James: Humble Before the Implanted Word

Well, we are in our third week studying this book of James.

James is James is to the point.

That's why some of us hate the book and some of us love the book because he's just to the point.

And sometimes he can actually feel like he lacks grace, but we have to remember that James was not written as a book to be chopped up into 12 sermons over three months, like we're doing it.

James was written as a letter.

It would have been read all at one time to a group of people so that people would have heard these points and insights, building to the next point and insight, getting you to a conclusion.

Now, the conclusion of this letter is in the last two verses of the book.

And so here are those last two verses.

We have to keep this in mind when we read any other part of it.

James 5, 19 and 20, last two verses of the book.

My brothers, if any one among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings him back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

So James is saying that the wanderer, the worn out, the failure, the sinner, the broken, has always met with the full forgiveness of Christ.

And we all need that.

Because we're all in a battle.

We all have a battle within us.

A few years ago, our family went to Virginia to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sister and her family, her two girls, husband, we celebrated Thanksgiving.

So we were looking for a family activity one afternoon, so we decided we would all go play laser tag.

Here's a picture of us.

We got there, we got our guns on, our harnesses on, you know, just loving family, having this great experience.

We get suited up, we split into teams, we go out into the arena, they dim the lights, a little bit of music comes on, right?

And everything changes.

Like everyone just immediately, this loving family, look how loving we are.

I mean, it turns into a battle.

Like I mean, people are shooting and demolishing each other, we're pushing over little children.

I mean, it is serious.

My my mother, my loving mother over in this area of the church, you know, mature in years, not old, mature in her years, a grandmother.

She's like hunkered down in a bunker, sniping her little grandbabies.

Like, what is going on, right?

It wasn't loving family, it was a battle, one team against the other.

And then the time's up, the light come, the lights come on, and we're all exhausted, sweaty, a little ashamed of what we just did to the children.

Just pushing them over, running them over.

Now, I've played Laser Tag many times.

I'm not like in a league, don't worry.

Maybe you are.

Share your tips with me for the next episode.

I have played, I'm gonna play again.

I love it.

I love it.

And I've played with many different groups, and the same thing keeps happening.

Every time you get into that arena and the lights turn off, we lose it.

And we're all Rambo.

I mean, we are all in.

It is a battle, right?

Every single time.

It's always a battle.

We know what it's like to be caught up in a battle, one thing against the other.

We learned earlier in chapter one that we actually have inside of us, we have an old self and we have a new self, and that there is a battle going on here.

The old self tries to justify itself, tries to justify its own worth and goodness apart from the Creator.

This is why we're getting more and more beat down and exhausted.

Wherever we're exhausted, we can ask ourselves, where am I trying to justify my own value or worth or righteousness?

But there's this new self, born again, right?

We say that born-again Christians.

We're born again.

We have a new self inside of us, called to a new life where worth and goodness and righteousness and identity are given to us.

We are receivers.

This is the basis by which James brings us into verse 19.

So James 1, 19 through 21.

Let's make some sense of this passage.

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.

Point number one is this we are called to slow down living lives of receiving and listening.

These first two verses, anger is in contrast to receiving.

Because an angry person can't hear.

An angry person doesn't receive.

Anger is quick, it's closed off.

There's no openness.

No humility.

No compassion.

Anger limits us.

It's enslaving in that way.

And then we have this word, therefore, in verse 21.

Meaning, don't be an angry person, therefore receive the implanted word.

See, the way we show up into relationship is the same way we show up before the scriptures.

Meekness.

That's a posture.

It's a humble openness.

And that's how we show up in relationships, how we show up before the scriptures, before the word.

We live in humble openness before the scriptures and before each other.

Verse 21, let's revisit that.

Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your soul.

So that's Christ in us given to us.

Point number two.

We humbly receive from God that which is true of us and true for us.

This word to us is Christ in us.

So we don't need a new conversion.

We're already securely his.

And yet we need to keep putting ourselves before the word to remember who we are, how we should live.

And the Bible ceases to be a book about what to do.

And it becomes, it sort of opens up to us kind of like air you need to breathe.

Because you just long for what is what is true.

Like what is actually true about me?

What is true about how I should live, or parent, or work at this job, or this relationship, or spiritual, like my money?

Like, like how do I do that?

I need some truth for that.

These words filthiness and wickedness jump out.

Here's what they mean: they mean all that taints or devalues our lives.

See how this isn't limiting to your life?

Like God is trying to provide for us a liberation.

All that taints or devalues our lives and our experiences, our character, and our conduct.

That phrase in verse 21, receive with meekness the implanted word.

The word receive means to welcome.

A few years ago, Christy and I went and visited a mentor couple of ours in Colorado.

Here we are is the picture of us with Rod and Linda, our dear friends.

We are hiking the Maroon Bells trail there.

When we arrived to their home, they saw us coming.

They opened the door.

They greeted us.

You're here.

Oh, you're here.

We've been waiting.

We're waiting for you.

You are here.

Hugs, hugs, come on in.

Let me get your bags.

They carried the bags up to the guest room, took us up.

Let me show you.

We have prepared for you.

Here's the room for you.

Ensuite bathroom.

You know, our towels are laid out.

The bed is perfect, turned down for us.

I put my hand across.

That was a high thread count sheet.

That was not our sheets.

Those were different sheets.

We go back down, they have wine and crackers and cheese and fruit.

They listened to us.

They were waiting to listen to us.

They received us, they welcomed us.

They were overjoyed for us to be there, and then they just poured over us.

See, they had actually prepared to be disrupted by a guest.

That's what it means to welcome the word.

To receive with meekness, that we would actually, we have this implanted word in us, who we are in Christ, objective, truth, secure.

We don't have to earn it.

It is ours by receiving, and yet we come before this word to say, now remind me who I am.

Remind me how I should live.

And we welcome what is true.

We prepare to be disrupted by what is true.

And go like, oh yeah, okay, yeah, I was wrong on that one, I'm wrong on that one, wrong on that one, wrong on that one.

And we pour over it, let it take up residence in us.

It's how we come before the word.

Verse 22, James keeps going.

Verse 22, but be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts.

He will be blessed in his doing.

Point number three is this those who receive God's grace and truth are empowered to grow in God's grace and truth.

Let's make sense of that.

Now, is James leading us to be behavioral focused, rules-oriented, self-righteous Christians, Pharisees?

It would be actually easy to come away from this passage or the passage we'll look at next week and say, yes, we should just be behavioral focused and self-righteous.

But James is part of a bigger story.

James is part of the New Testament.

James is part of the Bible, the biblical arc of redemption.

And while James is to the point, James really doesn't do a great job of explaining how something happens.

And this is what's so great about the Apostle Paul to teach us what the gospel means.

How do we become a doer?

How do we do that?

Well, that's the battle between this old nature and this new nature, the old self and the new self, the old self, the old self wants control apart from God's grace and truth.

And if the old nature can't have it rebellion, the old nature is very happy to have it religion.

And this is the battle between legalism and gospel.

Remember, legalism says, I obey, therefore I am loved, leaving you in control.

The old self loves this.

You don't really need God.

Gospel says this I'm loved, therefore I obey.

You're already loved by gift, by receiving.

You have to be meek.

The old man doesn't like this.

But it's freeing.

We receive from God, we live dependent upon his grace.

See, Paul fills these gaps in for us.

Where James is to the point, Paul explains.

If you remember Titus 2, from a couple, a few weeks ago, month ago, we read this.

Titus 2, 11 through 12.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

Great.

Salvation by God's grace.

But Paul doesn't stop there.

He actually very much agrees with James.

Listen to this.

For this is what the grace of God also does, training us to renounce on godliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

So by God's grace you are saved, and by God's grace you are empowered to live and grow in godliness.

See, Paul is explaining how that very thing James says happens.

Where the law, who we should be, is like train tracks, right?

The guardrails, who we should be.

The gospel is the only engine of power to actually carry us down those tracks to live it out.

The lavish love and justification by Christ alone when you're actually not who you should be.

And the Holy Spirit uses this great wealth of value and worth and security and acceptance and total approval, righteousness that is given to you by Christ alone to deepen who you are and to empower how we should live.

This is how the insecure heart actually becomes secure enough to deal with all the insecurities.

Look again at verse 25.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts.

He will be blessed in his doing.

So the law of liberty, this phrase, this is the whole of Scriptures.

The law of liberty is God's way of being.

It's the way of life for us.

Point number four is this God's love in ways for us brings liberation to the exhausted self.

And the self is exhausted because of the old man trying to justify itself apart from the Creator.

That's why it's exhausting.

The Apostle Paul uses this word law for any time what we should be.

It's demand, it's law, it's who we should be.

And Paul says it is holy, it is good, it is the path to liberty.

And in this way, the law is the path to liberty in two ways.

It's the path of liberty because it is the way of holiness which brings liberty.

And then the law actually crushes us because we are not perfect unto it.

And it crushes us into a place of need.

We need God's grace to us.

Romans 5, 17.

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

So we are free because we're already loved by God, and then we are freed to live and grow in godliness.

The curse of the law is broken.

And this is how the indicatives of God's grace, what is promised to you, is indicated to you, it actually empowers you to live out the imperatives of what God is asking of you.

And the very thing that felt so limiting and so controlling, it actually flourishes.

It's like, oh, this is the way of the Christian way of flourishing.

Last week up in Katma National Park, that's where the fat bears are.

We'll be there in a few weeks.

You know I love fat bear weeks coming up in a few weeks, and I'll just push it on you again, another year of fat bear week.

A hiker started out, hiked out into that wild wilderness, Katma National Park.

Here's a picture of that wilderness area.

This is actually exactly where he was hiking, and he hiked out there and he got lost.

Fog came in and he got lost.

He wanders around more and more, getting himself more and more lost out there in the middle of nowhere.

He had no hope, no ability to get back, no ability to communicate with anybody.

And so that cold comes in, that wet comes in, he's wet, he's cold, he's tired.

He is helpless.

The only thing he sees is he eventually on a tree, he sees uh one of those wildlife bear cameras.

Like they're the cameras that take the pictures of all the pictures of bears that I make y'all look at in sermons.

It's one of those cameras, and he sees it, and he's this is his only hope.

So he puts his face right in front of this camera.

It has no audio, it just has a video.

He puts his face right in front of it.

And he just looks into it and he says, Help.

This is a picture of him when they when they got him.

Help, help, help.

You know, all these bear nerds sitting in the recliners at home eating Doritos.

They're like, what is this?

What is going on?

Who is this guy?

Well, he looks pretty miserable.

He looks helpless.

So finally, one of the bear nerds, they call the park, and the park sends out rangers.

They know exactly where that camera is, and so they hike straight to that camera to find him.

He doesn't know where he is.

But they pursue him.

While he's amass, they didn't wait for him to get, hey, get your composure, get your act together, then we'll come get you.

Show yourself in front of that camera, show yourself put together, and you got it.

You know, then we'll come, yeah, then you've like married it.

No, no, no.

It's like while he's amass, they go to rescue him.

They find him, they bring him to safety.

I would only imagine that this creates some sort of response in his life.

I would imagine he's pretty grateful for these rangers.

And in that way, we see how a loving rescue creates gratitude and a loving response on the back end.

We are empowered by the very grace that saves us.

Now, I haven't been lost out in the middle of Alaska.

You probably hadn't either, but I would only imagine that we would cry out to it just at the first instance of deep, like, oh, there's some help here?

There's help?

Okay, like like when we're in need, we become listeners.

Like all of a sudden we are ready to receive a word.

Like, I will receive whatever you have for me when I have nothing.

Because man, I just don't have what it takes a lot of times.

Like, just to live life, life is really hard.

Like to parent the way I should, to love my wife the way I should, to do this job the way I should, to like treat you the way I should.

Like, I mean, any of that just brings me to the end of myself.

A few weeks ago, Pastor Matt led our staff in contemplative prayer.

He had us sit in a room completely silent.

It was horrible.

It was so annoying.

He's like, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna sit completely quiet, silent.

We're not gonna do anything.

We're gonna totally just sit silent.

And all just all this annoyance and agitation just kind of crept up in me.

Like, what?

You know, ah, ah, ah.

And then he read this verse do not be anxious for God even closed the lilies of the field.

Well, that made me even more angry.

I don't want to be told that.

You know, by the end of 30 minutes, silence is the word.

Silence the word, silence the word.

It's like, oh I mean, I'm so needy for that word.

So needy.

I usually go on walks.

I don't sit still very well.

So I usually go on walks.

I got all kinds of walks.

Now maybe you journal, I don't know.

I walk.

I have like God, I need your presence walks.

I have uh I need a word for my parenting walks.

I need I need a word for my marriage walks.

I have like I can't hold it together walk.

I mean, I'm gonna go walk and God, I'm gonna tell you all about how I can't hold it together.

And I need a word about that.

I have I'm a mess walk.

Don't know if you have that walk.

I have I need a compassion walk, I need wisdom walk, I need I need patience walk.

I have I need to repent walk.

That's a popular walk because I'm not real good at all the other walks, so then I end up with that walk.

Right?

And all this is like just like saying, like, I need a word.

Like I need an outside word.

None of that matters.

Until it's all that matters.

None of it, none of that, even what I just said.

To you, maybe to you.

Maybe not to some of you, you get it, but maybe to you.

Like none of it, it doesn't even matter to you.

Until it's all that matters.

Because your ego becomes bankrupt.

And all you're out of great ideas.

You tried all your great ideas, and they just left you dry.

The old man is worn out, and you're lost.

And as Christ followers, we already have the implanted word in us.

And that's the good news we rest in, and we're so secure, that's why we can become come before the Lord, even imperfect and messy, to say, I still need a word for you from you today.

And God in his grace loves all the more the one who cries for help, the one who's saying, I need a word.

I meekly come to humbly receive, to remember the implanted word in me, and to put myself in front of that word, to be disrupted by your word.

And the loving Abba welcomes all of us.

This is why.

That is why, because the word is implanted in you, is why we can come before it to say, disrupt me in any way you see fit.

And we welcome your word into our lives with joy.

Let's pray together, Lord.

We are weary, exhausted, worn out, stubborn people who love to justify ourselves by our own merit and achievement, and we are only more tired because of it.

Would you help us to die all the more to that old man, that old self?

And would the new self flourish as we rest in the objective work of Jesus for us, the implanted word, Christ in us, hope of glory?

Help us to live a life of listening and receiving and to be open to be disrupted by your word for us, for this moment, for this day.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.