Sermon Tone Analysis

Are you a junkie?

No, I am not talking about the first definition in the dictionary of this.

I am not asking you whether or not you are a drug addict.

I am asking you whether you are a person who gets an unusual amount of pleasure from something or you have an unusual amount of interest in something.[1]

Or if you are a person who has an insatiable (unsatisfiable) craving for something?[2] Or perhaps you are a person who is an enthusiastic follower, fan, or devotee of something or someone?[2]

Is there something that you do or think about almost every spare minute you get?

What is the first thing you do or think about when you get up in the morning?

What is that thing that makes you happy when you can do it?

What is your unsatisfiable craving?

Maybe its the MLB or NFL, college basketball or football, the news, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, a certain feed on one of these, a TV series, a book series, a video game, chocolate, candy, golf, a hobby, your children, your spouse, or anything else.

Today, from , would like to show you that there is only one thing that is appropriate and profitable for you to be a junkie about, and that is the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

We are to never leave the Gospel.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel, but pure religion never leaves the Gospel.

So, I want you to consider whether you are a Gospel junkie or whether you have Gospel amnesia?

Maybe its the MLB or NFL, college basketball or football, the news, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, a certain feed on one of these, a TV series, a book series, a video game, chocolate, candy, golf, a hobby, your children, your spouse, or anything else.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel

The first thing that we see in , is that worthless religion leaves the Gospel.

In verses 19-21 James has just exhorted us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to be angry.

We are to produce the righteousness of God in our lives.

We are told to put off the evil in our lives, but not to put on something else, but to receive something.

We are to receive the word of God which has been implanted in us.

Thus, the active work of God has, at our regeneration, put God’s word in our hearts.

But do you feel this way?

Do you feel as if God’s word is implanted in you?

We end up living with quick speech, slow listening, and quick anger.

We look for this implanted word, but we often feel that we can’t find even a tiny seed of it anywhere inside us.

I am going to pose an answer to this troubling question today, and then pose a solution.

Thus, often we become discouraged and despair of any hope of change.

We may even feel as if we are hypocrits.

Do we actually live what we say we believe?

Why is this the case, why does this happen?

I am going to pose an answer to this troubling question today, and then pose a solution.

Listen to this, if there is one thing you hear today, I want it to be this: when we leave the Gospel we lose our ability to live out a pure religion.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel and becomes self-deceived (vss.

22-24)

James gives a command in verse 22 that we must be doers of the word.

What does this mean?

Quite simply that our life is to be characterized by doing the word of God, or being obedient to it.

But this is the rub, isn’t it?

We think we are quick to hear the word, but by our actions we show that we are slow to do it, and that we don’t need it except at the time when we hear it.

We trick ourselves into thinking that we care about the word of God when we come to church, listen to podcasts, sermons, read our bible, or read great Christian books.

But, within a few hours, of listening, reading, or talking about it, we completely forget what we just heard or said and go on living the same way that we were before.

We don’t continue in what we heard, but rather allow it to pass through our ears and then disappear in the recesses of our soul.

James tells us that we are deluded, deceived, if we think that listening without acting upon it and be constantly applying and remembering it.

He then tells us how silly it is.

We are told in verses 23-24 that someone who hears and doesn’t act is like a person who takes a good look at themselves, their “natural face”, in the mirror and then as soon as they walk away can’t even remember what they look like!

This phrase, “natural face” speaks of the face of our existence.

What this means is that it is ourselves, who we really are, the true us.

James is telling us that we see the real person that we are.

We get a glimpse for a moment in time at who we really are.

We see that we are sinful, that we need God, his word, the Gospel.

We embrace this truth, but then within a few hours, we forget and continue to live as we are, in our sinfulness.

Instead of running to God in the Gospel, and embrace his freedom and rescue, we go right back to who we were.

And so, like a person who knows what they really are, but soon forgets, so are we.

Silly.

We think that by simply hearing God’s word that we have done enough.

Isn’t our salvation in and through Christ alone?

What more do we need?

We just need to listen to it and trust.

But James tells us here that listening isn’t enough.

The word of God must be implanted in us.

He is telling us that if the Gospel is only something that we hear, and not something that we do, or not something that we are, then we have deluded ourselves through false reasoning.

We have convinced ourselves of something that is not true.

When all we do is hear the Gospel, but not practice it, not be consumed by it, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are doing what we are supposed to do.

However, we forget what Jesus said as he was resisting the Devil’s temptation, quoting from Deuteronomy.

Mathew 4:4

This was a quote from .

It isn’t simply hearing the word of God, but living by it, every word of it.

So, if we leave God’s Word, the Gospel, we trick ourselves into thinking that we are practicing true religion, but James tells us we aren’t.

quoted in from .

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel and becomes loose-tongued (v.

26)

If you’ve ever ridden a horse before (that wasn’t a horse trained explicitly for riding), you might remember that first time.

I remember the first time I rode a horse, her name was Lady.

Lady was a pretty big horse.

I was with another person and we were in a field that was about 5 acres.

We saddled her up, and I got on, after a little effort.

We started at a gentle trot, went around a little, then after some time started a full-out run.

When we were nearing a fence, I was sure glad that I had the reigns and there was a bridle in her mouth.

She was running (I thought) to close, so I used the reins and the bridle to steer her away from the fence, in order to avoid my leg being smashed.

Without this bridle in Lady’s mouth, I would have never been able to control her, and it may have ended in an injury.

James tells us that if we think we are religious, but do not have a bridle on our tongue, to control it, than we have a religion that is worthless.

The first thing that we should note is that verse 26 connects us with 1:19, being slow to speak.

It is a summary of what we will hear in chapter 3. It shows the emptiness of a piety that does not result in moral purity of speech.

What is James talking about when he says if we think we are “religious”?

He is referring to the outward manifestations of religious services.

In other words, when we conform to what is expected of us in religion, going to church, giving our offerings, outward prayers, etc, the things we think of duties, but this does not affect our speech, then we are deceiving our own hearts.

We believe that we are religious when our external conduct in matters of religion shows us to be conforming to what is expected.

But James tells us that we are tricking ourselves into thinking we are something we are not, or have something that we don’t.

In fact, James tells us that this kind of “religion” is worthless.

Religion here refers to piety or worship.

This is the externals of religious worship.

In other words, James is saying that if we cannot control our tongue, then any perceived piety that we have, or worship that we give God is empty or futile.

When we leave the Gospel, forgetting the truth of God’s love towards his creatures, and the length that Christ went to to save them, speaking words of slander, boasting, defilement, hurt, or any other evil speech, we are walking away from the truth of the Gospel.

We are forgetting Christ’s love towards his enemies, and that our speech is to be kind and seasoned with salt.

You can’t speak however you want as long as you are remaining in the Gospel.

The Gospel controls us, helping us to live in light of what Christ has done for us.

When we leave the Gospel, our tongues become loose and we speak evil towards one another, devouring one another.

Worthless religion leaves the Gospel and becomes uncompassionate (v.

27)

This is really an argument from the negative.

If you look at what pure and undefiled religion is, you will see that it is three things: loving God, loving our neighbor, and keeping from the world’s defilement.

James is telling us that when we forget the Gospel, when we have Gospel amnesia, we become uncompassionate.