Beloved, hear the assurance of pardon found in 1 John 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Amen. If you would stand for the reading of our text this morning from Scripture, James 1. And if you have your Bible, I invite you to follow along with me. James chapter 1, verses 18 through 25. James chapter 1, 18 through 25. This is, beloved, James writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is the very Word of our God. Beginning in verse 18. In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among His creatures. You know this, beloved, or know this, beloved, but everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God, Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility or in meekness, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. Prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at himself in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. but one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." Our great God and Father, truly you have done great things for us in Jesus Christ our Lord. We read about it already in Psalm 8, that though we are infants and babes, yet you, through our testimony, make us a bulwark, a strength against the enemy to silence them. And though we are small and insignificant, and our lives are a mere breath, Yet you have made us a little lower than the angels. You have crowned us with glory and honor. You have set us over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under our feet. And without Christ, that could never be so. It could never be so again because of Adam's sin. And yet in your great mercy, in your great love with which you loved us to magnify the glory of your grace and to exalt your son, you sent him. You sent him into the world. He took upon himself human nature. In every respect like us, except for sin. And He died and was buried and rose again. And by His blood, by the pouring out of His life, you have established, you have enacted the new covenant, that covenant of grace we see in Genesis 3.15. We see it in the covenant you made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the covenant that you made with David. fully enacted by the blood of Christ, by the pouring out of his life for us. And so, Father, we are amazed and we rejoice in your presence and we offer up to you sacrifices of praise and of thanksgiving through Jesus Christ, our Lord, made acceptable by him. Open our hearts, give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you that we may know what is the hope of your calling, what are the riches of the glory of your inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of your power toward us who believe that we may live lives boldly, courageously, openly, sacrificially for the advancement of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ in this world. We love you and praise you and pray in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. James's goal in chapter one is to help Christians persevere while under the trials of this life so that their faith in God is not destroyed, but strengthened and matured, leading to the promise blessing of God and eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Trials, James says, are designed to prove and to improve Christians. So in verse two, he writes, count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience or endurance or perseverance have its perfect work. that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. Then in verse 12, he returns again to perseverance, but this time in the eternal context, the eschatological context, he says, blessed are those who persevere under trial, for once they have been tested and approved. They will receive the crown of life. They will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So perseverance in trials promotes godliness and it builds confidence and unshakable assurance and hope in the certainty of our eternal reward in Jesus Christ. That's a summary of James' teaching in chapter one, his main theme. In the verses I have just read for us, he now turns to consider the role of God's word in perseverance. There is, James says, spiritual preparation necessary for Christians to profit from God's word. So James says that our minds must be prepared to hear it. That's verses 19 and 20. He says that our hearts must be prepared to receive it. That's verse 21. He says that our wills must be prepared to obey it. That's verses 22 through 24. And finally, he says that our lives must be prepared must be prepared. In other words, structured and organized to daily feed upon the truth of God's Word. That's a summary of his teaching, the connection he draws between perseverance and the Word of God. Last time, we considered one aspect of a prepared mind. Let me sum it up in these words. A Christian whose mind is prepared to hear God's word knows and therefore desires to fulfill his new identity and his new purpose in Christ to be, as James says in verse 18, a kind of first fruits among his creatures, bearing witness to the world of the reality of the power and truth and life that are in Jesus Christ. That's what James says, one thing he says about a prepared mind. This morning, I want to take up James' teaching on a prepared heart in verse 21. He says, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility or in meekness, receive, not just here, but receive the word implanted, not God's word, but the word implanted. which is able to save our souls, which is able to save our souls. So let me just quickly summarize what he says there. James says that a Christian whose heart is prepared to receive God's word is continually engaged first in putting aside the old man. In other words, everything that pertained to and characterized the old sinful man, those whose hearts are prepared to hear and profit from God's word, are putting off that person. Second, a person whose heart is prepared to profit from God's word is continually submitting himself to the authority and discipline of God's Word for the purpose of obeying Him. I get that from the phrase that James uses, inhumility, right? That word is also translated meekness, and the idea is that a person who is humble, a person who is submitted, or meek, has placed himself or herself under the authority of God and under the authority of his word as the rule and guide of his life. James says that is necessary spiritual preparation. And finally, he says that Christians whose hearts are prepared to receive God's word are engaged daily in eagerly receiving it, knowing it will work to heal and transform their souls. So that's a summary of his teaching about having a prepared heart that is ready to receive and profit from God's word. But this morning, what I'd like to do is focus on two phrases that we find in verse 21. He says that we are to receive the Word implanted. The Word implanted, not God's Word. He calls it the Word implanted. And then he ends verse 21 with this interesting clause. which is both a motivation and the source and origin of the power. He says that this implanted word that we are to receive is able to save our souls, is able to save our souls. So why, first, why does James call God's word the word implanted? The Greek word translated implanted is used only here in verse 21. It means planted or implanted or grafted or engrafted. The word has literal application to agriculture. In other words, to a farmer planting seed, a gardener transplanting a plant from one place to another, a botanist grafting a branch from one tree to another. applied to the implanting of God's word, the idea is that when God brings us forth by the word of truth, that's what James says in verse 18, right? According to his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. When he does that, he does something in us or to us to make our cold, dead, hard hearts alive and receptive to his word. Through Ezekiel, God promises his exiled people, quote, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will be careful to observe my ordinances." That's Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26. This describes the work of God's implanting His Word in the hearts of His people. By God's grace and power, the rebellious hard heart of a man is freed from sin's power and corruption and renewed so that it now has an aptitude, an affinity, an appetite for God's word. The heart of stone is made alive into a heart of flesh. It's alive to God and receptive synchronized, prepared, hungry to hear and obey his word. In describing God's word as implanted, James is alluding to the promise and power of the new covenant in Christ's blood. Through Jeremiah, God promised Israel, quote, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his brother and none his neighbor saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. God saves a man. He puts his laws in his mind and writes them on his heart. Indeed, the Apostle John speaks of a divine seed implanted in a Christian. that keeps him from continuing in an unbroken pattern of sin, and instead compels him, drives him to seek a life of obedience, of righteousness, and holiness. That's 1 John 3, verses 7-9. All these expressions, and there are more, but all these expressions convey the same essential truth. There is given every Christian new spiritual and divine life, supernatural life, that is expressed, or better, that expresses itself in a desire, a longing, a receptivity, and an aptitude and appetite for God's Word. It is this work, beloved, this great work of God's grace that both underlies and enables the work James calls us to do in verse 21, right? Because no one, apart from the grace of God, apart from this powerful, supernatural, spiritual work, is going to be putting off the old man. It's impossible for an unregenerate person. They're not going to submit their lives to the rule of God's word, right? and they're not going to be daily, eagerly receiving it. That's the work of faith to which we're called, but underlying it is this great and marvelous work of God's grace described in two words, the word implanted. What does James mean when he says that this implanted word or the word implanted is able to save our souls. Why does he use that phrase? Why doesn't he use a phrase that seems to be more, in my mind anyway, in line with the context of this passage, a phrase like, which is able to transform your souls, or which is able to make you a morally excellent and upright person. If we understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, as I have no doubt most of you, all of you perhaps do, James's phrase sounds troubling, especially for Calvinists, right? The heart of the gospel And that's what the book of Romans is all about, isn't it? The heart of the gospel is justification by faith alone, namely, that a sinner is declared righteous by God once forever through faith alone in Jesus Christ. The Bible is clear in teaching that a person can do nothing to earn his salvation, to deserve his salvation, to keep or enhance his salvation. Salvation in Jesus Christ is all of God's grace from beginning to end, from first to last. James is teaching that God's word, and by the way, he's writing to Christians, isn't he? He's writing to those whom he believes have been brought to spiritual birth by the word of truth, as James says in verse 18, right? So he's not writing to unbelievers. He's telling Christians, this word, beloved, is able to save your souls. And it seems that that phrase is in danger of contradicting the uniform, plain, and main teaching of the scripture on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is as though James is saying that justification by faith is only one step or the first step toward salvation, and that Christians must earn their final salvation through obedience to God's word, as some would say in our time. But James is not teaching another gospel. He's not contradicting the Apostle Paul. He is not saying Christians earn or deserve or keep or contribute to their salvation by their works. Rather, what I believe he is doing is giving full weight to two irreconcilable truths in Scripture. The first is that salvation, as I have said, is from first to last, from beginning to end, by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ alone. But here's the second truth that this phrase, I think, confronts us with, and to which James gives full weight, and that is that our lives matter. What I mean is that our obedience to God's Word matters to our salvation. That's the argument Paul takes up in Romans 6, 7, and 8, isn't it? That's his burden. And beloved, in this country, we need to hear that message. And we need to live out the reality of that calling with which we have been called by our God through Jesus Christ. Now let me give us five insights that I hope, I believe will help make the connection between God's all-sufficient grace in Christ and the necessity and importance of living out the reality of who we are in Christ. I sought in these five statements to connect those two truths to that phrase which is able to save our souls. First, James's phrase, able to save your souls, implies that God's word is divinely powerful to accomplish God's purposes. It is divinely powerful to accomplish God's purposes. He uses, of course, the familiar Greek word dunamai, meaning power, ability, capacity. Faith lays hold on the life-giving word of God, receiving and deriving from it the spiritual power it possesses, just as the soil receiving the seed and the life in it bears the fruit of the seed. Thus, Isaiah writes in Isaiah chapter 55, verses 10 and 11, quote, For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, just as that is true by God's design, by his providence, by his sovereignty, he says this, so will my word be. which goes forth from my mouth, it will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the manner for which I sent it. Beloved, God's word is able to save our souls. Second. James's phrase, able to save your souls, implies that God's word has a continuing role in our salvation. James taught us in verse 18 that God brought us forth by the word of truth. See that phrase in verse 18? That God brought us forth by the word of truth. This word of truth James tells us, is the same word that he says is able to save your souls, right? It's the same word by which God continues his powerful work of grace in us to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. So we understand from James's use of this phrase that God's purpose for us in salvation is not, and hear me on this, is not fully realized in our experience at the moment of conversion, right? Amen? But continues and is gradually perfected but continues and is gradually perfected through our hearing and obeying God's word. Third, James's phrase, able to save your souls, implies that God's word is the necessary means of grace for our growth in love and holiness. We know that a man is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. At the moment of faith, his or her salvation is fully guaranteed, fully accomplished by Christ according to God's promise in his son. Yet, and here's James' emphasis, yet, Faith in Christ, if it is true, inward and spiritual. Faith, if it is true, inward, and spiritual, also means, it also means this, that a person desires to live for Christ, to live a life in imitation of Christ, and to become more like Christ. Paul writes in Galatians 2.20, very familiar verse, For I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. The means that God gives us The means that he gives us for this work is his word, which means that God's word is most necessary in that sense for our salvation. if we are to become fully what God has created us to be in Christ. Fourth, James's phrase, able to save your soul, implies there is no other word that can save us, body and soul. God's word is not only the necessary means for the salvation of our souls, It is the exclusive means. Do you believe that? It is the exclusive means. If we are going to walk in fellowship with God and Christ now and forever, it can only be by obedience to His Word. And so John writes in 1 John 1, verse 5, now, this is the message which we have heard from Him and declared to you. God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, now what does that mean? For our purposes, this is what it means. To walk in darkness is to walk by the rule of any other word than the word of God. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. There are in this day, beloved, as you well know, many deceiving voices. And we know that most of them are aimed at our children, aren't they? many deceiving voices in our day, political, cultural, religious, scientific, all of these so-called experts, all of these so-called authoritative words calling us away from God's Word. but we must not be moved. We must not be moved. There is no other word. Settle it if you are in doubt. There is no other word in heaven or on earth that can save your soul. No other word of men, of angels or demons that can reconcile you to God or restore you to his favor. Finally, James's phrase, able to save your souls, is a strong motive for Christians to keep their hearts prepared to eagerly receive God's word. And let me let the Apostle Peter make my point here. Strong motivation for us to keep our hearts prepared. When many of Jesus's disciples walked away when they heard his teaching, And this is found in John chapter 6. He turned to the twelve and asked them, do you want to go away? And Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go, Lord? You. and you only have the words of eternal life. So Peter's answer makes my point. Whatever the difficulty, whatever the trial, whatever the hardship, whatever the persecution, whatever the tribulation, Peter was going to listen to his master. And so ought we to resolve, beloved, to listen to our Master, because He only has the words of eternal life. Let me close with three points of application quickly. I hope we see I believe that we all see that the aim of the gospel is to transform us, body and soul, into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, right? Romans 8, 29, and 30, that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, and that God's Word is indispensable to that process. Second, The theological phrases that we use, and I love these words, sanctification, conformity to the image of Jesus Christ, spiritual transformation, those phrases can too easily obscure the encompassing practical impact God intends for our lives to have in this world. Let me say it this way. Sanctification is goal-oriented. We are to strive and pray for conformity to Christ so that, or for this purpose, that we will be in this culture, in this community, salt and light, right? And a city set on a hill. Recall that passage from Ezekiel I read. Why did God make that promise of a new heart, a flesh, of putting his spirit in them? Why? So that they would walk in his statutes. So that they would observe his ordinances and declare by their lives the glory of the God who saved them. If those phrases mean anything, salt and light, a city set on a hill, if those phrases mean anything, they surely apply to absolutely everything in this life and in our lives. Politics. education, law, medicine, science, business, the arts and culture, and so on, are calling in Christ the goal orientation of sanctification. And this is my way of saying it. The goal orientation of sanctification is to bring everything in this present age in subjection to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings. One more thing. A good biblical test to apply to ourselves engaging where we are spiritually is to honestly assess our commitment to knowing and obeying God's Word. I mean, beloved, ask yourself, can you and I say with David, Your word I've treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments. Are we guided in our lives by the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, when he was tempted by Satan, responded from Deuteronomy chapter eight, the word of God, And he said, this man, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Has that verse fallen with weight upon your heart and mind? Do you hear what he's saying? That the word of God is more necessary for our lives now and eternally than our daily food. Is that how you view it? Is that how I view it? Do we find in ourselves the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus says characterizes, describes those who are in his kingdom? Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied. Do you find that? Hunger and thirst, this impulsion within you. For the word of God. So, beloved. I leave you with this challenge. Let's be careful to examine ourselves, as Paul said, to see whether we're in the faith, but to examine ourselves according to the biblical tests we are given in God's Word. Let me pray for us. Our God and Father, your name be praised forever. You have saved us in Christ as the apple of your eye. You have exalted us to your right hand where we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ. And Lord Christ, you have commissioned us to go and to make disciples of all nations. And surely that disciple-making is, as I said a moment ago, all-encompassing so that everything and everyone in the culture is impacted by the truth of your word, which is able to save our souls. That in your people, Lord, your name Your name would be exalted. Your name would be displayed. Your name would bring life and rejoicing to dead sinners and to hopeless people. So I pray, make us know the way, make us know the way of your commandments. Teach us your paths. Lead us in your truth and teach us, for you are the God of our salvation. For you, we wait all the day. We love you and praise you, our God, and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.