As we come to look at James 1 and verse 21 this morning, I want us to notice with me the dominant theme of this paragraph, this larger paragraph in James. Notice how he emphasizes that it is by the word of God that they have come to spiritual life, Then he's going to underscore in the verse before us this morning how we are to receive that implanted word. Then he urges that we are to be, in verse 22, doers of the word and not hearers only. And then in verse 25, he talks about the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. And it is obvious that when he is speaking of the perfect law, he is speaking of the Word of God. A second item to highlight as we come to our passage this morning is the way of true blessing in Christianity is that of repenting, putting away sin, and believing in the Lord Jesus. It is repentance towards God. It is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is further, in Paul, the old is passing away, the new has come, and then in Peter, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, and then like newborn babes receiving that word of God. And what we have in James, therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. The third item that I'll bring before you as we think of our passage, I think it's helpful to think of receiving the Word, of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible as something that is very, very precious. It's like the pearl of great price. But will you put the pearl of great price in a filthy room? Imagine that you've got one of those little dogs that loves to get in the trash. And he's gotten into the trash, well you are aware, away. And what he has been trained to do, what he has been bred to do, is to go in and get a rat and then shake that rat until it's dead. And that's what he's done with your garbage all over the kitchen. And this is as well one of those that loves to jump up on the chair and then up on the counter. And so he's done, he's dragging it and is shaking all over the place. Now, will you take something that is precious like Jesus Christ, the pearl of great price, and put it in a filthy place? Isn't there something abhorrent about that? Could you imagine that the Hope Diamond would be displayed in a room that has garbage strewn all over it? You would think it must not be the Hope Diamond because it would not be displayed in the midst of this trash. And that is James' figure for us this morning. We are to receive Jesus Christ, the pearl of great price, through his word, in his word. But as we do so, we know that we got one of those little dogs that spreads trash around. And so we need to clean things up. as we are bringing the pearl of great price into our lives. Well, follow with me, if you would, on the handout sheet if you care to. First of all, Roman numeral one. the removing of all sin, the removing of all sin. And I'm indebted to Pastor John Blanchard once again in helping at points to simplify things. removing all sin. First of all, A, the removing itself. James begins this verse 21 with put away, therefore put away. This is what is said when Stephen is martyred. You remember that Saul was there and they took off their garments, they laid aside their garments, and put them at the feet of Saul for him to watch their garments. That's our picture. They're taking off something of their outer garment and laying it aside. And James says, when it comes to the matter of your and my messy, in the sense of sinful lives, There are certain things that have to come off and have to be laid to the side. It's used in Romans 13, 12. The night is foregone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness. Peter uses the same word, so put away all malice and all deceit. So as a believer, I'm to look at my garments and that which is stained by sin needs to be coming off of me and needs to be put off. And it's exactly that language that is found in the Apostle Paul in a passage like Ephesians 4, verse 22. Put off your old self. Put away falsehood. There is something that needs to be removed. That's the removing itself. Secondly, B. the removing of all moral filthiness. Therefore, put away all filthiness. The base word here has the idea of something that is dirty, something that is stained or something that is worn out, it's got holes in it. But the problem is, or the reality is, that there is something of sin, whether we're talking about a garment that's totally worn out, got holes in it, or it's got stains on it, there's some kind of moral filth here. And Pastor James says, If you know that your life has so deteriorated that there's a moral hole in this area, or you know that there is a moral stain in this area, then it needs to be addressed. If you're preoccupied in your life with making money to the point that in your making of money you're actually hurting others, violating some other principle of God's law, then this needs to be addressed. Turn with me, if you would, to Matthew's gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 5, and there is this recurring thing, this recurring theme in James, to reflect back on the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's very natural. James was his older half-brother, but he is as well his older but divine half-brother, and the book of James comes very early in redemptive history, and so it's only right that some of these principles would come through. Matthew 5 and verse 27, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And then he goes on to say that if your right eye causes you to stumble, then this has to be dealt with so aggressively, it's like plucking out that right eye and tossing it, because the goal is you don't want to go to a place of eternal suffering. So yes, Jesus says, that there is something of physical adultery. That's the seventh commandment. But when he is drawing the line as to where the sin starts and where it needs to be addressed, he doesn't say that it's something that is physically only. but he draws the line back here in the mind where a man is just looking. He's not even talking yet, let alone engaging physically with his hand. Jesus goes on to say that mental adultery is sin. It's perhaps not as grievous as the physical, but it's still sin that needs to be addressed if you want to go to heaven. Plainly, pornography is a kind of mental adultery. It's a sin that has to be addressed. And what Jesus is laying out here is that it is wrong to do the actual physical act, but it is wrong as well to look with evil intent. Emotional adultery would be a step towards that, but it's less grievous than even that in the mind. So what James is saying here, I want you to lay aside all filthiness. I don't want you to come and say, well, you know, I was used to be involved in womanizing and I was really bad with the physical. So I'm drawing the line there. And Jesus, I'm not going to do that anymore. No, Jesus says you got to draw the line back here. the mind, the intent. You can't say, well, I'll keep the wandering look, and I'll keep the wandering talk, and I'll avoid the wandering hand. No. Remove all the filthiness. The all-knowing God does not like playing games. If you want to save your soul, remember the end of this verse, the goal of everything here, for the saving of your soul, then get rid of all the filthiness and the moral shabbiness. Now, if you want just an external religion, I didn't do the physical act over here, but I'm still allowing thinking and talking with evil intent, then please know that your standard is fundamentally different from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, cast out all filthiness. I know that there is no perfection in this life. I see it in the book. I see it in my life. But what James is addressing here by putting aside, undressing, taking off all that, all filthiness, is what your goal is, what your aim is. If you've made a compromise in your mind where you're kind of making a deal, you think with God, I'm not going to do that, I'll draw the line there, but all this other stuff, that can be tolerated. James says, no, all the filthiness. Thirdly, C, the removing of abundant badness. Abundant badness. Why did you use the term badness? Well, even the child is able to get this because they know what it is. When a parent is talking to them, whether it's about lying or whether it's a burst of anger, you're just being bad. And hopefully there is a sense of conviction that comes even to that little mind in hearing those words. But notice what Pastor James is saying, therefore put away all filthiness and abundant badness or rampant wickedness. There's just a lot of it and you need to get rid of it. So our second key word for sin is rightly translated by the ESV as wickedness. Anything that is not good, everything opposed to good, it's sin, it's wickedness, it's depravity. In Acts 8, Peter tells Simon the magician, you remember Simon said, Peter, let me give you some money so I have the power. to give people the Holy Spirit and work these miracles. And Peter told him to repent of his wickedness. Wickedness can come out in so many different ways. There are several passages where this term is specifically translated as malice or hate. And sometimes our sin starts bubbling up out of us because we don't like someone. They are this, and maybe they were wrong just in the past, and I remembered it was two years ago, it was 10 years ago, it doesn't really matter, but I just don't like them. And that word is used. It's used in Ephesians 4 in verse 31. There's stuff to be put off and things to be put on. Put away from you along with all malice. That's our word that is translated wickedness here in James 1. That's 1 Peter 2 verse 1. So put away all malice. Malice is when you don't like someone. You hate them. And so I'm going to take us back to Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount. I'd like you to see it. and hear it together, where James is again, likely reflecting on the Lord Jesus, Matthew five and verse 21. You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. So once again, Jesus says, we've had the seventh commandment, now you and I are gonna focus on the sixth commandment, you shall not kill. And you think, as long as I don't take the knife and plunge it in, then I'm good. I have avoided sin. But Jesus draws the line in a different place. Where does he draw the line? Verse 22, but I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. A few things we notice. Yes, there is such a thing as physical murder. That's wrong. But then Jesus, in verse 22 at the beginning, draws the line with what is going on between your and my ears. I am angry. And it's gone on long enough, nobody could pretend that this is a righteous anger. There is the anger of the mind, that's mental murder. And then there is the verbal murder where the anger that's in the mind breaks out in the mouth. It's only words. Words that are knives that are intending to kill because you're not quite ready to plunge an actual knife into them. But you're getting on it. You're working on it. Because it's there. But then notice the modifier of this wickedness says you need to undress, you need to get rid of all filthiness and of abundant badness. Rampant wickedness. There's lots of it. Genesis 6. The Lord saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Do you suppose that those individuals that God is speaking about, it's just constant rebellion against God, where they're getting angry, they're speaking their words. It's just from morning until night, even in their dreams, they're sinning against God. Do you think they see it? Probably not. Do you think you and I see all of our sin? Well, maybe there's a reason why David taught us to pray. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. You may tell yourself, well, I'm just a good storyteller. And in telling the story, there are these literary freedoms that you can take. But then it works out that what people are actually hearing, there are a few technical variations from reality. But the story is fun to tell, it's fun to be at the center of attention, it's fun to be liked. But part of the problem here for us is that our sin is so abundant. You need to undress, you need to get rid of all filthiness, and you need to get rid of this abundant badness, this abundant wickedness. Part of the problem is it's so frequent, it's so abundant that we don't even perceive it. We don't want to perceive it either. But the greater problem is that the God who cannot lie requires of you and me that we cannot lie, that we cannot bear false witness. It's interesting as Jesus was bringing his woes to the scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, Matthew 23. He said, woe you blind guides who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he's bound by it. You see the silly little games? What I'm telling you is the truth. based on the authority of this teacup. As long as I said that, it doesn't really matter. As long as I'm not pledging to be telling you the truth based on the glass. So there are times when I have license to lie. And Jesus responds to them, you blind fools for which is greater, and then he goes on. You just got to tell the truth at all times. And notice that Jesus does not say, if you're dominated by hate, if you're dominated by storytelling, if you're dominated by some immorality, that it's okay, you'll get to heaven by the skin of your teeth, you're just a carnal Christian, or you're just a weak Christian that's going to lose some rewards. What does he say to them? You don't address this problem, the adultery, in your eyes, you're in danger of eternal hell. And the same with the anger. So Pastor James is saying the same things as his divine half-brother Jesus. Get rid of it all. Receive that word which is able to save. your soul. So, Roman numeral one, removing all sin. Now, Roman numeral two, receiving the word. Receiving the word. Well, I want a positive Christianity. Okay, I'll give you a positive Christianity in the second part of the verse. But I'm not really going to give you a positive only Christianity because James didn't and Jesus didn't. Please notice the first half of the verse. But now, Roman numeral two, receiving the word. What is it to receive? Receive is the main verb in the whole sentence. It's the key activity. So what is it to receive? Well, listen to Jesus, John 17, 8. To receive the Word of God is to believe the Word of God. Believing the Word of God is trusting something. I trust that chair, and I sit on it. I trust Jesus Christ to deal with my sin, and I rest the weight of my eternal soul on him. Receive is the same thing, but it's a different figure. I receive something into my hands. I receive the gospel. I receive the pearl. of great price. And once I receive the pearl of great price, those fingers and arms start to curl in. It is mine. In the best sort of way. It is mine. And I'm not going to let go of it. Jesus is that which I receive, and it is the treasure that I carry with me for all of this life, and then a thousand times more in eternity to come. Secondly, B, what are we to receive? The Word. Well, what's the Word? Well, listen to Paul speaking to the Thessalonians, for you receive the Word, in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit. And then later into 1 Thessalonians 2.13, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. Is the world millions of years old? Oh yeah, billions. No, God says in the beginning. God created the heavens and the earth. Our lives need to show that we are receiving the Word of God as a treasure that we will not let go of it and we cannot get enough of it. So that impacts my attendance at Sunday school. I want more. That impacts my coming to hear the Word of God on a Lord's Day evening. I want more. How are you doing with those January 1 resolutions? I hope you're doing well. What is it? The second week in January is called Quitter's Week. For pretty much anything, how are you doing? Are you treasuring the Word of God? Receive it? and value it as the word of God. Thirdly, how are we to receive it? Well, with meekness. Receive with meekness the implanted word. And again, I'm comfortable taking us back to the words of Jesus. James is going to talk about meekness. So is his older brother, his divine brother. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. For James and Jesus are talking about a meekness that comes, not because I have a certain personality trait and I kind of hold back and I don't talk a lot. He's talking about a meekness that is not due to some sort of cultural tradition that's been worked into me, that I defer to others and I'm extremely polite and so on. You can have a proud heart while you're appearing to be meek. But he's talking here of a meekness that comes because I've declared my spiritual bankruptcy. A meekness, it comes in the context of me hungering and thirsting after righteousness. I need to be right with God and I can't find it within me. Meekness. But you know, if you receive the Word of God as the Word of God, then you're well on the way to being meek. I do not control my own destiny. There is a God that has spoken these billions of galaxies with their billions of stars into existence. Blanchard, this means that you must come to the Bible, in meekness, to the Bible in a submissive, open-minded way, with an eager readiness to learn and with a genuine desire to bring every area of life under its reforming control. I am meek in the way that I receive the word of God. What is the mark of true grace? Well, listen to David. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation. For you I wait all the day long. Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things in your law. There's your law, I don't need more revelation. But what I need is something of the veil that is keeping me from, I need you to work on me. That's meekness. A.W. Tozer wrote a memorable phrase, we must never edit God. This is me, buddy. So now I come to a passage and I read it, I begin to feel the pinches. Well, it can't mean that. And therefore, what I think it really means is this. And we end up editing God. You weren't really clear, were you? So I've fixed it for you. So I don't feel discomfort. Fourthly D, where are we to receive it? With meekness, receive with meekness the implanted word. Now we're looking at that word implanted. Think of it as implanted. The farmer implants a fence post in the ground. You know exactly what he's done. The doctor implants a pacemaker in the patient's chest. and we are to receive a word that has been implanted in us. Again, shall we look back to Jesus? Luke 8 and verse 11. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Okay, I'm going to read it again. The seed, that little seed that the sower is scattering, the seed is the word of God. Matthew 13 and verse 19, same parable of the sower. The devil comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart. What has been sown in the heart. Listen to Paul. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. He caused the seed to break open and begin to grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only the God who gives the growth. So we come back to James 1, the implant, I am to meekly receive the implanted word. What does that tell me? I'm to think of the Word of God as something that God has brought to me, perhaps, yes, by a servant scattering the seed, but it's something that God has caused to land in your heart and begin to grow. One is written, To receive the word in its fullest sense is to so open the inner self to the influence of God's word that its truth is transfused into the heart. Okay, we're gonna build on our analogy. We got our pearl, a great price. That's the word of God. That's the message of Jesus. But where is it? I got it out here. Well, it may be out here, but where does it need to get? The seed that is implanted, it needs to get to this author, that which is transfused into the heart. So now it gets more complex. I got a pick line that goes right to my heart, close to it. I'm hooking that line up to my treasure and I'm transfusing everything that is in the word of God I want to get into the core of my being. E, why? Why? Why are we to receive it? Why are we to put away all filthiness and the abundant badness? Last phrase, which is able to save your souls. Pastor James is evidently talking about eternal salvation that lands you in heaven. Because when you talk about the salvation of someone's soul, what are we talking about? We're talking about our never dying souls. James is not, you put away your filthiness, you put away all of your sin, you receive with meekness the word of God, then you're going to have this tremendous blessing and your financial problem is going to get better. Your relational problem is going to get better. Well, it doesn't seem that James is really concerned about that, does it? He is concerned about the salvation of their never-dying souls. And this is the goal of the whole verse, isn't it? You do this, you cast this off, you take this in, this on you, and in you, and you do it because you've got this goal of having your never-dying soul saved. And Pastor James does not evidently think that everyone who walks into a church is saved. Everyone who's regularly hanging around the church is saved. He says in the next verse, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. Verse 26, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. My critical spirit is only a sin of the tongue. How bad can that be? Well, it can be pretty bad. It can be the mark. that you're deceiving yourself. Some have an external religion and are not truly regenerate and they're not truly concerned to have their mind focusing on Jesus Christ. They're not really concerned about being conformed to his image. Listen to Jesus again, to the Pharisees. Woe to you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside. And how do we get the inside clean? It's by God giving us the new birth. It's by God making us to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. It is by God taking out the heart of stone and putting in a heart of flesh. Isn't it amazing that several hundreds of years before Jesus came, God was talking about heart transplants, that it would only be in our lifetime that we would, that somebody would say, well, I know about that. Imagine telling somebody one hundred and fifty years ago. Two thousand years ago. Almost three thousand years ago. Yeah we're really going to do that and take the bad part out put a new one in. But that's what God must do for us to clean the inside and then true religion grows from the inside out not from the outside in. Well. Will you put the pearl of great price in a filthy room? I hope you say no. I hope that you wince and think, no, the whole diamond shouldn't be displayed in a room where there's a bunch of garbage. And that's James' perspective. No, it's not works righteousness. My repentance is a believing repentance. I am turning away from my sin and I am turning to God. That's not works righteousness. I'm depending on the merits of Jesus Christ and Him alone. But there is a realism to this. All the filthiness, the abundant badness, and then to receive that implanted word to the end of the saving of my never dying soul. Sometimes Jesus had hard words that caused the bulk of his hearers to walk away. And Jesus turned and said to his disciples, you're going to go away too? And Peter spoke for the group. I'm glad he did. Not always did he do a real good job, but this time he does. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Lord, I need to cast this away. I need to receive your word. I don't feel like it has happened yet. Go again. I've gone four times, it doesn't seem like, keep going. To whom are you gonna go? Who else has got the words of eternal life? And I close with John six and verse 37, this invitation of Jesus. All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out. In his lifetime of ministry, you and I both know that Jesus cast out a lot of demons. Get out. And when it comes to the day of judgment, he will cast out all the rebel demons and all those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. But his promise to you and me is this. If you will cling to the feet of Jesus Christ, looking for him as the only one who can save your never-dying soul, Jesus pledges, I certainly will not cast you out. You may not feel the salvation, but stay there. clinging to the feet of Jesus Christ, doing what he has told you to do. I will certainly not cast out. Let's pray. Spirit of God, we bow before you. We recognize that you've breathed out all of scripture, and certainly you've breathed out this verse that we've been looking at this morning. Help us to appreciate the balance that you give to us. Help us to appreciate the plainness with which Pastor James writes to us. And Spirit of God, take this, which you've breathed out and bless it, bless it to make it to be an instrument of our conversion, of you begetting life into us, you helping us to see the radical change. And we pray, oh God, that you would take out a heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh that beats for you. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name.