James 1, read verses 18-20 with
me. Verses 18-20, of His own will,
God's will, begat He, gave birth to us, God's people, He's chosen
with the Word of truth, the Gospel, that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. Wherefore? For this reason, as
firstfruits, my beloved brethren, let every man, let every woman,
every person be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath,
for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This is so very needful. It's
needful for me and for you if you're like me, that when you're
offended, and which can be very often, that you find wrath rising
up quickly in you. This is so very vital. And speaking
of being swift to hear and slow to speak, Scripture says so very
much about the tongue. This is so vital. Listen to this
Scripture from Proverbs. This is how serious it is. He
that keepeth his mouth keepeth his soul from many troubles. that your soul is somehow directly
connected to what comes out of your mouth. That's how serious
it is. The wrath of man, he said, worketh
not the righteousness of God, or what is right. When we get
angry, we won't do what's right. We'll do what's wrong every time. It won't work anything but more
anger and more wrath. And the chief cause of our anger
and wrath and strife and division is this. So that's how important
this is. Chapter 3, verse 2 says, "...in
many things we offend all." You know, our personalities are so
different from one another that, well, you know, people aren't
like us and we think so highly of ourselves. There are many
things we offend all. If any man offend, though, not
in word. Offend not in word, the same.
That's a perfect man. Now, that's a mature man. Didn't
he begin this whole book by talking about, let wisdom have, patience
have her perfect work, that she may be perfect. That is, the
measure of the stature of the fullness of a man like Jesus
Christ. Now, there's a perfect man. Perfect
in thought and word. Indeed. And he says there in
verse 2, if any man offend not in word, the same. That's a perfect,
that's a mature person, able to bridle the whole body. You see how vital this is. I don't think, you know, we've
looked at this four or five times in the past, and I don't think
it's really occurred to me how how vital this is. He says, if you can bridle your
tongue, bridle your whole body. Do you understand what that means? I don't think I did either until
I began to study it. But a perfect man. Look at chapter
1, verse 26. Look at it. It says, if any man
among you seem to be religious, He sounds religious. He talks
religious. She talks religious. She says
the right things. But bridleth not his tongue,
deceives his own heart. This man's religion is vain. So this is so vital. All right. And this is taken
in context. Verse 18 of chapter 1 says, His
people with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. First fruit. Do you have a marginal
reference to that? First fruits? Many of you do. It will tell you to turn to Revelation
14. Go over there. And I cannot recommend enough that you look
at those scriptural references because the Lord led these men
to really search the scriptures. Time and time again, when I look
them up, it's exactly the verse that goes with this. Revelation 14 speaks of these
firstfruits, these people that are firstfruits unto God. Revelation 14.4. These are they, that is, these
many thousands before the throne are they which were not defiled
with women. Now, you know, it says they're
virgins. You know it's not talking about
physically virgins because women don't defile. A wife's a gift. The bed is undefiled. Right? And married. He's talking about
false religion. The great whore and that fornication. These are virgins. That is, they're
completely separated unto and sanctified to and saved for the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is their husband. They don't
follow. They're not in bed with any of this false religion today. Christ is their husband. They're
all their love. Read on. These are they which
follow the Lamb with us wherever He goeth. Literally, when the
Gospels preach, you'll find them there. Read on. They were redeemed, bought from
among men. See, Christ didn't buy everybody,
but he bought these. And they're the firstfruits unto
God. See that? And to the Lamb. Read
on. In their mouth. Look at the connection. In their mouth. Like Nathanael. Unlike the Pharisees who said
and did not. Our Lord said, they say, but
they don't do. Not God's people. And they're without fault before
the throne. We'll go back to our text. James 1. So these are kind of first fruits
of his creatures. A new creature. That's what he's
talking about. A new creature created in Christ Jesus. Did
you hear Brother Mahan's message on the radio this morning? It
was along these lines. is the firstborn among many brethren. The man, Jesus Christ, born of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. Christ came as a man. Oh, did He bear fruit unto God
the Father. Everything He, like I said, thought,
everything He spoke, grace poured from His lips. You're talking about slow to
anger. You're talking about edifying
speech. You're talking about saying the right things out of
a pure heart. Oh, my. No man speaks like this
in so many ways. Authority. Mercy, love, grace,
kindness. He's the creature. He's the great
creator in whose image that God's people are created. This is what
we want, isn't it? This is why we're saved, to be
conformed to the image of Christ. New creatures in Christ Jesus.
Our Lord, oh my! He was so very wise. He was wisdom
personified. Our Lord knew what to answer,
didn't He? He knew who to answer and who not to answer, when to
answer, how to answer. I want that. Listen to this,
and you can turn if you want to, 1 Peter, just a couple of
pages. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2.22. Do you understand how often the
Lord was insulted and dishonored and false witnesses against him?
Every day of his life, every hour, somebody was hurling insults
and accusations and offending him. You're talking about him
being offended. But listen to this, 1 Peter 2,
verse 22, he says, "...of Christ he did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Who when he was reviled, reviled
not again." Oh, do you want to learn that? We'll learn it from
him. We need to learn it. This is
wisdom, reviling back. will not work any righteousness.
It won't do it. Contrary, the wise man said a
soft answer. The only thing that will turn
it away, wrath. What wisdom this is. Read on. When he suffered, I know how
he suffered daily. He threatened knots, but committed himself to the
real judge. the real judge. He didn't defend
himself. Rarely defended himself. A couple
of times he did, but rarely did. Christ is the firstborn among
many brethren. And look at chapter 3 in our
text, verse 17. Oh, how every verse speaks of
our Lord Jesus Christ. You have it, chapter 3, verse
17 of James, says, ìThe wisdom that is from above,î thatís Christ
in it, ìand the wisdom He gives His people is first pure, peaceable,
gentle, O blessed are the peacemakers.î Thatís Christ in it. And thatís
His people. Gentle, easy to be entreated. Not unapproachable, but full
of mercy, good fruit, without partiality, without hypocrisy. Not saying one thing and doing
another and not doing. And the fruit of righteousness,
here it is, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace. Oh, did He
not sow peace? And did He not make righteousness? Of them, though, you're talking
about God's people, as He is, so are they. He's sown in peace
by them that make peace. They're peacemakers. They pursue it. Like Christ, He came to make
peace for people that didn't want it, for enemies. And He
said, you love your enemies like I do. You want peace? You won't
have it by fighting. Nothing but wars and rumors of
war come from our own lusts. We fight and desire to have,
James chapter 4. He said, but oh, this wisdom
from above. Do you know anything about this?
Some of you do. But you dare not say so. Some
of you do. Many of you do. And I thank God
for that. But oh, how we need to grow in grace and how I feel like
I don't know anything about this at all. That's why we should
approach this, as I said, we've looked at this several times
before, that we should approach this as little children, like
I've never heard this before. I need to know this. I don't
know anything about what you're talking about. Christ bore much fruit to the
glory of God. First fruits. To God. You love God. First approach. First approach. Religion talks
about love. They don't love God. They love
God. God as God. Love His rights to
be God. Love Christ's righteousness and
so on. But Christ bore much fruit to
the glory of God, the fruit of love, joy, peace, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, longsuffering, compassion, understanding,
forbearance, forgiveness, holiness, purity. Oh, to be conformed to
the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that your desire? Now notice this in our text,
chapter 1, that this confirmation conformed to his image is done
by verse 18, being born with the word of truth. This new creature
is created in the image of Christ half by the word of truth. The Word of Truth. Faith that
is not just a profession from the mouth, but a profession of
the life. Read the article on Daniel. Did
you read that yet? Read it. But this profession,
it says, Christ witnessed a good profession of faith before Pilate. He witnessed. His life. And this
is so much more than the mouth, but it's the whole life. Okay? And it says, and so faith, faith
which is much more, and James, the whole book of James is about
faith being proved by work. That faith without work is not
faith at all. Not faith at all. It's just talk.
but that the fruit of faith is works like Christ and the fruit
of righteousness. And it says, this faith, faith
cometh by hearing. Not only our understanding of
who God is and what we are and who Christ is and a heart to
believe and trust Christ, but this faith that is a walk cometh
by hearing. cometh by hearing. All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is what for? Why does He
give it? Listen, it's profitable for doctrine,
for doctrine of Christ, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness. You say Christ is our righteousness.
Absolutely. One hundred percent. Imputed
and imparted. But read on. profitable for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works." Ephesians 2.8, by grace are you
saved through faith. Don't you love that verse? Do
you love the rest of it? Oh my, this is what salvation
is all about. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourself. It's a gift of God. Not of works,
lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. Barnard said, Salvation is God
recreating the image of Jesus Christ in a human being. And
that's what it is. David said, I'm going to behold
thy face. Psalm 17. Somebody asked me where that
was, and I misquoted it. So take heart. I said, that's
in Psalm 60. No, it wasn't. But David said,
I will behold thy face in righteousness. Whose? Christ's. This is the holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. It's also the holiness which
every man presses toward. David said that I will not be
satisfied till I awake with His likeness, because I hate myself. And this old man causes so much
trouble, and it begins right here. And Lord, would You please,
please, Bored up by this man. Let's start right here. This
is where it starts. Alright, in our text, verse 19,
so it says that we should be a kind of first fruits of his
creatures. Wherefore, see that? Because you're first fruit. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, and he's saying this in tenderness, and
understanding our frame. But my beloved brethren, let
every man, let this be in you. Let this mind be in you. Let
this way of thinking, let this speech, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, swift to hear. Beloved, let every
man, let this be every person in here, beginning with me, Be
swift to hear. Now, this is speaking of being
ready to hear or swift to hear, anxious to hear, a good hearer.
Listen to it. This is before God, number one. Before God and toward man. Listen to me now. Two ways he's
speaking of here. Being swift to hear. It's in
context here. It says we're begotten by the
word of truth. So we need to be swift, ready,
anxious, hungry hearers of the Word of Truth. The Word of Truth, God's Word,
swift to hear, ready to hear, anxious to hear, prompt to hear,
hungry to hear, thirsty to hear. As little children, our Lord
said, except you receive the Word as little children, You know how when you tell little
children something, if they're little children now, teenagers,
you know, it's hard to tell them anything. Well, that's a good illustration. After
you've been around a while under the word of wow, you know, you
may get puffed up a little bit. Knowledge puffeth up. And then
hopefully the older you get, you start taking the puff out
of you. And then you begin to realize,
After all these years, I don't think I've learned anything.
And then you know, I need to listen all over again. I need
to hear this like I've never heard it before. Little children,
be swift to hear. You know how little children
are anxious to hear? Let me tell you something. Ready to hear. Hungry to hear. You know, the hungry hearer,
our Lord said, will go away filled. But that person who's full of
themselves, full of knowledge, oh, you're not telling me anything
I don't already know, Preacher, all right, go away then. And you'll
go away just as empty as you came, just as proud as you came,
just as offensive as you came. But the ready, hungry hearer
will be filled with wisdom and understanding and peace and grace
Let everyone be swift to hear the Word of God. Slow to speak.
Listen. In contact. Hearing the Word
of God. Slow to answer. Slow to pass
judgment. We shouldn't come and hear the
Word of God as a judge of it. We should come to hear it to
be judged by it. The Pharisees came to catch Christ
at His Word. To find something wrong that
he said. They can't find anything wrong he said. You can find plenty
of wrong with this fellow. But I tell you what, there's
plenty right that's being said. Disregard the wrong, okay? Disregard
the vessel. Disregard the flesh. If we could
just get past this flesh and understand that this is what
God uses, this is who God uses. This treasure and earthen vessel,
but it's not the vessel, it's the treasure. If you listen carefully,
you'll hear line upon line, precept upon precept, truth. Slow to speech or slow to pass
judgment and reach a conclusion. Slow to speak our mind. You need to listen carefully.
You need to ponder. You need to meditate. Chew the cud like
a clean animal does. Chew the cud before speaking
or else we'll be found speaking against God. And how many here
is judging? My pastor once said this. He
once said this. when he was probably about my
age or younger, I remember him saying this to the congregation. He said, folks, you need to give
at least five or ten minutes of thought to what I'm saying, to what I have studied five or
ten hours. Before you pass judgment, he
said, give at least five minutes thought before you come to some
conclusion. They may have been studying for
hours and hours. You know, aren't you glad the
Lord says to be slow to speak and slow to wrath? You know what
the Word of God is intended to first do to us? To
shut our mouth. Whatever the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, what? To do what? When we come
to hear the Word, the first thing it's designed to do is shut our
mouths. Let every man be swift to hear.
And Job, the whole book of Job, do you understand the book of
Job? I don't either completely. But I do know this, after they
all quit talking, Then God answered, and the first thing out of God's
mouth was, Who is this talking? Look at Ecclesiastes 5 with me.
Ecclesiastes 5, right after Proverbs, Solomon, Song of Solomon. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. This
was a reference given there to James 1.19. If you saw it, this
is the reference given. Verse 1. Ecclesiastes 5 verse
1 says, Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. I think that means pretty much
you sit still. Don't be ready to get out. But
sit still, you've got a lot to learn. Be more ready to hear
than to give the sacrifice of a fool. Do you know how many
proverbs speak of a fool's voice? Do you know how
many? A fool is known how? By a multitude of words. How many scriptures speak of
a wise man studying to answer? that even a fool that holds his
peace, that doesn't speak much, he can still be a fool, but if
he holds his peace, people think he's wise. Because a fool, his
mind, the Scripture says, is readily known. In other words,
he's going to spew out his thoughts. It's all going to come from here,
the top of his head. A fool's wrath is presently known
quickly. A fool is quickly angered, but
a wise man is slow to anger. He's better than the mighty.
He's stronger than a man that takes a city. Our Lord was slow to anger one. Oh my, do you not admire Him
more than any human being ever? Nobody is even close. Slow to
anger. This is the one we ought to admire.
The Lord Jesus Christ. So slow to anger. You know, that's
our salvation. The Lord is slow to anger with
us. And He doesn't retain His anger.
He gets angry. He doesn't retain it. He doesn't
keep it. Why? Because He's so full of
mercy. And He's so ready to hear The first word of repentance.
The first word of, Father, forgive me. Forgive him. Don't you want to be like that?
How have we offended Him? How often? Daily? We're unprofitable children.
Rebellious children. He's so slow to anger, swift
to hear. What did you say? Forgive me? I'll do it. Slow to wrath. People, this is
our salvation. You know the thing He gets more
angry with than anything else? It's when we're not the same
way. When we're not the same way with
our brethren. The thing that makes Him the
most angry is when we're unmerciful, when we're impatient with those
that are just like us. When we get angry with and offended
by those who offend us and quickly cut them off, that makes Him
more angry than anything. Why? Because we offend Him every
day of our lives. And yet, He's merciful. All right? We need to be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. We should never get
angry at what the Word of God says to us. How could we ever
get angry with what God's Word says to us? It's all true. That
Syro-Phoenician woman didn't get mad, did she? The dog, the
woman who the Lord ignored her. First he ignored her. Then he
said, no, this is just for the elect. I didn't come, I just came for
the elect. And then he called her a dog. She never did get
angry with him. She never did. Everything you
say is true, Lord. I don't deserve to be heard.
I don't deserve what you're saying. And I'm a dog. But if you just
give me a few crumbs, I'll go away happy. That's the way we
need to hear the Word of God. And if we do, we will. If we do, we will. And something
profound will take hold of us. What's that? The Spirit and the
grace of God will make us like Jesus Christ. Toward others, we need to be
swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath toward others. I don't believe that. But I have
had a little liberty here. But toward others, you know,
love, I'm going to go on. Because love rejoiceth not in
iniquity. Love rejoiceth in the truth.
Love beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things.
Love never fails. Love never quits, even when offended. And in many things we all offend,
and we all offend in our tongue, but love will overcome that. And we are most patient with,
and the least angry with, and the less quick to anger with,
those we love. Like our children, our family,
aren't we? Our family. They offend us. They do things. They're sinners
just like everybody else, but we're real quick, slow to wrath
with them. Well, who is our family? Right here. Swift to here. Read on and I'm going to quit.
My, my. Where did the time go? But in
our text it says, so we need to be swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to wrath in hearing the Word of God and in speaking
to one another. You know, once somebody once
said, we have such a high opinion of ourselves that we won't listen
to anybody. We're just waiting for our turn
to speak. Did you hear that? We have such a high opinion of
our opinion that we're not listening to anybody. We're just waiting
for them to finish so we can tell them what we think. That's being wise in our own
conceits. So we need to be swift to hear and hear the truth. We want to hear the truth of
the matter. And he that answereth the matter before he heareth
it all, he's a fool, Scripture said. Read on. It says in verse 20, the wrath
of man worketh not the righteousness of God, wherefore? So this follows. It all goes together. Lay apart
all filthiness, superfluity of naughtiness. He's talking about
speech. He's been talking about speech, hasn't he? Lay apart
all filthiness, cursing and bitterness. Anybody in here prone to and
quick to cursing within, maybe not without, but within. Anybody?
Everybody. Why does that come so quickly,
so naturally? We need a lot of help, don't
we? We need a lot of grace. It says, lay it apart. Cursing
a bit. Oh, Jonah, you know, got mad.
Our Lord said, do you do well to be angry, Jonah? Jonah, what
are you, who are you mad at? You're mad at God. You're mad at God, who's the
first cause of all. He's ordering everything. He
said, our cursing and bitterness, murmuring in our tents. That's
filthy, cursing bitterness. That's against God, right on.
And superfluity of naughtiness, that is exactly what he's talking
about. Suggestiveness and so forth. Suggestive language that
we're all so, you know, we're full of this lust of the flesh. That lust against the Spirit.
So he says we need to mortify that man. And suggestiveness
and speech and all this feeds our ornery, filthy flesh. It
feeds it. And we need that fellow gone.
Don't feed one another's naughtiness. Receive with meekness. Here's
what I've been trying to say. Receive with meekness as childlike
or poor and needy, hungry, ready hearer, with humility, one needing
to hear it. Anybody need to hear this this
morning? Anybody? I sure would like to
see every single head that did. I do. I need this. I need it
desperately. Receive with meekness the engrafted
Word. This is where it started, didn't
it? Born of this Word, engrafted Word. In other words, which is
able to save your souls. The Word must be engrafted or
it doesn't do any good. If it just comes to here, comes
in here, and it has no effect whatsoever on the rest of our
being. If it doesn't go down in here
and plant and hidden in your heart, you're going to sin against
God. But David said, hide thy word in my heart, that I might
not sin against thee, and sin against my brethren. Our Lord
said, let these sayings sink down deep in your ears, and take
hold, and take root, and be grafted to your very being. Because out
of the abundance of the heart, if this word is planted and grafted
in your heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And if Christ is really planted
in my heart, He'll come out of my mouth. So receive it. It all starts
right here. What we're doing this morning.
Receive it. Lord, here am I, a wretched,
rotten, blind, naked, miserable, poor, ignorant, foolish, rebellious,
filthy mouth, thought, Naughty creature, please wash me with
the water of Thy Word. Please renew me. Please create
the image of Christ in me. Take Your Word and graft it in
my heart, in my mind, in my mouth, in my walk, in my talk, in my
deeds. And He'll do it. He'll do it. Q. Thank you, sir.