Our sermon text this evening is the letter of James, James chapter one, and verses 19 to 21. James chapter one, verses 19 to 21. Hear now the reading of God's holy word. 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 of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Let's pray once again and ask the Lord to bless his word to us this evening. Lord, even as we have just heard in the reading of your word, you have called us to be quick to hear. Lord, help us now in this next portion of time to be those who are quick to hear. Give us listening ears. Give us ears of faith that would cling to your word as it comes to us, not as the words of men, but as the word of God. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, I want you to think with me for a moment about words and about speech and the things we say. So much of our lives are filled with speech and with speaking. And I'd venture to guess that some of the best and some of those memorable moments of your life has been accompanied by words. Maybe it was the first time you heard those three words, I love you. Maybe it was the time you said those two words, I do. Maybe it was the time you first heard the words of the gospel and your heart rejoiced and you believed and you trusted in Christ. Words have the power to do tremendous good. With our words we profess love to one another. With our words we give ourselves to another in marriage. Our words can be used to glorify God. With our words, we pray to the Lord, acknowledging and expressing our thankfulness. With our words, we sing to the Lord. With our words, we can share the good news of the gospel with unbelievers. With our words, we can reassure the suffering and comfort the grieving. Words can be used for tremendous good. But words can also be used for tremendous harm. And I'm sure that some of the worst moments of your life have been accompanied with words. Careless words needlessly offend. Cruel and abusive words cut like razors leaving lifelong scars that have no shelf life. As one person has said, words spoken can only be forgiven, not forgotten. Words of gossip destroy unity. Words of anger generate fear and distrust. Words used slanderously can discredit the most upright of integrities. Words are powerful. As Proverbs 18.21 says, death and life are in the power of the tongue. And we, as Christians, of all people, should know this, because the very first thing we learn about our God is that he is a speaking God. There is nothing but God, and God speaks, and all things come into being. Our God is a speaking God, and he has made us in his image. And one of the ways in which we image him is by our speech. As God spoke, so we are to speak. We are to speak in ways that reflect his goodness and his holiness. Our speech should image his speech. The reality, however, is that we have all, every one of us, failed in this regard. We have failed to image God with pure speech, speech that builds others up. Instead, we have sinned. We have spoken angrily. We have spoken unwisely. We have torn others down with our speech. We've sinned against God and one another. And as Jesus tells us, not only have we sinned with our speech, but more than that, we have sinned with our hearts. For words do not flow only from our mouths, but they flow from the heart. And a heart that is brimming with anger will issue forth in angry and destructive speech. But the good news of the gospel is that God is saving us from even corrupt speech. God is not only saving us from the penalty of corrupt speech, he's also saving us from the presence and the pollution of corrupt speech. And that's James's message in verses 19 to 21. In verse 18, James reminded us of the new birth we have by the word. And as a result of this new birth, we have new hearts. And so in contrast to sin, which gives birth to more sin, God, who is life, begets life. And he has birthed us as his new creation. James writes, of his own will, he brought us forth. He gave birth to us by the word of truth so that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And so in this section now, James is laying out the way in which we are to live as those who have this new birth, as those who are firstfruits. And what we see is that our new birth in Christ affects how we speak and how we react to difficult situations. This is a theme that we'll see will come up again and again in the book of James. And this is part of the way which if you were in Christ, God is saving you from your present sin. James calls us to live out our faith by being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. But James doesn't just lay the law on us to make us beat ourselves up and say, yeah, I guess I do speak improperly at times, but he also tells us how we do this. God brings this change through the means of his word. Words are powerful, and there is no word that is more powerful than the divine word to effect change in your soul and in your mind, and to change the patterns of your heart, the patterns of your mind, the patterns of your speech. And that's the good news for those of us who are in Christ, because God has not only birthed you by his word, but he has implanted his word within you. That word, James tells us, is able to save your souls. So let's consider this section then under the following points. First, the mandate. The mandate, what we are to do. Second, the motivation. Why should we do it? And then third, the means. How do we do it? So first James gives us our mandate, or what we are to do. He begins in verse 19 saying, know this my beloved brothers, So essentially he's saying, pay careful attention to what I'm saying. Listen up, this is important. And then he says, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. James says, be quick to hear. Now there's quite a bit of discussion among commentaries about what James is actually calling us to listen to and to hear. Some say, James is speaking in a very general sense He's saying that we need to be good listeners. If we're talking to someone, we need to listen to them before butting in and forcing our opinion. And that's the key to good dialogue. And that's certainly true. We ought to listen to each other before speaking. But others suggest, and I think the context supports this, that James is specifically calling us to be listeners of the word. The word. Notice how just in verse 18, James has said, we've been birthed by the word. Verse 21, he'll again reference the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. Verse 22, be doers of the word and not hearers only. And so on, and there's other references there to the word. And so from the context, it seems clear that the word is James's focus here. And it is the word he is calling us to be quick to hear. So if we have this new birth, James is telling us, we are to be those who not only receive the implanted word but also continually listen to the word. That's something very important for us to remember. How we hear the word, not only that we hear the word. Probably for most of us in this room, if we're here morning and evening on Sundays, if we're here Wednesday nights, we probably listen to 100, 200 sermons a year, maybe more if we listen to them on the way to work or in our free time. Add on top of that all of the Bible that we read in our devotions and Bible studies with others. That's a lot of the Word, and that's a good thing, but all the time, we need to consider how we are listening, how we're listening. Are we just gorging ourselves on content? Are we listening to X pastor or Y pastor because we like how he sounds or we like his illustrations? Or are we listening to what is being said? And isn't that Jesus' point? In Luke 8, verse 18, take care then And that's James' concern in this entire letter, that we be hearers of the word. And to be a hearer of the word means not only to sit through a sermon and endure it, it means to listen. It means to listen with ears of faith. It means to believe what is being said through the preaching of the word. It's to accept it and receive it. And not only that, but as we leave the doors to apply it to our lives. Because as we'll see later, that is how the word changes us and transforms us. And so let us be like young Samuel who said, speak Lord, your servant is listening. And let us be like Samuel who then went and did what the word said. Well, next, James calls us to be slow to speak. So he's moving now from hearing the word to doing the word. If we are those who are faithfully hearing the word, then we'll also do the word by being careful with our speech. Being slow to speak, of course, is a very common theme in wisdom literature, in the Psalms, in Proverbs. The wise man, the wise woman is one who is careful in their words. They're gracious. They're thoughtful. But the quintessential fool is just the blabbermouth who just spills out everything with no filter or no concern about who is listening or how he's saying something. And so we must be careful with our speech. As Proverbs 17, 28 says, even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise when he closes his lips. He is deemed intelligent. Well, next, James moves from speech to anger. Be slow to anger. Uncontrolled anger is one of those desires of the heart that James mentioned previously there in verse 15. It's one of those enticements and things that gives birth. Sin in the heart produces death, James tells us. And the sin of anger in the heart produces the fruit of angry speech. But the wise person, is one who not only controls their speech, but also their emotions, their passions, their desires, not letting them get the better of them. As Proverbs 17, 27 says, whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. But it's interesting, isn't it, that James would emphasize these three things. Know this, be quick to hear, be slow to speak, slow to anger. I mean, we already know these things. We know these things to be true. Why bring them up? Well, we say we know them, and yet, if we're honest with ourselves, they can be some of the hardest principles to actually apply to our lives and our day-to-day conversations and our relations to others. And that's exactly why James brings them up. So often, we are not good listeners of the word. So often, we sit through sermons, but our minds are not engaged. Or if our minds are engaged, our hearts are not engaged. So we're just filling up content, but we're not really seeking to apply it to our hearts. Maybe we're distracted because we're thinking about the movie we watched Saturday night. So often we're not slow to speak, considering how our words might affect others. Instead, we speak over others. We speak against others. We speak about others. We may even speak the truth, but we don't speak it in love. And so we don't build up in love, but we tear down and discourage. We treat words as if they're cheap and inconsequential. But if our Heavenly Father has taught us anything about our words and about our speech, it is that words are not cheap. As Christians, we must recognize the power of words and the result of foolish words. As Proverbs 10, 19 says, when words are many, transgression is not lacking. Foolish words tear down, foolish words produce disorder and division and confusion in relationships. But words also have the power of life, don't they? Ephesians 4.29, our words can build up others and give grace to those who hear. Proverbs 25.11, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver. Don't quite know the full context of that illustration, but it sounds great. Don't you want your words to be like that? Apples of gold in a setting of silver. Chapter 16, verse 25, gracious words are like a honeycomb. Sweetness to the soul and health to the body. Beloved, you have been born of God to be his first fruits. You are his new creation. As such, you have the ability to use your words and your speech in this very way. You can use your words to encourage one another, to build others up in the truth of the gospel, to comfort others when they're suffering, to grant assurance to those who doubt, to transform minds, to edify one another, to glorify God. Words of confession of sin and repentance and even words of forgiveness have the power to restore relationships and get them on that track of reconciliation. In this coming week, if you were to listen to James and seriously take on board what God the Holy Spirit is saying through him, how would your week look different? How would your relationships change? How would it change the way you interact with others? Is there an area of life you need to repent in, in this regard? With the way you speak to your spouse? With the way you address your coworkers or your employees, maybe your boss? Children, do you speak with respect to your parents? Do you speak with respect to those older than you? Because this, this is the fruit of righteousness that God desires. We have the mandate. Secondly, James gives us the motivation. What is the reason why Christians must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger? Well, the reason is verse 20. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Christians, in other words, should be careful in their speech and slow to become angry because this anger does not produce the kind of righteous life God desires. Now we might wonder at this point, why is James even bringing up the topic of anger? How does it fit with everything? What do the recipients of his letter have to be angry about? Well, a lot actually. Don't forget James is most likely writing to his church of Jerusalem that had been attacked in a great persecution and that forced people to flee to the four winds. They had to leave their families, their homes. So they suffered persecution for their faith. They lost their businesses. Goods were confiscated. And quite possibly, maybe some of their relatives are still back in Jerusalem in bars. Maybe some even died in this persecution. We don't know. But clearly, there's a lot of difficulties that these saints have had. And so if anyone has a right to be angry, it's these ancient brothers and sisters. What about you? Are you angry about something? Is there something eating away at you? Every time you even think about it, that it stirs up this unbridled anger within you. There's a lot of angry people in the world today. A lot of people feel that they have the right to be angry about different things. Well, to these, Ancient beloved brothers and sisters, and to you, James says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Why? Because the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Let's consider anger for a moment. Notice how James tells us to be slow to become angry. Well, this suggests, doesn't it, that there are times when it may be appropriate to express and experience anger. And so, as long as it's done with caution. And so, anger does not necessarily mean that we're expressing a sinful emotion. For example, we look through the Gospels and we notice that Jesus, of all people, became angry at times. Jesus was angry with the religious leaders for their stubborn hearts, Mark 3. Jesus became angry when he saw the honor of God being abused, when he saw the temple courts being used as a marketplace. He drove out those people who were buying and selling, Mark chapter 11. And so if Christ, who was without sin, according to his humanity, experienced the passion, the emotion of anger, and he did so sinlessly, therefore, we may experience anger in a way that is not unrighteous. In other words, to put it more clearly, there are occasions when we may display righteous anger. But this does not mean that we can be quick to anger. Jesus was not quick to anger. We must be careful not to use this as a license for sinful anger. The Apostle Paul wrote, be angry and do not sin, Ephesians 4, 26. So there you have both Paul and James recognizing that anger often leads to sin. And if we're honest with ourselves, usually when we are angry, It's not because of a zeal for God's glory. Usually when we're angry, it's because I feel I'm not getting the glory I deserve. And so we burst out in anger. Our anger is usually driven from selfish motivations, not for a zeal for God's glory so often. What kinds of things make you angry? Do you become angry? in those times where maybe you should have left the house a little bit early, but you kind of pushed it. And so you left a little bit late. And then knowing your luck, you're hitting red light after red light. And you've got to make your appointment. And you're just getting more and more frustrated. And then the person ahead of you is just driving at a snail's pace. And you're expressing your anger to the four windows of the car and even the poor passengers with you. Does that make you angry? Blow up in anger every time your child disobeys in even the slightest way. We talk about don't cry over spilled milk. Do you blow up over spilled milk? Children, do you become angry when you don't get your own way? When your mom or dad tells you it's lights out and you don't want that, you wanna stay up a bit longer. Do you get angry when you want something and your parent says no or maybe your teacher says no? Does that make you angry? Is that how you react? Do you get angry at work when you don't get the recognition you think you deserve? When you've suffered maybe an injustice and someone else gets the credit for your hard labors? Well, brothers and sisters, our anger in these kinds of situations is not a righteous anger. It is not justified. Even if it is something we have all experienced, and even on a regular basis, this is not the kind of anger that produces the righteousness of God. What is this righteousness of God? Well, there are a number of ways which the New Testament speaks of the righteousness of God. We can think of the righteousness of God as that righteousness, that holiness he gives us in justification so that he sees us as holy. We can think of the righteousness of God as the righteousness or the justice God does. So when he judges the wicked on the last day, he does righteousness. Our third, we can, the New Testament uses this in the sense of the righteousness God works in us in sanctification. So the way God is making us more holy, conforming us to Christ. And it's this third way which James is referring to. this growth of holiness in our sanctification. And this growth and righteousness is something every one of us in this room should desire because we have been born of God and we're being conformed to the image of Christ. This is something we ought to delight in. This is something we ought to pursue. As James has already told us, that's why he gives us trials. And the reason we can have joy in trials is because he's doing this very thing. He's making us more like Christ. And James's point then is that sinful anger does not produce this righteousness. It does not bring about that conformity to Christ. It is altogether different from the holiness of our Savior. And you know this, don't you? Can you think of the last time that you were in an argument with someone and you felt anger just brimming up inside you and you let out those words? And then it just brought peace, didn't it? and reconciliation, and you're singing kumbaya and catching hands. Have you had political arguments lately? Arguments on social media, on Facebook, and you've blown up at someone, and that's brought peace. No, it does the opposite, doesn't it? This sinful anger brings more heat than it does light. Words of anger break trust. They don't build trust. And you know what? At times, we can be so self-deluded that we actually think it works. You might be the kind of man, you might be the kind of woman that when things aren't going your way, and you feel frustrated, and anger wells within you, and you bang your fist, and you beat your chest, and you raise your voice, and things happen. People then listen to you. Your co-workers fall in line, your children fall in line. Your spouse kind of sees your way of things a little bit more clearly, and it seems to work. But don't be fooled. It's not out of love. It's not that they respect you. It's that they fear you. And fear is not a Christian virtue. Anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Well, we know what we're supposed to do. We know why we're supposed to do it. But the hardest part is always, how do we do it? You know, I see that part of my life that I respond in this way all the time and I hate it. I want it rid of my life. How do I do it? How do I grow in this area where I keep continually failing and falling into that trap? How do we change after we identify those sinful patterns of our heart and mind? Well, that's where James Thirdly gives us the means, how we do it. James first gives us a negative instruction and then a positive instruction. First, James tells us there's something to be rejected or removed, put away. Look at verse 21. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. Now this word for put away is literally to take off. It's a word we should all be familiar with. It's the word Paul uses in Colossians 3.8. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk. Ephesians 4.22, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. So there's something that needs to be put off, taken away, rejected. Sin is to be rejected. We don't give in to sin, we put it off. It's possible James, who is very steeped in the Old Testament, may also be referencing Zechariah chapter three, where that angel commands someone to remove the high priest Joshua's filthy garments and clothes him again with clean and pure garments. And that those filthy garments represent his sin. And that's an apt word for sin, isn't it? Filthy. Sin is not clean, is it? It's dirty, it's filthy, it's like a toilet brush. It's not something you want around you. You don't want to ingest it. You don't want to eat around it. It's filthy, it is to be put off. It's offensive and odorous. We call this process mortification, or killing sin, fighting sin, putting it off. It's something we're called to as Christians. Well, that's the negative aspect, but positively, James then tells us we are to receive something. We're to receive with meekness the implanted word. So he moves from imagery of pushing away to now receiving and accepting. And we are to accept and receive the implanted word. What is this implanted word? Well, very likely James is referring to the prophecy of Jeremiah 31, which we read at the beginning of our service. And there, God promises to write his word on our hearts. The context is that Israel had failed over and over and over again to obey the law that God had given them in the Mosaic Covenant. And their repeated failure made it clear that the human heart, in and of itself, was incapable of obeying the law of God. And what people needed then was a new heart, which God promised. And the good news for us is that God has worked this promised work in our hearts. He has implanted his word within us. And so if you are a Christian and you're here today, God has done this in your heart. If you are a member of that new covenant through faith in Christ, you have this law written on your heart. And so then, as one who has this implanted word, James calls you to continually receive the word, allowing it to influence every part of your life. Why is this? Well, because as James continues, this implanted word is able to save your souls. In what sense is the word able to save our souls? Well, Scripture speaks of salvation in several ways. We think of salvation as a past event, when Christ died, was buried and raised from the grave and ascended to the right hand of the Father, that historic past event. Salvation is also a future event. Because our deliverance is not complete, we're waiting for the day of Christ's return, when he will come to judge and to save. And salvation is also a present reality. Something we seize and work out day by day. As Paul says in Philippians, work out your salvation. And so it's this third sense which James is speaking of, this present working out of our salvation. And it's the word of God that enables us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. We have already been saved from sin's penalty And we are presently being saved from its presence and its pollution. And the Word does that. The Word does that as we listen to the Word. As we even sit here today and we receive the Word as it's coming to us, me the preacher included, the Holy Spirit works. And as we receive that Word by faith, he changes us. He changes those patterns of thought. He changes those patterns of our desires. And he implants, he nourishes that implanted word through his means of grace so that, like living beings that we are, we produce the fruit of righteousness which God desires. Words. Words are powerful. Words can accomplish such good. Words give life. Words preserve life. And as we've seen, words save life. It's one of the themes of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. And children, I know that many of you here are very familiar with that story because you've done it in the Christian school. And if, well, if you're not, It centers around the character of that lovable pig named Wilbur. But unfortunately for poor little Wilbur, he begins life with a death sentence over him. The very first words said about him are by Mrs. Arable to her daughter. One of the pigs is a runt. It's very small and weak, and it will never amount to anything. So your father has decided to do away with it. Well, these are words of death, words of judgment. They're terrifying. But there are also many words of life. Wilbur befriends a spider named Charlotte, and Charlotte the spider somehow is able to weave words in her webs, and she does so. But unlike Mrs. Arable, Charlotte's words are life-giving. They're even transforming. They even bring transformation to Wilbur. When Charlotte's web said some pig, Wilbur had tried hard to look like some pig. When Charlotte's web said terrific, Wilbur had tried hard to look terrific. And now that the web said radiant, he did everything possible to make himself glow. And I won't ruin the ending for you too much, but in the end, Charlotte gives her own life and says these final words that give life and save the life of Wilbur so that he lives on. Now you may not like that in this illustration we are the pigs, but it's true. Like Wilbur, we are born dead in our sins and trespasses. We begin with a word of judgment spoken over us, but not a word that is unfair, not a word that is unjust, but a word of judgment that we deserve because of our sin. But like Charlotte, God, through his word, has brought us salvation. You see, God not only spoke his word in creation, but in redemption, he sent his word. The father sent the word incarnate to save sinners. You see, Christ is that word that was with God in the beginning of the Gospel of John, and he came to this earth. He entered the world that he created by his word. he was not received by his own. Instead, the very people he created, the very mouths he fashioned, spoke words against him. They spoke slander, they cursed him, they spat at him. With their words, they condemned him to death. And there on the cross, Jesus, the word incarnate, faced the anger of God. And not the unrighteous anger of a human, but a righteous and holy anger which we deserved. But by that sacrifice, Jesus has earned salvation from judgment so that if you are trusting in him, you have life and your sins are forgiven. All of those words you've said throughout your entire life's history, Those words you spoke ten years ago to that person are those people and you still remember them, they still echo in your mind and you regret what you said. Where can you find relief from that? You find it in Christ, because He forgives sins. He forgives even your most crass words, even your most sinful words, even your most untrue words. It's like a Word document where he highlights the whole thing and clicks delete. You are forgiven in Christ if your trust is in him. And now in Christ, he does not speak a word of judgment over you. He speaks, as Hebrews says, a better word. Now he calls you accepted in the beloved. He says, my saint, my son, my daughter, my child, my bride, my first fruits, my justified ones, my sanctified ones, my reconciled, redeemed, chosen, beloved ones. And by his implanted word, he is at work, even in you now, changing you. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Well, knowing this, knowing this, beloved, knowing that He is at work in you by His implanted Word, working by His Holy Spirit, doesn't that make you want to live for Him? Doesn't that make you want to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, so that you, by His strength, might produce the kind of righteous life that He desires? Let's pray. Our holy God, we thank you for your holy word, that word which as we receive it, it echoes with that implanted word. And as we have seen the ways in which we have failed to image Christ, which we have failed to obey your word, we pray that you would not only forgive us of our sins, but grant us that fresh grace of repentance, that we might change and be changing through the rest of our lives as we're brought into conformity to Christ. Help us do this, not in our own strength, not in a kind of a 10-step sort of a determinism, but help us to do it by your Spirit who is at work in us even now. We pray this in Jesus' name and for your glory. Amen.