Let us go before the Lord in prayer and ask for a blessing on this evening's message. Lord, may your name be glorified. May you use me, Lord, as a faithful vessel to preach your word true to your faithful people this afternoon. And may these words feed them. May they be nourished. May they be blessed and edified. May they be strengthened. And I pray that it would bless the faith of all those who are here and who hear this evening. Amen. Well, tonight's message, our passage, our text is in James chapter 1, verses 19 to 21. And I titled this evening's sermon, Righteous Speech, Righteous Anger, and the Righteous Word of God. Let me give you a second to turn this. James chapter 1, verses 19 to 21. Beginning in verse 19, it reads, 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. So as we're looking at this text and looking at this passage, the main theme that we're going to draw from this passage is, in our humanness, we fail to walk in righteousness of speech and anger. But it is the Word of God that plants righteousness in our hearts. And as we've been continuing in the book of James, James in this passage is going to address the common response and the issue of unrighteousness. Specifically, the issue of unrighteousness of speech and unrighteousness of anger. And as we've been following along with this letter and James, we know that the Jews, the early believers that he's writing to in the first century, they've been going through immense trial and suffering. And sometimes our trials and sufferings can cause us, can cause believers to turn towards unrighteous speech and unrighteous anger as a response in our suffering. In the previous passages, as we've been seeing these sufferings that the early Christians have been facing, the intense persecution that they've been undergoing, some of them losing their homes, loved ones being killed, right? No longer were they even able to be a part of the culture that they grew up in, not just because they were pushed out of Jerusalem, pushed out of their homes, but also because becoming a Christian, being converted to the Christian faith, as a first century Jew meant to abandon essentially the entire system that you grew up in. And so they had to forsake all these things just to follow Christ. And as we read the last time we were in James in the previous passages, sometimes when they were facing these challenges, these hardships, some people began to blame God or murmur against God and blame Him for their trials. They started to blame him not just for what was going wrong externally in their lives, but even as we read in the last time we were in James, they were beginning to blame him for everything that was going wrong even in their hearts. Right? Some of them started to question whether God was guilty of tempting them to sin. And so now, as we're reading in James, some are possibly even angry with God because of their circumstances. And they're thinking that this suffering that's on them, this hardship that they're experiencing, is a just cause for them to have this unrighteous anger. And so James is going to address the issue of unrighteous speech and unrighteous anger. And sometimes the pain that we experience can lead us, as it did in these early Christians too, to become dissatisfied and discontent with the lot in our life. But rather than being angry for wrong reasons, James is going to encourage these believers, and us, to have righteous anger that is rooted in the desires of God, rather than our own selfish desires. Right? And lastly, the last verse, James is going to call all of us, all believers, to trust and believe in the Word of God that has been planted in our hearts. And that this Word of God has the power to, as he says, save us, to sanctify us. This Word of God transforms us each and every day to conform us, ultimately, into the image of the Son of God. So in our last study, as a refresher, we learned how God tests our hearts but never tempts our hearts. And this week we're going to see and learn about how a true mark of Christian maturity is to walk in righteousness, speech, righteous speech, righteous anger, and put away all moral filth that corrupts, and instead to trust wholeheartedly in the Word of God that is sufficient to save us and sanctify us. And so three points that we're really going to look at and take away is righteous speech, meaning ears that hear and a heart that seeks to understand. And righteous anger, not the unrighteous anger, from a heart that desires what God desires. And lastly, our third point, the righteous word of God, which comes from a heart that humbly receives the word of God that saves us. So beginning in verse 19, as we read, where he says, So these three imperatives that James opens up with are three marks of righteous speech. These three things are necessary, James says, for righteous speech. He says that we are to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Now, these three things might sound very familiar. They should. It's a common theme in actually the book of Proverbs. And he's writing to first century Jews, so they all have been very familiar with these Proverbs here. And I'll read some of them off. So, one Proverbs chapter 18 verse 13 reads, If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his falling in shame. Proverbs 29 20. Do you see a man who speaks in haste? There is more hope for a fool than for him. And lastly, Proverbs 15, 28. It says, The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked blurts out evil. So you see, in all three of those Proverbs, you have that theme of being quick to listen and slow to speak. If one gives an answer before he hears. Do you see a man who speaks in haste? The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer. So that's what you're seeing and so James is not teaching anything new here to these believers here. This is found in the wisdom literature everywhere. What you're seeing is that the common understanding is that wisdom and maturity go hand in hand with our speech. Right? Having unrighteous speech is a mark of a lack of wisdom, of folly, and immaturity, right? Being quick to listen and slow to speak also go together, right? They're inextricably linked. And that's why James puts them together. So we can approach this by being someone who's quick to listen, but what if we are quick to listen, but we are quick to speak? rather than being slow to speak. What does that look like? Well, it looks something like this. You're speaking with somebody, and as they're talking to you, you're quiet, you're allowing them to speak, you're not interrupting, but the entire time they're talking, your inner monologue is going, and you have your own words, you're developing your own responses, you're barely even paying attention to what they're saying. You're not talking, you're not cutting them off, so you are being, in a sense, quick to hear. But you're also thinking the moment they're done talking, I have so much to say and so much I'm going to address. They're speaking, and you're like, I don't really agree with that, so I'm going to say something there. Oh, that's wrong. I'm going to remember that. And as soon as they're done talking, I'm going to say my piece. Do you think that's what it means to be? quick to hear and slow to speak. You may not have interrupted, but I would say, brothers and sisters, you were not being or we would not be slow to speak. We were quick to speak because the moment the opportunity came, the only thing we were really focused on is immediately making our point. Right? It shows that our mind and our thoughts were just racing, and we were not really listening. We were listening to ourselves more than the other person. And so when James puts these things together, to be quick to hear and slow to speak, that both of these are important. Both of these are significant, and both matter in regards to righteous speech. It matters that we're both quick to listen and slow to speak. Right? seek to just hear the person's words, just verbally hear their words, but we have to actually listen to understand. And this is important even in our relationship with the Lord. Because ultimately James is addressing people who were in a time of suffering. They were enduring all this hardship. And in the last few passages, we saw that some of them began to wonder and question whether God was tempting them. And as we saw, of course, that's not true. God does not tempt, but he tests. And we saw the differences there. But now some of them are thinking in their haste. They're thinking improperly. angrily against God for their lot in life, for their hardships. And so the same is true in relationships as it is with the Lord. Rather than in haste, failing to be quick to listen, and we do the opposite. And that's the very last thing we need to do when we're in a situation of suffering. All the more we need to be ready to listen, ready to hear, ready to hear the Word of God. Allow the Word of God to work in our hearts, rather than immediately let all the words flowing out. We're not in a place to really be speaking and multiplying words, especially when we're enduring so much suffering. Right, so the same is true in our relationship with the Lord as it is with others. Rather than being quick to speak, we need to be quick to listen. Quick to listen. Psalm 37, as we just read in our call to worship, 37 verse 7 says, Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for Him. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in His way, over the man who carries out evil devices. Notice that the psalmist says, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him and not to fret. Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way. Or in this case, somebody who in the psalmist situation is a source of his hardship and suffering. So it is important that we're willing to listen from our heart, not just listening with our ears. And take a look at the order. in these three imperatives where James looks and says, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. We already saw that those go together, that you can't separate them. If you're quick to hear and yet quick to speak, you're not really listening. But notice also the order, quick to hear, slow to speak, and the last thing he says is slow to anger. This is important. James is being purposeful here. James is leading with those Two imperatives first, being quick to listen and slow to speak. Because if we fail there, if we, rather than being quick to listen, we're quick to speak. Do you think we're going to successfully avoid being angry? What are the odds are if our initial reaction, whether in relationship with the Lord or relationship with others, is to constantly be quick to speak and slow to listen? Do you think that's going to be helpful for us to keep us from anger in our hearts? Quite the opposite. When James writes this, it's very purposeful because if we are going to be faithful in being slow to anger, it has to be preceded with having hearts, willing hearts that are willing to be quick to listen and slow to speak. Because if we fail there, we're inevitably going to become angry, right? This is essentially like James's recipe. James's recipe if we want to be slow to anger. The word that he uses here, when he uses the phrase being quick to listen, it means more than just to hear verbally. It properly means to comprehend by hearing. You see that? It's intentional. This is intentional listening. It's not just, okay, I'm gonna listen, hear what they have to say, and as soon as they're done, I have my words to say. It's very intentional. It means to comprehend by hearing. So we can't just simply hear the words of people. We have to strive to comprehend and to understand what they're saying. And remember, James is primarily referring to believers to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger in regards to God. And you might think, being quick to listen to the Lord, what does that mean? It means in whatever situation we face and are enduring in our life, we have to be quick to listen to the words of the Lord. Quick to listen. Not eager to immediately push back and complain and murmur and grumble, but rather to be quick to listen and slow to speak, so that we can be slow to anger, so that we can allow the word to be planted in our hearts to guide us. That's the actual context. As James is speaking to people who are potentially blaming God for their suffering, and becoming angry with him in response. And again, this point I think bears repeating over and over again, because unfortunately, oftentimes it's been falsely said and taught and misrepresented, God, by saying it's okay to be angry with God. I've heard that multiple times. I was told that multiple times. My wife has been told that multiple times, especially when we were in the midst of suffering. last year with Sophia in her hospitalization. You know, it's okay to be angry with God. He can take your emotions. He can handle them. He can handle any raw feelings you have. It's okay to just let it all out in anger and in haste. And my immediate thought was like, yes, I know that he can take it ontologically. Yes, I know that that's true, but that's not the proper question. Yes, he can take your emotions. Yes, he can take your raw feelings. He did take it all on the cross. He did take your sin. So why would you want to continue to heap and pile more sin? He already took them. And really it's used, if people are being honest, when we say those phrases like that, it's really used as an excuse to give us the freedom to just express whatever we please. But brothers and sisters, that's not how we want to respond. And I would tell you that it's not even going to help you amidst your suffering. It's only going to continue to make your suffering worse. You're not going to have the peace of mind. You're not going to have that comfort that can come to you when you humble yourself before the Lord and His Word. Instead, you're actually putting a stumbling block before you and the Lord. Rather than coming to him in meekness and humility, you are actually saying, I'm angry, Lord. And I think I'm justified to be angry. And you're big enough, God, so you can take it. And that's not the proper response. That's not the proper response. I would say, please don't listen to that bad advice, dear Christian. Rather, we are called to walk according to God's righteous standard, and in this case, righteous speech. James wants to call us away from any unrighteous anger and away from hasty speech, especially when it's directed toward God. So of course, this passage applies to our relationship with the Lord, but it also applies relationally with one another. In fact, I would say that we cannot even begin to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to anger in our relationships with one another in our families and here in our church family until we first learn to do so with the Lord. If we constantly get in the habit of being someone who is, like the Israelites in the Old Testament, murmuring, mumbling, and grumbling against the Lord. We're setting a precedent with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we're setting a precedent with everyone else in our families, and our friends, and everyone we're in relationship with. If we can't even come to the Lord with humility, to listen with open hearts, to seek to understand what the Lord would say to us in this moment, We're not setting ourselves up relationally with others. In fact, we're not going to be slow to anger. We're going to be quick to become angry. And believe me when I say I know and I understand how hard this is. That is not our, if we're all being honest, that is not our initial response. Being quick to listen. and being slow to speak. And I may not see and have an inside look into anyone's personal life or see the inside of your marriages and have this insider view where I could know definitively. But listen, brothers, this one's for us. I know that we all struggle with being slow to anger. And we can be more easily angered and more quick to become angry. And we don't have to say a word. It's written all over our faces. And if you don't believe me, go ask your wife. It's true. And I understand that scripture puts this forth as more of a man's struggle. It's not only to men, but it is put forth as a man's struggle, the issue of being quick to anger. And the same is true, sisters. I also know this is a common problem for women, is to speak more than listen. and not being slow to speak, but rather being quick to listen, and being sometimes all too ready to have a list of complaints and criticisms, and ready to speak, rather than waiting patiently, being quick to listen, and slow to speak. So this passage really is speaking to each and every one of us and all of our relationships with the Lord and with one another. And sometimes we can be all too quick to dismiss what is being said to us, not just from the Word of God, but also from people who are speaking to us, especially those whom are closest to us. We can be so quick to dismiss what is being said because perhaps we don't handle criticism like we should. And if we're honest, brothers, we don't criticize with compassion as much as we should. And sometimes we can be too harsh in our words and in our tone. And by the way, this applies not just to our words, but also to our attitudes. So for those of you or any of us who have more of a propensity to be passive aggressive, you can't kid anyone on this. There's no Well, I'm just going to stay here quiet. I'm not going to say anything. I'm going to let him speak. But your attitude is far from wanting to be respectful. That also shows on your face. It does. So there's no circumventing this. There's no loophole when James is talking about, hey, we need to be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to anger. It's like, well, I'm not speaking. And I'm not saying anything, I'm not being loud, I'm not being harsh, so I'm not being slow to anger either. Really? Brothers and sisters, I would tell you, this, being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, it's not about the mouth. It's about the heart. So you may not say something out loud, verbally, externally, but your heart can be filled with the opposite attitude of what James is points to here. And that is true whether we're speaking relationally with one another or with the Lord. Especially amidst trials and hardships. Right? I've been here in the Midwest long enough now to know that passive aggressiveness is like a second language here. It really is. And it may be used as a way to put on a facade that I'm not really sitting against my brother or sister because I'm not really saying anything outwardly. But again, righteousness of speech starts here, not here. So even if we don't say anything, but if we have a roll of the eyes, The cold shoulder. Do you think all that would mean that that person is living or walking in righteousness of speech? They don't have to say a word. But what James is calling us to, and what the Lord is calling us to, is something far more than just a external facade that we could put up. So even though, again, we may not know each other's personal lives and personal marriages to see and get that insider look, And single Christians, you guys aren't exempt, this all applies to you here too. And we may not know each other's personal lives in that sense, but I could say, and we could all say, we know each other's hearts to the extent that scripture has revealed our hearts. And it's revealed what the nature of all our hearts are like. And when you study the Word of God, there is nothing better other than the Word of God to tell you that tells all of us more clearly the condition of our hearts. not the DSM manual psychology, not some behavioral science book, not a textbook on cultural anthropology, not some Christian bestseller or pop psychology self-help book, but the scriptures, the divine word of God reveals our true natures like nothing else, who we truly are inside. And please listen to this point carefully again. Righteous speech begins not with the lips, but with the heart. So dear brothers and sisters, if we want to be, as James says, slow to speak and quick to listen and slow to anger, it requires ears that hear and hearts that seek to understand. And why should we be slow to anger? What does James say? What does he say in verse 20? He says, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Oftentimes, our anger, which we think is justified in those moments, comes from selfish desires. majority of the time, what we would refer to as unrighteously angry or unrighteously indignant, more than likely, at least over 50%, we're wrong. We're thinking far too highly of ourselves. There's not, I'm not saying there's no such thing as righteous anger, there very much is. But typically, Our anger, which is exactly what James is saying, that the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And that term that he's using, the phrase the anger of man, the translation says human anger. That's purposeful, that's meaningful when he says that. And he's pointing to and he's contrasting anger that originates from man and his heart and his desires and the kind of anger that's the righteous anger and righteous indignation that comes from God and godly desires. Listen to this quote from the Puritan Thomas Manton. And what he has to say. He says, James emphasizes the wrath of men, right? That's the anger of men. And he does not mean wrath in general or anger in general. For there is always a righteousness in the wrath of God. Right? So this is the contrast that we see. And the question that we should ask is where is our anger coming from? Is it coming from our own humanly selfish desires? Or is it coming from Godward righteous desires? So why are we angry? Where is this anger coming from? And listen to this proverb in chapter 8, verse 13. Because sometimes, some people might think that, well, isn't only God the one who can have righteous anger, but not man? So listen to Proverbs 8, verse 13. It says, The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil, and pride and arrogance, and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. And so, see, this verse is one of many that makes it very clear that, yes, there is a righteous indignation. And there is a holy hatred that we all ought to have for that which is evil. Right? This is what's meant by the righteous indignation. Right? Just a few weeks ago, or maybe a month ago now, that Pastor Paul preached on Romans 12, specifically in verse 9, where it says that we are to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good. Another text, and perhaps might be one of the most clear, is Psalm 139 verse 21, where it says, And this is what I find fascinating about this, is that that verse that I just read in Psalm 139, it comes on the heels of this passage that you guys probably very much know, where it says, Is that verse familiar to you guys? It's often used to argue against abortion and the gruesome murder of babies in the womb. And as Christians we should have a passionate righteous indignation that burns against violent abhorrent crimes. We should be righteously indignant at the corruption of culture that seeks to sexualize children, or who promotes abhorrent, unnatural homosexual relationships with one another, even claiming under the banner of Christ by flying rainbow flags outside of churches. So there's absolutely many reasons to be righteously angry, yes. And this is the difference that James is getting at, is that human anger is not the justified righteous anger that James is talking about or that it's spoken of in Proverbs or in Psalms. That does not come from human selfish reasons, but it is a Godward anger, a righteous indignation that produces a righteous anger. So to have a righteous anger, we must have a heart that seeks and desires what God desires, the righteousness that God desires, the holiness that God desires, not our own self-righteousness. The moment we start getting into our own selfish reasons, we can bet, brothers and sisters, that's where we're gonna have the unrighteous anger, the unrighteous anger. As believers, we're worshipers of the Lord who seek to honor Christ and not ourselves. So we don't put forth our own desires and our own needs and exalt ourselves, but rather we put forth God's desires, what He desires from us, and exalt Him and His character and His nature. Man, moving into verse 21, James gives us a final imperative where it says, Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls." So in verse 19 he says, every person should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And because the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God, James then exhorts us all to therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness." Essentially, the source from which that unrighteous, humanly anger comes from. Put that away, and rather to do what? Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save our souls, right? The reason why James refers to first putting off the filthiness and rapid wickedness before we can receive with meekness is in our hearts, if we have all these unrighteous desires, all this what he refers to as filthiness and rapid wickedness, that is going to hinder us and serve as a stumbling block for us to receive the implanted word of God. And that phrase, the filthiness and rampant wickedness, the word for that points to a moral impurity in a spiritual and ethical sense. It conveys the idea of a moral defilement concerning, listen to this, both behaviors and attitudes. that are contrary to the holiness and purity expected of believers, both behaviors and attitudes. So again, it's always the attitude of the heart. If we want to have righteous speech and be believers walking in righteousness of speech, it begins not with our mouth, but with our hearts. If we want to have a righteous anger and not the unrighteous anger of man that James is pointing to here, it begins with the heart. And in that case, the heart of our desires. So this is vital to understand, brothers and sisters, because Before we can start having those behaviors and attitudes, we need to first look at our hearts. And we need to let the Word of God speak into our hearts, rather than us constantly speaking out, speaking against this brother and sister who hurt me, against this person, against the unrighteousness someone did to me, against the unrighteousness maybe that I think is happening in my life. and not be tempted to blame God for what it is that we're suffering and enduring. It's also important to see that James first says that there is something that we must put off, filthiness and wickedness, before we can put on or receive with meekness the Word of God. Because Oftentimes, we can look at things, especially in regards to our sanctification and holiness, as a long list of don'ts. Don't do this. Don't do that. Avoid this. Avoid them. And it may be important, it is important to obviously put off, and it's important to avoid certain things that can be stumbling blocks, and avoid sin and that filthiness that James is referring to. But if that's all we do, and if all we do is focus on what we should not do, we're not focusing on putting on, in this case what James is referring to, the Word. And so the sanctified life is not just simply don't do this and put this off, but it's what you must put on. How you must walk. It's not enough to just avoid this. There's an actual active positive thing that we must seek to pursue. And that's what we must do. You put off unholiness so that you can put on holiness. And James says that we do this by receiving the word with meekness. Essentially, if we are to be the kind of people who are holy and faithful, who will seek to live as Christ lived, and be people who are quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, and to be characterized by righteous speech and turn away from unrighteous anger, then we must be willing to humbly receive and obey the Word of God. Because only the righteous Word of God can actually change and transform our hearts. There's nothing else that can change and transform our hearts. Sure, you can modify behavior, but we're not called as Christians to simply do a little bit better and modify our behavior. as Christians and followers of Christ, we are called to transform our hearts and our minds. And there's only one thing that can do that, and that is through the Word of God and through the grace of God. And so it's not enough to refrain from speaking a harsh word or refrain from passive aggressive attitudes, but we actually have to seek righteous desires from the heart. And only the righteous word of God can do this. And that's what James ultimately points to. That only the righteous word, when it is received with humility, and when it is planted in our hearts, can actually sanctify us and transform us into Christ's likeness. So whether we're enduring trials and hardships in our lives, we must be willing to first be quick to listen to the word of God. in our relationship with Christ, in our relationship with others, especially with our families, both our biological family and our spiritual families, and all of our brothers and sisters here, we must be willing to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. And so as we go out in the week and we're spending time in God's Word, we have to seek to let the Word of God do its work. Remember, there's no way that we're going to be successfully have righteousness of speech with our loved ones, with our brothers and sisters, if throughout the week we have the Scriptures closed and we're not letting God speak to us. If a man or a woman seeks to walk in righteousness of speech, but fails to allow the word to convict them on their unrighteous speech and unrighteous attitudes and our passive aggressive attitudes and our harsh words and our tones, we will never ever actually walk in true faithful righteousness of speech with those whom we love and those who are around us. It begins first here in the word. And so, as we go out, we have to let the Word transform us. We have to have a heart that seeks to understand from the Word and a heart that seeks to be in the Word of God, not to seek to be right, or to follow our own selfish desires, or to speak in a way where our goal is to win an argument, or make our points, or to have unrighteous anger towards others, and certainly never toward the Lord. But we are to be a people who are so filled with the Word of God that our heart has a peace and righteousness that will overflow to others around us. and encourage others, and build others up, and edify others, and speaks the truth into the lives of others, and will ultimately live in such a way that brings glory to God, so that His goodness may shine through all of our hearts that are currently being transformed by the Word of God. And this first begins where this is when we allow the righteous Word of God to be implanted in our hearts with humility as we seek to follow the Lord in humility and understanding. So if we want to have righteous speech, righteous anger, we must first go to the righteous Word of God. Amen, brothers. Let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for this evening and this time together of fellowship. We thank you for this time that we can be in your word, praising and singing psalms and hymns. We ask you, Lord, that you would have this word implant in our hearts, that it would change us, that it would transform us, that we wouldn't just go out into the world quickly forgetting your message as soon as we heard it, that we would walk in righteous speech, in righteous anger, and that we would ultimately live according to your righteous word, that you would work out in our hearts any selfishness and selfish desires, and that you would give us a heart that seeks to be like you, to follow you, and to ultimately be transformed into your likeness. Help us to love with our words, to encourage with our words, and keep us from words that tear down rather than words that build up, and give us a righteous anger and not a selfish anger, O Lord. And we ask you and pray that your word will dwell richly in our hearts. We pray this in your name. Amen.