WWUTT 266 Slow to Anger?

James says let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, because a quick -tempered person is not reacting according to the spirit, they are reacting according to the flesh when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everybody. Open in your

Bible, if you will, to James chapter 1. We continue our study today in verses 19 through 21.

I want to tell you before getting into this that I have had the worst allergies over the last 12 hours or so.

In fact, there was a period of a couple of hours in there where I was sneezing continuously. And if it's true that your heart stops every time that you sneeze,

I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack. I've already had to stop this recording several times just to sneeze and blow my nose.

So this isn't going to be terribly long today, but I still wanted to provide you with something on your Monday. So we look at James chapter 1, beginning in verse 19.

He says, We go back to verse 19 here, where he says,

And when he says, know this, like he's calling attention to something that those who are receiving this letter of his should already know.

The scriptures that are given to us in the Old Testament on the importance of taming the tongue. We read in Proverbs 10, 19,

So there are instructions all over the scriptures on being careful about the words that we speak.

And James will talk about this a couple of times. He'll bring this up again about the tongue being an unquenchable fire.

Now there's still a certain context that we're in here in James 1, 19. Remember how James started the letter?

Count it all joy. My brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, what would the adverse of that be?

Not counting at all joy when you meet trials of various kinds, right? Being quick to get angry about your situation or lashing out at people when they don't do what you expect them to, or things don't go the way that you expect them to go.

When we respond with a, in a quick tempered manner, such as this, this is a fleshly response.

It's not spiritual. It's worldly to quickly get angry about our search, about our circumstances, our situation.

And we show that we lack trust in God and love for other people.

If we know, and we say that God has been patient with me, he showed his love toward me, though I was a wretched center.

I had, I was rebellious against God. I had sinned against God and what I deserved with his was his wrath, but he was patient toward me and showed his love and mercy to me.

If you believe that, then you will show that you believe that in the way that you display that same love and mercy and patience with other people, though they do not behave in a way that is righteous or in a way that you expect you are patient with them.

So you, you show that you believe that God was patient with you when you are patient with other people.

If you believe that God is sovereign and you believe that God is predestined from the beginning of the world, the way that all things are, including your salvation, and yet you are quick to get angry about your situation, you are showing by your responses and your reactions that you don't actually believe from the very core of your being that God is indeed in control of all situations.

This is not going the way that I want it to go. So selfishly, I'm going to respond because I think that this should go another way.

And when you curse your situation like that, you're actually cursing God for not doing things the way that you expect them to go.

Rather, we need to rejoice in all circumstances when we meet trials of various kinds, because we know that God is working all things together for good for those who love

God and are called according to his purpose. And he is using this situation and this circumstance for something great, shaping us into the image of Christ.

If we believe that, then we will show that in our actions by not getting angry quickly by being slow to speak and quick to hear what the

Lord has to say. Because notice here that the verse that goes with this is verse 21, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

And that phrase able to save your souls is progressive sanctification. It's that progress of growing in holiness and the righteousness of God according to his word.

And there is a scripture for every single situation. You know, in this age of smartphones in which we live, we say there's an app for that, right?

Well, for any situation, for any circumstance that you face, there is a scripture for that.

It doesn't matter the cultural context or the generation in which we live.

The word of God still speaks into our present situation. And so instead of getting quickly angry at things, not going the way that we expect them to go, instead, we need to receive with meekness.

What does being meek mean? Here's a hint. It does not mean weakness.

Meekness does not mean weakness just because they sound the same doesn't mean they mean the same thing to be a meek person means to show a gentle and a quiet spirit, not wanting to fight and quarrel with others.

And in this particular circumstance, according to the context that James is presenting here It means not fighting and arguing with God when things are not going your way.

So with meekness, with gentleness, with reverence, receiving the implanted word, which is a beautiful phrase and James is actually drawing from the

Old Testament again here. As God says to his people in Deuteronomy 30 verse 14, the word is very near you.

It is in your mouth and in your heart. It is implanted. And the

Lord also says through Jeremiah, I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.

It's Jeremiah 31, 33. So this is the implanted word we're talking about. If we know the word of God, we've studied it.

It's been written on our minds and our hearts. We need to receive it with meekness, being reminded once again, these words that we have heard, not just listening to them and then walking away from them and not remembering what they are, which is what

James is going to go into in the next section when we get in verse 22. But if we've heard the word of God and we have received it, then let us do it.

Let us put it into action that it governs every decision and thought that every decision we make, every thought that we do is being guided by the implanted word of God, which is a progressing us in our sanctification.

So the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. When we understand this charge to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

We're not saying that, that all anger is wrong. That's not what James is saying here, and we don't see that reflected elsewhere in the scriptures either.

In fact, we read in Ephesians chapter four, verse 26, be angry and do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your anger. So there is an anger that we can have that as a righteous anger, but don't let the sun go down on your anger in which it turns into bitterness and resentment.

And don't be quick to get angry where we're responding as a reaction to the flesh.

But this, this quick tempered lashing out that we tend to fall into most frequently and most often, which everybody does, this is not a righteous anger.

This is not producing the righteousness of God. It hinders growth in godliness. So we need to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word.

And this is, this is James speaking as though taking off a garment, okay, put away all your filthy rags, this rampant wickedness that we were in when we were walking as sinful people and instead as we are growing in the righteousness of Christ, we need to not do those things any longer.

The apostle Paul makes several references that are quite similar. Like in Ephesians four 22 where he talks about taking off the old and putting on the new, he puts it that way with the

Colossians as well as in Colossians chapter three. So if we are in Christ, we are a new creation.

The old is gone and the new has come as Paul puts it with the Corinthians. So we need to take off the old and put on the new, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness.

This, this wicked tendency that we have to respond with words that we should not be speaking as creatures of God, as followers of Christ, words that should not be coming out of our mouths.

And with the implanted word on our souls that we are putting into practice and action.

So from the inside out, that word is being displayed in what we do and the way that we live.

We are able to temper ourselves from reacting in a worldly or a fleshly way and instead responding in a godly and a patient way.

And that is what we need to be striving toward, which God will help us do.

He will not leave it to us to have to do this on our own because quite frankly, we can't do it on our own.

It is God who gives us the strength to endure. It is rejoicing in all circumstances that produces a steadfastness of faith as we read in James one, two, and three.

So let us get in the habit of rejoicing in all of our circumstances so that our faith matures and grows all the more.

We're producing godliness. We are growing in righteousness. We are giving God thanks for all our circumstances because we know he is sovereign and he is in control.

We are being patient with others around us. Even when, and especially when they don't do as we expect them to, or they don't act the way that we think that they should act because God was patient with us in our sin.

He is being patient with us now to grow us in this process of sanctification. And so we must be patient with others as well.

As we read when we were in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 15, it says that those of you who are mature have an obligation to bear with the failings of the week and not to please yourselves.

Let us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

And we need to continue to put that in action and the patience and love and mercy that we display toward other people because God is showing that toward us every second of our lives.

Great God, we thank you so much for the grace that you have given us through Jesus Christ, your son, our

Lord, our savior. And we pray that by the power of Christ, by his strength, we would be able to rejoice in all of our circumstances and put into practice trusting in you as the sovereign

Lord of all things, creator of all things, and also putting into practice of patience and a mercy and love that we need to display toward other people because that is what you display toward us.

So continue to speak to us this word as we have heard it today. Let it be written on our hearts in such a way that it continues to teach us as we go so that we are producing the righteousness of Christ in our actions and our behaviors driven by the word of God.

It's in the name of Jesus. Jesus we pray, amen. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his

Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Who will sustain you?

Who will sustain you to be guiltless in your death?

Jesus Christ, yeah, yeah, yeah. Who will sustain?

Who will sustain?

Who will sustain? Who will sustain us in good day?

Jesus Christ, yeah, yeah, yeah. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. We hope you are a part of a church family committed to gospel teaching, and we thank you for including us in your

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