Now to our New Testament reading, which is taken from the book of James. James, we'll begin in verse 19 of James chapter 1, and then we will read through the end of the chapter. James chapter 1, beginning at verse 19. 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. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and then goes away and at once forgets what he was like, but the one who looks into the perfect law the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious, it does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart. This person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. You may be seated. This evening we continue our study through this series through the book of James. I think that we know what does the Scripture say about itself, that the Word of God is powerful, the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It is, we understand, the primary means of grace that God has given to us to grow in godliness and sanctification. It is the means that the Lord uses to convert a sinner from death to life by the power of His Holy Spirit. And so as God's people then, how are we to receive the Word of God? What does it mean to receive the Word of God, both as it is read as well as it is preached? And what does that look like? If we look at the Scriptures, we know that there can be a number of different reasons to not be growing in grace by the Word. And we can't cover all of those reasons this evening. But we'll see some of those reasons that James brings out in these short verses. If you're joining with us this evening without having been in this series, we've seen in verse 18 that it is the Word that brings life, that it is, as we see there, of His own will, that is God's, that He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures, that God by His word converts us, brings us to life. But how is it that the word which brings life, how then are we to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath? We saw how that relates to person-to-person relationships, and we began to see that that same attitude ought to be there in regard to our relationship with God, particularly in the midst of trials as we find ourselves in this context. But then it's not unrelated now what he says. In fact, he says, therefore, to be slow to speak, quick to hear, slow to wrath, therefore, We are to receive with meekness the implanted Word. What does it mean to be quick to hear the Word of God? Tonight, Lord willing, we'll see that we are called, as God's people, we are called to properly receive and obey the Word of God to the salvation of our souls and blessing. We are called to properly receive and to obey the Word of God to the salvation and blessing of our very souls. We'll see this under four headings, to receive the Word in purity, to receive the Word with meekness, to receive the Word with obedience, and then we must receive the Word to receive Christ Himself. So first we must receive the word in purity. That's what he begins to say there in verse 21, this therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. We've seen this connection already that out of the heart the mouth speaks. Out of the heart the mouth speaks, and the connection between our mouths and our hearts, that when we saw before, being slow to speak, slow to anger, quick to hear, it's not unrelated to what we see here now. Our lips are not disconnected from our hearts. Therefore, if our lips are troublesome, and we'll see more of this in the future, Lord willing, but if our lips are troublesome, the cure is found deeper down. You must deal with the heart in order to deal with the lips. To do, to be the things that are listed here, there are things that must be put off. And that's what he speaks of. He says first to put away filth. Put away all filth. And it's interesting as you look at the Greek, the technical meaning of this Greek word is filth. It's not really technical at all. Its meaning is obvious. It is apparent. But of course, he's not speaking of dirt filth. He's speaking of moral filth. But he doesn't specify. What does he mean by this filth? I think the imagery is clear. He doesn't need to be specific. I think we all know what he has in mind. It can look different from person to person, but he chooses this word to remind us of how offensive sin is to God, that it is filth in his eyes. There's something that is not to be attached to the people of God, that it is this imagery of a garment that is to be discarded. That just as when you come in from a rainstorm, you've been through the mud, you take off your dirty, filthy outer garment, you lay it aside, so we are to do with filth in our lives, to put it away far from us. So he speaks of putting away filth but then he says putting away rampant wickedness. That wickedness that so easily abounds. It's all around us but also it's within us. It's that wickedness that according to our sinful nature is there and if it is not put aside it will overwhelm us. Of course, that is the case for the unregenerate man, but even for God's people, we're commanded to do away with it. He tells us plainly, we must put these things aside in preparation to receiving the Word. But a question then arises, because the order that he gives here can be misunderstood. Is James saying, Is James saying that we must clean ourselves up first before we can come to Christ and be saved? Is that the context of what he is trying to say? And we would say no, but it's a good question. It is, as we saw already in verse 18, it is the Word of God used by the Spirit that changes the sinner's heart. We cannot save ourselves in order then to receive the Word. No, it's the Word of God implanted into us that brings about life, that faith which the Holy Spirit gives to us that must be there. That's not exactly what James is talking about. What James is doing as we look at this context is he's actually addressing a real pastoral matter, a pastoral issue. That yes, we are new creations in Christ, but he recognizes we still live in a sinful world. We still have remnant of sin that would so easily entangle and trip us up, but we must do away with it. Based on our new life, our union with Jesus, we are now to put away all that belong to the old life. This is the same pattern that Paul uses in Ephesians chapter 4. It's actually exactly the same pattern that Peter uses in 1 Peter chapter 1. There in 1 Peter, the new birth is through the Word of God. And then he follows and he gives command to get rid of evil behavior. so that we can then receive the Word and embrace it all the more. And so we have this proper order. The spiritual birth of God is graciously given to His people through the Word, but then following that is this exhortation then to receive the Word further and to do away, to shun the kind of behavior that would hinder the right hearing of that Word. Because we know, we're taught that sin defiles. That sin, left unrepentant in the life even of a believer, it prevents the proper reception of the Word of God. So the context here, James is addressing the church, those who are in the church. He's dealing with believers who are tempted to be deceived in their thinking. He mentions deception twice in this context. They're tempted to think that they can grow in grace by the Word of God, and yet still continue to live in unrepentant sin. They are double-minded. They are deceived. Their lives during the week look different than their lives on the Lord's Day, and yet they think that they're going to keep growing. James is addressing this pastoral matter, and he says, no, you must put away that filth. An illustration that comes to mind is a bit of a silly one, but I think it is effective. That to try and keep living an unrepentant sin, to not do away with filth and rampant wickedness, and try to still benefit from the Word is more difficult than trying to keep your teeth clean, to brush your teeth all the while still eating Oreo cookies. That it's an impossible task. Your teeth will be dirty. You can brush and you brush, but you're still eating that which is defiling. So the application, even for this first, is that we should examine ourselves to see if there are sins that we may be refusing to let go of, perhaps secret sins, even though they are like a cancer to our spiritual life. that we can, in moments of soberness and proper reflection, wonder, why are we not growing as we ought to be? We're attending the means of grace, but all the while we are not doing away with filth and rampant wickedness. We are actually preventing the life-giving Word from taking full effect. And so, James says, put away all filth and wickedness. But then, what does he say? He says, secondly, we must receive the Word with meekness. To receive the Word with meekness. The implanted Word. This One which is able to save your souls. I think we're familiar with the pattern in the Apostle Paul. He often says, put off works of darkness, works of wickedness, and put in their place works of light, works of righteousness. Here James actually uses a different pattern. He says put off, and then he doesn't say put on, he says receive. Receive the word of God with meekness. Now certainly, we're going to get to the application later in the letter and even in this section of things that we are to do, but what he's emphasizing here, it's the Word of God that brings about that change. Receive the Word. His attention is focused on this more basic issue, even than adopting a new set of behaviors. How do those changes take place? It is the Word of God producing new patterns of life. So he gets to the heart of it. Receive the Word of God with meekness. What does it mean to receive God's Word with meekness? Well, to receive it is to listen well to it. To be meek before the Word of God is to shun that argument that wells up within us when we hear something we don't like according to our natural man. In other words, to be gentle before the Word of God, teachable before the Word. because of who is speaking to us, that when we hear the Word of God read or preached even, and it rankles us, it riles up, we ought to be humble before it and examine our hearts. Is this because we are misunderstanding or is it because we understand all too well, but we don't like what it says? But the Word of God says we are to receive it with meekness. How do we receive letters that we deem important? If you were to receive a letter or an instruction from the King of England or the President of the United States, you would read that or you would hear that word differently, wouldn't you children? differently than if your friend just sent you a letter or told you something in class. Even if your parents were to say something to you, you hear that differently than if your younger sibling were to say something. No, we receive letters from those we deem important differently than our friends or even our family. How then would you receive a letter from the king of the universe? We should receive it with gratitude, with humility, knowing that we don't deserve it or its purposes either. Again, this is how transformation occurs, the implanted Word. It takes root deep within us, and it is that Word by the Spirit that transforms us. The Word and the Spirit bring conviction of sin. It also brings the assurance of mercy. It is the Word and the Spirit that instills faith, creates new life so that good fruit inevitably follows. Christians who have been born again, again verse 18, demonstrate that the Word has transformed them and is transforming them by this mark, their humble acceptance of the Word as their authority and guide in life. to receive the Word with meekness implies many things. And I'm going to sort of summarize some things from our own confession of faith and catechisms. I would encourage you, go to Larger Catechism 157, 158, and there we read the wise counsel of godly pastors of how should we read God's Word. How should we hear preaching of God's Word? And they give very helpful things, and I'll just list a few of them as we seek to understand what does this look like? What should we be doing in reception to both the Word read and preached? Well, we should read the Word with reverence. We read it with reverence, a high and reverent esteem of them, because we read them as from the mouth of God. But the Word of God is what the Bible is. We receive it from God Himself. We receive the Word as those who are dependent on its life-giving work from God. That it's God who gives us understanding. And so we come to the Word with prayer, asking that God would speak to us and that we would understand it. We read the Word knowing that they alone lead us to God. Yes, we have a knowledge of God according to creation, but it's only in the Word of God that we come to a saving knowledge of Him. It's only there that we receive the Gospel of Christ. And then, of course, we read the Word with diligence. That if these things are true, if this is what gives life, if it's a Word from God, ought we not then to attend to it with diligence and preparation? And then as we go from the Word, We do not merely forget, but we meditate on it. We think about it. We talk about it with other believers. We seek to apply it to our lives. And all of this with prayer. That's all from Larger Catechism 157. In the Confession of Faith, Chapter 14, it speaks of true faith, saving faith. And how do you know if you have true faith? Well, one application that they make there is, well, how do you receive the Word? And it's different, not genres, but in what it says, faith looks differently depending on what the Word is saying to you in that particular passage. And so faith believes whatever is revealed in the Word. It believes it as true because the authority of God is speaking. And so, according to each particular passage, so, when the Bible gives a command, faith hears that command and it responds with obedience. When God speaks in His Word and He gives threatenings, the response of faith is to tremble before it. When the Word of God gives promises, the response of faith is to embrace those promises. Of course, not only the word read, but also the word preached. Larger Catechism 160, we're called to listen with intention, that is, means with diligence and preparation and prayer. We're called to listen with discernment. That is, the preacher stands before the people of God and preaches. We're expected, it's incumbent upon us to go and examine, is what he is saying in accord with the written word of God? to be like the Bereans, and then we're to receive the truth of that preaching with faith and love and meekness and readiness of mind as the Word of God, and then again to meditate on it, to hide it in our hearts. So we ask ourselves this evening, how do you receive the Word of God? How do you receive it when you read it privately with your families? How do you receive it when it's read publicly before you? How do you receive the preaching of the Word of God? Are you humble before it? Are you meek before it? Asking God for mercy and help and understanding it and applying to it. You'll notice in our liturgy, our order of worship, we always have a prayer of illumination before the reading and the preaching of God's Word. And that's not an accident. That is a conscious dependence that God must open our eyes before we can understand His Word. And that's an act of humility. It's saying, God, You are speaking and I want to understand, but I need You. to be helped to me by your Spirit working powerfully in me." And of course, we never put ourselves over the Word. We are not the judge of God, but neither are we the judge of His Word. But we let the Word of God search us, convict us where needed, comfort us as needed. But it is the Word doing its work by the Spirit. So we are called here by James to receive the Word with purity, putting away filth and rampant wickedness, to receive it with meekness. But then he immediately makes the connection for us, we must also receive the Word with obedience. That's what he gets at in verse 22. He says, Be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves, that we are to hear well, but then we are to obey. To accept the implanted Word, the summary of James, this is the main part, to accept it, but he demonstrates to us some ways that a person shows the sincerity of their faith in that Word. What does it mean to receive the Word of God truly? Yes, to understand it, but even more, to obey it. To accept the Word is to do the Word because of this danger of self-deception. How many do we know that think they are right with God? They claim to know God. They claim to know Christ. They speak the words, even scriptural words. They may even be members of good churches. But they have deceived themselves, and it's evident because, yes, they might hear the word wash over them, but they do not obey it. How many people think they are right with God and yet are far from Him? What is James summarizing here? He's merely summarizing what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said in Matthew chapter 7. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. In fact, on that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name? But I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. They were. It's a mystery to me that they were able to do these mighty works that we would say, wow, that's a wonderful work of the Spirit. And yet Christ says He does not know them because they did not obey the Word. They were workers of lawlessness. And then He goes on and He gives this familiar illustration. Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who builds his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. But it did not fall, because it was founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. As an aside, how difficult it is to read that passage without singing it. But people can think that they are right with God, when they really are not. And so, it is for those people who hear the word, even regular attenders of church, seminary students, seminary professors, scholars of the Bible, whose job, whose career is commenting on the very words of Scripture, and yet, They do not obey even the simplest command to repent and believe the gospel. There are many scholars of scripture who do not know Christ as Savior. And so James warns the people of God, do not deceive yourselves. Receive the word with meekness and be those who do the word. Remember temptation and its tactics that we saw some weeks ago? What does temptation, what does Satan in temptation seek to do? To obscure sin. To make us think that it's not that serious, that it's not actually sin sometimes. The point James is making here is not it's hearing versus doing. No, his point is it's hearing and doing together. That we must understand what God requires of us. He's not saying don't read your Bibles. No, he's saying the opposite. Read your Bibles. Hear preaching. But it's not enough merely to hear Orthodox preaching. You must also follow the Word of God. He then gives an illustration in verses 23 to 24. Perhaps you've done this, children. Your parents, they say to you, you've got something on your face. And so you go to the mirror and you see, oh yeah, it's on my face. And then you walk away and you have dirt all over your face. You just saw it, but you walk away and you forget. You forget to wipe your face and to cleanse your face. And so was it actually helpful to go to the mirror and see your dirty faces? No. That's what the illustration is. To go to the mirror to see that your face is dirty and then to turn around and walk away and not wipe the dirt off of your face is just like hearing the word of God, turning around and forgetting what it says and then not obeying it. There can often be an impression that's made Perhaps you've experienced it. Perhaps you've gone to a church service, or many times it happens in conferences, or whatever. You hear a wonderful sermon by a gifted preacher, and you leave that sanctuary, that conference, and you are excited. You feel like you've met with God. But you leave that place of worship. Perhaps you leave a Bible study, or perhaps you just have read something powerful in the Word of God in your devotions. But then immediately you forget. You do not obey what it says. There's a great emphasis in Scripture on the importance of remembering. And not just recalling to mind, but remembering as in remember to do. that by calling it to mind, that implies action that necessarily flows out of it. But this is an important and a pervasive biblical theme to remember. The Lord constantly reminds and warns His people not to forget not to forget His mighty acts, but to remember His mercies, to remember His law. Again, to remember His law doesn't just mean remember the order of the Ten Commandments, but to do them. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it. To remember God, His acts, His teachings, is to contemplate them in such a way that they affect how we live, the choices we make. Scripture, this analogy that James gives, is like a mirror to our souls. Just as we gaze at a physical mirror to inspect and perhaps improve our appearance, so we We gaze upon the spiritual mirror to inspect and, by God's grace, improve our spiritual well-being. And if we truly hear the Word, we will obey it and bear fruit. But careless listening, listening that never leads to action, is self-deception. To deceive ourselves. This word could also be translated to defraud ourselves. to defraud ourselves, for we miss the opportunity to gain maturity in laying hold of the Word of God. And he continues there in verse 25, peer into that perfect law, that law of liberty, the Word of God is perfect, it makes us complete, Psalm 19, 2 Timothy chapter 3, we receive the law of God As we just confessed, not because we're under the covenant of works any longer, not under its curse, but we receive the law of God now, in Christ, from Christ our mediator. He's borne the punishment for sin that was due to us. We receive the law of God now as from the hands of Him who makes it sweet to us. It is our guide. It is the path of liberty, the law of liberty. By the power of the Spirit, the law, what it could never accomplish has been done for us. And He calls us to do this with perseverance. So we've seen purity, meekness, obedience. Finally we must receive the Word in order to receive Christ. must receive the word to receive life is really how he puts it. We see again in verse 21, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Children, what is the only book, the only book in the world that is able to save your soul? The Bible, very good. The Bible alone is the only book in all of the world that is able to save your soul. Now, is that because it is usually a fancy Bible, has gold trimmings, is it some sort of magical incantation? No, it's the Word of God, it's powerful. And the way that it saves our souls is that it reveals to us the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we receive that by faith, and the Spirit applies the work of Christ. As we receive Him by faith, the Spirit delights in taking the Word, in planting it in our hearts, and thereby bring life. We receive Christ through the Word, and thereby we receive life. It is the Word of God that shows us the way of salvation. It shows us Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. But then he says also, as we saw in verse 25, "...and will be blessed in his doing." The Word of God is the means of conversion, but also the means for sanctification. The Word of God, blessed by the Holy Spirit, saves lives, it changes hearts, and then it redirects behavior. That we receive it, we read Scripture, we gaze into it, we abide by it. This law is perfect. because it reflects God's perfect character. The law includes, of course, the laws of Moses, but also the commands of the prophets, the examples of godly conduct from Old Testament history. It's this broader meaning of the law. When we follow that law, we flourish We are like that man in Psalm 1, planted by living waters in which we bear fruit. We are not in drought. We flourish and are blessed. When God, as one commentator says, when God gave the law, He said, I have brought you out of bondage, not I hereby bring you into bondage. So the law is liberating because it so perfectly is suited to human life. We ask, why did God give us a law? Why are Christians, why do we still read the Ten Commandments? What use is it to us? What's the good and pure Word of God? But it is how God intends for humanity to live. That now by the power of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to do so. that the commands of God are not arbitrary, they're not restrictive in the sense that we just miss out on the best life. No! It is, in fact, the way God intends for us to live, for our blessing, for our flourishing, to not murder, to not commit adultery, to love God first. These things are for our good. They bring God glory. And they are for the good of God's people. redeemed by Christ from the curse of the law, freed from the burden of trying to earn salvation, we now have been empowered to live in accord with that law by the Spirit of Christ within us. So instead of drudgery and squandering, it leads to life of flourishing. So tonight as we bring this to a close, do you see the blessing for those who gaze into the law, for those who remember the law, and then of course for those who do it. Real blessing lies in doing God's will, not simply knowing about it or even knowing it. As Jesus said, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it. So this night we've seen we must receive the Word in purity, we must receive the Word with meekness, we must receive the Word with obedience, and we must receive the Word in order to receive Christ. We are called to properly receive and obey the Word of God to the salvation and blessing of our souls. Let us pray. Our great Heavenly Father, we do thank you, Lord, for your life-giving Word. We thank You, Lord, for how it presents to us the Lord Jesus Christ and all of His work of redemption. We thank You, Lord, for Your Spirit, whom You have poured out upon the church to open our eyes, to understand Your Word, to enable us to obey Your Word. We pray, Lord, that we would go from this place properly understanding what You would teach us, and then, Lord, living in light of it. Lord, that indeed we would be right hearers of the Word, but also doers of Your Word, and thereby You would bless us and You would keep us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.