"A Call to Self-Reflection"
Notes
Transcript
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
I. Intro
I. Intro
James called God’s Word “the engrafted word” in James 1:21, which means ‘the implanted word.’ In the parable of the sower, Jesus compared God’s Word to seed, and the human heart to soil. In His parable, Jesus described four kinds of hearts: the hard heart, the shallow heart, the crowded heart, and the fruitful heart. But the Word of God cannot work in our lives unless we receive it in the right way. Jesus not only said in Mark 4:24 “Take heed what ye hear,” but he also said in Luke 8:18 “Take heed how ye hear.” Too many people attend church and Bible Study and Sunday School, but never seem to grow. is it the fault of the teacher or the preacher? Perhaps, but it may also be the fault of the hearer. It is possible to be “dull of hearing” because of decay of the spiritual life. Hebrews 5:11 “Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.” If the seed of the Word is to be planted in our hearts, then we must obey the instructions James gave us.
II. Swift to Hear
II. Swift to Hear
Just as the servant is quick to hear his master’s voice, and the mother to hear her baby’s smallest cry, so the believer should be quick to hear what God has to say. There is a beautiful illustration of this truth in the life of King David, in 2 Samuel 23:14-17
And David was then in an hold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem. And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate! And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the Lord. And he said, Be it far from me, O Lord, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.
b. David was hiding from the Philistines who were in possession of Bethlehem. He yearned for a drink of the cool water from the well in Bethlehem, a well that he had visited often in his boyhood and youth. He did not issue an order to his men; he simply said to himself, “Oh, that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate.” Three of his mighty men heard their king sigh for the water, and they risked their lives to secure the water and bring it to him. They were “swift to hear.”
C. Matthew 13:9 “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
III. Slow to Speak
III. Slow to Speak
We have two ears, and one mouth, which ought to remind us that we should listen twice as much as we speak. Too many times, we argue with God’s Word, if not audibly, at least in our hearts and minds.
Proverbs 10:19 “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: But he that refraineth his lips is wise.”
Proverbs 17:27 “He that hath knowledge spareth his words: And a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit.”
Instead of being slow to speak, the lawyer in Luke 10:29 argued with Jesus by saying, “And who is my neighbor?” In the early church, the services were informal, and often the listeners would debate with the speaker. There were even fightings and wars among the brethren James was writing to.
James 4:1 “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?”
IV. Slow to Wrath
IV. Slow to Wrath
Do not get angry at God or his Word.
Proverbs 14:29 “He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: But he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.”
In the garden, Peter was slow to hear, swift to speak and swift to anger-and almost killed a man with the sword. Many church fights are the results of short tempers and hasty words. There is, however, a godly anger against sin. If we love the Lord, we must hate sin.
Ephesians 4:26 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:”
Psalms 97:10 “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of his saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked.”
Man’s anger does not produce God’s righteousness. In fact, anger is just the opposite of the patience God wants to produce in our lives as we mature in Christ. I once saw a poster that said, “Temper is such a valuable thing, it is a shame to lose it!” It is temper that helps to give steel its strength. The person who cannot get angry at sin does not have much strength to fight it. James warns us against getting angry at God’s Word because it reveals our sins to us. Like the man who broke the mirror because he disliked the image in it, people rebel against God’s Word because it tells the truth about them and their sinfulness.
V. Conclusion
V. Conclusion
James saw the human heart as a garden; if left to itself, the soil would produce only weeds. He urged us to “pull out the weeds” and prepare the soil for the “implanted Word of God.” It is foolish to try and receive God’s Word into an unprepared heart. How do we prepare the soil of our hearts for God’s Word? First by confessing our sins and asking the Father to forgive us. 1John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Then, by meditating on God’s love and grace and asking Him to “plow up” and hardness in our hearts. Jeremiah 4:3 “For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” Finally, we must have an attitude of “meekness.” Meekness is the opposite of ‘wrath’ in James 1:19-20. When you receive the Word with meekness, you accept it, do not argue with it, and honor it as the Word of God. You do not try to twist it to conform it to your thinking. If we do not receive the implanted Word, then we are deceiving ourselves. Christians who like to argue various “points of view” may be only fooling themselves. They think that their “discussions” are promoting spiritual growth, when in reality they may only be cultivating the weeds.