Okay, my text this morning is
found in the book of James chapter 1. If you turn there with me
now, I promise you I'll get to it eventually. But let me start
this morning by saying it's a good thing to be under the sound of
the gospel. A very good thing. Now I don't assume that all of
you are here this morning because you necessarily want to be. Maybe
you came to please your wife. Maybe you came because your husband
desires for you to come. Maybe you're here because your
parents made you come. But regardless of the reason,
even if it's a wrong reason, it's a good thing that you're
here. Why? Because it's here that you
find the words of life. The words of life. Well, preacher, doesn't every
church and group of people meeting in the name of religion today
have the words of life? Sadly, no. Actually, far from
it. Matter of fact, Paul said in
2 Corinthians 11, verse four, he warns those to whom he writes
of the preaching of another Jesus. He later clarifies and says,
which is not another. And he writes of the preaching
of another spirit and the acceptance of another gospel. Paul didn't
say, woe unto me if I preach not. Paul said, woe unto me if
I preach not the gospel. Woe unto me if I don't preach
the words of truth, the words of life. I've often been accused of being
dogmatic. That word means opinionated,
insistent, emphatic, adamant, uncompromising, narrow-minded,
intolerant, when it comes to what the Scriptures teach and
declare. And I have no defense against
this accusation. I'll tell you, I am. I am. I'm dogmatic, I'm insistent,
I'm adamant, very much so, especially when it comes to the Word of
Truth. This book is dogmatic. Its author is insistent And that's
why I'm emphatic and adamant and uncompromising and narrow-minded
when it comes to the truth of God. I am dogmatically so when
it comes to who the Bible declares God to be, who Christ to be,
and to who you and I are. How dogmatic is the word of truth? So much so that it proclaims
that there is one, only one name under heaven given among men
whereby we must be saved. Just one, that's pretty dogmatic.
That's very adamant and narrow-minded, is it not? That one name whereby
we must be saved is the name of Jesus Christ. Many claim to
know Him, yet sadly, most know nothing about Him. Most personally
know Him not. Many claim to believe in Him
and trust Him, yet sadly, those who claim to do so, actually,
if you hear them talk for very long at all, they actually trust
in themselves, believe in themselves. And I say that because they believe
that they've made the difference in their redemption. They believe
that Jesus Christ made salvation possible, but without their willingness
and without their acceptance and their personal decision,
that salvation is not possible. And that alone proves to me without
a doubt that those who believe such things just don't know the
truth about God, His Son, or themselves. Man cannot come to
Christ. He doesn't have the ability.
He's dead and trespasses in sin. And man will not come to Christ
that he might have life. They have to be given life from
God above, making them able and willing to come. Only God can
give this life in the day of His power. The gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe it. There's no believing apart from
the power of God. How is a sinner saved? By grace
through faith. And that is not of yourself.
It's the gift of God. And it's given in power. There's
power in the blood. Salvation, however, does require
a will and a decision. I won't argue that. But it's
the will and it's the decision that God has made towards sinners. God told Moses, he said, I will,
I'll have mercy, I will have mercy on whom I'll have mercy.
And I will, I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
So then, you see the result of God's will is this. Not of him,
not of him, the sinner that willeth. Your will doesn't have anything
to do with it. God makes you willing. It's not
of him, not of the sinner that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Aren't you glad the Lord shows
mercy? He delights to show mercy. Some
people think, well preacher, you believe that God finds the
light in sending people to hell. No, God delights to show mercy. All my life I heard how that
God so loved the world. He loved the world so much that
he gave his only begotten son. But you know, that word or that
love is clarified by the following statement. God loves those who
specifically believe in and on His beloved Son. For God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Whosoever
believeth in Him, Jesus Christ, will not perish, but have everlasting
life. And that is 100% true and correct. But the world that God is speaking
of is all, and it's everyone in the world, who believes in
and on Christ. It's they who shall not perish,
but have everlasting life. Not the whole world without exception. Is God gonna save, now let me
ask you seriously, is God going to save those who hate His Son? No, he's gonna make a change
in them and they're gonna love his son. Those that he's called
and chosen to be his own. The very next verse, John 3,
17. Not to James yet, told you it'd be a while. John 3.17 clarifies
and tells us that very simply and plainly. Let me read these
familiar verses to you. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. And he that believeth on Him,
on Christ, is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already. because this is the reason that
they're condemned to eternal hell. He hath not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light has come into the world. Jesus Christ is the light
of the world. And men love darkness rather
than light. Why? Why? Because their deeds
were evil. For everyone that doeth evil,
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth, doeth
truth, cometh to the light, Christ being the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest. that they are wrought in God. They're worked in God. We did
the sinning, God did the saving. Any good deeds that we do are
wrought, are worked in God. They were done for us in and
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, we can only work out
what God has worked in. The same John tells us in John
1, verse 10, that Christ was in the world and the world was
made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own,
the Jewish nation, and His own nation and His own people received
Him not. But, but, but, as many as received
Him, to them, To them, who? Those that received and believed
Him. To them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name. It's so clear, isn't it? Listen to what John says about
them. He said, which were born not of blood, not because you're
a Jew, nor of the will of the flesh,
not because you raised your hand and made a decision and said
a prayer, nor of the will of man, but of
God." It was God's power that saved them. It was God's will
that saved them. It was God's divine intervention
that caused them to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's good that you're here
this morning. A sick man and woman does well
to be where the great physician dwells. And you can be certain
that no harvest will manifest where no seed has been planted. It pleased and still pleases
the Lord by the means of preaching to save them that believe. May the Lord be pleased to grant
this seed to fall on good and fertile soil this morning. Ground
that God himself has plowed and ground that God himself has prepared. Now, how can one call on the
great physician in whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher? This is God's ordained means.
How shall they hear without preaching? That's why it's a very good thing
that you're here this morning. If you're in need of a health
specialist, you desire to see and go to one who has a great
track record. Isn't that right? But how can you believe in such
a one that you know nothing of? Someone's got to tell you about
them. Let me tell you about this great physician That's what we
do in preaching. We point men to the great physician. Those that are sick, those that
are plagued with leprosy, we point to him and say, he can
heal you. Someone's got to recommend that
physician to you. Someone's got to refer them to
you. How can you hear the real truth
about such a one from someone who's not witnessed this great
physician's skills and abilities? And again, that's what we do
in preaching. We tell sick sinners about the
great physician. When it comes to hearing spiritual
things, heavenly things, not only do we need to be given life
to see them, to hear them and believe them, God also instructs
us on how to believe. So this morning, this is my one
desire and only concern and desire, is to show you from the Word
of God how we must come in order to truly hear and worship the
God of the Bible. After the Lord gives a sinner
life, only then can they see and hear and believe. God's got
the first to give life. A blind man can't see, a blind
man can't hear, a blind man can't come. God has to make them alive. Yet there are some things that
will assure continued success in hearing the gospel. You see,
the unbeliever, one who does not believe and trust in Christ,
cannot worship God. Many think that they do. but
they don't understand the true meaning of worship. True worship,
spiritual worship, worship of God is the feeling or expression
of love, reverence and adoration toward God. To worship God is
to have reverence and devotion and adoration and praise and
exaltation for the one who loved them and gave himself for them.
And an unbelieving, untrusting sinner will not do these things
without a true knowledge and understanding of who God is and
who and what they are. That Samaritan woman at the well,
she thought she knew something about worship. But it was obvious
that she didn't. How could she? She didn't even
know, she didn't know God. So how could she worship Him?
Well, God was standing right in front of her, Tom, and she
didn't even know it. She acted as if she knew it.
She debated as though she knew it. She said, I perceive that
you're a prophet. And the perception of the lost
is clouded at best. You know, one who has not been
given life, they see through a glass darkly and dimly at best. Even if they can see, they can't
see whether they're blind. This one to whom she spoke was
much more than a prophet. She said, our fathers worshiped
in this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where
men ought to worship. And the Lord Jesus said to her,
woman, woman, believe me, the hour cometh when you shall neither
in this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. And it was
then that Christ revealed her ignorance. He said, you worship
you know not what. A lot of folks today are worshiping
what they know not what. He said, salvation's for the
Jews. And friends, it is for the spiritual Jews, spiritual
Israel. The hour cometh and now is when
the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth,
for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. Friends, God is
a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth. And that's the key to worship.
It's done in spirit and in truth. And that's what I want to talk
to you about, the word of truth. Word of truth. Okay, James chapter
1, verse 18. I told you we'd eventually get
there. Of His, God's, own will, beget He us with the word of
truth. That we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. God's will, not our will. God, by His will, beget us. That word beget means separated. God separated us. He separated
us from death into life. Beget means produced. It means
completed. It means generated. God produced
life in us. God created life in us, generated
life in us. He breathed into us the breath
of life and we became a living soul. We were dead in trespasses and
sin. How did God do that? Through
and with the word of truth. that we should be to the praise
of His glory who first trusted in Christ after, after we heard
the word of truth, Ephesians 1, 12 and 13. The word of truth
is what's written in this book. This is the word of truth. And
it's through the preaching of the gospel, it's how we hear
the word of truth. And this is what makes what we're
doing here this morning so important, so crucial, a matter of life
and death. I remember someone telling me
one time, oh, we had such a wonderful worship service today at church. The Spirit moved so much that
the preacher never got around to preaching. Well, that wasn't
worship. No, that wasn't worship. For
the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but unto us which are saved, it's the power of God. For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. And it's foolishness to the world,
but it's not foolishness to a sinner whom God has enlightened. It's
the power of God unto salvation. Why does God beget us with the
Word of Truth? James says that we should be
a kind of firstfruits. The firstfruits of His new creation. Distinguished from others as
the firstfruits of the harvest were. This is our election unto
God. This is our adoption as sons
and daughters. This is God's will, not ours. It's not by our works. Not by
our deeds of faith. Not by foreseen merit. God didn't
choose me based upon what I would do in the future. There's none
that doeth good. Or none that doeth good in and
of themselves or will ever do good. Salvation was and is according
to God's own free choice. We were chosen, loved, adopted
before we were ever born. In Romans 9, 11, Paul speaking
of Jacob and Esau, God loving Jacob and hating Esau was determined
by God before they were born. neither of them having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand not of works, but, there's that blessed word again,
but of Him, God, who calleth. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Verse 19. Every... Verse 19. Wherefore, because
of this, my beloved brethren... Have I turned you to James 3? Okay. Wherefore, because of this,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Hear what? The word of truth.
Slow to speak, slow to wrath. Every professing believer should
be swift to hear. Hear what? This word of truth,
the gospel. Every child of God should be
slow to speak against what is heard and preached without weighing
and considering thoroughly what it says. Every enlightened sinner
should be slowed to wrath, slowed to anger. This is still talking
about the Word of God. This ain't talking about somebody
coming up and saying something ugly about you and you saying,
oh, well, I'm not gonna get mad about that. That's not what this
is talking about. What should we be slowed to anger over? Over
the admonitions and the reproofs given when our sin is exposed
by this gospel and they're corrected. Well, bless God, I'm not perfect,
but I'm not all that bad. And we get mad about it. All of us, by nature, are apt
to be filled with anger and wrath when we hear the truth of who
and what we are. That's why unregenerate men and
women get angry and mad when they hear the truth. First and
foremost, because deep down inside, they know it's true. If they
didn't really believe it's true, they wouldn't get mad. And when they do, it greatly
hinders them from bowing and believing the gospel. An angry
spirit does not adorn the gospel or promote the glory of God.
It never has and never will. The wrath of man, anger that
comes from hearing the truth of the gospel, will not persuade
anyone to believe or repent. And I believe it's the same in
the way a man preaches. If a man preaches with envy and
strife, Paul warned against that, And he preaches Christ with contention. The fruit of their preaching
will only bring envy, strife, and contention. There was, I
believe I heard Scott Richardson tell this story years ago, but
there was once a wise old farmer who received a visit from his
pastor. And his pastor was known for
being loud and upset and getting angry when he preached. And he
asked the preacher to tag along with him while he went out to
feed his chickens. And the farmer calmly took the
corn, the seed, whatever he used, and he just calmly put it out
on the ground and scattered the corn on the ground. And the hens
and the roosters, they calmly ate. He even put some of the
corn on his boots and the chickens strutted right up next to him
and began to eat the corn off the top of his shoes. And then
the farmer said, now watch this. And he took that corn and he
just started throwing it down and scattering it everywhere
and the chickens began to cluck and run around everywhere in
despair. And the preacher was taken back
and he was confused about what was going on. Why did he do this? The preacher thought. And it
was then that the wise farmer said, you see preacher, it's
all in the way that you give the seed to them. I've learned by God's grace that
we must preach in love and in peace by Jesus Christ, Acts 10
36. If we preach with envy and strife
and contention, that's what we plant, and that's what comes
up. Look at verse 20, for the wrath of man worketh not the
righteousness of God. We do not persuade men to faith
and righteousness, nor do we promote the glory of God with
an angry spirit. A meek and quiet spirit is of
great price in the sight of God. And this is how we prepare ourselves
to hear the Word of God before, during, and after hearing it.
Here, we're given specific instructions on how to properly prepare ourselves
to hear the Gospel, the Word of Truth. There is some preparation
involved. First, before we hear, We're
told by James that we must lay aside all manner of filthiness
and superfluity of naughtiness. We've got to lay aside our pride,
our vanity, our evil speaking when hearing God's Word. That
word superfluity means excess. We gotta put away our excess,
whatever it is, pride, anger, whatever, vanity. Superfluity
means that which is not needed We never wholly and fully rid
ourselves of these things, but we should always remember and
consider who we're coming to hear about. And we should always
remember and consider who we are coming to hear from. We shouldn't
stumble into church late. I'm sorry, we shouldn't. If we're
coming to hear a dignitary, a VIP, or a famous celebrity speak,
I don't think we'd straggle in late. I think we'd be here early
to get a good seat. How much more so should that
be when we're coming to hear from God? We shouldn't stumble
in half asleep. I'm sorry, but I got a front
row seat up here, and I see many struggle to stay awake during
the time of preaching. If there was ever a night to
turn into bed early and strive to get a good night's rest, it
should be the night before we meet to hear the Gospel. We should
always endeavor to never put anything else before the hearing
of the Gospel. Folks miss hearing the Gospel
preached for the most sad and pathetic reasons. Is there anything
more important? Is there anything more crucial?
Is there anything more needful? than to hear a word from God. You know, day in and day out,
we travel the miry road of the world, but when we come into
the presence of the Lord, we should shake the dust off our
boots, off our shoes. And I find it a bit ironic that
men and women instinctively prepare outwardly for church services,
putting on their best outward attire and apparel, and never
prepare themselves inwardly to hear from God. We should put
on the garments of righteousness and praise and lay aside all
these other things. We ought to pray before we come
to church. Well, we're gonna pray at church. No, you need
to pray before you come. Why? We should ask God that He
might be pleased to teach us and comfort us and bless us and
save us and keep us through the Word of Truth. Lord, enable us
to lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and
receive with meekness the engrafted Word which is able to save your
souls. Secondly, this is what we should
do during the hearing of the Gospel. Well, I thought you said
salvation wasn't doing. Well, it's not. But there's some
things you've got to do. You need to do. We should receive
with meekness the engrafted Word of God. Now, a sinner who can
receive God's Word with meekness is a sinner that God's done something
for. The word receive is a very instructive
word. We're not saved by doing, but
by receiving. We're not saved by what we give
to God, we're saved by what God gives to us, and we gladly receive
it from Him. Don't we? If we do not receive
the Word, it will not bless us. A medicine can have no healing
power unless it's received and taken. Take this medicine, it'll help
you. Okay. And then you never take it and
go, well, that medicine didn't work. The gospel must be received.
How? With meekness. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Except you be converted
and become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom
of heaven. And I tell you, I love that term
engrafted word, because that's exactly what it is. It's grafted
into the heart by the Holy Spirit It's a divine pruning. The revised
version calls it the implanted word. My marginal Bible calls
it the inborn word. But I love that term, the engrafted
word. You see, when a graft is made,
a cut or a gash is made. And what a blessed grafting when
a wounded Savior comes in contact with a wounded heart. What a supernatural blessing
we receive when a bleeding heart is grafted in with a bleeding
Savior. Oh, blessed grafting. Christ
liveth in me. Receive with meekness the engrafted
Word of God. And then thirdly, dear friends,
what do we do after we hear the Word of Truth? We've seen what
we do before. We see what we need to do during.
What do we do afterward? Well, the command is very positive
here. It says, be ye doers of the Word. Doing far surpasses hearing. Yet the command, yes the command
is positive, but it's put negatively, not hearers only. Be doers of
the word, not hearers only. Those who are hearers only are
wasters of the word. What good is it to have ears
and no hands? There was once a great philosopher
who stood outside of Wall Street. and was speaking to a crowd of
people who, after every sentence that he made, just applauded.
And he thought he'd made many converts that day and disciples,
but suddenly the market bell of Wall Street rang and not a
single person remained. He stood there alone. No philosophy
could be compared to personal profit. They were hearers until
the market bell rang, and then they quit hearing. Mr. Spurgeon once said, it's the
same with our preaching. We preach and folks hear until
Satan rings the bell of sin, or for pleasure, for worldly
amusement, and our hearers become just that, hearers only. Are you a doer or a hearer? I've asked myself that many times. If we're hearers only, James
closes here with a very solemn word of warning. He warns us
that if we are hearers only, we deceive our own selves. You know, it's one thing, and
it's a bad thing to deceive others, but my, to deceive our own selves? The Word of God is to be believed.
The Word of God is to be loved. It's to be obeyed. We're to put
into practice the Word's commandments and ordinances and principles.
If we only hear and not do, we'll be greatly disappointed in the
end. We do not in order to be saved. We do because we are saved. We
do out of love for our Savior who has done. And if we don't, we reveal ourselves
to be lost. We deceive our own selves. So what are we to do? What am
I to do? Claim to Christ. Trust Him alone to put your sin
away. Desire to have His life. Desire
to die His death, to rise in His likeness, to have His perfect
righteousness, to be perfectly conformed to Him. That's what
we do. The only doing I can do that
God will accept is the finished doing that the Lord Jesus has
done for me. Isn't that right? Let me say
that again, the only doing I can do and that you can do, that
God will accept, is the perfect and finished work that Christ
has done for us. May God be pleased to help us
to rest in His finished work.