SPEAKER_00: Um, what we do would simply not take place without churches like First Baptist El Dorado and the the that you're giving through the cooperative program.
SPEAKER_00: It allows us to do so many things.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the impact is not just just here in our state, it's it's really uh a broader impact.
SPEAKER_00: Um, how many of you know what the day after tomorrow is?
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said Memorial Day, day after tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I confess I can't hear a word you're saying, but you're saying lots of ideas.
SPEAKER_00: It is the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
SPEAKER_00: No, we don't think about that much here in South Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: I live in Texas, Canada, so I'm right here with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's just not something that gets on our radar.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: The folks in South Louisiana know what Tuesday is, they pay attention to when hurricane season starts.
SPEAKER_00: Last year they discovered who Arkansas Baptists were because we spent about 84 days down there in disaster relief deployment, funded by your giving through the cooperative program.
SPEAKER_00: In those 80 some odd days, they served over 200,000 meals.
SPEAKER_00: They provided over 2,000 showers.
SPEAKER_00: Now you think, well, shower, that's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's not a big deal unless you've gone three or four days in the heat and humidity of South Louisiana and haven't had one.
SPEAKER_00: Then it becomes pretty important.
SPEAKER_00: Uh washed over 800 loaves of clothes.
SPEAKER_00: And most importantly, there were over 200 recorded salvations by the witness of those who were down there in disaster relief.
SPEAKER_00: Your giving makes a difference in the here and now and in the hereafter.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for being faithful and supporting the work of the cooperative program.
SPEAKER_00: It is making a difference.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's something you didn't know about me.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a lot of that disaster relief took place in my home state.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a Louisiana boy.
SPEAKER_00: That's just plain and simple.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an Arkansas Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: We've been here since 2003 when we moved here.
SPEAKER_00: I was on staff at Beach Street First Baptist in Texas, Canada, so I'm an Arkansas Baptist, but I'm a Louisiana boy, and that makes me an LSU fan.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before you start throwing things, hold on, don't get up and walk out on me.
SPEAKER_00: Let me, yeah, we're we can still be friends.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me temper that a little bit by telling you both of my daughters are graduates of the University of Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: You feel a little better now?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It always brings a smile back from those frowns.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm I have to say it with a little tear in my eye, but it always makes you smile.
SPEAKER_00: Several years ago, my oldest daughter uh was in town on the Thanksgiving break, and on a Friday morning, we decided we wanted to go watch LSU and Arkansas play football in War Memorial Stadium.
SPEAKER_00: Remember those days when they used to play on that CBS game?
SPEAKER_00: I'm still a little bitter at CBS for taking that game away, but but we decided to go catch that game.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we didn't have tickets, and we had no guarantee because if I remember right, both of them were ranked in the top 25.
SPEAKER_00: It was a pretty important game in the SEC West.
SPEAKER_00: But we're gonna go anyway, so we got in my truck, started the drive down I-30.
SPEAKER_00: And on the way, she began to make some phone calls trying to find us some tickets.
SPEAKER_00: And she finally got in touch with an old college buddy of hers who actually worked for one of the sports talk radio stations there in Fayetteville.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Yeah, he had one ticket left.
SPEAKER_00: So she knew she had a ticket, she knew she could get in, so we continued on down the road to War Memorial Stadium.
SPEAKER_00: When we got there, of course we had to, you know, get in all the lines and park, and we finally started walking up to the stadium.
SPEAKER_00: And what I did before I got on my little pickup truck was I grabbed a license plate she had given me when she first enrolled in the University of Arkansas.
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of those house-divided license plates.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen them?
SPEAKER_00: Half of it's the University of Arkansas, half of it's LSU.
SPEAKER_00: And I took a piece of paper and taped it on the back of it, and I said, need one ticket.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's how it works.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never been to one of these games, if the game's not very popular, you'll see people standing on street corners and outside the ticket gates, and they'll have all their extra tickets in their hands.
SPEAKER_00: Two tickets, four tickets.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they're trying to get a little of their money back.
SPEAKER_00: That was not the case for this game.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it was just the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: You saw people walking around, need two tickets, need four tickets.
SPEAKER_00: I tried to get a little edge on them by having that neat sign and printed on the back.
SPEAKER_00: Wasn't working very well.
SPEAKER_00: We have walked around the stadium a couple times trying to find just one ticket.
SPEAKER_00: That's all I need, just one ticket.
SPEAKER_00: It got close to kickoff time.
SPEAKER_00: My daughter's getting a little anxious.
SPEAKER_00: Um, she hates to miss the kickoff, and she wants to, I mean, she feels like the whole game is ruined if she's not there from the very first play.
SPEAKER_00: And so she's about ready to go into the stadium, and I'm about to resign to the fact that I'm gonna have to go back out to the tailgate area and probably watch it on some television, maybe that somebody's got there.
SPEAKER_00: When this guy walked up to us, and he is all decked out in his hog gear, and he looked at me kind of like, hmm, I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You still need a ticket?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Yep, see the sign right here.
SPEAKER_00: Need one ticket.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, I had made up my mind I was not gonna sell this ticket to an LSU fan.
SPEAKER_00: That would just be one less voice in the stadium cheering against my hogs.
SPEAKER_00: He said, But I recognize that your daughter is decked out in hog gear, and surely her dad can't be that bad of an LSU fan.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sold me that one ticket.
SPEAKER_00: And I was able, we didn't get to sit together, but we were in the stadium, and I could actually see her.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't too far away from where this guy's ticket was.
SPEAKER_00: I benefited that day from the fact this guy recognized that my daughter was a hog fan.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in life it is good to be recognized for who we are, right?
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, in thinking about this theme of authentic faith, I think it would be good for us to ask the question of all of ourselves this morning: is my faith authentic enough to be recognized?
SPEAKER_00: Is my faith in Jesus Christ authentic enough to be recognized, particularly when I'm outside of the church?
SPEAKER_00: Last week your pastor preached from chapter 1, dealing with temptation, and did an incredible job.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe that was last week, right?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Did an incredible job on the idea of dealing with temptation.
SPEAKER_00: And the passage that he preached on concludes with James mentioning this in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: It says that God gave us birth through the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: That birth there is not talking about natural physical birth.
SPEAKER_00: That's talking about spiritual birth.
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And James reminds us that our birth, our salvation comes from the word of truth, from the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Without the word of God, we would not even know we need salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But from Genesis to Revelation, the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how we came to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So the word of truth is, of course, the word of God that he's talking about there.
SPEAKER_00: And this morning I want us to look at authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: And we will see that not only does our salvation come from the Word of God, but our ability to live out in authentic faith has its roots in God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith is indeed empowered by the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's our topic this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And James gives us some hints here of what to do to live out this authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: And there are three requirements that he gives to us.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to look at those in verses 19 through 27.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray as we begin this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we're thankful that we were able to come and to worship you this morning in song and to be reminded how great you are, Lord, and that truly, God, your greatness is right here with us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So we thank you for your presence.
SPEAKER_00: And we confess a dependency upon you this morning as we look at your word, Father, that you would use it to teach us.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at three things that James says is required.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he said, authentic faith must receive the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith must receive the Word.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verses 19 through 21.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My dear brothers and sisters, understand this.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: For human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
SPEAKER_00: James is a very practical book.
SPEAKER_00: There are over fifty imperative direct commands throughout the book.
SPEAKER_00: He's just telling you, here's what you do to live out in authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: And here in this passage we see three commands.
SPEAKER_00: He says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what does he mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are generally two interpretations of what is meant here.
SPEAKER_00: Both of them are correct.
SPEAKER_00: Neither of them will conflict with each other.
SPEAKER_00: They don't conflict with the rest of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to share with you those two interpretations this morning.
SPEAKER_00: First, some scholars will apply this to the way that we communicate with each other, the way that we talk.
SPEAKER_00: Do we listen to each other?
SPEAKER_00: A couple of Saturdays ago, on a Saturday afternoon, my wife was working.
SPEAKER_00: I was home alone.
SPEAKER_00: I think I was watching an LSU baseball game.
SPEAKER_00: And the doorbell rang.
SPEAKER_00: Now, our neighborhood, that's kind of unusual for somebody just to drop by on a Saturday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: And I opened the door, and standing on our front porch is the former college roommate of my youngest daughter.
SPEAKER_00: I can only imagine the look on my face when I opened the door.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing she said was, after she said hello, was I'm sorry I'm late.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking, Leah, late for what?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know why you're at my front door.
SPEAKER_00: And then about that time, after a couple of awkward moments of looking at each other, something in the back of my brain began to percolate about a conversation Sandy, my wife and I had had the night before, while I think I was also watching a Hellish U baseball game.
SPEAKER_00: Something about somebody was going to come sometime to get something for somebody to take somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, it just really wasn't gelling very well in my mind.
SPEAKER_00: And so I invited her in, just it was just feeling horrible leaving her standing out there on the front door.
SPEAKER_00: Her husband was out in their car, too, I noticed, thinking, well, why isn't he coming up?
SPEAKER_00: And so I began to think, okay, maybe if I walk around the house, I'll find whatever she's obviously she's the one who's come to get whatever this is.
SPEAKER_00: And so I walked down the hallway just like I knew exactly what I was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking in bedrooms, nothing.
SPEAKER_00: And open the garage door, and finally, sitting out on an old dresser in our garage is a stack of baby diapers.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh yes, she's come to get those diapers for her newborn out in the car.
SPEAKER_00: They were diapers my daughter, who lives in Streeport, was giving to this young lady who lives in Dallas.
SPEAKER_00: You can understand my confusion as to what in the world she was doing on my front porch.
SPEAKER_00: But so I gave her those diapers and she went happily on her way.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't listen very well to my wife the night before.
SPEAKER_00: That could be what James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Because you see, how well we listen to each other shows how much we value each other.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't value my wife very much.
SPEAKER_00: I've already confessed this to her, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: We've already had a discussion about this, that I'm going to try to listen better.
SPEAKER_00: She should know after 30-something years, when Ellie's on TV, she's got to go yank me by the ear.
SPEAKER_00: She's got something important to say.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's that's another story.
SPEAKER_00: So better listening could be what James is talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Other scholars, however, believe that James is talking about a higher conversation, a higher interaction, one that really is far more important.
SPEAKER_00: Some scholars believe that James is referring to how we approach the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And as proof of that, they will point to the many times James mentions the word in just a few short passages.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 18, he calls it the word of truth.
SPEAKER_00: We've already talked about that.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 21, he refers to it as the implanted word.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 22, he talks about being doers of the word.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 23, he warns of being a hearer only of the word.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 25, he calls it the perfect law of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: James is telling us in verse 19 how to handle the word of truth that he mentions in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: The word of truth, of course, is God's word, the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And so I believe, as do many scholars, that James is concerned about these Jews that he's writing to, these believing Jews who have heard the truth about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He's concerned about what are they now doing with the truth that they've heard?
SPEAKER_00: Have they indeed received it?
SPEAKER_00: The word that is translated received there in verse 21 indicates an acceptance of.
SPEAKER_00: Have they accepted the truths about Jesus, particularly compared to what they had been taught previously?
SPEAKER_00: You know, the American church probably has more access to the Word of God than any other country in the world.
SPEAKER_00: I'm guessing most of you have multiple copies of the Bible at home.
SPEAKER_00: They're all over our churches.
SPEAKER_00: We have them on our phones and computers and other digital devices.
SPEAKER_00: We have the word of God accessible to us everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: We can hear it at any time.
SPEAKER_00: The question is, do we receive it?
SPEAKER_00: Do we accept what God is giving to us?
SPEAKER_00: Because just because we hear it doesn't mean automatic acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest, don't we sometimes come to God's word not really listening to what God might be saying?
SPEAKER_00: Or worse yet, we read it hoping to confirm our own way of thinking, trying to find some proof text to support our thoughts, possibly ignoring what God is actually saying, and maybe even getting a little angry.
SPEAKER_00: When God tells us to do something in our flesh, we just don't want to do it.
SPEAKER_00: I came across a cartoon this week.
SPEAKER_00: I think they're gonna have it up on the slide here.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you can read all that.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the guy on the left says, Hey, I forgot my Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have one I can borrow?
SPEAKER_00: The lady says, Of course.
SPEAKER_00: I always carry a spare.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you ladies have a spare Bible in your purse this morning, not counting your phone?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Almost all illustrations break down at some point, but let's continue on anyway.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Wait, why is everything blacked out except God is love?
SPEAKER_00: And her response is, I just think there shouldn't be so much negativity in there.
SPEAKER_00: So I put my marker to work.
SPEAKER_00: She blacked out the parts that she doesn't like, and then Spurgeon nails it.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the fact is we oftentimes read Scripture, thinking of what it ought to say rather than what it does say.
SPEAKER_00: It said of Thomas Jefferson, he had a Bible, and he literally cut out the parts he didn't like.
SPEAKER_00: His Bible was all cut out, getting rid of the things that didn't align with his way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: God's people rejecting God's word is nothing new.
SPEAKER_00: You go back to the prophets of the Old Testament, they would boldly proclaim a direct word from God.
SPEAKER_00: And so many times their word was rejected.
SPEAKER_00: God's people refused to listen.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul would go around and preach in the synagogues, teaching about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it was rejected.
SPEAKER_00: There was no acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he was nearly beaten to death.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, Jesus himself taught a truth that was not received by those who heard it.
SPEAKER_00: Then James goes on to say that we're to lay aside those sinful and selfish ideas that promote rejection of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And we're to humbly pick up and receive the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, authentic faith begins when we receive humbly God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Second thing James points out to us here is that authentic faith remembers the word.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith remembers a word.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to skip verse 22 just for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to get back to it.
SPEAKER_00: But look down at verses 23 through 25.
SPEAKER_00: Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
SPEAKER_00: But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer who works, this person will be blessed in what he does.
SPEAKER_00: Now this point is very much tied to the one we just looked at.
SPEAKER_00: But in these verses, James describes two men.
SPEAKER_00: He describes one man who looks in a mirror and he gives this ridiculously ridiculous illustration of looking at yourself and then walking away, and then you couldn't go pick yourself out of a police lineup.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Don't be like that guy.
SPEAKER_00: See, we've got to remember the word, and he compares it in verse 25 with a man who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: That phrase intently means bending over and getting an up close look at something.
SPEAKER_00: A couple weeks ago, my little two-year-old granddaughter was up at our house, and we were out in the backyard, and it gets kind of rough in my place on the back.
SPEAKER_00: I don't do a lot to it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a creek running through it, kind of woodsy.
SPEAKER_00: And we let her get back there, and she was just flitting around going.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she's a two-year-old attention span, you know, about that long.
SPEAKER_00: And so she's just going from one thing to the next until she came upon something that stopped her in her tracks.
SPEAKER_00: She saw a hole in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And boy, she just she just stared at it.
SPEAKER_00: She knew what it was.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Hold hole.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, baby, that's a hole.
SPEAKER_00: She quit that flitting around and she paid attention.
SPEAKER_00: She looked intently at that hole she discovered.
SPEAKER_00: In a similar way, we need to look at God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We need to read it.
SPEAKER_00: We need to study it.
SPEAKER_00: We need to take a deep dive into it.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to be content, stop being content with just this little daily dose approach to God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: One commentary I read said that the language here carries the idea of looking with a penetrating absorption.
SPEAKER_00: We need to absorb the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We need to make it a part of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: In Deuteronomy, God gave one of the most important commands he ever gave to the nation of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And it's related to remembering God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 6 says, Listen, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
SPEAKER_00: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_00: These words that I'm giving you today are to be in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Repeat them to your children.
SPEAKER_00: Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
SPEAKER_00: Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead.
SPEAKER_00: Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith doesn't forget God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith remembers God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We let it lodge in our hearts and in our minds.
SPEAKER_00: It is essential to having an authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: For 15 years, as Brother Bryan mentioned earlier, I worked for Lifeway as their church consultant for all of Arkansas, some of Texas, Louisiana, even went out to Washington, Oregon for a whole glorious year.
SPEAKER_00: I don't look back on that too fondly.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, that's another story.
SPEAKER_00: We were very fortunate at Lifeway to have a world class research center.
SPEAKER_00: And they embarked on some research trying to figure out what it is that makes us grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, what they were trying to figure out is John.
SPEAKER_00: John sits on this end of the pew, and Bill is on this end of the pew.
SPEAKER_00: John is growing spiritually, Bill is not.
SPEAKER_00: They're both here in church all the time, but John's faith is obviously authentic.
SPEAKER_00: Bill's not so much.
SPEAKER_00: What is the difference in the two?
SPEAKER_00: What is helping John to grow in his faith and Bill not?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what the number one trait that folks like John were exhibiting in their Christian walk?
SPEAKER_00: Was daily Bible engagement.
SPEAKER_00: John would get in God's word every day and he would dig deeply, trying to discover truths that would impact how he lives his life.
SPEAKER_00: Bill was satisfied with just a little daily dose.
SPEAKER_00: Folks, authentic faith requires us to slow down.
SPEAKER_00: We can't be like my little granddaughter just flitting around looking at the word of God randomly.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to focus on it intently.
SPEAKER_00: That is how authentic faith grows.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, James says to us that authentic faith obeys and reflects God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith obeys and reflects God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 22, and then we're going to read 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_00: James says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless, and he deceives himself.
SPEAKER_00: Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
SPEAKER_00: So so far we've seen that authentic faith receives the word, that it remembers the word, and we see now that we are to obey and reflect the word.
SPEAKER_00: James 122 could really be the theme verse for the whole book of James.
SPEAKER_00: It's about doing.
SPEAKER_00: It's about having a faith.
SPEAKER_00: And I love the term, I think that your pastor used in his first sermon, James, he called it an actionable faith.
SPEAKER_00: An actionable faith.
SPEAKER_00: It requires us to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And James says that you have not really listened to the word if you have not obeyed the word.
SPEAKER_00: See, the bottom line is the word of God evokes action.
SPEAKER_00: It causes us to do something.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, if there is no action from the word, then there has been no acceptance of the word.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith truly is revealed in what we do with the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: His words in verse 22 are very similar to the ones he heard Jesus use on the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: If our faith is only built on merely listening to the words of Jesus, then can we really claim to have an authentic faith if we're just hearers?
SPEAKER_00: You see, we can't just be willing to obey the word.
SPEAKER_00: We have to actually obey the word.
SPEAKER_00: We can't just be willing to help the poor.
SPEAKER_00: We have to actually help the poor.
SPEAKER_00: We can't just be willing to share our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We have to actually share our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We can't just be willing to live a life of purity.
SPEAKER_00: We have to actually live lives that are pure and holy before God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said things like, You're my friends if you do what I command you.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word.
SPEAKER_00: And then John wrote in 1 John 2, 4, he got really strong.
SPEAKER_00: He said, The one who says, I've come to know him, talking about Jesus, yet doesn't keep his commands, he is a liar.
SPEAKER_00: And the truth is not in him.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we understand all this?
SPEAKER_00: How do we understand a truth that on one hand brings freedom from our sins without doing anything?
SPEAKER_00: We don't earn our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: We don't do anything to become a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: We just receive the free gift.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, on the other hand, we're told we must do something for our faith to be authentic.
SPEAKER_00: See, understanding this concept brings the whole passage together.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is not that we just muster up obedience to the best of our ability.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that we just try harder to be a better Christian.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the answer at all.
SPEAKER_00: The key is to first be empowered by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: By the living word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to first receive the word that's implanted in us.
SPEAKER_00: Embrace it, focus on it, remember it, memorize it, make it a part of who you are.
SPEAKER_00: This word, this is not some ordinary book.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 4.12 says the word of God is living and sharp and powerful, and that it pierces into the dividing asunder of soul and spirit in joints and marrow, and it discerns the thoughts and the intentions of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is a living word.
SPEAKER_00: This is what empowers our spirits to obey the commands of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote to Timothy, a very godly young church leader, about the word.
SPEAKER_00: He said, All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
SPEAKER_00: You simply can't do the will of God without the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's an essential to be a part of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is only after we have absorbed this living, life-altering Word of God into our beings that we're able to obey it.
SPEAKER_00: Without it, we simply don't have the ability to obey.
SPEAKER_00: Our flesh will overcome us, and we won't be able to do the things God has told us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll be like that one that James talks about, who looked at himself in the mirror, walked away, and couldn't remember what he looks like.
SPEAKER_00: That's what will happen if we don't embrace and engage faithfully and consistently God's word.
SPEAKER_00: The power to live a life of obedience, to have authentic faith, is found solely in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: There's no other option, there's no other plan B.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's primary plan for living in authentic faith, for being obedient to what He's called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: James concludes this section in verses 26 and 27, and I will too, by giving three marks of true and acceptable religion, or to use the term we're using, authentic faith.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the word religion doesn't have a real positive connotation in our culture today.
SPEAKER_00: You want to pick a fact with somebody, bring up religion at work or somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, just don't.
SPEAKER_00: And really the word religion is not found very often in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: But James is introducing a section here where he's going to show us that true religion, authentic faith, is characterized by a lifestyle of obedience to the Father that reflects his heart for all of humanity.
SPEAKER_00: You see, that's our goal here in engaging the Word, is not to be smarter, but to be transformed in such a way that the world sees Jesus in us.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't do that apart from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The first mark of authentic faith, according to James, is controlled speech that displays this changed heart.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes that point in verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: And later on, much of chapter 3, he'll dig really deep into this idea of controlling our tongue.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to assume that your pastor is going to get to that, so we're not going to spend a lot of time here this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But remember, James is leaning heavily on the teachings of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus clearly taught that what we say is a reflection of what is in our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 12, 34, he said plainly, for the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith is reflected in how we speak.
SPEAKER_00: The second mark is this authentic faith is reflected in how we care for those in need.
SPEAKER_00: He talked about caring for the orphans and widows, and in James' day, they were helpless.
SPEAKER_00: They were so dependent upon others in society to take care of them.
SPEAKER_00: You see, our God is a defender and sustainer and provider for such people.
SPEAKER_00: He cares about them deeply.
SPEAKER_00: And his provision almost always comes to the hearts and hands of God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Today across the world, millions of children lack parents to get them up off to school, to get them in bed at night, to feed them, to provide for them.
SPEAKER_00: In the United States alone, there are over 400,000 children in foster care.
SPEAKER_00: That's about twice the population of the city of Little Rock.
SPEAKER_00: Let that sink in.
SPEAKER_00: 400,000 children that need our help.
SPEAKER_00: That need our help.
SPEAKER_00: And of those 400,000, almost 100,000 are waiting for permanent adoptive parents.
SPEAKER_00: Their birth parents are no longer fit to care for them or have abandoned them worst.
SPEAKER_00: James is saying what God says throughout all scripture that we must live lives that are selfless and pay more attention to others who are in need than our own needs.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this is the religion that God accepts.
SPEAKER_00: He's a father to the fatherless, he shows it through his people.
SPEAKER_00: Looking after orphans and widows and other helpless people in our society is not an option for the church.
SPEAKER_00: That's not something we can kick off to the government.
SPEAKER_00: It's an obligation to the church to take care of those in our culture who need our help.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith is reflected in how we look after the helpless.
SPEAKER_00: The third mark of authentic faith is a clear separation from the ways of the world.
SPEAKER_00: James here is, of course, he's writing to these Jewish Christians, many of whom who are not living in their homeland.
SPEAKER_00: They have been dispersed.
SPEAKER_00: And so they are being exposed to all sorts of ungodly practices, both religious and cultural.
SPEAKER_00: And James wants them to, after having been exposed to the teachings of Jesus, to keep themselves pure.
SPEAKER_00: Holy living was a challenge in those days, just like it is today.
SPEAKER_00: It just is hard.
SPEAKER_00: From early on in childhood all the way through adulthood, we are tempted, as your pastor highlighted last week, to do all sorts of ungodly things.
SPEAKER_00: We are bombarded with the evil that is so prevalent in our world.
SPEAKER_00: And we have zero chance to live this holy life we're called to live without being empowered by God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: It just will not happen.
SPEAKER_00: Authentic faith is reflected in how we keep ourselves pure from the stains of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So we're called to receive the word, we're called to remember the word, and we're called to obey and reflect the word in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_00: Last year, my wife and I had signed up to run a half marathon, and uh it was going to be early spring, so we had done the training in some pretty cold weather, you know, not always excited about getting up and running the miles every week, but we did it.
SPEAKER_00: We pressed on through it, got our training done.
SPEAKER_00: And then about two weeks before the race, we got an email from the organizers saying the race had been canceled, you know, COVID.
SPEAKER_00: And so we were bummed.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we'd done all this training.
SPEAKER_00: Uh was looking forward for going out of town for a couple of days to run this race in a pretty part of our state.
SPEAKER_00: But now, it was over.
SPEAKER_00: So we we were done with it.
SPEAKER_00: The last part of the email says something about encouraging you to go do a virtual race on your own.
SPEAKER_00: Now, a virtual race to me is me sitting on my couch watching somebody else run a race.
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't really understand the term they chose to use, but I knew what they meant.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted you just to go out wherever you've been training and just run the race on your own.
SPEAKER_00: I can tell you I hit delete on an email.
SPEAKER_00: Sandy and I, we had no plans to run.
SPEAKER_00: We were done with that part of our life, we were ready to move on.
SPEAKER_00: But then next week, a package came in the mail from the race organizers.
SPEAKER_00: The package contained the race bling.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you've ever run a race, you know what I'm talking about, race bling.
SPEAKER_00: It's the stuff they give you as part of your entry fee.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the race bib was in there, the bib we would have worn.
SPEAKER_00: Um, this cool race t-shirt.
SPEAKER_00: Really uninspiring.
SPEAKER_00: We kept digging in the package, though, and we found the race metal.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a really cool one.
SPEAKER_00: I wish I'd had air to show you.
SPEAKER_00: It's three-dimensional.
SPEAKER_00: You could spin it around.
SPEAKER_00: It was really neat.
SPEAKER_00: They sent us the prize anyway, even though we hadn't run the race, because they thought, well, you're going to run the race on your own.
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly we were motivated.
SPEAKER_00: We saw the prize.
SPEAKER_00: And we did.
SPEAKER_00: We got out on our own one Saturday morning, just she and I, and we ran 13.1 miles.
SPEAKER_00: Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 24.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Don't you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives a prize.
SPEAKER_00: Run in such a way to win the prize.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, living out in authentic faith is hard work.
SPEAKER_00: We have an enemy who pushes back against us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want us to receive the word.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want us to remember the word, and he certainly does not want us to obey and reflect the word in our daily lives.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage you this morning, church, keep your eye on the prize of Christ Jesus so that others might see Jesus in us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Father, in our flesh, we don't always want your word to have an impact on us.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we want to push it away and not receive it.
SPEAKER_00: And the busyness of life, it's hard always to remember it and even harder to obey it.
SPEAKER_00: But Father, you give us your spirit, God, that helps point truth to us when we get into your word, that helps us to do the things you've called us to do, to live out a life that many around us need to see.
SPEAKER_00: An authentic faith that is genuine because it loves Jesus and knows He is the answer for the issues of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Help us, Lord, to do that for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.