Sermon Transcript
I said, is it supposed to be that color? And she laughs and she says, David, yeah, it’s supposed to be that color if it’s dead. And I’m just thinking, thank God we have a gardener that helps us with our stuff. But I was just thinking on this interaction because it so clearly illustrates what it is James is talking about in this scripture. We can so easily think as Christians that we’re the healthy trees.
We’re thriving. We’ve got strong branches. You know, the hue of our leaves is the right color. All that, right? But the reality is underneath it, we’ve lost our vitality.
Or we’re not bearing fruit. Well, what James is saying here is we’re not fooling anybody. Well, the person we’re fooling is ourselves. We’re definitely not fooling God. I mean, it’s like we’re putting the wool over our eyes, but he sees clearly.
He knows what true religion, true faith is, and we could very easily not be living it the way he intends. Well, what James is doing here in this scripture is he’s giving us a sober self-assessment so we can ask ourselves, are we living the true faith, the true religion that God intends for us? Any of you guys do BuzzFeed online? Those BuzzFeed quizzes, I mean? You know, it’s like you answer a series of multiple choice questions and they determine what city you live in or what city you should live in.
Like, you know, I drink local coffee. I go to movies every once in a while. Okay, you should live in Portland, Oregon. Like, what’s that supposed to mean? The other day I took, in preparation for this sermon, I had to do another one.
So I took this one called, are you a hipster?
And it’s asking questions like, how do you drink your coffee? You’re throwing a party for your significant other, what’s the theme? For what it’s worth, I chose game night for Cindy over ironic bar mitzvah.
Another question was, how do you feel about Macklemore? One of the options was ugh. Anyways, here’s the results I got. I thought this was interesting. Some of you are like, I don’t care.
Are you a hipster? It says, you are not a hipster. You like normal things and you’re not a jerk. Congrats.
I was like, now the author should really tell us what they think about hipsters.
James, in all seriousness, is giving us a little bit of a— he’s giving us a sober self-assessment. Are we living true faith? I say sober because if you’ve been here the last few weeks as we’ve started our series through the book of James, you know the context. James is writing to these people who are Jewish Christians now scattered out around the nations. James chapter 1, verse 1.
They’re scattered among the nations. You know Pastor Dave’s talked about this. They’re folks that it all started with the martyrdom of Stephen. They’re being heavily persecuted. In other words, they’ve left everything for Jesus.
They’ve left their homes, they’ve left their families, they’ve left their careers. You see why this is a sober self-assessment? James is saying these guys might very well be deceiving themselves in how they live out their faith, which means you and I, if we’re Christ followers, we’re not off the hook, wouldn’t you say? The last I checked, I haven’t sacrificed anywhere near on the scale that these guys have for the sake of the faith. So James is saying we got to have ourselves— we got to have a self-assessment here, a sober one, asking ourselves, is our faith true?
That’s what we’re going to be looking at. Or are we fooling ourselves? Are we fooling ourselves like, you know, we’re this great tree, but the reality is we’re in trouble and we don’t even realize it? And if our faith is or is not true, how should it then be growing? To be like the healthy, sturdy tree.
This is what James gets at. What we’re going to look at is 3 markings of true faith according to James. 3 markings of true faith. As we’re going to see, according to James, it all centers on how we interact with God’s Word. Let’s get into it.
Looking at verse 18, which sets up the rest of the passage, it starts, God chose to give us birth through the Word of truth. It keeps going, but what he’s saying is true faith begins with God’s Word. God, his Holy Spirit, works in our hearts, brings us to a place of receptivity, softens our heart to believe the good news, the gospel, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, that we can receive eternal life in his name. True faith starts with God’s Word, and then he goes on, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. We know what firstfruits are.
When the Jewish people went out and collected the harvest, They took the first 10%, the best that they could find, and they offered it back to God, saying, hey, God, you’ve blessed us with this crop. We’re going to take this first 10%, the best we can find, and say, you know what? It’s yours. It’s our first fruits back to you. So what James is saying in verse 18, setting up the rest of the text, is true faith starts with God’s word and it continues in God’s word.
Our daily, regularly offering ourselves as first fruits to God by bringing ourselves under his authority. And if you look at the rest of the text, specifically under the authority of his word. In these short 10 verses, God’s word is mentioned 5 times in some form or fashion. 5 times. And so James is saying, if we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are no longer living for ourselves.
We are now firstfruits for him, which means if there’s conflict between what we desire for our lives and what he desires, for our lives, we are to defer as firstfruits unto him, to put ourselves under that authority. So the first marking of true faith is we will be humbled by God’s word. Look at verse 21. We need to humbly accept the word planted in us. Verse 25, James really getting at it here.
He says we need to look intently into the perfect law. What does he mean perfect law? That’s kind of an interesting concept. It makes me think of Bill Bright. Have any of you heard of the name Bill Bright?
He was one of the founders of Campus Crusade for Christ. When he talked about laws, he observed this. He said, just like in the universe, just as the universe is governed by natural laws, so too the universe is governed by spiritual laws. That was his thought. When God introduced his word, his law, what he was really doing was showing us who we were intended to be.
That’s how the law is perfect. If you take, for example, the 10th commandment, do not covet, what’s God asking from us there? He’s saying, find your ultimate love, your ultimate desire in me. Don’t find it in other places. If things are down and out for you, you’ve lost your career, you haven’t attained the relationship that you really desire, God is saying, desire me over these things.
You don’t need to covet. It doesn’t take much extra thinking, going much deeper to know that, you know what? When we start to covet, when we start to compare ourselves to others, when we start to become jealous of what others have, it starts to taint our character, doesn’t it? When God first introduced his law to his people, it was considered a teaching. He was teaching us 2 things.
Who he is and what he designed us for, how he made us. So, this is why the law is perfect, and that’s why it should therefore humble us. We, as Christ followers, should put ourselves under its authority, which means it’s not up for grabs. If this is God’s law and this is us, we don’t get to do this, like look down at God’s law and say, hey, I like that about the Bible. That’s pretty cool.
I’ll take some of that. Not so much that. You know what I’m saying? Like an all-you-can-eat buffet. I’ll take that of God’s Word.
We can’t do that. We have to put ourselves underneath God’s Word and accept his authority in our lives. When you think about it, this is what Jesus did. Jesus was here. He lived up to the law in every aspect, put himself underneath it in every aspect.
Listen to what he said in his most famous sermon. Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets, meaning the Bible. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Now let’s be real. This is difficult.
Putting ourselves completely under the authority of God’s word. You’d say that’s difficult, right? Why? Because there’s things in the Bible that you and I, we’re just not going to like, right? We’re just— they’re going to rub us the wrong way.
For some of us it might be some things, for some of us it might be others, and God’s saying, no, you don’t have the right to pick and choose. You must— the Word must humble you. You must put yourself underneath it. But think of it this way, you know, well, first of all, I just think it’s interesting, you know, to our modern ears, how do we determine our steps? We call our shots.
We have the authority in our lives. It’s hard. But think about it in the terms of how God introduced his law. His word is meant to speak into every human culture over all human history. I mean, you would just figure by definition that it’s going to rub cultures the wrong way from time to time, right?
If God’s work is a critique of culture, of human culture, there are certain cultures where it’s going to— you know what I’m saying? It’s going to rub in certain ways. Think about it. Think about the example of forgiveness. We’re called to forgive.
Forgiveness is interesting. I think it’s something our culture, we like. We seem to be pretty good at it too. I just think, man, to be an athlete or a celebrity in this tabloid day and age, TMZ or whatever, all of their conversations are in the public view. At the same time, for the most part, I feel like our culture is pretty good at saying, you know what?
We’re good, you know, we’ll forgive that, we’ll overlook that, it’s okay, right? But then think about a culture where it’s endorsed, you know, maybe in past history, maybe today across the globe, a culture that has endorsed mass injustice, genocide, you name it, right? It would be pretty easy to see that swallowing the idea of forgiveness would be much harder in that context. Or what about when the Bible says no sex outside of marriage? To our individualist ears, it’ll sound much different than to a society that survives on, is built on the solidarity and honor of the family unit.
To that society, no sex outside of marriage makes perfect sense. Yeah, that makes sense. The point is, if we are Christ followers, we don’t get to pick and choose, but we have to submit ourselves to everything that he has for his his word.
If we’ve received him as Jesus, as our Savior and leader. The first marking is humbly accepting the authority of God’s word. The second marking of true faith is we will be shaped by God’s word. How do you know if you’ve humbled yourself under the authority of God’s word? Well, look at verse 22.
It kind of spells it out, doesn’t it? It says, do not merely listen to the word, And so, deceive yourselves? Do what it says. I love James, the ever-practical writer. He gets very specific.
In verse 27, he really summarizes it for us. He says, Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
What’s he saying? It really comes down to 2 things: looking after the marginalized and keeping inner purity.
Now, one thing I just think is so interesting, you know, I can’t help but generalize here. It makes me think of the liberal wing of Christianity and the conservative wing of Christianity. Some of you probably see where I’m going with this. The liberal wing of Christianity, by and large— this is a generalization, so forgive me this— by and large, it’s pretty good at helping the marginalized. Wouldn’t you say?
Helping the poor, the oppressed, out there. But then when it comes to the personal sin and rooting that out, that seems to be overlooked for the most part, neglected. Then you have the conservative wing of Christianity. That wing tends to be pretty good at working out the interpersonal sin, right? The personal sin, rooting that out, taking sin very seriously.
But on the other hand, by and large, has trouble with helping the oppressed. Pays more lip service to those sorts of things. Wouldn’t you say? Now, okay, so that’s a generalization, but what James is saying is it must be both. Taking care of the marginalized, keeping inner purity.
It has to be both. The Bible, James here and other places, never separates the two. Just listen to Amos 2:7. They trample on the heads of the poor. This is in the Old Testament.
They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Father and son use the same girl and so profane my holy name. Here’s an example in the same verse that God is showing us through example not to deny justice to the oppressed, to the poor, and to root out personal sin, in this case sexual immorality. By the way, that sexual immorality is also a systematic thing, so there’s oppression there too. We can’t separate the two.
We need to live both of these things out. I think verse 27 is worth mentioning. That word look after, when it says look after the orphans and widows, that word is— what it’s really getting at is to be an advocate. In other words, James isn’t saying it’s once-off Band-Aid type support. What he’s saying is ongoing, systematic support.
Speaking up for the rights of.
He’s saying, as Christians, we need to be out in front tangibly meeting the needs of the community, which makes me so thankful for organizations like City Impact, for Freedom House, organizations we’ve had the honor to pair up with from time to time who are helping the poor on a regular basis, who are helping the victims of sex trafficking, both minor and adult. I know there’s a number of you here who are out there quietly Visiting prisons, visiting juvenile halls. You’re out there with the homeless, either in parks or on the streets as you’re driving by, stopping, or you’re visiting shut-ins. The point is true faith is one that’s humbled by God’s word, but then humbled into action. And I would just say, if this is something that the Lord’s tugging on your heart to do, to be about, come see me, come see one of the pastors.
We’d love to show you some opportunities to serve.
The 3rd and final marking of true faith is we will be liberated by God’s Word. You know, the middle paragraph that I jumped over for the most part really tells us how we are to be shaped by God’s Word, how the Word should humble us into action. Verse 22 says, 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 someone who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it, not forgetting what they’ve heard but doing it, they will be blessed in what they do. So there are 4 things here that should humble us into action. The first one has to do with this idea of looking intently into God’s word, into his perfect law. And that is this: we need to engage God’s word with our minds. Now, I love this word, look intently, because the only other place that I’m aware of that it’s used in the Bible, in the New Testament, is when Peter’s looking into the tomb of his risen Lord.
What a cool picture for James to use to show us what it means to engage God’s Word with our minds. Because you think about Peter that day when he went to the tomb. Do you think he was just kind of passively experiencing that moment? When it says looking into the tomb, his mind was on warp speed, wouldn’t you say? Where is Jesus?
Where are the guards? How was this massive stone rolled away? Why is there nobody here? What does all this mean? What’s the deal with those clothes neatly folded perfectly where Jesus laid?
What James is saying is we got to engage the Word with our minds in a similar way, which means we have to ask ourselves some questions. Questions that mean we’re not on autopilot when we come to God’s Word, if we’re coming to God’s Word at all. That we’re really examining it. Asking ourselves things like, okay, what is this verse saying in the bigger context? The grammar structure, the sentence structure.
That’s important stuff. It helps us understand the bigger picture. And God, what are you using this text to teach me about yourself? About what it is you want as a response from me? Also questions like, how often should I read God’s word?
Or how should I go about doing it systematically so that I don’t just, for example, read the scripture that I like?
We need to apply our minds to God’s word. Number 2, we need to engage God’s word with our hearts. James is saying this when he says we need to study it like we’re looking into the mirror, intimately getting to know who we are through the reflection of God’s word. And this is just so important, isn’t it? I mean, so critical, because if the word stays— the word cannot stay at just the intellectual theoretical level.
There has to come a point where it moves from the intellectual, from our minds, into our hearts. It has to produce heart and life change. Last Wednesday we were at small group Bible study and we were looking at Acts 18 and 19, is that it? We were studying through the book of Acts with the OPROS group, one of the OPROS groups, and we were talking about the concept of tentmaking. I don’t know if the rest of you guys were doing this too, but we were talking about the idea of tentmaking.
Tentmaking, for what it’s worth, if you don’t know, have you ever even heard this term, is the idea of missionaries who go to a different cultural context to share God’s Word, but in order to do that, they take on another job in order to support their needs. Paul was literally making tents, which is where we get that term. We call it now tentmaking. So, for example, if you were to pick up and go to China and say, teach English for the sake of sharing the Gospel, you’d be tentmaking, right? So we’re talking about tentmaking.
We’re gauging our minds to it. What’s significant about tentmaking? One of the Opros said, You know what? It gives credibility. You know what?
It puts me in a context with people who are doing similar things. They can relate. We’re at the job talking about similar things with similar goals and tasks. We can relate. It allows me a platform to speak into their lives.
Another Yopro said, you know what? It gives us opportunity. You know, if we’re tentmaking, it means we’re surrounding ourselves with nonbelievers. By definition. So it means the people that I want to be sharing my faith with, I’m actually around.
It gives us opportunity. Then at one moment, one of the Yopros said, oh my goodness, I never realized this before, but we are all tentmakers. I am a tentmaker. Then one of the other Yopros spoke up and says, oh my goodness, this gives me a whole completely new perspective on my work.
That, you know, I’m there to work and pay the bills and advance my career, this and that. But, you know, ultimately I’m there to do God’s work. What was happening was we were moving from engaging the scripture with our minds to engaging with our hearts. It was a lot of fun. We don’t normally do this, but at the end of that conversation, we were like, hey guys, let’s brainstorm.
And next time we get together, let’s talk about ways we can strategize. And should be sharing our faith more effectively because of what we’re talking about here. Let’s take the first 20 minutes of the next conversation and dedicate to that. There needs to come a point where it moves from our minds to our hearts and life change.
This is so critical because you know what? The world doesn’t need more knowledgeable Christians. You know, knowledgeable Christians? Paul writes, knowledge puffs up. James writes, we can deceive ourselves.
The word must move from our mind into our hearts and produce life and heart change. So we need to engage it with our minds and our hearts. And then number 3, we need to keep at God’s word. Verse 25, but whoever looks intently into the perfect law, and then it continues, and continues in it, You know what James is saying there? He’s saying it’s going to be a real struggle.
It’s going to be a real struggle. You’re going to need to prioritize and keep at God’s Word on a day-to-day basis, week-to-week, month, year-by-year. You need to keep at it. Times are going to be hard. You’re not going to want to go to the Word.
You’re not going to want to hear what that part of the Word says to you. Keep at it. Continue in it. Times are going to be easy and good, comfortable. You’re not going to really think about the Word.
You need to keep at it, persevere in it, continue in it.
And then finally, what is the result? Well, if they continue in it, not forgetting what they’ve heard, but doing it, they will be blessed, he says. But not just some general blessing. I mean, what does that mean, right? What is he saying?
Look at verse 25. He says the beginning part, whoever looks intently into the perfect law will be set free, will be liberated.
Now, immediately our modern minds go, wait a minute, hold on, timeout. How does that work? How does the law liberate us? Okay, you lost me there, David. Okay, you’re talking about the Bible when it tells me to do these things and these things, you’re telling me that’s to liberate me?
I think if we’re thinking about it in that way, which I’ll confess I have too, I think we’re not understanding what what James and what the Bible talks about when it talks about freedom. You know, here in the US, what do we say about our country? America is the land of the free.
Does that mean we don’t have any laws that govern us? Of course not, right? We have very real laws that have very real consequences. So what are we saying when we say America is the land of the free? What we’re saying is the founding principles and the laws that establish who we are are all set up for the purpose of helping the and the man thrive the best they can, to flourish.
You know, I’ve heard it described this way too. You know, God’s— you know, the Bible is kind of an owner’s manual for our life. It’s similar like, you know, when you get a car, you have the manual for the car, how to care and maintain it. For example, it tells you how often you need to change the oil, every so number of many miles, right? Well, you can say, ah, I’d like to save some cash.
I don’t need to change my oil. Right? And that manual is not going to tell you you have to do this. No policeman is going to pull you over and say, here’s a ticket for not changing your oil. What’s going to happen?
Right? You’re going to ruin yourself. The car is just going to be messed up. You’re going to be dealing with those consequences. Right?
Here’s the freedom. Of the law that the Bible talks about regarding God’s word. It’s not a law of restrictions. It’s a law to help us flourish and thrive the way God intended us to flourish and thrive. As our Creator, as the one who designed us and knows us intimately, it’s to help us be who it is he’s created us to be.
For example, we come to a a commandment that says, do not covet, and we say, you know what? Wow. I’m free to not have to think about my worth, my identity in other things, in my performance, in material things, but I actually get all my values in God and what he’s done for me. Is that liberating? You betcha.
I mean, just think about the millions of Christians around the world who are nowhere near as well off as we are here in this room in the US. But have experienced just incredible joy and freedom not comparing themselves to others, but receiving their love ultimately and worth from God for who he knows them to be.
So true faith will— in true faith, we will be liberated by God’s Word. But you know what? Here’s the thing. I mean, you know, let’s be real. When it comes down to it, it’s still a struggle, is it not?
I mean, you might agree with what we’re saying here intellectually. The law, God’s word liberates us. You might agree with that at the heart level, but the reality is, when it comes down to it, it’s still a struggle, is it not? It makes me think of the Apostle Paul, one of the most mature Christians ever to have lived. I mean, you know, he wrote like this, right?
You know what he said in Romans 7? If you’ve never read Romans 7, jot that down, read it later. You know what he says? He says, you know what, guys? At the end of the day, sin comes into my life.
The things I know I should not be doing, I go ahead and do those things. And the things I know I should not be doing, I do those things. He even references coveting, which we’ve been talking about. He says, you know what? Sin is so bad in me that it discovers that coveting is wrong and it just goes ahead and does that, right?
How many of you and I can relate to that, right? And so therefore, how does this work out? How is it God’s word is in fact liberating? If Paul will concede that, but James is preaching— how does this make sense? Well, I think the most important thing we need to do is realize what the law is ultimately for, what its ultimate purpose is for.
Paul just says this so articulately. He says in Galatians 3, what then is the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgression until the seed to whom the promise referred had come. The Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Do you hear the 2 ultimate purposes of God’s Word, of God’s law?
The first one is to show us how truly sinful we are. The second purpose of it is to show us how desperately we— how desperately we need Jesus Christ. Look at verse 24 of that same chapter. Paul says, the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ. That we might be justified by faith.
So this is why the law is perfect, and the law ultimately does liberate us. It’s because it points to the only one who is able to fulfill it completely and perfectly on our behalf. Verse 22, do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Only person to do that was Jesus Christ.
And the law points us to him. Did you know that we have about 2,000 words in the New Testament recorded that Jesus spoke? And of those roughly 2,000 words, 10% of them Jesus is quoting scripture. Jesus was saturated in the word. He knew it.
He lived it. I mean, when the Pharisees came and debated him, challenged him, what did he do? He quoted scripture to put them in their place. Right? When Satan came and tempted him in the wilderness, he quoted scripture to drive him off.
When Jesus hung on the cross, dying for our sins, experiencing the spiritual hell and separation from God the Father that we deserved, what did he say? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. What’s he saying? He’s quoting scripture, those 2 being Psalms.
God’s word is liberating because it points us to the one who liberated us by fulfilling it on our behalf.
That’s humbling, wouldn’t you say? It should humble us. Daily should give us a new motivation to be shaped by that same word, a motivation that is no longer fear that God has these rules and saying, look, here’s my word and you better live up to it, and if you don’t, there’s going to be some consequences. No, you know what the consequence was? Jesus dying on the cross.
That’s the consequence. It’s been paid if you’re a Christ follower.
And so, no, the motivation is no longer fear, but it’s now love for what God has done for us. You know, we are now first fruits of all that he created. You know, because he first loved us, we can love him to the best extent that we can, right?
So I really hope this is clear. What James is ultimately talking about here, he’s not saying try harder. He’s not saying get your act together.
He’s giving us a sober assessment, yes. Is our faith true? But ultimately, what is he doing? He’s giving us an invitation. Actually, Jesus through James is giving us an invitation to look into our relationship with him and based on his word and his grace, depending on where you are, commit your life to him.
You might be here. You might not be a Christ follower. You’ve never heard the message of good news that, you know, what the Bible is ultimately saying to us is we get salvation, we receive salvation in Jesus’ name for what he did for us on the cross. Nothing we can do or ever will do, but based on what he’s done. That’s the gospel message.
That’s the good news. If you haven’t heard that before, if you haven’t received that before, I’ll give you an opportunity later to do that. But, you know, for those of us who are Christ followers— you know, actually, I’d say one more thing. In a group this size, typically, a number of us, you know, we— it’s kind of like what James is talking about. We call ourselves Christians, but are we deceiving ourselves?
If our faith isn’t based on what Jesus has done for us, fulfilled for us, perhaps we need to receive that true faith. And then those who are Christ followers, maybe this is an invitation to seek him again.
To recommit, re-up perhaps. It’s an invitation to seek him and in his word be changed, to find him and through his word true faith. So that when it comes down to it, we won’t be that tree that’s out there, you know, in my backyard, that I think is like, you know, everything’s fine, the leaves are just pretty, but it’s wrong. It’s struggling. No, rather, it’s an invitation to be a tree of a different sort altogether, like the psalmist describes, which I’ll close with.
The psalmist writes, blessed is the one whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers. Let’s pray.
As we have our eyes closed and heads bowed, I want to give you an opportunity, as I mentioned earlier, if you’re here today and you have not heard this message or you’ve not received this message and God is tugging on your heart to receive the gift of eternal life, forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name for what he did on the cross, if you would like to receive that today, I would encourage you to raise your hand. I’ll see it and pray for you. I won’t ask you to do anything uncomfortable, but if you would receive Jesus as your Savior today, you can raise your hand and I’ll pray for you.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for loving us the way you do, even to the extent of sending your Son to die for us.
Creating us to be first fruits, to offer ourselves back to you. And Lord, it’s just, it’s a struggle. But Lord, you knew it was going to be a struggle. That’s why you sent your Son to die for us. So Lord, help us to not deceive ourselves and think we’re living a true faith when we’re not.
Help us to see your gospel, receive it, live it out. And find grace when we don’t quite get it right, but continue in it.
Lord, we pray for your gospel to pour forth from this place, even here, but into the community. Please use us in our workplaces through your word speaking through us, whether inward or in action as people see. May people be drawn to Jesus as your word so clearly points. Our need for. We pray all this in Jesus’ name.
Amen. Well, at this time
