Manley Beasley emphasizes the critical relationship between faith and obedience in his sermon 'Be Ye Doers of the Word.' He explains that true faith is demonstrated through actions, highlighting that obedience to God's Word is essential for spiritual growth. Beasley contrasts the teachings of Romans and James, illustrating that while salvation is by faith alone, genuine faith naturally produces good works. He encourages believers to make conscious choices to act on God's Word, sharing personal experiences that illustrate the blessings of obedience. Ultimately, he calls the congregation to embody their faith through tangible actions, becoming doers of the Word.

A definition of faith. Now, recently I have been looking into a word that I think I have neglected in my faith teaching. Now, I haven't neglected the message that I'm talking about, but I have neglected the word. And that's the word obedience. Obedience. Now, the message that I preach that deals with obedience is entitled, Be Ye Doers of the Word. Now, you may want to go back and get your old tape on Be Ye Doers of the Word and hear this message again, and I'm sure that there will be some of it that you will recognize as I talk to you today. But there will be some of it you won't recognize. Now, the word obedience is not found in the New Testament like it is found in the Old Testament. Now, the word faith is not found in the Old Testament like it's found in the New Testament. But what we're really doing today is defining faith by using the word obedience. Obedience. And we're talking about Be Ye Doers of the Word. And that just cares with it, doesn't it? Obedience. Obedience. Now, we're going to talk to you about obedience is just doing the word of God. Now, Hebrews 11, verse 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, there's a French translation that renders this verse, faith renders present that which one hopes for. Now, there's obedience. Faith renders present that which one hopes for. That thing for which you're hoping, when you have real faith, you render it's present. You act as if it's present. Now, that's real, genuine faith. Now, that's a little heavy to dump on you right off. I realize that. A little mystical also. But you will handle it through prayer and seeking the Lord, and he will make his way clear in you. Now, faith is mentioned in Romans 3, 27 and 28. And faith is also mentioned throughout the book of James. You get several chapters, beginning in the second chapter, 14th verse, right on through the end of that chapter, where he's actually talking about faith. And then the first book of James, the first chapter in James, 23rd verse, right on through, we have some more scriptures dealing with faith. And in fact, you go all over James, you find the word faith. But when you look at faith in James, you almost have to relate it to another word, and that's the word works. And it's very interesting, because Martin Luther had a little trouble with faith in James, because he couldn't handle that thing of works. So he had a little trouble. He had some tough things to say about the book of James. Now, he says the key to this thing is faith without works, and that's Romans 3, 27, 28. It says man is saved by faith without works. And there's no question about that. Amen? Now, let me read those verses to you. Romans 3, 27, 28. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works? Nay, by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. In other words, Romans is saying that a man is saved by grace through faith. That not of himself, but it's a gift of God. In other words, a man is saved by trusting the Lord without works. But James says something else. He says in the second chapter of the 14th verse, what does it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and hath not works, can faith save him? Uh-huh, listen to that. Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. So James says that a man has faith and works. So what's the situation here? It looks like that James says that a man must have faith and works. Now here's what we have to see. And this is beautiful to get this down, get it clear and possibly you already understand this. Romans is talking about a man being justified in redemptive salvation. The only way to be made right with Jesus Christ is by grace through faith. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, in James we're talking about being justified before man. So James is saying, if you have got justifying faith, faith that saves, if you've got saving faith, it works to where man can see that it works. And it's obvious that you have saving faith. Isn't that something? So, James is saying, if you say you have a faith that doesn't work, then your faith is futile. That 14th verse of that 2nd chapter says, What doth it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and not works? Can faith save him? The William of Translation says, What doth it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and hath not corresponding action? Can that kind of faith save him? Oh, no. You see, what I'm saying here is, when a man has faith, his life has corresponding action. Isn't that beautiful? There's corresponding action to his life. You say, Brother Manly, what do you mean? Well, God, when a man has faith, God works in him, God works through him, and God works for him. And this is so beautiful. Jesus said to the Pharisees when they said, Our Father, we know our Father Abraham. He said, Yes, if you knew your Father Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham. And Jesus laid it on them. And that's what James is saying to us. He said, If you know Jesus, you will be doing the works of Jesus. If you know Jesus, you will be doing the works of Jesus. Isn't that beautiful? I tell you, that is so helpful to me. So what we're saying here is, we are defining faith. And we're talking about what is faith. And we're talking about faith and works. In other words, there is some evidence of a faith that really works. Now, a man says he has faith in Jesus. He's a changed person, isn't he? He's a new creation in Christ Jesus. He has a hunger for the Word of God. There's some obvious evidence in his life that he has saving, saving faith. First chapter. The 22nd verse in the King James Translation. It says this, Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. If any man be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he was. So 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 deeds. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridle not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, to visit the fatherless, and to witness in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. All right? Here's what I want to say to you about be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only. How, how can a person be a doer of the Word of God? Now this is interesting. How can a person be a doer of the Word of God? Now if he has saving faith, he's going to be a doer of the Word of God. Now, it takes time to grow into spiritual maturity. But the key to this growth is being a doer of the Word of God. In the economy of God, God is constantly bringing the believer in Christ Jesus, the man with real faith, into light. The light from the Word of God. He uses the Word, the Holy Spirit, circumstances, and so on. And he brings a man to the light. And when a man receives the light, he becomes a doer of the Word. You could put it this way, when a man receives the Word, he becomes a doer of the Word. Or he becomes a rejecter of that Word. Learning how to be a doer of the Word. This is faith, being a doer of the Word. Well, we're going to talk about how to be a doer of the Word. Now this may be a shock to you. But the only way that a man can be a doer of the Word is by choice. He has to make a choice to be a doer of the Word. He has to make a choice to not be a doer of the Word. Now that may sound very interesting to you. A lot of folk have misunderstood me at my teaching on faith because I say that the grace of faith is that ability within you to choose light or reject light. Now there's different types of faith and the grace of faith. There's the gift of faith and the impartation of faith. But I say that this man has a choice. So I'm right back defining this matter of faith. So when we come to this thing of trusting the Lord or when we come to this thing of being a doer of the Word, we have to be a doer of the Word by choice. When that choice, that right choice, when the truth, let me back up a little bit, when the truth is presented to any of us and then the choice is made to obey the truth, it's made in the heart. It's made in the heart. And when that choice is made, then we release the enabling grace to enable us to do, carry out this work. What is that verse of Scripture in Philippians where it says that God works His will in you and works His will through you? What is that verse? You know it probably better than I do. Yes, here it is. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. You see, this verse says that it's God who works His will in you. In other words, give you light. And then it's God that works His will through you. But between the giving you of light and God working His will through you, there has to be an obedience on your part, on my part. There has to be a decision in us to cooperate with God. If this wasn't the case, then man would be nothing much more than a robot. In fact, he wouldn't be anything more than a robot. Now, this enables God to give us light. This life, Christian life, enables God to give us light. And we are enabled by the grace of God to make the right choice to be a doer of the Word. And when that right choice is made, then the Holy Spirit enables us to carry out that choice. And that is so beautiful, to be a doer of the Word of God. Now, let me just try to illustrate what I'm talking about. And I think this will help you. The Lord has taken His time, it seems, to just teach me by experience a lot of this truth. And I trust that He will not have to take you through the experiences He took me through. But I remember one time being in South Carolina at a camp meeting. And this camp meeting was stalled down over a matter of an offering. They had singing that particular night. And the singing was quite arousing. The people, this was a Baptist bunch of people, but boy, they were shouters. I realize that many of you that are listening to me cannot conceive of a bunch of Baptist people shouting. And I'll assure you, this was not a Pentecostal meeting. It was a Baptist meeting. And this was back almost 20 years ago when you did not have a lot of mixture of Pentecostalism in any particular Baptist church. Not in at all Pentecostalism. Not in at all of that was in this particular meeting. It was just a good meeting. But they had done a lot of singing, got people quite roused, and they were shouting all over the place. They were shouting all over that place. And so as I sat there while they took the offering up, I had $8 in my pocket. And they took up an offering like this, who will give $20? And then who will give $10? And they weren't in my range. Then who will give $5? And they got in my range. And I said to the Lord, well Lord, I will give $3 and I will keep the $5. And then I turned, and the Lord didn't say a thing to me. Then I turned around and said, Lord, I'll give the $5 and keep the $3. Now the reason I was wanting to hang on to that money is I had gone off from home and left my shaving kit. And I needed to replace my shaving kit, at least with the equipment for shaving, before I could go to church the next morning. So I thought I needed the $5. And for sure I had to have the $3. But I talked to the Lord about the $3, about the $5, and the Lord said nothing to me. So when God gets silent on you and me, it's not God that needs to change. It's not God that has the next move. So I really wondered what was going on, but I waited. And they got through with the offering and I had not given anything. So they asked me to come up and thank the Lord for the offering. Now I was a visitor there. This was my first time to have ever been to a camp meeting in that part of the world, and like that. And so I was quite amused. I was amazed. I was blessed. But it was quite different. So I sat there. I got up to offer thanks for the offering. And you know God does deal with me sometimes in a very severe way. I'm sure just like He does you. And the Lord said to me, He said, I didn't take this offering. He said, you can't thank me for this offering. So I told these people, I said, now folk, God did not take this offering. God did not take this offering, so I'm not going to thank Him for it. I said, this is not an offering. I said, do you love Jesus? Oh, amen. Man, they started shouting on me. I said, do you believe that the Bible, the Bible says what it means and means what it says? Boy, they started shouting again. I said, well, if you are not a bunch of hypocrites just shouting and just praising God and just running around here making mock of God, I said, why don't you become a doer of the Word of God and not a hearer only? Well, this really shocked people. It really shocked them because they obviously did not know how to be a doer of the Word. And so they were listening. I said, listen to what the Word of God says. It says, Give, and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet with them, it shall be measured to you again. I said, there's the Word of God. How many of you believe that's the Word of God? Boy, they started shouting. I said, well, why don't you be a doer of the Word if the Lord will let you? Why don't you act on the Word and give unto God, not to discount me, but unto God and claim this promise? Be a doer of the Word. He said, if you give unto Him, He will press it down, shake it together, running over, cause men to give unto your bosom. I said, why don't you do that? Well, it got quiet. It got extremely quiet. Well, you know what? After a while, they began to obey the Lord. Obey the Lord. Obedient. Be a doer of the Word. Well, the offering was taken, and the Lord said, okay, son, I want all you've got. Well, I was faced with them being a doer of the Word. I said, well, Lord, if I give you all I've got, you'll have to perform a miracle to get me to church in the morning. He said, well, I'm in the miracle business. So, you know what? Boy, then I was faced with being a doer of the Word. Give, and it shall be given unto you in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. So, then I was faced with this question. And so, then I had to become a doer of the Word. And I did. I gave my dollars. And do you know, before I got out of that meeting that night, do you know there was about $40 placed in my pockets? Do you know, not only that, but a man came up to me and said, I have a shaving kit with all the equipment in it and out in my glove compartment and I want you to have it. I mean, God, God met with me. That blew my mind. But what I learned, I learned, I got just a little glimpse of how to be a doer of the Word of God. And I was brought to the place of choice. I said, I'm going to make this choice. I saw some light in the Word of God that if you give, it shall be given unto you in good measure, pressed down, running over, shall be given unto your bosom. And I, when I got that light, then I had to make that choice to do it. And I did it, and God supernaturally blessed. Now, I'm trying to define to you how to be a doer of the Word of God. Now, this changed my life. It changed my life. I was talking to an outstanding preacher in America in the last three weeks. And he said, you know, my life was changed. In fact, this preacher's not only an outstanding preacher in America, he has invitations from all over the world. An outstanding, one of the great Bible teachers of our day. He said, my life was changed over learning that truth. How to be a doer of the Word of God over finances. Hmm. That's interesting, isn't it? Well, let me give you another illustration. This other illustration is very important. I was in Jackson, Mississippi one time in a meeting. And this lady came down the aisle after a morning service and said, Brother Manley, I have a neighbor, a friend that I have been trying to win to Jesus ever since we were kids in high school. Her husband is a gambler. She needs Christ. She's not saved. She needs to be born again. And said, I have tried my best to win her to Jesus. And said, this week I've called her to get her to come to the meeting. And her maid tells me she's not in. Said, I know she's in, and I just do not know how to reach her. I said, well, I'll make a proposition with you. I said, you go home and ask Jesus to show you every sin in your life that would hinder you from trusting Him for your lost friend. And then come back to me. So the next morning, about Thursday morning, she came back. And you could tell she'd been weeping. She'd been seeking the Lord. She came to me and said, Preacher? She said, I've come. Said, there's nothing between me and my Savior. What can I do? I said, Sister, the Bible says if two of us agree touching anything, He'll do it. Will you trust Jesus with me that Jesus is saving that woman now? She said, uh, I can't do that. How will He do it? I said, that's how He does it. It's not your business. Will you trust Jesus that Jesus is saving her now on the basis of two agree? She said, I'll do it. Did you know she made that choice? She made that choice to be a doer of the Word. If two agree touching anything, the Lord will do it. I believe that's understood. If two have been drawn together by the Holy Spirit and they agree on something, God will do it. I mean she agreed and she believed. That was on Thursday morning. I want you to know on Sunday morning that woman walked the aisle and was saved by the grace of God. She was gloriously saved. She told the story about how she became so convicted she couldn't stand it. And how she couldn't stand it. She called her friend, her Christian friend and asked her if she could come to church. And she came to church. Heard the message and was saved by the grace of God. Be ye a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. Learning how to be a doer of the Word is one of the great responsibilities of a Christian. I pray that you'll learn how to be a doer of the Word.