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JAMES 1:22-27

21 Brs. of 0 .T. 15 references to Sermon on the Mount.

I. ONE OF PURPOSES OF BIBLE IS TO ACT AS A GLASS.
        A. "Natural face" The face you were born with.
                1. You can't help your face - or can you?
        B. The mirrors were not made of glass.
                1. Highly polished metal - usually brass.
                2. Teachers recommended mirrors as aid to moral culture.
                        a. Socrates - carry mirror - if you are handsome your deeds should
                           become your looks; if plain actions.
                3. Two ways to discover what we look like.
                        a. Photograph (not always true..
                                1. Photograph is like judging by what people say of us.
                        b. Mirror.
                                1. Mirror is what Word of God shows us.
                        a. Jere. 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
                           wicked."
                        b. 1 Cor. 13 "Love suffereth long and is kind."

Bible intended not to just show us up but to clean us up. Bracen lover -- cleanse priest
before further duties.

Of what what it made? Ex. 38:8, looking glass of the women. The mirror that revealed the 
need of cleansing leading to the lover that provided the cleansing.

Psalm 119:9 "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways, by taking heed  thereto according 
to thy word."

II. "HE BEHOLDETH HIMSELF" (A casual glance..
        A. He looks and it makes no impression.
                1. Ever looked at your watch? Someone ask what time.
        B. The word should speak to us.

Ill. "BUT WHO SO LOOKETH INTO THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY."
        A. "This man blessed in his deed."
        B. What we are more important than what we do. What we do declares what  we are.