1. How should you receive the Word of God? With meekness (19-21)
a. Receive with meekness by listening
b. Receive with meekness by humbling ourselves
c. Receive with meekness by implanting
2. How should you respond to the Word of God? With action (22-27)
a. Respond with action by continuing
b. Respond with action by walking
c. Respond with action by talking
d. Respond with action by loving
e. Respond with action by living
JAMES 1:21-22
We just spent four weeks looking at how James introduced his letter. That’s a pretty long introduction, isn’t it? That’s because he said a lot in those verses. And for us to understand why God had him write the rest of the book, we have to understand that introduction. Otherwise, we’ll just end up with a collection of sayings. Good advice with no real connection to reality. But every part of this book is connected by a purpose. It’s connected by the purpose of self-examination. You know, there are lots of people in this world that call themselves Christians. Many call themselves Christians who shouldn’t. Those are the people whose lifestyle is contrary to the lifestyle Jesus calls us to. Unfortunately, those people never seem to doubt their Christianity. But on the other hand, there are some people who call themselves Christians and live in constant doubt. Like all Christians, they wrestle with sin in their lives. But their wrestling leads to doubt and insecurity. They question the reality of the work Christ did in their lives. It is a sad thing that many people who never question their salvation, need to. And many others who question their salvation, shouldn’t. In the first week we started looking into James, I said that this book can be looked at as an exposition of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It seems that James, who was Jesus’ half-brother and the pastor of the church in Jerusalem took Jesus’ words there in Matthew 5-7 and preached on them. He preached on them and put portions of his sermons down on paper for the Jewish Christians who had been scattered because of persecution. I can imagine that as James stood to preach the sermon that his letter was based on… I can imagine that he reminded his congregation of the words of Jesus that we have recorded in Matthew 7:21-23. Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” That’s why James preached his sermons. That’s why God gave him the words to record in this letter. He wrote this letter to show us a series of tests we can take to show us whether our faith is real or not. Over the next several weeks, we will see a series of nine tests before us. Tests designed to try your faith to make sure it’s real. If it is—praise God. If it’s not—God is showing you for a reason. He’s showing you to give you an opportunity to make your faith real before the final test of eternity comes and it is everlasting too late. In our passage this morning, James lays out the first and foundational test of faith—the test of God’s Word. The first test of faith we must pass is the Bible test. Not a test of Bible trivia or Bible drill, but the test of what to do with God’s Word. When our faith is real, we receive God’s holy, inspired, infallible Word the right way and respond to it the right way. This morning, I want each of us here to pass the first test of faith. I want us to pass the Bible test by receiving God’s Word with meekness and responding to God’s Word with action. This test only has two questions. In order to pass it, we need to look at what those two questions are. The first question is: How should you receive the Word of God? Look with me at verses 19-21.
JAMES 1:19-21
So, how should you receive the Word of God? Verse 21 says “with meekness”. Well, that’s the short answer—which might work if James was giving our faith a multiple choice test. But he’s not. He’s giving us an essay test. Actually, he’s giving us a lifestyle test which is even more detailed than an essay test. When I used to write college curriculum for the Air Force, I had another name for multiple choice tests. I called them multiple guess tests. That’s because you don’t always have to know what you’re doing to get a decent grade on multiple choice tests. If you’re what we used to call a tricky test taker, you can make some pretty effective guesses and pull out a good grade. Oh, but the Christian life isn’t for tricky test takers. It isn’t about guessing on what looks best in man’s eyes. It’s about salvation by the grace of God. Bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ. Applied to your life in faith—saving faith. The kind of faith that works. The kind of faith that shows evidence. The kind of faith that bears fruit. The kind of faith that passes tests. Lifestyle tests like this test of receiving the Word of God with meekness. So what does it mean to receive the Word with meekness? What will your lifestyle look like if you are receiving the Word of God with meekness? Our passage shows that you will display three characteristics.
First, you will receive the Word with meekness by listening. Be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. By the way, all three of those go hand in hand. If you fly off the handle in anger, you’re not being slow to speak. And you can’t listen when you’re talking. God designed your head that way for a reason. It was no accident that He gave you two ears and only one mouth. Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” It all starts with listening—hearing the Word of God. Think about all of the words that come out of your mouth every day. At the marriage conference a few weeks ago, Dr. Akin talked about the number of words we say on average per day. I don’t remember the numbers he quoted, but one study showed that men use an average of 7,000 words per day. It also showed that women use an average of 20,000 words per day. Now, that in itself is worth about a 7,000 word commentary. But if I do, I’ll hear a 20,000 word assessment when I get home this afternoon. So I think I’ll avoid that. But the point is, that if on average, over 15,000 words per day come out of our mouths—that’s a lot of words. Even if we’re on the low end—7000 is still a lot of words. Especially when you consider what James tells us here in the context of receiving God’s Word. Be swifter to hear than speak. In other words, if you speak out 7000 words in a day, how many Words of Scripture and good Bible teaching do you think you ought to take in? If you come and hear a sermon on Sunday morning and Sunday night, I can tell you that you might just break even—on Sunday—if you took a nap—and stayed off the phone. But then Monday comes. And Tuesday. If you come to Bible study on Wednesday that’ll help a little. But then Thursday and Friday and Saturday. When you think about it that way, there are a whole lot more words that come out of you than God’s Word goes into you. Maybe that’s why we’re so quick to get angry. Maybe that’s why we’re so quick to use words that cut and bite and hurt. Maybe that’s why we’re so quick to get offended and get our feelings hurt. Maybe we need to be more swift to hear and read and study and meditate on God’s Word. Listen. Listen to what God is telling you in His Word. Listen to what God is telling you through other people. Listen—and when you’ve filled up with God’s words—then speak. Receive the Word of God with meekness by listening.
Also receive the Word of God with meekness by humbling yourself. That’s one thing that is very evident as you search the Scriptures. There is no room for your ego and God’s grace in the same heart. There’s only room for one or the other. James points that out when he says that the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. In other words, your anger does absolutely nothing to produce godly righteousness. Most of the time we look at anger as something we can’t help. Or worse yet, we look at anger as something to justify in ourselves. Well, so and so MADE me mad. Very rarely does anybody make you do anything. And nobody in this world can make you get angry. Anger happens when we take the circumstances around us as a personal affront. We take them as a personal attack on ME. I don’t like the way you’re talking to ME. I don’t like the way you’re treating ME. This situation didn’t go the way I wanted it to. I didn’t get MY way. All of those statements are rooted in one thing—pride. That is not to say there is no such thing as righteous anger. In Ephesians 4:26, Paul actually commands us to be angry in the right way. He wrote, “Be ye angry and sin not.” So what’s the difference between the bad anger that James talks about and the good anger Paul talks about? Pride. Anger that says, “I don’t like the way you’re treating ME” is prideful and wrong. Anger that says, “I don’t like the way you’re treating God” is good and right. Jesus went after the moneychangers in the temple because they were defiling God’s house. But he was as calm as a lamb led to the slaughter when they beat Him and cursed Him and hung Him on a cross. Despite all the injustice shown to Him. Despite all the abuse they gave Him. Despite all the evil perpetrated against Him. He showed only humility. And out of that humility, God’s righteousness was shown. That’s the same kind of humility we are to receive the Word of God with. Receive the Word of God with meekness by listening and by humbling yourself.
Also receive the Word of God with meekness by implanting. James uses the word “engrafted” in verse 21. Interestingly enough, this is the only time that original word is used in all of the New Testament. But I love the picture that is painted by the word engrafted. Have you ever had a seedless watermelon? Or a tangelo? We got something at the grocery store a few months back that was a cross between a plum and an apricot. How do they come up with those things? By grafting. They take part of one kind of tree and graft it to another kind of tree. And when they do, it grows together and produces a new kind of fruit. That is what James is encouraging us to do. If you are saved, you were saved by the power of God’s Word. There is no other way. But when you receive that Word with meekness, it becomes grafted to you. Actually, you become grafted to God’s Word. And when that happens, you will produce a new kind of fruit. You will no longer produce the old fruit of the flesh. Fruit like moral impurity. Fruit like evil and wickedness. Fruit like Paul talks about in Romans 1:29-31: “unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” Did you catch all of those? Or did you just catch the ones you don’t have a problem with? What about deceit? What about whisperers? That’s people who spread rumors whether they’re true or not. Kids, what about disobedient to parents? What about proud boasters? That’s not the kind of fruit that grows from a person who has been engrafted with the Word. When you are truly grafted to God’s Word, you will produce new fruit. And that leads us to the second question on our test: How should you respond to the Word of God? The first question was how should you receive the Word of God? The answer: Receive with meekness by listening, receive with meekness by humbling yourself, and receive with meekness by implanting. But that’s only the first question. What’s the answer to the second question? Look with me in verses 22-27:
JAMES 1:22-27
We know how to receive the Word of God, so how should we respond to the Word of God? These verses tell us to respond by continuing, by walking, by talking, by loving and by living. Continue by doing the things the Bible instructs you to do. Continue by living the life God has called you to live. Continue by not walking away from the truths that God shows you in His Word. By not ignoring them, but by allowing them to change you. Respond by continuing and by walking. Walking means doing. Walking means putting into action the words that you hear. Walking is theology with legs. Walking is making progress. It’s becoming more like Jesus today than you were yesterday. Respond to the Word of God by continuing, by walking and by talking. You can go to church all the time. You can carry the biggest Bible around with you. You can wear a big cross around your neck and a WWJD bracelet on you wrist. But if you can’t control your tongue, it’s all in vain. Godly talking isn’t sounding religious. Godly talking is measuring your words instead of speaking your mind. It’s converting angry words into kind ones. It’s following Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Godly talking is speaking encouragement not biting sarcasm. Imparting grace not harm. Lifting up not tearing down. Respond to the Word of God by continuing, by walking, by talking, and by loving. Loving means giving of yourself to those around you. Loving the unloved. And loving the unlovable. Not just loving those who are like you. Who can do things for you. But loving those who can never repay you. Loving those who need it most. Just like Christ loves you even though you don’t deserve it. Even though you can’t do anything for Him. Even though, in your sin, you are unlovable. Even though you can never do anything to repay Him. He loves you. And you respond to His Word by loving others the same way. Respond to the Word of God by continuing, by walking, by talking, by loving, and finally, by living. By living unspotted from the world. By living out the gospel in every part of your life. By living in the light of God’s love for you. By living in such a way that you won’t be embarrassed when Jesus returns. Jim Elliot once said, “When it comes time to die, make sure all you have to do is die.” You respond to God’s Word by living like today is your last day on earth and you’re going to meet Jesus in the morning.
Are we going to be perfect in these things? No. The Bible shows us in 1 John 1:10 that even when we’re Christians, if we say we have no sin, we’re lying. John also goes on to say in 1 John 2:4 that if we say we’re Christians and don’t keep Jesus’ commandments, we’re a liar as well. Christians will always struggle with sin. But that’s just it. We struggle with sin. A true Christian won’t just sit back and say, “Well I know I don’t receive the Word of God like I should.” You won’t say that and not be convicted by it. You won’t say that and then not do anything to change it. A true Christian won’t say, “I know I don’t respond to the Word of God like I should” and not be convicted by it. You won’t say that and not do anything to change it. If you find yourself here today and the Holy Spirit of God has shown you that you are not a Christian, don’t leave this place without turning to Him in faith believing. When the invitation sounds, come forward and let me share the good news with you. If God’s Holy Spirit is showing you that, even though you are saved, you have begun to stop struggling with sin. If you’ve stopped fighting and have begun to surrender to sin. If that’s you, you know that’s not where God wants you. He wants you to receive His Word. He wants you to respond to His Word. Come this morning and rededicate yourself to doing just that. Just two questions. How do you receive God’s Word? And how do you respond to God’s Word? Respond the right way this morning.
