Studying the
Bible Obediently
James 1:22
May 15th 2011 AM
Pastor Craig Ledbetter
I.
Introduction
A.
The Bible is
a living book
B.
But it is
also a Book for living
1.
Many people
come to the pages of this Book and discover things to believe
2.
But the
words on this page are more for us to DO than JUST believe
C.
It is a
Book, full of instructions, commands, directions
D.
And the
Author expects us to obey them!
1.
Jesus did
not say, “You SHOULD be born again…” He said, “ye MUST be born again!”
2.
God did not
say, “Live any way you want and everything will turn out alright.” He said,
“keep my commandments, and live.” (Pr 4:4)
E.
You will
never learn the Bible until you start to put its instructions into action
1.
Like tithing
– you will never know how true the Bible’s promises are until you put them
to the test
2.
Like
humbling yourself (James 4:7) – you will never know the power of God until
you have gotten rid of all your own pride and authority
3.
Like
forgiving – you will never learn the freedom that comes by forgiving those
that have hurt you deeply
4.
The Bible is
a Book that cannot be understood until it is obeyed! It cannot do you any
good until it is obeyed – i.e., like having medicine in your cabinet, and
never taking it
F.
We need to
be “People of the Book” – that means people who don’t just know what the
Bible says, but that obey what it says! People who love this Book, and live
this Book, because it is God’s Book, written to give us LIFE!
II.
Message
A.
God tells us to do three things
with His word
1.
Hear It
(James 1:19)
a.
Listen to it
as you read it
b.
Faith cometh
by hearing this Book
c.
Hear every
word (Mt 4:4)
2.
Ponder It
(Psalm 1:2) – think about what we read
a.
Memorize
portions of it
b.
So you can
meditate on it
1)
People fret
and worry because their minds are occupied by concerns and problems
2)
You had
better occupy your mind with good things to think
3.
Obey It –
enough to obey it (Acts 17:11)
a.
As you read
this Book, and hear it preached, are you READY to obey whatever God says to
do?
b.
Obedience
requires trust in the Person giving commands
c.
My job is to
get you to trust this Book enough to obey it as the words of Almighty God
B.
We are supposed to do more than
just BELIEVE the Bible… we are supposed to
DO/LIVE the Bible
1.
John
14:14,15 - we all want God to answer our requests, but He conditions that
upon whether we answer HIS!
2.
The
Christian is Supposed to:
a.
Keep God’s
words (Dt 17:18,19) – hold on to them, not letting any of them slip
b.
Observe to
do God’s words (Matt 28:20) – obey with great care
c.
Follow – as
if they are step by step instructions through a minefield
d.
Do them from
the heart (Ephh 6:6) Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the
servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
3.
By the way,
THE most important thing to teach your children is to OBEY you!
C.
Instructions on Obeying God’s
Words
1.
James
1:19-26 “Be swift to hear…”
a.
Swift and
Slow at the same time
1)
Swift, Quick
to Hear…
a)
Hear What?
The Word of God (1:21)
b)
How hear it
– readily (Acts 17), eagerly, quick to the mark, ready to act on the sound
given to GO!
c)
We race in
our minds to conclusions. We don’t take time to understand what someone is
saying – it takes way too much effort – so we just make up our minds without
all the evidence
2)
Slow to do
TWO natural things – it is very natural to do these following two things:
a)
Speak – we
speak, talk WAY too much!
b)
Wrath – we
are angry people! Quick tempered instead of quick listeners!
c)
Christians
should be quiet people, who have NO residing anger!
d)
Why not?
Because when we are talking constantly, and getting upset constantly, we are
only getting into God’s way
e)
So, govern
your tongue (Pr 13:3; 10:19)
f)
Settle your
anger
g)
And do a
whole lot more listening to people, and ESPECIALLY God (John 10:27)!!!
b.
So, to help
you get swift to listen, and slow to say something, and slower to get angry,
DO something!
1)
Make room
for the word of God
a)
Meekness is
an attitude of hunger, desire to let someone else be in charge
b)
It is not
just words on a page, but it is active – like engrafting a live,
fruit-bearing branch into a dead, lifeless tree!
c)
It will save
your soul! And probably, your family, your job, your mind, and your health!
d)
By Laying
apart… put some distance between you and your filthiness
1.
Your TV
2.
Your bad
friends
3.
Your bad
habits
e)
AND put
distance between you and superfluity of naughtiness
1.
Naughtiness
is wickedness
2.
The Bible
word was a very bad word to use
3.
Superfluity
means abundance of it
4.
We will
never be perfect, but we ought to be working on controlling the big problems
in our lives
2)
Make
priority for it - Do the word you hear
a)
Don’t worry
about all the chapters and verses you don’t know yet
b)
Just get
busy doing what God’s word tells YOU to do
1.
Wife – does
it tell you to REVERENCE your husband?
2.
Husband –
does that Book tell us to love our wives better than we think we are?
3.
Christian –
does that Book tell you to open your mouth on the job and tell people about
the wrath to come and the only way to be saved from it?
c)
Do what the
Bible says – whatever it may be!
1.
DON’T
forsake Sundays! Morning OR evenings – JOIN up
2.
Thank God –
constantly
3.
Read your
Bible cover to cover
d)
Every week,
we gather and hear something more for us to do as Christians
e)
And most
every time, we passively ignore it!
f)
James says,
“To truly hear God's Words results in obedience, not just information.”
c.
Illustration
of a Mirror
1)
A hearer
only…
a)
Focuses on
everyone else
b)
No time
thinking about HIS or HER own sinfulness and stubbornness
c)
Looks into
the Bible, and for a brief moment may see some problems, but then just moves
on and quickly forgets about it
2)
But a doer…
a)
Looks, and
looks, and looks some more into the perfect LAW of LIBERTY (Cf Ps 119:45)
b)
He starts
doing what God says to do
c)
And he
continues doing whatever God says to do
d)
He makes
sure he doesn’t forget what he has heard and learned
e)
Is blessed –
it is a spiritual law!
d.
Then James
points his big long bony finger right at everyone’s tongue in this room and
says, If we are not restraining our TONGUES, then our entire religion is a
joke!
2.
Matthew
12:46-49 “Who are my brethren… they that do”
a.
Jesus is
teaching in a house up in
b.
And His
mother, and his four brothers try to get His attention, wanting to talk with
Him about something – it doesn’t say what
c.
They can’t
get His attention, so they tell someone to tell someone, to tell someone
close enough to Him to get Him to stop for a minute and come out to them
d.
Without
looking at his own flesh and blood, He asks a powerful question… Who is my
mother, and who are my family?
e.
And then He
pointed at the people sitting there, eagerly listening, and hanging on every
word
f.
And he said,
“Take a good look at MY Family!”
g.
“For
whosoever shall…” what?
h.
“Whosoever
shall DO the will of God the Father (written in the Bible), that same person
is in the Family of God!”
i.
It is more
important to DO what God said than just believe what God said – and believe
me, it is very important to believe what God said!
3.
Matthew
7:21-23 - Only people who obey God are the children of God
a.
Only people
who obey God are the children of God
1)
And by the
way, not perfect obedience
2)
But a desire
to obey, a love to obey
b.
Saying
religious words mean nothing to God – may impress people, but not God
c.
Doing
religious acts and even miracles means nothing to God – yes, it can impress
people, but NOT God
d.
To God,
anything we DO that is other than what God said to do, is SIN (7:23)
1)
When God
almighty has told you to repent and get born again, and you instead go to
2)
When God
tells you to forgive someone, and instead you are nice and kind to everyone
else, every kindness you showed was wicked and evil in the sight of God
3)
Because you
didn’t do what God TOLD you to do!
D.
How to Obey God’s Word
1.
Fearfully –
fear NOT obeying it
2.
Fully –
don’t just do parts and bits and pieces
3.
Prayerfully
– depending upon God to help you obey Him
4.
Immediately
- Obey God immediately when God gives you an instruction
E.
Obstacles to Obedience
1.
A Stiff-Neck
(Ex 32:7-10; Jer 17:21-23; Act 7:51). I believe much of our stress is from
our own STIFFNECKS against God’s commands!
2.
A Hard Heart
3.
Dull Ears
4.
Blind Eyes
5.
Ignorant
Mind
6.
All of these
are naturally present to some degree in every one of us, and must be
mortified, rejected, and replaced by the determined choice to obey God’s
word anyway
F.
The Price of Disobedience
1.
Example of
King Saul (1Sam 15:1-23)
a.
Loss of Mind
- Ruined Conscience – comfortable lying (15:13)
b.
Resorting to
Blaming Others (15:14,20,21). Defending Yourself (15:20) – blind to your
disobedience
c.
Lost Control
- Enjoying Sin (15:19)
d.
Lost the
presence of God in his life! Under Demonic Control (15:23) –
e.
Loss of
Place in God’s will (15:22,23)
2.
Look at the
price of Adam’s disobedience in Genesis 3
3.
Look at the
price of Moses’ disobedience when he struck the rock when he was only
supposed to speak to it
4.
Take note of
the price of the disobedience of David when he was SUPPOSED to be out
fighting the war against the Philistines, and instead did his OWN THING up
on a rooftop late one evening with Bathsheba!!!
5.
Take a look
around at children today, and husbands and wives, and society in general… it
didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen by accident – it is the result
of turning our backs on God’s ways of doing things, and look at the price
our nation is paying!
G.
The Results of OBEYING God’s
word – What Can We Learn by Doing the Words of
this Book?
1.
Salvation
(John 6:27-29) – your DO is to BELIEVE on Jesus Christ’s work!
2.
Sanity
(2Tim 1:7; Philp 4:6-9) – your DO is to read, and learn and obey, and God
will restore your mind and heart and life!
3.
Success
(Joshua 1:8) – do things GOD’S way, and HE will bless you! Prov 10:22 The
blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
4.
Stability
(Mt 24:6) – your do is to forgive, and God will remove the tormentors from
your life!
5.
Stretched-out Life
- Long life (Deut 4:40) – you obey your parents, and your pastor, and your
authorities over you, and God will lengthen your life!
6.
National Dominance
(Deut 28:1,2; 11-14) – wouldn’t that be cool for
7.
More Truth
(Psalm 119:100; 111:10)
a.
Additional
knowledge is given as a result of obedience to present biblical truth.
b.
God is not
going to show you things in the Bible until you are obeying what he has
already said!
c.
Mark 4:24
And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.
d.
Some of you
stopped right after you got saved. Stopped reading and hearing and doing,
and so God went quiet on you!
III.
Conclusion – “Be ye doers of
the word and not hearers only”
A.
A Poem
Dear Lord for this coming year
Just one request I bring:
I do not pray for happiness Or
any earthly thing --
I do not ask to understand The
way Thou leadest me,
But this I ask: Teach me to do
the thing that pleaseth Thee.
I want to know Thy guiding voice,
To walk with thee each day.
Dear Lord make me swift to hear
And ready to obey.
And thus the year I now begin A
happy year t’will be --
If I am seeking just to do the
thing that pleaseth Thee.
B.
What has God
told YOU to do?
1.
Repent?
2.
Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ?
3.
Apologize?
4.
Forgive?
5.
Get
Baptized?
6.
Join this
church?
7.
Get started
reading your Bible every day?
8.
Go to that
friend of yours and sit them down and tell them how you got saved, and that
you want THEM saved?
C.
I’ll do what
you want me to do, go where you want me to go…