The Lord is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen. Okay, you would turn to James chapter 1 verse 21 through 25. Last week we took a deep dive into verse 19 and 20 looking at anger and we learned that we're to be slow to anger because our anger does not produce the righteousness that God requires, and that the root cause of anger is not submitting to God's will, his kingship, and that we become angry when people or events do not conform to our will, and that we're to guard against anger for it bears many destructive fruits, including bitterness and grudges. To overcome anger, we're to submit to God's will, and also to learn to forgive. So James 1.21-25. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we once again ask for your help. We pray that you would teach us what we need to learn and that by your Holy Spirit you would apply it to our lives, we pray with our whole heart. In Jesus' name, amen. So when we look at what we just read, this section, and actually begins more along the lines of verse 18, the theme becomes obvious. Those who have experienced a new birth by the implanting of God's word, verse 18, must accept that word, verse 21, receive with meekness, the engrafted word, and then must begin doing it, which James unpacks for the rest of the chapter. And James' concern with practical obedience we can see as he shifts from the term of the Word of God in verse 21, 22, and 23 to the verse 25 where he starts to talk about the law. And we see the frequency that he refers to of doing the Word. And as we know so well, for those who've been around for a while and had Pastor Wes as their pastor, he would often refer to when we see a wherefore or therefore, we are supposed to find out why it's therefore. So James begins 21 with wherefore, and I think he's connecting verse 21 with not only verse 18 but also 20 as we will see here. 21, and received with meekness in grafted word, kind of connecting and pulling from verse 18, of his own will begat us with the word of truth, begatting. And also he's connecting Verse 21 to 20, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, sin, with 20, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. So the word therefore is there to tell us what the proper response is to the implanted word of God, which is obedience. So, James uses, or the King James translators, I should say, use some words here in verse 21 that perhaps we're not very familiar with. So let's begin with some definitions. First, filthiness. I like to go back to Webster's 1828 Dictionary. It talks about filthiness being corruption, pollution, and for the dictionary he uses defilement by sin, and indeed the Greek word here means to be filthy, to be foul. And then superfluity. I like saying that word, superfluity. We're not talking about a superhero, but Superflow, in other words, superabundance, overflowing, having too much of it. It's like when I fill my glass with iced tea and I fill it overflow and I put the lid on it and it overflows. Superabundance. I love tea. And then naughtiness. And James here has something much more serious than what perhaps comes to our mind. I don't know about you, but when I hear the word naughtiness, I think of a mom turning and scolding to their child. Now, you've been very naughty. Well, that's not really the idea here, naughtiness. Webster's 1828, wickedness, evil purpose. And indeed the Greek here is malice, ill will, wickedness. And Strong's dictionary uses a very interesting definition. Wickedness that is not ashamed to break the law. So you put it all together and we have a definition. of Leah's side, the super abundance of wickedness that's so foul and filthy and stains you." And you say, and this applies to Christians? James is talking, he's writing to Christians, and the answer is yes. It applies to us. So James instructs us, he commands us to lay aside, to lay apart all that moral filth and evilness. And when he uses that word filthiness, he's continuing in a sense the image of clothing. that lay apart suggests the idea is to take off the dirty clothes and to put on. And we see that concept many times in the New Testament. commanding to put off and to put on Christ. One example is Ephesians 4.22-24, that ye put off concerning the former conversations the old man, and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and in true holiness. Has anybody seen that TV show, Dirty Jobs? It was pretty popular a few years ago. And the host of the show, Mike Rowe, was interviewed and he was invariably, of course, asked, well, what was the worst dirty job that you did on your TV show? And not surprisingly, he said, well, when I had to be a sewer inspector and go down into the sewers of San Francisco, Yes, and he said, yes, that in itself is disgusting and terrible, but it's especially disgusting in San Francisco. Aside from the moral implications there, which he was not referring to, but the sewers are like the streets. They go down deep, and the implication of that is rather disgusting, is it not? Yes, indeed, and so that's what James is after. He's not saying, okay, when you get up in the morning and you're getting ready for work and you put on your nice suit and your tie and your dress. No, he's saying, put off those clothes that have been fouled by the sewer of sin and put on Christ's righteousness. And superfluity, that superflow, also implies here that we're fighting against a superabundance of sin. The idea almost is a soldier fighting, and he's battling an enemy on one side, and he takes care of that enemy, and all of a sudden he's being attacked on another side. It's like the old sci-fi shows or current or recent. TV shows, the zombies, right? You kill the zombie and they just keep coming one after another, the super abundance that we face. So how do we deal with that? How are we supposed to deal with this superfluity of abundance, of wickedness? Well, James tells us, receive with meekness the engrafted word. And the engrafted here, hearkening back to what we saw in verse 18, the implanted word, it's very similar. Planting by the Holy Spirit. And engrafted here recalls to mind, I think James is calling on and referring to that classic passage that we see in the Old Testament, primarily in Jeremiah, where God promises to write his law on the hearts of his people. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the houses of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law on their inward parts and right in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people. In a similar passage in Ezekiel, and I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh. that they may walk in my statues and keep my ordinances and do them and they shall be my people and I will be their God." And Jesus makes a similar point with different imagery that the believer is to prepare good soil with the parable of the good soil, in order that the seed of the word may produce much fruit. And so in Mark 4.20, we see, and these things are they which are sown on the good ground, such as hear the word, verse 19, when James is talking about being quick to hear, and receive it, receive with meekness the implanted word, and bring forth fruit, be doers of the word. Some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. I think James is using similar language to his half-brother there. And when King James translators use the word engrafted, it also makes us think of fruit trees, right? Where, for those of you who may not Be familiar with orchards and how those who grow fruit trees work. And I've got half a dozen fruit trees in my backyard. I love fruit trees mainly because I don't love vegetables so much. So planted an orange tree and a lime tree and a lemon tree and a peach and a plum. And then grafting, taking a branch from another tree and planting it, cutting it, cutting into the flesh and placing that branch that you've cut into it, engrafting. So yes, grafting implies and involves cutting. So I think James is talking here a little bit about the work of the Holy Spirit, the two-edged sword that pierces. We see in Acts 2, 37, 37. Now when they heard this, They were pricked or pierced or cut in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? The fruit of being cut by the Holy Spirit in their heart. What shall we do? And James tells us that we're to respond to this word with meekness, with all deference and submission. By adding the word meekness to that command, he's reminding us that we need to be open in submitting to the Word of God. And you say, well, how do we receive that with meekness? Well, we're to listen to sermons. We're to attend to the teaching of the Word of God. We're to read. And if you haven't read through the Word of God, from Genesis to Revelation, yet you need to do that. If you, given the full span of life, 72 years or whatever the Lord gives you, and if you can't look back and say, I've read through the Bible dozens, dozens of times, that's a sad state. You should be able to say that. And when you go through the Bible, if you haven't done this, consider taking a red pen and circling every passage that you don't quite understand. And then when you've completed going through the Bible, go back and do a deep dive. Get a commentary. Get a book. Talk to your pastor. Meditate. Study. Receive with meekness. the word of God. And then James goes on to say, that word, that implanted word is able to save your soul. Now that's a very interesting way of talking to Christians. Aren't they already saved? Well, yes, they are. But it's been taught many times from our pulpits, and you know well, that the Bible uses the past, the present, and the future tense to talk about save, saving, salvation. For example, we have been saved. Ephesians 2.5, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace, you're saved. Lord has forgiven us. So when you look back on your past life, you can praise God and thank Him for that salvation. And oftentimes, we don't do that. Often, when we encounter a situation, we have deja vu, we have a bad memory, the enemy of our soul attacks us, and we think about something that we've said, something that we've done, something perhaps very shameful that brings tears to your eyes, and almost because of the weight of that and the terrible memory and the guilt that perhaps still clings, you just say, Lord, please forgive me. Well, that's not the proper response. The Lord has already forgiven you. If you have repented of your sins and you've asked him to forgive you, what is the proper response when you are reminded of those terrible sins? To thank the Lord. Not to ask him for forgiveness, he's already given that to you. But to thank him and to rejoice in that and to glory in what he has done for you. If you sin today, you ask him for forgiveness. But when we're talking about the past, don't you let it beset you. Don't you let it drag you down. You belong to the Lord, your Maker. You are clean. Rejoice and thank Him for that. And of course, we are being saved. By which also ye are saved. If you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain, you are being saved. And then, of course, you will be saved. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake, Matthew 10, 22, but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Praise the Lord, ye shall be saved. Now, I think that's what James has in mind here when he's talking about This word shall be a salvation of your soul. Four, in the rest of the book, we see him using this terminology several other times. James 2.14, what doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him looking forward? James 4.12, there is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy. Who art thou that judgest another? is able to save. James 5.20, let him know that he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. As we've mentioned before, James has this future view many times in his book. And here we're talking about that which will save us. And save us unto what? well, into that final eternal home that we have. So I think James is connecting this imagery of the implanted word and the engrafted word in the growing that is growing into our salvation that culminates in eternal life. And so the growing, what do plants do? Well, they grow, grow, grow. So your homework for this week, I haven't signed any homework yet in this series, is for you to sing that classic song Read your Bible, pray every day, pray every day, pray every day. Why? Because it will grow, grow, grow. That's your homework. I wanna hear a report that you did your homework this week. So that's what we're all about, reading our Bibles so that you may grow, grow, grow. Okay, verse 22. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. Now, doing here... frames the passage of 22 and 25. It opens a paragraph, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, and it closes in verse 25, this man shall be blessed in his deed of the doing of that deed. It also kind of, I think, unpacks the idea of quick to listen that we saw in verse 19 when James commanded listening in contrast to speaking in anger. Quoting from commentator Douglas Moo, he says, Here James criticizes mere attentiveness, requiring it to lead to corrective action. This, of course, is implicit already in verse 19, where James is not commending listening without action, but condemning action without listening. That was pretty good, I'll say that again. Where James is not commending listening without action, but condemning action without listening. So James is telling us to pay careful attention to what the word says, to study it, to meditate on it, ponder on what it means. Only then are we truly accepting with meekness the engrafted word, leading to the doing of the word. So what would you think of somebody plans a business trip to New York and he gets in his car and he drives to the airport, he parks in the long-term parking, he gets on the shuttle, he checks in his bags, he checks in his ticket, he goes through security, goes down to the terminal and he doesn't get on the plane. The plane takes off without him. Or how about the person who goes to the doctor? He's very sick and the doctor says, okay, go to the pharmacy and get this medicine. He drives to the pharmacy, gives him the insurance card, pays for it, goes home, puts the prescription on the counter and never takes the medicine. What would you think of somebody like this? Well, they're not doers of the word of instruction that they've been given to do. They are not doers. It's like Paul tells us in Romans 2.13, for not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. And Christ our Lord says, but he said, ye rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Well, my instruction to you for your homework wasn't quite complete. There's another thing that I want you to do for your homework. And yes, it's another song, another children's song. The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up. Why? And the house on the rock stood firm. And why is that part of your homework? Because Oh, not Colossians 2.4, nope, don't look at that, I'll cover it. Because in Matthew 7, Jesus says, wherefore, heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth it. Those who do it, I will liken unto the man who is wise, who built his house upon a rock. Okay, so we're to be doers of the word and not hearers only. I don't want you to look at that. Okay, so then James goes on and he says something rather surprising, something that we don't expect. that he says, be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. That's something that we would expect after an instruction like that. Deceiving here is to reckon wrong, to deceive by false reasoning, to delude. So unlike the word that James uses in verse 16 where he says, do not err to be led astray, this is a much stronger word saying you're completely deluded. You're missing the mark. You're ending up in the wrong place. Your basic thinking of the Christian faith is wrong. To be deceived is to believe a lie. So what is the deception? What is the lie that he's talking about? He's saying that it's, we're thinking that it's okay to be a hearer only. Now, Paul uses the same word in Colossians 2.4. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you, deceive you with enticing words. Now Paul here though is warning you about being deceived or beguiled by somebody else. But James is warning against self-deception, not about being deceived by others. Commentator Tom Askell writes, when you have been deceived by another, that person shares the blame for your condition. But when your self-deception is self-imposed, you alone are accountable. Further, self-deception is perniciously destructive. It is hard to detect and harder to eliminate. Think about it. Have you ever met a person who admitted to being self-deceived? So the idea of self-deception is believing a lie to be blinded to the reality of your religious state before God. In other words, we can sit in church for years and hear sermon after sermon after sermon, but if we never allow the word of God to penetrate our heart, if we do not do the word, we are being deceived. We can read the Bible from cover to cover, but do not do what it says, we are being deceived. Years ago, when I was in high school, I was part of a street witnessing team. And one day we went down to San Francisco, and we were street witnessing at Ghirardelli Square. I went up to a man, started talking to him. And this man just turned the tables on me, and he started quoting me scripture after scripture after scripture. And as a teenager, I was just intimidated. I was just, whoa, this guy really knows his stuff. And then I noticed under his arm a magazine. And you know where I'm going, don't you? Yeah, it was a pornographic magazine. And so we just turned the tables on him and said, you're not a doer of the word. You are deceiving yourself. And that's what James here is talking about. And a good example from the scriptures of self-deception is King Herod. Remember, King Herod had arrested John because he was being bothered by what he said. John was giving him the word. You've married your brother's wife, and this is unlawful. And so he puts him in prison. And his wife, Herodias, she wants to kill him. But he wasn't willing, at least at that point, to do it. Why? Well, we read in Mark 16, 20. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and unholy, and observed him. And when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. He loved to hear John the Baptist, a great preacher, the last prophet of the Old Testament. And he just listened, enjoyed the oratory, but did not do anything about it. So how is it that we can become deceived? What are the roots of self-deception? Well, first and foremost, it's our own sin nature, is it not? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? This is one of my favorite verses my mom always quoted to me growing up as a kid. That and the scripture in Numbers, be sure your sin will find you out. And so, This is basic to our human condition, is it not? And Paul echoes that when he tells us in Titus, So that's who we are. And it's very simple and easy to slide into self-deception apart from God's grace and the working of the Holy Spirit. So how do we do that? How are we some of the practical ways that we can deceive ourselves? Well, there's numerous. Indeed, what's rather surprising and what took me back personally was when I just put in the search term deceived, on my little Bible program, and in the New Testament alone was 42 verses about deception. Wow. This is pretty serious. That's amazing, 42 times that the Word of God, just in the New Testament, is talking about deception. So practically, what are we talking about? Okay, well first, in Galatians 6-7, be not deceived, God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Samson is a good story. of one who did not believe this truth. The hero of Israel foolishly succumbed to the wiles and seductions of Delilah. And when the Philistines came that fateful time, she called out, Samson, Samson, the Philistines are upon you. The word of God tells us that he woke from his sleep and thought, I'll go out as before and shake myself free. but he did not know that the Lord had left him. He did not know. He did not know that there would be consequences, that he would reap what he sowed. He thought he was immune to this law of sowing and reaping. He learned the hard way that forgetting The Word of God, this principle is a form of self-deception. We can also deceive ourselves if we allow pride to take hold in our heart. Obadiah 1.3, the pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground? The pride of thine heart deceived thee. Goliath is a good example of this in the Old Testament. He strutted and boasted and flung insults at Israel, despising them, not realizing that in his pride, relying on his own strength, that he was fighting against God himself. We can also deceive ourselves by having the wrong priorities and the wrong values. The Church of Laodicea was a victim of self-deception concerning their spiritual condition. The lukewarm church had convinced itself in the midst of its own prosperity, I am rich. I have acquired wealth and I do not need a thing. But Jesus tells them, knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Say that again. Wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked. five blasts against their self-deception of being comfortable and relying upon their own wealth, their own contentment. They were self-deceived. Their evaluation of themselves was radically different from Christ's evaluation of them. They believed fake news. They believed their own press reports, the record of their acts was completely different from what was recorded in heaven. So what's the antidote? How can we guard against ourselves falling into self-deception? Well, first and foremost, we must run to Jesus Christ himself. He is the great shepherd of the sheep. And what does a shepherd do? He protects the flock. He keeps them safe. And we should pray to the Lord, the Psalm 139 prayer. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be any superfluity of naughtiness in me. wicked way in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting." A prayer that we should be praying perhaps daily. Then we're to run to his church. He, our Lord, is a chief shepherd, but he is appointed under shepherds to guard his church. Not just from the prowler, the wolf, from outside the false teachers, although weird to do that, but also from the sheep who love to wander and love to fall off cliffs, those who become self-deceived. In other words, we should be willing to be teachable. We should accept the criticism, the rebukes, the corrections, the discipline that comes, not just from your elders and pastor, but from one another as we seek to encourage each other in the faith. So we might be guarded against self-deception. Have you ever thought of that, when we're encouraging one another? We're encouraging each other to the truth and away from self-deception. And then finally, in the context of James 1 here, what is his antidote? Well, in verse 16, he says, do not err, my beloved brethren. He's telling us, remember, we've talked about this quite a few times, do not blame God for our temptation. Do not believe a lie that God is not good. He is good. Then he says in verse 22, be doers of the word, not hearers only. Doing the word, obeying the commandments, is the antidote to self-deception. And then later in this passage of chapter one, he connects Many dots here. In verse 26, if any man among you seems to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. And we'll talk more about that next time. Let's close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the protector of our souls. that you have given us and implanted the word in our hearts for the salvation of our souls and that we have no fear because you are with us and you protect us. Help us, oh Lord, to be doers of the word so we would not deceive ourselves. We pray in your name, amen.