1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:03,680 Good morning, Calvary Chapel, good morning. 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:07,040 There's a lot happening here, as you can see, or as you can hear 3 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:10,680 rather. But we thank God for His 4 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:13,280 goodness, and we're going to be talking a lot about that today. 5 00:00:13,280 --> 00:00:17,600 I'm going to ask that you turn in your Bibles if we can just 6 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:21,560 look at that right now with James chapter 1, and we're going 7 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:25,520 to be looking at verses 19 through 27. 8 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:32,720 I just want to reiterate the welcome to Calvary Chapel for 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:37,280 those of you who are new to our church this morning. 10 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:41,120 If you're visiting for the first time, we thank you for choosing 11 00:00:41,120 --> 00:00:44,520 us to worship with this morning, and we pray that you have a 12 00:00:44,520 --> 00:00:50,280 wonderful worship experience. Pastor Clark is suffering on the 13 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:57,040 beach. Poor thing. 14 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,400 Yeah, he's suffering on the beach, he and Cindy. 15 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,440 Yeah, please, let's lift him up in prayer. 16 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:09,360 But we pray. We're one body, right? 17 00:01:09,360 --> 00:01:10,560 We should be there with him, right? 18 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:14,720 That's right. But we want to pray that he and 19 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,600 Cindy and all those on vacation with them, that they make it 20 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:23,120 back safely without any hurt, harm or danger. 21 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:29,800 So why don't we pray and let's get into get into the words. 22 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:33,440 Morning, our Father and our God. We do Thank you. 23 00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:42,280 You are an amazing God. There are no words to define or 24 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:48,840 to be able to describe just how good you are to us, how good You 25 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:56,880 have been, Your patience with us, Your love for us, Your 26 00:01:56,880 --> 00:02:02,320 forgiveness of our sins. All of those things come out of 27 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:07,240 Your goodness. And this morning, Lord, we just 28 00:02:07,240 --> 00:02:13,040 want to thank You for all the blessings that you bestow upon 29 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:18,040 each and every one of us every day, and the dangers that You 30 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,320 keep us from, both seen and unseen. 31 00:02:23,920 --> 00:02:26,760 What a mighty and awesome God you are. 32 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:32,360 So we have worship through song, we have worship through 33 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,280 fellowship, and we have worshipped even with our giving 34 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,360 this morning. We thank You for the opportunity 35 00:02:40,360 --> 00:02:43,200 for all those things. But now, Father, it's time that 36 00:02:43,200 --> 00:02:49,560 we worship You with a hearing of Your Word, and we pray that Your 37 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:55,320 Word would just penetrate our hearts and that it takes up 38 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:59,360 residence in our hearts, Lord, not just come to visit, but to 39 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:04,760 take up residence in our hearts, cause us to walk in the very 40 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:12,160 things, Lord, that we hear. We thank You for the blessing 41 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:17,680 that Your word is in our lives, how it changes us, how it 42 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:22,800 comforts us, but also how it warns us and how it corrects us. 43 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:26,880 We thank you. In Jesus name we pray. 44 00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:38,200 Amen. As I was studying for this word 45 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:43,400 this morning, the whole time that I was preparing for this 46 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:47,640 word, there are things that just become illuminated. 47 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:54,120 I did a lot of repenting as I've gone through this particular 48 00:03:54,760 --> 00:03:57,040 word. I did a lot of repenting because 49 00:03:57,040 --> 00:04:06,720 of things that the Lord has shown me about me, but also as 50 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:09,760 he began to open up to me, the understanding of where we're 51 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,640 going. And James, he reminded me that 52 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:21,480 back in the Old Testament he presented himself, he introduced 53 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:26,280 himself to Moses on the mountain. 54 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:29,960 Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. 55 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:34,600 Can you imagine how comfortable Moses must have been with the 56 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:38,120 Lord to say, Lord, show me your glory? 57 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,520 And the Lord said, you can't see my face because no man can see 58 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,640 my face. And live, however, I will put 59 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:53,440 you in the cleft of the rock. We are in the cleft of the rock 60 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:55,320 this morning in Jesus Christ, aren't we? 61 00:04:57,800 --> 00:04:59,360 He said. I'll put you on the cleft of the 62 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:01,480 rock. And when I walk by, I'll cover 63 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:03,760 your face so you can't see my glory. 64 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:09,560 However, I will remove my hand and you'll be able to see my 65 00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:13,960 back. And if you read that scripture 66 00:05:13,960 --> 00:05:19,480 back in Exodus of 30 chapter 34, looking at verses one through 67 00:05:19,480 --> 00:05:28,680 about 7, when God walked past and Moses was able to see his 68 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:33,720 back, even that was glory that he couldn't look directly into 69 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,320 to the point where it singed his face. 70 00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:42,720 But as God walked past him, he introduced himself and presented 71 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,040 himself to Moses. And I just want to read to you 72 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:50,560 in your hearing. Please turn to it if you choose 73 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:54,960 to, back in Exodus chapter 34. And I'm going to be reading 74 00:05:54,960 --> 00:06:05,080 verses 5 through 7. But as I read this, please think 75 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:12,320 of the goodness of God to present himself to mere man, to 76 00:06:12,320 --> 00:06:18,000 cause Him and us to know just who He is. 77 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:24,720 You see, God is His name. He is His name. 78 00:06:24,800 --> 00:06:28,040 We know that people get names today, and the names have 79 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,200 meanings and their personalities may be totally different than 80 00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:35,280 what that name means, but with God, not so. 81 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:41,200 He is His name. And this is what He said 82 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:47,400 beginning in verse 5. He says, now the Lord descended 83 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:51,640 in the cloud and stood with him there, God coming down in the 84 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:55,840 cloud, and proclaim the name of the Lord. 85 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,280 And the Lord passed by him, and proclaimed that this is what the 86 00:07:00,280 --> 00:07:07,680 Lord said to Moses. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful 87 00:07:08,360 --> 00:07:14,640 and gracious loves, and long-suffering, and abounding in 88 00:07:14,960 --> 00:07:22,760 goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 89 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:29,200 iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the 90 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:32,720 guilty, visiting the iniquity of the Father's upon the children 91 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:37,360 and the children's children to the third and 4th generations. 92 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:42,920 God, said Moses, this is the God who is sending you. 93 00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:47,080 This is the God who is with you as you go through the 94 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,720 wilderness, as you go through all the things that you're going 95 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,720 through. This is the God who is with you, 96 00:07:53,920 --> 00:07:56,680 the God, the Lord God who is merciful. 97 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:02,400 Our God is merciful. He's gracious, He's full of 98 00:08:02,400 --> 00:08:09,400 grace, He's long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, 99 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:16,040 keeping mercy for thousands and forgiving iniquity and 100 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:22,960 transgression and sin. I wish that that could have been 101 00:08:24,360 --> 00:08:27,280 based in my heart, that somebody would have shared that with me 102 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:30,480 and open that up to me in my heart when I was younger. 103 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:36,320 Then I may, maybe I wouldn't have been such a rebel because 104 00:08:36,320 --> 00:08:42,440 he has presented himself as the way he is in all of his goodness 105 00:08:44,039 --> 00:08:51,680 in this verse. God is good, and he's not just 106 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:56,640 good sometime, He's good all the time. 107 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:01,600 He's good when we have our mountaintop experiences and he's 108 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:09,120 good when we go for the valleys. He's good all the time and I 109 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,480 just felt it was really important to bring that out 110 00:09:11,480 --> 00:09:15,280 today. Somebody might be struggling and 111 00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:20,680 want to be assured that if I give my life to this God that 112 00:09:20,680 --> 00:09:24,200 you're all talking about, will he not just be a, a God who 113 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:28,520 looks at me like a, a mean old man and just wants to send me to 114 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:32,360 hell or, or, or just want to judge me and, and, and, and 115 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:39,360 destroy me? No, I'm appealing to you this 116 00:09:39,360 --> 00:09:41,520 morning. Whoever's listening, I don't 117 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:43,800 know who this is for, but I'm appealing to you this morning. 118 00:09:45,680 --> 00:09:49,960 Give your heart to him. Give your life to Jesus Christ, 119 00:09:49,960 --> 00:09:54,640 whom he sent to embody all these things that we just read. 120 00:09:56,640 --> 00:10:01,200 Jesus Christ walked and lived out all these things that we 121 00:10:01,200 --> 00:10:06,960 just read about the Father. Jesus was gracious, He is 122 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:10,960 merciful, he is long-suffering and he is abounding in goodness 123 00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:16,120 and truth. The scripture says God is good. 124 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:26,360 Taste and see that God is good and his mercy endures forever. 125 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:33,480 So I just want to say if anyone here is thinking about giving 126 00:10:33,480 --> 00:10:38,440 your life to God, but you just don't know, can I trust it? 127 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:45,320 He's good and He wants to save you more than you want to be 128 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:53,080 saved. He wants to give you salvation. 129 00:10:53,720 --> 00:10:58,000 He wants to take you out of the suffering of affliction of sin 130 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:07,000 and to bring you into his peace. He wants to love on you and for 131 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:11,960 you to be able to experience that love in a way that you 132 00:11:11,960 --> 00:11:17,560 never have before. So we take this, don't think 133 00:11:17,560 --> 00:11:19,760 it's disjointed. We're we're not, we're not 134 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:21,920 disjointed. So we take that and we go now 135 00:11:22,160 --> 00:11:30,680 over to James. In the last couple verses that 136 00:11:30,680 --> 00:11:34,440 we talked about connects those things that we just talked 137 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:36,880 about. The last couple verses that we 138 00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:45,160 read was in James one verse 17 and 18, and it says every good 139 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:52,080 gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from 140 00:11:52,080 --> 00:11:56,640 the Father of light with whom there is no variation or shadow 141 00:11:56,640 --> 00:12:00,480 of turning. We just got finished saying that 142 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:02,360 God is good and He's good all the time. 143 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:06,800 He doesn't change just because our circumstances change. 144 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:09,320 He doesn't change. I think some people believe 145 00:12:09,320 --> 00:12:09,960 that. You know what? 146 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:14,720 When I'm going through the good times, when I'm feel like I'm 147 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:19,560 being blessed, God is good, but it's a bad God that allows me to 148 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,560 experience suffering and allows me to experience affliction. 149 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:29,400 No, no, because even that in that he works good. 150 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:36,160 We read back in the 1st chapter, back in back in the the first 3 151 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:40,440 verses that he says that the suffering, the affliction, the 152 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:45,600 trials that we go forth produce patience. 153 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:48,480 Patience is the fruit of the Spirit. 154 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:53,760 It's good. Romans 828 says that all things 155 00:12:53,760 --> 00:12:59,240 work together for good to those who love God and are called 156 00:12:59,240 --> 00:13:01,440 according to His purpose, He's good. 157 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:06,080 So here in verse 17 he says all these good gifts. 158 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:08,880 That's right. Even the trials, even the 159 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:12,680 suffering, even those temptations that we get and we 160 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:16,480 struggle with. But if we trust in him that when 161 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:20,440 we come through those things, we come out stronger, we come out 162 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:26,320 more faithful, we come out more blessed and able to help 163 00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:31,640 somebody else. We come out more useful because 164 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:35,440 he's good. And then verse 18, he talks 165 00:13:35,440 --> 00:13:38,080 about the greatest gift that he's given to us. 166 00:13:39,320 --> 00:13:44,400 Eighteen says of his own will he brought forth, he brought, he 167 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:47,720 brought us forth by the word of truth. 168 00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:52,240 That's our salvation, that that we might be a kind of first 169 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:56,080 fruits of his creatures of his own will. 170 00:13:58,000 --> 00:13:59,720 He didn't do it because we deserved it. 171 00:13:59,960 --> 00:14:02,480 He didn't do it because he was incentivized to do it. 172 00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,200 He didn't do it because he was going to get something back. 173 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:10,560 He did it of his own will because the God we serve is a 174 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:12,160 good God. I can't say it enough. 175 00:14:15,560 --> 00:14:21,160 So now we go to verse 19 and we go to get into what we're going 176 00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:24,080 today. So in verse 19, he says so then, 177 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:27,960 now that's so then is a phrase that connects everything that 178 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:32,360 you just heard. It connects all that to the next 179 00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,720 step of where we're going and what it is he wants to share 180 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:38,880 with us. James is basically saying, look, 181 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:42,840 God is good and everything he gives to us is good, even in our 182 00:14:42,840 --> 00:14:45,040 trials. Because all this, the backdrop 183 00:14:45,040 --> 00:14:49,040 of all this, remember, are the trials and that we should count 184 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:50,720 it all joy. And he said, This is why we 185 00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,920 should count it all joy, because out of those things come good 186 00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:59,560 things. So now we move from the fact 187 00:14:59,560 --> 00:15:02,400 that all his gifts and everything he gives us is good. 188 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:06,480 And the greatest gift that he gave us is salvation, which is 189 00:15:06,480 --> 00:15:09,920 good. And now he says, so then so how 190 00:15:09,920 --> 00:15:13,560 do we respond? How do we live in these trials? 191 00:15:15,160 --> 00:15:17,800 What is the instruction that he's given us? 192 00:15:18,360 --> 00:15:23,240 And the fact that He gives us this love letter, that He gives 193 00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:29,000 us these instructions written to us that we can have every single 194 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:30,920 day. We can wake up to it, we can go 195 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:38,800 to bed by it, The Word of God, because He's good to give us 196 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:44,080 this and we have it, and we know Him through His word. 197 00:15:44,560 --> 00:15:48,960 So he says so then, my beloved brethren, so he's talking to 198 00:15:48,960 --> 00:15:52,120 those who are in the church, those who are saved. 199 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,920 Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to 200 00:15:55,920 --> 00:16:01,680 wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of 201 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:04,160 God. James could have just put a 202 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:09,840 stamp on that, put my address on it, and just mail that directly 203 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:14,120 to me. Because if there's anybody who 204 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:20,400 needs to hear that, it's me. Man, Be quiet sometime. 205 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:29,760 Just listen and stop talking. We're going to dig into that in 206 00:16:29,760 --> 00:16:31,680 a minute. In fact, all through his letter, 207 00:16:32,120 --> 00:16:36,840 he goes back to talking about being swift to hear and slow to 208 00:16:36,840 --> 00:16:39,760 speak and controlling what we say. 209 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:43,280 So he says be swift to hear. Be swift to hear what? 210 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:44,520 Be swift to hear the word of God. 211 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:46,920 Be swift to hear the word of God. 212 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:48,120 Be swift to hear the word of God. 213 00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:53,400 Be swift to hear the Holy Spirit speak to us when we think we 214 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,720 need to say something because we, we get into this thing 215 00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:00,280 sometime we feel like we got to have a counter, a counter 216 00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:01,800 speech. You know, I got to, I got to 217 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,079 have something prepared against what you just said because I 218 00:17:04,079 --> 00:17:07,400 didn't like it. I didn't like what you just said 219 00:17:07,520 --> 00:17:09,280 and I definitely didn't like how you said it. 220 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:12,760 So I got to get you told. And while you're talking, I'm 221 00:17:12,760 --> 00:17:15,800 thinking about what I can use to come back at you. 222 00:17:16,440 --> 00:17:18,520 Instead of doing that, let's listen to hear what the word of 223 00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:21,599 God says. What is the Holy Spirit trying 224 00:17:21,599 --> 00:17:25,200 to say to us? Jesus told the disciples back in 225 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:27,400 Matthew. He said listen, when they bring 226 00:17:27,400 --> 00:17:30,560 you before in the temples and they drag you in the temples and 227 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:32,560 they bring you before the magistrates and they bring you 228 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:36,120 before the leaders, you don't have to think about what to say. 229 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:39,560 The Holy Spirit will give you what to say. 230 00:17:41,480 --> 00:17:45,440 And we need to try to depend on the Holy Spirit to give us what 231 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:49,720 to say when we feel attacked, when we feel like we're being 232 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:53,560 spoken to in a way that we don't deserve or, or when we feel like 233 00:17:53,560 --> 00:17:59,320 we're being offended and we feel like we just have to strike out 234 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:03,840 and, and, and, and get my saying told, Ah, you need to hear what 235 00:18:03,840 --> 00:18:06,000 I got to say. No, no, no, no, no. 236 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:09,040 If she ever talks to me that way or if he ever talks to me, I'll 237 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,560 be the last time she talked to anybody that way because I'm 238 00:18:11,560 --> 00:18:13,040 going to let them know how I feel. 239 00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:15,880 You know, we're going to give a piece of our mind. 240 00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:22,880 I don't have much mind left, so I can't give you a piece of my 241 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,040 mind because I ain't got much left myself. 242 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:31,360 So be swift to hear, but be slow to speak. 243 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:34,440 The other thing we need to be swift to hear. 244 00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:37,280 We need to be swift to make sure that we're hearing the voice of 245 00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:43,280 the Lord and not our flesh, not the enemy. 246 00:18:45,360 --> 00:18:49,680 We need to make sure we're hearing the Lord and not 247 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:51,800 responding to something because it's our flesh. 248 00:18:51,800 --> 00:18:55,560 I know, you know, I, I, I, I bet if my mother was here today, she 249 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:58,120 would say, boy, you should have had this when he was a teenager. 250 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:02,920 And I'm sure parents can relate because teenagers get to the 251 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:04,440 point where they feel that they can just explain. 252 00:19:04,440 --> 00:19:07,920 They, they become, you know, prosecutors and, and, and, and 253 00:19:08,360 --> 00:19:11,920 defense attorneys. They can explain anything. 254 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:13,680 But I'm going to tell you something. 255 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:15,480 I'm going to give you a lesson for free in here. 256 00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:19,800 Kids. Be quick to listen and slow to 257 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:26,320 speak because even if you're right, sometimes just being 258 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:31,040 quiet helps the matter not be so bad. 259 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:37,200 I have made things worse by speaking too much rather than 260 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:39,360 just being quiet. And can anybody relate to that? 261 00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:41,920 Anybody had that experience other than me? 262 00:19:43,120 --> 00:19:46,680 Yeah. So be swift to hear and slow to 263 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:48,720 speak. And then he said that if we are 264 00:19:48,720 --> 00:19:51,560 swift to hear and if we're slow to speak, guess what? 265 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:59,440 We'll be slow to wrath because the same the very same fruit of 266 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:08,320 self-control that we use with our hearts or our tongues. 267 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:12,360 The self-control. It's the same thing that we can 268 00:20:12,360 --> 00:20:17,680 use with our wrath, not to jump to conclusions and be wrathful 269 00:20:17,960 --> 00:20:22,200 right away. Judge, I'm bringing it down. 270 00:20:23,840 --> 00:20:27,760 If we are swift to hear and slow to speak, if we can control 271 00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:33,480 that, then the Lord can work in us to control the wrath that 272 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:40,960 comes out of our hearts. To control that, be swift to 273 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:46,160 hear. So being that we are swift to 274 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:51,400 hear and if we are slow to speak and we will become slow to 275 00:20:51,400 --> 00:20:54,320 wrath, but we have to understand something. 276 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,920 One of the reasons why God doesn't want us to just give our 277 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:01,920 wrath is because, well, first of all, let's understand this. 278 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:06,240 There are two types of wrath. There's godly wrath, which he 279 00:21:06,240 --> 00:21:09,520 does. He has, and in his human wrath 280 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:15,040 now godly wrath is good because godly wrath. 281 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:19,360 The purpose of godly wrath is to bring forth repentance. 282 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:24,000 It's to bring us to repentance. It's not to punish us. 283 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:28,880 It's to bring us to a place of humility and repentance so that 284 00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:34,840 we can slow down and hear Him, to walk in obedience to Him, so 285 00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:40,600 we can be protected by Him when we give ourselves the sin. 286 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:44,280 And it gets to the point where He has to bring wrath against 287 00:21:44,280 --> 00:21:46,960 the sin, which is what He's bringing wrath against. 288 00:21:47,480 --> 00:21:49,560 It's not for the purpose of destroying us. 289 00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:55,200 It's the purpose of bringing us to humility and repentance. 290 00:21:56,240 --> 00:21:59,880 You see, this wrath that we're talking about here is opposite 291 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:02,560 of the patience that we talked about over in verse 3. 292 00:22:04,080 --> 00:22:07,160 It's opposite of that patience. You know, when you know when 293 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:11,000 someone is quick to wrath, then that means that they're not 294 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:17,200 experiencing the fruit of patience, which we all need the 295 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,280 fruit of patience. We have need of that. 296 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,800 There are actually a lot of examples in the Bible of people 297 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:30,040 who were quick to wrath instead of slow to wrath and they were 298 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:32,760 quick to speak instead of being slow to speak. 299 00:22:33,080 --> 00:22:34,520 And I just want to give one example. 300 00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:36,760 I don't know if you, if you recall in the Bible, in the book 301 00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:42,560 of Luke, Luke Chapter 9, James and John was with Jesus. 302 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:44,840 They were going through, so they needed to go through Samaria to 303 00:22:44,840 --> 00:22:47,480 get to where they were gone. And the Samaritans say, no, you 304 00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:50,120 can't come through here. James and John. 305 00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:52,680 See, there's a reason why James and John is named the Sons of 306 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:57,080 Thunder, because they had short tempers, very short tempers. 307 00:22:57,520 --> 00:23:00,480 And the first thing out of their mouth was, Lord, should we 308 00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:03,960 demand that fire come down from heaven and consume them? 309 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:10,040 Quick to speak, slow, you know, quick to wrath. 310 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:16,480 And Jesus just simply said, you don't know what spirit you're 311 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,640 of. I didn't come to destroy men's 312 00:23:20,640 --> 00:23:22,520 lives. I came to save them. 313 00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:28,360 We have to understand when we speak out of our flesh, we are 314 00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:31,400 not demonstrating the righteousness of God. 315 00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:38,480 We are not demonstrating the grace and the mercy and love of 316 00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:43,080 God. That's not what spirit we are. 317 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:49,320 We're being influenced by another spirit, an evil spirit, 318 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,480 a wicked spirit, an angry spirit. 319 00:24:00,460 --> 00:24:03,580 There's a story also in the book of Acts where Paul did the exact 320 00:24:03,580 --> 00:24:07,300 same thing. Paul did the exact same thing. 321 00:24:08,860 --> 00:24:14,140 He was, he was brought before the the, the governor, the high 322 00:24:14,140 --> 00:24:15,460 priest. Actually, he was brought before 323 00:24:15,460 --> 00:24:20,300 the high priest and Paul was, you know, was defending himself 324 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:25,400 and the high priest commanded that he be smitten on the side 325 00:24:25,400 --> 00:24:28,520 of his face. This is over in Acts chapter 23. 326 00:24:30,520 --> 00:24:35,280 And Paul said you will be smitten also you white washed 327 00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:41,120 wall. He insulted the high priest and 328 00:24:41,120 --> 00:24:46,720 the person that was standing next to him said do you not even 329 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:51,280 respect the high priest? And Paul says, I didn't know 330 00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:58,320 that he was the high priest. It is written we do not speak 331 00:24:58,440 --> 00:25:01,280 evil of the leaders of the people. 332 00:25:01,760 --> 00:25:06,880 He knew the law. But because he was so angry and 333 00:25:06,880 --> 00:25:10,040 that that that tongue just came out of that cage and whoosh 334 00:25:11,760 --> 00:25:14,120 quickly. And how many times that happened 335 00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:18,920 with us, you know, God even in his love for us, he says, look, 336 00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,480 I'm trying to, I tried to tell, I'm trying to tell you that 337 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:25,040 you'd be slow to speak, that you don't speak more than what you 338 00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:25,840 should. Listen. 339 00:25:26,040 --> 00:25:28,360 And I even did that by the way, I created you. 340 00:25:28,360 --> 00:25:31,120 How many? I gave you one tongue and I put 341 00:25:31,120 --> 00:25:34,120 it behind your teeth. I put it behind your lips so 342 00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:39,520 it'd be caged up. I gave you 2 ears and they're 343 00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:46,480 open because I want you to hear the things that we know are 344 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:48,800 caged up are dangerous animals, aren't they? 345 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:54,080 What the Bible says that our tongues can be dangerous and 346 00:25:54,080 --> 00:25:59,720 unruly evil, full of poison. We'll get to that over in 347 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,680 chapter 3 though. But anyway, so the righteousness 348 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,400 or the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God. 349 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,760 So God's wrath is to bring repentance, to bring us to 350 00:26:10,760 --> 00:26:15,960 repentance and, and, and also it's to it's to humble us. 351 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:22,080 It's a good rather it's, and his wrath is always against evil, 352 00:26:22,560 --> 00:26:25,040 always against evil. And the one thing that we know 353 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:29,040 is that when God judges, his judgments are true. 354 00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,120 Over in Psalm 19 and 9, it says that the judgments of the Lord 355 00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:35,480 are true and righteous all together. 356 00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,320 God's judgments are righteous, but ours are not. 357 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:44,560 Our judgments are not righteous. We judge and we act based on our 358 00:26:44,560 --> 00:26:48,280 feelings, based on our flesh sometimes. 359 00:26:48,960 --> 00:26:51,680 And God never does that. You know, one of the things that 360 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:56,800 God never has to do is that he's never to the point where he acts 361 00:26:57,080 --> 00:27:01,320 uncontrollable or he acts out of sudden, of a sudden fit of 362 00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:04,360 anger. But we have done that. 363 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:09,240 We do act out of anger sometimes sudden fits of anger. 364 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,320 You ever get frustrated so and before you even realize what 365 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:14,760 you're doing, you, you've already gotten to the height of 366 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,160 where you want to, you know, like you've already, you've 367 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,760 gotten so angry so quick that you don't even realize that you 368 00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,480 know that the danger of what you just said or what you just did 369 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:28,520 because you just got so angry so quick. 370 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:32,840 And they can get you there sometimes, you know, sometimes 371 00:27:32,840 --> 00:27:34,760 things that people do can get you there. 372 00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:39,080 But we allow that to happen because our righteous or our 373 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:44,440 wrath is not righteous. But but what you have to 374 00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:47,800 understand that God's wrath is our wrath is for the purpose of 375 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,080 bringing punishment, retaliation. 376 00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:52,480 You know, I want to retaliate against you. 377 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:54,640 So I'm going to say some things to you, do some things to you 378 00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:56,560 that you know that you can't do that to me. 379 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:00,400 But God's wrath is not like that. 380 00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,800 It doesn't bring forth those kind of things. 381 00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:06,880 So then we understand now that, OK, let's be slow. 382 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:09,240 Let's be swift to hear the word of God. 383 00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:14,160 Let's be slow to speak, and let's be slow to getting angry, 384 00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:17,880 be slow to wrath. For we understand our wrath do 385 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:19,480 not work the righteousness of God. 386 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:25,920 So because of that, he tells us in verse 21, therefore lay aside 387 00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:30,160 all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with 388 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:35,120 meekness the implanted word which is able to save your 389 00:28:35,120 --> 00:28:39,320 souls. So James is saying, in order for 390 00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,800 you to be able to receive the Word of God and to really hear 391 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,600 it and have it benefit you, you got to clean out your heart. 392 00:28:47,960 --> 00:28:52,080 You got to clean out your heart. You got hardness in your heart. 393 00:28:52,920 --> 00:28:54,720 You got some things that shouldn't be there. 394 00:28:54,720 --> 00:29:00,440 You got bitterness in your heart, you got anger in your 395 00:29:00,440 --> 00:29:04,880 heart, you got clamor and wrath in your heart. 396 00:29:05,440 --> 00:29:08,280 Those things are filthy. They defile us. 397 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:13,480 Those things defile us. And he said, lay aside those 398 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:20,120 things, Get rid of those wicked things, and receive with 399 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:25,200 meekness, receive with a teachable spirit, receive with 400 00:29:25,200 --> 00:29:31,120 humility, with gentleness, the implanted word of God. 401 00:29:31,360 --> 00:29:34,960 And I love the fact that he used the word implanted because many 402 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,280 places in the Word of God, he talks about the Word as being a 403 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:43,120 seed. It's a seed that is planted in 404 00:29:43,120 --> 00:29:46,080 our hearts right now as the word of God has gone forth. 405 00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,240 It's a seed that's coming forth. And it should be planting in our 406 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:54,120 hearts. It should be resting or find a 407 00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:58,080 resting place in our hearts, a place where it it, it can grow 408 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:01,200 and bring forth fruit in our lives. 409 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:07,600 So he said that this implanted word and, and there's many 410 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:14,720 places where he uses this example of the word as being 411 00:30:15,200 --> 00:30:19,800 implanted, this word that he that he sows over in Mark four, 412 00:30:19,920 --> 00:30:23,240 he talks about sowing the, you know, the parable of the, of 413 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:26,400 the, of the sower. And what is it He's sowing? 414 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:31,600 He's sowing the word and he gets four different grounds of the 415 00:30:31,600 --> 00:30:34,480 word, four different types of, of soil. 416 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:37,000 In other words, it, it represents our hearts, the four 417 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:38,520 different hearts. First of all, it's the hard 418 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,320 heart that nothing penetrates and that falls by the wayside. 419 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:44,480 Anything can come and grab it and take it away. 420 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:48,440 So the word has no effect. Another type of heart that we 421 00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:51,840 can have can be a Stony heart. Well, you can plant the, you can 422 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,720 sprinkle the seed on that, but it doesn't take up any growth. 423 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:59,120 And as soon as some hard times come, like the trials that, 424 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:03,080 that, that, that James is talking about, because there's 425 00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:08,520 no growth, it's scorched and we walk away from the Lord because 426 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:11,040 there's no growth, there's no grounding. 427 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,760 Then of course there's a the word that can be sown and 428 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:18,080 thorns. But then the cares of this life 429 00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:21,760 and the deceitfulness of riches and, and, and, and the cares for 430 00:31:21,760 --> 00:31:25,720 other things, though the desire for other things chokes that 431 00:31:25,720 --> 00:31:29,640 word and it causes it to have no effect. 432 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,720 So that's why he's saying, look, clear these things out of your 433 00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:36,120 heart. So when you receive the word, 434 00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:40,040 you can receive it with meekness or with gentleness. 435 00:31:40,800 --> 00:31:46,920 And this word can literally work effectively in you. 436 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,400 You see, when we first heard the word of God, it worked for our 437 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:52,160 salvation because we trusted in it. 438 00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:55,600 We believed on it and it worked for our salvation. 439 00:31:55,680 --> 00:31:58,320 But we have to continue to receive the word of God. 440 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:03,400 So it works for our sanctification as we continue to 441 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:07,960 grow in our Christian life to look more and more like Jesus 442 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:12,200 Christ. We continue to receive the word. 443 00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,600 So he said, let's take that. So now he's goes to verse 22 444 00:32:18,760 --> 00:32:23,920 through 25 and he now talks about what we do with that word. 445 00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:31,320 Oh, oh, one of the things that we realize as a church, any 446 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:37,680 church or the church, he says here be doers of the Word. 447 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,840 Verse 22, Be doers of the word and not here is only deceiving 448 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:45,080 yourselves. Verse 23 For if anyone is a 449 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:49,440 hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like a man observing 450 00:32:49,440 --> 00:32:54,000 his natural face in the mirror, For he observes himself, goes 451 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,200 away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 452 00:32:58,680 --> 00:33:03,160 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and 453 00:33:03,160 --> 00:33:10,160 continues in it and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of 454 00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:16,240 the work, not the word, but the work, this one will be blessed. 455 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,600 And what he does, so he shares with this, there's two types of 456 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:22,000 people that sits in church every day, every Sunday. 457 00:33:22,720 --> 00:33:25,240 There's those who hear the Word and there are those who are 458 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:29,520 doers of the Word. Those who hear the Word, attend 459 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:35,960 church every Sunday, come and listen to what's said, but then 460 00:33:35,960 --> 00:33:37,720 walk out and that's it. That's the end of it. 461 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:42,200 And then there's doers of the Word hears it, It goes into the 462 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,320 heart and we begin to work on it. 463 00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:48,840 You begin to work on what it is that you heard you, you, you, 464 00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:53,680 you pray and ask God to to help you in those areas that he 465 00:33:53,680 --> 00:34:00,040 pointed out through the word that you're not quite there yet. 466 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:04,840 Like this. Be slow to speak thing that I've 467 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:10,320 got to stay before God with slow to speak. 468 00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:13,080 Be swift to hear all that. You know, those are things I got 469 00:34:13,080 --> 00:34:17,320 to stay before God with patience. 470 00:34:17,719 --> 00:34:19,560 Those are things I got to stay before God with. 471 00:34:20,400 --> 00:34:24,360 So we have those things, right? So basically what he's saying is 472 00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,280 that when you receive the Word, you need to know what to do with 473 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:29,679 it. Not to be just a hearer of the 474 00:34:29,679 --> 00:34:32,159 Word, but to be a doer of the Word. 475 00:34:32,159 --> 00:34:35,040 I want to be a disciple. We want to be disciples of the 476 00:34:35,040 --> 00:34:37,400 Word of God. We want to be disciples of Jesus 477 00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:41,239 Christ and not just come in and be hearers, not just come to be 478 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:42,719 hearers. He said, if you're just a hearer 479 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,280 of the Word, you're just deceiving yourself. 480 00:34:45,719 --> 00:34:52,719 Over in Matthew Chapter 7, verse 21, he begins to speak about 481 00:34:52,719 --> 00:34:57,200 those who are just hearers of the word and not doers of the 482 00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,400 word, and this is what he has to say about that. 483 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,920 I'll just read it to you. He said, not everyone who says 484 00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:05,120 Lord, Lord, I'm sorry, let's go down. 485 00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:07,200 Let's go down. Verse 2024. 486 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,720 He says, therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and 487 00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:15,480 does them, whoever hears the word of God, whoever hears my 488 00:35:15,480 --> 00:35:20,720 teaching and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who 489 00:35:20,720 --> 00:35:25,720 built his house on the rock, and the rain descended, the floods 490 00:35:25,720 --> 00:35:29,800 came, and the winds blew and beat on the House, and it did 491 00:35:29,800 --> 00:35:33,240 not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 492 00:35:33,520 --> 00:35:35,960 So he says, look, if you're a doer of my word, then you're 493 00:35:35,960 --> 00:35:41,040 going to have a good foundation that can stand up in trial, that 494 00:35:41,040 --> 00:35:43,480 can stand up in times of tribulation. 495 00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:46,840 You'll be able to stand in temptations and when the hard 496 00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:49,160 times come. But if you're not a doer the 497 00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:52,520 word, listen to what he says here, but every in verse 26. 498 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:57,040 But everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do 499 00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:01,200 them will be liking, will be like a foolish man who built his 500 00:36:01,200 --> 00:36:05,840 house on sand. So he's talking about the 501 00:36:05,840 --> 00:36:10,520 significance of hearing the word and being a doer of it. 502 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,280 Now he now he, he, he, he mentions this illustration, 503 00:36:14,280 --> 00:36:16,640 which I think is just awesome because we can all relate to 504 00:36:16,640 --> 00:36:20,600 this. He gives the illustration of a 505 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:23,280 mirror. Most of us have more than one 506 00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:24,640 mirror in the house. Will we agree on that? 507 00:36:25,720 --> 00:36:30,600 Most of us do. I know we do. 508 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,680 OK. And actually I'm looking because 509 00:36:33,680 --> 00:36:34,920 we need to get a full length mirror. 510 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:36,600 I don't have a full length mirror in my house. 511 00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:37,640 Anybody got a full length mirror? 512 00:36:38,080 --> 00:36:41,360 You can say, oh, many. OK, I got to get a go. 513 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:43,360 I got to get a full full length mirror. 514 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,040 Let's get back to the point. I digress. 515 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,360 The point I'm trying to make here is that James uses a very 516 00:36:50,360 --> 00:36:54,600 interesting illustration to talk about those being a doer or 517 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,200 hearer, the word only, and those being a doer. 518 00:36:57,600 --> 00:36:59,520 And he used the illustration of a mirror. 519 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:04,440 So we walked this morning, every one of us when we got dressed, 520 00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:08,240 we went to that mirror and we looked, does this go with this 521 00:37:08,240 --> 00:37:11,560 outfit? Do I need to change my shoes? 522 00:37:12,600 --> 00:37:15,480 Does this shirt go? I know what y'all thinking. 523 00:37:15,480 --> 00:37:18,600 Stop it. I know what you're thinking that 524 00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,200 I'm. I'm thinking about how I match 525 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,200 up my shirts with my shoes. I know that's what some of you 526 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:30,400 guys are thinking. So we look at other things, 527 00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:32,560 right? Do we have fuzz in my hair? 528 00:37:33,680 --> 00:37:37,840 Do I need to shave men, you know, women, is my hair done 529 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:39,280 right? We look at those things. 530 00:37:39,560 --> 00:37:42,880 So we see the flaws. We look in the mirror and we see 531 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:46,080 the flaws, but then we go and do something about it. 532 00:37:46,120 --> 00:37:48,680 If we think we need to change something in our outfit, we 533 00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,000 will. If we think we need to do 534 00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:52,920 something different with our hair, we will. 535 00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:55,800 If we think that there's, you know, we need to wash our face a 536 00:37:55,800 --> 00:37:57,760 little better because there's a little coal in the corner of my 537 00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:02,480 eyes, We will. When we see the flaws, we do 538 00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:06,600 something about it. James is saying, when you look 539 00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:11,960 into the mirror of the word and the Lord points out those flaws, 540 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:17,760 those things in your life that are not good, those things that 541 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:23,360 are not of him, we too should be doers of that as well and do 542 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,280 something about it. Let's come to him. 543 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,040 Say, Lord, I lay this before you, I need to change this. 544 00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:36,360 The Bible says that we are clothed with Jesus Christ, Amen. 545 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:38,600 So we're closed with Jesus Christ. 546 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:40,880 What is it in our hearts that don't go with that outfit? 547 00:38:43,640 --> 00:38:47,040 What's in our hearts or in our lives that don't go with the 548 00:38:47,080 --> 00:38:49,400 outfit that we're wearing of Jesus Christ? 549 00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,840 So then he goes on, he says, but those who look into the perfect 550 00:38:55,840 --> 00:39:00,720 liberty, the law of liberty, and continues in it, and he goes on 551 00:39:00,720 --> 00:39:03,320 to tell you what that means. That means not being a forgetful 552 00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:09,800 here, but to be a doer, OK, but to do a doer of a work of the 553 00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:12,360 work of salvation. Now see, we don't work for 554 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:16,960 salvation, but we do work in our salvation. 555 00:39:17,040 --> 00:39:20,320 There is work in our salvation, good works. 556 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:25,880 Bible says we are created unto good works in Christ Jesus that 557 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:32,080 we should walk in them so we're a doer of the work and he said 558 00:39:32,080 --> 00:39:36,280 this one will be blessed. This one will have happiness and 559 00:39:36,400 --> 00:39:40,560 and divine favor if we're a doer of the work. 560 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:43,880 I'll just want to share this, you know, when, when, when, when 561 00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:51,760 we are truly seeking the Lord in heirs of our lives that are that 562 00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:55,400 are wanting areas our lives. We may be slacking a little bit 563 00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:59,760 areas of our lives that take us kind of take us away from him. 564 00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,240 When we start to seek the Lord in that we feel so much closer 565 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:09,400 to him when we're walking in that obedience to him, we're 566 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:12,080 loving him, we're fellowshipping with him. 567 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:18,600 We, we, we endeavor to please him in the way that we walk, in 568 00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:20,720 a way that we speak in the things that we do. 569 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:25,720 With through other people, there's such a closeness that we 570 00:40:25,720 --> 00:40:29,520 feel to Him. There's such a fellowship that 571 00:40:29,520 --> 00:40:32,480 we feel to Him. There's such peace that we have 572 00:40:32,840 --> 00:40:40,280 in Him because we have that communion with Him through 573 00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:44,200 obedience of His word. I'm not talking perfect 574 00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:47,480 obedience, honest, I'm not. None of us are perfect. 575 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:52,720 None of us. We are constantly seeking to 576 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:56,320 mature in Christ Jesus. Every day, every Sunday we come 577 00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:57,560 here. We want to hear something to 578 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:03,400 help us mature in Christ Jesus, not go backwards, but to move 579 00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:06,840 forward in Him. And when we're doing that, it 580 00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:11,720 brings us so much peace, so much joy. 581 00:41:13,080 --> 00:41:18,680 Even in the midst of trial, we can have that peace. 582 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,720 But then in verse 26 and 27, are we about to come in for a 583 00:41:21,720 --> 00:41:23,120 landing? Believe it or not? 584 00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:25,760 See, see, I know what some of you are thinking. 585 00:41:27,320 --> 00:41:28,680 We're about to come in for a landing. 586 00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:32,280 So in verse 26, he says, if anyone praise and worship team, 587 00:41:32,280 --> 00:41:33,640 you can come forward. I'm sorry. 588 00:41:34,440 --> 00:41:40,120 So if anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle 589 00:41:40,120 --> 00:41:46,520 his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is 590 00:41:46,640 --> 00:41:50,720 useless. Hear that word useless. 591 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:55,720 It's the word he used here. Pure and undefiled religion. 592 00:41:55,720 --> 00:41:58,440 Verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion 593 00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:03,440 before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and 594 00:42:03,440 --> 00:42:09,040 widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the 595 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:14,280 world. So now he moves from being a 596 00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:17,880 hearer of the Word to being the doer of the word and he's about 597 00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:26,080 to mention three things or three areas in which our evidences 598 00:42:26,720 --> 00:42:30,560 that we are doers of the word or evidences that we are in Christ 599 00:42:30,560 --> 00:42:33,480 Jesus. The first one, he, well, first 600 00:42:33,480 --> 00:42:35,000 of all, he talks about religion, not know. 601 00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,280 When we hear that word religion, we get a little turned off in 602 00:42:38,280 --> 00:42:41,200 the New Testament church. And there's a good reason to 603 00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:44,960 because to be religious or to be called to be religious is not 604 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:48,800 necessarily a ever, you know, not used as a positive thing. 605 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:51,400 If someone says, you know, you're religious, that usually 606 00:42:51,400 --> 00:42:55,640 says to me that, you know, there's not much depth to what 607 00:42:55,640 --> 00:42:57,720 you practice. There's not much depth to what 608 00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:01,240 you believe. And the reason why is because, 609 00:43:01,240 --> 00:43:04,480 and I'm just going to give you a quick definition of religion 610 00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:09,480 here or being religious. It's the outward appearance or 611 00:43:09,480 --> 00:43:13,200 the outward practice of serving God. 612 00:43:13,440 --> 00:43:17,320 It's the appearance that we're serving God, not really 613 00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:19,880 necessarily serving God. There's nothing in our hearts. 614 00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:25,080 The heart is dark, but on the outside we look like we are this 615 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:31,640 religious righteous person. I come to church every Sunday. 616 00:43:31,640 --> 00:43:36,680 My Bible is a nice sized Bible and I got a cross on that you 617 00:43:36,680 --> 00:43:39,160 can see, you know, from a block away. 618 00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:43,240 And you know, I, I, I wear the right clothes and, and, and I do 619 00:43:43,240 --> 00:43:46,640 the, I say the right things, but that's not, that's, that's the 620 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,080 Pharisees. Jesus said that's the Pharisees. 621 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:52,680 They look why? You know, they look good on the 622 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,480 outside, but inside they're full of dead men's bones. 623 00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:01,480 He says woe to them, He said, unless your righteousness 624 00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:03,880 exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees. 625 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,400 It's got to be more than just looking good on the outside. 626 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:09,760 It's got to be about what's going on in that heart. 627 00:44:10,760 --> 00:44:13,720 And that's why he says be a doer of the Word because that deals 628 00:44:13,720 --> 00:44:17,320 with our hearts. James was called James the 629 00:44:17,320 --> 00:44:21,640 Righteous for a reason, not because he was a perfect man, 630 00:44:22,640 --> 00:44:30,040 but his desire, his desire to live out the word of God, the 631 00:44:30,040 --> 00:44:33,240 walk with God. So he says. 632 00:44:33,240 --> 00:44:36,880 So here when we talk about religious, we talk about 633 00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:40,160 something that looks good on the outside, but necessarily not 634 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:43,760 having any depth on the inside. And James said that really, he 635 00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:47,200 said if you are religious, if you say you're religious, but 636 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:51,800 yet you can't even control your tongue, you can't even bridle 637 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,400 your tongue. You speak to people in ways that 638 00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:57,280 are belittling or or or or demeaning. 639 00:44:58,080 --> 00:45:00,280 You attack people with your tongue. 640 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:06,120 You use language that's, that's unbecoming of someone that's in 641 00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:09,160 Christ Jesus. The jokes that you're telling, 642 00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:11,960 but yet you want to talk to me about coming to church. 643 00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,480 You want to talk to me about being righteous. 644 00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:17,480 And I'm I'm listening to this conversation that you're having 645 00:45:17,720 --> 00:45:22,240 and it just doesn't sound like it's of the Lord. 646 00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:28,200 Many testimonies have been destroyed by ungodly 647 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:33,520 conversations. Ungodly conversations. 648 00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:37,640 So he says that if, if, if anyone thinks that they are 649 00:45:37,640 --> 00:45:41,040 religious, but yet they came bridle their tongue or even 650 00:45:41,040 --> 00:45:45,320 tries to bridle their tongue, but they deceive their own 651 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:48,240 heart. This one's religion is useless 652 00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,440 if we don't have a religion that speaks or that deals with the 653 00:45:52,440 --> 00:45:56,880 word of God, that obeys the word of God, that's endeavoring to 654 00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:06,080 obey the word of God, and we act the same way as the world acts 655 00:46:06,080 --> 00:46:07,840 that we're trying to minister to. 656 00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:17,040 That religion is useless to them and to us and to us doesn't 657 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:21,080 benefit anybody. But then he goes on and he says, 658 00:46:21,080 --> 00:46:27,240 but true and pure and undefiled religion before God the Father 659 00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:31,200 and the Father is this. In other words, be a doer. 660 00:46:31,200 --> 00:46:34,960 Listen to what he says here to visit the orphans and widows in 661 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,080 their trouble. And he says the widows and 662 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,560 orphans in their trouble, because that was the population 663 00:46:39,560 --> 00:46:43,160 of people that was the most neglected in Bible times. 664 00:46:43,160 --> 00:46:47,520 Orphans and widows kids were made orphans because both 665 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:50,360 parents or died or either can't afford to take care of them so 666 00:46:50,360 --> 00:46:54,520 they had to give them up. They had nobody to take care of 667 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,880 them. Widows husbands died. 668 00:46:57,880 --> 00:46:59,960 Maybe they died before they even had kids. 669 00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:02,160 The husbands took care of the wives. 670 00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,000 Now there's no one to take care of her. 671 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:07,120 She's a widow. And those were the 2 neglected 672 00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:11,640 and the two misused groups of populations in Bible time. 673 00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,840 But yet Jesus tells us or the word of God tells us that God is 674 00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:20,520 a defender of those who are orphans. 675 00:47:20,640 --> 00:47:22,880 And he pleads the case of the widows. 676 00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:28,160 He, he, he's, he's not someone who looks over and looks past 677 00:47:28,160 --> 00:47:32,560 them, but he deals with them, he helps them, he serves them. 678 00:47:32,720 --> 00:47:35,440 So he said, the first, you know, the second, the first evidence 679 00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:40,840 is to keep our tongues, but the, the the second evidence is to 680 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:45,080 care or to give service to those who can't help themselves to be 681 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:49,120 doers of the word of God. Matthew 25 as you've done it to 682 00:47:49,120 --> 00:47:52,840 the least of these, you've done it unto me. 683 00:47:54,840 --> 00:47:57,720 Psalm 68 and five says the father of the fatherless, a 684 00:47:57,720 --> 00:48:01,960 defender of the widows is God and his holy dwelling. 685 00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:08,800 And then he says the third thing is to keep yourself unspotted 686 00:48:08,960 --> 00:48:12,200 from the world. One of the biggest things that 687 00:48:12,200 --> 00:48:16,120 we can do is to keep ourselves separated from the things of the 688 00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:20,520 one looking like the world, but to keep ourselves unspotted from 689 00:48:20,520 --> 00:48:23,680 it. And sometimes when we talk about 690 00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:27,040 our speech, go back to that for just one second to talk about 691 00:48:27,040 --> 00:48:30,120 the speech. We see that there are times when 692 00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:33,000 we post, I mean, even in our writings of emails or text 693 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:35,720 messages, not just things we say, but what about the things 694 00:48:35,720 --> 00:48:38,640 that we write? We got to be mindful of those 695 00:48:38,640 --> 00:48:40,680 things too. How do we respond in a text 696 00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:42,280 message? How do we respond in emails? 697 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:43,720 What are we putting on Instagram? 698 00:48:43,720 --> 00:48:48,000 What are we putting on Facebook? When we read that, what are we 699 00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:50,600 seeing? What's the image that the people 700 00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:53,800 see of us, the pictures that we have? 701 00:48:54,120 --> 00:48:59,800 What do they say about us? What do they speak of us to be 702 00:48:59,800 --> 00:49:02,320 mindful of those things? It's what he said to have 703 00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:05,800 control, that self-control and to be able to keep ourselves 704 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:09,680 unspotted from the world. Well, you know what? 705 00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:12,400 We we were all orphans at one time. 706 00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,040 And then it was the Lord Jesus Christ who adopted us, right? 707 00:49:15,720 --> 00:49:17,560 We're now adopted into the beloved. 708 00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:23,000 And I thank God that we have a heavenly Father, regardless of 709 00:49:23,000 --> 00:49:25,440 what the earthly father did or doing. 710 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:30,000 We have a heavenly Father who loves us and who cares about us. 711 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:36,200 And as we go into communion, I just want to mention that maybe 712 00:49:36,200 --> 00:49:39,280 you here today, maybe there's someone here today that feels 713 00:49:39,280 --> 00:49:42,240 like, you know what? I'm saved. 714 00:49:43,560 --> 00:49:47,040 I've given my life to Christ. But I still feel like an orphan 715 00:49:47,040 --> 00:49:51,880 because after I got saved, I was just left to myself to try to 716 00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:55,880 walk through this, this, this walk with Christ. 717 00:49:55,880 --> 00:50:00,320 I mean, no one discipled me, you know, no one really shared with 718 00:50:00,320 --> 00:50:02,280 me. No one took me in. 719 00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:05,160 I, I don't feel included in the body of Christ. 720 00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:07,280 I don't feel connected to anybody. 721 00:50:08,080 --> 00:50:12,800 I just want to say to you, if that's you today, come and join 722 00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:18,000 us here at Calvary Chapel. You're welcome to walk with us. 723 00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:20,000 We don't want you to have Bill Orphan. 724 00:50:20,240 --> 00:50:25,840 We want to walk with you as we all are walking in this walk to 725 00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:29,840 become, to become more like Jesus Christ. 726 00:50:30,200 --> 00:50:33,960 We do it together, not in isolation. 727 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:37,720 We do it together. If you don't feel connected to 728 00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:40,360 anybody in the faith, come and connect with us. 729 00:50:42,200 --> 00:50:45,440 Come and connect with us. No one has to do this by 730 00:50:45,440 --> 00:50:49,360 themselves. But I'm so grateful that Jesus 731 00:50:49,360 --> 00:50:56,800 Christ himself embodied all those things, the mercifulness, 732 00:50:57,400 --> 00:51:04,120 the goodness, the truth, the long-suffering or patience. 733 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:08,960 He embodied all those things and He showed it as He walked for 734 00:51:08,960 --> 00:51:14,480 the 3 1/2 years in His ministry on earth, even to the point 735 00:51:14,960 --> 00:51:20,400 where He showed His obedience to the Father by giving His life. 736 00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:26,160 So today we want to just remember that. 737 00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:32,360 We want to remember that. Yes, we'll remember it in the 738 00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:36,280 table as we take the table, as we take the bread, eat the bread 739 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:40,000 and we drink the wine. We'll remember that this is His 740 00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:44,720 broken body that He gave for us and His obedience to the Father. 741 00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:48,560 We'll remember that it's the blood that He shed for us in his 742 00:51:48,560 --> 00:51:51,360 obedience to the Father that we would have salvation. 743 00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:54,880 We do want to remember that, but we also want to remember it when 744 00:51:54,880 --> 00:51:58,400 we walk out of here, after we put this cup into the bag and we 745 00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:03,440 throw it in the garbage can. Let us remember the sacrifice 746 00:52:03,440 --> 00:52:07,040 that was made for us to have salvation. 747 00:52:08,280 --> 00:52:12,600 The the, the, the work of sacrifice that was made for us 748 00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:18,000 to have eternal life, to be forgiven for our transgressions 749 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:22,040 and our sins. Let's remember what was 750 00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:28,520 sacrifice for us and may we consider that we give our lives 751 00:52:28,720 --> 00:52:35,600 to him. And the night in which Jesus was 752 00:52:35,600 --> 00:52:41,840 betrayed, he took the bread, and after he gave thanks, he broke 753 00:52:41,840 --> 00:52:48,600 it and said, take, eat this is my body broken for you, Eat 754 00:52:48,600 --> 00:52:56,500 this. And remembering to me in the 755 00:52:56,500 --> 00:52:58,300 same manner he also took the cup. 756 00:53:01,460 --> 00:53:06,740 And after supper he said, This cup is the new covenant in my 757 00:53:06,740 --> 00:53:14,140 blood, which is shed for the forgiveness of sins of many. 758 00:53:16,100 --> 00:53:24,520 Jesus came to give His life a ransom for many, and His blood 759 00:53:24,520 --> 00:53:28,400 still cleanses us. Those of you who have not 760 00:53:28,400 --> 00:53:33,280 trusted in Christ Jesus, the blood that he shed, it is still 761 00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:39,520 cleansing our sins today, and it can still cleanse yours if you 762 00:53:39,520 --> 00:53:43,440 trust Him. Give your heart to Him. 763 00:53:45,520 --> 00:53:49,680 So this cup is a new covenant in My blood, which was shed for the 764 00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:54,360 sins of many. Drink this in remembrance of Me. 765 00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:02,120 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you 766 00:54:02,120 --> 00:54:04,080 show the Lord's death till he come. 767 00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:06,600 Amen. The Lord bless you all. 768 00:54:06,600 --> 00:54:12,640 The altar is open if anyone wants to come and share your 769 00:54:12,640 --> 00:54:15,640 heart with the Lord. There's people here who will 770 00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:17,920 pray with you. If there's any areas where you 771 00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:21,080 want to give to Him, If there's someone here who says, you know 772 00:54:21,080 --> 00:54:23,720 what, today I want to give my life to Jesus Christ. 773 00:54:24,800 --> 00:54:28,080 You are welcome to come forth and to pray with someone that's 774 00:54:28,080 --> 00:54:30,920 up here, but you can also do it right from your seat. 775 00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:35,400 He hears it. He knows your heart. 776 00:54:36,560 --> 00:54:38,440 I pray someone does. The Lord bless you. 777 00:54:38,960 --> 00:54:39,240 Amen.