and scriptures signed to the book of James and chapter 1. James chapter 1. This evening we're going to read from verse 18 through verse 27. We read this whole section for the context and for connection. The text for our sermon is verse 21. but so that we might see with how it connects with what has gone previously and what, Lord willing, we will see follows in future weeks, we're going to read from verse 18 down through verse 27 at the end of the chapter. So, James chapter 1 beginning at verse 18. Again, this is God's holy word. of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Amen. And so far, God's holy words. The theme of the verses to which we are now coming in James chapter 1 at the end of this chapter is that those who have experienced the new birth by the means of God's word, of which we read in verse 18, such people who claim to know the truth of which this verse speaks must accept that word, verse 21, must receive it, and also demonstrate the reality of having received it by doing it, verses 22 through 27. Now, James' concern with what we might call practical obedience is signalled for us again and again in how he writes this section. He shifts from the term the word in verses 21 through 23 to talking about the law in verse 25. And then frequently using this term of being a doer of the words. Verses 22, verses 23 and verse 25. He culminates in this great crescendo, doesn't he, at the end of the chapter. The religion that counts before God, verse 27, is what? It's that which certainly saves the soul, of which he has talked already in verse 21, but it must come to expression in a lifestyle of obedience to that Word, the Word of God. Which, if it is truly a work of God, the Word is implanted, James says, within each believer. And being implanted, then, using the metaphor of the seed of the Word, it will grow. It's good feet. And if it is in good foil of a genuine work of God in the heart, then it will bring forth fruit. There will be a lifestyle of obedience. Again, we have the introduction of the theme of the Word of God again in verse 21 to which we come this evening. And that suggests that it belongs with what James is about to say the following section. Now, if you read the commentaries, you will know amongst the scholars there is some discussion about whether verse 21 really belongs with what has already been said, and that's the natural connection in verses 19 and 20, or whether it really belongs, more positively at least, with what follows. I think reading the whole of the context, it would be my conviction that it more naturally fits with what follows. Therefore, at the beginning of verse 21, connects with the discussion in the whole of this section, 21 through 27. And also, it connects not so much with 19 and 20 that we looked at last week, which we said was somewhat of an interjection into the argument, but really follows on from what James began in verse 18, again, as he spoke about the word of God that saves our souls. And so he introduced it, verse 18, Then there was this little aside as he spoke about the use of the tongue and anger and so forth, and he's coming back to that again and he will amplify it in verses 22 through 27. And that, Lord willing, is how we're going to deal with the text as we go forward. I think in support of that, we see that Peter does something very similar. If you turn to 1 Peter 1 and verse 23 and following, you'll see that Peter takes up those same ideas and connects them in a very similar way. First Peter 1 and from verse 23 into the beginning of chapter 2 we read this. Peter says you are to do all that he has said in the prior verses about having a sincere heart and obedience to the truth in verse 22 and then he says verse 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, all of its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So, put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. We see in both of these passages how the new birth through the word of God is followed by the commandment of holy living, both negatively to get rid of the evil behaviour associated with the past, and to embrace the Word of God as it is that living, abiding Word that is in the heart of the believer. If you notice carefully, in both passages, the transition is by this Word. Therefore, both James says something that is true of the believer through the Word of God, and therefore there is a consequence to that of how then that Christian is going to live his life. Peter does exactly the same thing. And so I think that is the way in which you demonstrate that verse 21 really links with what follows, although, of course, it's never detached totally from what precedes it. But it's not so much the climax of the preceding verses, but rather the beginning, again, of what James is going to say with regard to this practical obedience to the Word of God. So, having said the structure of the text to which we come, what do we find in verse 21? Well, we find this in James 1.21. Having given a reminder of the spiritual birth that God has graciously given to his people through the word, James exalts Christians to shun the kind of behavior associated with the old life and to receive the implanted word that had saved them. I'll repeat that for you in James 1.21. Having given a reminder of the spiritual birth that God had graciously given his people through his word, James exhorts Christians to shun the kind of behavior associated with the old life, and to receive the implanted Word that had saved them. So, as we think about that summary this evening, we're going to do so by considering two things, both with regard to the Christian life, how we are to live as those who have been saved by the Word, First of all, eliminated hindrances. And secondly, the means of growth. So, eliminated hindrances and means of growth. First of all then, eliminated hindrances. Those things which are a hindrance to our spiritual life of who and what we are now in Christ are to be eliminated. We read of that in verse 21a. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. Now the verb here that James uses, put away, or it might be rendered put off, or take off, is a very picture of what is to happen. We can picture in our minds, can't we? The word comes from the idea of removing clothes as one undresses. And many of the New Testament writers take up this picture. It's a metaphor often in the New Testament for not literally undressing as we do at the end of the day before we retire to bed, but the stripping off, the taking off, not of literal clothes, but of that pre-Christian lifestyle. that now is no longer appropriate in the life of the believer. That whole way in which we live in this world of sin and evil is pictured as closed. And James says here, as many of the other writers, Paul and Peter, say these things have to be put away, taken off, put off, if we are truly what we claim to be. Christians, those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and know the new birth that has come to us, by grace. That's why Paul says, Romans 13, verse 12, he says, the night is far gone, the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Again, it is that same language. Put this off and put this on. Ephesians 4, verse 22. Again, Paul says, to put off your old self. That makes it clear he's not literally talking about our clothes. He's not literally talking about disrobing and getting rid of your jacket and shirt and all of that. But he's saying your whole life can be thought about in that way. It has to be put off. So, put off your old self, Ephesians 4.22, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. So what is James saying here? It's very simple, but it's very dramatic, isn't it? He's saying we are to avoid all spiritual pollutants. Anything that's going to hinder our new life in Christ, it's got to be get rid of. It is to be put away. It's not to say you've just got to get some distance between you and it. Maybe it's a kind of jacket in your closet you don't wear very often. It's got to be out of the wardrobe altogether. It's not appropriate for you to be this way any longer if you belong to Christ. Get rid of everything that is displeasing to the Lord. Of course, the point is that anything that is sinful always comes between us and the Holy God. That's one of the great themes of the book of Numbers, isn't it, that we're looking at on Sunday mornings, about sinful people cannot be in the presence of a holy God. Sin is that which gets in between. God cannot be in fellowship, cannot be in that great covenant relationship with sinful people. And so what's pointed to here is not necessarily just individual sins, this sin and that sin, though of course that is comprehended here, but rather it's pointing to everything that we were and how we lived our lives as sinful men and women without regard for God in any shape or form. We might say that it's that bad habit of the old man in everything that he is. The spiritual deadness and darkness that indeed estranges us from God when we found ourselves naturally coming into this world. Now James sums up all of what he's talking about with these two expressions that again are very graphic, aren't they? They leave us in no doubt what he's talking about. First of all he says, put away all filthiness. This emphasises the polluting effect of sin. Now we've talked before in sermons about how sin can be dressed up by the evil one. So it doesn't really look as bad as it is. We can say, well, yeah, I know it's a bit of a problem, but it's not that much of a problem. See how James speaks of it. He says it's filthiness. If you can imagine of the most grotesque thing to which you would say is, well, that's just filth. I want nothing to do with it. Sometimes people have occupations where they have to take care of such things. To some extent, we admire them, don't we? Because they do. They take on tasks that most of the rest of us would not want to take on. Because we all naturally recoil from things that are filthy in this world. And when somebody does not, we know there's something fundamentally wrong in their perceptions of normal life in this world. If people see things that are filthy and grotesque, and they're not repulsed by them, But how so easy is it in the spiritual life as Christians not to be repulsed by our sin as we ought to be? Now, yes, there's always this tension in the Christian. We're never perfect. We're always dogged by that remaining sin. The question is, what is our attitude to it? James calls it here, filthiness. It's that which pollutes. It might manifest itself in a variety of ways. It might be envy, lust, malice, inappropriate anger, all of those things that we've thought about. But in whatever form it comes, James says it's filthy and it's got to be put away. He adds to that the second expression, rampant wickedness, that reminds us again of how manifest and how prevalent sin is, both in this world generally and in the heart of individual sinners. It's not just a little problem you see. He says it's rampant in the hearts of sinners, rampant wickedness. Thomas Manton says, there is an abundance of wickedness to be purged out of the heart of man. It's not just a little problem in the corner here. We're not to think about it as a a beautifully decorated room where we've just missed a piece of the painting on the trim work, down in the corner and nobody else will see. Nor rather is that somebody has come and polluted that whole room. Yes, it was beautiful once, as it was meant to be, pristine. But it's as if the most malicious intruder has come and you know how grossly this can happen sometimes and they don't come just to steal, but they just throw everything of the most gross nature around a hole. And it's awful, isn't it? That's what sin does in the heart. It's gross. It's awful. Not only is it filthy, it's rampant in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls. Generally, we see this, Genesis 6-5, we remember before the flood, when the Lord, as it says, saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. You see, rampant wickedness. Again, we have to contend in our day and generation with the denial of the sinful heart. It doesn't really see it this way, does it? It's only when God enables us to see it as He sees it that we will acknowledge this. Naturally, man does not, will not. It's part of his blindness. on the sin. It's not to see as it really is. But by nature, every intention of the thoughts of the human heart, only evil continually, rampant wickedness. So, James says it's got to go. It's healthiness, focusing on the pollution of the sin, rampant wickedness, emphasising the extent of it. And so you can see by way of application this evening, The getting rid of sin in the life of the believer is an urgent necessity. That's why James focuses on it here. Paul speaks of it as the old yeast of malice and wickedness needing to be purged out. Again, he talks about putting off, putting on. Of course, he uses the metaphor of yeast that works through the whole batch of dough. We know that, don't we, as we may do our baking in our homes. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 6 and verse 8. Paul says, you know in that illustration, you put a little bit of yeast in your dough and it will permeate it all. That's why bread rises. That's why we use it in that way. But when the Bible uses yeast as a picture of sin, it's because of that it's so pervasive. It doesn't just stay within its little bounds. It just spreads. You don't get rid of it. You can't play with things. to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. Rather, Paul says, we are to purify ourselves from everything that contaminates both body and soul, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1. James here implicitly is warning believers that, of course, putting off sin involves a fight, a struggle. It's a struggle against the four that takes many different forms, and we're not to be naive about that, brothers and sisters. Again, he doesn't go into great further detail here, though he will expand upon this in the section 22 through 27. But for this evening, as part of the application in saying not only is it an urgent necessity to put these things off, get rid of these things, we ought not to be naive and to think it is one simple battle. And after that, law grants us such a victory that we are perfect in this world and we need not struggle any more. One of the commentators puts it like this, like an army with many soldiers, sin attacks us persistently and in many guises. Knock down one sin and another quickly arises to take its place in the spiritual conflict in which we are engaged. That's the reality. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, that is how it is. We are in a spiritual battle and we will be all the days of our lives. You might say, well then that's not something I'm really kind of looking forward to. What am I to do then? Well, God in his wisdom has seen faith, but he does not take us in our perfection straight to heaven. does not perfect us in the day of our conversion. But what he does assure us is that the work that he has begun will be completed. We are not to be in doubt of that. At the same time, whilst it is God's work, there is a responsibility for us in our sanctification. Now, of course, ultimately our sanctification, like our justification, is a fruit and is a gift from the work of Christ. We don't do it ultimately ourselves. We do not want to drive the wedge between justification and sanctification. As if to say our acceptance leading before God is based on the work of Christ, but somehow then based on that we do all the work of sanctification by this struggle with sin. No, no, no. The foundation and basis is again the work of Christ. He is our sanctification, the scripture says. But sanctification is not a passive process for the believer. He is called by the grace of God, by the power of God, to put off. It's not simply that you go into some dressing room and it's all done for you. God just simply takes it all away and reclothes you with all of the righteousness instantly. No, he says we are to put off and to put on. knowing we do so only by his grace and his strength, but we are to do that, brothers and sisters, but confident that it will be done if we are true believers because it is ultimately his work and he has guaranteed it in the work of Christ. Well, then that secondly brings us to the means of growth in verse 21b. Receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Now, elimination of the negative, the putting off in the Christian life, to some extent only has meaning when there is a positive that is emphasised. We put something off in order to put something on. It's not just one without the other. Again, as I've said, many of the New Testament authors use that imagery, together, put off, put on. take off the old man, put on the new man, as Paul would say, referring and using the clothes imagery. But James does something different here, doesn't he? He doesn't simply say, as Paul does in many places, put off the old man and put on the new man, which is Christ. James here significantly seems to abandon the imagery of clothing in the middle. He says put off, thinking of clothing, But then he uses a different word here, it doesn't say put on something, he actually says receive something. Put off all filthiness, rump and wickedness and receive, James says. Now that's somewhat unusual compared to the more dominant use of put on, put off with Paul and Peter and the other apostles. He does so because he wants to focus attention here, Not because he doesn't agree with Peter and Paul that we have to put off the old man and put on the new man, which is Christ. He's not disagreeing with that. But his focus is slightly different here. He wants us to focus our attention on the more basic issue than that of simply putting off and putting on. By saying that we can only put on the new man if we have received the word of God that enables us then to put on Christ. which is promised to us in the Gospel. In other words, he focuses us on the influence of God's Word in producing that very kind of obedient behaviour of which he's going to speak. So, in other words, James, if you like, is taking one step back. He's not going to deny that we are to put on the new man. But he said, how is that going to happen? And he tells us by receiving with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls." And so the contrast of negative to positive here is the rejection of sin in all of its forms, in all of its pollution and rampant wickedness and turning to a genuine receiving of the Word of God in our souls. That's why he says, receive with meekness the implanted words. Well, what does he tell us here? He tells us what we are to receive, how we are to receive it, and why we are to do so. And we're going to think just very briefly about each of those things. So, what is the means of growth? It is the word of God. So, what are we to receive? Well, simply that, the word implanted in you. the implanted word, James says. Now again, this language here is rich with picture and metaphor. It takes our minds, of course, to the parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13. There we know that the gospel of Christ is the seed, that the hearts of men are the soil. And the seed, of course, is to be received into the soil if it is to grow and therefore fruit. And so when the Lord speaks here about the implanted word being received in the heart, he's talking about that deepest and most relevant, truest response to the word of God as it's proclaimed to lost sinners. God here is not talking about providing us simply with some entertaining diversion of some narrative, some story which we think, well that's nice. kind of muses for a little while and entertains us. Neither is he feeding us with simply some useful information, which may well be true, but has no impact. Rather, again, he speaks of the word here as the word of life that's implanted in the hearts of sinful men and women and brings life into dead souls. Therefore this word of life, this seed is to be assimilated, is to be received into the good soil that God has prepared in the hearts of those who will believe. We are to see this word as a life-giving word. That's why the writers of the Hebrews in Hebrews 4 verse 12 says that word divides soul and spirit, joints and marbles. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. It is a living word. It's not simply some story to entertain. some facts to inform the mind. It is the living Word of God that we are to receive. So again, we pause by way of application to say, do we see the Word of God in that way? Do we welcome the Word, as those Thessalonians of old did, not as the Word of men, but as it actually is the Word of God? Do we, brothers and sisters? We hear it proclaimed on the Lord's Day and on Wednesday evening. As we read it ourselves in our homes, as families and individuals, do we receive it as it is, the Word, the living Word of God? Do we receive it with great eagerness, like those Berean Christians of old did? Do we examine the Scriptures every day to see if it was so? Do we do that? I'm not asking you to tell me how much you do this or how often. I'm not going to lay down, as it were, a legalistic requirement. But I am asking, do we do that? It's one way, at least, of seeing our response to the Word of God and how we see it. Do you go home and read it for yourself again? Do you read the scriptures? Search them as these Bereans did, to see that what you heard is so. Notice here this very important phrase that James uses, the implanted word. Notice that the word is not something that all people have within them from birth, naturally, but it's something that has taken up residence within the hearts of believers. He implanted it. It's his word. that's put into our hearts, it does not occur naturally. Here, James is probably drawing upon that picture from the Old Testament prophets of Jeremiah 31. Remember Jeremiah the prophet noting the failure of Israel to live up naturally, to do what God required. By the day of Jeremiah, it was no different from the days of Numbers, no different from many other generations in Israel. They simply could not do it themselves. It was not something that was inherent to them, implanted within them by their natural state. And so the Prophet came and said, you can't keep the covenant by your efforts. Therefore, there's going to be a new covenant made which God will bring and God will keep on your behalf. And a prominent component, you'll remember, of that new covenant in Jeremiah 31 is this. that God promises to put his law within his people and to write it on their hearts. Implant the word within them. Of course, the repeated failures of Israel to obey the law that God had given to them already had made it clear that the human heart was not capable of submitting to the external world. They knew it. It was not ignorance that was the problem in the life of Israel. It was their ability to do it. Therefore, God said he would come and do a new work that was not requiring them to keep a covenant that they could not, but rather he would do a work internally, in their heart, himself, writing the law in the heart and granting the desire to do it. That he would do ultimately through the work of Christ. So, James' language here reminds his readers that they've experienced the fulfilment of that wonderful promise of Jeremiah 31. And often, perhaps, we do not reflect on the connections of these things as much as we ought. That what God said through the prophecy of Jeremiah for a new heart, and writing his law on that heart, and giving us the will to do it, if we are true believers here this evening, is fulfilled in us. That is what he has done. new heart through new birth. The Word of God implanted within you, written on your heart. The desire given to do it. The ability given by the grace of God to do it. It also reminds them that the Word that has saved them cannot be dispensed with after conversion. God plants the Word here within his people, making it a permanent inseparable part of the believer. It's implanted within you. There to be our guide, there to be that commanding presence within us of what God requires and how we are to walk in His ways. It is to take root within us, to use again the metaphor of the seed and the soil. That's why Paul repeatedly talks about us becoming rooted and built up in Christ, who is the Living Word. We do that, what? As that Word takes root in us. Well then, if that is what we are to receive, how are we to receive it? James says here, with meekness, with a humility of mind. The Scriptures do speak of times when God reasons with sinners. He says in Isaiah 1.18, doesn't he? Come, let us reason together. Though your sins be like scarlet, they will be as white as snow. But whilst God speaks in that manner of reasoning with sinners, God does not negotiate with sinners. There's no middle way with regard to our salvation, no compromise It's not a bilateral agreement. God does his bit and we do our bit. No give and take on negotiating the details of the circumstances of what is to be done. What is required when the Gospel is preached? Only that we come in repentance and faith. God will not negotiate anything else. We are to humble ourselves. agree with God about what he says about himself and about us and about his provision, that he has made the way open and that we are to accept it by faith. He gives, we receive. It's all of God's free grace in Christ. Therefore, that's why the scripture often uses the picture of the child, doesn't it? because that's so often graphically portrayed there, the way in which a child receives from parents, from others. A child doesn't negotiate, does he? He's in the position, often in those years of childhood, of simply receiving, receiving the good things of what his parents provide. It's the same way. God does not negotiate. We are to receive with meekness. humility. Let me just suggest to you one way in which this might be applied now thinking as Christians. Sometimes you might hear a believer or a Christian talk about wrestling with the word. Usually what they mean by that is they're struggling to understand in some way what it says and to come to terms with it, to know what to believe or what to do in light of what that says. Now, there is a legitimate place for that because we're all learning. We never become those who need not learn anything else about God's Word. We will always be learners in this life. And if that's what we mean simply by that, that I humbly place myself under the Word, but I accept that I don't understand everything and I'm trying by God's grace and help to come to terms with it and as he grants me more light to do what he says, that's one thing. But how so often is it that Christians use this term and they really are saying, well, I'm really wrestling with it because I don't really want to do it. And I'm trying to find a theological way out of it. Try and find an argument where I can present a way of interpreting this text that gets me out of the obligation. We can think of a number of doctrines that are said to be controversial in the church. If we are to stand back from it, the question we might ask is, why are they controversial? God has spoken clearly, and yet how so often we make this spiritual, almost virtuous argument. Well, I'm wrestling that through. It's just somehow, again, what I'm really doing is trying to negotiate terms with God over his truth. Try and find a way to say, well, okay, it may apply to others, but I don't really want that to apply to me. I don't want that to be a requirement of God. What is my reasonable service to Him? My act of gratitude and thankfulness for all that He's done for me. Brothers, if that is how we speak, and sisters, about wrestling, not because we're trying to come to a greater understanding of the Word, always willing to do so. If God says it, and I'm convinced of that, I'll do it. but if it is more along the lines of, I've decided what I believe on this, and even if God's word says this, I want to find a way in which I can interpret the text to justify myself that is not receiving with meekness the implanted words. We ought to cry to God that he would humble us again. I remember when I was being taught about how to handle various matters of spiritual counselling in the pastoral ministry, J. Adams, that many may know of, that has written extensively on the subject, would say again and again in his classroom and in his books, the place to start is to ask the straightforward question. Before you get into any details about this circumstance and that scenario and the issue that you're going to counsel with someone, you start by asking the Christian this. If God has said it, Are you willing to do it? And he says, if the person says yes, then you have a foundation on which to deal with the issue. But if the person kind of starts shifting and saying, well, it depends, then he says, that issue is never going to get solved in the detail, you have a much bigger issue to deal with. And that is the place of the Word of God in the life of that Christian. How so true that is, isn't it? Of course, if we're all challenged, we of course would say, well, of course, if God says it, I'll do it. Again, how so often our practice is different from the words of our lips. We're to accept the Word of God with meekness as it's implanted in our hearts. And then thirdly, why are we to do this? Why are we to accept it meekly? Because it is that Word which is able to save you. James, here comes the conclusion of this verse with the effect of the Word. It's our salvation. It is this Word that saves us. Because James here is taking the long view, he's thinking of salvation in all of its dimensions and particularly as it's brought to all of its perfection on that last great day when we're saved in body and soul and brought to everlasting glory. That's why he says, which is able to save you with a sense of future to it as well as present reality. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe. That's been worked out now in the life of you, Christian brother and sister. Not yet completed. Reality now, but yet to be fully brought to completion. But it is that Word which completes and will on that last great day. It is the Word when implanted within us, received with meekness by God's grace, which saves. So, growth in grace and the knowledge of the truth. is the evidence of the advance of Christ's redemption in our hearts. We've spoken before, again we've brought back to that theme this evening. That what we do does not save us, but it is an evidence that Christ has saved us. And it's through that Word. Yes, the Word as we saw in verse 18 brings us to faith in Jesus Christ as that new birth and conversion. But it's not as if then we put the Word of God on the shelf and said, save me, I never need to think about it ever again. So, in that sense of salvation, of being this, in all of its glories and richness, to that last great day, including our sanctification, it is that Word that saves us. That's why it's got to be at the heart of everything, brothers and sisters, the Word of God. For ourselves as professing believers, for those to whom we go, and we are going to go very shortly on Saturday, Lord willing, to those in this community. What do we go with? Do we go with some good idea that we have that will make life better for people? We know that people are hurting at the present time, don't we, in a variety of circumstances. Some of their own making, perhaps, others not. But people are hurting. People are in great need in this world. Not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually. What are we going to do, brothers and sisters? What are we going with? Are we like that person who kind of arrives into town with some mystical remedy that we're selling off the back of the bus board? Take this and everything will be great. We've got some elixir of life here that will make life so great for you. It is the famous words of the book, have your best life now, we've got the answer, come to us. But we can only say that if we take one thing and we certainly should not present it in that way. We take the Word of God and we say this is for your salvation. Yes, by God's blessing, this life will be turned around There will be a difference. But we don't come simply selling good ideas for there to be an easy life in this world for the rest of your days. We come with the Word of God because we want to talk about the fundamental problem of sin that if left undealt with will damn your soul forever and ever. And what is the only thing that can save you from that? It is a living Word. A message of hope. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why we simply go with sores of the seat. Whether we do it as a leaflet, audibly on a CD, whether it's through a conversation we might be able to have if the Lord opens the door. Central to it all is the Word. And then we leave everything else with the Lord. Where does the Bible ever say that it is our responsibility to make that seed grow? It's down to us, the fruitfulness as the seed is thrown into the ground. It never does, does it? What does it say? God gives the increase. And that's the liberating thing when we do evangelism, brothers and sisters. It's not down to us to think up the best way and the gimmicky ways that will attract people. So they'll read it and they'll come here and listen. No, no, we faithfully go with the message and with the method that God has given us, the Word that is able to save souls. Well, may God grant us this evening that we might embrace that and that as we take it to others, pray that others will do likewise. Let's pray.