We'll begin the reading with verse 1. The focus is on verses 19 to 21, but we'll go back and just kind of remind ourselves what we've covered so far. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes in the dispersion, greetings. Can it all join, my brothers, When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that detesting your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting. For the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation. Because, like the flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass. Its flower falls and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. That desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Light, with whom there is no variation or shatter due to change. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. Know this, my beloved brothers, Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. As we began this series on James, I mentioned the idea of growth. Very early on, James mentions the idea of growth. As we think about growth, depending upon what kind of growth you're talking about, there are certain requirements. For those who like to plant gardens and flower beds and that sort of thing, when the spring comes, there are certain things that you need. You need the seed, obviously. But you also need good soil to put it in. You need rain to come down to water. You need sun. And depending upon the plant, it can't be too much sun or it needs to be a lot of sun. And a good farmer will know what he needs. Even a child. For them to grow, they need certain things. They need food and things to drink. They need to have good rest. They need to be free of any serious disease for them to grow and get bigger. For business, it takes certain things. It takes a product that people want, that they're willing to pay money for. It requires some sort of labor to produce it. Some sort of raw materials, and that may be very different things for an accountant compared to an industry that produces cars. There needs to be a workplace. There also needs to really be peace in the land, the opportunity to work safely. So each one has its different key requirements. Well, what does it take to grow spiritually? Well, James has been focusing on some of those things that produce spiritual growth and how to become mature. And so far we've seen some of the key ingredients. The idea of perseverance, when being tested, of staying steadfast. And second, he's talked about having God-given wisdom, a wisdom from the above. to be able to look at life, look at trials in the right way. The third thing he's mentioned is resisting temptation and to stay away from that. And then lastly, a couple of weeks ago, he talked about the new birth, being born again by the Word of Truth. As God's Word works in your life and causes you to go from darkness And of course, that's really the foundational one. It's the most basic one. It has to take place, or there can't be any growth. It's like being born into this world. Unless you're born as a baby, you can't grow and develop. Unless you're born again, you can't grow and develop. And a lot of these things really add on to that. We can try to do things in our own human wisdom, or by our own ability to grit our teeth and persevere, but it won't mean anything unless you've been born again. Unless God has worked in your spirit to cause you to go from darkness into His light. And as we think of that image of being born, And you think of a baby being born, one of the natural assumptions is that child will grow up. That 2, 3, 4, 5 years later, you won't still see a baby that weighs 7.5 pounds and 20 inches long and cannot speak and cannot walk. If you see a 5 year old like that, you say, what's the matter? Because inherent in that birth, It's the idea of growth and development. And so it should be that as Christians, inherent in the new birth, as if we would grow and we would develop and we would become more mature. And how does that happen? What's the key? Well, as we look at these verses and the verses for next week, it's by hearing and doing the Word of God. You want to grow spiritually, you need to hear and do the Word of God. And so this week we'll look at verses 19 to 21 that talk about hearing God's Word. And then next week, Lord willing, verses 22 to 25 that talk about doing the Word of God. And so the first point today is to successfully hear God's Word, it takes proper preparation. There's some preparation that needs to go on in your life if you're to be in a receptive mood to the Word of God. And part of that preparation is found in verse 21. To put away all filthiness and rapid wickedness. That the sin that would block fellowship with God, that would block God's communication to you, has to be gotten rid of. And that Greek word, put away, or it could often be translated in other places, put off, that's the idea of putting away the old life, that pre-Christian pattern of living that you experienced. And in some places it's compared to getting rid of old filtered rags, discarding them. The Christians will throw off that old and useless way of living that you had before you were a Christian. All filthiness points out that it would get rid of anything that would cause spiritual pollution. Get rid of all that would morally defile you. Defile you. Think of it. What are those things? What are the things that would really entangle you and cause you to be defiled? It's interesting to me that there's much emphasis on the environment nowadays and especially on the fact that we shouldn't pollute the environment and how wrong that is. And really, Christians should be leading the way in that fight. We understand that the earth is a stewardship entrusted to our care. that God has given it to us, that it's His, that we're to be stewards of it, and He's going to hold us accountable for how we used it, and so how we should care for the environment and make sure that it's not polluted. Yet, a more serious danger is the moral pollution that's around us. It's a danger to us, it's a danger to society, it's a danger to our children. Yet, it's rarely talked about. that there can be a toxic morality in the environment around us that's polluting. And too often it's viewed, well, whatever they want to do, that's okay for them, it's their choice as long as it doesn't affect me. But we don't think of that in terms of the physical pollution. As long as my yard is okay, I don't care what the neighbor puts in his yard. No, you do. Because you know it goes down into the water system and it affects you. And what your neighbor is doing, morally, does affect the neighbor. We're to understand that such moral pollution, that filthiness, builds a wall between the Christian and God. Between you and being able to really listen to God. We're also to put up, we're told, rampant wickedness. That word wickedness is just a general word for sin. But that word rampant is a very picturesque one, really having the idea of abundant evil. And so the picture is that it's springing up all over, like weeds would spring up in a garden. And the constant need is to purge them out. Just as in the garden you see some weeds and you go out there and you work and get rid of them, And then you go out and the next day you see some weeds over in another part of the garden, you get rid of those, and then the next day some more, and by the time you get to the whole garden, the first area has more weeds. And you look around at your life and you see that there's wickedness here and there, and if you try to get rid of it and root it out, then there'll be some more popping up, and some of the first will pop up again. Rules off the idea. That we can have a sinless perfection in this life. That sin is there and is cropping up. We need to be rooting it out. And thus, to listen to God, sin cannot be blocking God's channel of communication to you. His Word. Because if you allow it, the sin will strangle out that Word. Then looking secondly at verses 19 and 20, you can see an example, a very specific example. What are some things that would block that communication? As it talks about trying to be slow to speak and slow to answer. When we don't do those things, then we're not in a suitable mood hear the Word of God. And the question is often asked when you come here to this portion that talks about being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Is it talking of our relationship to one another as human beings, or is it more talking about our relationship with God? Especially God's Word. And I would say it's talking of both. Because the two are interrelated. He named the same skill of being slow to anger, of being slow to speak, of being quick to listen, in your relationship with God as you need with one another. If you could practice it in one area, then you're able to do it in the other. And we learn more by listening than we do by speaking. And that's true in our interpersonal lives, but it's especially true when it comes to the Word of God. Big talkers are rarely good listeners. And angry talkers may not hear a single thing. Therefore, it's saying that we should be deliberate, not rash in our speech and in our responses. And verse 20, such anger as anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. It doesn't produce God's righteous desires for our lives if we have anger controlling us. Now, it can be that there's a righteous indignation, but sadly, most of our indignation is not a righteous indignation. saddled with self-importance, self-assertiveness, stubbornness, a harsh heart toward others. And even when it's a righteous ignition, it quickly can deteriorate to the wrong type of anger. Such anger makes it difficult to get along with others. Such anger makes it difficult to get along with God. Therefore, If you think about a proper preparation to get rid of the spiritual pollution, it includes getting rid of the anger, the self-centeredness, the focusing on yourself and what you think. Well, the second point is to successfully hear God's Word, it does take a proper receptivity to it, an openness to receive God's Word. This is found, first of all, in verse 19, where Christians are commanded to be quick to hear. And the question is, to hear what? If you look back at a previous verse, it makes it clear. Verse 18, to hear the word of truth, especially the word of truth, is in mind the Bible. What things? would make it difficult for you to be quick to hear. Not to be receptive to what God has said. Well first, and it's really implied by the slow to speak, is that you're too busy speaking yourself. And perhaps you've met people like that. A friend who, you know, always interrupts. And before I get an idea out, he hears a couple of words and he's jumping to a conclusion. And he's jumping in there and saying what he wants to say. And usually his jumping to a conclusion is he's drawing the wrong conclusion. On top of this, he often gets upset with what he thinks I am saying, not having heard. And it's not unusual for me to get an email that was sent. midnight or one in the morning, an angry email. Well, it's really tough to maintain a relationship with someone like that. He needs to be open. He needs to really hear and listen to what I'm saying to him. Because it's much different than what he often thinks. And I wonder how often do we do that? We're not listening to what God is saying to us. We also often listen by not really paying attention, not concentrating on what God has said. I wonder if you've had the experience that I have, where you sit down and have your devotions, and you read through, and you're reading through a couple of chapters of the Bible, and you get to the end, and you say, what did I read? And you really want to concentrate. You've got this plan to read through the Bible and you know you've got to read three chapters a day and five on Sundays and you'll get through the entire Bible and you're reading it and you're not really concentrating. You're not really focusing upon what God has said. The third thing is you can not be listening to God because you're focusing your energies elsewhere. On things that might be considered Christian, but really aren't very profitable. And so there's much time spent in conversation, or books, or TV, on things that are light. Maybe not things that are wrong, but things that don't have very much substance to them. And occasionally a person will tell me that, well, just do that to kill some time. You know, it's a Christian romance and it's not very weighty and it doesn't have any important lenses, but I'm just trying to kill some time. How wrong it is. If you understand the value of time, Christians aren't to kill it, Christians are to redeem their time. And today, some pastors are being told, you know, you shouldn't preach more than 10 or 15 minutes. You know, that's the attention span of people, because they're used to, you know, TV shows they'll watch for 10, 12 minutes, and then the commercial comes. And they can't last any longer than that. But we're told to be quick to listen. It implies working at it. developing the ability to hear. And maybe if your attention span is only 12 minutes, you need to lengthen to 20 or 25 or 30 minutes. It does take work. And notice what James says, to be quick to hear. Often times I think we emphasize, you know, the reading program. You know, I'll get through the Bible if I read three chapters a day. And so if I do that, I'm done. But I can sit down and do that all year and not learn a single thing if I'm not ready to hear. If I'm not quick to listen to what God has said. The second part of proper reception of God's Word is found in verse 21. That we're to do it with humility or meekness. They're saying to us, we need to humbly accept what the Word of God says, with that spirit of childlike dependence and deference to the Word. Realize that God, the living God, has said this to us. It's for our own well-being. He has spoken the truth. And so that I need to accept it unconditionally. If God has said it, then I understand it, I believe it, I accept it, and I take it to heart and I'll act upon it. And that's the only proper response. Some Christians talk about wrestling with the Word of God. That they come across certain teachings that they find hard to swallow. They sort of see it in Scripture, but they really don't like the ideas, and so they wrestle with, you know, can I really accept this idea? The idea of the sovereignty of God in all areas of life, or the fact that it talks about predestination, election. The Son, the deity of Christ. Are there churches that would be governed by elders? And those elders are to be men. A divorce isn't something that we should be seeking just because we're no longer in love with our spouse. Or there should be no sexual immorality. Whether it be before marriage or in marriage. The whole homosexual movement. They were not to be unequally yoked with an unbeliever. And Christians say, we're wrestling with this and pray for me. You don't need to wrestle with these things. God has spoken clearly. You need with meekness to listen to what He has said and to heed it. There's a third point. But to successfully hear God's Word, it takes a proper focus. First, if you look at verse 21, on the Word implanted. That Word is to be received by you. Ultimately, we are to understand the means of our growth. The means of greater maturity is God's Word. It's that Word. that He's really put within you as you take it to heart, as you listen to it and apply it. Now, there's some other things. You can think about fellowship and fellowship with Christians. That's good. It's certainly good that we would desire that and want it. And God does use that to encourage each other, to care for one another. Older Christians can model what it means to be a Christian. But it's not the key. to spiritual growth. It's the Word of God. And others think of a music ministry. You know, having a fabulous singing and a time of praise that everybody goes away feeling great. Some I saw that there are churches that have eliminated the sermon so they can focus on the music. Yet it's that word implanted that causes growth. And that word implanted really has the idea of deep-rooted or natural, not something forced or artificial, something that's somehow acquired. When a person has been born again, they have within themselves that natural desire for the Word of God to be made more Christ-like, to grow in holiness, And as you have that Word in your heart, it should cause you to grow. Notice, it's a command to receive this Word. To take it in. And to let it work within you. After you've gotten rid of spiritual pollution, as you have an eagerness to hear, As you have a humility to do what it says, you have that deep desire for God's Word and to be nourished by that Word. Well, B, we can see in verse 21, the result is that this Word that you receive is able to save your soul. What a glorious promise, that the Word of God when we receive it, as it reveals to us Jesus Christ, in Him crucified, is able to save our souls. That is the most important thing in all of life. And I think we don't consider that well enough. That each person you meet this week has an immortal soul. He or she will spend eternity in one of two places. One terribly horrible, and the other a tremendous blessing. And sometimes you hear a reference to somebody being a mere mortal. There's no one who's a mere mortal. We are all immortal. Everyone that we meet will live forever. And so the atheist who denies the very existence of God still has a soul that can never die? That playboy who's trying to grab as much fun as he can in this life, has a soul. That child that's neglected and abused. That girl who's overweight, that's mocked and ridiculed by all her classmates. That lonely widow who's living out her days in sorrow and emptiness. that co-worker in the factory, that neighbor across the street, that sales clerk in the store. Each one has a soul. Each one will live either in heaven or in hell for all eternity. And so each one needs to hear that Word. That Word that can be implanted in their souls, that can take deep root, that caused them to be changed from darkness, a child of darkness, into a child of light, as they believe in Jesus Christ, as they understand that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sins. The Word of God testifies to Christ and what is done. So our desire should be that they too would receive that Word which is able to save their souls. Well, two applications this morning. First, I hope that your desire to grow in spiritual growth and maturity If not, there's something wrong. That should be a desire for each one of us for entire lifetimes. If we're a Christian, if we've been born again, as you think about that, your attitude toward the Word of God is crucial. You have to get rid of the sin that pollutes. You have to get rid of the anger and the self-centeredness. You need to be cultivating hearing, really listening to what God has said, of paying attention. Because it's easy just to read through a bunch of verses without really paying attention to what He said, and then cultivate a submission to the Word. When God has said it, then I believe it, I will do it. And second, as you think about others, When you think about the salvation of souls, to know it's the Word that really saves them as they come in contact with that Word of God, as it talks to them about Jesus Christ, as it talks to them about their sinful condition, as it talks to them about the need of a Savior. And so how we should want to bring those around us that Word. And sometimes it's just a word of testimony. to what God has done, but it's often inviting them to come to a worship service, or inviting them to be in a Bible study in their home, or maybe their library, or wherever it is, to meet Christ as they see the Word of God for themselves. That's right. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for this portion of your word that calls upon us to be quick to hear. I pray that indeed each one of us here would be quick to hear others, but especially we see in the context of your word of truth. your communication to us in the Bible. We pray that we would really be quick hearers, that we would be intent, and then submissive, humble, meek with regard to your Word. That we would not argue with it, but stand upon what you've said. I think that we'd be able to get rid of sins that pollute, that are so abundant in our lives, that would want to crowd out your Word. It shows how we might do that. And we think about those people around us who need to hear your truth. who are in darkness. We need that Word brought to them. Show us how we might do that, how we might faithfully invite people to worship, invite people to study the Bible. We pray for receptive hearts, that there be people who would be eager to hear. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.