Please remain standing for the reading of the Scriptures. I'm going to be reading James chapter 1 and reading down to the end of the chapter, verse 27. James 1, starting with verse 21. Lay aside all filthiness and overflow of 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 observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 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. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Our Father, how thankful we are for Your Word. We understand that we need to hear Your Word preached in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we ask, Lord, that you would abundantly bless the proclamation of your Word here this morning by working through the preacher, but also working in those who hear this proclamation. We have already acknowledged to you this morning that we are sinners. And because we are aware of that, we desire for you to change us. that you would even be pleased to make us more like the Lord Jesus Christ. That this would truly be a time of your power. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen. You may be seated. I am continuing A book study, a book series on the book of James. I'm going to just abbreviate some of the things that I've shared with you before, because I think you've all heard, for example, who the author is. Undoubtedly, I think I agree with those who believe it's the Lord's brother who wrote this book. I think it's very helpful that we understand that this book was written to Jewish Christians, knowing that I think helps us to understand some of the things that are in the book. And it's important for us to also realize that in this book, James is really giving us a series of ways in which we can determine whether or not we have genuine faith, and if we do have genuine saving faith, the quality of that faith. We've already looked at how faith is tested by a proper perspective toward trials, tested by a proper perspective toward social standing, faith being tested by temptation, and the message this morning is on faith being tested by a proper regard, a proper perspective toward the Word of God. Notice how he begins in verse 19, So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. And let me point out that In my translation where it reads, let every man be swift to hear. This is actually an imperative. It's not allow this to happen. That's really not the force of it. The force of this is every man is to be slow, to be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to rap. This is a must. This is the point that he's making. This is, again, an imperative. This is what James is telling us that we must do. We must be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. But understand this, he's not laying down some general idea here. I think a lot of times that's how it's understood. This is just a nice little Almost a proverbial type thing. No, he's directing this to God's people with a view of how they respond to God's word. I like the way Calvin puts it. He says, were this a general sentence, the inference would be far-fetched. But as he immediately adds a sentence respecting the word of truth suitable to the last verse, I doubt not, but that He accommodates this exhortation particularly to the subject at hand. And what is the subject at hand? It's the Word of Truth. Look at verse 18 where He says, of His own will, He brought us forth. And I pointed out last time that means He begot us. He caused us to be born by the Word of Truth. So you have the reference here to the Word of Truth. And then notice how it begins, So then... He's drawing the conclusion. He is saying, because what I said in verse 18 is true, this you must do. You must make sure that every one of you is swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to rap in connection with the hearing and the speaking of the truth of God's Word. It's very clear that in verses 22 to 25, He is giving us a discourse on the Word of God. Now this next commandment where he says, when he says, for the wrath of God does not produce the righteousness of God, it's important for us to understand that what he is saying here is that we are to Listen. We are to be swift to hear, meaning that we should be eager to hear, listening to the Word of God preached, and we are to listen to it submissively. When he says here, "...lay aside all filthiness and overflows wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls, The point that he is making here is that the proper way to receive the Word of God is with meekness, but notice how he says here, an overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul. This first command in the beginning of verse 21, to lay aside all filthiness. is actually preparatory for receiving the Word. You see how those two commands fit? We lay aside this wickedness, we lay aside this sinfulness, and having done that, then we're enabled to receive with meekness the implanted Word. To receive the implanted Word. And he's talking here, I believe, primarily about the preaching of God's Word. And I think that will be clearer as we move through the text. And so when he's talking here about being swift to hear, it's hearing the Word of God. And then he says, slow to speak. Speaking with what? We have to be careful about jumping in and wanting to get into the debates, we need to be careful about saying things in a rash way and not really thinking things clearly through as we would seek to communicate to others about the truths of God's Word. I want you to think about it. If one hears the truth of God, but they stubbornly resist the truth, What do you think will be the end result? They'll get angry. Oh, I don't want to hear that. That's not what the Bible really says. People will react that way. They don't want to hear it. Well, that's just your opinion. I don't know if you've ever... run across people like that. I have. Not necessarily because of the result of preaching, but just talking to people at work and so forth. And I'll say, this is what the Bible said. One time I quoted verbatim a particular verse to my boss. This was many years ago. And he said, well, that's just your interpretation. All I did was quote it. It wasn't an interpretation. It wasn't an interpretation. Slow, well first of all, swift to hear, but slow to speak. There are those who delight to put themselves forward in religious debate. It doesn't matter whether they're using the voice or the pen, or these days the internet. or whether they're speaking on the floor of a religious assembly, whether it's General Assembly or the Presbytery, or maybe just gathering with other Christians in a home, there's a tendency for some to get caught up in a religious debate and then, in the heat of the moment, display unholy anger. Because people aren't listening to them. accepting their opinion. People aren't accepting their interpretation. See, I think that's what he says here when he's talking about being slow to wrath. We need to be slow to wrath when it comes to sitting submissively, quietly and hearing the Word of God. We need to listen to it. We need to accept it. We need to evaluate that's also true. We need to evaluate it. You should be evaluating what I say from the pulpit. You should be evaluating what every man says as he comes and he preaches. You should evaluate that. But you shouldn't get angry. And I'm not saying that any of you are, but there are who do get angry because they don't like what they hear the Scripture is saying and what the preacher is saying. And at the same time, there's those who can get angry. because they're too swift to speak. Sometimes we need to use a little bit more judgment. And so that's what I believe he's talking about when he says, slow to wrath, and then he adds here, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. There is such a thing as righteous indignation. I think we all recognize that. We know that our Savior exercised righteous indignation. But again, I believe what he's talking about here is a wrath that's the result of either stubbornly listening to the Word of God, or too eagerly opening our mouths when we should have, but still in reference to the Word of God. He has this last concluding statement in verse 20, "...for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." It is obvious that one who is offended by God's Word and becomes angry at that, that he's not going to advance his own righteousness. And it's also clear that if one is too eager To make his point in a religious, shall we say, debate or raising a question or might be an interpretive issue if he loses his temper, he certainly is not going to be advancing the righteousness in others. We have to be so careful. in how we deal with people. I'll go ahead and confess something to you. We had some friends that came over one time and we were talking and I thought because they were attending the Presbyterian Church that they were Calvinistic in their view of salvation. And when I found out that no, they believe that men are saved by exercising their free will, I actually jumped out of my seat. I was shocked. I'm amazed that we were able to maintain a friendship with this couple. I'm sensitive to this. We need to be very, very careful in how we respond to people. As I said, that probably was a very offensive moment for our friends, but I'm thankful that we have maintained that friendship over the years, even though it's clear that they're on a different theological perspective than we are. So it is true that in this context that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. I think there are times when a person can exercise what is probably called righteous indignation, but I also believe those times are few and far between. It goes on, talking about the need to be swift to hear the word and also to be slow to speak and slow to anger, he moves on and talks about how we are to again lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul. This This commandment, the focus here in verse 21 is the receiving of the Word. But the way it's structured, the idea is that first commandment to lay aside all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness, that's to prepare us for the receiving of God's Word. If you come to church and hear the preaching of God's Word, You haven't come to be a submissive hearer. You haven't come to learn. You haven't come to submit to the Word of God. If you haven't laid aside those sins that would be obstacles to your receiving of the Word, then why are you even in church? Why would a person come to church and hear preaching if there's no desire on the part of that person to be transformed by the preaching of God's Word? Our sins confessed and forsaken before we come into a worship service. Not just because if we don't, it'll hinder our worship, but it'll hinder our ability to receive the implanted Word. And I'm afraid that there's so many people that for them, going to church is a routine, it's a duty, they come, they listen, they go home, and they don't even think about hardly a thing that the pastor has preached. or anything that's been done in the course of the worship service. So again, there is this need to set aside our sin so that we can indeed receive with meekness. This, with meekness, is in contrast to the wrath that he mentioned in verse 19. I'm absolutely convinced. He mentioned the wrath in connection with the preaching of God. And so, preaching of God's Word, and now he's saying, okay, not with wrath, but with meekness. Don't get upset, but be submissive. Really, the idea here for meekness as one person put it, it's a self-subduing gentleness. A self-subduing gentleness. I know that the original King James has the engrafted word. I have the new King James in front of me and I believe that this is a much better translation. The implanted word. To receive the implanted I believe, and there's many parallels in the book of James with the teaching of our Savior in the Gospels. It's very striking. Maybe sometime I'll just have a little handout and let you see it, but there are some striking parallels that shows that James was very familiar with our Savior's teaching. Very familiar. And I would not at all be surprised that what James has in mind in this text is what's sometimes called the parable of the sower. It would actually be more accurate to call it the parable of the soils, because he is presenting the various types of soils in that parable. And understand this, James is not talking to people who are devoid of the Word of God, because he said in verse 18, he describes them really as those who have been born by the Word of Truth. But we need to understand there's this continual need for the Word to be sown in our hearts, just as when we first believed The Word was sown, it took root, it produced fruit, but then there's that ongoing sowing of the seed in the heart of the believer. It takes root, and that continues to produce fruit. This is, I believe, what James is getting at when he talks about the implanted Word. The need for it not just to hear it, but for it to actually take root in our souls. Do you believe that that's happening to you? When you have your family worship, when you have your private worship, when you come to church, do you sense that the Lord is working in you through the preaching of the Word, and that it's taking root, and then it is going on in producing fruit? There's a man that I know who has surprised his pastor by saying that He meditates on the pastor's sermon for an entire week. And so at any time, that man can tell the pastor, this is what you preached on last Sunday. One of the things I ask myself periodically when I'm after, you know, maybe in the afternoon, I said, OK, I know what text I read, but do I remember what I read for my devotions? Do I really remember what that was all about? You ever do that? And sometimes I have to stop and think, which means what? It didn't penetrate the way it should have. It didn't stick with me the way it should have. And so I'm reminded I need to read the scriptures in my private devotional time in such a way that I sense that the Lord is truly communicating to me and it's sticking with me. I've done this. What did the pastor preach on last Sunday? Let me check my bulletin. We have to listen. We have to do this. This implanted word, which is to take root. Notice this last phrase at the end of verse 21, which is able to save your souls. Which is able to save your souls. The relative clause here does more than just describe the word. Sometimes a relative clause or something that functions like a relative clause can actually give the reason for something. Doesn't it make sense to understand it this way and receive with meekness the implanted word because it is able to save your souls. That's the force of it. That's what James is getting at. Here's why you need this. Now, he's not against here when he says save your souls. He's not talking about being justified. That's not what he's getting at. He's talking about sanctification. The concept of salvation is used three different ways in the New Testament. You have Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8 where we read, For by grace you have been saved by faith. Well, there he clearly is talking about justification. That's the context. But in Philippians 2, verse 12, where he says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, he is not saying work out your own justification. We know you don't work out your justification. Justification is not the result of our work, it's because of the work of Christ. So Paul there is talking about sanctification, just as James is here. Then you also have in 1 Peter 1, he talks about the salvation ready to be revealed. And that's talking about glorification. So the concept of salvation, or sometimes when we talk about being saved, you have to look at the context to determine whether it's referring to justification, sanctification or glorification. So there's a fullness in that understanding and the context is what is to determine that. One of the things that we should understand from verse 18, when he says of his own will, he begot us or bore us or caused us to be born by the word of truth, is that we would then understand there is a supernatural work in connection with the word of God. that God uses the Word to cause us to be regenerated. It's the Spirit working within us. We need to make sure we understand that the power behind the Word is the Holy Spirit. I'd like you to look in John 5. And to notice what Jesus says. It's in John 5, verses 39 and 40. You search the Scriptures, Lord Jesus said. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you might have life." What is the Lord saying to these Jewish people? He's telling them, you're searching the Scriptures because you think that the Scriptures in and of and by themselves is what's going to bring you eternal life. And he says, no. These Scriptures speak of me. They speak of me. And you refuse to come to me that you might have life. We have to be careful that we don't have a mere view of the Word in which we are merely conforming to what the Scripture says without an awareness of the supernatural work of the Spirit in connection with the preaching, the teaching, and the reading of the Word of God. That's supernatural work. And one of the things, as we look through the Scriptures, as we read the Scriptures, and just as Jesus said, these testify of me, the Scriptures point us to Christ Himself. To Christ Himself. He moves on to talk about the importance of being a doer of the Word. a doer of the Word. Start with verse 22. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." Essentially, the word here that's translated, hearers, was commonly used in connection with listening to a lecture in the ancient world. So, here's a word that would suggest that James is thinking about the Christian assembly, and being hearers, and hearing the proclamation of the Word of God. And when he says that if you're If you're only a hearer but not a doer, that you're deceiving yourselves. Let that sink in. You're hearing the Word, but you're not doing it. You're hearing the Word, but you're not doing it. This word that's been translated deceiving has been defined as to be led astray by false reasoning. It would be false reasoning to only hear the word but not be a doer of it. It's false reasoning to think all I need to do is go to church. All I need to do is learn doctrine. All I need to do is to be better at my debating others regarding Christian doctrine. There's one church in Greenville, it's not that way now, I don't think, but there was a time when the focus was on the pastor preaching biblical principles from the pulpit. In this passage, we learn X number of principles. And so everybody was carrying their notebooks with them and writing down all the principles that the pastor was preaching. Are you following what I'm getting? Is there anything wrong with biblical principles? Of course not! Biblical principles are very, very good. But the problem is, if we don't see the importance of those biblical principles, or actually the scripture, pointing us to Christ, then we've missed the point. We have absolutely missed the point. And being a doer means that we recognize that ultimately the example of Christ is the perfect example. The number of times that we see Christ set before God's people in the New Testament as our example is highly significant. But there are those who repeatedly hear the preaching of God's word. They refuse to obey it. And the end result is they're deceiving themselves. This illustration that he gives next, I think, and James uses these beautiful, beautiful illustrations. everyday, very common type illustrations. Notice how he illustrates what he's getting at. Starting with verse 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. For he observes it, or observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. Isn't that foolish? for a person to go up to a mirror, take a look, immediately leaves, and what? He forgets that maybe he needs to comb his hair. Perhaps he forgot that there is a piece of spinach stuck in his teeth. Perhaps he has forgotten that he needs to have his face washed. When I was in society, when I was an undergrad, They had some kind of a special award for some freshman. They wanted to get a picture. They could put him in some out picture of this freshman who won this award or whatever it was. They had this stool to sit on and they were going to take his picture. The guy standing with the camera is looking at the guy on the stool. There's another society brother standing there. I think I wanted his head turned this way a little bit more so the guy would take his head Yeah, that's better. I want it down now. The guy kept moving his head in different positions. What the freshman didn't realize is that the person making the adjustments had charcoal on the tips of his fingers. Every time he repositioned the man's face, black spots all over. Then the guy took the picture. And then somebody held up a mirror to that guy's face. What do you think was his first impulse when he saw that? After the shock, is to run out the door, run down the hall to the men's room and wash his face. Do you understand that that's how we are to respond to the Word of God? We see the blackness. The things that need to get taken care of, and what's our impulse? We want to take care of that. That's how we are to respond to God's Word when it's preached. That's how we're to respond to God's Word in our family worship times, in our private worship times. There needs to be that sense that we are sinners and that we need to be changed. When you truly look into God's Word, you will see your selfishness, your shortcomings, and your sins. And it is, as James points out, in essence, it's ridiculous that you would think of turning away from the Word of God without seeking the Lord to cleanse you of your sin. He then goes on to verse 25 where he talks about, "...but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." There's a progression here. Very important to see this progression. It goes from hearing, to receiving, to doing, and then continuing. That's the flow of the text regarding this teaching regarding the Word of God. We are to hear it, we are to receive it, we are to do it, and then we are to continue in it. Verse 25 says that the man who does this, he will be blessed in what he does. If you don't want to be blessed by the Lord, I would have to suggest there's probably something wrong with you. Seeking the Lord's blessing. Is there anything wrong with that? Of course not. The Lord desires to bless us, but there can be things that impede that blessing. There can be certain things that keep us from receiving the blessing of God that we would have had otherwise, and one of those is if we're not letting the Word of God deal with us regarding our sins. That there's that transformation that the Word is implanted within us. It takes those roots and goes way deep. And we become productive in our lives. We become fruitful. The Word here says, "...and he who looks into the perfect law of liberty..." This is not just a casual glance. The idea here is that of a very close observation. In fact, the word contains the idea of leaning forward to look, getting a close-up of the scripture, a close-up, looking very closely at it. The perfect law of liberty is variously interpreted, but I think it's easiest just to understand it's another reference to the word of God. And he calls it the law of liberty because the Word of God does indeed liberate. John 8, verses 31 and 32, the Lord said this, If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And the truth shall make you free. But what does it take in order for us to be liberated by the Word of God? We need to follow this matter of hearing, receiving, doing, and continuing in the Word of God so that there needs to be that careful attention to, affection for, and application of those truths and of those precepts. There are people who find that the Scripture is very restrictive. They find it binding, not liberating. It's not comfortable for them to have to comply with what God says. Why do I have to do that? Can't I just do what I want to and still call myself a Christian? Read 1 John. That will give you the answer. But, I remember one time, a fellow that was in the same presbytery I was years ago, we're in different presbyteries now, told a group of us about how he came home one time, he teaches at Covenant College on Lookout Mountain. He told us about how he came home and his little girl said, Daddy, Daddy, I set the goldfish free. I set the goldfish free, Daddy. What do you mean? He looks and there's the bowl and it's empty. The fishbowl is empty. I took them outside and I set them free, Daddy. You set them free? He goes out and here's one of the goldfish on the sidewalk and it was summer, so it was already dead. I mean, it was cooked. He went out into the grass and he found one that was still kind of moving around. He put it back in the fishbowl with the water and it started swimming around, so it was okay. His little girl didn't understand that she was not setting those fish free. We need... the water of regeneration and sanctification. That's what we're going to be talking about this evening. We move in an environment of the Word of God, and that's what sets us free. That's what's liberating. Do you think those fish felt any freedom when they were outside that water? Of course not. Of course, they probably didn't have any conscience of what was really going on, but you understand the point. He goes on. He says, If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is useless. There are those who think they are religious. They don't control their tongue. In fact, he deals with the sins of the tongue at the beginning of chapter 3 of this book. One who is hearing the Word, receiving the Word, doing the Word, and continuing in the Word is one who will not think of himself as being religious if he isn't able to bridle his own tongue. But then he goes on. He makes it very clear that if you continue in the Word, not only are you going to have control over your tongue, if you continue in the Word, you're also going to have a real concern for others, a real genuine concern for others. That's why he says, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble. You will have a genuine concern for others. When this is lacking in a Christian, there's reason for concern. Do you understand that? When people don't seem to have any care about others, there's reason for concern. But also, this next one, to keep oneself unspotted from the world. That's the result of continuing in the Word. Continuing in the Word. All of this that we've talked about is a matter of the Word of God by the power of the Spirit changing our lives. I'm sure many of you have heard of the mutiny on the bounty. It set sail, the bounty set sail from England in 1787. It was headed toward the South Seas and the mission was to transplant these fruit trees to make some of these islands in the South Seas more inhabitable, also for English ships. They would be going through the area, they know they could go to a particular island, and they would have food that they could eat. It was a way of helping the British Navy. Well, the voyage lasted for ten months. The ship arrived at its destination, Officers and the crews for six months faithfully carried out their duties. But when the mission was completed and the order was given to embark to return back to England, the sailors rebelled. They formed very strong romantic attachments with the native girls. The climate and the ease of the South Sea's island life was much to their liking. And so the result was mutiny. And the sailors placed Captain Bly and a few loyal men adrift in an open boat. Amazingly, no doubt because of the great sailing skills of Captain Bly, he and the other men survived. They went back to England where Captain Bly gave his story. A ship was sent out to to seek to find the mutineers. Fourteen of the men were caught and they were hung on the gallows. Nine of the men actually ended up going off to a distant island where they formed a colony and they were not discovered. But the moral decay and decline of that colony was just astonishing. They had learned to distill whiskey from a native plant and drunkenness was a major reason for the ruin of this colony. Disease and murder ended up killing, took the lives of all the native men and all of the Englishmen except for one man by the name of Alexander Smith. And in the belongings of one of his fellow sailors now dead, he found a Bible. He'd never seen a Bible before. It was completely new to him, but began to read it. And as a result, the Lord converted him and he began to live according to the Scriptures. He was now surrounded by women and children. And so he taught the Bible to the women and to the children. And it was 20 years before a ship came upon the island. If I remember correctly, I think it was full of missionaries thinking they were going to evangelize the people on this particular island. But they found that the people were living in decency, prosperity and peace. There was nothing of crime, disease, illiteracy or drunkenness. The transformation of the people on that island resulted in that island being very much like A Garden of Eden. And all this took place because the people were hearing the Word of God, receiving the Word of God, obeying the Word of God, and continuing the Word of God. That should be true of every Christian church. What's being described here. Every Christian family. And may God someday bring such revival to this country that perhaps even this country could be governed again by the Word of God through people being regenerated. I hope by this message that you have a greater desire for the Word of God. A greater desire to hear it. greater desire to receive it. And receiving here means to really take an interest in it and really embrace it. Then to obey it. And then to continue in it. All to the praise, honor, and glory of your Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You so much for Your Word. And we ask, Father, that You would Help us to be mindful that we do need to be swift to hear. We do need to be slow to speak as well, many times. But Lord, sometimes we do need to speak out. But help us to exercise good judgment. Help us to not become angry. at Your Word when it's preached. Help us not to seek to advance ourselves by our understanding of Your Word. Just help us to submit and to become more like the Lord Jesus. Help us to be meek when it comes to our receiving of the Word. We're thankful that You use it by the power of the Spirit to sanctify our souls. Help us to be doers. Help us to continue in Your Word. Help us to do this because we recognize we are sinners and we need to be changed and also because we desire to glorify our great God. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.