Introduction
I want you to take your Bibles now and turn to James chapter 1, and we’ll begin reading where we left off this morning. And, that is with verse 21, James chapter 1 and verse 21. We want to speak to you on a truth that we studied together some time ago. But, since we’re going verse by verse through James, we will restudy and reemphasize this truth tonight. And, it is how to receive the Word of God.
“Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed”—or in his doing—“If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:21–27).
Now, the Bible is full of great facts. And, these facts are even more than facts, they are truths. But, these truths can do you no good, even if you know them, if you don’t receive them. To have facts is not enough. Someone says, “I know the plan of salvation.” Well, dear friend, I want to tell you that you can know the plan of salvation, and believe the plan of salvation, and go straight to Hell. You’re not saved by the plan of salvation. You’re saved by the man of salvation, and His name is Jesus. And, there are a lot of people who know the theology, but they have never received the truth.
And, I want to tell you sir, that you can back slide with a Bible under your arm, if you do not receive the Word of God. It is one thing to have facts about Jesus; it is another thing to know the Lord Jesus Christ. It is one thing to hear the Word of God; it is quite another thing to welcome the Word, to receive the Word.
Notice in verse 21, James is talking about receiving the Word, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word”—that is the word that gets in. It means the implanted word that is alive like a seed. Receive that living word—“which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).
“Now, wait a minute pastor. What do you mean save our souls? We’re already saved.” And, the book of James is written to save people, written to the 12 tribes scattered abroad, those who’re already saved. Why do they need to be saved if they already have been saved?
Well, learn this about salvation. Salvation is in three tenses. We have been saved. We are being saved, and we shall be saved. There’s no contradiction. All three truths are there. I have been saved—that is, in the past when I received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, I was saved—saved forever from the penalty of sin. And, I shall be saved—one day when I go to Heaven—from the possibility of sin. But, I am being saved right now from the power of sin. And, that’s what James is talking about. He’s not talking about going to Heaven one day when he says, “…receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). But, he’s saying you receive the Word of God that is able to deliver your psyche. That’s what the Greek word soul is, psyche, your mind, your emotion and your will. He’s saying that the Word of God is able to sanctify you. That’s what he’s talking about when he says, “The Word of God is able to save your soul.” He’s not talking here, primarily, about having your sins forgiven in the past, or going to Heaven in the future. But, he’s talking about that the Word of God, right now, will be able to give you deliverance—the saving of your mind, your emotion, your will—your deliverance from the power, and pollution of sin, right now.
The same thing is taught—look in Psalm 19 for a moment. You may want to just jot it down along side this verse, but let’s turn to it because I want to read a little extended passage from Psalm 19. Beginning in verse 7, and there again you get the idea—the delivering, saving power of the Word of God. Psalm 19 and verse 7: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul,” again the psyche. “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:7–11). Oh, my friends, if you could only understand the power of this book that’s able to deliver your souls.
Let me tell you a personal testimony. Do you know what keeps Adrian going day after day? It is not my emotions. I’m not a particularly emotional person. I have a rather stable emotion system. I don’t get too high. I see some of you folks, that you get all charged up, and you want to shout, and cry, and weep, and hallelujah, and praise the Lord, and I think that’s wonderful that you do. But, I see some of those same folks dragging bottom, way down here. Boy, they just get about as low—they could sit on a curb and dangle their feet—the same people that have been up here shouting and praising the Lord. They’re sort of manic-depressives, they go up, and they go down. They have that kind of a testimony. Well, I don’t do that, I just kind of stay in the middle.
I don’t get too low, and I don’t get too high. And, I just kind of—now I don’t take credit for that. I don’t even think that’s good, I don’t think that’s bad, I just think that’s me. That’s just the temperament that God has given me. I just kind of stay in that narrow band. That’s the way I am. And, I don’t necessarily get my charge, and my impetus from emotion. The thing that keeps me going is not how I feel, it is what I know. It is truth, that has been through the years, the thing that keeps me.
Friend, there is power in The Word of God. If you want to be a successful, vibrant Christian—and I don’t mean to imply by that I am, but I will say that anything good about me certainly would be due to this fact. If you want to be victorious in your Christian life, then you must—you must—you must stay in the Word of God. The law of the Lord is perfect—converting the soul—received with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to deliver your psyche, your mind, your emotion, your will to keep you going.
There is no way—there is no way, underscore, emphasize it, exclamation point— there is no way that you’re going to be victorious apart from receiving this book. And, the reason that so many people are anemic is they have never learned to receive the engrafted word which is able to deliver their psyche, which is able to save their souls.
Now, look at that word receive. There are two Greek words that are translated receive. One of them is lambano, lambano, which means to simply “take out and grasp.” Just to reach out and take, and receive to yourself. That’s not the word that’s used here. That means that a person, by self-prompting, could just reach out and take and receive something. That would apply to someone who, for example, goes into the classroom and reaches into the chemistry book, and by his own ingenuity, and by his own skill he just reaches into that book and takes some truth out. The word lambano would describe that kind of a receiving, that kind of a taking, that sort of acquiring comes through study.
But, here the Bible uses a different word to receive. It is the word dechomai, which means “to welcome.” Not to reach out and take, but to open and receive, to welcome the Word. And, therefore we’ll call our message tonight, “Welcoming the Word.” That’s what he says, “receive with meekness.” He’s not saying just to reach out and take the Word, because you’ll never get it that way.
You know, that’s the problem, sometimes a man goes to seminary and he thinks, “Well now, if I’ve got a good mind, and I’ve got a well-stocked library, and I’ve got a good sharp pencil, and a pair of eye glasses, and I’ll just go with this book, and I’ll study this book, and boy, I’ll learn what it’s all about.” I want to tell you something, mister, you can backslide with a Bible under your arm, and don’t you forget it. You can backslide in seminary just as quick as you can anywhere else, because you are not going to go in and reach in, and pull it out. No, no, not lambano—dechomai. You’re going to have to open your heart, and welcome the Word. You’re going to have to receive the Word of God as you would receive a friend into your house.
I. Three Ways to Receive the Word
A. Welcome the Word with repentance
Now, tonight I want to tell you three ways to welcome the Word, to receive the Word. At least, I want to let James tell us. First of all, you are to welcome the Word with repentance. If a guest is coming to your house, one of the first things that you ought to do is clean the house, and certainly it is true that if we want the Word of God to dwell in us richly, and abound unto all fruitfulness, then we must welcome the Word with repentance.
Look at verse 21: “Wherefore, lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness…” (James 1:21). Now, let’s look at that word filthiness. This word filthiness, the Greek word rhupos, literally it’s a medical term, and it refers to “wax in the ear”—that which keeps you from hearing. You see, sometimes there are certain things that are in our spiritual ears that need to be removed so that we can hear.
I heard about a man, and somebody came up to him and said, “Say, you’ve got a carrot in your ear.” He said, “Huh?” He said, “You’ve got a carrot in your ear.” He said, “Huh?” He said, “You’ve got a carrot stuck in your ear.” He said, “I can’t hear you, I’ve got a carrot in my ear.”
Now, it seems that God is trying to tell us there’s something wrong with us, but we can’t hear him because the very thing that’s wrong with us is keeping us from hearing him tell us that it is wrong with us. And, we’re not going to be able to receive the Word until we take that out of our ears that which is stopping up our ears. And, that’s the word filthiness here. It refers to that which stops up the ears, that keeps you from hearing.
Now, remember this morning that we said that you’re to be swift to hear, swift to hear the Word of God. But, the reason that some of us don’t hear is there’s some filthiness in our spiritual ears that clog up our ears. And, then look at that other word, “superfluity of naughtiness,” look at that in verse 21. This word superfluity of course, is very kin to our word superfluous. It means “that which remains,” that’s literally what it means, that which is left over. I guess the best description we could give this would be a hangover sin, of that which is left. You see, people are saved, they’re born again, they’ve received the Lord Jesus Christ, their sins are forgiven, and yet there seems to be sort of a hangover sin that comes over from the old life. The Bible calls that superfluous, or superfluity of naughtiness.
Let me give you an example of that. Do you remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead? And, Jesus stood at the tomb of Lazarus—there in John chapter 11— and Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43), and Lazarus came forth. But, boys and girls, he came forth like a mummy. He was just all wrapped up in the grave clothes. It must have been something to see ol’ Lazarus come out of that grave like that. He was wrapped round, and round, and round, and round like a cocoon. In the grave clothes, that’s the way they would bury a person—just wrap them in linen—round, and round, and round, he could hardly move. He had life, but he didn’t have liberty. And, Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go” (John 11:44). That is, take off that superfluity of naughtiness. He has life, but there’s certain grave clothes that are still clinging to him. Get rid of those.
Or, again you think of the prodigal son as he comes. He says, “I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, ‘Father, I’ve sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight, and I’m no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants’ And, while he was yet a great way off his father saw him, and had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him, and said, ‘Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and a ring on his hands and shoes on his feet’” (Luke 15:18–22). That is, the prodigal son came with the old filthy clothes, of the old life, and he had to lay that aside, those hangover sins.
Now, he came to the father, but he still had some hangover sins, as it were. Now, I wonder, is there a part of that old life—I’m talking to you. Some of you who are saved, but you’re still wearing the old filthy grave clothes. You’re still wearing the smock that you wore in the hog pen. You’re still you—there’s certain things in your life, there’s certain spiritual wax in your ears, and certain unclean garments. You’re not ready to receive the Word.
Listen, friend do you want the Bible to speak to you? Do you want the Bible to be alive to you? Would you really like to welcome the Word? You want to get something out of your Bible study? I know, no way that you can do it unless you’re willing to repent of that filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness.
Listen to what James says, “Wherefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul” (James 1:21). “Well,” you say, “brother Rogers, it’s not all that bad, just a little sin.” There are no little sins. We think they’re little.
Who is knocks so loud? Just a lonely little sin.
”Slip through” I answered. And, soon all hell was in.
You see, friend, one sin, no matter how small we may deem it, opens the door for other sins. Do you want the Word of God to burst aflame in your hand? Would you like to read this book and have it come into you, just as you open your heart and receive a friend? Then, listen to what James says, “Lay aside all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness.”
Have you ever heard people sing:
Fill my cup, Lord,
I lift it up, Lord. (Richard Blanshard)
And, they keep singing but their cup never gets filled. You want me to tell you why? They’re singing the wrong song. They ought to be singing,
Cleanse my cup, Lord, I messed it up, Lord.
And, when that cup gets clean, then God will fill it. They’re ready to receive The Word. Now, you receive the Word first of all with repentance.
B. Receive the Word with Readiness
Secondly, not only should you receive the Word with repentance, but receive the Word with readiness, with readiness. Look again in verse 21: “Wherefore lay aside all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word” (James 1:21). Look at that word meekness. Do you know what that meekness means? It means “a compliant spirit,” a ready spirit, ready to obey.
You see, the reason that some of us don’t get anything from the Bible is we don’t have a meek spirit. Now, you need to understand what meekness it. Meekness is not weakness. Moses was the meekest man that ever lived, the Bible says. And, certainly Moses wasn’t a weak man. Moses was the commander in chief of a great army, a very powerful figure. But, Moses had meekness. The word meekness means teachability, trainability, controllability.
In the olden days when they would take a horse, a wild stallion, and want to put a saddle on that stallion so he could be ridden, they would take a person who was trained in breaking horses. Now, that person wouldn’t cripple or hobble that horse, but he would get on that horse time and again, until finally the horse learned to run with a rider on it’s back and obey the pull of the bridle. And, when that was done, they said the horse had been made meek, the horse had been meeked. That is, he is now teachable, he is now guidable, he is now controllable.
Are you teachable? Are you? Do you know why some folks don’t really understand the Word of God? Because when God’s Word says something, they parade it past the jury of their mind. And, the Word of God says, “ABC,” and they say, “Let me see, A B C, does that sound right? Yea, I believe A, not so sure about B, yea, C is all right. Well, let me see, what about that B?” And, they try to figure it out, you see. They’re not teachable. They think that, really they are the sum total of it. And, that somehow that it has to agree with them, and they parade it past their mind, rather than just simply receiving the Word of God.
Oh, my friend, do you want to learn from the Word? Jesus said in John 7:17: “If any man will do God’s will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God…” (John 7:17). Some folks are stubborn, and that’s the reason they don’t welcome the Word, they don’t receive the Word. They’re like that man who said, “I’m open to conviction, I’d just like to see the man who could convict me.” They’re just really stubborn. Now, if you would receive the Word, you must receive it with repentance. That is, you must be clean. You must receive it with meekness—that is, you must be broken, ready to do the will of God. Repentance and readiness.
C. Receive the Word with Responsiveness
Now, thirdly, if you would welcome the Word, you must receive the Word with responsiveness, with responsiveness. Look again here in the Word of God now, in verse 22: “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22). How terrible, how horrible, for a person to be deceived. But, doubly horrible and ironic it is that a man would deceive his own self.
Now, you see, if you do not respond to what you claim to have received and welcomed, you’re a fool, and you have fooled yourself. You’re self-deceived. You say, “Brother Rogers, you ought not to call people a fool.” Well, then let’s let Jesus do it. Jesus said, in Matthew, chapter 7 and verse 26: “A man is like a foolish man who hears these words of mine, and will not do them. He’s like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand” (Matthew 7:26). And, Jesus says, “He’s a foolish man who does that.” He is a self-deceived man.
Do you know what’s wrong with some of you folks? Listening to sermons, that’s wrong with you. You’ve got a notebook full of sermons, and you’ve got a tape library full of sermons, but you have no more intention of obeying what you hear from this pulpit than you have what you watched last night on television. It’s a kind of a little hobby with you—of taking truth, but not responding to that truth. You become a hearer of the word without becoming a doer of the word, and then you are self-deceived And, that is so dangerous, because a man who is self-deceived gets himself into a trap that he can hardly get out of. It’s not enough for you to go away raving about the music, and bragging about the sermon. That’s really no compliment. If you want to compliment my preaching, then live by the Word of God that I preach. That’s the compliment. “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22).
I believe it was Peter Lord who said, “What we really believe, we live by. The rest is just religious talk.” You want me to give you a test as to whether or not you’re receiving the Word? Are you ready to take that test? Is your knowledge of the Bible making you more like Jesus Christ? That’s a simple test. Is your knowledge of the Bible making you more like Jesus Christ?
You see, we’re to receive the Word with repentance, a clean heart, with readiness, meekness, willingness to do it. And, then with responsiveness—we’re to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. How are we to respond? Well, I want you to look in verses 23 and 24. James gives us a great example of what he’s talking about. He says, “For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass” (James 1:23). That’s the face you were born with, your natural face. You know, sometimes when they bury a person they say, “Don’t he look natural?”
That’s your natural face. And, you’ve got it, you’re stuck with it. I wish I could encourage you. Beauty’s only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone. Beauty fades but ugly holds it’s on. That’s your natural face. Your natural face. And, he’s like a man beholding his natural face in a glass, Paul says, but then in verse 24: “For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed” (James 1:24–25).
Now, in verses 23 and 24 he uses a word, behold, and this word behold means “a casual glance,” a person who beholds his face in a mirror. He’s like a person who wakes up in the morning, and his beard is grown out, his hair is tussled, he’s got bags under his eyes, and he’s still got soup on his mustache from last night. And, he goes and he looks in the mirror, and he glances in, he looks at himself for a moment, and agrees that he needs to put his face in shape. But, then he just—after a fleeting glance—he goes his way, and goes off to work looking like something Kaiser made when Frasier wasn’t looking. And, he just goes that way to work. He forgets what he saw in the mirror. He just glances in the mirror for just a moment, and that’s all—there’s no change, there’s no bathing, there’s no shaving, there’s no combing. He’s just like he was, same fellow—glanced in the mirror for just a second, saw it and forgot it.
Now, that’s the first word for behold, that’s right there. Now, there are two different words that are used here in these verses. The first one means “a casual glance.” The other means “a careful gaze.”
Now, look in verse 25. It says, “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty…” (James 1:25). Compare that now, you may not see it in the King James, but it’s there. Look in verse 23: “…a man beholding…” (James 1:23), and then in verse 25: “a man looking into…” (James 1:25). Beholding means a casual glance. Looking into means a careful gaze. This word that’s translated here in verse 25: “looking into” is the same word that’s found in John chapter 20 and verse 5. And, it speaks of the disciple John looking into the empty tomb. He’s coming there, and he believes that Jesus may have been raised from the dead. He’s not quite sure, and he bends over and he peers into the darkness, and intently, with his eyes set, searching, trying to see everything that he can see. He looks steadfastly.
Now, that’s the way you’re to look into the Word. Not just a casual glance, but a steadfast, careful, gazing into the Word, and a careful examination of the Word. And, then after an examination of the Word, an application of the Word. Look into it, pick it up, read it, study it, scrutinize it.
So many of us have—sort of—a little Bryer cream type of devotions: “A little dab'll do ya.” And, we just get in there, and we read a little verse, and we’ve got our daily bread, or we’ve got some little ol’ book of devotions. Nothing wrong with those, they’re all right for just a little knick-knack, a little snack, like a saltine cracker, that’s all right. But, oh my dear friend, when are you going to get this book down, and peer into to it, and look into it, and gaze into it, and study it. No wonder the Word of God is not real to you! And, when it’s not real to you, no wonder you’re not victorious in your Christian life. You’re to look into it intently, not a casual glance.
And, then when you see what the Word of God tells you, when the Word of God like a mirror reflects back that image that you see, then you’re to go about putting your life in order. Don’t forget what manner of man you were. You’re to change your way of living, and when you do that the Word of God will become a blessing.
Conclusion
Let me tell you something friend—and where did the time go? Let me tell you something, and I’m just going to do something very remarkable, brother Lane. I want to get an A-plus for this sermon, I’m going to quit in about two minutes and I got ten minutes of preaching.
All right, listen—listen—friend, you want to understand the Word of God? Let me tell you one of the grandest truths I’ve ever learned about prayer, and it’s this: The prayer that gets to Heaven is the prayer that starts in Heaven.
Now, let me tell you a great truth that I’ve learned about Bible study. The way to understand the part of the Bible you don’t understand is to obey the part you do understand. Now, that’s simple, isn’t? You look at it, and when He shows you something, then you obey that. And, my friend, if you’ve done that, you have welcomed the Word.
Now, there are three ways that we can welcome the Word and verse 26 speaks of the control of the tongue. Verse 27 speaks of care for the troubled. And, verse 27 also speaks of the cleanliness of our testimony. If we had time, we’d talk about it, but we don’t. Let’s bow in prayer.
