Quick in Hearing and Doing (James 1:19-27)

James 1:19-27

Quick in hearing and doing

Sunday, August 28, 2022

Pastoral Prayer

Sister Church: Faith Baptist Church (Replanting Process)

Bangkok Baptist Church (Bangkok Thailand)

Our City, hope in the midst of hopelessness

Our Church: that we would be hearers and doers of the word.

Introduction

In 1976, Gary Gilmore was the first person on death row in nearly a decade. And before his execution, he was asked if he had any final words. He responded, “Let’s do it.” And as provocative as it was, the phrase stuck with Dan Weiden who pitched the phrase “Just Do It” as Nike was coming onto the sports clothing scene in the late 1980’s.

And as crazy as the origin is, the phrase, “Just Do It” grew like wildfire and has become one of the most popular and well-known slogans. It’s catchy, especially in the sports world because as things are tough, you say Just Do It. As workouts are challenging, Just Do It. As competition seems impossible, Just Do It. And while this phrase is great for sports, it also works great when it comes to the pages of the Bible.

When we read God’s authoritative word, it tells us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We need to just do it. No questions, but obedience. When the Bible tells us to be holy for the LORD our God is holy. We need to just do it, for the Bible tells us to. That is, God tells us to. And it is to this point that James takes us this morning in our text, James 1:19-27. James has begun to work to show us what it means to be single-minded and whole in a true faith. And he will continue to do so. So how do we labor to be whole in a true faith? Hear the word of God through his servant James in James 1:19-27….

Main Idea: For pure faith, we must receive the word of the gospel, be transformed by the gospel, and live out the gospel.

Receive the Word

Do the Word

Self-examination

Receive the Word

Many of us may struggle to admit this, but if we are honest, most of us are better talkers than listeners. Before we can rightly understand and therefore speak rightly about something, we must first listen. When we fail to listen, anger will rise. Anger will arise because of misunderstanding. Misunderstanding that could have been resolved if we had simply been quick to hear instead of quick to speak and quick to anger.

We do this all the time in our various relationships. Someone is talking and explaining something but they are quickly interrupted as someone is too quick to speak. And then misinterpretation of what was being said takes place, then anger rises. This takes place in the home, in friendships, and it often happens in the church among one another. And this is all problematic. Especially since much of it could have been resolved if we were just quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

James writes, instructing these beloved brothers and sisters to know that every person is to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. But he writes not just for us to be quick to hear anything and everything. While we have all probably heard this call to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, do we realize that this call to be quick to hear is not pointing to one another as the main point? It certainly is an appropriate application, but it is not the main application for it is not the main point of the text.

We are being instructed to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger in relation to God’s holy word. Look back to verses 17-18 with me. It says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

The call to be quick to hear follows the statement that those who are in Christ have been brought forth by the word of truth. So they are to be quick to hear this word of truth. Likewise, following the call to put away, that is put off, all filthiness and rampant wickedness, James calls his leaders to receive with meekness the implanted word.

You see the emphasis of being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger has to do with the word of truth, the word of God himself. This is essential because the context for these early Christians is a context of living dispersed across the known world as they now are forced to live in exile.

Their hearts would have been tempted to be slow to hear God’s word and speak about the harshness of their conditions, the unfairness of them. They would have been tempted to speak against their new neighbors in condemning them as they lived apart from the word of truth. Their anger could have been quick to arise and seek vengeance for the suffering that had come upon them. Therefore it was essential if they were to be made whole, with a singular purpose of loving the LORD, their God, they needed to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

Notice the reason that is given first there in verse 20 of why it is so crucial that they not be quick to speak and quick to anger. For the anger of man (that is mankind), does not produce the righteousness of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ himself dealt with anger in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:22 we read, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother (brother or sister) will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother (brother or sister) will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Anger doesn’t produce the righteousness of God, it doesn’t produce character that is aligned with his. For even in Exodus 34:6 we read, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”

If the LORD, our God is slow to anger in all his holiness, we certainly must be slow to anger as we are not holy apart from his making us holy in Jesus. Our anger will not draw us closer to the LORD, but further away. Therefore, James calls us to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness in us, especially that which relates to anger. All that stands against the righteousness of God, all that is sin must be thrown off.

A number of years ago, while the last few cows were being milked, cleaning out the hallway which the cattle came in at. It was deep with manure and starting to cause issues, so it needed pushed out. As I was shoveling it out to the larger area where we could get a tractor to scrap it, I found myself in trouble. My boots had a pair of hooks on them and they got caught up. I found myself falling into a load of manure. From head to toe, I was covered in it. I wasted no time, I ran to hose myself off and go change into clothes that were not soiled in manure. I wasn’t going to remain in those clothes throughout the remaining 4 or 5 hours left in the day.

Just as I needed to quickly put off those soil-covered garments, we must quickly put off the old sinful clothing, sinful nature in us. Specifically when it comes to putting off the filthiness and rampant wickedness of anger. For that anger will rarely be righteous, justified anger. We often like to fool ourselves that when we get angry we are angry like Jesus. Jesus in his anger was righteous because he acted in the will of God. When we are angry, it is mostly because we have been offended in some way and we don’t like it. We rarely are concerned about the glory of God in our anger, we must acknowledge that and put it away.

But with putting these off, putting them away, we are to receive the implanted word with meekness. First, we need to understand what it means when it says with meekness. Meekness is a word we know if we know our Bible, but there is often confusion about what this word means. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of meekness is a mild, moderate, humble, or submissive quality. Therefore we need to receive this implanted word with humility. We aren’t to be proud as we receive it. In other words, we have no room to boast in the receiving of this word.

But what is this implanted word that we are called to receive with meekness? The implanted word is describing God’s word being planted deep and securely within us. To receive the implanted word is to receive God’s word as true, to believe it, and to have that word stored securely in our hearts. Doug Moo puts it like this, he says, “Christians who have truly been ‘born again’ (v.18) demonstrate that the word has transformed them by their humble acceptance of that word as their authority and guide to life.”

We can also better understand this language as we remember Jesus’ parable of the soils and the seed. The seed being that of the gospel, the good news of Jesus. And when it lands in good soil, it bears fruit. Likewise the implanted word is that which describes good soil and growing. And it is this gospel that is able to save our souls. Not just in our initial salvation, but in our ongoing salvation.

This implanted word as it goes out, whether for the first time or continues to be reaffirmed works to save us when received in meekness. For this implanted word cuts to the heart, it cuts to the depth of our soul and spirit, of our joints and marrow as it works to expose who we really are and the hope we can have in Jesus.

Friend, if you are not yet a Christian. If you have yet to believe in the good news about Jesus having come to lay down his life by the shedding of his own blood to purchase you from your sins. You need to receive this word, to believe. Believe his sacrificial death paid the debt you owe for your sin. Believe that Jesus rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God. Be quick to hear this word and believe it.

Christian, likewise, we need to continue to be quick to hear this ongoing word, allowing it to continue to plant deep within us. Securing the word of truth more and more in our hearts. For as the trials come, as suffering comes, we are quick to forget. We are quick to lose sight of what has already been done for us in Christ.

But we must ask ourselves even now, how quick are we to hear this implanted word? In his commentary on James, Kent Hughes notes the challenges for us today in being quick to hear. He writes, “Bible reading, the primary source of God’s Word, is in jeopardy, for not only do people have trouble concentrating, but films and videos are the primary way many learn. The written page is too tame to hold their attention. Devotions, likewise, suffer. The devotional prayer of the modern man is, ‘Lord, speak to me! You have sixty seconds.’ There is no place in the busy secular desolation to hear God say, ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10).”

We can say with words all we want that we want to hear from God. But if we fail to be still and actually open up his word we are not being quick to hear the word. If we are not rightly preparing to come sit under the preaching of the word, we are not being quick to hear. To be quick to hear the preaching of God’s word, we must come expecting to actually hear from God. To know that by the reading and preaching of that word, that we will actually hear from the voice of God. Not simply because of the preacher, but because God’s word is being extolled and explained. Are we eager to hear that word?

But let me address another issue that hinders us from being quick to hear this word of truth. We approach God’s word carelessly. We either rush through our Bible reading, failing to meditate on what it actually says. Or we approach the Bible and randomly select where to read as if we are spinning the wheel on Wheel of Fortune and landing in the Bible and reading a few verses in isolation without its context. In doing this, we miss what God is actually saying.

The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is one story of how God has pursued us as mankind to restore us to himself through the sacrificial offering of his beloved son, Jesus. The whole Bible centers on this. Therefore, if we are to be quick to hear the word of the LORD, we must handle God’s word as it was intended. For example, this letter written by James would have been opened and read in its entirety on the LORD’s Day in its origin and then applied. Christian, when is the last time you have sat down to read the whole of a book of the Bible in 1 sitting to capture the whole of what is being said? We must be quick to hear God’s word.

If we fail to be quick to hear God’s word, we will fail to understand who God is, fail to understand the deep effect sin has had on our world, we will fail to see how God is at work through Jesus to make all things new, and then we will ultimately fail to see how we need to rightly respond to it all. The reason many professing Christians are angry with the world is not because of the great evil in the world. It is because we have failed to rightly understand who God is and what he is doing. The way to fix this is to be quick to hear God’s word, slow to speak, and slow to anger.

And then as we are quick to hear his voice, let us be quick to also obey that word as well. And that is where we turn in our second point this morning.

Do the Word

Again, being quick to hear is crucial, but we are not to only be hearers of the word. We are to be doers of the word. The goal of hearing isn’t to enter one ear and go out the other. James wants us to be aware that true believers, true servants of the LORD Jesus Christ are not those who simply know God’s word, listen to it being taught, and read their Bibles. Those with true faith are doers of the word. The implanted word that is to be received with meekness is to lead us to action.

It does us no good to hear the marching order of the church in the call to ‘go and make disciples of all nations in baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that Jesus has commanded us and yet we do not do it. For we would be merely hearers of the word and not doers. It does us no good to hear God’s call for his people to be holy, yet for us to live in ungodliness. It does us no good to hear God’s call for us to love our neighbor and show favoritism. It does us no good to hear God’s call for us to be the light of the world while we live in darkness or put the candle under a bucket. To be only hearers of the word, James tells us that we deceive ourselves.

We deceive ourselves, because we call ourselves religious, but we prove that we aren’t. For no one can claim to believe something if they do not act on that belief. We cannot say that God’s word is the word of truth and then not act on that word.

As the gospel goes out, as we receive it; it shows us rightly who we were in our sin. The aim of the word of truth as it goes out is to reveal our true nature and then change us as new life is breathed into us through that word and the Holy Spirit. For this is the very thing Jesus teaches Nicodemus in John 3 is that we need to be born again. Yet, if we are only hearers of God’s word, no new birth has taken place. This is why James uses the illustration that one who is a hearer of the word and not a doer is like one who looks intently into the mirror, examines himself, and yet goes away and forgets what he was like.

Now, be honest with me here, how many of you go and look in the mirror, notice that your hair is a mess, and do nothing about it? Or go back to those Jr. High years, how many of you went to the mirror, noticed a zit, and then just forgot about it? My guess is not one of us. You don’t look carefully at yourself and then forget or do nothing about what you saw. And yet, this describes the one who simply hears God’s word, but then does nothing about it.

One cannot hear the word of God and not do it and say they have submitted themselves to being a servant of King Jesus. The one with a pure and true faith is the one who hears the word of God and has a regular pattern of obedience. The call to be doers of the word is not a call to press against the tender conscience. The call to be doers of the word is a call to those who have no regular pattern of doing what the word instructs us to. It is a call against those who forget that we are all sinners and the only hope is the grace of God to us through his implanted word, the gospel.

That is why, as seen there in verse 25, it is the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres who is blessed in his doing. For this is not merely talking about the law of the Old Testament, at least not in the way the Pharisees would have read it, apart from pointing to the Messiah. The one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, is the one who looks at the law through the lens of the gospel. They see Christ Jesus, the one who came to fulfill the law and give us a new law in himself. A law of liberty, a law that perfects the conscience, a law that leads to life through faith. Therefore, the one who looks carefully into this law is one who is transformed, one who receives the implanted word in all humility and carries out that word in their lives.

But now, having seen the necessity to be both quick to hear and receive the word, the necessity to hear So, how do we test ourselves to see if we are obeying the word? And that is where we quickly turn in our final point this morning,

But now, having seen the necessity to be both quick to hear and receive the word, the necessity to hear So, how do we test ourselves to see if we are obeying the word? And that is where we quickly turn in our final point this morning,

Self-examination

ames gives us three tests in verses 26-27. We read…

The first test to see if we are truly hearers and doers of the word, living in a true faith is the test of the tongue. The way we know we are deceived and fail to have a true faith is if we fail to bridle our tongues. In fact, he says our religion is worthless.

The tongue can be a great evil. For it is full of deadly poison. And it is to be bridled. Those who have been brought forth by the word of truth become slow to speak, controlling their tongue, not allowing it to freely flow.

Therefore, the first way of testing ourselves to see if we have a true faith that is being made whole is to examine if our tongue is bridled and under control or not? Proverbs 21:23 says, “Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.”

The second test to see if we have a pure and undefiled religion, that is faith, is the test of our care for the most vulnerable. In verse 27 we see the call to visit orphans and widows in their affliction. In the ancient world, the widow and the orphan were extremely vulnerable. There were no retirement funds. There was no life insurance policy to care for them. In a society that had very little available for a woman or a child, they would have been helpless. Therefore, the one who has a pure religion, that is a pure faith, they are going to love their neighbor by caring for the most vulnerable of society.

Specifically, they were to care for the most vulnerable by doing so in the midst of their affliction. We will actually punt this to next week, as this flows better with James 2:1-13. But for now, see that this is part of a true faith.

But the final test that James gives to see if one has a true and pure faith is that those who do are kept unstained from the world. To be kept unstained from the world is not saying that we don’t interact with the world. In fact, to do so would miss that Jesus went to eat with sinners. Jesus showed compassion on the suffering of the world. No, to be kept unstained from the world is showing that to have a true and pure faith is to not be overcome by worldliness. To not have our treasures in this world, but stored in heaven. To have our affections not for this world, but the world to come. To have our affections and allegiance not to earthly kings, but the King of glory.

Each of us needs to examine ourselves to see what kind of faith we actually have. To see if it is a true and pure faith or if we are merely deceiving ourselves. And if we find that we are lacking, we need to run to the word of truth as it points us to our continued only hope in Jesus. Remember that these are to flow out of us once the word of truth, the gospel has penetrated our hearts, bringing us to life in Jesus. These tests should not cause us disparage, but they should lead us to repentance and all the more leaning on the arms of Jesus.

Let’s pray….