Self Deceived Hearers

We are in the book of James chapter 1 this morning.

A few years ago I was looking for some lumber for a project I was working on and ran across an online auction that had this giant lot of goods plus the exact lumber I was looking for. But in order to get the lumber I had to buy everything. Even with buying everything, it was still way cheaper than buying the lumber new, so I went for it. And believe me, it was random. A microwave, a few dolls, a curling iron, some potting soil. Toward the end of rummaging through this junk there was a little box and I opened it up and I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was a little bar of gold inside. So I was so excited so I brought it to this gold and silver store and I said, “Hey, I’d like to trade this bar of gold for some cash.” And he looked at it for one second and said, “That’s not real.” And I said, “How do you know?” When you’ve been around the real thing long enough, you just know.

I said, can you prove it to me. He said sure, but it will destroy it. I said, I don’t care. So he did three tests. He pulled out a scale and weighed it. Now it actually passed that test. And I started getting all excited. He said, "Don’t get your hopes up." Then he scratched it with this tool and it looked like it was a coating of some sort. And just to confirm he pulled out some acid and poured it on the gold and sure enough, the coating just boiled right off.

Now here’s the point. I was trying to test for genuine gold. And no one test is perfect. It passed the first test. If I had left after having just weighed it, I would have been falsely assured. But in order for it to be genuine, it has to pass not just one test but all the tests. If it failed any of the tests it wasn’t genuine.

Well when it comes to examining faith, it’s a similar process. James is going to give us not one test but a series of tests that will help us differentiate between a genuine faith and a counterfeit faith. James is deeply concerned about making sure that the faith you hold is in fact true, genuine saving faith. He’s calling for self-examination. But just like that gold bar, there’s not a single test that’s a slam dunk. Rather, we are given a series of tests. And in order for the faith to be genuine it has to pass not just one test, but all the tests.

So let’s look at how this unfolds. Here’s the first test.

So we will pick up from last week where JP so helpfully led us.

Now this is not the test. This is setup for the test. James begins by calling out unrighteous behavior in our speech. Now, lest we miss a very key and important point, both genuine saving faith and counterfeit faith will exhibit unrighteous behavior. It’s not as if genuine faith doesn’t struggle and counterfeit faith does. No. Everyone struggles.

Genuine faith does not mean the extinction of anger.
Genuine faith doesn’t mean the extinction of bad listening habits.
He gives this admonition to EVERY PERSON, which implies, every person struggles with this.

So how do I not be angry? How do I become a good listener? There’s an answer and we can see it in the next verse. Just walk over this bridge word, THEREFORE and see it. How do you be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger? Well, he says:

You have to put away all that bad behavior and RECEIVE the implanted word. SO THE TEST OF GENUINE FAITH IS WHAT YOU DO WHEN THE BAD BEHAVIOR IS POINTED OUT. There is a willingness to receive the word. There’s a willingness to abandon your current mode of behavior and receive the implanted word? That’s the test.

There is a disposition of a person of true saving faith regarding where he or she finds answers.

Do you instinctively go to the word of God as the answer book.
Or do you go to your friend group.
Or do you don’t seek out pop psychology.
Or do you read endless internet articles.
Now the reason we talk about this in terms of a disposition is because of the word that modifies how we are to receive. Notice the attitude associated with the reception. Meekness. That word has the idea of gentleness. So in this context the idea is that our hearts are usually hard and resistant to receiving feedback. We are prideful. We don’t like others telling us that we are wrong. So to receive with meekness is to receive with softness. In other words: teachable. To have a genuine interest. There’s a genuine leaning in.

For example, let’s say you are trying to learn piano. And you kind of plateau in your learning. And then you have a chance to spend four hours with the hall of fame prodigy, Stevie Wonder, one of the most famous blues and jazz piano players of all time. You have a posture toward that, right? You respect him. You would hang on his words? Your attitude would be one of rapt attention and respect. There would be a meekness. I don’t have the answers. He does.

So it starts with that. Humble reception. That’s the first test.

But notice something. It’s not enough. Because let’s observe that he doesn’t say that by receiving the implanted word with meekness it WILL save your soul. He simply says it’s merely ABLE to save your soul. There’s still more to do. There’s potential, but it’s not guaranteed.

You’ve made it past test #1, but there are still two more tests that have to be passed. Here’s the second test.

So in order to have true genuine saving faith you have to receive AND agree with the word of God. Now you might think these are one and the same, but they are very distinct.

You can imagine a situation in which you think you want the word, but then when the word is heard and understood, it’s offensive and ultimately not agreed with.

How many people do you know who say they read the Bible and want to obey it but ultimately just pick and choose what parts they like. We’ve all read the passage to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute you and kind of just ignored that part. That’s receiving the word but not agreeing with it.

Go back to the Stevie Wonder example. Let’s say you are super humble, super meek, super excited to meet this iconic piano player. You can’t wait to hear what kind of advice he gives you. And he listens to you play for a few minutes and he says. Tell you what. Here’s what you need to do. You need to go home and learn your scales. That’s not profound. That’s not what I was expecting him to say. That’s so uninspiring. That’s what my piano teacher has been saying for years. And you get angry and leave.

Do you see how these are two distinct steps? The first step is a step that acknowledges authority. The second step is a step that agrees with the assessment of that authority that you claimed to acknowledge.

Genuine faith hears the word AND agrees with the word. Genuine faith is willing to go to the word with the attitude that yes, it has the source of answers and yes, it’s judgment over me is true, no matter how offensive it is.

You see as Christians we have to be willing to accept the judgments of God’s Word on our life no matter how unflattering they are.
We have to be willing to allow it to examine and evaluate.
We have to be weighed by it. Poked and prodded. We have to allow it to cast its verdict upon us.
We have to let it scratch off that coating and let the acid bubble off whatever veneer we project and claim, “that part of you is fake.”
Yes we need to receive. But we also need to agree. It takes humility to do that. If you don’t have the humility, then it’s over. It all breaks down on step two.

This week I was reading a book by Johnathan Edwards on the New England Revival. Jonathan E. served in the mid part of the 18th century. One of the things that most frustrated him is he saw revivals start up, he saw great church growth, he saw people coming to faith in Christ, he saw communities begin to get transformed, and then he noticed how often, usually, the revival stopped. They stagnated. They petered out. Being the analytical person he was, he tried to figure this out. Why was this happening with such regularity. He studied all the cases, and he decided that it was pride that killed revivals. It’s pride that kills spiritual growth. It’s pride. No shocking revelation there.

Now here is something shocking. Even if you have enough humility to pass the first two tests.

You pass test #1. Receive the Word of God.
Then you pass test #2. to accept the judgments of the Word of God, the text is shocking.
That’s still not enough. Why?

Because you still have to do something about it.

You see, you could imagine this aspiring piano student who desires to break through that plateau, he’s ready to receive with meekness any word that Stevie Wonder has to say, he even agrees with his assessment and judgment of him. You’re right, Stevie, I reek at scales. If I have any hope of ever being proficient, I need to practice my scales.

But then he goes home and does nothing. He sits down and watches TV. That person is toast. He’ll never be anything.

You see as Christians we are guilty of this. Often times we sit beneath the conviction of God’s Word and we agree with the assessment but we do this one fatal mistake. We equate conviction with change. Admission is good. Confession is good. Those are incredible steps. But they are not the same things as Change. Change is what God is after. Until confession produces change, confession is not complete. We have deceived ourselves. We have become SELF-DECEIVED.

Self-deception is a VERY strange concept. It’s strange on two fronts: First, it’s strange in terms of motive:

Why would I trick myself? Why would I tell myself a lie? Why would I tell myself something I know isn’t true and serve it up in such a way that I would hope that it could be believed? Normally you deceive an enemy. You deceive someone you are about to take advantage of. Why would we deceive and take advantage of ourselves? So it’s strange in terms of motive.

But it’s also strange in terms of feasibility. How is deceiving self even possible? How can the one deceiving be deceived. Isn’t that kind of like playing hide and seek with yourself. If you are the one whose serving up the lie, won’t you know it’s a lie?

Well, it is possible. The motive in self-deception is fear of truth and love of self. We deceive ourselves only when we a scared of the truth and are trying to preserve our image.

And of course the behavior will never change because change in behavior is admission of guilt. The more we listen without being changed by it the less likely we will ever be changed by it because listening without change produces harder and harder hearts.

The ultimate evidence of something touching down in the heart and mind is a change of behavior. Genuine faith will produce genuine change.

Genuine faith must pass all three tests.

So let’s see how receiving, agreeing and obeying the word are related as found in the text. The third test is introduced here. Does the man act on what the word reveals?

Now the metaphor here is masterful. No surprise here, since God made the metaphor.

He begins with the concept of looking. He begins with the concept of seeing and SIGHT. Now the organ of sight is amazing. It helps us to look at the world and absorb a tremendous amount of information. And because we can see and evaluate, we are always making judgments of other people on the basis of that sight.

That person missed a spot when he tried to shave.
Her hair is falling out of her bun.
She’s gained a little weight.
His little bald spot is growing.
He’s got a smudge of cream cheese stuck in his beard
And then all of the sudden a horrible thought descends upon us. I wonder if I am like that? But we can’t see. Of course it’s not our fault that we can’t see ourselves. The way our body is constructed, the entire seeing system is outward facing. It points away from us.

So in order for us to see ourselves accurately we need a device that can reflect our image back to our eyes so we can evaluate ourselves the way we evaluate everyone else.

We need a mirror. This metaphor of a mirror would have been especially powerful in James’ day since mirrors were very rare. They were very expensive and very hard to make and usually very small. So you can imagine the anticipation of stepping in front of a large polished mirror for the first time. What do I actually look like?

What happens when that image is not what you expect? You pictured yourself beautiful like that girl next door. Handsome like that guy at the gym. But instead, you’ve got splotchy skin, your teeth are all crooked and yellow, your nose is bent. You have a big zit. You’re double chinned. The mirror allows you to objectively evaluate self the way you’ve so carelessly evaluated others.

Can you imagine that feeling?

Here’s the meaning of the metaphor. The Word of God is that mirror. If we look at it carefully, we can see our own reflection. It will tell you if you are pridefully, greedy, angry, unloving, unkind, selfish. It will give you a perfect, undistorted reflection of self.

We have huge blind spots where we cannot see ourselves accurately. Everyone else can see us. Everyone else is seeing it. It’s the giant glob of cream cheese off the corner of the mouth. But we are perfectly ignorant.

So spiritually speaking we need the mirror of God’s Word to SEE what we can’t otherwise see. That’s what the word of God does. It reflects our image back so we can begin judging ourselves the way we so casually judge others.

And that first glimpse is a doozie. There’s a moment where you just stare. You just look and you think, is that really me? Is that really what other people see? Is that really what I look like? And for a moment you just absorb that image, knowing it’s true, and shutter in horror.

So it’s that moment of STARTING, that exact moment where we find ourselves in the text. We have, “a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.” He’s looking with intensity, begging that what he is seeing isn’t true.

Oh my word. That’s a million times worse than I feared. He’s looking intently.

What is he going to do? He’s at a fork in the rode. What is he going to do with this nightmare?

Normally, we might try to wiggle our way out of it through our charm or social skills. But here’s the problem with mirrors. You can’t argue with them. You can’t negotiate with them. You can’t say, “Come on, that’s a little over the top don’t you think? Can’t you photoshop a bit of that away? You can’t do that.” Why? *Because a mirror is just serving up reality. It’s just a reflector of truth. It’s a mirror. It doesn’t lie.

So because you can’t argue or negotiate with it, you only have two options. Here’s the fork: You can either accept its verdict or you can do what this guy does.

What do you mean he forgets?

We don’t forget things that are important. Everyone remembers where they were during 9/11. You don’t forget that. Everyone remembers their wedding day. You remember things that are important.

You see this is not a forgetfulness, as in, I forgot to take out the trash. That’s not forgetfulness in the sense of, "Oh, I forgot my address from three houses ago." This is a willful forgetfulness. This is an intentional decision to look the other way. He doesn’t like what he sees and he banishes that image from his mind and turns away and distracts himself with other thoughts. It’s deliberate.

And this forgetfulness evidences itself in unchanged behavior. The mirror, the law of God, told him he was a sinner. But he didn’t change. Now there’s a contrast presented.

Now here’s where it’s so easy to get this wrong. It’s such the tendency of our heart at this very point to veer off into the weeds, crash burn and self-destruct.

Here’s how this theological meltdown goes goes. Okay, I don’t want to be that self-deceived hearer. I want to be a hearer who then becomes a doer of the word. So that means that if the mirror shows me something ugly about myself, I need to work really hard to fix that ugly thing. I don’t want to live in denial.

If the mirror shows me something that just horrifies me and appalls and disgusts me, the last thing I want to do is pretend that it doesn’t exist. I don’t want to be a hearer only who deceives himself. I’m going to be a doer. I’m going to WORK MY TAIL off to change what I see wrong with me.

I need to WORK super, super hard, harder than I’ve ever WORKED to get rid of that ugly thing in me. I need to discipline myself to get up earlier; I need increased accountability. I need to WORK, WORK, WORK, WORK. DO. DO. DO. DO.

Is that what James is encouraging here? Is that the appropriate application of what we are reading.

If the prophet Jeremiah were here, he would laugh at us. Jeremiah was speaking to the nation of Israel during a period of her history when God’s Word reflected back to them their heart-hearted rebellion. And Jeremiah is holding up the mirror of God’s Word. He’s pointing out their sin. Notice what he says:

Jeremiah 13
In other words, the kinds of things the mirror reveals are not things our human effort can change. These problems are not your garden variety uncombed hair.

You need different color skinned.
You need to grow new teeth.
You need to grow an eye.
No amount of human effort can change that. The mirror reveals things about your soul you cannot change. It reveals not just that you do evil things, but that you are an evil person. That those evil things come from a heart that itself is evil. Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.

The mirror reveals not just that your act in angry and jealous ways, but that you are an angry and jealous person, that those actions come from a mind that is totally self-centered and wicked.

The rotten breath comes from a rotten stomach and no amount of toothpaste will solve that problem. That’s a terrifying thought.

We will do almost anything but accept that reflection. I mean if we even catch a wiff of our soul’s stench we panic.

We run to the bathroom and try to brush; we get new toothpaste; we get a new brand of flosser, an electric toothbrush. Brush, brush, brush.

Listen, your dying of stomach cancer and living in denial.

The greatest evidence of our denial is our excuses. When confronted with sin we are excuse factories. We just pump out excuses.

When we are sinfully lazy we make the excuse, “I am not feeling well; I had a really long day.”
When we sinfully and rudely interrupt we make the excuse, “You interrupted first.”
When we sinfully blow up in anger, we make the excuse, “You expect me to be happy?”
When we verbally retaliate with every intention to hurt, we say, “I didn’t mean to hurt you; I was just trying to help you see what I was seeing.”
When we feel superior to others and they sense it, we make the excuse, “I didn’t realize I was coming across like that.”
When we come home late because we haven’t made home a priority we make the excuse, “Man, traffic was a nightmare.”
Why can’t we admit the truth? Why can’t we say it? Because the truth is horribly embarrassing. It shatters our beloved self-image. It hurts. The mirror shocks us. We can’t handle the truth. The truth is, we are far, far worse that we fear.

The truth is that we are deeply angry people, horribly self-righteous and wickedly jealous. The truth is we are deeply insecure, grevously frightened, abominably lustful, greedy and petty. We are self-centered children. We are far worse that even our deepest fears.

How can you receive that horrible image that the mirror is serving up?

The text has something to say about that. Look carefully. The law initially condemns. And when it does, every instinct of your heart is to turn away. Every instinct of your heart is to run and willfully forget the horrible image that mirror serves up. Every stroke of the law is a verdict on just how imperfect you really are. Every sentence of the law so innocently written on the page, impersonally reflects back to your true spiritual condition.

But here’s the admonition: in that moment of difficulty, don’t stop looking.

You have to keep looking. You have to keep staring. You have to see. You have to PERSERVERE. Isn’t that an interesting word? If you want freedom, true freedom from everything you are feeling, what you have to do is gaze into that mirror and PERSEVERE. Which implies that looking at the image hurts. It’s pains you. It injures your soul, it slices at your pride.

But when you do, you will realize that this law that appeared to be death and slavery and chains is in fact the law of liberty. It’s the law that brings life.

How can the law which exposes my guilt and condemns me as a sinner, be for me a vehicle to life? How can perseverance in painfully staring at this mirror of truth produce life?

Communion
You know where we can see this most clearly. We see it in the cross. The law of liberty is most clearly seen in the cross. It’s not easy to look at the cross, is it. We want to turn away. It’s a terrible sight.

What is the theological meaning of this? Why is this person hanging there? Why all the blood? Why the brutality? How do we RECEIVE this? How do we AGREE with this? We are going to have to persevere because this is not easy.

Here’s what you have to RECEIVE. Your sin is deserving of this. You know that angry speech that came out of your mouth this week? It deserves this. THAT IS WHAT THE LAW SAYS. You know your lustful thinking, your unforgiving heart, your bitterness, your greediness, your love of this world, all of that is deserving of this. That’s what the cross communicates. Do you AGREE with this? The ruthless law, the ruthless unbendable law, demand that our sin ends in death. Jesus is not hanging there without reason. He’s here for a reason. Do you RECEIVE AND AGREE?

Oh that hurts. We so want to turn away. But keep looking. Keep looking. Persevere in your looking. Because if you keep looking you’ll see something else that you have to RECEIVE and AGREE with. Jesus died that death for a reason. You have to realize that it’s not him that deserved that death. It’s you that did. So why is HE there? What is HE doing up there on that cross bleeding and suffering and in deep anguish?

He’s there because he loves you?
He’s there because he has forgiven you.
He is there because he wants to abolish sin, to destroy death, and to welcome you into his kingdom.
Can you receive that?

The sentence has been served.
The debt has been paid.
The law has been fulfilled.
Jesus came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
He lived a perfect life and died a perfect death why?
In order that he might give his life to you?
In order that your rags of sin would be placed on him and that his robes of righteousness would be given to you.
Do you RECEIVE that? Do you see that he loves you. Do you AGREE that you have been forgiven? Do you AGREE that your sins have been removed as far as the East is from the West and that he will remember your sins no more? Do you agree that you have been given new robes, bright white robes? Do you RECEIVE AND AGREE?

You see when that moment happens, you WILL BE TRANSFORMED. There’s nothing You MUST DO to receive it, but there is most certianly something you will WANT TO Do when you have. Because a new heart has been give to you, you will want to be for others what he has been for you.

What has the gospel done for us? Have you received and agree?

COMMUNION

You’ll know the gospel has changed you when new fruit comes pouring out. When the righteousness of Jesus, not a righteousness of your own, comes pouring out of you. That’s when you will know.

Now what he’s doing here at the end is returning back to verse 19 where he spoke about controlling the tongue. He says, “If your religion doesn’t change you, you haven’t passed the test.” You don’t have genuine faith.

You know what he’s saying, "The real test if you have received the grace of God and believed the grace of God is that it transforms you and evidences itself in the most unglamorous normal ways in which you live your life." Hearts that have been transformed can’t help but issue forth transformed living. It’s unstoppable.

James says, I don’t look for that evidence of transformed living in your public image on Sunday morning or your controlled outward facing image that you put forward at work or online. I look for the evidence in your speech. I look for it in the way you care for the orphans and the widows, you know the ones who can’t repay you. I look for it in the way you talk to your wife or husband and kids, the way you share your faith, the way you do dishes, clean the house, change diapers, help your neighbor with joy. I look for it in the normal. Do people look at you and say, “That man has been changed by grace. That woman wears grace upon her sleeve. That woman is mercy embodied.”

If you don’t do that, then what does James say about you? Your self deceived