Letting the Word Do Its Work

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James chapter 1, we're moving on to looking at the qualities needed in trials.
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We've been looking at profiting from trials. We looked at the perspective of the rich and the poor.
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We've been looking at loving God under trials. Now, James is going to tell us about qualities needed in trials.
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And then he moves on being doers and not only hearers. And it really starts right here in these verses.
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Now, I want to tell you what I've done. I originally set forth to look at, with us together this morning in our study, verse 19, 20, and 21.
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But I did not make it to verse 21. And I barely made it to verse 20.
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Because verse 19 is so packed. And you're going to see why in just a few minutes.
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So we're going to basically look at verse 19. And looking at how we can let the
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Word do its work. But we're going to be looking at the qualities needed in the trials. But basically we're going to be focusing on, honing in on reception.
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To receive the Word of God. That's what he's talking about. This is how we're to receive it.
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And he tells us this exactly by the Holy Spirit. So listen very closely.
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And as I always say, hear the Word, the living God. So then, verse 19.
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So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
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For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted
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Word which is able to save your souls. Let's pray.
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Our Father in heaven, I want to pray a simple prayer and a short one.
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But Lord, we want to mean it with everything we have. First of all is, oh, that we would see
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Jesus and none other. And second request,
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Father, is speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I pray this in Jesus' name.
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Amen. He graduated the 42nd in a class of 58 at his military academy.
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But Napoleon was perhaps the greatest military strategist of all time among all other things.
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As you well know a lot about Napoleon, if you've studied enough about his history, he was considered no doubt the greatest military strategist of all time.
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Napoleon addressed the problem of battlefield communication. The noise and the smoke of discharging rifles and cannons.
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Can you just picture it? The terror and adrenaline of combat while he was giving orders.
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Now listen closely. The ordinary failures of human speech conspired to impair wartime communications.
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Very important to have the right communications so that the commanders had difficulties coordinating battle plans with field radios more than a century away.
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Think of that. They did not have the radio communications as we do today.
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So human messengers had to convey all commands.
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And they were often garbled in the transmissions. Now think of this.
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Napoleon solved this problem, being the military great strategist as he was, in a novel way.
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And I think this is brilliant. And it has a lot to do with what we're going to be talking about today.
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He brought to his command center what is known as a marginal idiot.
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A marginal idiot. This was a man who could read but barely.
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That's what I call an idiot. Barely a man who had normal intelligence. Not high intelligence, but normal intelligence.
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But barely. And before sending orders to his generals by way of couriers, he presented his directions to the marginal idiot.
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Interested, isn't it? This is true. Now if the marginal idiot understood the directions he sent them, if not, he rewrote them until the marginal idiot did.
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Now you see where I'm going with this. Napoleon saw that it is not enough to tell the truth.
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You can tell the truth, but it must be understood. And it must be received.
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For what good is truth if it's not understood? And for what good is truth if it's not received?
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And if it's to do any good, long before Napoleon, James, the servant of Jesus Christ here, understood this principle of successful transmission of the truth.
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It's the transmission of the truth. And we're going to look at this.
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Our passage begins right there. And that's why I brought this introduction here, because it's very critical.
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It's okay. It's very critical.
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James desires his flock to understand trials correctly.
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He's speaking about trials. Now since trials pervade our lives, we see it time and time again, when trials come, when, it's not if, they're going to come.
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And you might as well get ready and be prepared because it's coming.
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And so he adds the words here, so then, my beloved brethren.
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You notice how beautiful the Holy Spirit is just pouring through this man's life as he writes this.
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The ESV, I like the ESV here actually a little bit better because it says, know this, my beloved brethren.
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Know this. Commentator Daniel Dorinian says this, quote, the simple exhortation contains two riddles.
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Know this, or so then, seems to be an imperative. But the Greek form can also be an indicative.
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You know this. Makes a difference, doesn't it? Yet the difference is small.
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Even if you know this, it's correct. It contains an implicit command.
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That's the difference. So you know this and should act accordingly, in other words.
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That's the Word of God. So it's important to get the translation there right.
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The second riddle, that's the first riddle. The second riddle concerns the phrases of connections is know this and the last word in the teaching on trials, which speaks in verse 12 through 18.
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We just finished verse 18, which basically focused on regeneration and how important it is to understand the importance of regeneration.
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That's a double negative, sorry, but it's important. Or it is the first word in the next section.
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It's the way you look at it here. The first word in the next section on the Word of God in verses 19 through 25.
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Now which is it? I would say both. I think that's a good answer.
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As again, we saw this earlier in verse 11 and verse 12.
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You see where some even theologians do not exactly know where and how to connect it.
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Where he's picking up a paragraph, but you can honestly say both is connected here.
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James' reader must take heart what he has said about his trials and they must heed. And that's the important thing is, brothers and sisters in Christ today, is that we heed what he says.
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And that's why it is important for us to have ears to hear, just not physical ears.
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How important this is. We must have spiritual ears to hear what
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God is telling us. How many times in Scripture do you read, Jesus says, he that hath ears, let him hear.
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People say, what in the world is he talking about? I got ears. Well, you got physical ears, but he's talking about spiritual ears.
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You've got to turn and tune in to what God is saying and to discern what he is saying.
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And that takes the Holy Spirit. And actually heeding what he says, and next about receiving the word and acting upon it.
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And that is so critical. And this is pretty much what James during the commentator says.
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So then the word of God is the believer's first resource, isn't it? When he or she faces temptations.
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It's the first resource when we face trials. It's everything.
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In order to get the right perspective, to get heaven's perspective, to get God's perspective of what is going on, because we're going to be lost in the smoke.
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We're not going to know what's going on. And here James presents a third test of a true believer.
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This is the third test. The first test was his response to trials, which we looked at in verses 2 -12.
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The second test was his response to temptations in verses 13 -18.
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And now he gives the third test. What is our response to truth?
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That's what he's saying. What is your response to truth? The revealed word of God. And this basically takes place in verse 19 to the end of the chapter, verse 27.
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I like what John MacArthur says here in his commentary. He says this, quote,
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When the true disciple hears God's word, there is an affection for its truth and a desire in his heart to obey it.
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He's talking about true believers. He goes on to say this, One of the most reliable evidences of genuine salvation is that hunger for the word of God.
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Psalm 42 -1. And that's the end quote for him. And how true, and how true, and how true that is.
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You love God's word. That is a sure sign of being a child of God and also to obey it, to delight in it.
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Oh, how I love that law and I delight in it, the psalmist said. So the test, and the test of our sinful desires constantly threatened to lure and entice us into sin, which we see this in chapter 1, verses 12 -14, we feel the tug of temptation as well, don't we?
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That's our flesh. There's that war. We looked at that a little bit.
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The inward man that delights, the new man delights after the law of God, but there's another part of us, that natural fallen man that's still there, is a constant battle.
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That's Romans 7. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul says. Oh, wretched man that I am.
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Paul was no doubt one of the most godliest men that ever lived. And he yet cried out, who shall deliver me from this bondage, this flesh in other words?
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And then he answers it, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thanks be unto God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He gives us that answer. So we're not to blame others, are we? We should not do that.
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We should not blame God. And he talked about that. And actually, what he talks about, we should turn to the
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Gospel. That's what he says. We should turn to the Gospel. The Gospel is everything, beloved.
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That's why we need to remind ourselves of it every day. What does the Gospel say? Well, the
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Gospel says, God will forgive all those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ, atonement for their sins.
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James calls this Gospel of God's grace and mercy in Christ the Word of Truth. That's what
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James is referring to, the Word of Truth. The Word of Truth can give us spiritual birth from above.
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We looked at that. So we can resist the temptation to bear fruit for God. That is as we've seen in verse 18.
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So I would like to think of it, you know, James is kind of picking up some sanctification here. But as the writer of Hebrews, I've read a lot of commentators on this, and there's a lot of people that get confused about this.
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You notice in the midst of that, he has a call for sinners to be saved.
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It's almost as he doesn't take it for granted that there's tares among wheat.
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There's a lot of commentators that kind of throw this back and forth. Is he writing this to the church?
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Yes, he is. He's writing this. We know this, don't we? Because in verse 1, he speaks about his identification, and then he says he's a bondservant of God and the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad. But he never ever takes it for granted that there are tares among the wheat.
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The same with the writer of Hebrews. That's why you see kind of thrown in there when the
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Holy Spirit would so desire him to call to repentance. And this is what he says in the last part of verse 21, which is able to save your soul.
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You need to receive with meekness the implanted Word. Then he calls for repentance.
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And I'm telling you, he brings in some strong language. And we will see that later. But first of all, our attention today in our text, and our full attention is to be attuned to the
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Word of God. We must attune our hearts and our ears. Mainly it's hearing with our hearts, just not our physical ears.
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But our hearts, our soul, our spiritual man. So James is eager to persuade his brothers and sisters in Christ to hear the
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Word of God so that they can face their trials. And how to face their trials? He has a passion here.
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A passion for wisdom and knowledge. He believes that the
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Word of God is the first source of both wisdom and knowledge. So you can actually call it the wisdom of James.
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Notice how pervasive wisdom and knowledge is in James chapter 1.
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I'll just call your attention very quickly on just some things. Look at verse 5.
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He says this, If anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask of God for it.
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He should ask God for it. Notice in verse 16 of chapter 1. He says,
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We must not be deceived. Then in verses 18 through 19, when contemplating trials, we must know that failure in our trials may prepare us for the
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Word of truth. See? The life -giving gospel. And in verse 21, which we'll be looking at Lord willing next week, we must receive the implanted
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Word, which has the power to give life, and then he follows it up on verse 22, we must be doers of the
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Word and not hearers only. See the importance of wisdom from God in this?
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It's the wisdom that James is speaking of. God's wisdom. It's heavenly wisdom, actually.
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It's not earthly wisdom. There's a difference. So we must be doers of the Word, not hearers only.
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Since the Word of God is so effective, we must receive it and let the Word of God do the work within us.
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You see, that's what it's talking about. In James chapter 1, verses 19 to 27, in which we'll be looking at,
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James focuses on two major truths that's relating to evidence of genuine salvation.
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First of all, saving faith is marked by proper reception of Scripture as of the
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Word of God. Then, in our text today in verse 19 through 21, the second is marked by a proper reaction to the
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Word of God reflected in obedient life. So it's important that we have reflected upon it, but we've got to have a proper reaction to it.
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It's the way we receive it. It's the reception. So, let me give you one more.
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I'm not going to use his outline on this, but we'll look at something else. But MacArthur does, credits given from MacArthur, he basically looks at, first of all, saving faith is marked by a proper reception in Scripture of the
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Word of God. So, just give him credit where credit is due. I had to insert that in there.
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Well, let's look at it. James has spoken about the Word of God and the Word of Truth as being the
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Word of Truth, by the way, and is what? The divine instrument of conversion.
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We saw that in verse 18. And it's important that we understand that because in regeneration, it is
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God's divine instrument. It is the Word of God. It's very important to hear us and to know this.
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Now, most of you in this, I believe, I would believe everybody in this room would believe that that is
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God's instrument in coming to Jesus Christ, in coming to the Father, coming to God, the
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Triune God, is the Word of God. It's the Word that is preached. That is the instrument.
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God has chosen that instrument to bring souls to the kingdom. It's not by the stars, folks.
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You see what I'm saying? You hear people say this. Mystically.
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Oh, I see the Gospel and the stars. They're very mystical. And they look out there and see.
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Well, look, creation bears witness that there's a God. But the general revelation is not enough to save my soul.
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The Word of God, the special revelation, right here in the 66 books of the divine inspired
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Word of God. Now that is what saves your soul. God's Word.
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Period. So that's why it's important for us to understand this. So that's why
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I believe James is grounded here. He uses this diligence in hearing.
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And by the way, not only hearing it, but receiving it. But we do it with reverence.
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Doesn't one of the... I almost said Jeremiah. One of the scriptures that say that your word is like a hammer.
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And there are many scriptures that say I tremble before it. I tremble before your word.
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Literally tremble. You're talking about reverence. See, on that ground,
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James is urging diligence in hearing with reverence and speaking about it.
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So what James is saying is this. Let me paraphrase it. He said, you see, it's a blessing and an honor that God has given you
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His Word. Don't take it for granted. Through it, He bestows
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His new life. That's everything. You can't have new life outside of the
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Word of God. By it, you are born into the kingdom of God. And by the Holy Spirit.
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Therefore, you must be quick to hear, quick to listen, or slow to listen.
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That is, we must have a teachable mind to wait on God's Word and to be slow to speak.
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You see, and slow to anger. We'll look at that. It kind of reminds me, I didn't write this down in my notes, but as I was just thinking of this,
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I said, why didn't I put that down in my notes? But you know how the mind is. Look at Elijah.
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Here he was in a cave. God speaks to him. How does God speak to him? Well, he's the prophet of fire, right?
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God comes and he just saw Mount Carmel. God spoke and fire came down from heaven and all the false prophet of Baal were slain.
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And then he runs like a coward, in a sense, from Jezebel when Jezebel threatens him and he runs to a cave.
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God teaches him a lesson. He hides in this cave for his life.
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And you notice what it says in the text that God sends a fire, but God wasn't in the fire.
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Then God sends an earthquake. Could you imagine being in a cave and an earth shakes? Here's this man of God there and he's probably trembling, but God wasn't in the earthquake.
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Then God sends a wind. Like a tornado, folks.
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Could you imagine being in a cave and a tornado comes by? But God wasn't in the tornado. But what was
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God in? The still, small voice. You know what that tells us?
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God's speaking. God speaks. He could speak in a whisper. You see?
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He could speak. You ought to hear it sometimes. R .C. Sproul, he's in heaven now, but you would think his conversion came through hearing a great verse of Scripture.
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It was one of these verses of Old Testament Scripture that God speaks about a tree, just a tree.
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And he said it's like God directed him right to Calvary by hearing about a tree. You see?
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God can speak in a still, small voice through a verse that you would never think of to touch a heart.
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You know why? Because God gets glory. It's not what you think is going to happen. It's what
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God has ordained. See, God is God. Don't you love it? That's God because God's going to get the glory.
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We're not going to glory in it. Who are we to glory in it? We're worms and maggots and dust.
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We're just instruments to be used for His service until we return to dust. But folks,
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God is God, and He's great, and He's going to use His Word the way He desires to use it.
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So what does He say? Be slow to speak. Boy, don't we have a lot to learn.
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Now let me say this first of all. When I was studying this, I stepped all over my toes.
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So I'm preaching to me here. So I'm not pointing the finger because I have failed in many respects in this great
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Scripture before us. Slow to speak. Slow to speak. What does it mean?
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Do not be rash giving your opinion about things concerning the faith. He's talking, applying to the
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Word of God here, okay? Just not just a normal conversation, but God's Word.
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Not to be rash. He says, be slow to anger. Slow to wrath, in other words.
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In other words, we're not to be angry with those who differ from us concerning the Word of Truth. We should be mellow.
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We should be meek. We should be really humble about it. Keep our hand to our mouth.
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So this section of Scripture deals with our reception on receiving the Word of God. There are really three points
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I'd like for us to consider here. Our willingness to receive the Word of God with submission in verses 19 -20.
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Then in verses 21a, our willingness to receive the Word with purity. And then third, our willingness to receive the
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Word of God in humility. So first of all, you have receive the
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Word of God with submission. And our willingness to receive, secondly, with purity.
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And then third, in humility. And we're not going to get to that third one all the way. So we're going to just look at the first two.
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So we are able to receive the Word of God in submission, in purity, and in humility. So let's look at verse 19 -20 again.
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Let me read it again. So important this is to all of us. You know, we have so much to learn, don't we?
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So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
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Let me stop right there. Now we already looked at my beloved brethren, right?
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I believe James is being pastoral. He kind of softens the blow again, okay?
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He knows that the hard truth is about to come. He knows where he's heading in his direction by the
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Holy Spirit. So he softens the blow, my beloved brethren.
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Isn't that a beautiful term? My beloved brethren. We've seen this refers back to the truth just expressed in verse 18.
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But first, the general truth of the power of the Word in regenerating believers in the early church and making them entirely new creations in Jesus Christ.
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And then second, it's a marvelous truth that those believers became, in fact, the first fruits among God's creatures.
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So by addressing his readers as my beloved brethren, he softens the blow.
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James is clearly indicating a deep compassion and a genuine concern for them.
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Now this is, you know, you think of it, he's just not writing a cold letter. It's warm.
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You can tell when somebody is putting on airs, right? Their heart's not in it.
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It's just words, you know, it's just something they do. James is meaning every bit of this.
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It's deep compassion. There's warm affection. He has a genuine agape love for these people, the brothers and sisters in Christ that are scattered abroad.
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James is being pastoral. He's being a shepherd of their souls. And in that he's saying, my beloved brethren, he is saying in essence, like every other wise
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Christian teacher, he's not simply trying to convince their minds in a purely intellectual way.
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Anyone could do that. But what is he trying to do? He's trying to reach their hearts.
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That's what he's after. And you know, I believe he learned a lot of this from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I really believe that. He walked with the Lord three years, all the disciples,
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Peter, James, and John was the three in the inner circle. And they learned the most,
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I believe, and they didn't get it until later on really, but as they gleaned back to the life of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and they looked at the perfect wisdom and operation, and oh, how they must have known.
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Oh, when Jesus asked those questions, wow, he was never on the defense.
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He was always on the offense. He knew how to put the people that was trying to trap him all the time, like the
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Pharisees and the Sadducees, but Jesus knew how to turn everything back on them and put them in the hot seat.
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Jesus responded in perfect wisdom. James' affection for them is equally as strong as his obligation to them.
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So James has a genuine love for their souls. He's being pastoral. He's being very pastoral.
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Now, another quote from MacArthur. I threw this one down from his commentary.
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He said, No matter how well the mind may understand and acknowledge a truth, it will be of little spiritual benefit to the believer or to the kingdom if the heart is not inclined to personally embrace and to submit to it.
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End quote. Let me say that again. It's so good. Listen very closely now. No matter how well the mind may understand and acknowledge a truth, it will be of little spiritual benefit to the believer or to the kingdom if the heart is not inclined to personally embrace and submit to it.
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That is good. And that's what James wants. That's what God wants every one of us to embrace.
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We have so many people by the scores going to church this morning.
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And they will hear sermon after sermon and truth and probably good ones. And it would just go right through one ear out the other.
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And it never hit right here, beloved, in their heart. But this is what
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God wants us to get. He's after your heart. He's after my heart.
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Just not our minds. Oh, He wants you to love Him with His mind. Your mind, after you're regenerated, needs to be transformed.
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It needs to be renewed. It's kind of like a computer. I kind of look at the mind like the computer. You know, a lot of times you have to hit the delete button and wash all this stuff out and get all the garbage out.
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But it's the process of the flow. You know, you have the eye gate and you have the ear.
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And you see what I'm saying? All this is... And sometimes I hear music and it's clogged up in there. And sometimes
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I'll be working trying to sing a hymn and then I heard this Elton John song in here and I can't get it out of my ear!
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In my head! You see what I'm saying? But I don't need to hit the delete button and start listening to a song that glorifies
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God. Instead of hearing about the yellow brick road or something. Okay, you know where I'm at.
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So, you've got to renew your mind. But the heart is what
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God wants to really take a hold of. That's your soul. That's your inner being. You know, we see each other from the outward here but who you really are is you know in your conscience, down deep, your heart of hearts.
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That's what God really wants to take a hold of. And that's why he actually spoke in verse 18 about what needs to be regenerated.
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So James is given important commands. Now this is what we need to look at. We're going to bore in on this.
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I'm not going to finish it. You know that. Now, these three commands that are so convicting for the believer who's willing to receive
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God's word with submission. These are three simple commands.
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But can I say this? They're simply powerful commands. They are simply convicting commands.
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And I don't know about you. Every time I read these three commands I get so convicted because I know
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I do not practice them as I should. But I want to. I desire to.
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And I want to learn more in how to do it. So I'm preaching to me as well to you this morning.
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So what's the first command? We must be quick to hear.
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Or slow to hear. I'm sorry. Swift to hear. I'm getting ahead of myself. Quick to hear.
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Let's look at this. Quick to hear. Quick to hear. Swift to hear. Swift or quick. You get the idea.
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Now, what's he saying? By the way, the brevity of these three exhortations is incredible.
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I meant to say this. You can actually summarize the entire book of James in these three commands.
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Can you believe that? Did you hear what I just said? In these three commands you can summarize the entire book of James.
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How's that, Pastor? Because if you look at it in chapter 1 from verse 21 to chapter 2, verse 26, he talks about how you can be swift to hear.
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Look at it. From chapter 3, verse 1 to verse 18, the whole chapter talks about how to be slow to speak.
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He deals with the tongue. And in chapter 4, verse 1 to chapter 5, verse 18, he talks how to be slow to wrath.
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So that's pretty much the whole book of James in these three commands. Isn't that incredible?
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Let's look at the first one. Quick to hear. You don't have to raise your hand, but I'm going to raise it.
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I raised both. How many of you have failed to be quick to hear? I have.
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Raise both of them. Be swift to hear.
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What does it mean? What does it mean? Let's look at it. This is an unusual command, isn't it?
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It's very unusual. Notice what he says. It almost has a trace of humor in it. It's like saying, hurry up and hear.
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Seriously. Hurry up and hear. Be quick to hear. Hurry up.
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It means that we should be ready to hear the Word of God. Not only others, but the
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Word of God. Now in the context, he's talking about God's Word, as well as godly counsel and admonition.
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That's important. I think we should be... But if we're swift to hear God's Word, we're going to be swift to hear when others speak to us as well.
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This is a careful listener, making sure that we pay attention in order to get the message right.
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That's what it's saying. A receptive heart opens the inner ears.
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Did you hear me? A receptive heart opens the inner ears. Be quick to hear.
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Swift to hear. It's interesting that James is opening up its oration to be quick to hear because it follows the same sequence that Luke uses after presenting the parable of the sower.
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Did you ever think of that? Jesus follows it with the exhortation in Luke 18.
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This is what Jesus says. Take care how you hear. Take care how you listen.
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Matthew 13, 9, he says the same thing. Jesus immediately follows the parable with, He who has ears, let him hear.
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See, everything that God is saying there is not accidental. It's so important that we tune our heart's ear, our inner ear, into what
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God is saying. James says that the mark of a heart that is receptive to God's Word is that it is quick to hear the
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Word. And Jesus told the Jews that disputed with Him in John 8, 47,
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He said, listen to this, He says, He who is of God hears the words of God.
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For this reason you do not hear them because you are not of God.
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That's pretty strong, isn't it? In other words, if you don't hear God's words, then you're not of God.
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Jesus said that before Pilate. He who is of the truth hears the words of truth.
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And Jesus was the truth. Obviously, these Jews in Jesus' day heard the sound, and I like to put it that way, they heard the sound of the words that Jesus spoke, but they really didn't hear them.
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You see what I'm saying? They were not deaf physically, but they were deaf spiritually.
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They were deaf spiritually, but they did not, and let me say this, they could not hear.
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They did not have that ability to hear. According to Jesus, they could not understand.
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And why? Because they were not born of God. It's that simple. You know, isn't it amazing, you read this in Romans 8, you are of God or not of God.
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You have the Spirit of God, or you don't have the Spirit of God. You notice how today people try to gray that?
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Yeah, right. There's no gray with God. You are or you're not.
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You're born again or you're not. You're in Christ or you're not in Christ. You're dead in your sins or you're dead to self and alive with God.
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You see what I'm saying? See, because they were not born of God, they lacked the ability to hear and understand spiritual truth.
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Paul said this. This is not Pastor David. 1 Corinthians 2 .14, but the natural man does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God for they are what? Foolishness unto him. And what does he say?
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And he cannot. Did you get that? He cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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You know what he's saying? Unless the Holy Spirit brings you in and you're regenerated, you will not hear the
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Word of God. A person can sit and listen to sermons. Hey, they can figure all the sermons out with their mind intellectually, but they will not have a heart to love
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God and love His Word. We have people by the scores like this, beloved.
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It is sad. To be quick to hear God's Word implies an attitude, beloved, that is an attitude of eagerness to take in the
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Word from every angle. So as a believer in Christ, we should desire to read the
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Word of God, listen to the Word of God, hear it taught, hear it read, hear it preached, memorize it, love it, meditate on it, be willing to understand its teaching with a view to obey it.
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Psalm 19, 10, David said this, of God's command, they are more desirable than gold, yes, much more than fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
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Have you ever taken honey and just upped it? How sweet and thick this honey is.
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He says, the Word of God is sweeter than honey. Isn't that great?
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The Apostle Peter says this, 1 Peter 2, 2, like newborn babes,
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I love this, like a newborn babe, long for, that means desire, for the pure milk of the
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Word so that by it you may grow to respect the salvation. You know what he's saying? You just take a look at a newborn babe.
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Let that baby go for a little long without the mother feeding its milk.
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And you tell me if that baby won't cry out. You just wait. That baby will cry and beller,
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I'm telling you what, until that baby gets milk. You know why? Because that baby is desiring milk to live.
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That baby knows that. You know, I had five growing up, and I remember all of them.
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Boy, I tell you what, Elizabeth don't remember, and Hannah doesn't remember those days, but I remember.
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And when they got hungry, and I did not have the goods to help them, only mom did.
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And boy, I tell you what, mom satisfied them. But you know, that's the way we should crave
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God's Word. You see, that's what the Bible's telling us. You should crave that Word just like that newborn babe craves that mommy's milk.
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Let me throw some questions. Evaluate your heart for God's Word. Do you truly delight in it? Do you truly love it?
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Do you truly long for it and crave it more than anything else in this world?
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Is it sweeter? Is it more sweeter than honey? Than the honeycomb?
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As the psalmist says. So this is a receptive heart that opens ears to God's truth.
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The second command is, God, let's go to the next one. James exhorts, be swift to hear.
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And then he says, slow to speak. I'm sorry. The first is swift to hear. The second, slow to speak.
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Now this one hits us all too. Matter of fact, if the first one got your toes,
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I guarantee if it didn't get you, the second one will get you. It will stomp on you.
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Surprising how much James has to say about the speech. Just read it.
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The receptive heart controls the tongue. Be slow to speak. I was telling
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Brother Keith this. When I studied and I read, just read these verses, I was finished right there.
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It ate me up. Cut me up. Again, in the context, James' exhortation first applies to the need to be slow to speak as a teacher of God's Word.
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That's in context. He develops this theme in chapter 3, verses 1 -12.
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But often out of pride, a new believer wants to sprout off in public.
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You ever seen? You know, I've done it. Time and I still have done it. A new believer, or a believer that should know better, in public will spout off how much he knows the
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Bible and the Christian life just to show his spiritual pride. Can we say, oh me?
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Those are called the spiritual pride. Spiritual pride.
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Wanting to show off in front of other people. To show people how giant of a
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Christian they are. But how do they do it? Through the lips. The lips.
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James is following the wisdom of the book of Proverbs, isn't he? Slow down. Hold your tongue, he says.
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That's what he's saying. You better hold that tongue or get it behind the trap of your teeth and close it and cage it up.
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Proverbs 17, 28. Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise.
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When he closes his lips, he's considered prudent. I don't know about you, but Solomon hits me hard. You're supposed to be wise in Jesus Christ's sin.
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And you say, if you run your mouth like this, you're considered a fool. But he says, even a fool, if he's quiet, is considered wise.
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A fool. As someone pointed out long ago, we have two ears, we cannot close, and one mouth we can.
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Why don't we do something about it? TV interviewer of the late, now he's dead,
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Larry King. He wasn't a Christian, far as I know of. I hope he became a
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Christian before he died, but I know this. He had a lot of preachers on his show.
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He had John MacArthur on there many times, and he would listen. He would ask questions. He was very good at it.
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He was very good at observing. Just look at some of the recordings back years ago.
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This man stayed quiet. He would ask a question, and he would let the minister talk.
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And he would listen. And you know what Larry King said?
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It's short. He's very wise in saying this, but he's right. I never learned anything while I was talking.
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He's right. I never learned anything while I was talking. Larry King's right.
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James is not forbidding us to interact, of course, with God's Word and asking questions. He's not forbidding that to gain insight and understanding.
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What is he saying? Rather, he's confronting the reason who is... I'm sorry, a person who is never silent and still before God.
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That's what he's saying. So there is interaction we've got to have, but we need to know how to do the interaction.
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I'm bad about this. I jump the gun, and I want to go ahead and pour my thoughts out. I need to say,
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David, just shut up and learn. What does the
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Scripture say? Be still and know that I am God. You know what that be still means?
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Be quiet. God is saying, be quiet and know that I'm God. In other words, to know that God is
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God, we must be quiet. It's almost like God says, be quiet. He's like the spiritual parent.
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Be quiet and know that I'm God. Even Eli, the priest, taught young Samuel to listen to the
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Lord, didn't he? 1 Samuel 3, 9. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.
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That's a good verse. James has given us caution in how to guard our conversations. You know, even nature itself teaches us this.
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Epatechus, did I say that right, Ben? I don't know. Epatechus noticed long ago nature has given to man, this is what he said, one tongue but two ears that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
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Wow. Solomon would agree with that. Proverbs 13, 3.
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Who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction.
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Wow. Proverbs 10, 19. In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.
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Wow. I give credit to Brother Keith here for sending me commentary on Puritan Thomas Mann.
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He really ate me up, brother. I couldn't read too much of him. He just tears you to pieces.
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But it's good. It's strong medicine. But I got a few quotes by him. In his commentary here,
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Keith sent me, he said this, thoughts only stain our spirits. Words tent others.
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Thoughts are less deliberate than words. With thoughts we sin with our minds only, with words with our minds and tongue.
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Wow. Proverbs 15, 1 -4. A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
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The tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.
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The eyes of the Lord are in every place keeping watch on the evil and good, and a wholesome tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.
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That's strong words. Words strike, hit harder than hammers.
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Don't you know that? I know it. Once you say it, you can't take it back. You know, a person can ask for forgiveness, but the damage has been done.
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You see what I'm saying? They say words, our words, hit harder than fists, harder than hammers.
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So we need to be very, very careful to be slow to speak. And here's another good reason, too.
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And here's another one I owe Brother Key to. And boy, when he sent this one, this ate me up. Jesus, you don't hear this much.
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R .C. Sproul said this, too. He says one of the least passages of Scripture you hear even behind the pulpit.
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Matthew 12, 36, 37. Jesus says, But I say to you that every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment.
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Oh, my. Verse 37, For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.
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Does that make you tremble? I'm trembling right now just to say that verse.
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Oh, we need to be careful with our tongue. We need to be so quick to hear, swift to hear, and slow to speak.
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The receptive heart opens his ears. He's quick to hear. But next, his receptive heart controls the tongue.
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Third, the receptive heart controls his emotions. It controls his emotions.
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Let's look at this one. We'll probably have to close with this one. Be slow to anger. Oh, my.
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This is another command. Does all three of those commands hit you? They hit me. Let me ask one question, a personal question.
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How do you respond when the Bible steps on your toes? That's personal, isn't it?
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How do you respond? How do you respond reading it? How do you respond when it's preached?
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It says something hard, and you may not like it, and it cuts you to pieces in your heart by the two -edged sword, and it confronts the way you think, and it confronts the way you live.
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How do you respond? Thinking it. What right?
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Most people would say, what right does that Word have over me? Every right.
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Because He's the sovereign God of the universe who spoke this. He's our
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Creator. The ends of the earth. He has every right. Let me ask another question.
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Are you truly submissive to it? Are you truly submissive to it? Do you have a desire to really obey it?
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One commentator said it like this, an angry spirit is never listening. An angry spirit is never a listening, teachable spirit.
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Wow. You know what's interesting? I was reading in the commentators, and they mentioned about John Calvin, and in this certain commentator, he speaks of Calvin's conversion, and says this, this is what
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Calvin said, God by a sudden conversion subdued, this is the only time he spoke about his conversion, by the way,
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God by a sudden conversion subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame.
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Wow. Now that's conversion. Yes, sir. End quote.
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This is in the preface of the commentary on the book of Psalms that Calvin wrote. A teachable heart has stopped fighting angrily against God.
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He has thrown up the white flag and says, I surrender. You have rights over me.
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You take my soul, spirit, and body. That's what it means to be submissive to the
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Lordship of Jesus Christ. His Lordship, just as it was mentioned earlier about Saul, when he was first converted, was one of the first things he said out of his mouth.
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Lord, what do you want me to do? Oh my,
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I can go on. Do you live and truly submit to God with our hearts? That's the question.
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James 1 .20 gives us the reason that we should be slow to anger. And what does he say? For the anger of man does not achieve or produce the righteousness of God.
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If we want to grow in righteousness, we must stop fighting God's Word and submit to it.
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A man who is quick -tempered does not produce the kind of righteousness that God expects from His children.
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You see, those who lose their temper, and I've been there, give people a wrong impression about Christianity, don't they?
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And it hurts our testimony. And it hurts the name of God. Well, what kind of application do we have here?
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There's much, but I only have time for one. It should be evident as a true child of God that a true child of God, a regenerate believer, has a desire to please
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God. And by pleasing God, he produces good fruits. Go with me to Galatians.
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Galatians chapter 5. I'm trying to put the landing gear down right now, so bear with me.
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Galatians 5 is so, so critical.
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You know, Proverbs 16 .32 says this, He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. He who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.
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Notice what the Word of God says in verse 19 of chapter 5. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. And then
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He gives a list. Now, this is very, very crystal clear, which are, number one, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness.
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That word lewdness is interesting. It basically means an excessive behavior or lack of restraint.
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It evidently became associated with sexual excess or indulgence.
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That's what lewdness means. Idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath.
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There it is. That's works of the flesh now. Selfish ambitions, dissensions.
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It's an interesting word too. Dissensions, contentions, basically heresies.
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Many of these sins manifest in areas of human relationships, have to do with some form of anger, by the way.
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Envy, murders, drunkenness, reveries, and the like. And notice what He says,
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Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I have told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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Now, you notice what He did. He first gave you the bad news. Those are the works of the flesh, of those who are not saved, not regenerated.
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If anyone is in the church practicing these kind of sins, I can guarantee you, assure you, that they are not children of the living
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God. Now, we may fall and slip at times. You see what I'm saying? But what
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He's saying is practice these things. Okay? But what is He doing?
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Now He gives the positive. He just marked off the works of the flesh, verse 22.
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But the fruit of the Spirit is... Notice what He said. Now, He didn't say fruits, plural.
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It's almost like one cluster. You see what I'm saying? One plant, one fruit, all clustered together.
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Love, joy, peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness. These are attributes of Jesus Christ.
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This is the way the real Christian should look like. This is the way he behaves. These are the attributes that he possesses by the
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Spirit of God. Love, joy, peace, long -suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness.
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Here it is. Self -control. That's opposite of what He said in the works of the flesh of outburst of anger, right?
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Outburst of wrath. Self -control. And then He says, again, such there's no law.
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And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
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Nailed it to the cross. And then He says this, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the
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Spirit. And let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
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Oh my, I could spend all day right there, but this is a good application for all of us. It's very important that our response, that the way we live, glorifies
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God. The natural reaction is not to glorify
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God and live in the flesh, practice those things in the flesh.
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But if we're going to glorify God, this is the way you glorify God. It's the fruit of the Spirit. These are the attributes of Jesus Christ.
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Response. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, and leave vindication to God.
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A lot of people say, I mentioned this the other day to a milk guy, and I said it in such a way
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I was not directing it toward him in a pharisaical way, but he was going on and on bragging he was in a bar, how he beat up somebody, and he was boasting about it.
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And he said, this guy went way too far, he was drunk, and all
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I said, you know, I said, you know, vengeance is the
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Lord. That's all I said. Yeah, but God gave you common sense to take care of yourself.
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Won't you take care of yourself? I said, well, sure, if my life was threatened, I mean, I'm not going to sit back and let somebody beat me to a pulp.
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I mean, I'm going to take care of my family. Now it's different.
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If I'm on trial for Jesus' sake, that's a different situation.
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If I'm at home and somebody's trying to break in, of course, you can take care of your family.
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I mean, wisdom is justified over children. God gives you that kind of sense. But when it comes to vengeance, you see what
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I'm saying? There's a difference. This guy just came unglued. All I said, I said, vengeance is the
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Lord. God's going to vindicate. Oh, he didn't like that. This guy's been avoiding me like the plague.
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I said, oh, I mean, I told the truth. I'm not going to worry about it. It's in His lap.
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I'll pray some seed until it takes place there, falls on good ground. Thomas Mattin, let me close with this.
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Thomas Mattin again. Anger is curbed by delaying it. Be slow to become angry.
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He goes on to say this. Anger does not grow by degrees. Like other desires, at birth she is full grown.
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Proverbs 19, 11 says, A man's wisdom gives him patience. Many men are like gunpowder.
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They ignite at the least offense. When people are quick to become angry, they dishonor
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God. Boy, he gets to the point, doesn't he? And wound their own conscience.
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Later, they are sad about the effects of their sudden anger. And he says,
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Athadanias advised Augustus, when he was overtaken by anger, to repeat the alphabet. Interesting.
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Say the alphabet. This advice was good, as it tended to cool a sudden rage.
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So that the mind, being distracted, might deliberate later on.
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End quote. Ecclesiastes 7, 9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.
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That's the wisdom of Solomon again. Keep in mind, you see, man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
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Don't have time to go on in this verse. But, we've got to also remember this.
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James gives us reasons for this last cause. Man's anger stops them from attaining
01:04:38
God's righteousness. And from doing what God requires in His word. Let me close with Matton's words one more time.
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Quote, From the context, note that the worst things can be bring to a religious controversy is anger.
01:04:55
The context speaks about anger occasioned by differences about the word of God.
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He says this, Usually no passions are so outrageous as those that are engaged in quarrels about religion.
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How true. Listen to this. However this should not be the case. I love what he gives here.
01:05:15
He gives us some wise advice. He says this, Christianity of all religions is the meekest and the most humble.
01:05:23
It is founded on the blood of Christ, who is a slain lamb.
01:05:29
It is sealed by the Spirit of Christ, who is descended like a dove. Both are emblems of meek humility.
01:05:38
Should a meek religion be defended by our anger, or the God of peace served with angry passions?
01:05:47
Christ's warfare does not need such godly weapons. The devil's kingdom is often ruined by the rage of his own instruments.
01:05:58
You cannot assist Satan more than when you wrong the truth by an unseemly defense of it.
01:06:06
Use strong arguments but soft words. So James was trying to contain and defuse a personal resentment of hostility that plagued some in the churches of his time.
01:06:22
And this is how he was approaching it. Of course, I don't have time to go into this.
01:06:28
There are just causes of anger, and we see this in the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy anger against sin.
01:06:34
And just because you're angry doesn't mean it's always sin. There is a righteous anger, but a lot of times we excuse a very fleshly anger to holy anger.
01:06:46
You know what I'm saying. Jesus had a holy anger when
01:06:53
He went into the temple to cleanse it in Jerusalem. He turned the tables upside down.
01:07:02
He made it into a place of business, trading and merchandising where it should have been a place of prayer.
01:07:09
And He expressed His holy anger twice by driving out the responsible for the desecration.
01:07:22
Mere personal anger, bitterness, and resentment can never, never, ever serve in the cause of Christ. For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
01:07:33
Let's pray. Father, we thank You so much, and our desire is to please
01:07:38
You in all that we do and have the attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. Lord, help us to be filled with Your Spirit so then we can walk and live in the
01:07:48
Spirit. Help us, Lord, to crucify the flesh with its passions and desires.
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We've all fallen short of what I've ministered here today. Lord, I pray for grace for each and every one of us.
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Oh, for grace to trust You more and to help us in these matters. And that's my prayer.