James chapter 1. Let's go ahead and stand this morning in honor of God's Word. I thought I was going to have to have an altar call before I start preaching. All these Alabama people texting me yesterday after Tennessee got beat. We're used to it, so don't worry about it. But then I went around and visited and said, hi, good to have you all with us, and caught the accent, which was Southern, and said, are you from the South? I said, yes, and where are you from? He said, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I said, oh, brother. I mean, I hate to make visitors mad right off the bat, but they could have said anywhere but there, you know what I'm saying? It's all right. We'll get back to the Word of God and everything will be fine. Amen. All right, James chapter number one, good to have you with us, good to have our visitors with us this morning. I hope you understand that much of my speech outside of the pulpit is hyperbole, so I'm just kidding. But once I start preaching, I really believe what I'm going to preach, amen? The Bible says in verse number 18 of James chapter one, I want to read down verse 25, but really I'm just going to look at a couple of verses this morning, and we're going to be in this passage of Scripture for several weeks, and you can understand that. of his own will, begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any 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 forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, or he actually does what he heard the word of God say, that a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed." I want to preach this morning, if I could, on this subject. Listen. to what God says. Listen to what God says. Father, we thank you once again for church service. Sunday, a place to worship you in spirit and in truth. Thank you, Lord, for the precious Word of God. And Lord, I pray that we would have a revival in our country of of the Bible, of getting back to the Word of God, reading the Word of God, hearing the Word of God and doing the Word and the work of God. So I pray as we look at these verses this morning, I pray that we would be doers of the Word. I pray that we would understand that we were begat or we were saved by the Word of Truth. I pray that we would understand this morning, therefore we are to be very swift to hear and very slow to speak. I pray, Lord, you'd help me in the reading and the preaching of your word today. In Christ's name we ask. Amen. You may be seated this morning. Thank you for standing. When I go to a drive-up window of any kind, I am not a fan of drive-up windows. My wife is, and so we always have this discussion about, you want to go through the drive-thru. She does, I do not. I'd rather go in and look at somebody in the eyeball and tell them what I want rather than talking to a machine and when they talk back, sound something like Charlie Brown's teacher. Because here's what I hear most the time, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And I'll be like, yes, that's what I want, yes. And I'll eat anything they give me just so I don't have to talk to that machine that's standing in front of me. And so many times we do go in and many times we don't go in because my wife wins that fight many times. And this is no joke. Many times we will pull up to the window and here's what I do. I take my I take my, and I just lean back, and I go, go ahead. And she leans across, and she starts yelling at that thing, and it's her that looks like that, not me, that's doing that. When it comes to the Word of God, though, we need to listen. I mean, the Bible is going to tell us very clearly this morning that we need to be very swift to hear and very slow to speak. Now, many times people would like to use that in a different context, but I will say to you that in verse number 19, the very first words that you see is the word wherefore. And as many people hopefully have taught you from the preaching of the Word of God, when you see the word wherefore, find out what it's there for. And wherefore is referring back to verse number 18 that told us in the last message that if anybody's going to be saved, they're going to be saved by the Word of Truth. They're not going to be saved by their good works. They're not going to be saved by their baptism. They're not going to be saved by what they think that they should do by trying to... their good outweighing their bad. No. If a man or a woman or a boy or a girl gets saved by the grace of God, it's begat through the Word of Truth or they're born again through the Word of God and what the Word of God teaches us. And we understand that there is only one way of salvation and that is through Jesus Christ. There is no other way whereby a man can be saved except through Jesus Christ. And so when you see this word wherefore, again, it's referring back to being saved by the Word of Truth. So God is going to tell us that we need to be ready to listen to what God says. And so He says this, Because of your salvation, because you know Christ as your Savior, because you were beget by the Word of Truth, wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. And what he's talking about here is the idea of hearing what the Word of God says, hearing what the Bible teaches us. And can I say to you that when somebody is truly born again, there is a readiness to receive the Word of God? when I first got saved, and I don't ever want to get over my salvation, but I'm telling you, a new creature in Christ, a person who's been saved, if they've truly been born again, they can't wait to go to church to see what's going to be said next. They can't wait to open up the Word of God, and they want to know where the preacher is preaching. And if you come to this church, you usually know where we're going to be, so you can read ahead, and you can say things like, wonder what the preacher's going to preach. I can't wait. That is what should be the lifeblood of a church. It should be that God's people come to the house of God ready to hear the preaching of God's Word and to see what God has to say. And I'm very thankful that I'm not an Old Testament prophet having to do some of the things that Isaiah had to do and Jeremiah and some of these brothers that you read about what God told them to do. No, listen, a New Testament preacher, a man of God today If he's going to be the right kind of preacher, what he's going to do, he's going to open up the scripture and he's going to expose it and expound upon it and say, hey, thus saith the Lord. This is what the Bible says. And this morning, here's what God says, listen to what I have to say. But not only does God say, listen to what I have to say, but he also says, do what I say. In other words, it's one thing to hear the Word of God, but it's another thing, as verse 22 says, to be a doer of the Word. And then he gives us some illustrations of that. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they respond to the Word of God. I've seen people I remember one time seeing a lady sit out there in church. She was sitting in church. You'd know who she is and I wouldn't embarrass her by telling you who it is. But I remember as the preacher, I don't look at people when I'm preaching. I don't do that on purpose. I just try to stay in the scripture and preach. But I've seen people mad. I've seen the look on their face. I guess they don't like what this is being said. I've seen people under conviction. I've seen people, the look on their face, understanding that God is dealing with them. I've seen people cry and then think one thing and not be right about it. And I remember seeing this lady, she was sitting out into the service and she was bawling and I'm thinking, she's under conviction. And so I said to my wife the next, or after going home, I said, Man, there was a lady today, I'm telling you, she was visibly shaken. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but I think she was under conviction. And so the very next day I told my wife, I think we need to go visit her. I got the car and I went out and I went to visit her and I found out it wasn't that she was under conviction, She had thought there was no church that preached the Bible anymore. And she was thinking, I don't know if there's anybody that sings the old hymns and preaches the Bible. And she said, I was just overjoyed with joy. And I said, well good, I'm glad you're saved. Just get right and join the church now if you want or whatever, I don't know. But I'm saying, listen, the truth is you can tell a lot about people by how they receive the Word of God, what they think about the Word of God, what the response to the Word of God is. And I know, listen to me, listen to me, when we have a message at church and when we expose the Scripture and we give an invitation, do you know what an invitation is for? I heard, in fact, I've heard all kinds of stuff. I had a guy come up to me and say, I don't think you should give an invitation. I said, really? And then I basically said, I don't think you should tell me what to do. Hey, there's anyhow, so why would you say that? I don't think you should have an invitation. I said, let me tell you something. The difference between teaching and preaching is teaching is to show people and give them the knowledge of the scripture, but preaching always brings us to a decision. The preaching of the Word of God brings us to a decision. Now, I'm going to tell you right now, I'm preaching on this subject this morning based on the text. Listen to what God says. At the end of the message, you are going to have to make a decision based on what God's Word says about being very swift to hear the Word of God and very slow to speak. You're going to have to decide if I'm going to do what the Bible says. And so we give an invitation. And so I'm going to say this, and I'm going to say it out loud. It's a time to respond to the Word of God when we hear it. And sometimes I just as pastor wonder if people are really listening because they never respond. I mean like never. And you're like, did they really hear what the Word of God says? Is everything so perfect in their life that they're not challenged or convicted during an invitation to say, hey, I think I need to talk with God because here's the deal. It's just like when I started. Because too many people have a Charlie Brown teacher mentality about preaching. They don't hear the word of God being preached. All they hear is wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, and they're not listening. They hear what they want to hear, and as long as you're saying something that they want to hear, they're tuned in. But as soon as the Scripture exposes their sin, or as soon as the Scripture challenges them in some area of their life, they turn it off, and it's like me trying to listen to that woman, what she's saying on that box. Some folks just like to have their ears tickled, and they reject the preaching. Now listen, here's what I want you to understand. Based on this scripture here, God said this. He said, Wherefore, because that you have been begetten by the word of truth, and you are a first fruit of His creature, I want you to listen to me. Wherefore, beloved, or because of, you need to let every man be swift to hear. Now Paul said it like this to the Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 20 Paul said this, despise not prophecies. Now that word that was used there when he said despise not prophecy is not something speaking of the future. No, he is speaking about despise not the speaking of the word of God that is proclaimed publicly. You know what Paul's saying? Don't despise the preaching of the Word of God. Accept the preaching of the Word of God. Embrace the preaching of the Word of God. Don't despise what God has to say. And I will tell you the context there, like here is the public declaration of God's Word, and we call it this, preaching the Word of God. The word despise, when he says, don't despise, he means this, don't regard it as nothing. Don't utterly take it as nothing. Don't treat the Word of God with contempt. Don't treat the Word of God with scorn. No, listen, if you come into the house of God, be very swift to hear what God has to say, because God is still speaking today. He is not speaking through dreams and visions. No, no, no. He is not speaking through tongues of all these things. No, God is speaking through the Word of God. And so we need to hear what God's Word has to say. I'm telling you, when He says, don't despise, that's a very strong language. It's the idea of not to discount, not to scoff at. And you know what I think about also, that the Lord on other occasions said, and oh well let me just say this, in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, I believe it's in this very same chapter, it is. In the very same chapter, just a few verses before he says, despise not prophecy or do not despise the public proclamation of God's word, he also says this, don't quench the spirit. So isn't it amazing or isn't it ironic that Paul said, hey, do not quench the Spirit of God. Don't quench the Holy Ghost. And then he says right after that, don't despise preaching. Because you know what? If you do despise preaching or you don't listen to the preaching and you don't listen and it's nothing more to you than Charlie Brown's teacher, then that's exactly what you're doing without even realizing it. You're not only quenching the Spirit of God, but you're also despising the preaching. Now the word swift, some of these words are very easy to understand, but James just said, hey folks, we need to be swift to hear. That means we need to be ready to hear. We need to come in church ready to hear what God has to say. And we need to understand that it means give an audience to this. And I've said this a lot of times, praise God for the singing, Praise God for the specials. But do you realize the truth is? Listen, the truth is, is everything done in a service, whether it's the singing, the specials, the congregational singing, that we're unifying ourselves together? Do you realize that in a church service, we are preparing ourselves to hear what God has to say from the Word of God? That's why some of these, and I didn't mean to do this, but some of these churches, you're thinking some of the music they sing and some of the things they do and the antics that are going on, how could you be prepared to hear what the Word of God says? You don't do a bunch of worldly stuff and then to listen to something spiritual. And you certainly don't send out surveys to ask people what they want. It doesn't matter to me what you want. I'm going to preach the Bible. And if I'm in James chapter 1 verse 18, I'm going to preach that. And then when I get to chapter 1 verse 22, I'm going to preach that. When I get to James chapter 4, I'm going to preach that. Because we don't have anywhere else to go except to the Word of God. Now you go back to those Thessalonians, here's what Paul said to them, and I don't know why it just came up to preach about the Thessalonians, Thessalonians, or the book of 1 Thessalonians, but here's what he said to them in chapter 2 verse 13, he says, for this cause, also thank we God without ceasing because, listen to this, here's what he said to them, because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God which effectively worketh also in you that belief. It doesn't matter who delivers the message as long as the message is delivered. And it's not the messenger that's important at all. He is nothing. And Paul makes that very clear when he's speaking about the division in Corinth about those that were lining up with Paul and those that were lining up with Apollos and those that were lining up with Peter. He's like, hey, no, no, no, no. You need to line up with the Word of God. The messenger doesn't matter. It's the message from the Word of God that matters. And he said, I thank God that you received the Word of God as you heard of it, and you didn't receive it as the Word of men. This is not the Word of men. This is the Word of God. And you know what James said, folks? Listen, there's trials and tribulations that go into people's lives. God is a God that does not change. Verse 17, are you with me? We are saved by the Word of God. And if we're saved by the Word of God, not only is there tribulations that people go through, but there's temptations that are real. and there are temptations that have a route that it takes, and there's temptations that have result, which is death. He said, so we've got temptations that we deal with every day, we deal with the world, we deal with the flesh, we deal with the devil. There's also the trials of life and things come upon us. And He said, hey, listen, that's for your good, it's for God's glory. You can trust God in the trial. You can understand that He'll give you patience or endurance. You can praise God knowing you can trust Him. Listen, why? Because the Word of God teaches us that. And here's how you deal with temptation. It's the Word of God. And then, listen, oh, by the way, you were saved by the Word of God, so therefore you need to live by the Word of God. And to live by the Word of God, you've got to do what God says. And you can't do what God says unless you hear it. You've got to hear what He has to say. Hey, that's why he told the Thessalonians that they had an open reception, meaning they actually welcomed the Word of God into their heart. You know what the greatest compliment is not when somebody comes up here and says, oh, a Berean Baptist Church? No, no. The compliment is this, when people say, Berean Baptist Church is ready to hear what the Word of God says. And then as pastor, you know, you're going to have to always add on to it. Well, I'm glad they're ready to hear. I just pray they're also ready to do. James says to receive with meekness. In verse 21 now in our text, James says to receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. I didn't get saved through a fairy tale. I got saved through the Word of God. The word engrafted comes from the world of horticulture there in verse 21 and basically it means to implant. In fact, it is the only time that this word here is used in the entire New Testament and it speaks about grafting a branch from one tree to another, and what it means for us is this. Praise God, when people receive the Word of God this way, they are allowing it to be implanted into their life, and when they're implanted into their life, guess what? When that tree is implanted into another tree, The tree changes. It changes everything about it. And when we receive the Word of God and we allow it to be implanted into our life, and we are a doer of the Word and do what it says, guess what? Everything changes. We're no longer the same. We don't think the same. We don't do the same things that we used to do. We don't go to the same places that we used to go. Why? Because we have received the engrafted Word. And it's only when it's received with a welcome heart that it can be rooted into our soul and begin to produce some fruit. David said, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I'm going to tell you something right now. We need to have a hunger for the word of God. Because a hunger for the Word of God is a clear sign that a person is saved, and desires to know God intimately, and to develop the relationship with Him on a daily basis. And it should be that God's people can't wait to get to church on Sunday morning, and they can't wait to get back on Sunday night, and they can't wait to come on Wednesday night. Why? Because they're going to receive the Word of God. It's going to be implanted into their life, and it's going to make some changes. It's going to make changes in your family. It'll make changes in your community. You know, I'm just convinced that we're in a bad spot in our country because a lot of people play church, but they never do what the Word of God says. So here's what God says. He said, listen, be very swift to hear what I have to say and then be very slow to speak back anything until you understand and are doing what the Bible says. Because here's what people always want to do. Well, let me tell you what I think. Okay. What's the Bible say? I'll never forget we were in a staff meeting and Brother Knutson was talking about something terrible that happened way back, John, in your, I don't even, I don't, I'm not, but how somebody in a business meeting stood up and he, of course, here, Tim was probably a child and this had an impacting upon his life and he heard a guy stand up and the preacher, might have been you, said something to the effect, now listen, time out here, we need to go back and we need to see what the scriptures say on this and the guy yelled, I don't care what the Bible says, I'm going to do this. Well, there goes that church. Somebody say amen. So basically, somebody needed to say to that guy, hey, you need to be swift to hear what the Bible says and slow to speak. In other words, slow to speak is the nice way of what my mom used to say, shut up. In other words, don't be shooting off at the mouth about what you think until you actually know what the Bible actually says. That's what it means here. Sometimes the reason people can't hear, you know why people can't hear sometimes? My wife has told me this. The reason people can't hear is because they're talking. The command, slow to speak, insists, listen to this, that we be silent until we understand and apply the Word of God to our life. It's a demand that we restrain our tongue lest we spout off before our brain. is in gear. Can I say I've done that before, like yesterday or two days ago? Because I've done that on more than one occasion. Proverbs 29, 20 says this, "'Seest thou a man that is hasty in his words, "'there is more hope of a fool than of him, "'because a lot of trouble can come from hasty words.'" Oh, I deal with this. all the time I need to put a bridle on my mouth like it says we you know he's gonna say later on listen we put a bit in the horse's mouth so that they'll go this way or that way we put a rudder on a ship so we can turn it this way or that way but the tongue now that's a small member but so hard to tame I just wish personally and I'm confessing that I wish that sarcasm was more of a spiritual gift but it's not really And a lot of trouble can come from speaking what's on your mind. In the multitude of words, there is oneth not sin, Proverbs says. I would say it like this, in the Tennessee vernacular, where there's a big mouth, usually there's no shortage of trouble. There's a story of a young man who came to the philosopher Socrates. He wanted to be trained as an orator. In his first meeting with Socrates, who was now his teacher, he began to talk without stopping. When Socrates finally got in a word, he said, young man, I will have to charge you a double fee. A double fee? The young man replied. Why is that? He said, because I'll have to teach you two sciences. First, how to hold your tongue and then how to use it. Solomon said, He that hath knowledge spareth his words. You know what the bottom line is, folks? We need to be more apt to be quiet and more apt to hear what God's Word says. We need to love the preaching of God's Word. And we need to be willing to hear what it has to say. You know, the Bible tells us this, For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. The Bible says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You know there's the Ten Commandments. They're not the Ten Suggestions. To love the Lord thy God with all thy soul, with all thy heart, with all thy mind. Don't put idols before God. Don't worship other gods. Don't covet. Don't kill. Don't take the Lord's name in vain. Honor your mother and your father. Honor your parents. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands. Husbands, love your wives. The commandments of the scripture are limitless and continue on and on. And as we saw several weeks from Psalm 119, every time you open up the scriptures and every time that you read the scriptures and every time the word of God is preached, it's a fresh and a new. We've also seen in verse 17, God doesn't change. Cultures change. Politics change. Oh my. God doesn't change. His commandments do not change. The way of salvation does not change. The way we are to treat our wife does not change. The way that we're to raise our children has not changed according to the scriptures, even though culture has a totally different idea of how to raise children today. And how's that working out? It's not. You see, what we need to do, folks, is we need to be quiet and we need to hear what God has to say. And then we need to, as verse 22 says, be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, because if you're only a hearer, the only person you're deceiving is your own self. Someone said, and I used to hear my pastor say this, and I don't know where he got it, but it's been said, God gave us one tongue and two ears, which means we should probably listen twice as much as we speak. And I would say in the context of the Scripture, especially when it comes to the Word of God. Listen to me. Listen to what God says. And if you're not saved, listen to me, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance. Man, God loved me and He loved you. He loves us and He wants to save us. He wants to straighten out our life. How can God straighten out our life? One way, listen to what He has to say. And then verse 22, be a doer of the Word. And even when you don't understand it, even when it don't make sense, You know, to the world, tithing, they think that's the craziest thing in the world. You tithe? What do you mean, tithe? 10%? But then the Bible says offerings, and so we give more than just 10%, we give offerings. What? You give your hard-earned money to the church? No, not really, I give it to the Lord, because He tells me to do that. I don't understand that. That's when you can say, I don't either, but it works. Because God's ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So here's what I'm saying, be quiet! and listen to what God says, and then do it. And then what does He say here? I'll get to this eventually, but He says this in verse 25, A doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. God knows more than we do, and it'll always be that way. Listen to what God says. Let's stand this morning, every head bow. I pray this morning that we would be hearers of the Word, that we would be doers of the Word, and that we would not just go up like a glass in front of us and see it, know there's a problem, and then walk away. No, no, no. Listen, folks. We need to be a doer of the Word. Even in difficult situations, even in things we don't understand, even when it don't make sense, be a doer of the word, be a hearer, listen to what God says, and then do what God says. Lord, I pray that your people, including this preacher, would listen to what you have to say, engraft that word inside of us, implant it, and then be a doer of what it says. I realize, Lord, I mentioned a few things of what the Bible says, But I also realize that people can read the Scripture for themselves, and they can hear the Word of God, and some Scripture be exposed. You could be dealing with them today on what they heard last week. I pray that they would be slow, very slow to speak, and very swift to hear what the Bible has to say. In Christ's name we ask. Amen.