JAMES | Know This | James 1:19-21 | King, R. (Guest)

Open with me to the book of James and the first chapter as we continue our studies there in the book of James, according to my calculations, at the rate that we're going be about another 25 years before we finish the book of James. So if you have thoughts of what you'd like to go into after that, keep them to yourself. James, the first chapter dealing with beginning there to read with verse 13, reading through this text this morning. Our text this morning begins at verse 19, but as we've noted each time, James takes each instruction and builds it on what he has just finished saying, so we need to attend to what he had just finished saying. And then our text for study this morning begins at verse 19, beginning to read here to verse 13. This is God's Word.

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 person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings death.

Do not be deceived. My beloved brothers, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow, 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. Knowing this, 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 thus far, the reading of God's own Holy Word. Let's pray Father, you have given us your word. You have kept it for us, you brought it to us, and you've promised to make it fruitful. So we look to you now that you would bless us through this word, by your Spirit, that those things and riches promised us in Christ, that would be our first fruits, would come forth, and we would honor you bless. We ask in Christ's name, Amen, be seated please.

Our text this morning begins at verse 19, but it begins with interesting instruction that is linguistically odd. Now, those of you who are Greek scholars have probably already picked up on this, but that first word in verse 19 is know. Know this.

Some translations who have it?

You already know this, or you know this, or knowing this, and others have it as an instruction. So here's the problem. It is in the perfect tense, which is a past tense.

It's something that is finished.

It may have taken a while to do it, but it's totally done. I drove here this morning. If I put it in Greek, if I could, it would be in a perfect tense. It took a while, but I got here that's done. I'm here. It is also a middle tense, a middle voice rather, which means it's something you do to yourself or within yourself. I ate breakfast this morning. Nothing to brag about, but I ate it for myself.

I fed it to myself. You act upon yourself in that way. The kicker is that it's an imperative. It's a command. Know this well, you already know it was a process.

You have it of yourself, and now we're instruct that we are to know. And it's an odd construction, and we only find it one other place in the New Testament, which gives us some insight. In Ephesians, chapter five, Paul speaks of how we are to be holy before the Lord, and he says that no one who is sexually immure, immoral or impure or covetous, has an inheritance in the kingdom of God. In Christ, says knowing that no one who has these things has an inheritance in Christ. Or know the same tense and everything. Then he says, Therefore, live in a holy way.

Guard what you say, etc. You have this fact. You understand it. That's reality. And Paul said, you understand that's corrupt, that's vile, as opposed to the nature of God. That's what he saved you from. That's what, by His power, he's delivered you unto a land of purity. You already have that information now, soak it in, take that which you have learned and really, really learn it in your heart, to direct you, to guide you, to give you that basis on which you go forth, so that when you know that no unholy person is going to enter the kingdom of God, it makes you careful, from the end, from the inception, to obey Him and to go in holiness Before him and avoid sin. Well, James takes that construction and he says, No, this. Well, this is pretty clear. This means what he just finished saying. Now you all remember, those of you here last spring, when we dealt with the chapter, you remember everything. I know that none of you ever forget a word spoken from this pulpit? So I'm gonna, for those of you who weren't here, then I'm your real quick synopsis, talking about in the vagaries of life, the trials, troubles, midst of temptations coming, the questions are, how can this happen to me, if I love the Lord, if I'm really a Christian, how does this go?

What is God doing to me? Why are these things happening? He says, Okay, time out. Here's something to focus on. As a bedrock. God is good. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of mercies in whom there is no shadow of turning, no variation.

God is good. God is good to you.

God has been good to you. God is going to be good to you.

Whatever he's doing in your life now flows in a measure from his goodness. Now, goodness is a part of his character. So there's justice, holiness, other aspects of his nature in there.

But he says, God is good. Hang on to that, that God is there.

We want to blame him or blame satan, to blame him, indirectly.

He says this is a foundational theological position, that God is good, that he is bestowing good things. He is the one who gives you deliverance, and he's already spoken to us of of those who are marching through this life, and says, but this is this is where we go. This is how God deals with us. That's the first major aspect. Then he comes to a second thing about how he did it. He says, here's the pinnacle of his goodness of his own will.

He brought you forth. Out of his own will. He gave you life. He brought you to birth. God is the one who saved you from start to finish. God didn't look out and see who might be interested. God came to you, to me when we had no interest, we had no righteousness, we had nothing to commend us, and He saved us.

Charles Spurgeon once asked, Do you think God loves us all from eternity? And he said, he must, because I've not done anything since I was born to make him love me. God birthed us. It was God who came, God who enlivened, God who opened the eyes, God who made that gospel to come forth, God who made it to shine. I remember years years ago, sitting with my mother in church, and lady was giving her testimony. She said she'd gone to this particular church and she'd never heard the gospel preached there in her whole life. And my mother, being the kind hearted, gentle spoken person that she was, said, huh, I've been in that church a number of times, and I heard the gospel every time. She just couldn't hear it. You couldn't hear it, and God opened your ears. You ain't nothing to do with it. And God gave you life.

You had nothing to offer. And God provides everything. He is good. There's a pinnacle of goodness. You want to question how good he is. Are you saved?

Well, how'd that come about?

Well, He gave His Son to die for me when I. He was a rebel. God is good, and God continues to be good. He says, focus on that.

But then he says, How did he do it? And this is where he ties in to our text this morning, even more particularly of his own will. He begot us by the word of truth. What was the choice instrument God used? Did God send an Angel down tap you on the shoulder and say, Excuse me a minute. Did God write you a special delivery letter? No. God sent his Word to you. Likely it was the word preached as His Messenger shouts forth that open pronouncement of come be saved, as Hosea says, come bring your words, confess be delivered.

Maybe it was a friend bringing God's word to you, someone you know, someone you may not even know, said a word in season or told you of Christ. Maybe you're just reading it yourself, but God used his word coming to you.

God birthed you through the instrument of bringing his word to give you that salvation. And James says, you want to question the Word of God. You want to question his goodness. You want to wonder if he truly is loving and kind. He saved you through that weak instrumentality, the foolishness of the word preached somebody speaking to a dead sinner, telling them to come to Christ when they don't want to the parallel is obvious, Christ outside the tomb of Lazarus, saying, Lazarus, come forth.

Lazarus can't come forth. He didn't even want to come forth.

He's dead. He doesn't want nothing. He's done with life.

But God's power attended that word, and he came to life. And so he came hopping out fast as he could. God brought his word, and it was by that word they did. He says, know this now dwell on that your salvation came to you. God birthed you.

It's not something you did. It's not something for which you get the credit. You can't go around saying, Hey, man, if you were a Christian like me, you no God came to you, miserable sinner you are, and with the mere word, brought Christ to you. You heard of his mercies, you heard of your sin.

You heard of his spirit beckoning you, and your heart responded by his own powers through the instrumentality of that word he says. Now perceive this. Think about it, contemplate it, make it your own, because when you really chew it up, the flavor comes out that I'm my own worst enemy. I'm not the one that achieved these things. It had to come to me. It wasn't some spark of good within me. It wasn't some great religious experiential motivation or sensitivity within me. It didn't come from me. It came to me. I have no hope from within myself. The beginning and all the way through salvation is going to be directly from God, by His power and by His mercy, there's no confidence there in ourselves, God is good and God is gracious, and oh, what a sweet comfort. What comfort that I don't have any strength in myself, and it has to come from God. Yeah, because God is always good. There's no shadow of turning in him. There's no variation in him. He brought you forth to make you one of the first fruits. That means he's going to bring you to ripen us as a testimony of his power, then you will be fully developed. That God is at work, but it means I'm my own worst enemy. I can't trust me, and we realize that. We have a direction for our obedience. I can't resolve on my strength. I can't do my best. I can't take my courage up to the sticking point. I can't figure my way through this and know exactly how to go and do all of these things. Well, just let Satan.

Come on. I'm ready for him. No, it's not going to be your strength, it's not going to be your abilities, thankfully, it's not going to be your intelligence. It's not going to be our purity, it's going to be God, God who gives that grace, and that's why then we're able properly to worship. What do we come bringing in our worship, gratitude of a redeemed heart, Lord come look at all the stuff I did. Let me show you. No, I come a beggar before grace, I can give him the worship and the adoration that do his name. He's not my buddy in the sky who helped me nudge it over the line. He's a mighty God who reached out in mercy and brought this dead, wicked heart to life and changed it, and I'm able to praise him and honor him without preening, without puffing myself up, but Giving all glory to Him.

So we being aware that God is good. God is the source. I am bad, then I am my own worst enemy. I am the one who is the trouble spot in my walk with Christ. I can't blame the world.

I can't blame those people who give me temptations. I'm the problem. Back in the Middle Ages, there was a fellow in a monastery who there locked away in a monastery, very bad food, sleep on a little pallet of straw, get up, I forgot how many times every night, and get on your knees on the stone to pray before you laid back down on your stone bed, and you decided that when he was tempted to sin, particularly to us so the flesh would come on him, he would get up and study Hebrew. Now, I've studied some Hebrew, I'll guarantee you that'll drive away any other thoughts, but he decided he would study Hebrew.

His name was Jerome. He's noted in church history as one of the greatest Hebrew scholars that ever was locked away in a cell made of stone because his corruptions are there. You know it. Satan could take a vacation the world could leave you alone, and we would still find occasion to sin. I'm my own worst enemy.

I'm the one I have to watch out for. Secondly, since it's God's mercy that saves me and his power entirely in His grace. I must look to him continually. I must rest on Him, not only ultimately, but intimately and continually. In our house, we have bunches of clocks sitting like on everything, all of them, except one, have some kind of a battery backup in it. So when you get one of these thunderstorms, the lights flicker, and it takes them in, and they come up, and everything's copacetic, except for the one on the microwave. If it doesn't have continued power, that clock is going to go nuts.

It's noon again, whatever time it is, it doesn't have any batteries. You don't have any batteries. We do not have batteries.

We don't have any residual charge that we can say, well, I don't have trust in the Lord. I got enough left over on my spirit is up to 70% I can do this. You're depending on the hand of the Lord, so we don't work. Oh Lord, I got a big trial coming up. I'm going to need your help. No, you got anything coming up? You need his help. A continuous dependence on God.

That's why Paul said to the Romans as a thesis for the whole book of Romans, he says, the salvation that's from faith unto faith starts at faith, and it's faith the whole way through resting in Christ. Christ, and thirdly, God uses his word to save us. It is his word that he used and continues to use to nurture us, to strengthen us and to instruct us. You know that from your own experience. How many times have you come to a public worship or opened your Bible and you were just down in the depths, or you were wrestling with something and it seemed like God had been spying on you, because the preacher opened the text and it was something right there you've been wrestling with, and God dealt with your heart and you went home assured. I remember a long time ago, the baby we had was is now retired, and I had an insurance payment that was due, and I had to put it in the mail on Monday, or we wouldn't have any insurance to help cover his baby sister who was on the way, or anything else. Mail came.

Friday, nothing mail came.

Saturday, nothing went to church. Sunday morning, nothing went to church. Sunday evening, pastor preached about Abraham on his way to the mountain to sacrifice. Isaac said, three days he journeyed without a word from God, but he went on in obedience, trusting the Lord would provide. I said, Okay, Lord, I got it. I got you.

Sorry. Got home, there's a check somebody sliding our door while we're at church. You need the word of God. He uses that word.

He deals with us, He instructs us. Got confusion. Look to his word. Got torment. Look to His Word. Struggling with sin. Look to Him through His word. That's what he uses for our salvation.

That's his choice instrument.

That's why Paul says God is pleased to the foolishness of the word preached to save us.

Does God use the comfort and fellowship of the saints. Sure.

Does God use the prayers of the saints on our behalf? Yes, but in terms of ministering to your own particular soul, his choice instrument is the word itself.

Therefore don't despise it and don't belittle it. And that's the instruction that comes from this. He says, Knowing, know that this is the way it is. Know beloved brothers and notice. He puts brothers in there again. He says, I got the same issues.

Okay, let every person be quick to hear, be ready to hear what God has said. It's God's word.

Whether you hear it or not, be ready to hear be alert to it.

One of the few shows on TV my wife and I can watch together without being grossed out, is Jeopardy, and they'll have the clue up on the board, and the host will read the clue, but the contestants are waiting there with their buzzer until the little signal light flashes.

They can't press the buzzer, but man, do they hit right on it.

They're eager to hear. They're quick to hear. They're there paying attention. They're focused on it, wanting that information, wanting to see what is being said, ready to jump right on it, wanting to be corrected, wanting the eagerness. He says, be quick to hear. And being quick to hear is exactly the opposite of pride.

Pride says, Okay, Lord, I got it quickly. Here. Says, Lord, I need your word. I need you to instruct me. I need you to comfort me. I need you to redirect me. Lord, I am Prone to wander. It being quick to hear is no inner defensiveness. Speak Lord, tell me I'm waiting for it. Pentecost was a judgment on Israel back in Isaiah, 28 God through the prophet told Israel, said, you don't want to hear what my prophets are saying.

You'll go around complaining.

What's he doing? Telling us again, line upon line, precept upon precept. A little bit here, a little bit there. He's teaching us like he's teaching children we don't. Need to hear this stuff that's so simple. And God says, Okay, I'm going to teach you line upon line, precept to precept from the lips of foreigners. I'm going to use you in other tongues, and they're going to come to you.

And he, the one who, in that passage, identified as the cornerstone, says, you've rejected me. You didn't want to hear about me. They are going to tell you about my salvation. And the Word of God came forth. And there at Pentecost, the Jews who had come in for the Passover from all kinds of different countries said, Wait a minute, they're talking my language and my home turf. How do they learn that language? Because God said, I'm going to show you. I'm going to speak. You need to be quick to hear you need to be ready to listen to it. I am the one who sends that tested stone out. See God's instruction is not to be sloughed off. Oh, well, nor is it to be ignored or resented when God corrects us, but to be welcomed our confusion, our corruption, our weaknesses, are evident to God, probably to other people, even if not to ourselves. But God is going to address us the need for his mercies instruction are evident realities. He says, Then be quick to listen. Listen to what is going there, and slow to speak, slow to anger. What's the usual response when somebody corrects you? Now, wait a minute, we get defensive.

You see, we have an inherent tendency to sin, and that comes from our own heart.

And so the danger is following our own heart. We're prone to evil reactions, and we resent it when God corrects that which is us and what we think and feel in Galatians, four Paul writes to the Galatians saying, Hey, I taught you the word of grace.

You're not going back to ceremonies. It's Christ. Christ only rest in him. Forget that stuff. He says, now if I become your enemy because I told you the truth, he expects them to be taken back and be affronted by it. So he says, slow down your tongue. Listen to God. Be quick to hear but be slow to speak back to God. Puritan named Mayer says, since it is through the Word, we are begotten anew, let us listen to it in meekness, instead of being so eager to give utterance to our own opinions. Be slow to speak back to God. Don't interrupt him with your protests. Oh Lord, I know you said this, but you know I've got but remember our dear friend Jonah, when the Lord finally got him on the hill, and he's sitting there pouting, waiting for God to destroy Nineveh, and God shades him with a vine, and then next day kills the vine, so he's on Jonah gets all upset. He says, Jonah, you got a problem with a vine dying, and you don't care about other people, but Lord, he wants to object. When God crosses us, we want to object. I remember going to a pastor years ago and having lunch with the main elder there.

At the time, and sat down and says, you'll find these people easy to get along with as long as you don't cross them. And I started laughing, and he looked at me puzzled. I said, most people are easy to get along with if you don't cross them, most people get along fine with God as long as you didn't cross them. James says, When God crosses, you don't blurt out against him. Don't come out against him. Jonah's response is, Lord, yes, I do well to be mad you killed that vine that was giving me shade. Matthew Henry says, instead of censoring God under our trials. So let us open our ears and hearts to hear what he will say to us. And since God uses instrumentality of His word often sent through His messengers, whether a friend, a counselor, the pastor, the preacher, whatever else, then be slow to anger and quick to hear toward men when you're being taught the Word of God, when it's being brought to you.

Now, it's not saying everybody take a vow of silence. Nobody says nothing, but our mouth is problematic in general, and James will get to that a little later. But how it's like a fire, you have to keep it under control, because it's bad. You don't learn a whole lot by talking. I one of the few things I've ever learned when I was talking was that I should have kept my mouth closed. You learn more by keeping your mouth closed and your open. So listen to what is being said. It's an old Jewish proverb that says it is wise for learned men to be silent, and much more for fools be slow to anger. And here again, back in the context of trouble, temptation, distress we talked about earlier, about not blaming God, because God is good. What happens when we're all stirred up? What stirs up to the top is our wickedness, our troubled heart and mind. If you have a glass of muddy water and let it sit, the mud settles down to the bottom. You shake it a little bit, and immediately it's all over the place. When we get agitated, it comes up one of the lessons, and I remember they actually had seminary back in those days. In seminary, one's lesson is, what do you do when you visit somebody and they just go off on a rant? Do you pretend it didn't happen? No, you don't deal with it at that moment, you let them settle down. Then you say, Now you said this. Well, you must have meant it. You said it. It came from your heart that you were angry with God or whatever. We get all agitated.

The filters drop off. So he says, Be slow to speak. Be slow to speak, particularly in the context of upset and troubles.

Beware of being angry all the time, and beware of people who are always angry. But here it's focused individually on us, isn't it? You me be slow to speak. You see, God puts the responsibility for our anger on us. Nobody made us angry. They may have said or done something to which I responded with anger, but they didn't reach over and on the app on their phone, moved me to anger. There is a difference there. And many times we are angry, not because what was done was evil, but because what was done to us. We're angry at people, not because they have sinned against the Lord, because what they did hurt me, physically, personally, emotionally, whatever else. So he says, Be slow to speak for the anger of man doesn't work the righteousness of God. It's not achieved. His righteousness is not achieved by our personal passions, not achieved from that which comes within us, but that which comes to us from the outside, God's grace, God's mercy, God's principles, God's purpose, God's strength, to lead us in a holy way. So therefore, okay, if you're doing that, therefore what do you do? Put away some of your filthiness and rampant wickedness. No, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness. We really just want to be a little less sinful so we're not as obnoxious. But there's the question that is floating around a long time.

When you bite into an apple, what would you rather find a worm or half of a worm? You want a part of sin? Still, there. God finds it yucky. He says, Get rid of all of it. It's all filth. To God. Stop your wrong behavior.

When God corrects you from his word and speaks to you, listen quickly, listen carefully, and put away your sin, you don't have to obey it. You are delivered by grace. Paul says in Romans, sin will no longer have dominion over you. God rules, flee to Christ. Lord, Purge me.

Keep me from sinning in this way. So God comes in with salvation and sweeps out all the evil and guilt and everything else. He doesn't leave the house empty. Remember the parables back in Matthew 13, the one who cleans the house and sweeps out the demon and leaves it empty, and demons come back in. He said, No, God doesn't do that.

God brings in righteousness there. It's not just negative.

He said, receive the Word of God what He has revealed, what he has said, his instructions on how to do, how to behave, how to react, how to love, how to spend your time and energy. He says, receive that word. That's a word that speaks of embracing a warm embrace of a friend. We have our daughter planning to come see us in December. Haven't seen her in at least six months. I guarantee she won't get one foot inside the house before my wife is racing at her top speed, which isn't what it used to be, but racing at her top speed to wrap her arms around her. She called her the other day on the phone and to find out which day exactly you're coming, when you're leaving. They talked for an hour. They found out when she was coming, but they got on everything else, and I got around to when she was leaving.

It's a warm embrace, it's a hug, it's a delight in having there.

She's already figuring all right now What kind of pie is their favorite and what she's looking forward to it? Receive that word. Don't get mad at what God said to you.

God spoke to you. God's Word came to you. That's his real word. God's a talking God, and he addressed you, and he addressed your life and your issues. Receive it, welcome it.

He didn't do charades. You have to guess what he means. Enjoy it like a dear friend. Word from our love, the great bridegroom, writing to his bride, words that he has revealed and that word is focused around our great deliverer, isn't it? Who is it that's called the word Jesus Christ. He is the author. God, the Holy Spirit. God, the Son, pinning in different ways, through it, when the words come out of Christ's own lips on the cross, or things that were written by David through the Spirit, okay, but also he is God's message. Thomas, I've been so long a time with you, and you haven't known me. You've seen me. You've seen the Father. He teaches about himself. You read the 10 Commandments. You learn the character of God. You learn the character of Jesus, Christ, faithful to His church, never deceiving, never coveting a great deliverer there come and receive it, rejoice in what it tells you about him and leads you in to righteousness with him. Why is it we can go so long not profiting from the Word of God. Well, Calvin says, hence it is that so few profit in the School of God, because hardly one in 100 renounces the stubbornness of his own spirit and gently submits to God. But almost all are conceited, refractory. We're stubborn. We don't want to do things like God said, because it means we have to change and we like what we're doing least like it better than what would take place if we had to change it. How do you profit?

In other words, on contrast, he says, receive it implanted.

Receive it like a. Seed that's been put in there, and you has that image earlier about the first fruits of our redemption, as God's word coming and being in your heart of hearts, you got the parable of the soul soils, where the good soil brings forth its fruit. Don't let the seed just land lightly on your ears and be snatched away, taken deeply into the good soil, because we're not saved by simply having that word fall on our ears. God saves with a total transformation that is brought about by the hearing of that word, but there are numerous souls that hear the gospel preached, and that was it. I have a grandchild, now an adult, married, visiting with him a couple of years ago, and he said, Gramps, you know, I never did listen to your sermons when you were preaching. And I said, Yeah, I know you did. It was pretty clear. You're zoned out.

He heard the words. We didn't take them in. What has God said this morning? What is the word God has brought to you from His written Word through his agent proclaiming that word, plant it deep. Listen to it. Nurture it, grow it. This is your care now that that word that is delivered to you not bear no fruit, but that it bear much fruit in your life. Rejoice in the plowing of the Spirit that roots out all the weeds of the worldliness that's there. Rejoice in the heat of the sun that scorches the false but nourishes the true. Here's God's direction for your life. And as we read early on from Proverbs, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your understanding in all your ways. Acknowledge him and he'll direct your paths. And where does that path lead?

To glory? It leads along the way of righteousness, which is the way of holiness. It leads to walking with him before him, reflecting his nature and enjoying his presence. And ends in His presence. We learn of him as fully as a creature can ever.

Learn of the Creator. Know this.

Know this. Receive that word.

Listen quickly, because it's God's instrument to save you.

Let's pray, Almighty God and King, we praise Your holy name that you speak to us. You direct us, You, O Lord of hosts, are glorious in your mercies.

Freely, you declare that whosoever thirsts may drink freely. You declare to us come.

So Lord, we come. We praise you, we listen to you, and we seek to serve You, Lord. Give us grace, ears to hear and hearts to believe. Lives which bear fruit, may glory be yours in all these things, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.