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00:03 to be doers of the word instead of just hear users and walk closely with you. We
00:09 ask for Jesus sake. Amen. So this morning the um we're going to go into
00:15 James uh I think preaching from James and very exciting book. It's a very
00:20 practical book where you bring all your concepts of what God is into play in to
00:26 your normal life. And so today we're going to talk about the secret of true
00:31 spirituality. How do you know you're actually walking with God? How do you know you're walking close to God? Uh and
00:38 and um being what you should be. So this passage
00:44 talks about being doers of the word. What is the secret? Um the story told of an old lady who went
00:51 to church not much different from ours. And there the sermon was based on the
00:57 Acts chapter 2 verse 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of
01:02 Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and you will receive the holy the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38. She went
01:09 home and she found that when she entered the house there was a burglar there already robbing her of all her precious
01:16 jewels and the back of the robber was faced to her and she came right in and she's thinking what should I do? I've
01:21 got to put scripture into action. And she pointed her finger towards the man and said, "Acts 2:38."
01:27 Immediately, man froze, didn't move a muscle. And he quickly
01:32 called the police on a handphone. They came and took him away. As he was leading him away, they asked him, "Hey,
01:39 why you didn't turn around and and attack this lady? You're much bigger than her." You know, all she was doing
01:44 is spouting scripture at you. What scripture? I heard she said, "Acts." She got Acts and 238s.
01:56 I don't think you should use scripture that way. Um, so today we're going to
02:01 look into because the word of God is so important, but people don't know how to use it uh the right way. True
02:07 spirituality, the wrong use of the word of God causes deception. The right use of the word of God produces godly
02:13 action. And true spirituality is always leaves evidence of a transformed life. very very obvious uh lessons we take
02:20 because James is very very easy to interpret. Okay, but also very deep. So
02:27 let's hang in there and and go through the wrong use of the word of God causes deception. If you look at the passage as
02:33 uh seeming read uh God allows trials to mature us as we uh uh we enter temptation by our own desires. We either
02:39 push towards life or we'll push towards death in the uh overcoming of these trials. And he talks to us about
02:46 dwelling on the good things, living in the truth. And living in truth. Last uh the the the earlier parts of the
02:51 chapter, we'll talk about quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, and then humbly accepting planted word. And
02:57 today, we're going to look at how are we going to act according to the word, which is very difficult. We always have
03:03 a problem in churches like this like ours, more cerebral, focusing on the
03:08 word of God. People always wondering how are we going to take the truth and and have it travel this, you know, the
03:14 couple of inches from here right down to here. And and there must be something to it. Why is it so difficult to do this?
03:21 Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. So here's a double
03:26 imperative. There are two imperatives here, which is basically commands. One, you're supposed to do the word, and two,
03:32 you're not supposed to be only hearing. And the result is there are two kinds of
03:37 this is this is very insulting. You come in the church and you see we're we're
03:43 nicely divided into sections. One section
03:48 is deceived. And you're wondering my God this fellow is telling us we're all deceived. Well,
03:53 we are because if we are not doing God's word in many senses we are deceived and
03:59 we all uh you know have a tendency to selfdeception. For example, they did a study where you actually show people a
04:06 set of 12 photographs and when you show the photographs, the top 20% that makes
04:12 you look better, people always pick them up first, 5% faster. The worst ones is 5% slower because we always think we're
04:18 better than what we are. Isn't it? We call that self delusion. Um, if you look at this uh trend among different people,
04:25 Westerners and Easterners, Easterners tend to inflate themselves less than Westerners.
04:31 The young people here are with us. Imagine if you were jilted by your girlfriend, right? Very sad. We don't
04:39 know why she jilt you. The first thing you're going to say is that you know we had differences of opinion. Our ideals
04:46 of happiness are not so good. That's why she dumped me. Okay. And the second thing you will say is that well there
04:52 are plenty of fish in the ocean and it leaves me free to find someone even better. Now there are two selfdeception
04:58 there, isn't it? One is sour grape and the other one called sweet lemon. All right? Because you can't accept the
05:05 fact. The truth is you were a horrible fellow. That's why she dumped you. But we we have selfdeception all the time.
05:11 Uh it is so much part of our human uh person. This is a a book by in 1956
05:17 published by Leon Festinger and group when they when they actually went undercover to work with a UFO uh
05:24 doomsday cult who actually predicted the end of the world and all of them were praying and getting ready for the end of the world selling all their property and
05:31 the date came and the end of the world didn't end and they got very frustrated
05:37 and then they sat around and they wanted going to strangle the prophet but then again they decided that the end of world
05:42 didn't come because of their faith. faith because of the faith the end of the world didn't come. So this is
05:48 rationalization. We all are self deceived. Whenever I get invited to to speak in medical conferences or or or or
05:55 or they ask me send pictures, right? CV picture. I always send this one. You I
06:01 haven't looked like that for for the last like 20 years, you know.
06:08 But I always send this one. Isn't it? Why? Because I realize that I'm self deceived, right? And then you you you
06:15 walk around here. Some of us we hide around the podium. There's a reason why you hide around the podium or you wear loose fitting clothes. So you don't see
06:21 the tummy, right? We're all selfdeceived to a certain extent. And and today we're
06:27 going to learn about what scripture does for us. Whether we could be tending to be self deceived or actually see
06:33 ourselves what we are. If if anyone is a hearer of the word of God, not doer, he's like a man who looks intently at
06:39 his natural face in the mirror. or he looks at himself and he goes away and at once forgets what he was like. So this
06:45 is a a picture of us. We don't really pay attention to the word of God. Ancient mirrors are not like the ones
06:52 that we have now. Glass with silver at the back. They are actually copper or metal. And they're supposed to give a
06:59 reflection. Not a good reflection. Not a good reflection. Just enough to to make you, you know, you look, oh, I'm a man,
07:04 not a woman. Uh and then you go out and do what you need to do. And and they're
07:10 very important. I mean, how many of you coming here today look in the mirror before you come to church? Put your
07:15 hands up. Now, I can tell you how many liars there are here.
07:20 I looked in the mirror. I Why? Because you to go to preach or nose hair hanging all the way up there. I mean, or Yeah.
07:28 You have to look. Every single person looks in the mirror. In fact, half of us got mirror inside the purse. Correct.
07:35 Right. Noah. Sure. The mirror is not for your husband. this for yourself, right?
07:41 We all have mirrors because why are mirrors very important? Mirrors will
07:47 determine behavior, right? Imagine you're getting ready for a hot date with a boyfriend and suddenly
07:55 and suddenly your picture comes out like that. Oh, this is a disaster. Remember my first date was your young fellow. You
08:02 see one of those end of the world really. And so therefore, when you go and talk to your boyfriend at a date,
08:07 you're always putting a hand there. you know and turning this part of the head towards him or maybe you will
08:14 actually cancel your date right you might if you like that a fresh crop of those things and you cancel the date you
08:19 just say I'm constipated I can't come right so so mirrors are very important
08:25 they tell us what we are and and and it helps us interact with the world if we look in the mirror and we see that and
08:33 we basically underestimate ourselves we're very apologetic we're not very confident we make excuses all the time
08:39 if we look in the mirror and we see like that then become wow you know you feel like top of the world because mirrors
08:46 can can give us a false impression or the correct impression the wrong use of word of God causes deception that is a
08:54 very very important thing that we learn this morning Martin Luther was self
09:00 deceived he entered the priesthood number one number two he studied and he
09:06 got his doctorate PhD D University of Wittingberg. He wasn't even a Christian.
09:12 How do you get a PhD in theology when you're not even a Christian? Because he thought by studying God's word,
09:18 understanding all the nuances of God word, all the meaning, he thought that was a indicator of spirituality. And I
09:26 tell you, the word of God is the most deceptive thing. Actually causes you to stumble. It cause if you don't use it properly, it causes you to basically go
09:34 down the wrong path. The Wesley brothers uh very holy brothers. They were they
09:40 formed uh Charles Wesley formed a a group in the University of Cambridge and
09:46 they had prayer, fasting, Bible study and they were so ardent in their faith in sharing the faith that they called
09:52 them the holy group and later later on they were called the Methodists. In
09:57 fact, they were so uh ardent in their endeavors that they became missionaries to America and they not only preached to
10:04 Americans, they went to American Indians and brought them the gospel. All the while, you know, they were not even Christians.
10:10 They're not even Christian. They spread the gospel to Indians. Why? Because they thought by reading the word of God,
10:16 hearing the word of God by proxy, they are spiritual. They are walking with
10:22 God. So the hearers, if you are a hearer only, the Bible becomes that dead weight
10:28 that that bears you down and basically leads you to a path of destruction if you don't understand. Now if you leave
10:35 this church all the time and you say, "Oh, that's a nice sermon. I I didn't fall asleep." And then you went home and
10:40 you never actually acted on the word, then you're exactly like this. You are self deceived because you think you come
10:46 to church every Sunday and that's a proxy for your spirituality, your spirituality index. I went to church,
10:51 take that and so therefore I'm fine. You're not fine because the Bible said very clear if you do that it is a sure
10:59 sign you're condemned. If you hear the word of God and say it's wonderful and it doesn't change your
11:04 life, you are condemned. You are deceived. You're on the road to a very nasty end in the end. So therefore the
11:10 word of God is deceptive. Only if you use it correctly. The right use of the word of God will produce godly action.
11:16 This morning I want to share with us what does it mean to use the word of God
11:22 rightly? I've got this problem. I I I hear all about the word of God. I'm excited about it and I go home I forget about it. How how do I make that
11:28 transition? All right. So, uh let's look at what Paul says. The one who looks
11:33 into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres being no hearer, he who forgets but a doer who acts, he
11:41 will be blessed in his doing. Two things about the mirror, two things
11:48 about the person. Very clear, isn't that? He looks, he perseveres, and the
11:54 mirror is perfect. And there's a law of liberty. Four things to look at. Number one, the perfect law gives a perfect
12:01 picture of who we are. If we think we are quite good because we haven't murdered, right? What's the last time
12:08 you killed anybody? No, not yesterday. All right? But Jesus comes to you and says to you, if you said to anybody, you
12:15 fool bord to the hells of fire. So murder is
12:21 equivalent to condemning someone. Oh, that's that's that's really tough in um
12:27 I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in the
12:32 heart. My goodness, that that's that's terrible. I mean, when's the last time you looked at somebody else aside from
12:38 your wife? We stand condemned, quiet. You can't hear a pin drop. And then love your
12:46 enemies. Pray for those who persecute. When's the last time you did that? You can barely restrain yourself from
12:52 strangling your m your your your enemies, right? You're asking me to love them and pray for them. What the perfect
12:58 law when you look at the mirror gives us a perfect picture of who we are. And the
13:04 perfect picture of who we are is that we are more sinful than we actually think we are. That's the thing. And every time you
13:10 look at the word of God, if it makes you feel very sinful, it makes you feel very, very wretched, then it's doing the
13:17 right thing. Okay? Perfect law also gives you a per perfect picture of what happens to you in Christ. We are,
13:24 Ephesians tells we're blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. We're predestined.
13:29 We're chosen, adopted as sons, forgiven, redeemed. all these blessings. On one
13:35 hand, we are more sinful than we what we think we are. And the other hand, we are
13:41 more radically exalted than what we can ever imagine because of Christ. And when
13:46 you look at these two opposite poles of what we actually are, when we look in the mirror, we see what we actually are,
13:53 we change. How do we change? Because this is what we look at ourselves. We
13:58 rely on Christ very little. Rely on self a lot. The more we look at what we are,
14:04 the more accurately we see ourselves, the Christ reliance index increases, the self-reliance index decreases. So
14:11 reading of the word of God and it's assimilation into the part of our DMA
14:18 molds our action, the more obedient we become because the obedience basically relying on what Christ does for us. The
14:26 wrongly use of the word of God is to use the word of God like a recipe book. You know how some of us have recipe books. I
14:33 know some of the master chef here got no recipe book. But if you actually look at
14:38 recipe books, they're very difficult. If you watch this uh Master Chef, quite interesting program on TV, you know, if
14:43 you like to eat, um they will give you the last final exam for the the Master
14:49 Chef for Australia or America. They'll give you something wonderful like that. You see that? And then they'll give you
14:55 a recipe and they tell you one hour you're going to fix that, you know? and you're looking at my god 1 hour I can't
15:01 even fix the bottom part and it's very very difficult the wrong use of the word of god is to use it like a recipe book
15:07 how are you going to put all the ingredients of your life so that you will be a perfect person and if you use
15:13 the word of god like that you will fail all right um the second thing uh uh that
15:19 the u mirror is not only is a perfect law it tells us exactly what we are like
15:25 it also tells us that we're free the mirror The word of God is actually a law of liberty. This is a statue of liberty.
15:32 Incidentally, the French people gave it to an American for only $250,000. Very cheap in those days. And I was wondering
15:39 what she's holding there. If she actually look very closely, she's holding something that says July 4th, 17
15:46 something. I can't remember the date. Uh but that's actually the Declaration of Independence.
15:51 And basically, the word of God is the actual word of God that actually sets you free. If you read it properly, if
15:58 you read a recipe book, it enslaves you. You read it in the right way, it will set you free. That somebody uh once told
16:06 of the city of London, there are four three kinds of dogs there. Okay. The first dog is the one on the left there,
16:12 the ugly looking fellow there, right? He's a wild dog. He goes all over the
16:18 city. He he makans at the side of the road. uh you know all the the rotting
16:24 meat and carcasses and the garbage. He digs it out. He eats it. He's totally
16:29 you know you can't call him, you can't pet him, you can't touch him. He'll bite and scratch you. And one day somebody
16:35 will catch him and somebody will shoot him in the head or poison him. He's totally lawless. Have all the liberty of
16:42 the world, but there's no law. The second dog is the black one, the Labrador. He is a dog in your house and
16:48 all the time he is tied up with a leash. Doesn't go very far, very upset,
16:55 lives a cloistered life. And this example of a Christian who basically has all the law but no liberty. Right there
17:02 you know where he's going to be. He's very predictable but no liberty to do anything. And that's like some
17:07 Christians in our church who legalistic. You know you can't do this, you can't do that. and life is just held by a leash.
17:15 The third dog, the German shepherd, is the law of liberty. The law actually sets him free. The word of God, if you
17:22 read it properly, isn't something that will box you in, you know, oh, this cannot do, that cannot do. Actually, it
17:27 tells you what environment would best be for your human condition. This is a fish. His best environment is the water,
17:36 isn't it? You're going to clean the water. If he wants to be free, he jumps out. Oh, I'd like to be on the couch. So
17:42 he goes on the couch and then he doesn't last very long on the couch because there's not enough water and he actually
17:48 dies basically. So to be really free is to be in the ideal medium for a fish.
17:54 The ideal medium is water. It's like oxygen levels. The ideal oxygen level
18:00 for the human being is basically 19.5% of your air that you breathe or up to
18:05 23.5. That's compatible with life. Some of you planning to go somewhere.
18:11 If you go below, you get hypoxia. You have difficulty to breathe. Your lungs
18:16 will be filled with fluid. You will turn blue. And if you go and climb Mount Everest, this is what's going to happen.
18:22 If you have too much oxygen, it'll be oxygen toxicity and you will grow blind.
18:28 Some stuff happens at the back of your retina. It doesn't happen immediately. You don't die immediately when you climb up to Mount Everest. You don't die
18:34 immediately. You'll die slowly but you will die on either case. And so therefore there's an area of freedom
18:40 compatible with life with 19.5 to 23 uh five. This is the freedom level where
18:47 human beings can operate. The same way if you look at a human being you've got an area of freedom where we have God
18:54 intended sexuality that we're faithful. We're full of truth and love and you go past this side. You don't die
19:00 immediately but eventually you will die. You go up this side you will die as well. So God's law of liberty tells us
19:07 you're free to marry a woman. You marry a man, you won't die
19:14 immediately, but sooner or later you will die. The law of liberty tells you you're free
19:20 to be faithful to your wife. Say no, I don't want I want to have three, four wives. Yeah, you can. So you go down
19:25 this way. You won't die immediately, but sooner or later you will die in internal death. The law of liberty tells you you
19:31 should tell the truth about all your bank accounts where the money comes from. But you don't want you you hide.
19:38 Eventually you die. You don't get caught immediately, right? Not immediately, but one day you will 100%. You see? So
19:46 therefore, the law of liberty gives you this is you're free to exist. And the
19:53 word of God says here within this law of liberty that God the Bible tells you you are blessed in his doing. You wrote
20:01 Psalm one you know blessed is the man who does not walk in you know and what is Psalm one ends with in all that he
20:07 does he prospers. Pros prospers not money you know prospers. Find the ideal sweet spot in life where where God is
20:14 absolutely pleased with you. So so what happens is when you read the word of God it tells you where to operate. It tells
20:21 you where the limits of life are where you will function perfectly. So why do
20:27 you do that? Because the word of God tells you because we are made in the image of God. Because we are made in the
20:34 image of God. This is where we operate in the area of freedom. This is where
20:39 the human beings will optimally function. This is where you will bring glory to God because you're made in the
20:45 image of God. So when you look in the Bible, it tells you who you are. Here's a freedom paradox. One someone shared.
20:52 The more I I obey the the the more I obey, the more I will become who God
20:57 made me to be, the more I am what God made me uh made me more free I will be.
21:03 All right? So if you actually operating within this zone, that's freedom. That's
21:09 blessedness. That's prosperity. So the word of God is the one that tells you that. And so therefore, the word of
21:16 God here is a perfect mirror. It tells you who you are and it sets you free to
21:21 be who you're actually designed to be. That is what the word of God is. That's the right use of the word of God. But
21:28 the one now, now let's look at what the word of God is. It set this perfect picture who you are and it tells you um
21:35 and it sets you free. But you have to, you know, do something. I mean, I've got
21:41 a perfect perfect treadmill machine at home. My wife will
21:46 tell you for 10 years barely got on it 10 times. Why? Why isn't my tummy lower
21:52 than what it is? Because the treadmill is perfect. I'm not. So, two things you need to do. One, look. And the other one
21:59 is persevere. The one who looks. The word look in the original is the same word that's used for Peter. Peter rose
22:07 and ran into the tomb stooping and looking in and saw the little cloth by themselves. This word is looking in. I
22:15 mean you run all the way and the first time your life the the the rock is rolled away and Jesus not there you you
22:21 think I am not there I better go you do that you would take a double take right Jesus
22:28 is supposed to be there you look there you smell you look at the liner you look everything you know maybe Jesus hiding
22:33 in the roof or hiding in the cellar somewhere you look you look and you look and you look that's the same word we're
22:40 supposed to look at the word of God intently because you want to find where Jesus is. Same Greek word. So when you
22:48 take your Bibles, do you say, "Ah, Jesus is not here. I put it away." Or do you look and you look and you look because
22:54 this is important. Where Jesus is has great implications for your life. If he's risen, so you will rise. And so
23:00 therefore, we look. That's how we look at the word of God. We don't go to the word of God every day. Ah, your quiet
23:05 time must do. So therefore, you read a few minutes. Am I I done my duty to God. When Peter looked inside, he was
23:11 excited. When Peter looked inside, he was anticipating at all the things that Jesus said. Was it true? That's how we
23:18 look into the word of God. The second one is uh perseveres. The persecutor
23:23 comes from the a very interesting very common Greek word called mino which means remain. And Jesus uses it in John.
23:33 Abide mino in me. Abides. Mino mino. Abide in me in you. As a branch cannot
23:41 bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me. So basically mino means
23:48 remain stick with it. So not only you're supposed to look into the word of God with excitement looking to find Jesus
23:55 the second thing you got to stick with it. You can't say oh I'm reading this and I'm a bit tired and read something
24:02 else. You got to stick with it day in and day out. If you stick with it, if you look into it properly, then your
24:09 life will change. So, uh, Saurin Kirkagard is Danish philosopher and, uh,
24:17 theologian gives us some idea how we're going to look intently and persevere.
24:22 First of all, we need to focus on what you can understand about what God wants done. All right? So, don't focus on all
24:29 the other things that have got no relevance. Okay? Focus on what God wants done. And you need to hear God's word.
24:36 You must wait silently before God. The fourth thing he says look at yourself in
24:41 the mirror not the mirror. Some people look at mirror. Oh this mirror very nice. You look at the back of the mirror
24:46 and the side of the mirror. You know people look at mirror to see yourself right. You don't look in the mirror to see the mirror. And some people do this.
24:52 They they they compare 50 versions of the Bible. Mine is Ryrie Bible. Yours NASB not so good. And then and then
24:59 they're all you know debating with each other about whether Greek is good or Hebrew is good. I mean what's it's not
25:04 going to make any difference in your life when you look in the mirror to see yourself you don't see the mirror okay
25:10 um so thing is we must remember God's word is addressed to you remember Snow
25:16 White what does the queen do go to the mirror what does she say mirror mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all she's looking in the mirror to see
25:23 other people and some of us look Bible oh my goodness that describes my husband
25:28 exactly bargain must go and tell him you know Right? I mean, you look in the mirror to
25:35 see yourself. You don't see your husband, your your wife, your children, your dog. Who cares? When you go to the
25:42 word of God, you're not going there to judge other people. How come people in this church so unfriendly? One, you
25:48 know, after third time, new visitors table cannot sit. I mean, I mean, hello. I mean, what kind of
25:55 church is this? I mean, doesn't the word of God say this and say that? I mean, so we are so judgmental. We look in the
26:00 word mirror to see mirror mirror on the wall. Who's the fairest of them all? We're always we look in the mirror to see yourself. Let me give you an example
26:07 of Bath Sheba and David. Remember Basha and David? He was taking a bath. David were looking right. So I had adulterous
26:14 affair. And you tell me that David doesn't know sleeping with somebody's wife is wrong. He knows scripture,
26:21 right? Of course he knows. He still went and did it. Killed the husband, too. He
26:27 knows the word of God. And Nathan had to tell him a parable. And after a parable
26:32 or he told a parable of how the king cheated a poor man who has only got one lamb and he took it away and suddenly
26:39 maden turns around and says, "You are that man." And David fell convicted to
26:45 the ground. You see, the word of God can reside in your heart, but if it's always about somebody else, then it doesn't
26:52 work. It's got to be you are that man. And when we read the word of God, it is
26:57 a mirror. It shows you exactly who you are. The moment David heard that you are that man, he repented in dust and ashes.
27:06 That's how we move. That's how we change. So therefore, we can either look at the word of God and just walk away
27:13 and it leaves us unchanged. Then we are deceived or we can look at the word of
27:18 God and see who we are that we are that man and we are changed. You know the the
27:24 the secular world tells us many stories if the way we perceive ourselves will determine our behavior story when one of
27:32 the earliest stories I ever heard was a young fellow is ugly duckling it ugly duckling because he was mixed around all
27:38 the ducklings it was always looked down upon awkward tall nobody liked him low
27:45 self-esteem you know he went to a party nobody invited him all the youth hated him until he in the end he realized he
27:52 was what a swan on. Once you realize who you are, self-confidence comes back.
27:58 What about that lovely story, The Wizard of Oz? They all go on the yellow brick road. And the lion is basically a
28:04 coward, right? And he wants to look for the Wizard of Oz to get courage. And the
28:11 Wizard of Oz, he finds out he's a cornman. And he gives him a bowl of courage to drink. Actually, there's
28:17 nothing inside and a medal. But actually, the courage was in him all along. When the lion realized who he
28:23 actually is, he became a lion that that courage is not the absence of fear. It
28:29 is action in the face of fear. So when we realize who we are, then we can is
28:36 the basis of which we act. Uh so seeing who we really are is the key to changing
28:41 our behavior. I remember years ago I was in RTM doing a program in on radio and
28:47 I've probably told this story before and I saw some fellows uh uh there not the
28:53 two big ones only the two small ones and and I thought oh who's this two Kong boys
28:58 and and they introduced me to them and then I say hello yeah guy I'm going to go my wife later tells me that this is a
29:06 very famous American group called All for One you know and if I knew that I would be on my hands and knees growling.
29:12 Can I have autograph? Right? Because you don't know because you don't know your
29:18 your your your attitude doesn't change. Uh and who you are actually changes your
29:25 behavior. Look at these three words which is the motto of the nation of France. Liberty, equality, and
29:31 fraternity. You know, in the French Revolution, these three words among others actually transformed the soul of
29:39 a nation and people rose up and overthrew an ugly king who ruled them as
29:44 a despot and chopped off the wife's neck, right? And it became a country of laws where men were seen as equal. When
29:51 you know you are equal, you will not allow yourself to be oppressed. So ideas are very important.
29:57 Who you see you are very important. The more you see you are, the more it will influence your behavior. So when Paul
30:02 writes in the book of Romans, he wants the people in Rome to change their
30:08 behavior. He wants them to renounce sin. He doesn't tell her you wake up in the morning, you don't sin. He doesn't do
30:14 that. He gives them three pictures. One, do you not know all of us have been baptized in Christ Jesus, were baptized
30:20 into his death. That means tell all of us are crucified. The picture of crucification is in the head. You are
30:28 crucified to the world. He gives you another picture. Do you not know that if you present yourselves uh uh to anyone
30:34 as obedient slaves, you're slaves to the one whom you obey either of sin which leads to death or obedience which leads
30:41 to righteousness. We are slaves. So they're no longer slaves of sin. You are
30:46 slaves of righteousness. So idea slave. They understand what slave is. How does a slave act? He doesn't tell them what
30:52 the slave does, but he tells them the status. You are a slave. Lastly, a picture of marriage. For a married woman
30:58 is bound by law to her husband while he lives. But if the husband dies, she's released from the law of marriage. So
31:03 you were married to sin. Now you're married to God. You've broken the bonds.
31:10 You don't have to sin anymore. So you can see how scripture works by giving us
31:15 a true picture of what we actually are. For example, if you found that your boss
31:21 is going to fire you tomorrow, obviously you get very anxious and then you read
31:26 scripture and it list is in Matthew chapter 6 and then you say, "Oh, therefore I tell you do not be anxious
31:32 about your life or what you will eat, what you will drink, about your body, what you'll put on. Your boss is going
31:38 to fire you tomorrow. You will be on the side of this road. You have no income. You don't have insurance." And you read
31:44 this scripture. It says do not be anxious. So that you go say okay boss
31:50 going to fire me. Do not be anxious. I'm going to apply God's word. I do not be anxious. People tell you hey tomorrow no
31:55 pain. Never mind. Do not be anxious. See that's that's how you apply scripture. Well you forget who you are now. So then
32:03 so and and basically you apply willpower. Now willpower is not going to make it. If you read on in Matthew it
32:09 says is life more than food? Body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the
32:14 air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather the barns and yet their heavenly father feeds them. Are you not more
32:20 valuable than they? So what Jesus is telling uh uh the disciples is that the
32:26 word tells you who you are and that's the basis of courage. You are more valuable than the birds. They don't sow.
32:34 They don't reap. They don't have jobs. And God looks after them. Are you not more valuable than them? So that's how
32:41 you overcome anxiety. You don't overcome your anxiety by using the Bible as a recipe book. I should be not anxious.
32:47 But you look at the Bible and look at who you actually are. You're far more valuable than the birds. If you go
32:55 through suffering and the reason why we suffer is that we forget who we are. And then in Hebrews
33:03 it tells you consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against him
33:09 that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. Why do writer Hebrews says
33:15 that? Because he says look at you when you're suffering look at Jesus. Then look at yourself in your struggle against sin you have not resisted to the
33:21 point of shedding blood. So which means compared to Jesus your suffering is nothing. And then he goes on, "My son,
33:28 don't regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he
33:34 loves and chastises every son whom receives." So he tells you here that you are his son. And if you are suffering,
33:41 you're being disciplined. You see, for all the moment all the
33:47 discipline seems painful rather uh seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields peaceful fruit of
33:54 righteousness to those who have been trained by. So when you're suffering, you actually have to look at eternal
33:59 blessings so that the discipline will actually make things better. And after all that, then only says, "Lift up your
34:07 drooping hands, strengthen your weak knees." After all that, so the Bible works to tell you who you are and what
34:15 resources you have in Jesus Christ. That's how you apply the word of God to change. And you actually have to read it
34:22 in community. If you're really going to look at God's word and remain in it, the only way you're going to do it is to do
34:27 it in community. Because if you do it alone, you will not change. The word of God can't tell you. Let me give you an
34:34 example. How many of you heard your own voice on the tape recorder? Put your hands up. One, two. Oh, there's two pie.
34:42 All right. Does it sound like what it sounds like? No, it never sounds. So you
34:48 think you look great, huh? self-illusion. When you sit in a Bible study with five, six other people, they
34:54 will tell you what you look like. So therefore, it's impossible to grow with the word of God unless you're sitting in
34:59 a group of people. And so therefore, I challenge some of you who to come to alpha or to uh uh gamma where we
35:07 actually study God's word together because that's where, you know, in a sermon like this, you can't get very far. we we can actually have the sermon
35:15 45 minutes and you go back and you most likely be deceived right here nothing
35:20 else in a group we will drill it into your life and say how does it apply how
35:26 does it change your life and then you can share with each other um and that's how we grow lastly true spirituality
35:34 leaves evidence of a transformed life and values let me read if anyone thinks
35:39 he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives is hard. This person's religion is worthless. Religion
35:44 is pure and undefiled before God. Father is this to visit orphans and widows in
35:50 their affliction and keep yourself unstained from the world. And just like Jesus and Jesus says in Matthew 25, at
35:59 the end of time, what is the judgment will be? The judgment will be sheep and goats, right? And those who gave the
36:06 poor a cup of water, visited the prisons, those are the ones are the sheep. And the ones who didn't are the
36:12 goats. See, Jesus isn't interested when you said the sinner's prayer. No, Jesus is interested how you live your life,
36:19 whether you're doers of the word. And so therefore, he summarizes very clearly there are three the life true
36:25 spirituality will be shown by the lifestyle of obedience. Whether looking
36:30 in the mirror, you actually started to control your tongue and don't wall up other people because they sat at the
36:36 visitor's table or you help the helpless or you have
36:42 holy living. This is basically the bottom line. It's got to translate into
36:47 that because if it doesn't then we are all deceived. Let's pray.
36:55 Father Lord, we just thank you for your word which is like a two-edged sword.
37:02 And this morning, we pray that this two-edged sword will cut through our soul. We either leave this hall today on
37:11 only one or two ways. We're either going to be doers of the word because we've seen that the word of God
37:18 cuts all the pretense, hypocrisy, self delusion, selfdeception. Cut it all the way. cut us to the bare bones and we can
37:25 actually see the naked self that we are totally sinful and helpless and hopeless
37:31 and totally exalted as sons of the living God. Father Lord, we pray that
37:37 process would have occurred in our minds. We pray that we go home, we won't be deceived. We won't act in the self
37:43 delusion that we are close to you when we're actually not because we just didn't apply the word. We ask for your
37:50 spirit to minister to each of us as we depend on you. We ask this for Jesus sake. Amen.
