Are you a doer or a self deceiver?
James 1:22-25
II Peter 1:10, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye shall do these things, ye shall never fail."
James 1:22, "But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."
The title of this message is "Are you a doer or a self deceiver?" Does your life exhibit fruits that show your salvation or are you merely a Sunday benchwarmer taking up a place on the pew at church? Are you born again or still dead in your trespasses and sins? Are you a doer or a self deceiver? Are you playing church or living Christ?
There are only two reasons why Christ won't show in your life: 1. You are not saved or 2. You aren't living for Him presently. Sin keeps us from showing Christ in our lives. If you are saved you have shown Christ before, then repent use I John 1:9 and get back where you need to be....in the will of God. If you aren't saved, then repent of your sins and ask Jesus to save you. He will be your Lord and Savior just for the asking, but you must trust Him. Each of us need to examine our hearts and lives to see where we are at with Christ. How is our relationship with Him? We need to live Christ and not play church. We need to make our calling and election sure. If we are saved we need to live it.
An old saying goes, "You can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool mom." Well you can't fool God either. You can fool yourself. You can tell yourself, 'well I go to church and I did say that little prayer with the preacher.', but the Bible says, "by their fruits ye shall know them." What kind of fruit are you producing? Is there any evidence in your life that you are saved? If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict? Today, I ask you to listen and apply this message. When we are deceived by a politician we get mad, when we are deceived by a con artist we prosecute, but when we are self deceived we tend to ignore. Why? Because the truth hurts our pride to realize that we are self deceived.
Today, are you a doer or a self deceiver? A doer invokes the idea of action. A doer does something. There is action produced in the life of a doer. John Calvin states of a doer that he "embraces God's Word from the heart, and testifies by his life that he is a sincere believer." The faith of a Christian is evident by their life. If you aren't saved that is evident too. Faith produces works, but works do not produce faith. Romans 2:13 "(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Just being in church and knowing God is real doesn't save you. James 2:19, "Thou believest there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe and tremble." Just mere knowledge that something is true does not produce a change in someone's actions. We are saved by faith no knowledge. I have used the illustration before that we all walked in here by faith and not by sight. None of us, before entering the church crawled up under it and checked to see if the floor had enough beams and such as to hold us up. No, we placed our faith in it without ever looking. We acted on our faith by walking in the church across the floor. Our faith in the floor's ability to hold us up when we walked on it produced action. We walked on the floor trusting it completely. We didn't give a second thought to its ability to sustain us.
When we place our faith in Christ, we don't have to check out if He has the strength to sustain us. We can trust Him completely without giving a second thought to His ability to sustain us. We can walk by faith and not by sight. All we have to is to trust God to do what He says He will do. Based on this trust comes our actions. We trust God, so we act upon our trust. Even as we trust the pew to hold us up, so we act upon that trust by sitting on it. Even so when we trust God, we fully place our entirety in Him. Faith produces actions. Faith produces works, but works do not produce faith.
A bird trusts their wings to fly. The use that trust and act on it. The wings as they move cause the bird to get a vertical life and fly. If we want to fly we must use our faith. Faith without works is dead, being alone. (James 2:17) Even as a bird must use their wings to fly, we must put into action our faith in God, if we are to ever move in the cause of Christ.
In order to be a doer we must have placed our faith in Jesus Christ. We are covered by His Blood. His free gift of salvation is ours. We have claimed His free gift for our own. We now completely trust in Him. We aren't doing works to keep ourselves saved as some try to do, because we are trusting in God who saved us to keep us saved. We believe God when He says "everlasting life" in John 3:16. We produce actions, because we are now alive in Christ and not to earn our salvation. We are no longer dead in our trespasses and sins.
What do doers do? They act upon what they read and hear in the Word of God. They do something about what they hear. A doer applies the Word of God to their own life. A doer strives to remember what they hear and apply it. A hearer is forgetful and doesn't apply it. A doer is motivated to action. A hearer isn't moved or if they feel something they forget it the moment they leave the church property. Albert Barnes states, "if a man supposes that by mere punctual attendance on preaching, or a respectful attention to it, he has done all that is required of him, he is laboring under the most gross self-deception." A mere hearer isn't changed by their attendance at church. A doer acts out the Word of God during the week. A hearer just listens on Sunday and lives how they please the rest of the week. A doer is born again. A mere hearer is self deceived. Doers apply the Word of God to their own lives. John MacArthur, Jr. states, "real Christians are doers of the Word....faith, which results in obedience." From the heart comes our actions. If we have faith in our hearts, then fruits are produced in our lives. Faith is evident.
Matthew 7:13-19 Jesus speaks on a similar subject. Verse 20, "So then you will know them by their fruits." Verse 24, "Therefore everyone who hears these word of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock." Notice not only did they have to hear, but had to act on those words. We must not only listen at church, we must act on what we hear and learn. Verse 21, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father Who is in heaven will enter." Notice that only the doers are going to be in heaven. We have to do God's Will. Let's see what Jesus says about the hearers only. Verse 26, "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand." Doers are built on the Rock of Jesus Christ, but the hearers are built on the sands of this world. One is destined for life everlasting, but the other is destined for eternal torment in hell.
Jesus also mentions deception. Verse 15, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves." Not everyone who is a Pastor is truly a man of God. There are many false preachers are there seeking to deceive you. The best way to avoid deception is check them out against the Word of God. If what they teach doesn't line up with the Word of God, beware of them and avoid them. Don't believe false teachers and thereby de deceived. Easy believism is the poison of choice used by false teachers. Easy believism teaches that salvation is based on something we have done. They tell you to recite a prayer after themselves, walk an aisle, shake a preacher's hand, be baptized or something that requires you to do something to save yourself. In my own life, I was deceived by a well meaning false teacher when I was five. That teacher told me to say a little prayer with her and then she pronounced me saved, not God she pronounced me to be saved. Why was I saved? I said that little prayer. I just repeated some words with no heart knowledge. The Bible teaches otherwise. It is on the basis of what Jesus Christ did on the cross we are saved. There is not anything we can do to save ourselves. At age 14, I was truly converted when I placed my faith in the atoning work of our Lord Jesus. My salvation doesn't rely on something I have done, it is dependent on the Lord Jesus. True salvation is taking Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Easy believism is rampant and leading millions to hell. Don't be one of them. If you are trusting in something you have done to get to heaven and not what Jesus Christ did for you, then repent of your sins and throw yourself on the mercy of God and accept His free gift. Side note, a well known easy believist school in Dallas teaches that you don't have to repent of sin to be saved. They think God isn't holy enough to require us to be holy. The Bible says we are be holy even as He is Holy. Holiness is the absence of sin. Repentance from sin is part of saving faith. Easy believists abound teaching another gospel. They are deceiving many. Don't be deceived. Repent of your sins and trust God.
The only thing worse than being deceived by someone else is by being self deceived. You can go to a church where God's Word is taught, by a man called of God and where Truth is proclaimed every Sunday, but if you don't apply it you then are self deceived. Luke 6:46, "Why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord' and do not what I say?" If Jesus is really the Lord of your life, then He will show in your actions. If their isn't any fruit in your life, then you need to ask 'am I really save?' Make your calling and election sure. Don't be self deceived. You can lie to yourself and say that you are okay. You can fool the church maybe, but you can't fool God. I John 2:17, "The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever." Doers are saved. Doers produce fruit.
Faith produces works. What are the fruits or evidence in your life? Are you a doer or just a hearer? Has there been a change in your life from serving sin to serving God, or are you just the same as you always have been? Do you love your neighbor as yourself? Are you selfish or like Christ selfless? What rules you? Does God rule and reign in your heart? Does your life center around Him? Are you a doer or a self deceiver?
Part of I John 2:12-17
Once we are saved, we are to avoid the things of this world and do the will of God. When we are saved, we are to take Jesus as our Lord and Savior, not just our Savior. We can't get saved and then live in continual habitual sin. Romans 6:1-3 tells us we are not to continue in sin. We are to do more than just say Jesus is Lord, we are to live it. He is to be the Lord of our lives. We have a promise that if we abide in His will, (if we are saved) we have an eternal life in heaven. Not only do we have a happier life here on earth, we have a much better life afterwards. Streets paved with gold versus eternity in flames. A bumper sticker asks about eternity "smoking or non-smoking?" Eternal happiness in heaven is a wonderful reward for just accepting God's free gift. Jesus didn't come to call the righteous but sinners unto repentance. Will you repent today and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
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