Believing demands action, creates action.
Mental assent admires, admits, but does not act.
Acting on the Word is letting Christ act through you. Acting on the Word, then, gives God an opportunity.
Giving the Word its place is giving Christ His position of Lordship.
The problem of believing is made simple when we know that it is acting on what God has spoken.
Matthew 7:24 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.
“Everyone who hears these teachings and acts upon them will be found to resemble a wise man who built his house upon the rock” (verse 26 WEYMOUTH). (The “rock” is “doing the Word.” He that does not do that Word never builds upon a solid foundation.)
“And everyone that heareth these words and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand.”
The hearer must become a doer, or else the entire structure that he builds will be destroyed.
Jesus illustrates that. He made us know what acting on the Word really means.
The wise man is the doer of the Word. The other hears but does not act upon it. He is a sense-knowledge hearer. He is a mental assenter. He may be a vague, indefinite hoper, but he is not a doer. He responds to reason instead of the Word. His spiritual life is built on sand.
If he has faith in anything, it is in man, what man has done…science, works, organization, etc.
You can tell whether a man is building on the sand or on the rock, by noticing whether he is practicing or not, whether he is acting on the Word.
James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
THE SELF-DELUDED
The one who thinks that knowledge is all that is necessary will fail.
It is the doer of the Word, the man who practices it, lives it, walks in it, that builds it into his own life, whom God honors.
There is grave danger of deluding our own selves.
We know the Word. We may be familiar with the original Greek or Hebrew. We may know the history of the Word, but that is all wasted energy if we do not live in the Word, practice it.
When you come to a hard place, and need money, you resolutely turn to the Lord, because you know that “My God shall supply every need of yours” (Philippians 4:19). You have taken your place. You act the part of a real believer. Instead of turning to the beggarly elements of the world, you turn to the Father.
Or, if a loved one is sick, instead of being frightened, you remember the Word. Write out Isaiah 53:4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
We know it now. We act on that Word. We do not fear, we are not disturbed, because we know that the Word says that with His stripes we are healed.
Or if some calamity has come, some rumor, the adversary has stirred things to our detriment, we know that the Word tells us, in Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness which is of me.”
You see, you can trust Him. You bank on Him. Your expectations are from Him. You do not turn to the beggarly help of sense-knowledge.
We do the Word, we live the Word, we act the Word, we trust implicitly in the Word, and we know that God and His throne are back of every word. That gives us a quiet, restful confidence.
John 15:9: “Abide ye in my love.”
You remember that He loves you and that you are born of that new kind of love. You remember 1 John 4:8: “God is love.” And you remember that you are a partaker of His nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4.)
And so, with a quiet confidence, you live love, you practice love. You are a doer of love. You are not a hearer only. You are not only an admirer of love, but you are an actual doer. You live in the love realm. You speak love, you walk in love, you live in that love.
John 13:34: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.” You face that squarely and you decide it definitely in your own life, that you are going to love men “even as.” That means that you are going to practice it.
Men may not understand you. They may think that you are unwise. But you live this love life. You are taking Jesus’s place, acting as Jesus would act. You are one that loves as Jesus loved, and you are not deluding yourself now; for in John 8:12, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He that followeth me [or practices what I teach]…shall have the light of life.” You are going to prove to the world that you have the light.
They that walk in human reason are walking in darkness, and they know not whither they go. They have deluded themselves. The great teachings are mere doctrines to them, a part of their creed. They will assent that it is true, but they dissent when you ask them to practice it.
The one who loves as Jesus loved will not delude anyone else.
There are Word-hearers, mere listeners—good talkers, but not doers.
John 15:5: “I am the vine; ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit.” What kind of fruit is it? It is love fruit; it is faith fruit; it is prayer fruit. It is the same kind of fruit that Jesus bore. It will be doing what Jesus did.
“If ye abide in me and my words abide in you; ask whatever ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (verse 7). The doer abides in Christ, and His words are living in him in the measure that he lives them, does them, practices them. All his decisions are made by the Word. He is living in the realm of the living Christ. Notice this eighth verse: “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.” What kind of fruit is it? It is the fruit that comes from doing the Word.
• The hearer may show many blossoms of promise, but it is the doer that delivers the ripened fruit. The Word lives in him; he lives in the Word. He is the fruit-bearing branch—a real doer. Prayer is a reality. He is not talking off into space. He is in the throne room in the presence of the Father. Here the name of Jesus is always honored. He receives that for which he asks.
Did you notice, “If ye abide in me and my words abide in you”? That is the real doing of the Word, not just doctrine, but God speaking and God living in His own Word in us.
THE REAL DOER
James 2:20 (MOFFATT): “Faith without deeds is barren.” It is mere empty words—lovely, beautiful—but they are never crystallized or made real. Weymouth says, “Without corresponding actions.”
Unless you are a doer of the Word, you are not a believer of the Word. You have nothing but a mental assent without action, a mere empty profession of religion of words. Jesus would call them a sand foundation, just a sand house made by idle hands on the seashore to be destroyed by the next incoming tide.
What a danger is a religion of words if there is no corresponding action. If one is not a doer of the Word, he is a foolish builder on the sand of the senses.
1 John 3:17–18: “But whoso hath this world’s goods and beholdeth his brother in need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how doth the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and truth.”
How does the love of God function in a man that only loves with words—empty words, idle words? He studies the Word, he knows all about the Word. He hears, he knows, but he does not do.
Let us act love; let us do love. We are love’s product, the sons and daughters of love. Love brought us into being, but we must let love do its perfect work in us. We must let love loose in us. Love bears the light. Then let love lead. Follow in the light of love. (See 1 John 1:5–6.)
1 John 3:19 And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment
This is heart searching. When you can say, “God, you know that I am walking in the light of love, I am doing your Word;” then you persuade your heart. As you go into His presence for intercession, your heart is not fearful; your heart does not condemn you. Your heart is in perfect fellowship with this living Word and you have boldness in His presence, conscious that you are welcome. You make your petition in the name of Jesus, and you know that the Father hears you and that you have the petition of your heart. You are a doer of the Word. The Word is living in your lips. It is just as though the Master spoke it Himself.
That man gets what he prays for. We do the things that are pleasing to Him. In other words, we are taking Jesus’s place. We are Father-pleasers just as Jesus was. (See John 8:29.)
It is a doer of the Word that receives things from God. Idle words may entertain men, but they do not reach God.
Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” Note the word do. We are doers of the Word. But you say, “How can I do it? I have not the ability to live this life.” Well, He said that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think, and it is going to be according to the ability of God that is at work within you.
Matthew 28:20: “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He is with you in the living Word. He is with you in the presence of the mighty Spirit that lives in us. He hasn’t left us alone, and He will not leave us alone. His ability is our ability; His strength is our strength.
As we begin to do the Word, He begins to do in us and through us. How it thrills us as we realize that 1 John 4:4 is absolutely true: “Ye are of God, my little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.”
You are not of this world, even as Jesus is not of the world. You are here, but you are energized by Him. You have Him as your wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1:30 is absolutely true in your case. God has made Him to be wisdom unto you. He is your redemption as well. A redemption from your weakness and failure and lack of ability and ignorance. You are redeemed out of the fear of that.
Colossians 1:9 tells us that we have exact knowledge, complete knowledge, perfect knowledge. That knowledge is in the Word, when illuminated by the Spirit. This mighty One that is in us is taking out of the Word all that you need and bringing it into you as you study it.
Your walk now will be the fruitage of that Word. How it thrills us to be laboring together with Him. (See 2 Corinthians 6:1.) You are not working alone. Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who is against us?”
HOW MUCH DO YOU REMEMBER?
- Describe the difference between mental assent and faith.
- What illustration does Jesus use to teach that in order for a man’s structure to stand, he must become a “doer” of the Word?
- What does it mean to delude ourselves?
- Why is it necessary for us to act on the Word?
- What are the fruits of acting on the Word?
- Show the relationship between walking in fellowship and a successful prayer life.
- How does acting on the Word bring us the ability of the Father?
- How can we act on Romans 8:31?
- How can we walk in love? Explain.