Hearing and Doing

Introduction

You know, sometimes we take things for granted. We don’t know what we have. We don’t know what we have right in front of us. And I’m talking about you. Do you know what you have right in front of you? You have the perfect physical specimen. The very picture of health, diet, and fitness. And you know why you have that in front of you? Because I’ve read some of the best diet books there are on the market. I’ve listened to some of the foremost experts about health and diet and fitness. I own some of those books. I’ve gone to and listened to some of the best doctors who know diet and how the body works with food and exercise. And because I’ve listened to all of those things, I am all of those things.

And I can see that mentally, at least all the hands slowly going up and saying, excuse me. That’s not how it works, Ken. And you might point out to me, which is the obvious, that it’s good to hear and to read. But that doesn’t do you a whole lot of good, does it? Until and unless you put it into practice. We get that when it comes to things like diet and exercise, don’t we? But do we truly get that when it comes to more important matters? Would you turn in your New Testament with me to James chapter 1? Our family theme this year is we do not lose heart, taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 4. I’m not asking you to turn there, go to James 1, but our theme is we do not lose heart.

And I want us to understand this morning that much of achieving that theme, that focus of not losing heart, rests in our response to God. Yes, we do not lose heart because we have an all-powerful, all loving, active and involved God in our lives. But we do not lose heart because of how we respond to that God.

A familiar text to you, where James is going to try to get through to us with really the obvious. And that is that it’s not enough to just listen. It’s not enough to have knowledge, even complete and full knowledge. But what? And remind ourselves to whom James wrote this message originally. But what will you Christian do with it? We decry the fact that our world cares little for God and won’t listen to God and won’t do the will of God. And rightly so. But let us recognize that as Christians, we really are no better. As stark and shocking as that might sound, we’re really no better than the world if we simply hear the truth, know that truth, and can, when called upon, spew it back forth, but it’s not really who we are.

1. Be Swift to Hear, Slow to Speak, Slow to Wrath

And so let’s listen to the words of James, the inspired words of James this morning, when he tries to impress upon us again the obvious, that it’s not about what you hear. It’s not even about what you know, but it’s about what you do. James chapter 1 begins famously in verse 19, when he says, So then, my beloved brethren. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Now let’s pause there. You probably have heard that verse read and quoted so many times, and can we say, even maybe misapplied so many times? Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. We read that verse almost like a proverb from the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, and we say this about that.

What James is telling you is that in your everyday life, you need to do more listening and less talking, because God taught us that lesson. He gave us one mouth and two ears, didn’t he? So we need to at least listen twice as much as we talk. And so don’t talk so much. Listen to what others have to say. And that’s probably very good advice, depending upon who’s doing the talking on the other end. But that’s not at all what James is saying here. When James says, be swift to hear, slow to speak, he’s not talking about in your everyday conversations with friends, families, and neighbors and co-workers. There’s a context. And let’s look at the context of James 1, verse 19. He had earlier been talking about every good and perfect gift that comes from the Father.

And among those good and perfect gifts, he says in verse 18, let’s back up one verse from our beginning verse. He says, of his, that’s the Father of lights, who gives without variation or shadow of turning, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So then let us be swift to hear. In my Bible, I’ve underlined in verse 18, word of truth.

And underlined the word hear in verse 19, and I drew a line between them. Because that’s what the Holy Spirit is drawing a line between. God has brought us forth by his word of truth. Therefore, you be swift to hear. Hear what? Hear what your neighbors have to say? What your family members, your husband or wife might have to say. No. Hear what God has to say. And so you be swift to hear and slow to speak. And so that’s our first point, or James’ first point this morning is that you do need to hear. You do need to listen. And to put it more bluntly, what James is saying is be quiet and listen. I could put it more bluntly than that, but be quiet and listen.

Listen to what God has to say. It doesn’t matter what you say. It doesn’t matter what you say about salvation. It doesn’t matter what you say about what the church ought to be doing. It doesn’t matter what you say about what human beings were put on this planet for. It matters what God, the Maker, the Creator, said. And so you be quiet and you listen to God. Be swift to hear, slow to speak. Now, speak might mean in the context of just you inserting your own opinion. And that would be applicable. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is what God says. But in the context as well, speak may have to do with the idea of talking back. That’s a little different than just talking, isn’t it?

Talking back. Because he says, be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For he goes on to say in verse 20, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Well, what does produce the righteousness of God? The word of God. And so listen, so what James is saying is you can get mad at the preaching of the gospel all you want to, but that’s never going to achieve the righteousness of God. Let’s illustrate this idea. If you’ve ever, it’s kind of a past gone era, kind of because of our society and things. And maybe it shouldn’t be, but it’s kind of gone by the wayside. But when I first started preaching, one of the big evangelistic efforts we would do is we go door knocking.

You ever go door knocking as a Christian? You just go down the street, knock on doors. And they open up the door, and you say, I want to talk to you about the Bible. Or I want to invite you to a gospel meeting we’re having. We do that. And as a preacher, I did a lot of that. And I’m going to tell you, I had a lot of doors slammed in my face. Metaphorically and literally. That’s kind of the illustration of the wrath of man. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Don’t get mad at the message. We talk about don’t get mad at the messenger, but don’t get mad at the message, because getting mad at the message is rejecting the message, and that’s not going to achieve righteousness.

So the first thing James says is yes, hearing is important. Don’t get upset. We can look at biblical examples. Remember in the Old Testament, Jehoiakim the king got mad when Jeremiah proclaimed the word of God and he pulled out his pocket knife. You remember that? And just cut up the word of God and threw it away. Remember the response of Stephen as he spoke to the crowd? They stopped up their ears and rushed toward him. The leaders of the Jews so often got angry and jealous and bitter when either Jesus or the apostles preached the gospel. Paul, even to his brethren would say in the book of Galatians, chapter 4, have I become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. And so the first thing he says is that we need to hear the word.

2. Receive With Meekness the Implanted Word

But notice what he goes on to say. Verse 21, therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Now, let’s pause there again. Is it possible? Maybe even probable that that’s why people get mad? Because wickedness, overflow of that wickedness, the filthiness. When a human being doesn’t want to change, they usually don’t want pointed out that they need to change. And you can have two responses. How dare you tell me the truth? How dare you tell me what I need to know and do? Or the other response is the one that James says we should have. Lay aside that filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Finish verse 21, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul. Do you notice the progression?

It’s going to continue in James’ message here. First, he says, yes, you need to listen. Be quiet and listen to what God says. Don’t get mad about it. Receive it. Now, how is hearing different than receiving? Or how is receiving a step further than hearing? Well, hearing is the involves, I believe, everything that’s involved, really, the idea of listening and hearing. That is, that you hear the audible tones, you understand, you can’t really hear if you don’t understand. You understand that message. But receiving is the idea of going, okay. Maybe another word we could use there is accepting it. Let me illustrate that. As a preacher, I get to see that visually demonstrated sometimes. When I’m teaching a Bible class and preaching a sermon, by the way, I get to see the opposite of that demonstrated sometimes too, but sometimes I get to see that visually demonstrated what it means to receive the word.

And that is when I look out in the audience and I’m preaching or teaching, and I get what I call the church of Christ, amen. And that’s when somebody just silently is kind of nodding their head. What that usually means, universally, is, yeah, that’s right. That’s right. That’s the truth. I needed to hear that. I need that in my life. I need to do more of that, or I need to quit doing that. That’s I think that’s the idea of receive. It’s different than just listen. It’s the idea of accepting that and saying yes, that is not just the truth as spoken, but that’s the truth that I need. Receive with meekness. It’s the idea of the gentleness of accepting it and going, you’re right, I was wrong.

It’s the opposite of receiving it with wrath. The wrath of man, getting angry when somebody tells you, you’re wrong, you need to repent, you need to make changes. The opposite of that is meekly receiving and saying, You’re right. I’m wrong. I accept that I need to change. To receive with meekness the implanted word. Now that takes it a step further, doesn’t it? The new internet, the the new king let’s read the new King James again. It says, to receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. The New International Version translates that phrase this way to receive the word which, when implanted, will save your soul. And so I’ve heard it. I’ve listened, I’ve really listened to it. I’ve received it, I’ve accepted it as the truth, and not just the truth, but the truth that I need to be implemented in my life.

3. Implant It So It Takes Root

But now I implant it. Do you see that’s even a step further? That this isn’t just some kind of surface recognition. Yeah, so there’s a difference between yes, yes, and yeah, yeah, isn’t there? Yeah, yeah, is usually what we say when we recognize it as truth, but I don’t want to hear it. But yes, yes, as I receive it, and now it is implanted. Do you think of the same parable that I think of when you hear the idea of implanted word of Jesus telling of the sower, sowing the seed. And it having no benefit to that ground, to that heart that it didn’t get implanted and didn’t take root, or even those where it was shallowly planted, but it benefited and it blessed that soil, that heart, to where it took root.

It set up residence there. And it was rooted, rooted, health, and deep. So here’s the next challenge. Because I dare say that most of the time, most of us are good with the first two. We listen, or we try our best at least. I had an elderly gentleman tell me one time he came up to me, he always called me preacher, never called me by my name. Maybe because he couldn’t remember my name, but I don’t think that was it. But he’d call me preacher, and he says, Preacher, he said, I want you to know something. He said, if you ever see me sleeping during your sermons, that just means I trust you. Well, that’s putting a positive spin on things. So, but for the most part, we’re good at hearing.

And we may struggle with it sometimes if we’re honest, but for the most part, we got that part. And we even got the receiving part. We don’t get mad. Never, maybe I shouldn’t say, never once have you ever thrown anything at me. You don’t get mad. I see the nods. I even hear the amen sometimes. You’re saying, not because I said it, because it’s what the word of God said. You’re saying yes. But if we’re honest, we may struggle with these next steps, the idea of implanting it to where it really becomes a part of me. It changes who I am. I fear sometimes that we think coming to church on Sunday and hearing a sermon, particularly a sermon that steps on our toes, is that we compare that to kind of like the old fashioned whooping.

That that just kind of squared our account. Mom and dad got it out of their system. Now I can go back to misbehaving, and I’ll have to come back and get my regular whooping, but then I can go back and be a terror again. But what we need to understand is that listening to the truth, and sometimes the painful truth, is not some kind of whipping that squares our account with God. It’s a prodding to get us to do better when we leave the church building.

4. Be Doers of the Word, Not Hearers Only

And for that to happen, it’s got to take root. It’s got to affect who I am. And it must absolutely must start from the inside out. And that becomes a part when we meekly receive the word and we have it implanted in our heart. It’s who we are. And it will just almost naturally just come out. But now James is going to tell us what he will famously tell us in chapter 2 that this progression must continue. You need to hear, receive it, have it implanted, but now you’ve got to put it into practice. Look what he says in verse 22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves. How many times have we read this passage and applied it to people of the world or people maybe even of the religious world, and not recognize James is talking to us because it’s us, it’s we who will deceive ourselves.

Here’s the danger of the deception. As members of the church, we take pride, and I don’t mean in a sinful pride way, but we take pride in the fact that we’re people of the book. We even have slogans and mottos for that. We speak where the Bible speaks. We’re silent where it’s silent. We give book, chapter, and verse for everything we do as a church. We take great pride in that. That from our pulpits and our Bible classes, we’ll speak nothing but the word of God, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And you hold up high standards for that. If I got up here and preached something that wasn’t consistent with the word of God, you would correct me. And if I didn’t accept that correction, you would show me the door and say, you got to go.

Because we have to have a preacher in here who’s going to preach the truth and preach the word of God. And by the way, all of that’s commendable. But do we hold just a high standard for ourselves as we do for our preacher? That I’ll do the truth. That I’ll obey it. You see, it’s not enough to say I’d go to the right church if I’m not the right type of person. How would James put it? You’re deceiving yourself. If we think that on the day of judgment, when God opens up his books, one of those being the book of our life, that somehow we can reach into our breast pocket and pull out a card that says, I’m a member of the church of Christ.

And that God’s just going to close the books and wave us in. We’ve deceived ourselves. Now again, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not running down the church and our standard of truth. But what I’m saying is, you can fool yourselves if you think that’s all that’s necessary. Is to go to the right church where the right gospel from the right person is being taught. James says, yes, hear, receive, implant, but you’re deceiving yourselves if you’re not practicing it. For, he goes on to say in verse 23, you remember this section, don’t you? For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he’s like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, and he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

5. He Who Continues in It

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, there’s our next step. Let’s just pause there. James says, do be doers of the word. And unless that was misunderstood, he goes on to say, you know who will be blessed? He who continues in it. It’s not just a one-time thing. We talked about this before, but let’s talk about it again in this context here. We use the expression obeying the gospel. And again, I’m not running down that expression. I use it myself. But we use that expression obeying the gospel usually to mean one thing, don’t we? Someone initially becoming a Christian, doing those five steps that we’ve all memorized. And when they did that, they obeyed the gospel. And that’s right.

But I want to tell you, the Bible tells us that we need to be obeying the gospel every day. It’s not something you can say, well, I obeyed the gospel one Sunday night in August in 1980, whatever. James says, continues in it. Did you obey the gospel yesterday? The day before. And today. And so he uses the illustration, someone looking in a mirror, and it’s obvious what his point is trying to get across. You see corrections that need to be made. And that’s good because you know the good thing about a mirror, and it’s also the bad thing about a mirror, is it doesn’t lie. It’s going to show you for what you really are. But it doesn’t do any good if you see those flaws and you don’t correct them.

6. Not a Forgetful Hearer

And so the man who hears and doesn’t do, the forgetful hearer, he says, is one who looks and walks away and forgets. But let’s read that verse again. Verse 25 but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. Is not a forgetful hearer.

There’s the tough part. Almost everything else we said prior to this was easy in comparison to that. Not forgetting. You attend the gospel meeting. The preacher has a stirring lesson that speaks to you. You were nodding your head the whole time. In fact, you even made some notes. Because you thought, yes, that’s something I’m going to do better. And you make those notes. And again, it’s not notes that you wrote down the Bible verses he quoted, or wrote down his three points from his PowerPoint, but you made some personal notes. Here.

Weeks, months after the gospel meeting. It’s one of those Sunday mornings where everything went wrong and you’re running late for services, and so you hurriedly grab your Bible up as you rush out the door, and in that rush, you drop your Bible and it goes fluttering across the floor and flying out from it as a piece of paper. And you bend over and pick up that piece of paper, and it’s those notes you took during that meeting a few months back. And you blush because this is the first time you’ve looked at it or thought about it since.

You didn’t mean to lie when you said, I’m going to do better. You meant it when you said it. I believe you. But you forgot. The next day you had to get up and go to work to go to school. This was happening. That was happening. We’ve got company coming in in a week, and we’ve got these other things. And you just forgot. And so you blush as you look at that piece of paper and you hurriedly wide it up and throw it into the trash can to try to dismiss and hide your shame that you were a forgetful hearer and not a doer of the word.

I don’t need help forgetting. I need help remembering.

Conclusion

But I don’t have the answer for you. But I want to challenge you to find that answer. Is it do you need to do the old-fashioned tie a string around your finger? Do you need to buy some post-it notes and stick on your bathroom mirror and that you’ll see every morning? Do you need, I’m sure there’s one out there. Do you need an app on your phone that’s going to ding every day at a certain time saying, remember what the preacher said? Remember you nodded your head. I don’t know what it is for you. But I know you need to find it. I commend you for being here and for listening as you always do so well to the presentation of the Word of God. But I want to challenge you.

I mean really challenge you. To not forget. To let not just this lesson, but every reading and study of the Word of God become a part of you. And to change you from the inside out. And to be a doer who continues in it. And don’t forget. Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Deceiving yourselves. Would you do that this morning? Maybe you need to obey the gospel for the very first time. Don’t get angry. But listen meekly receive that word and act upon it this very day. And then begin what we’ll admit is the challenging life long struggle of constantly putting it into practice. You can do it. But maybe you’ve done that in the past and you’ve become a forgetful hearer. And have not been the doer of the word as you ought to have been.

Would you resolve today and not forget, but resolve today to do better, to put it into practice what you meekly hear and receive. Can we help you in that? Can we help you in any spiritual way this morning? If so, let it be known right now.