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I MUST RESPOND TO THE WORD OF GOD

I must do something about it, act on it, live it, practice it. vs. 22 "Do not merely listen to what the word says and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Practice.
What good is a mirror if you look at it and don't do anything about it?
The word "listen" in Greek is the word for "auditor". If you audited a class in college you didn't take it for credit, no tests, no responsibility, no research. You were totally relaxed. You just listened, you didn't have any intention of applying it. We have a lot of auditors in the church. They come to church, walk in, hear the word of God, walk out with no intention of ever being changed. I was one for years. I took notes, wrote things down, but it never changed me. We must respond to God's word, let it change us if we're going to be blessed by it.

James says it's self-deception when we don't let it change us. We think that just gaining content is making us spiritually mature. The test of maturity is not knowledge. The test of maturity is character. A lot of people have great Bible knowledge and they are spiritual midgets. I need to practice it, apply it, put it in my life.

And knowledge increases responsibility. The more we know the more we're accountable for.
What am I doing about what I know?
Jesus said, "To whom much is given, much is required." And James said, "To him who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it's sin."

Illustration:
Let's say you folks as a church decide to get concerned about your pastor's health. You come to me and say, “Rick, as you move into older years we don't want you to have a flabby body, or furniture problems -- where your chest drops into your drawers -- so you take up an offering and buy me as a gift Arnold Schwartzeneger's Bodybuilding Book. You say this book can change your life. It's fantastic. It has changed the lives of millions of people. It will keep you strong. It will be a blessing to you. Read this book. It will change you.” I say, "Great" I go away for 6 months and then come back and I'm the same guy. You say, "What happened? Didn't you read the book?" What if I said to you, "I read the book. I enjoyed it. This is the greatest book I've ever read. I loved it. I even underlined portions of it with colored markers and memorized sections of it and even started a group study of the book and looked at the etymology of every single word of the book. Every night I would spend a couple hours studying it."
How often do we do that with the word of God?
We give awards for memorizing Scripture, but we don't give awards for doing Scripture. We get a plaque that says "I read through the Bible" but don't get one that says, "I did the Bible." We need to mark our Bibles, but we need to let the Bible mark us. It's not how many times you've been through the word of God, it's how many times it's been through you. You've got to be a doer of the word. I deceived myself in thinking that because I had knowledge that made me mature. Having knowledge of a bodybuilding book doesn't produce muscles. Just because we know something doesn't mean we act on it.

There was an article in the Orange County Register. They did a poll of Christians in Orange County. "Many in Orange County believe but don't practice." We live in a hotbed of Bible teaching. Some of the top Bible teachers of the nation are within driving distance of where we are right now. You can turn on the radio at any time of day and hear godly men teaching the word. We are in a gospel glut in Orange County. You can hear the word of God 24 hours a day. A lot of us are lulled into the fact that because we're hearing a lot about God, we are maturing. Many believe but don't practice. James would say, "They are hearers but not doers."

"From scores of well-kept churches Orange County residents appear average or even devout in their religious beliefs but when it comes to practicing those beliefs, a Register poll reveals that most residents are more inclined to worship the golden calf than the Lamb of God." It goes on and talks about hearers not doers.

That is what James is attacking. He's saying, “If you want to be blessed, you've got to live the word of God, not just hear it. Not just know it.”

I really work at making the Bible simple. There is a lot in the Bible that is difficult to understand, complex, deep. Yet I try to present it in such a way that's very clear and very easy to understand and easy to put into practice. When you go out of here I want you to be able to do the word not just hear the word of God. I work at making it practical. I try to make it simple so we can put it into practice.

I heard about the guy who came to church late. He walked in just as the service was completing. He said to an usher, "Is the sermon done, yet?" The usher was wise and said, "The sermon has been preached, but it is yet to be done."
Be ye doers of the word, don't merely listen.
Put it into practice.

• What truth have you most recently learned from studying and knowing God’s Word?
  How has that truth helped you grow closer to Jesus?

Rejoicing, On the Victory Side!

Beau

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