10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
10250 North Freeway @ West
Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
What
We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
Chapter Forty One
The Way to Save Your Soul
INTRODUCTION: TEXT: James 1:18-25
When Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" in John 10:10, He was talking about exactly the same thing James is discussing in James 1:21 when he says, "Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." He is not dealing with how an alien sinner goes to heaven; He is dealing with how a child of God (and a church) gets some quality and usefulness into his life. It is the same thing John is talking about when he says, "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." (I John 1:4)
The word "soul," here in James 1:21 is from the Greek word "psuche" , which refers to the sentient principle only. That simply means the part of us that is capable of feeling or perception: in short, our consciousness. It is in this sense that animals such as cats and dogs have a soul. (Genesis 1:24 and Ecclesiastes 3:21) They are conscious or aware and can perceive what is going on around them. The "psuche" or soul in this sense is not the same as the "pneuma" or eternal spirit, which among mortals, only man has. The "pneuma" or soul in this sense refers to the vital principal, or the rational, mental, God-conscious part of man. Now, when Jesus spoke of "saving your souls," He spoke of saving your conscious, perceivable, daily life, not your eternal spirit. The eternal spirit is saved from the lake of fire by faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. The daily life is saved from defeat and uselessness by obedience to the principles of God's Holy Word. This is the message of God's apostle James in James 1:18-25, which is our text section.
The fact that the word "soul" in verse 21 refers to our daily life is seen in a number of other places. The Greek word "psuche" which translates soul here is rendered life in many other places. For example, an angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Arise, and take the young child and his mother and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young child's life." (Matthew 2:20) The word life there is the Greek word "psuche" and obviously is not a reference to the eternal characteristic of the Son of God. In speaking of His own death Jesus said, "The Son of man came...to give his life a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45) It is certain that He spoke of His daily life not His eternal existence. You can see the same truth in John 10:11 where Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." Again He said in verse 15, "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep," and in verse 17, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." "Psuche" is again rendered life in Matthew 6:25. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" Matthew 10:39 refers to the soul as the daily life. "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Listen to how it is used in Acts 15:26, "Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Listen also to Paul use the word "psuche" in Acts 20:24. He said, "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."
Brethren, I call these references to your attention to help you see what James is talking about when he says, "Receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls." (James 1:22) He is talking about what will give richness and zest to the life that you now live in the flesh, as referred to in Galatians 2:20. You are made in the image of God, (Genesis 1:26-27), and as such you are made up of body (soma), soul (psuche) and spirit (pneuma). All three aspects of you are dealt with in the scriptures. James, in this text, happens to be dealing with your soul (psuche) or daily life. That is where you are day in and day out during your mortal pilgrimage on earth. God wants you to have a good, fruitful life and He inspired His apostle James to tell you how.
I. NOW, IF YOUR LIFE IS GOING TO AMOUNT TO ANYTHING, YOU MUST BE A HEARER OF THE WORD OF GOD.
A. James emphasizes that point well.
1. In the first place, we are begotten or born into the family of God by the word of truth. He states in James 1:18, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth..." The truth is that "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:17) Upon hearing the truth of God's Word as to our sinful condition and hearing from the same word of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." (I Peter 1:23)
2. Not only are we saved in the first place by hearing the word of truth, we are also commanded by James, "Let every man be swift to hear." (James 1:19) The word of truth as to our Christian walk is just as necessary to our acceptable conduct before God as His children, as His word of truth related to eternal salvation was to our eternal redemption. You can see then why Jesus said to the multitude, "Hear, and understand." (Matthew 15:10) That is also why the Father said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." (Matthew 17:5) Repeatedly the counsel of our God is "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." (Matthew 11:15, Matthew 13:9,43, Mark 4:9, Mark 7:16, Luke 8:8 and Luke 14:35) The counsel of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 5:1 is today just as valid as ever. He exhorted "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil."
3. You will notice that James again emphasized the importance of hearing God's word in James 1:21. He said, "Receive with meekness the engrafted word." Fellow Christians, I am here to tell you that one of the most important requirements to your spiritual well-being is that you take God's word into your system. Read it. Hear it. Meditate upon it. Whatever you do, don't be ignorant of the word of truth. I know the word is not natural or native to our system. You will never, apart from the external influence of God's word, come up with right thinking. You will wallow lower and lower in degenerate thinking. I Corinthians 2:9, 14 says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him... But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." In view of the word of truth not being natural to you, it must be "engrafted". The Greek word is "emphutos" (em-foo-tos) meaning implanted. Just like a wild pecan tree, you will never be anything but degenerate stock apart from the word of truth. As a believer, before your walk of life will ever be upgraded so as to be helpful to yourself, useful to others and honoring to God, you must have the word of truth grafted into you.
B. The fact is that the word of truth has the power to save your soul.
1. I'm not talking about going to heaven when you die, although the engrafted word of truth does initially produce eternal life. No folks, I'm talking about what the engrafted word will do day by day in the life of a child of God to transform him into the image of God's dear Son. (Romans 8:29)
2. I'm telling you, fellow believer, that God's word in you will upgrade your life with every passing day and save or deliver you from hatred, revenge, pride, lust, temptations and sins which will destroy the quality and richness of your life. Believe it or not, it can save your soul or life from defeat.
3. It can save you from wasting your time. It can save you from a spirit of rebellion. It can save you from financial bondage and ruin. It can save you from marriage troubles. It can save our church from gossip and dissension. It can save you from impatience. It can save you from reacting wrong under any given set of circumstances. It can save you from becoming bitter when disappointed. It can deliver you from depression and discouragement. It can deliver you from a negative, cantankerous spirit. It can save you from becoming a slave to money, tobacco or alcohol.
4. No wonder James exhorted that we hear it, take it, receive it. Fellow believer, if there is any desire in you at all to upgrade your life, to make it rich and abundant, take the word into you. Every new principle of truth you hear and practice will be a source of improvement or salvation to your daily life. It will be like engrafting something good and upgrading into your old degenerate stock. Brethren, in view of the saving ability of the word to the daily life of the child of God, every one of us should be falling all over ourselves to get more of it engrafted into our spiritual systems. Folks, read it. Study it. Listen to singers sing it. Put yourself under a Sunday School teacher who is teaching it. Be sure you don't miss it when the preacher is preaching it. Join yourselves to a group of friends who talk about it. Allot yourself time for it every day and meditate on it. Let it permeate your thinking throughout every day. Don't fill your mind with country and western music, soap operas and a diet of television. Don't meditate and fret all the time over your troubles, your past failures, or your weaknesses. Don't occupy all of your mind's time with the world's troubles. Don't just think on your job, your material needs and wants, or your coming vacation or trip. Don't think on what seems reasonable and sensible to you. No, folks! Think on the word of truth, for it can save your life. But anything short of the engrafted word will bring your life down, down, down to rock bottom.
II. DEAR BELIEVER, IF YOUR LIFE IS GOING TO AMOUNT TO ANYTHING, YOU MUST ALSO BE A DOER OF THE WORD OF GOD.
A. You may have noticed that I have said the word of God can save your soul, not that it will save your soul.
1. James said in James 1:21 that it is able to save your souls. Folks there is a tremendous difference in what something can do and what it will do. The word of God is powerful, and it has the ability to transform the life of a believer into something wonderful and beautiful. (Romans 12:2) But it will do nothing but condemn and convict the believer who only hears it and disregards it. God's word will work toward the daily salvation of our lives if we will hear and obey it, (Philippians 2:12) but it will do nothing for us if we do not do what it instructs us to do. A child of God can know the word of truth, yet be just as defeated as a sinner who knows nothing of the word of truth.
2. This is exactly what James is dealing with in James 1:22-25. He says in verse 22 that those who hear and don't do are deceiving their own selves. "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." God's word is a mirror according to verse 23 and I Corinthians 13:12. A mirror reveals what we are and shows us what to do about it, although absolutely no improvement results in the life of a believer who looks into God's mirror, sees what he is and what to do about it, then goes on his way as though he'd never seen the mirror. That is what James is saying in verse 24, "For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he was." The truth is, the believer who is saved and enriched in his daily life is the one who looks into God's mirror, His word of truth, and then does something about what he sees. Listen to verse 25, "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." Isn't that in perfect harmony with what our Lord Himself said in John 13:17? "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
B. Brethren, for too many years Christian ranks have been filled with professing believers who would occasionally look into God's word of truth and give lip service to it, then go right on exactly as they were, doing nothing with the instruction of the word of truth.
1. God spoke to His prophet Ezekiel about this perennial problem in Ezekiel 33:31-32, "And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after covetousness. And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not." It is easy enough to open the mouth and speak of the love of God and His ways, which are higher ways, (Isaiah 55:8-9), but proving ourselves with our actions is a horse of a different color. But our God says, "Let every man prove his own work." (Galatians 6:4) Too many who name the blessed name of Jesus can tune out the word of truth as easy an office secretary can tune out the background music coming over the speaker system. Plenty of folks like good truths and good preaching like they like Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony" or "The Star Spangled Banner," but they have no intentions of responding to it. It is just good background music to them, just good entertainment.
2. Listen to God's curse upon such a hypocritical approach in Isaiah 29:13-14, "Wherefore the Lord said, forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid." Jesus quoted this passage in Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:6-7. In Mark He said such shallow lip service is absolutely vain. "This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
3. During Moses' day Israel was like this. King David said, "And they remembered that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer. Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant." (Psalm 78:35-37)
C. This very day there are people in this Berean Baptist Church exactly like this.
1. Some of you have heard the word of truth about the home, yet till this good hour you've done very little of what God says to do to reconcile your differences with your marriage mate. You claim you want the truth. I ask you, "What are you doing with the truth you have?" The engrafted word of truth is able to save your marriage, but you won't let it. There are some of you listening to these words right now who know that you are not even trying to do what the word of truth instructs you to do in this matter. You have no intention of becoming a doer of the word in this regard. You don't care what the Bible says about marriage and divorce, you don't intend to do it.
2. Some of you are in the same condemnation regarding forgiveness. You've heard God's word say that have no option but to forgive those who sin against you. Yet, there are some of you in this church this very day who still hold grudges against others who are also in this church this very day. Folks, how do you think God can possibly bless and honor our church as long as we have folks who hear the word of truth but who will not do it?
3. You have heard the word of God set forth the Matthew 18 principle. That principle says that if your brother has wronged you, you are to go directly to that brother in the spirit of meekness and seek to reconcile the difference. Yet there are some of you who, when you have a difference, will write an anonymous letter or tell others about it, rather than go to the person with whom you have the offense. No wonder God can't bless this church like He wants to. I'm talking about hearers who will not do what God's word instructs them to do.
4. You have been repeatedly instructed by the word of truth to study and meditate in the word of God. Yet, there are numbers of you who continue to ignore that and fill your mind with television, worldly music, such as country and rock, and worldly, materialistic considerations.
5. God has told you men to be the spiritual leaders of our homes yet some of you in this church are not providing the spiritual leadership your wife and family needs.
6. The same word of truth tells you ladies to be in submission to your husbands and to support him with all your influence, yet there are many of you, who have totally disregarded that.
7. You've heard God's word tell you to cease from a malicious tongue, yet some of you just can't wait to assassinate character, get on the phone and spread rumors and gossip, and to criticize and condemn everybody and everything from the preacher to the church.
8. You've heard God's word teach the servant's heart principle, yet there are many of you who do not serve anybody except your own personal lusts and desires. In fact, instead of serving others, you expect others to serve you. All you are is a hearer and not a doer of the word.
9. Most of you have heard the Philemon principle, yet you show no mercy, let alone extended mercy, to anyone. You practice no obedience to God's word along the lines of patience and understanding with others.
10. You know what God's word teaches about subjection to God-ordained authority, although the fact is that you're not in subjection to God-ordained authority. You have a rebellious streak up your back as wide as the stripe on a skunk's back.
11. You know what God's word says about humility; it tells you to humble yourself. In spite of that, you are proud and arrogant.
12. You've heard also the teachings of God's word which teach you to recognize yourself as one part of the church body. The Bible tells you to not look out just for your own well-being, but to support the body as a whole. Yet you are bent on having your own way, regardless of what it does to the body. And if the preacher or anybody else tries to shut you up or stop you in your efforts, you'll cry out long and loud that everybody in the church has a right to his opinion and to be against what's going on. You'll claim the preacher is a dictator when he tries to stop you from harming the body as a whole.
13. You know that the word of God teaches you to do good to your enemies. What good thing have you ever done to the first of your enemies? Write them down folks. What can you put on the list of things that you've actually done good for your enemies? If the answer is nothing, then you are nothing but a hearer and not a doer of the word.
14. Mister, it is no wonder that God can't bless you. And it is little wonder that God doesn't bless this church more than He does. We don't take the engrafted word into our systems and live by it like we should, yet we expect to be blessed in our deeds, in spite of our ignorance of, and disobedience to, the word of truth. Folks, if you and if this church is ever going to realize the salvation of your soul in the sense of which James speaks in James 1:22, we must hear and do what God says. It is utter folly to think that we can short circuit God's principle for richness and blessings in life.
D. Under the divine inspiration of God the apostle James said believers "should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." (James 1:18)
1. The word "kind" speaks of a model or sample. Believers ought to be an example of God's word, of principles that work in the daily life of a man. Other men ought to be able to look at any believer and see one who is hearing and doing the word of truth.
2. Listen to the beloved John say it in I John 3:18, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth."
3. You can be sure of one thing. The degree of your daily salvation from the power and dominion of sin over your life will be in direct proportion to your hearing and obeying the word of truth. Listen again to James 1:25, "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
4. King David prayed, "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight." (Psalm 119:35) Folks, that is where joy, richness and fullness of life is. In the paths of God's truth is where deliverance and victory is. If you want to save your soul or life from waste, defeat and ruin, then hear and do what God says.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"