[0:00] Please turn in your Bibles to James chapter 1. James chapter 1. Good morning. My name is BK.
[0:10] I have the pleasure of serving as one of the pastors here. I've got a couple things I just want to tag on before we get into our sermon on James chapter 1.
[0:24] Yeah, we have names written down on these walls. If you're afraid that we've run out of space because those two walls are filled up, please.
[0:37] Steph said she can go right to the ceiling. But no, we've got plenty of walls. Actually, I'm kind of moved just by all the different names that you guys have submitted.
[0:47] I know that there's more names coming here. If there's anything, if you were here last week, we had a baptism. And if there was one aspect about the baptism that should have stood forth is all the different people that were along the life of Mike that were ministering to him.
[1:06] And I guarantee at some point it began with prayer. You know, a lot of times when we think about evangelism, we think we have to be there for the whole part of that person's life.
[1:16] But the Bible speaks about that there's some of us are going to be sowers and there's some of us are going to be harvesters that are going to see the realization. But every single transforming life that I've ever known began with prayer.
[1:31] And it's an opportunity for us to kind of join in God's work by praying. So I would encourage you, and guess what? We're going to take some time in this sermon to break out and do some praying for some of the names that are here.
[1:43] But even take a few names home with you and just start submitting them to God that God would, in his eternal glory, demonstrate his goodness and his fullness to them that they would get to know him.
[1:58] Now, on that vein of being a part of the prayer, if you notice in your bulletin at the very top, there's this engage training, engage training.
[2:09] Now, I spoke to you guys a couple of weeks ago that I was going to be doing a series on the gospel and how to do evangelism. And when we had our ministerial, Rudy Botha was going to be doing this at The Rock.
[2:21] And as you guys all know, we connect. So instead of duplicating our work, Rudy has invited us to join them and do this engage evangelism.
[2:34] Can I ask you, how many people here have had evangelism training? Just a show of hands. So a few of you. Have you guys found it helpful in any way? Right?
[2:45] Yes? No? Sometimes it's... I'll tell you right now, there is no such thing as a perfectly biblical system. And I'll tell you why. Because we're messy people. And God uses us, even despite our sin and our brokenness and our lostness, to somehow God kind of uses that in a story.
[3:09] But I would encourage you, if you've never had any type of training, I would encourage you to sign up. Rudy asks that you just email him. Let him know you're from here.
[3:19] You want to go. You're looking forward to it. And if you really love him, volunteer to bring donuts or something like that. So that's a really good thing. And the second and the third aspect is you're going to notice from our sermon, we're in James 1, 19 to 21.
[3:33] And one of the reasons we're not just duplicating. I don't know if you know. Some people did. I fell a couple weeks ago on the ice and I've had a concussion. So I've been dealing with dizziness and debilitating headaches, actually.
[3:46] So my time in Romans has been held back. Just I haven't been able to put that time of study in. So I pulled out an old sermon that I preached close to 10 years ago that I thought was just as about, just as apropos to today as any other day.
[4:03] That I hope you'll be blessed at. So that's why we're not in Romans. And let's pray. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, you're a providential God.
[4:21] You're a God who sees all, knows all, moves all. And Father, as we just come to your word, I pray that you would continue to give us a greater and deeper understanding of it.
[4:33] But that through this understanding of your word, may we just know you better, be enriched by you. The title of the sermon is the believer's response to the word of God.
[4:46] Father, I give you thanks for the saints that are gathered here who love your word, who seek your word, who desire to be moved by your word.
[4:58] And I pray that would be a mark of who we are for the rest of our lives. So God, I just pray that you'd give my voice strength and my mind able to concentrate and just get this sermon in.
[5:14] And I pray that it'll be understandable. We ask these things in your most wonderful and sufficient name. So if you look at verse 19 of James chapter 1, and just to give you guys a little bit of a background on James.
[5:29] The James, the epistle of James in the New Testament is written very differently than every other epistle in the New Testament, in case you didn't know that.
[5:40] It kind of, it's not like a flow, like Paul's letter, there's a flow, there's an argumentation that goes through it. But James isn't set up that way.
[5:53] James, as some people have called it, has called it the Proverbs of the New Testament. There's these sayings that are in there, but there's a lot more to it.
[6:04] But it's almost the theme of this letter is that James is writing you this letter so you can compare it to yourself.
[6:15] You can compare it to what is going on in your life. John MacArthur broke it down, and I thought this was a brilliant breakdown. He just called it 13 spiritual health checks for your life.
[6:29] So if you wanted to know where you are in your faith, this is a great book to read. It will resonate. The truths, do they resonate with you? Are these things you fight against?
[6:40] You argue against? And I say this, and I mean this very sincerely in my prayer. You guys are quite marvelous to preach God's word to. You want to hear.
[6:51] Very rarely do Dave or I or any of. We, I'll be honest with you, everyone who's ever preached here has said they would love to come back. Because you're responding to God's word.
[7:02] Not every church is like that. I originally preached this church with the intent of emptying out a church. Because we believed the leadership, when we sat down, we believed that the church had been basically full of non-Christian people.
[7:19] Because every time there was fighting over every sermon, it wouldn't be just my sermon, but people always arguing and fighting. And then the question God asked, that maybe people were more married to the building than the people of God.
[7:36] So it's interesting. I was thinking about this last night when I first wrote this sermon many years ago and how differently my attitude is in understanding it today.
[7:49] With you guys. So thank you very much for being the people that love God's word and that seek God's word. So hopefully this will be an encouragement to you as you go through this text with me.
[8:00] So let's take a look at verse 19. I'm going to concentrate on verses 19 to 21. And if you remember Dave just speaking this in the introduction, he's speaking about God's word here.
[8:15] But when you first read these verses, you kind of wonder if it's true. It says, Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
[8:27] 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.
[8:43] The reason why James is writing this book is he wants those believers to be assured that they have what's called genuine faith.
[8:54] Because genuine faith is a faith that saves. Amen? A false faith condemns someone to hell. And I'm going to be honest with you. There's a lot of really good people who really believe they have a faith that saves.
[9:11] But in fact, they have a faith that does not save. And sometimes it's because they fight against certain truths that the Bible talks about. But James' attitude is not an attitude of judgment.
[9:25] It's an attitude of love. He just wants to know that they're doing okay. That the themes of this book are what's echoing in their lives.
[9:36] John 8, 11, we read, it says, So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him. And he simply said, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth.
[9:56] And we know the famous saying, and truth will set you free. Right? The only faith that saves is based on the truth of God's word. You can't get away from it. That genuine discipleship is evidenced by an ongoing obedience to God's word.
[10:12] In the Gospel of Mark, Mark writes, And he said to them, Jesus Christ said, Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
[10:22] And still more will be added to you. So Jesus told his disciples that they are to measure everything they hear and read against his word.
[10:33] So the word of God is the truth in which we compare everything else to. God is the original part of the Gospel.
[10:45] Every idea, every principle, every standard is measured against God's word. God's word is true truth. Amen? Amen? It's true truth. Many times, and anybody who's been a Christian for any length of time, especially pastors, we meet many people who've been influenced by bad theology.
[11:05] And sometimes, or often, that bad theology is presented by Christians. And I'll give you a couple of examples. One of the examples is proof texting.
[11:17] It's, I have a point of view, and I'm going to find the verse in my Bible that supports what my position is. And often, when they're doing that proof texting, generally, they're reading that passage out of context.
[11:32] So even when you would read this, look, when we get to James 1.19, know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
[11:44] A lot of people say that theme of this verse is about anger. It's not actually about anger. So it's about understanding the context. Another item that we hear today is the wisdom of the day, is that we can't always know things, and we will say, well, that's your interpretation.
[12:05] Right? Well, I'm going to tell you, God only has one interpretation. Amen? If God had multiple interpretations for a passage of Scripture, you know what it would be?
[12:16] Confusing. Right? You know what happens if you got stopped by a cop doing one thing, and you got off, but then when you did it the next time, and you said, well, I got caught for that cop, he said I really wasn't doing anything bad, and the cop said, well, you are, right?
[12:31] There's, what laws are you living by? There's two different laws. No, there's only one law. There's only one interpretation of the text. Now, hear me. One interpretation, multiple applications.
[12:44] You write that? Multiple applications. So there's different ways that we can apply that text. But if there was multiple interpretations, that would mean that God is a God of confusion.
[12:59] That God wants us to hold to different opposing positions. And once we think about it, it's quite absurd, right? That God would want his children to have different points of view on Scripture.
[13:13] To actually teach that there's multiple points of interpretations is actually a demonstration that one does not know the nature or character of God.
[13:25] So one of the big points that we always ask you to do or ask someone to do is to always back up a point with Scripture. No matter what anybody tells you, they should be able to go back to God's Word and clearly show it to you.
[13:43] So notice, it says in James 1.19, it says, Know this, my beloved brothers. He's speaking to people he loves. Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
[13:59] For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant weakness and receive with weakness the implanted Word which is able to save your souls.
[14:12] So this morning, I want to ask you three questions in regards to your desire to know God's Word. The first question that I'm going to ask you is, do you receive the Word of God with submission?
[14:25] Do you receive the Word of God with submission? The second question I want to ask you is, do you receive the Word of God with purity? Do you preach, do you come, approach the Word of God with purity?
[14:37] And the third point that I want to ask you today, or the third question is, do you receive the Word of God with humility? Do you receive the Word of God with humility?
[14:49] So getting back to the first point, the first question, do you desire to receive the Word of God with submission? Notice verse 19, it says, Know this.
[15:00] He starts off with this idea of know. If you have an NIV Bible, it says take note. If you are using a New American Standard, it says this, you know. And what Paul, or James is referencing, he's referencing to an already known truth, right?
[15:17] You know this. What is he responding to? Take a look back up to verse 16. It's right here in the text. It says, Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
[15:37] Of his own will, he brought us forth by the Word of truth, that we should be kind of a firstfruits of his creatures. Three points I want you to see here.
[15:48] One, you know that every good and perfect gift from God is good. Amen? Any parent who loves his children gives them good gifts.
[16:00] Two, there is no variation with God. That means God does not change. Even, you know how shadows can change the way things look? That's what he's bringing out in this passage. There is no variation.
[16:11] Even the shadows don't reflect or influence who God is. And notice verse 3. It says, We are the firstfruits of creation. What does he mean by that?
[16:25] And this is tying in. And all these thoughts. And I don't know about you guys. I'm loving Romans. How many aspects it ties into.
[16:37] And one of the things that I'm working on right now is how everything relates to Genesis 1, 2, and 3. And the order of creation and the why God created these things.
[16:49] But when God created them in Adam and Eve, we were created in his image, right? We were created different than the dogs, the cats, the lions, the trees.
[17:03] And let's be honest. There's some marvelous things that God has created. Dolphins and whales and all those things. And some of them are quite intelligent.
[17:14] But the text tells us that we were created for fellowship with God. That we are the priority. Notice he says not the angels, not the animals, or not even the world.
[17:32] It's us. You know, we're in this section of Romans right now where it's talking about deranged minds. We have people now who want to destroy people to save the earth.
[17:49] The earth is supposed to be the highest. You notice all the political mumbo-jumbo that is being spoken to get taxes and everything is all targeted to protect the earth, regardless of what's going on the rest of the world.
[18:09] Just the other day, well, the other day, a couple of years ago, a pastor was telling me that his wife, and they've got five kids, that his wife was in the grocery store and someone was yelling at his wife for the hurt they were doing to the planet for having so many kids.
[18:24] We laugh, but it's true. Right? You know, the crewmates, you're one kid away from that condemnation.
[18:34] Sorry, right? So there's this, the reality of God's word tells us that this earth, the animals, and nature was created for us.
[18:48] It's for us to enjoy. It's for us to have dominion over. And what we see today is the working out of Romans 1 where people willingly give themselves over to this depraved mind who willingly suppressed the truth.
[19:06] But what is James getting here when he makes this statement? He's actually talking about the reason that we have this word of God is for salvation. If you note your Psalms 19, I'm just going to read you Psalm 19.
[19:21] This is David declaring that the law of the Lord is perfect. And he uses the word reviving the soul.
[19:32] That's the first thing about God's word is to revive your soul, to transform it, to save you. Then it says, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
[19:47] So not only does it save, it brings wisdom to you, right? And then the third one is the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
[19:58] So not only does God's word save, by living according to its mandates, it gives us wisdom. And when we have wisdom, what do we walk? We walk with joy. We are able to walk in a joyful attitude in a world that doesn't really seem very joyful, does it?
[20:18] You see, the Lord has already declared that the word of the Lord revives the soul, it makes wise the simple, and it rejoices the heart. Then it says, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
[20:32] It means the word of God brings discernment. So we make that commitment to come to God's word. The first goal of that word is to actually lead you to salvation in Jesus Christ.
[20:45] Then it's there to give you wisdom on how to live this life. And it's to live joyfully and to be discerning. So the question is, how do we receive the word of God with submission?
[21:00] All right, first one's easy. It says, let every person be quick to hear. One mouth, two ears. We've all heard that, right? God gave us two ears with the importance to listen.
[21:12] Even Proverbs 7, 28 says, even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise. When he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.
[21:24] So what is a fool? What is someone who isn't quick to hear? A fool is defined as a person who wants to be their own source of wisdom.
[21:35] Too often, this is the result of sin in their lives. You see, a fool says that there is no perspective, no insight, no theory, no truth more reliable than their own.
[21:47] Anybody know someone like that? I know him. I see him in the mirror all the time. Right? Come on. We've all been there, right? We know we shouldn't be doing these things.
[22:01] We don't want to listen. But the fool is the one who believes the lie that they know better. When we say that we know better, it causes us to distort reality and live in worlds of our own making.
[22:19] As one astute observer says, it's like looking in one of those carnival mirrors that either makes you wide or thin, right? It's not reality.
[22:32] The fool is open to nobody's counsel and this person sees very little need to study the word of God. This foolishness distorts their sense of identity.
[22:45] This foolishness destroys relationships. This foolishness retards growth and it derails change. I think many people, we know we need change but we continue wanting to do the same thing that we've always done and it's broken.
[23:02] You see, fact is, foolishness convinces that we are okay. Foolishness tells us that our rebellious, irrational choices are the best and right way to go.
[23:19] Foolishness is a rejection of our basic nature as humans which is we were not created to be our own source of wisdom. You spend any time in counseling with Dave or any other biblical counselor.
[23:36] You don't listen to the truth within yourself. You bring truth to bear in your life, right? And where does that truth come from? True truth, the Bible. That's the first thing we need to do.
[23:47] We need to be quick to hear. We need to seek it out. We need to listen to sermons. We need to read it. As one pastor says, when we read God's word, we will feel specifically blessed.
[24:04] We can find passages of thanksgiving and praise. When we are troubled, we find words of comfort, encouragement, and strength. When we are confused, we find words of wisdom and guidance.
[24:19] When we are tempted, we find God's standard for purity and righteousness. We also find the power to resist. The Bible has never been designed just to be a tool to deliver us from trouble, but it's been meant to be a way to commune and to have an intimate relationship with our Lord on high.
[24:43] And I've said this many times, but do we get how great the Bible is? That God in all his wisdom didn't leave us groping in the dark to find out some truth.
[24:58] And even as we're in Romans 1, we're going to be seeing that there's no such thing as anybody who lives on this planet who doesn't believe there's God.
[25:09] At some point, they know there's someone they're there ultimately responsible to that they have to answer to for their lives. They do. It's just there. It's in every other aspect.
[25:22] Our jobs, our marriages, our parenting, there's always someone to answer to. But we have this God who gave us this special revelation.
[25:37] He wants us to know the creator, the created. So perhaps now is the time to do a personal inventory.
[25:50] Maybe you need to ask yourself, do you thirst for God's wisdom? Do you hunger for God's truth? Psalm 1, 2 lays it out, blessed is the man or woman whose delight is in the law of the Lord.
[26:08] Delight. I remember one church leader being very much against me when I did this sermon because he thought I was putting legalism upon a believer.
[26:24] You're creating legalistic rules. Do you find it legalistic rules to kiss your wife good night?
[26:37] Do you love her? Do you tell her those things? Yes. Do you spend time with her? Yes. Well, how would you not expect to have a relationship with God if you spend no time with him?
[26:50] Is your devotional time just a time to say that you did it? Or did you approach your devotions with a purpose to grow in the knowledge and understanding and love for truth?
[27:02] I guarantee you if you ask any man who's been in every man a warrior here, we'll tell you how much their devotional life has changed because they've seen the wisdom of applying God's word to their lives and how they love their wives, love their kids, how they approach purity and approach the knowledge of God.
[27:29] So that's the first way that we approach the word of God is we want to hear, right? Amen? The second one is let every person be slow to speak.
[27:41] So this is continuing under point one. How do we receive the word of God with submission? It's let every person be slow to speak. Fact is, we know we cannot listen when you are talking.
[27:53] I do know a lot of people who challenge scriptures through their own logic rather than truly weighing what God's word says. The fact of the matter is we need to use discernment when we say things that if we believe are from the Lord to make sure that it's truthful and it edifies God.
[28:11] There's no sermon that I have ever preached that I have not spent at least 20 hours dissecting that text to make sure this is indeed what God has said.
[28:23] The reality is and as we develop and grow as believers, we need mature believers to speak into our lives. We need mature believers to seek counsel and guidance, especially when it comes to those difficult passages.
[28:39] churches. And the reality is we need to be willing to listen, not just talk. And the third way in which we receive the word of God with submission says, let every person be slow to anger.
[28:54] For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. You see, our natural disposition is to respond or react with something that displeases us.
[29:11] Right? What he's talking about here, he's not referencing an explosive outburst of anger. But what James is talking about is an inner deep resentment that smolders underneath and is often not noticed by others.
[29:28] It's when they're confronted with the truth of God's word and it's just this irritation. It's like this needle that keeps going deeper and deeper. And you don't know it because they're sitting there and they're biting their lip.
[29:44] And often that can result in anger towards me as a pastor or towards the elders or a lot of times people blow out at churches. They're angry at everybody. 99 times out of 100 it's because they've been confronted with an aspect of their life.
[30:04] We get upset when our sin is confronted. We get upset when our cherished personal beliefs are challenged. We get upset when our standards of behaviors are challenged.
[30:17] And I say this, it was a dear saint one time, she believed that you had to come to church in the best clothes that you had. Best clothes that you had. You had to dress to the nines.
[30:28] And if you guys remember, my first church I ever planted was down in Illinois. In case you guys don't know, the southern part of Illinois is actually part of the prairies. It is the soy producing capital of the world where I planted this church.
[30:46] Guess who would come in early morning mid-service? Farmers. And guess what? They didn't go home and clean up first. Right? Especially during the harvest. They were in there with their overalls.
[30:59] And she was kind of like mad that we were doing that. But I was rejoicing the fact that they were taking this time. But that was just this belief that she had. And she repented of it.
[31:11] Another aspect that sometimes I was doing a retreat for medical doctors at the University of Ottawa.
[31:23] Students that were studying to be doctors. I was doing this retreat and I was talking about the will of God. And some of them were asking me where they were deciding I guess on some other medical education and they were really worried about it.
[31:38] And they had asked me what I thought about that. And I said I don't believe that God really cares. And they were like what? How could he not care? And I said well let's just take a look at some people that we know that live in war zones or places of absolute poverty.
[31:55] The fact that you have the ability to choose whether you're going to go to Harvard or Stanford Medical School yeah it's a toss up. Right? You know just do what your heart's calling you to.
[32:07] What you know. But that person was very violent and just forceful saying that God doesn't care. I said God does care. But I think there's things that God cares for more than others.
[32:19] But the fact is we should want the word of God to confront us at our deepest levels of our lives. Paul laments in Galatians 4 16 he says have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
[32:37] They were mad at him. You see we need to train our hearts to come here on Sundays expecting to be challenged. As a pastor my desire is to shoot straight with you.
[32:51] If the truth hurts it does not mean I do not love you. It's not my opinion that I want to give. I want to tell you what God the creator of this world has for you. In fact it would be rather unloving of me to allow you to continue in your ways rather than bring the truth that can save your life.
[33:16] So that's what it takes to receive the word of God with submission. The second question that I have for you is do you receive the word of God with purity?
[33:27] Do you receive the word of God with purity? What do I mean by that? Let's take a look at the text. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
[33:44] the term put away speaks of like taking off your clothes in the same way that Paul says it in Ephesians 3 and Ephesians 4. When confronted with the truth of God we need to make that choice.
[33:58] Do we repent or do we not? Do we want to keep living or not in that moral filth and rampant wickedness? Before God's word can produce his righteousness in us we must renounce and put away the sin in our lives.
[34:16] Our sin is the barrier between God and us. Amen? It's what it is. It's just a really big boulder. That's all that sin is. No matter what your sin is it's just a barrier between you and God.
[34:34] And there's a choice you need to make in that. And it's a simple choice. do you want your sin more or do you want God more? The term filthiness that James is using here is talking about moral filth in the NIV.
[34:54] It's a reference to the usual decay that clings to us. And still impedes us from hearing and comprehending the word of God.
[35:07] God. The wickedness that James talks about here, it's the deliberate and determined sin that has been residing in the heart of man for a long time.
[35:22] If we don't put away that sin, we will not hunger for God's truth. We will not hunger for God's word. We can say we love God, we believe in God, and you may, and all those things, but if you're harboring that sin, that is usually the barrier for your desire of hearing God's word or wanting to study his word.
[35:50] Where are you guys today? Are you finding that you've lost your first love? Do you feel that your relationship with God is not connecting and you recognize there's a sin and now the question is, what do I do about it?
[36:11] I'm going to tell you what you do about it. You pray. When do you pray? Right now. Let us all just go to God's right now. Let me just pray for us.
[36:24] Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, I pray if there's anyone here that has been living a life of lies or living in an aspect of sin that they find is sucking out the oxygen of the fire, this fire that burns so brightly is not seeming to burn so hot anymore in their lives and they're wondering why they're not feeling this closeness to you.
[36:54] they just don't listen to sermons as much or read your word as much or find themselves coming to church not as usual. Father, the wonderful thing about you is that you do not make these demands of us that we have to pay some type of restitution here or create some great works of atonement.
[37:19] The fact of the matter is you've already atoned for us and all we need to do is come to you and say, Father, forgive me. forgive me for my sin, for loving my sin more than loving you.
[37:34] Forgive me for my anger outbursts with my children. Forgive me for my eyes that delight in the sin and flesh of this world rather than my own wife.
[37:49] Forgive me for I put my money into things that I believe will make me look good rather than the way God has called me to use his money.
[38:03] Father, for every different person that is in this church, there's probably as many different sins. But you promise that once we ask for forgiveness, they are released, they are gone, you will not make us remember them no more, that we can have true and utter forgiveness by simply believing that you will forgive us and give us your righteousness to believe.
[38:35] So, Father, let's do as James calls us to do. Let us renounce our sin and put aside our sinful ways. So, that's how we receive the word of God with purity.
[38:48] We put away our sin. And the third question I have for you is, do you receive the word of God with humility? Notice it says, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
[39:05] Do you come to question God's word? What's your attitude? Do you come in a spirit of humility?
[39:19] And remember, meekness is not weakness. Meekness is called power under control. It's being quiet. It's just listening to God.
[39:33] God. It's having a spirit that says, God, I'm going to let you have your way with me. And I'm not going to fight it.
[39:45] I'm not going to resist it. It does admit that I have been the fool. One of the greatest qualities to have a teachable spirit is and I always get in trouble when I use this acronym.
[40:06] But I used to always say I love fat people. Faithful, available, teachable. Right? We're supposed to be faithful to God's word. We want to be available for God to work in our lives and we want to have a teachable spirit.
[40:20] You take away one of those attributes and then we're not that humble. Right? I can be faithful and teachable, but if I'm not available, I can be available and teachable, but if I'm not faithful, the fact of the matter is to approach the word of God with humility means to be faithful to it, available to it, and teachable.
[40:45] Now I want you to pay special attention here. And this might speak to you very poignantly where you're at. James doesn't call the believers to put on works of righteousness.
[40:58] Do you notice that? He doesn't say that. He says, receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
[41:10] We've been in Romans, the greatest book that describes the salvation that God offers us. God offers us his righteousness.
[41:21] He says, here, take mine. You can't do it. There's no works you can do to cover up your garbage. but I can give you my sons. That's why Paul writes in Romans 1, 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
[41:51] You see, becoming a Christian is really a humble act. It's truly saying I can't do it. I can't do it. But it's also done with the knowledge that there's a God who says, I can do it.
[42:05] My name is Jesus Christ. I died on that cross for you. I took all your sin. I took all your pain. I took all your shame. And it's going to be remembered no more.
[42:19] You're going to be my beloved child. God is seeing the works of his son in us.
[42:33] The fact is we always need to allow the word to continually work in our souls. We need to receive the word's instructions. We need to let it control our lives.
[42:44] the word directs us in times of trials. The word directs us in times of temptations. But this gospel is powerful.
[42:58] This gospel is what saves us. And I said earlier today when we talk about evangelism, there's this work that God does.
[43:11] God plants the seed. God waters the seed and God grows the seed. And it's impossible to experience any of those aspects without God and without his word.
[43:27] So my final question for you right here, right now, is are you willing to accept this God who offers us his son and his word at no cost?
[43:42] God let today be the day of ultimate change in your life. Let me pray. Dear Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank you for your wisdom, your truth that you bring against our lives.
[43:57] The reality is, Father, we've all been fools. We know it. We have purposely and steadfastly stood against you. Whether or not we shouted your name, we just sided with ourselves over you.
[44:13] We might not have said we angry or disagree with you, God, but we simply said, I agree with myself. Father, let us not be fools anymore.
[44:24] Let us be wise. Let us cling to this truth. And it doesn't matter the kind of hurt we've experienced, nor the hurt that we have caused other people.
[44:35] there is a truth that you give us, that you tell us, that you came to free us from ourselves. Father, if there's any soul here this day, I pray that this be a message that is perfectly right for them.
[44:55] That let this be the time where they needed to hear this truth that today is the day of salvation. Today is the day where they quit being the fool and become the wise man or wise woman and come after you.
[45:11] Father, I ask that you would offer such a person such grace. Give them meekness, humility, mercy, and above all, give them forgiveness of sins.
[45:25] May the barrier that once stood between them and God be no longer present. Father, we love you. Let us continue to be the people of his word.
[45:40] And God's people said, Amen. Amen.