Doing the Word

James 1, beginning in verse 18. We'll read to the end of the chapter. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

My dear brothers, take note of this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word, but does not do what it says, is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror, and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it, he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious, and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself, and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

In James chapter 1, we have set before us two mighty instruments that God uses to make us holy.

Trials and his word. And the importance of God's word in our lives is something we can't afford to miss, and so James says, take note of this.

Take note of this. You can't miss this, dear brothers. And then he tells us how to hear God's word. He says, be eager to hear it. Jump at the opportunities.

He says, get rid of the hindrances to hearing it. Weed the garden so it's ready to receive the seed. And then he tells us, thirdly, to humbly accept it.

Bowing beneath it. And all this is absolutely necessary for this powerful instrument to have effect in our hearts. But James now tells us it's not enough.

It's not enough. And we now come to the critical step without which all of our hearing is wasted. Do what it says.

Notice the command. We have this morning a command and an illustration. The command. Verse 22. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Do what it says. And right away we learn that hearing the word, what you are doing right now, is not an end in itself, but is a means to an end.

And the end in view is doing what it says. Psalm 119, 105. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

This is to affect the way I walk. That is how I live. That's what James is saying to us. It's meant to transform us and make us holy.

Jesus says as he prays to his father, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Make them holy by this book. And so its purpose is that we are to carve out new ways of living because of what this word says.

We are to carve out new ways of thinking, of speaking, of suffering, of loving, of working. And if that's God's aim in bringing his word to us, then it must be our aim in hearing it.

We should hear it so as to do it. We're not out for a higher biblical IQ this morning. We're not out to gain more knowledge, to sharpen our sword, to fight against people who differ with us.

Yes, we must give a defense for the faith. But I'm here this morning to hear God's word so as to bring my life into line with it. It's like a car that gets out of line and it's pulling one way or another and we come to hear the word to bring our lives in line with it.

And that will affect the way we listen to it. The way that we read it. We should do so asking the question, is there something here that I should do?

And when you see it, it might be helpful just to jot it down. You make to-do lists. Here's some important to-do lists. Do what it says, James says.

It's helpful as you're hearing the word, perhaps just to jot down a to-do list. Something in the word where God says you should do something. You want to come back to that and work it out later.

But is that your aim in hearing the word? Your hearing in order to do? This command insists that all of our hearing ends in doing.

Now notice as well, there's a deception that takes place when we merely listen to the word. Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves.

Now the deception works something like this. Here's a man and he comes to church and he sits and he listens to the sermon. He hears the word of God and then he leaves the service thinking he's better off spiritually for having come when he immediately forgets what he heard and never puts it into practice.

But he thinks he's better off because he heard the sermon. Oh. The Bible says you've simply succeeded in deceiving yourself, friend.

James tells us there's two kinds of sermon hearers. There's two kinds of church attenders. There's the hearers only and there's the doers of the word.

Now the doers are those who listen and then put it into practice. The hearers only are those who also listen but never do anything more than listen. They never put it into practice.

And so they deceive themselves thinking they're better off for having heard. I would venture a guess that that will be done in every church today. That people will think that they're better off because they were in church today when they do not do what they heard.

Be careful not to deceive yourself. It happens all too easily. Hence the warning. We need to see that what happens after the sermon is what separates doers from hearers only.

It's what happens after the sermon. The sermon's over. The preacher said his last words. We sung the final hymn. We've added our amen to the final prayer.

We go out the doors. We say our goodbyes and we're home. We're on our way home. And we think there. I'm done with that sermon. It was a good sermon. Now on to something else.

And God stops us and says, no, no, you're not done with that sermon. In fact, the work is just beginning now. You see, there's two parts to rightly receiving the word.

There's the listening and there's the doing. The working out. And the harder part, the bigger part, is the doing of what we hear.

You leave here as a student leaves the classroom where the teacher has just given the assignment for the day. Your work isn't done.

You're just starting. And so as you leave each week, the bigger part remains to be done. Now that's how we need to think.

And that's my prayer this morning, that God would use his word to cause us to hear his word better, differently perhaps, than what we've yet realized.

Do you think this way? Sermon heard means assignment given. Assignment given. Now go and do what it says.

Do you leave here as a man on assignment, as a woman on assignment, a boy or a girl, on assignment from your master? To think otherwise is to deceive yourself.

You see, we're never done with any passage of God's word until our lives become an illustration of what it means. Until what it says is seen in our life.

What does it mean to be quick to listen? Well, could we follow you home and see what that means? What does it mean to be slow to become angry?

Could we watch you under provocation? You see, what the scripture means is to be evident in the way that we live. Do what it says.

So we're never done with the passage until then. Be doers and not hearers. So when we leave church, it remains yet to be seen whether or not we've profited from the word that we heard.

John MacArthur tells of inviting a Scottish evangelist to come and to speak to a group of college students. And he sat, MacArthur sat in and listened.

And after, as he spoke, some of the things, MacArthur says, some of the things he said touched my heart. And afterward, I went up to him and with sincerity said, I want you to know that what you said ministered to me and I'm very appreciative.

I'll never forget his abrupt reply. He said, well, what are you going to do about it? And I say that God is saying the exact same thing to you every time you hear his word.

he meets you at the doors and says, okay, John, now what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about what I just said to you?

How are you going to consider it all joy when you fall into trials of many kind? Are you going to ask for wisdom in your trial?

Are you going to persevere in holiness under trial? And by the way, how did you do with last week's assignment? Anyone here more eager this week to hear the word?

Did you get rid of any moral filth so that your garden would be ready to receive the word? Did you receive the word this week any more humbly? Submitting to what your king says you see, you can be moved to tears in a sermon but be no better off if you never get around to doing what it says.

You can get goosebumps in church and be no better off for being here. Your profiting from the word is not merely to be measured in terms of emotions felt or knowledge gained but in terms of obedience given and unless you're doing what you hear your experience at church is only serving to deceive you to trick you.

Let me ask you are you better off for going to the doctor and listening to him if you don't do what he says? He says John you've got dangerously high blood pressure you need to take this medicine you need to stop eating these foods you need to start exercising and I leave the doctor's office saying I feel better and I haven't done anything and you say you're deluded exactly right I have deceived myself because I've been to the doctor and I've listened well to what he said but I have not yet done it I'm deceiving myself to thinking I'm any better off for it now at Grace Fellowship Church we we do a lot of listening to the word of God if you're plugged into life at this church then you're hearing around 100 sermons a year and about half that many lessons on the word in Sunday school you're having 100 scripture readings a year in public public readings of the

Bible 50 brief meditations on Wednesday nights you're memorizing around 52 verses a year and then I trust that you're also reading the Bible at home hundreds of times during the course of a year in private and family worship we're taking in lots and lots of the Bible and good for you good for you you must you can't survive without it but James is simply saying folks before we leave this subject of the powerful instrument in the word you must get this fact that it only does you good if you do what it says so we must ask does the hearing of God's word translate into living what new obedience can we point to what's the last thing you started doing simply because God's word said it what new habits have you started doing because you read something what's the last thing you've quit doing because of something you've read here old habits old ways of living put to death what changes has the word made in your life if our increased knowledge of the word does not serve the purpose of practical holiness in our living then someone's being deceived

James says we're either doing the word or we're deceiving ourselves one of the things I like about James is that he's very plain what is it about do what it says that you don't understand it's pretty clear isn't it and yet even that simple statement is illustrated and as a preacher I love James because I don't have to come up with illustrations James gives them to us and here's the illustration verses 22 to 23 to 25 it's a portrait of these two men remember both of them are sitting under the word of God preached they're both hearers but one is a hearer only and the other is a hearer and a doer of the word no one is that stays home and doesn't listen to the word preached is in view here not even in view it's only talking about you all who come in here hear the word okay now he's got a picture for us first he paints a picture of the hearer only verses 23 and 24 anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like here's the illustration like a man who looks at his face in a mirror we'll stop there learn that listening to the word is like looking in a mirror it's what you're doing right now you're looking into a mirror

James is reminding us of the mirror ministry of the word of God like a mirror it shows us what we really are it exposes our blind spots things that we otherwise would not see I had an old bachelor tennis coach in college who didn't have a wife to spiff him up before he left the house and went into public and bless his heart he liked to eat those little powdered sugar donuts for breakfast and so he invariably ended up with white powdered sugar on his nose and his chin and evidently he didn't have any mirrors in his house either because mirrors would have pointed that things that need attention wait before you leave get that off your face and so it serves us well mirrors one of the things about mirrors though is that they're brutally honest

I didn't know I was having a bad hair day until I walked past a mirror and had a look I didn't know I had spinach on my front tooth until the mirror showed me now the mirror will say to me John you need to brush your teeth but it won't brush my teeth for me the mirror ministry if I've got wrinkles it shows me my wrinkles if I have pimples and I got a growing bald spot or I'm kind of heavy it shows everything to me it hides nothing it doesn't flatter us in the least that my friend is the word of God that's what you get when you look in here you get to see yourself as you really are not your high opinion of self some people say that's why I don't like mirrors they don't do me justice no they don't let you live in ignorance they don't let you live with your high opinion of self they bring you right back down this is what you are

John this and nothing more that's what you get in here it's a mirror it shows us what we are by the law is the knowledge of sin blemishes It shows us me where I'm coming short where I don't measure up it's exposing my blind spots things that need changing in my life to bring about that righteous life that God desires here's something John this needs to go this needs to start you need to be more faithful here John you need to increase your attention to this you see it's it's showing me what I am!

It's hiding nothing It judges the thoughts and even the attitudes of the heart Put this right John deal with that attitude Now here's a sobering thought How much of what we hear on Sunday makes it over into Monday How much of the word you hear on Sunday survives the night's sleep so much of what we hear of God's word ends up in the land of forgetfulness how easy it is even to have our own reading of the word and we read it and we're listening to it and we walk away and we can't even remember what we read so easily it moves into that land of forgetfulness and we're busy and we've not accomplished anything but moving the bookmark forward in our Bibles

James says no no no do what it says you know the devil works overtime to get us to forget what we read what we hear Jesus said that in that parable of the sower and the sower goes forth to sow and he's scattering the word of God and the soil is the hearer listening to the word of God and some of it falls along the this is the work of the devil Jesus says so that when a sinner when a person hears the word it immediately is snatched away by the devil and his workers have you not found that to be the case that there are a thousand distractions to interrupt you between the hearing and the doing of God's word so that you forget what you've heard there's a reason that you see there's an that will just add to your deception if you don't do what it says it's part of his ploy but in that parable there's also weeds that grow up and they choke out the word so it never bears fruit it never gets from hearing to doing and what are those weeds

Jesus tell us well they're the cares of life the ordinary cares of life what you've got to do tomorrow the whole list the deceitfulness of riches the things that you want weeds choking out the word so it never gets into the do column of your life that's the characteristic of the one who hears the word of God you know I've I've missed a whole section here and it has to do with Bunyan's pilgrim's progress second part of the book Christiana and mercy look into a wonderful mirror a looking glass that they found on the dining room wall of the shepherd's house and Bunyan describes it this way the glass the mirror was one of a thousand one way it would present a man with his own features exactly and turn it but another way and it would show one the very face and similitude of the prince of pilgrims himself you see we're talking about the mirror ministry of the word of

God you see what Bunyan is saying it's it's a mirror and it shows us two things it shows us ourselves and our savior it's a mirror you see the savior in all the beauty of his holiness and you see your sin in all the ugliness of your lack of likeness to Jesus and you see both in this mirror in fact I posit that you've you've not yet seen the ugliness of your sin until you've seen the beauty of your savior you've not seen how abominable your sins are until you've seen how beautiful his holiness a different way and you see it Bunyan says never does my pride look as so ugly as when I see my savior's humility he's washing feet and I'm arguing about who's the greatest he's laying down his life and

I'm trying to figure out how to save mine we look into this mirror and we see him being abused and mistreated there at Calvary spitting on him beating him rendering him lying about him mocking him and he takes it all so so quietly and here I am he's forgiving his enemies and I'm hating mine he's not retaliating and suddenly all my devices of getting even look so stinking wicked wicked I've seen the prince of pilgrims and I've seen my own self in this mirror the mirror ministry it shows me what I really am so James says this man this here only is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and he finishes the picture by saying in verse 24 and after looking at himself goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like that's the picture of the here only he stumbles out of bed in the morning he gets dressed he goes into the bathroom he sees what a mess his hair is in but before he does anything before he does anything about it he hears the coffee maker beeping in the kitchen so he such that he needs to get out the door and get to work and his hair is still as messy as it ever was when he got out of bed but he just doesn't know it anymore because the mirror is no longer in front of him he forgets what he looks like do you see the point

James is making he doesn't do anything to fix his hair what good James would ask this does his look in the mirror do for him absolutely none because he didn't do anything about what he saw he went away just as he came to the mirror and folks there are people and I am one of them who have come to the word of God and left the same way that we've come to it what good is that coming to the word done me if I do not do what it says well that's the challenge not to forget when we have an enemy without and within that would seek to get us to forget before we get around to doing but by the grace of God there is another kind of hearer this isn't the only kind of hearer there is there is there's another kind

James says he's the doer of the word he both listens and he does what it says you can't help but see this contrast all the way through here's the man but the man verse 25 who looks intently into the perfect law that not forgetting what he has heard but doing it he will be blessed in what he does now we don't have as much time as I would like to give to this but you need to notice here that the word of God is called the perfect law that gives freedom some Christians do not know how to speak of the law in positive terms James does not have that problem!

at all he said it's the perfect law there is absolutely nothing lacking in it it's complete it's all sufficient and he says it's the unchanging transcript of the righteous life that God desires the moral law of God summarized in the Ten Commandments according to James being a doer of the word is the same as obeying the law of God it's perfect it's unchanging transcript of God's holiness his moral law and he says those who do obey it find that it is perfect freedom notice he calls it the law of liberty the law that gives freedom it's a liberating law some laws are enslaving and make people slaves in bondage this is a wonderful law it liberates do you know it that way is that your view of the law of

God old and new testament alike the moral commandments of God do you view them as liberating laws that's what David says about it I run in the path of your commands for you set my heart free tell me you who think that the Bible is so constricting!

what is freedom for you you say well it's doing what I want friend that's bondage because outside of Christ what you want is to serve yourself it's to do what your own evil desire says do and every time you do it can't you see what Jesus says that whoever slaves sins is the slave of sin and so the guys are talking dirty and your heart says join them and you join them go ahead and take that thing at the store without paying it for it and you do it and all along you think you're free to do what you want you are a slave to your own evil desires and don't even know it that's the worst slavery of all to be such in bondage and not even to know your slave to your sin here is the perfect law that gives freedom where does a heart that's been set free run right down the straight and narrow of

God's laws I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free where does a heart really set free to run in the way of God's commandments Psalm 119 45 I walk about in freedom because I have sought out your precepts there's plenty of room on the straight and narrow way for the man with a new heart he's walking about in great freedom he recognizes that the law is not something that constricts him to do him evil but it's something that sets his heart free from thousands of evil desires that would have drug him down into traps I could take you around to one after another here this morning who would tell you how liberating the law of God is my life was here and then God brought his law into my heart with power and transformed me and set me free from these bondages and addictions what a wonderful thing is the law of liberty and

James has no problem speaking of the wonders of this law indeed as pastor Aaron prayed in psalm 19 in the keeping of it there is a great reward and we'll get to that at the end of this passage so according to James to be a doer of the word is to be obedient to the moral law of God and its freedom now how do we move then the issue that we're talking about is how do we move beyond merely listening to doing and this picture this man shows us the way he too is looking into the mirror but the first thing we notice is he looks intently into the perfect law that brings freedom it's not a running glance on his way by into the mirror of God's word he looks intently the word actually carries the idea of stooping down to see if

I see something down there that grabs my interest I'm not going to be satisfied to walk by it with just a glance am I I'm going to stoop down to examine it more closely that's the word here looking intently not wanting to miss anything so we we stoop down to look you know God doesn't lay all of his treasures on the top of the ground we sang it thy word is like a deep deep mine you better have a deep shovel and you better be ready to throw some dirt if you want he searches he's looking intently into the word beautiful word and notice what else he does he continues to do this it's not a one time thing he keeps on looking he keeps on stooping he keeps on examining the word and notice again not forgetting what he's heard well of course not because he's continuing to look and then doing it so he looks intently he continues to look intently so he's not forgetting what he's heard but he does it there he's gone from hearing to doing did you see the important steps in between if not will not pass over from hearing only to doing what is the important step in between continuing continuing continuing to look into this perfect law of liberty not forgetting remembering it in other words this man doesn't leave the mirror until he's fixed his hair he looks and he says that's not right and he grabs the brush no it's still not right and he dunks his head in the sink and he works at it some more there now that's what it's calling for and he's ready to go on that's what this man is like he keeps looking until he's doing

I suggest there's loads of instruction in that for every one of us this morning to teach us how to receive the word of God you keep looking until you are doing!

we must find ways and time to keep looking so we don't forget but that we do and I simply want to lay out some practical suggestions on how to keep the mirror before us until we are found doing and all of them have to do with what we do after we hear the word and I'm afraid that's where we lose so much of the benefit we go to listening with attentiveness and all of that labor can be lost because we won't do a little more labor afterwards it's like the hunter proverb says he goes all the trouble of getting up and looking for deer and the way that they go through the woods and he spends hours out there and then he gets up early in the morning when everybody should be in bed and he's out there standing up in a tree shivering and he finally sees one and he shoots it and it runs off a while he follows the trail of blood he's working his way through these thistles and thorns and he finally finds it and he's too lazy to fix it so he goes home empty his laziness has cost him all the effort he went to he goes home empty!

he might well if we aren't willing to put a little extra effort in after the hearing of the word we can stand to lose perhaps 95% of what we've heard at least that's the way I found it number one suggestion fellowship around the word after the service just receive the word talk about it what did we gain today there's dinner time conversation that could be improved tell us what you got from your Sunday school class dear tell me what did you get from the sermon today what does it say to you what must you do your Sunday evening when you get home go around and have everyone share what did we profit from the word today pray about it you see each time we think further about that word we're covering over the seed with some more soil!

so that the birds can't snatch it away we're talking about it it's like pounding a nail in deeper every time we talk about the word we're continuing to look into it we're looking again and again fellowship around it secondly we must be committed to serious self examination that's what looking in the mirror is my friend it's examining yourself self how do you look this morning oh that's what you do when you come to scripture you get the real you so let me suggest sometime Sunday afternoon sometime Monday morning perhaps even your devotions Monday the important principle is the sooner the better there's a principle of striking the iron while it's hot the blacksmith puts the iron in the fire gets it nice and malleable and formable he brings it out on the ample and he smacks it and tries to bend it while it's still hot folks when we leave here

I trust that there's something that's still warm and hot in the word but the longer you wait the more pounding it's going to take to get that to shape so while it's hot while the word is still fresh in your mind get some time alone to examine yourself open your Bible to the passage that was preached along with any notes that you've taken maybe you've got just a couple scribbles of things you need to do oh yeah yesterday Lord you told me that I needed to start showing more consideration to my children okay what does that mean for me and you start to think about it and meditate is there anything that must change to bring my life into line with God's word that I heard yesterday how should that passage be worked out in my life and you notice any of those!

things to do things to start stop continue do more often be very specific spell it out and then pray over it indeed be praying all through this process it's prayerful self examination search me oh God as we all prayed as that led us this morning search me you show me how to apply what must be changed in my life the Holy Spirit is the greatest preacher ask him to apply that!

to your heart don't expect the preacher to do all the applying of God's word to your heart his applications are sometimes like the man who draws a bow at a venture and just sends one flying and it gets you thinking of the ways that this word ought to be impacting you but the specific application to you in your life your family your business that the Holy Spirit will show you so examine yourself prayerfully ask for his help teach me oh Lord to follow your decrees make me less like myself and more like my master Robert Murray McShane would pray and then next lay some plans lay plans to put into practice what God's word says you meditate on it okay I am to I'm to be eager to hear I'm to be quick to listen now what does that mean okay that means that I've got to be quick to have my time in the word every day so I'm going to lay plans and

I'm going to get my calendar out and I'm going to say that's the time that's the place and I'm going to scribble a circle around it and that's the fence and nothing's getting over that fence by the grace of God I'm laying plans to obey God's word to do what it says oh we lay plans for a whole lot lesser important things should we not lay plans for this and we put it on our calendar we pray some more and then we do it as soon as we can we do what it says and we do it again and we do it again until it becomes like a new habit to us and that's kind of like clenching the nail you've pounded it all the way through the boards you turn the boards over and the little stub that's left there you smack it and bend it over that word is there it's not going anywhere it's now a new habit with you it's part of the way you live don't just be hearers but do what it says you may share with your brother or sister or spouse a friend something you want them to pray for you know the

Lord showed me this about me would you pray that God would make me more humble before his word I feel like sometimes I just stiffen when I see God's word would you pray that God would break me and I would come with a broken and contrite heart to his word and then have them check up on you the next anything different about you here this thing that you needed to do have you done it wonderful thing to have brother or sister to help us to be accountable to doing the word you know this is also why on Wednesday night there's always three lines on our prayer sheets it's called praying over the word let's see Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday three days later we're saying we don't want what we heard three days ago to be lost upon us Lord remind us again what was that word that we heard oh Lord come and teach us to be putting this into practice and what are we doing we're we're looking into it one more time we're pounding the nail one more time we're covering up with more dirt that precious!

seed and memorize it go for it because every time you memorize and meditate and reflect on it and review it you're looking again and you're continuing not forgetting what you heard even when Pastor Aaron reads or when I read in the evenings when we read back over the scriptures that we preached last week it's a reminder to us let's see what have I done about being quick to listen slow to speak slow to anger and so on and so the very public readings of scriptures can remind us future sermons where we might be asked what we're doing with what we've heard earlier then there's your own reading in the scriptures your daily devotions have you not found that some of the things that you hear from your pastors you're reading somewhere completely different on your own and you're having the same truth reinforced well that's that's simply because it's one book and one author and he keeps saying the same things over and over and so you've got 66 books and they're all pointing you to the same savior they're all pressing home the same moral holiness of life and so your own reading is driving another the nail deeper that you heard before and so it is another way of continuing in the word to keep you from forgetting constantly exposing your heart to the searching mirror of

God's word now I set these things before you as suggestions I told you that they're not things to be followed legalistically they're not things to send you home feeling guilty because you don't do any of those things I just why not start you may have your own method for doing but folks we need some method we need to do something that we don't just fall into this pattern of the hearer only lest we deceive ourselves because on this day we heard the word we're spiritually better off we're growing we're growing Christians been to church heard sermon good sermon it doesn't mean anything if you don't learn to to put things into practice from this sermon then it's been wasted upon you as well I can preach sermons that are wasted upon me I must do what it says so may the Lord help us they are the most growing Christians who continue the most in the word and that not by coincidence because it is the mighty instrument that God uses to make us holy and there's a promise at the end to help motivate!

you he will be blessed in what he does! who well this man who looks intently into the law keeps looking doesn't forget what he heard but does it he will be blessed in what he does this is the blessed man the other man is the deceived man he thinks he's blessed when he's not this man is the man who's really blessed James then in verse 25 is describing the blessed man the happy man the man with whom things are good in verse 12 he told us about him we saw him and he's persevering under trial look at him going he's running oh he's tired his legs are screaming quit but he keeps persevering in holiness he's not quitting he's the blessed man to him goes the crown of life and now James is giving us another snapshot of this blessed man he's looking continuously into the word getting but doing what he says and folks there's a connection the reason he's running the reason he's running the race of holiness and not quitting is because he's constantly looking in the word not satisfied just to have heard it not satisfied until he's doing it here's the blessed man he's blessed in his doing blessed in his running indeed everything is blessed he's the blessed man of someone who does in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers but his delight is in the law of the

Lord and on his law he meditates day and night he's constantly looking intently upon it and so he's like a tree planted by streams of water that yield its fruit in its season whose leaf does not wither indeed whatsoever he does prospers the blessing is not in the hearing folks the blessing is in the doing one day a woman said to Jesus when she saw him blessed is the woman that brought you into the world and nursed you Jesus says no woman let me tell you who's really blessed blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it that's the blessed one now you have heard these things he says to his disciples when he tells them to wash each other's feet now you have heard these things you are blessed if you do them the blessing is in the doing he will be blessed this is the happy life it's the life lived

God's way it's life lived following the perfect law that gives! life the obedient life is the good life and with that gives us this glowing picture of the one who hears and does the word so I commit you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Christ do what it says I find it interesting that when Jesus has just given out all sorts of information on the Sermon on the Mount he ends with a story there were two men one was a wise man and the and the rains came down on the one man's house and washed it away because it was built on the sand be this guy the fool and the other guy the wise man built his house upon the rock and so when the storms came it stood and children you've sung that song do you know what

Jesus was teaching us it's not that one guy the wise man came to and the foolish guy just slept in on Sunday morning and didn't bother to hear the word no the common thing about both men is that they hear the word of God the fool hears it and does not put it into practice the wise man hears it and puts it into practice don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves!

Do what it says you know what it says to you sinner it says come to me it says believe on me that word can save you if you do it may God help us