I welcome each of you tonight here on election night here at Election Central. We've got voting going on just a door or two down from us here. That might be closing out now. But anyway, since it is election day, I think it's appropriate that we talk about a former president. The story is told of Franklin Roosevelt. often been told anyway. Let's see if we can advance this thing a little bit here first. So welcome to exploring the Bible and exploring the book of James. Now back to FDR. He apparently, in those days, had many occasions where he had to stand in a receiving line or a reception line and people would come by and shake his hands and say a word to him. I think those days, except if you're very well known, probably don't happen anymore. Maybe a few people get into things like that, but Roosevelt apparently just didn't like the whole process. And he complained about it on a regular basis. And one of his complaints was that nothing of any importance was said, and anything he said nobody paid any attention to, and so on. So, he decided one night, when this was happening, to try a little experiment. So each person, as they came down the line to shake his hand, as they walked up to him, he said, I murdered my grandmother this morning. The guests responded with phrases like, marvelous, keep up the good work. We are so proud of you. God bless you, sir. And it wasn't until he got clear to the end of the line that anybody seemed at all to pay any attention to him continually repeating the same phrase, I murdered my grandmother this morning. Got down to the last person, he was an ambassador from Bolivia. He actually heard and responded. In fact, He leaned over and whispered to FDR, I'm sure she had it coming. Well, I tell you that because we're talking about communication tonight. And more importantly, James is talking about communication. And the major themes here in the book of James the trials and testing, wisdom, and poverty and wealth. We're in the second one again. He has covered the first twice. Now he circles back. to God's wisdom, but it's in wisdom in particular tonight in regard to our words. And interestingly enough, I don't have time to go into them all, but the book of Proverbs, the wisdom book of the Old Testament is full of wisdom and wise sayings about how we use our words and how we speak and so on. So I think it's legitimate to understand that he's expanding on the wisdom that he, introduced back in verses five through eight. Now, our ability to effectively communicate is absolutely critical. Think about it. It's critical for parents to be able to communicate to their children. That's not always easy. They don't seem to have ears to hear sometimes. It's critical to a marriage relationship that husband and wife be able to communicate. I don't know, anybody here want to raise their hand and say, it's not a problem in my household? I don't think so. I mean, we all struggle with it. It's a difficult thing for us to communicate wisely. It's important for employees to be able to communicate to other employees and to their superiors and so on. It's important in the church, in our service to other people and our ministries. We depend on communication, yet we're not very good at it for the most part. That's why James takes up the subject. So we're going to talk about wise communication in verses 19 to 21. Wise communication, and particularly this question. Excuse me, I'm not to the question yet. Wise communication, again, as I've already emphasized, because wise communication is crucial to every relationship and important in every conversation. That then brings us to the question that I referenced a moment ago. And that is this, how do we communicate effectively? And it's not just effectively, but understand when I use the word effective here, I mean, effective in the sense that God expects us to communicate. Because the pattern, the structure, the commands that God gave us in the word, tell us how to communicate. It's important and God knows it's important and he said much to us. And so we come to that tonight in James 1.19. How do we effectively communicate? Well, number one, we need to carefully consider everything we say. carefully consider everything we say. Now, therein is the problem. They say that most people, in the course of one day, speak around 20,000 words. It's no wonder. We don't stop to think sometimes if we're speaking that many words. I've heard some folks say that you ladies actually go up around 30,000 and us men hover around 18 or 15,000 in a day. And I'm not going to doubt that. I'm not going to take time to count it, though, to verify it. we need to carefully consider what we say, and that's what James tells us. And the first thing he says in this regard is this, and what he is doing here is giving us three guidelines that we have to follow if we're going to consider every word we speak. We're going to consider everything we say. We're going to have to follow some scriptural guidelines. And the first one James gives us is this. He says, don't respond. And I'm just going to, he'll say it a little different, but I'm just posing them here in the negative. Help us, you know, get a handle on it because that's basically our problem. We don't do what we should do. So number one, don't respond without listening. Don't respond without listening. So look at the verse 19. And I'm going to slip across here and get my monitor a little bit better position for me. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. It's the first thing James says. And we're gonna come back to this first statement. So then, beloved brethren, that's important. He's talking to us as believers, as followers of Christ, disciples of Christ, brothers and sisters of the Lord. And when he says, let every man, it's generic, man or woman, every person, let everyone be swift to hear. Don't respond without listening. Listening is so, so very important. Here's a little story that was published in Reader's Digest. An incident, something that actually happened. A lady was writing the article, which was written back in January of 2008. Her name was Christine Chapman. And Christine was supposed to bring her mother-in-law to the doctor, take her to a doctor's appointment. but she couldn't get her mother-in-law to stop talking to the neighbor. I'm visualizing they were walking out to the car to leave for this appointment and the neighbor's out there for whatever reason and they strike up a conversation and Christine's mother-in-law can't get away. Finally, Christine escorted her away from the conversation so they wouldn't be late. Once inside the car, her mother-in-law said, now you're waiting for this, right? It's not as bad as you're imagining. Her mother-in-law said, sorry, but I didn't know what to do. The woman wouldn't stop listening to me. Which is interesting. If she would have stopped talking, she could have got away. But sorry. The woman wouldn't stop listening to me. So if someone will listen to us, that's incredible. That's important. That's something that's irresistible for someone to actually really listen to us. It's not common. in our modern society. How many times have you had a conversation with somebody, and maybe it's an important conversation to you, and you make a statement or two, or you begin to talk about something that you're struggling with, or whatever it is, and you say a word or a phrase somewhere in your, you know, conversation, and the other person says, oh yeah, I remember a time when, and I just take it and run off in a different direction with it. So, you know, five, ten minutes later you try to circle back to it and you get, you know, this is important, try to communicate it and you start it again and you go a little further and you say a word or trigger something and they go, oh yeah, I remember when this happened and they just, you know, and there it goes again. People are not in the habit of really listening. They just like talking, you know. They just need a cue to start in talking. because they're not listening. They're not listening. So don't respond without listening. And then the second guideline here, don't respond without thinking. Don't respond without thinking. You listen to what the other person says, then you have to think how you should respond. And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, well, how do you do that in the course of a conversation, just back and forth, back and forth. The truth of the matter is, our mind can hear four times, hear and understand and listen, four times faster than we can speak. So if I'm talking to somebody, I got a lot of extra, mental activity space, activity space available to me, right? Because I, you know, they're talking at a normal conversational pace. Your mind runs way beyond that. It is quicker than that. But don't allow that to be something that distracts you or causes you in some lull in their words or some pause to run over here or somewhere else in your mind. You have to stay focused on what they're saying. And if you can do that, you have time to think about what they're saying, more so than you realize. So think before you speak. Now we have to think at some level to speak at all, right? Else we'd just be babbling. But to think in terms of the situation, the circumstance, the other person, are they distressed? Are they upset? Are they depressed? What's their body language? Are they down? Are they frustrated? Are they angry? You have a lot of things to take into consideration before you're ready or should be ready to respond. And if you can conquer that and do that, worlds will open up to you in terms of people wanting to talk to you. Now, maybe too many, but a good listener is a rare quality, and those who will listen will have no end of people wanting to tell you things or ask you questions or seek your advice or whatever. So think before you respond. Now, here we are at the I'm going to block you guys out. I'm trying to see. I can't do that over there. Sorry. You're going to have to move to the back of the room. Slow to speak, swift to hear, slow to speak. Now, he's talking in figurative terms. We can't speed up our hearing. He's saying we need to be attentive to it and be focused on it. And we need to be very careful and thoughtful about how we respond. So here's some general admonitions, commands, and the word of God about our speak. Always speak the truth. That's Ephesians 4.15. So jot these down, take a note. I actually may have a few of them. No, I don't have these ones. Always speak the truth. Not very many people speak the truth today, especially on TV this time of year. It's amazing to me how, in today's world, it seems to be common and almost acceptable in society for people to just lie constantly about anything and everything as long as it benefits them in some way. The scripture says we have to speak the truth and we have to do all things for the purpose of edification. Ephesians 4.29. Now the edify means to build up. Our words can either tear someone down, distress somebody, offend somebody, or we can lift somebody up and we can encourage, we can understand, we can express concern, care, love. If you don't have, there's an old saying I always heard as a kid and I'm sure you have too, if you don't have something good to say, then don't say it at all. Kind of touches on that. Then number three, always speak with grace. Now that we understand the word grace means the unmerited favor of God, but it's also used to, it's used to describe our responsibility to somebody that we speak to in Ephesians 4.29. Let your words, you know, be gracious with grace. And we see it again in Colossians 4.6, that means grant people the favor they may or may not deserve. Right? I mean, some people, for lack of a better way to say it, don't deserve to be heard. But what they're saying or how they're saying it, But if you can cut through that and be gracious, remember a soft answer turns away wrath, for example. And then our words always have to be wholesome. They have to be biblical, scriptural, something good and not not something that insults or judges somebody. These are the general things we find throughout scripture. And this is what James is really getting at. He's just doing it in the more general sense. He's not going into all this detail. Then number three, guideline number three, don't respond in anger. Don't respond without listening. Don't respond without thinking, don't respond in anger. And we see it again as we move to our verse, verse 21. So then my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath or anger. He does not say, do not get angry, that's not what he said. to be slow to get angry. There are times and circumstances and situations where we're going to get angry. By the way, the scripture doesn't condemn anger. It only condemns anger that's unjustified. There are certain things in this world we ought to be angry about, certain injustices and evil, for example. And we can think of many. But don't be in the habit, don't be in the, Don't be in the habit. I don't know how better to say it. Don't be someone who is quick-tempered. And I don't know if any of you are like that. I doubt it. But I do know somebody in this room that can be. I'll put it that way since I need to be gracious even unto myself. I can get irritated at home, unfortunately, quickly. And in public, everybody thinks I'm really easygoing. So Diane knows the truth. Now you know it. So the thing about it is our tongue is always right there. It's always ready. People don't get tired of using it. You know, you use your legs, you get tired. You use your arms, you get tired. You work, you don't get tired of using your tongue. So it's such an, it's so easy to abuse our communication. And now you throw in the fact that we all are all sinners, have a sin nature, and we're going to misuse our tongue. So slow to wrath. And then he says, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. But what I want to draw your attention to, and if you'll notice it on screen, the two words wrath are underlined. That's because they are both the same word in the original. It's the word Orge, which means a settled attitude. There is another Greek word for a passionate expression of anger. And that word is thumos. But it's interesting here that James uses the word of having a settled attitude, an angry attitude that you just carry around with you. And then when someone says something, it just sets it off. So There's a lot of reasons we can have this kind of wrath. We're preconditioned to it for some reason or another based on our circumstances, our upbringing, our experiences. You ever had somebody just, you say something that just seems like it's totally benign and they just get angry? And you don't say, what in the world? That's what we're talking about here. Preconditioned wrath. And that's what James is warning about. Be particularly slow to speak if you're in that camp at any point in your life or time, but perhaps too much of the time. So, how do we communicate effectively? Number one, carefully consider everything you say. Number two, always govern your speech by the word, not your words, but by the word, the word of God. Always govern your speech by the word. And that really, I mean, we could go back to that screen where we were talking about the general guidelines for speaking. It all applies here as well. Govern your speech by the word. And that's what we're gonna see here. And this time, not guidelines, but two questions to consider. Question number one, is your response appropriate? Is it appropriate? We see it in the scripture here in verse 21, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Because if you open your mouth, there's a good chance that something filthy or evil or wicked is gonna come out, especially if you don't learn to control your words. Later on in the book of James, we'll come back to this topic again. James says, the tongue is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. That's pretty strong language. So there's, deeper issues that come out in our speech that we need to deal with, things we need to confess as sin, things we need to seek God's help and strength and the control of the spirit to help us deal with. So our words have to be appropriate. I don't know how much this really applies. Let me share this little anecdote with you. Originally published by Lloyd Jones and Billy Ed Wheeler in a book called Laughter in Appalachia. Seems the church was having a monthly business meeting. The treasury was in better shape than usual, so the moderator asked if there was any special needs. One lady stood and said that she felt the church needed a chandelier. Immediately, a penny-pinching deacon jumped up and shouted. Now, I apologize to anybody here that may be a deacon or have been. I didn't write this story. But in this particular case, there was a deacon in the church that is herein described as a penny-pinching deacon. He jumped up and shouted, I'm against it! For three reasons. I'm against it for three reasons. Number one, nobody would know how to spell it. Number two, nobody would know how to play it. And number three, what the church needs is more light. I think he should have thought about his words a little bit. It may have needed a little more education than he had, but just a response. If you just jump up and respond and you don't think or don't understand, if you haven't listened, if you haven't thought about your words, then you've got a problem. You're not governed by the Word of God. You're governed by your own thoughts, feelings, ideas, prejudices, whatever they are. So, is your response appropriate? That was a funny story. May have been a true story. I don't know. But it's not so funny when the response is, you know, the way James described it, as filthy and wicked. So it needs to be appropriate. But then number two, the second question to consider, is your response beneficial? Now I'm gonna show you the verse and you're gonna wonder immediately why I said it that way, but I will explain it. So looking at the verse, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. When we first read that, You would think James is talking to somebody that's never accepted Jesus Christ. But we already noticed, who's he talking to? My beloved brethren, people that are already part of the body of Christ. So when he says, receive, receive with meekness the implanted word, the word's already implanted in you, but you're not accessing it. That's what he means by not receiving it. It hasn't filtered from your mind to your heart, to your actions, to your words. So, beloved brethren, receive with meekness the implanted, the word of God, it's already been implanted in your heart. We've got to understand that first. So if that's the case, what about this, which is able to save your souls? You notice I underlined that as well. Again, my brethren, he says my brethren in James one verse two, James one nine talks about the lowly brother and what he should do. James one 16, which was last week, my beloved brethren, and again in verse 19, There are three verses this week, my beloved brethren. So he's talking to his brothers and sisters in Christ. That seems evident. Now let's compare what he said and what we looked at last week in verse 18, of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth. By grace are we saved through faith, but faith comes from hearing. You have to have a basis. You have to believe something. That's why he says it this way. The word of God brings us the gospel, the good news, the truth of salvation, our need of salvation. And therefore, when we accept Christ by our own free will and choice, It's a response to the word of God. Notice he says that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures or literally of his creation. Who's the we? Well, believers. But in particularly, the Jews, because James was Jewish, he was a half-brother of Jesus, and he's talking to the Jewish people that had become Christians that then fled and were dispersed all over the Roman Empire. We saw that back in the first verse, when he introduced the book. And it's not because he's excluding Gentiles. It's just that there weren't many Gentile believers at this point. They were just mostly Jews. So of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, verse 18. Now verse 21, he says, receive with me, this the implanted word. When was it implanted? When he brought us forth. And that implanted word then is described this way, which is able to save your souls. Now with that thought in mind, let's look at this word save, because when we see it, we always think, salvation at the point that we became a believer through faith. But the word is used in different contexts to mean something different. And I suggest to you that if we go back to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, it says the word save means to deliver or protect, literally or figuratively, to heal, to preserve, to save, Do well or be whole. James uses it in this way, that be whole or be well or be healed over in James chapter five, and we'll cover that later. So let's try to get a handle on this as quickly as we can. We're talking about our response, which should be governed by the word, And when the question we're considering is, is your response beneficial? Why did I choose the word beneficial? Because the word save is used in terms of what is beneficial to your life or what is healthy for your life at the moment. How can it be used that way? Well, there are three tenses to salvation in the word of God. There is a The usage number one, in reference to when we were saved, we have been saved, past tense. It is used secondarily to refer to us being saved during the process of our body's not saved entirely. I mean, our soul is saved and we're secure in the Lord. We're not in heaven yet. So we're in a process of being saved, and we will eventually go to heaven and be with the Lord, and that's future. So looking at all of these then, we have past, present, and future. The first one, the past tense part, there is a theological term for that called justification. And the word justification, as Paul uses it, means to be declared righteous. It is our position. Because of our faith, God sees us as righteous, declares us righteous on the basis of Christ's blood, not that we're gonna be perfect. We're not gonna be perfect until we go to be with him. For by grace, you have been saved. That's the New King James translation of Ephesians 2.8. By grace, you have been saved, past tense. Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us, past tense, through the washing of the regeneration, renewing the Holy Spirit. That's salvation in the past. That's the moment we accepted Christ. That's justification. Then we have sanctification, which is a part of our salvation. Sanctification is a word which means holy. We're not holy. We're sinners, but we are declared holy. Positionally, we are holy. We have been sanctified based on our faith. In practical terms, we're not perfect, obviously. So 1 Corinthians 1.18 says, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. There's the present tense of salvation. that process by which we are growing to be more and more like Christ on a daily basis. We're not yet to the final point of our salvation when we will be through with all sin and our sin nature. And then Philippians 2.12, therefore, my beloved brethren, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. You ever puzzle over that one? It sounds like a contradiction. Some people say James contradicts Paul in chapter two. He does not, but a lot of people think he does. And the same could be said about Paul in Philippians 2.12, work out your own salvation. What does he mean? He means you have been saved, past tense, but now you need to receive the implanted word on a regular basis that you might be more and more holy in your life. Now we can go to number three, glorification. First Peter 1.5 says, who are kept, that is reference to believers, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Sorry, I forgot to take my note out. I cut and paste these things from my notes to the screen and sometimes I forget things. So here he says, our salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. That's the end point, glorification. So I would say to you, when James uses the word save, in fact, every time James uses the word save in the book of James, he's talking about number two, sanctification. That's a lot for you to absorb in a moment or two. Believe me, I've been trying to wrap my mind about the whole thing all week and now you have about 10 minutes to try to digest it, but I understand. So, how do we communicate effectively? Consider everything you say and always govern your speech by the word.