Be Ye Doers Of The Word

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: James 1:22-25
Psalters: 176, 116, 160, 271
  1. The hearers.
    1. James writes to those who are members of the church, faithfully sitting under the preaching of God?s Word.
      1. The preaching declares the contents of God?s Word with its commands, admonitions, threats, and promises.
      2. The Word and the preaching of it is like a mirror.
    2. There are three kinds of people under the Word.
      1. The non-hearer, who attends preaching but is like the hard soil and the Word has no impact.
      2. The hearer only is someone who is a forgetful hearer.
      3. The real hearer is a doer.
  2. What makes someone a doer and not a hearer only?
    1. First, he sees his natural face in the mirror of the Word of God.
      1. One?s ?natural face? is what one is by nature, by virtue of one?s relationship to Adam, one?s natural depravity.
      2. This is true for all who hear the preaching: they see this about themselves in the mirror of God?s Word.
    2. Second, the doer continues in this knowledge, i.e., does not allow himself to forget it or to set it aside.
      1. The hearer only ?straightway forgets? about his own depravity, this ugly image of himself.
      2. The doer becomes a doer by continuing in the knowledge of his sinfulness.
      3. His awareness of his sin and need for the Savior converts the mirror into ?the perfect law of liberty.?
  3. Such a doer ?shall be blessed in his deed.?
    1. The first deed of such a hearer (doer) of the Word is repentance.
    2. The doer finds blessing in knowing that he is free from the guilt and bondage of sin.
    3. The hearer who is a doer of the Word is blessed in his grateful loving God and his neighbor.
    4. His blessing is in the certainty of his hope of being perfect with God in the glory to come.