Be Wise and Apply The Word

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Reading of God’s Word

19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. 21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ²⁵ But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Introduction and Warm up

Good morning I give you greetings and blessing from La Crescent Evangelical Free Church. My name is Eric Mattie. Thank you for the invitation to come and worship and share the Word of God.

Before I get into today’s sermon, I want to let you know that I have brought for each of you a free book called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. It is a best selling book about the Heart of Christ for sinners and sufferers. So in other words Jesus’s heart for you and me. I have them in the back and I probably brought too many so this would be a good time to share a free with your neighbor or loved one. Perhaps you weren’t sure how to witness to somebody, this could by a good introduction. So feel free to take and be blessed.

Today’s reading out of James really hits our Sunday morning ritual doesn’t it? Let me re-read a portion of it starting at verse 22 ↑↑↑

Let me give you the :10 Context of where we are at with this letter

James just restated his three main themes and is now explaining what being quick to listen entails for the believer in Christ.

In this first part of this letter James has three themes that he goes into And one of those themes is about Wisdom- How, if you lack wisdom, ask God for it. Believing he will give it to you and that what he gives you for wisdom you can trust it and not doubt.

How does God give us wisdom? Right here through his Word.

Yet James is entreating the believers with a proverbial statement that they are to take to heart: be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. This is not just good relational wisdom.

This is God entreating His people on Sunday morning.

We attend church. We listen to the message. Then we leave for the week.

A poll of faithful church attenders reveals that by the time most good believing born again Christians start their car and head off lunch, they have forgotten 70% of what the preacher said.

James says v 19 “be quick to listen” but then he goes on… v 21 “receive in meekness the implanted word. V 22 be doers of God’s word not just hearers, deceiving yourselves.

The Title of my message this morning is Be Wiser and Apply the Word.

I choose that title because that is in essence what James is telling us.

“Don’t be deceived or fooled into being blinded by being merely listeners. Be wiser and apply what you hear.”

Let’s talk about Being Wiser first by talking about the heart of the matter of why we can be foolishly deceiving ourselves.

Be Wiser

· The result of only hearing God’s word and not doing God’s word can be a self deceiving narrative in our life which can cause us to mistakenly think that we are saved and truly right with God when in reality we really are not. We can blind ourselves of our true eternal state.

· We understand that we can walk out of here and walk away from our devoted Bible times and forget what God commands us to do in living for His glory, in walking in grace. In loving one another.

· We can even deceive ourselves into thinking that reading and talking about the Bible is the same as doing the Bible.

But the question is why would we do that? Some of us are smarter than that?

Jesus reveals the heart of the matter on – of all days- the day he rises from the dead.

· So in essence here are two guys talking about the events of the last few days. Then Jesus appears yet doesn’t reveal to them, who he is. And they reveal that they know their bible- which is the Old Testament writings when they said they had hoped he was the Messiah… perhaps putting a few things together in essence trying to gather what they know in light of what they learned. They are having a biblical conversation.

· Then Jesus says this: Luke 24:

25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

· Why do we deceive ourselves? Jesus says we are foolish and slow to believe…

Now the question beneath that answer is even more telling:

Why are we slow to believe?