God's Word on Temptation - Part 3 - James 1:18-25

Now my friend, the Word of God will keep you from yielding to temptation. Now we have time for so many things, but do you take time for the Word of God?

Thank you for opening your Bible to James 1 as we consider the fourth barrier that God has erected to keep us off of the path of sin. Now James has told us already of three of these barriers. He tells us to look ahead and notice God's judgment. He warns us that we cannot sin and get away with it. Then he encourages us to look around and to notice God's goodness. Every good gift comes from God; we don't need any of the devil's bait. Then he tells us to look within at God's nature down inside, James 1:18, and to allow the new nature to control us. This is what Paul calls walking in newness of life. 

The fourth barrier is the Word of God. He tells us to look into God's Word, and you'll notice in verses 18 through 25 that the emphasis is on the Word of God. Let me read these verses to you: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. 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 like unto 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."

Now you notice that over and over again the Word of God is mentioned. In verse 18, it's the word of truth. In verse 21, it is the engrafted word or the implanted word. And then down in verse 25, it is the law of liberty. The Word of God can keep us from sin. 

Now the Psalmist knew this. He said, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?" or how can a young person keep his way clean? That's a good question because we live in such a dirty world. And the answer comes: "by taking heed thereto according to thy word." The Psalmist also said, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart," treasured in my heart. Why? "that I might not sin against thee." Jesus said to his disciples there in the upper room, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." When our Lord Jesus met Satan in the wilderness and three times Satan tempted Jesus, three times the Lord Jesus used the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He said, "It is written," "Again it is written," "It is written." 

Now my friend, the Word of God will keep you from yielding to temptation. Do you spend time with the Word of God? That's a good question. Now we have time for so many things, but do you take time for the Word of God? We spoke in a previous lesson about this new nature that we have down inside, James 1:18: "Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth." The same Word that gave birth to that new nature sustains that new nature. The same Word of God that gives you life strengthens that life. "As newborn babes," wrote Peter, "desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." And you know, the more you grow, the stronger you're going to be. And the stronger you are, the easier it's going to be to face the tempter and to get victory. 

Let's take these three descriptions of the Bible and apply them to our lives. James 1:18, "the word of truth." God's Word is the word of truth; therefore, we should hear it. We should learn it. It is God's truth. Now the devil's a liar. Every temptation involves a lie. We saw back in verse 14 that the picture of temptation is the picture of a hunter or a fisherman. "Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust." Now that little phrase "drawn away" means the baiting of a trap. A hunter puts bait on the trap. "And he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." And the word "enticed" there carries the meaning of a baited hook. Satan is a hunter of souls. He wants to hook you, he wants to trap you, and so he always uses bait. But that bait is deceptive. He said to the woman, "ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," Genesis 3:5. And she believed that. Now it was a lie; in one sense it was true, in another sense it was a lie. Satan is a liar, he's a deceiver. And if you know the word of truth, he won't fool you. 

My friend, your mind and your heart should become like a spiritual computer. You and I should have so much of the Word of God stored in our hearts, in our minds, that when we face a temptation, automatically God gives us the answer. We shouldn't have to thumb our way through the Bible, we shouldn't have to reach for our concordance—occasionally we do—but we should be like the Lord Jesus, who was able to reach into his heart and pull out the Book of Deuteronomy and three times quote from it. 

So it is called the word of truth because it wants to bring truth to my mind and truth to my heart. Now how do I respond to this word of truth? Well, verse 19 tells me: "be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath." Are you swift to hear the Word of God? It's amazing what we respond to swiftly. The thing you love is what you respond to swiftly. The mother hears the baby crying and swiftly she runs to the baby's little bed. Now, says James, be swift to hear the Word of God. And then be swift to listen to it, to take it in, but not to talk back. "Slow to speak." It's hard to find people who really keep their mouths shut and listen. And James tells me if the word of truth is going to keep you from temptation and from sin, be swift to hear but be slow to speak. Don't argue with God. Don't talk to God; listen to God. "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth." And then he says, be slow to get angry. You know, sometimes we hear the Word of God and we react to it. We get angry. "Who is God to tell me this?" Be slow to speak and be slow to get angry. You know why? Anger, unrighteous anger, cannot work the righteousness of God. 

So it is the word of truth we should hear it. In verse 21, he tells me that my Bible is the "engrafted word," the "implanted word." He says the Word of God is like seed or like a plant that's going to be planted or like the grafting of a branch into a tree. It is the implanted word. In the parable of the sower, our Lord Jesus says the seed is the Word of God. A seed has life in it; God's Word has life in it. A seed produces fruit; God's Word produces fruit. A seed must be planted to do any good; God's Word must be planted in the heart to do any good. Now he says, "receive" this word. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said, "I thank God that when you received the word of God, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God." Prepare the soil of your soul is what James is saying. "Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness." One translation reads, "lay apart all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness." The rank growth of wickedness is like noxious weeds growing in the soil. My friend, have you done any weeding in the garden of your soul lately? Have you pulled out some of those weeds that are taking up the place that the seed ought to be planted? Receive the implanted word that you might be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 

Now the third picture he gives us is in James 1:25, "the perfect law of liberty." That's a strange statement, isn't it? Law, liberty? We have the idea that where there's law there's no liberty, where there's liberty there's no law. Oh, no. God knows better than that. There is no true liberty without law. Law means outward constraint; liberty means inward compulsion. When a person begins studying the piano or football or swimming, there is first the outward constraint. First you put yourself under law, and the coach says, "Up, down, up, down. Run around the track. Throw that pass. Tackle." You're putting yourself under law. Do you know why? Outward law develops inward discipline. This is true of any skill. First there must be the law before there can be the liberty. Law prepares the way for liberty. Now if you and I want to walk at liberty and not be trapped by temptation, we must put ourselves under the perfect law of liberty. The word of truth: hear it. The implanted word: receive it into your heart, pull out the weeds, cultivate the soil of your soul. The perfect law of liberty: obey it. And when you obey, God gives victory. 

Only the Word of God can set you free. If you put yourself under the authority of the Word of God, you'll enjoy beautiful liberty. Jesus said in John 8, the truth of God shall make you free. "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

But in verses 22 through 25, he compares the Word of God to a mirror. Listen: "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 like unto 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 doing." 

The Word of God is a mirror. Now the mirrors they had back in those days were not like the very fine mirrors we have today. They were really a polished bronze, a polished brass. And they didn't give a very good image. The mirrors we have today reflect beautifully and we're even able to use them in scientific instruments. But they had polished metal mirrors back in those days, usually brass or bronze. Now the mirror was used for three purposes: examination, restoration, and transformation. 

First of all, we use the mirror of the Word of God for examination. That's what he's saying here in James 1:22-25. Now there are some people who just open their Bibles, read a verse, say a prayer and away they go. Or they read the Word of God and say, "Well, this doesn't apply to me." Or they read the Word of God and say, "Well, that does apply to me," but they forget about it. James says when you examine yourself in the Word of God, be sure the light is on and be sure you gaze into this perfect law of liberty. Don't just glance into it; gaze into it. Let the Word of God, as a mirror, examine your own heart and life. You see, you and I are either too hard on ourselves or too easy on ourselves. And our friends are often too easy on us or too hard on us. The mirror of the Word of God always tells the truth. When you hold the mirror of the Word of God up to your life, it reveals the inner man. It's sort of an x-ray mirror. Now don't just be a hearer of the Word of God. The hearer of the Word of God is somebody who just hears it, it goes in one ear, out the other, he doesn't do anything about it. If you really want to get a blessing from the Word of God, don't just hear it, don't just study it, don't just mark it—do it. James 1:25 says that the man is blessed not in his hearing, but in his doing. And so often you and I say, "Oh, I heard such a great message. Oh, that sermon by our pastor was so wonderful." Fine. What did you do with it? Did you practice it? "Well, no." Then you didn't get the blessing. "Oh, but I enjoyed it." No, but you didn't get the blessing. The Word of God is a mirror for examination. We must stoop down humbly, look into the mirror, we should gaze a long time, we should continue to look, we should allow the Word of God to expose us as we really are. 

The Word of God is a mirror for examination, but don't stop there. If all you do is keep examining yourself, you're going to be very, very discouraged. It's what I call a spiritual autopsy, and you don't want too many of those; you may bleed to death. The Word of God is a mirror not only for examination, but the Word of God is a mirror for restoration. And here we turn back to the Book of Exodus. And in Exodus 38:8, we read an interesting thing. Moses one day took up an offering. Now Moses was accustomed to doing that; he gathered together all the materials for the tabernacle. But this was a very special offering. There were a group of women who served at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. We aren't told exactly what their particular function was, but they served at the door of the tabernacle. And they had bronze mirrors that they had brought out of Egypt. Now a woman likes to have a mirror. Well, Moses came one day and he said, "Ladies, I need all of your mirrors." That's quite a sacrifice now. They couldn't run down to a local ten-cent store and buy a new one. "I need all of your mirrors." And they gave him the mirrors. And Exodus 38:8 says this: "And he, Moses, made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the lookingglasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." 

Now the laver, as you remember, was that big brass pot, so to speak, a big basin filled with water. It stood between the altar of sacrifice and the holy place. Now you remember there was no floor in the tabernacle. As the priests were working in the tabernacle, two things happened: their feet got dirty from the dirt and their hands got soiled from the sacrifices. And they dared not ever, ever go into the holy place with dirty feet or dirty hands. As we serve God, we have to be clean. Now what did they do? They went to the laver and they were able to wash their feet in the foot part of the laver and they were able to wash their hands in the basin part of the laver. It's a picture of the cleansing of the water of the Word. "Now ye are clean," said Jesus, "through the word that I've spoken unto you," John 15:3. Ephesians 5:26 talks about the washing of water through the Word. You see, my friend, when I read my Bible, when you read your Bible, we see how dirty we are. But don't stop there. Confess that sin to the Lord. Immediately claim his forgiveness and allow the Word of God to cleanse your mind and cleanse your heart, just as the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses the record in heaven. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. When? If we confess our sins, then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I'm glad that the Word of God is a mirror for restoration. It doesn't just show me how dirty I am, it helps to cleanse me. There's something about the reading of the Word of God, meditating on the Word of God, that just cleanses the mind and cleanses the heart. 

But don't stop there. We have a third reference. 2 Corinthians 3:18, we discover something else about the mirror of God's Word. It is not only a mirror for examination and a mirror for restoration, but your Bible is a mirror for transformation. Listen to 2 Corinthians 3:18, to me one of the greatest statements Paul ever wrote: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Did you know that as you read the Word of God it transforms you? Now other books you can read, they'll transform you from sin to sin, from shame to shame, from dirt to filth. But the Word of God, as you meditate on it, it transforms your mind and transforms your heart and and brings out of you the very glory of God. 2 Corinthians 3:18 is saying that when the child of God looks into the mirror of the Word of God, he sees the Son of God and he is transformed by the Spirit of God into the glory of God. Into the same image. What image? The image of Jesus Christ. 

Now don't ask me to explain this miracle; it's a process that only God can perform. How do you become like the Lord Jesus? Through the Word. As you read the Word of God, the Spirit of God takes that Word and your mind becomes like the mind of Christ, and your heart becomes like the heart of Christ with compassion and concern, and you find yourself being transformed gradually, sometimes almost imperceptibly. In 2 Corinthians 3, the background is Moses when he went up on the mountain. He came down, his face was shining. Moses didn't know his face was shining, but it was. Now you may not be able to tell that your face is shining. You may not be able to detect the fact that you are becoming more and more like Jesus, but other people will notice it. The Word of God is a mirror for transformation. Moses put a veil on his face so that the people couldn't see the glory fading away. After all, who wants to follow a leader whose glory is fading? But the glory we have doesn't fade away. The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto that perfect day, Proverbs 4:18. My friend, are you spending enough time in your Bible? Are you digging into the Word of God for examination? For restoration? For transformation? Let God's mirror change your life.