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Be Mature Don’t Kidding Yourself Chapter 4 James 1: 19 - 27. Emphasis: “deceiving your own selves” James 1:22 “Spiritual reality results from the proper relationship to God through God’s Word” Three Responsibilities: Receive the Word (1:19-21)
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Emphasis: “deceiving your own selves” James 1:22 • “Spiritual reality results from the proper relationship to God through God’s Word” • Three Responsibilities: • Receive the Word (1:19-21) • God’s Word’s as engrafted word (21), or implanted word • Comparison of God’s Word to seed and human heart (Matt 13:1-9) • The hard heart: does not understand or receive God’s Word • The shallow heart: very emotional, but no depth and fruit • The crowded heart: no repentance & sin to crowd out God’s Word • The fruitful heart: receive the Word, permit to take root, & produce a bountiful harvest of fruit
The final test of salvation: fruit • Changed life, Christian character & conduct, & ministry to others • Fruit: • Winning souls to Christ (Romans 1:16) • Growing in holy living (Romans 6:22) • Sharing material possessions (Romans 15: 28) • Spiritual character (Gal 5:22-23) • Good works (Col 1:10) • Praising the Lord (Hebrews 13:15) • Take heed what you hear (Mark 4:24) • Take heed how you hear (Luke 8:18) • Swift to hear • Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Rom. 10:17)
Slow to speak • Two ears and one mouth: listening more than speaking • He that hath knowledge spareth his words (Prov. 17:27) • Slow to wrath (1:19) • Prov. 14:29 – He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of spirit exalted folly. • Peter with sword • Church fights: short temper & hasty words • Godly anger (Eph 4: 26) • Anger is the opposite of patience • Prepared heart • Superfluity of naughtiness: overgrown weeds • Confessing our sins (I John 1:9)
Meditating on God’s love & grace and asking to plow up any hardness • Jeremiah 4:3 – Break up the fallow ground, and sow not among the thorns. • Attitude of meekness (humbleness) (1:21) • Practice the Word (1:22-25) • The doing brings blessing, not hearing. • Mirror • Examination (23-25) • See ourselves as we really are in God’s Word • Mistakes: • They merely (only) glance (look) at themselves • Photograph vs. X-ray • They forgot what they see • Isaiah 6:5 Woe is me! For I am undone
Peter - Depart from me for I am a sinful man (Luke 5:8) • Job (Job 42:6) • They fail to obey what the Word of God tell them to do • Reading vs. Doing • Require time, attention, and sincere devotion • Great Physician (Matt 9:12) • Perfect law of liberty (25) • John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. • Restoration (Exodus 38:8) • Laver between the brazen altar & the holy place
Water for washing: Word of God in its cleansing power • John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. • John 13: 1-11 Hands & feet are defiled as believers • Blood cleansed our guilt while water of Word cleanses away defilement • II Samuel 12-13 David & adultery and murder • Revelation of sin leads to results of confession and repentance • Repentance leads to assurance of forgiveness and cleansing • Transformation (II Cor. 3:18) • Changed: metamorphosis • Change on outside comes from inside
Rom. 12:2 … be ye transformed by renewing of the mind. • Process, not overnight • Share the Word (1:26-27) • Religion: outward practice, the service of a god • Pure religion: practicing and sharing God’s Word with others through speech, service, & separation from the world • Speech (1:26) • Tongue, a serious problem • Tongue reveals the heart (Matt. 12: 34-35) • If heart is right, speech is right • Service (1:27a) • After seeing ourselves in God’s Word, we see others & their needs • Isaiah saw the Lord, then himself, & then the people to whom he would minister (Isa. 6: 1-8)
Separation from the world (1:27b) • The world: society without God • Friendship of the world (James 4:4) leads to love for the world (I John 2: 15-17)