Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of James. The book of James. It's been a wonderful study going
through this book. This book written by our dear
brother James. And we'll continue our study
through this wonderful book. And I've been saying we're journeying
through James. And so far we've only journeyed
the first 18 verses, and today we'll be looking
at three more. We'll be looking at verses 19-21. And we've read so far and studied
so far and saw in the Scripture instruction for righteousness,
instruction for our daily living. We're righteous in Christ, but
the Scripture says instruction for righteousness. It's just
instruction for our daily living. We can't make ourselves more
righteous than we are in Christ. But this is just instruction
for us. And we saw how we are to walk daily in this world of
woe where we live in a world of trials and tribulations and
troubles that come. But never forget that any troubles
that come our way or any trials that come our way never catch
God by surprise. Never. He's the one who sends
these trials our way to prove our faith is genuine and to keep
us looking to Christ. That's really the end of them,
is to keep us looking to Christ, beloved. To keep our eyes focused
upon Him. And they do that, don't they?
And James, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, has
instructed us to rejoice in the midst of trials. Now, that's
a very difficult thing to do. for us to rejoice in trials.
But by God's grace, He gives us the grace to rejoice in the
midst of trials that we go through. And again, these trials and tribulations
come our way from God. And what do they do in us? Well, they work patience in us.
And what's that patience to do? That patience is to just wait
on the Lord. To wait upon Him. To rest in
Him. As we go through these trials
and tribulations, we're learning how to rest more in Christ, just
to trust Him, to be patient, and let providence work out what
it will. Because it'll work it out. God's
providence will work its way out whether we are freaking out
or whether we're calm. It's not going to change, is
it? God's providence is going to be accomplished. His will
will be accomplished. So, for us, We are to patiently
endure the mysteries of providence and the working out of God's
providence. And again, these trials which
we go through prove our faith. They prove it's genuine. And
last week, we saw that it's by God's will that we're born again.
We're born dead in trespasses and sins, and it's by God's will. We're begotten, born again by
the will of God. That's wondrous. Did we have anything to do with
our first birth? No, we didn't, did we? Why would we think we
had something to do with our second birth, right? That scripture
in James chapter 1 verse 18 brings forth that it's God's will. Let's
read verses 17 to 24. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,
with whom is no variables, neither a shadow of turning, of his own
will, God's will. Beguiling us, we're born again
by God's will. How? With the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 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. But be doers
of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like
unto a man beholding his natural face in glass. For he beholdeth
himself, and goeth his way, and straightforth forgetteth what
manner of man he was. And in verse 25, but whoso looketh
unto the perfect law of liberty, that being Christ, and continually
thereon, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word,
this man shall be blessed in his deed. Now the passage that
we'll look at today has to do with verses 17 and
18, and the fact that God cannot tempt man to sin. Because everything that comes
from God to His people is a good gift. And it comes from above. Look at verse 17 and 18. Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Christ came from
above, didn't He? Down here. Kept by the Father's
commandment. And coming down from the Father
of lives. Jehovah sent Him. Jehovah the Father sent Him.
sent Jehovah the Son, with whom is no variables in your shallow
eternity. He doesn't change. Same God in the Old Testament,
same God in the New Testament. He doesn't change. People say,
well, the God of the Old Testament was this way, and the God of
the New Testament is this way. No. The God in the New Testament's
just been, his wrath has been satisfied in Christ for his people. He's the same God. He doesn't
change. He doesn't change. And of his own will, begot he
us. What mercy? What mercy? With the word of truth, that
we should be kind of first fruits of his creatures. So the verses
we'll look at today are verses 19 to 21. And we see by the first
word in verse 19 that they're attached. That they're attached. These verses are attached to
verses 17 and 18. It says, wherefore. So that means
there's an attachment to verses 17 and 18 in the primary understanding
of the fact that it is God who has birthed us. It's God who's
regenerated us. So then he's writing, wherefore? And the word of truth in verse
18 is the Holy Scriptures. It says, of his own will, begotten
us with the word of truth. That's the Holy Scriptures. that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. Now, when James was writing this,
did they have the New Testament? They didn't, did they? So he's
preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Isn't that wonderful? And it's being brought forth
there in verse 18 that the fact that God has birthed us into
His family by His own will with the Word of Truth. God uses means,
doesn't He? He uses means. Again, the word
of truth in verse 18 is the Holy Scriptures, which who's the author
of the Holy Scriptures? The Holy Spirit is the author
of the Holy Scriptures. Holy men were moved by the Holy
Spirit to pen these wonderful words. And that's clearly bought
out in Peter. It says this, knowing this first,
that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
So we don't have a private interpretation of the scriptures. If we do,
we're in big trouble. We're in big trouble. Whenever
I study the Word of God, I always look to see if other men got
the same light on what I'm getting. Because if not, I just put it
aside. Because if the Lord showed me
something, He showed someone else that same truth too. This
is not a private interpretation. It says, For the prophecy came
not in old time by the will of men, but the holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter 1, verses
20 and 21. So what falls, verses 17 and
18 here, is an admonition, actually multiple admonitions, concerning
the believer's response to the Word of God being preached. So
marvel at this. Turn, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians
2, verses 13 and 14. Marvel at this. Marvel at this. The Word, being the Bible, is
the instrument, the Scriptures, is the instrument that God employs
to make us aware of what He has done for us. You know, the work's
already done, even before we believe, right? The work of salvation
is already done. Right? It was finished 2,000
years ago, wasn't it? So God regenerates His people,
gives us faith to believe, and lets us know what's already been
done for us. Even more so than it takes it
away from us, doesn't it? It's all God. It's salvations
of the Lord. It's all of His will. It's all
of His purpose. It's all of His grace. It's all
of His mercy. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. He lets us know what I've done
for you. Look at this here in 2 Thessalonians
2, 13 and 14. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you. When's the beginning? Well,
in eternity. Chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief in the truth. Now look at this in verse 14.
Whereunto he called you by our gospel. That's a factual calling
by God. God calls his people to himself
through the preaching of the word. Whereunto he called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. So we're given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, right? And we rest and trust in Him,
but the work's already been done 2,000 years ago. Isn't that wonderful? Scripture
says He obtained eternal salvation for us, right? He obtained it. So God reveals to us what Christ
did for us, and boy, we're never the same again, are we? We're
never the same! We rejoice over this wondrous
salvation that Christ brought out for us. And then in 1 Corinthians
2, if you want to turn there, 1 Corinthians 2, people are always
trying to figure out, well, what's heaven like? There's people out there who
wrote books on supposedly heaven. Let's see a response from Scripture
about writing a book on heaven. Now, I know they're trying to
comfort people. I know that. But look, this scripture here
has always made me wonder why people write books on heaven.
Because the scriptures tell us just briefly, right, what heaven's
like. And heaven won't be heaven. You
could sum up a book with this one page. Heaven won't be heaven
without Christ. Right? That's the end of the
book. Christ is there. Hallelujah. Right? Look at this. Look what's
waiting for us. This is amazing. First Corinthians
chapter 2 verses 9 to 12. Look at this. But as it is written,
I have not seen. Think of the most beautiful place
you've ever seen in your life. It doesn't even compare. It doesn't
even come close. Eye have not seen, no ear heard.
Think of the most beautiful sound you've ever heard. For me, I
love birds. I sit at my porch and listen to those birds sing.
Oh my gosh, or go to a nice orchestra and just listen, just sit, close
your eyes and listen to that. Beautiful. Beautiful. Doesn't even compare. Doesn't
even compare. Neither have entered into the
heart of man. Think of the, think of the, Most
wonderful thought you've ever had about a place. Doesn't even
compare. Doesn't even come close. You
have a memory of a beautiful place you went to. Doesn't even
come close. The things which God has prepared
for them that love Him. And we love Him. Why? Because
He first loved us. Isn't that amazing? But God hath
revealed them unto us by His Spirit, for the Spirit searches
all things, yea, the deep things of God. And this is speaking
about the mystery of salvation in Christ. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him?
Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God. that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God. So now we have a hunger
to go home to be with the Lord. Now where we know it's good for
us to still be here, and we will be here until our time. It's appointed on men once to
die, and we can't get out of that appointment. And we wouldn't want to get out
of that appointment. But what we see here, doesn't
even compare to what's waiting for us in glory. And now we have
a hope, don't we? Sister, you often say, how do
people make it in the world without Christ? Even I say, how did we
do it before the Lord saved us? Well, He was ever with us, wasn't
He? He was ever with us. But how do people? I can't imagine
now, since the Lord saved me, I couldn't imagine going through
this life without the hope that I have in Christ. Especially
with everything going on. You see all this stuff going
on. But oh, the anchor of our soul, right? He is the anchor
of our soul, isn't He? He keeps us. He keeps us steady,
doesn't He? Oh, He keeps us looking to Him.
And so the verses we'll look at today will be verses 19 to
21. The scriptures declare that faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So this brings
forth the importance of the gospel being preached. We are here in
Elmont, Michigan for the gospel to go forth into the world. For
us here, sitting and listening, but also now going out on the
internet and going out to all over the world. The only reason
we exist here is because God has a people, a called out assembly,
All of us. He has a call out of assembly.
And he's gathered us together out of this world. We're in Ekklesia
in the Greek. It means a call out of assembly.
It's the people, not the building. And we're a call out of assembly.
We gather here and the Gospel encourages us and builds us up
in Christ. And then out it goes in the world,
doesn't it? Isn't that amazing? Everywhere you look where gospel
church is, and I mean a true gospel church, there's God's
sheep there. When there's no longer God's
sheep there, the church is gone. Well, isn't that wondrous? The Lord keeps the work here.
It's absolutely wondrous, isn't it? It's amazing. God's grace
is truly amazing. And the miracle of the preached
Word being instrumental in the new birth and the salvation of
the soul remains a mystery. It's the work of God. He takes these feeble words of
mine and uses them to bless you guys and to bless others who
listen and maybe by the power of the Holy Spirit of God to
take those words and speak alive to a sinner. Because all we are
is safe sinners, right? who the Lord spoke in life to.
We were dead in trespasses and sins. And he's made us alive
by the regenerating birth of being born again. By his will,
too, remember that. By his will. And God the Holy
Spirit, again, uses the preaching of the word, all by his almighty
power, to regenerate lost sinners. And again, these things are embraced
gladly embraced by we who are the people of God. Because we've
experienced that, haven't we? We've experienced the truth of
that. There was a time when we heard the scriptures and it didn't
mean nothing to us, and then, boom. There's a whole different
book. A whole different book. Oh my. And it's the Holy Spirit of God
who illuminates the scriptures and gives us We who are the people
of God in understanding. And that's all part of those
good and perfect gifts that come from above. God the Father uses
the preaching of the word of his gospel to bring sinners to
Christ. Wonder of wonders. See, man thinks it's foolish.
But we who are the people of God, we rejoice, don't we? Natural
man thinks preaching is foolishness. But oh, we've tasted the power
of God through the preaching of the word, haven't we? We who
are the people of God. It's not foolishness. Oh my,
it's wondrous. It's absolutely wondrous. Oh. And also to think that our salvation
is by the will of God, and that God uses the word of truth, is
at once proof that God cannot change. He doesn't change. And it's proof that we cannot
be charged with our sin, because the Scripture says so. Blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, that was
contrary to us, He took it out of our way, nailing it to His
cross. It's wondrous. And the fact that salvation is
by the will of God, and again, God uses the word of truth, is again proof that God cannot
be charged with our sin and is a guard against the error of
thinking that He ever could be. So wherefore, this being the
case, since the Word is our guard against error and the means employed
in our regeneration, our attitude in hearing the Word must flow
from the heart of thanksgiving and praise. And it does, doesn't
it? We come here Our hearts are filled
with joy after hearing the gospel preached and proclaimed. We leave
here rejoicing in the wondrous things that Christ has done for
us. Again, we hear about what he's done for us through his
precious, precious word. Oh, may God give us teachable
spirits when we hear the word of God. May we come to the service
with teachable spirits, waiting to hear from the Lord through
his word. May we hunger and thirst after the things of Christ. And
that's what He does in us. I never used to hunger and thirst
for Christ before I was saved. Is it so for you? We didn't,
did we? Not at all. Turn, if you would,
to Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4. So we should
guard against error when the Word of God is preached. And we should hear the Word of
God with a heart of thanksgiving and praise rather than anger
and debate. We experienced a few months back
anger and debate when people were showing opposition to the
Word of God, the Gospel, being preached. And here we are now,
we're rejoicing, aren't we? We're rejoicing in the Word of
God preached. We're rejoicing in the Word of God proclaimed.
We come here with teachable spirits, wanting to hear what the Lord
has to say to us through His Word. Look what it says here
in Mark 4, verse 24, in light of that. In light of being admonished
to come and hear the Word of God, which we're seeing in our
text, desiring to feed on the Word
of God. Mark 4, verse 24. And He said unto them, take heed
what you hear. Take heed when you're hearing
the preaching of the Gospel. With what measure you might,
it shall be measured to you. And unto you that hear, shall
more be given. So what happens is we hear the
Word of God and we come with teachable spirits desiring to
grow in the grace and knowledge and truth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He gives us more. He gives us more. More about
Jesus would I know, right? Oh, tell me more about my King.
Tell me more about Him. Give me a readiness. Give me
a readiness to hear the Word of God. And these are the words of the
master himself. He told us to take heed when you hear the word
of God preached. Take heed. Look at our context
of our verses here. Verse 19, James chapter 1. Yeah,
James chapter 1. Let's go back there. Verses 19
to 21. 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.
So we're to come and to hear the Word of God and be swift
to hear, slow to speak. That means not debating and all
this stuff against the Word of God. No, we're to come here where
it says there in verse 19, wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every
man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. So we're not to come here to
hear the gospel with a preconceived agenda. We're not to come to hear the
gospel to prove our point. The gospel proclaims the good
news of Christ's salvation in him and through him alone, period. Not by anything we've done. See,
natural men, that hits the pride, doesn't it? Would it mean there's
nothing for me to do? Nothing. Just trust Christ. And
if you trust Christ, He's the one who gave you the grace to
trust Him. It's amazing. Oh my. The only preconceived notion
or desire that we should have when we hear the gospel is, give
me more of Christ. Tell me more of Christ. I want
to know more about Him. I ask you, who's the key to Scripture?
Who's the key to all the Old Testament Scripture? And who's
the key to all the New Testament Scripture? Well, it's the Lord
Jesus Christ, isn't it? He's the key to it all. And the
Bible addresses eschatology and church doctrine, but the Bible
is not to be interpreted on the basis of church doctrine. The
Bible addresses the last times or the last days, but the Bible
is not to be interpreted on the basis of the last times. Concerning the Bible, Christ
is the key of knowledge. Christ is. He's the theme of the Bible,
isn't he? He's the substance of the Bible. The scriptures are all about
who? They're all about him. They're all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. As one grace preacher said, Christ is the grammar and
the syntax of scripture. He's everything. And he was the Word of God. The Word made flesh. God incarnate
in the flesh tells us to take heed of what we hear. So with
that in mind, let's read verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.
So the brethren to whom this letter was written, and to us
today, too, we are, as the children of God, admonished to be swift
to hear. Be swift to hear when it comes to the preaching of
the Gospel. Be swift to hear when it comes
to the Word of God. Be swift to hear. We're to come
to the assembling of the Lord's people with a readiness to hear
the Word of God. A readiness to hear the Gospel. A willingness, too, to hear the
Gospel. And isn't it amazing? Isn't it
amazing what a great work God has done? Because before we were
saved, we didn't have a readiness to hear the gospel. We didn't
have a willingness to hear the gospel. We didn't rejoice in this wondrous
salvation. But now we do. We rejoice in
the wondrous salvation that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. And
we have a readiness to hear the gospel. We have a readiness to
hear of his word preached and proclaimed. We desire it. Tell me about Christ. Tell me about my substitute.
Tell me about what he's done for me. And we desire to hear that Christ
died for sinners, don't we? It was a message we did not want
to hear before the Lord saved us. Now it's all we want to hear. We don't come to church to hear
15 ways to live a victorious life, do we? Christian life,
or how is a Christian to avoid the bumps and trials of this
world? We don't come here for that. We come here to hear the gospel.
We come here to hear about Christ. And he's wonderful. of what is
done, and the hope that we have in Christ gives us courage and
assurance to continue. None of that. We don't have to be instructed
in how. We have such a hope in Christ. And we know we're saved sinners.
We know we struggle every day. But oh, what a hope we have.
Oh, what a hope that God's given us. He's given us a good hope
through grace, hasn't He? And that good hope is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's who we come to hear
about. So we're to be swift to hear the things of God. And we
rejoice to hear that Christ, by His complete, sinatonic work,
has saved our eternal souls. We rejoice to know that we're
forgiven of all our sins, every single one of them. Past, present,
and future. It's glorious. So we see here
that James is admonishing the saints of God that when we come
to hear the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are
to come with a readiness to hear about Christ. And this admonishment
by James, remember, is being written under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God. The true author of these words
is the Holy Spirit of God. So we're being admonished by
the Holy Spirit of God to be swift to hear, to come here with
a readiness to hear the Word of God preached and proclaimed. We see the believer in Christ
comes to hear the Word, and in doing so we worship our great
God as the joy of our salvation floods our souls, the joy of
knowing that all our sins are forgiven in Christ by what He's
done, by the sacrifice and the shedding of His precious blood
we're redeemed, And this all happened 2,000 years ago? And we rejoice in the complete,
finished work of salvation in and through the Lord Jesus Christ,
don't we? So then we see here that we're to be slow to speak. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. Well, that's a tough one, isn't it? Let's just be honest. We're not
by nature slow to speak, are we? We're not. But here's an admonishment
from God the Holy Spirit to us to be slow to speak. And this
teaches us that we're not to be negative towards the Word
of God. We're not to be negative towards
the Word of God. We're not to be negative towards what we hear.
We're not to be negative towards the gospel being preached and
proclaimed. And notice too, this is an admonition to believers. So it's an admonition to us to
not fight against the Word of God. Usually when there's negativism
against the gospel, that shows a lack of life. That shows a lack of life. Now,
there are some portions of scriptures that we read and we go, I don't
understand that. That's when we're just to say,
Lord, this is your word. I'll be slow to speak. Oh, my. See, God's given us life,
hasn't he? We're born again by the will
of God, we see in verse 18. And now we're to be slow to speak,
swift to hear, not be negative. When the gospel's preached, when
we come with that spirit, the gospel will cause us to rejoice
every single time. And I feel like we have that
here. We come and we rejoice in the Word of God, don't we?
We marvel at what's being preached and proclaimed. I marvel at what
I learn when I'm studying. I'm a shooting Baptist. I say
hallelujah all the time when I'm studying or when something
strikes me. Why not? Right? This is wonderful. This is a wonderful salvation. have great cause to rejoice when
we hear the gospel. It reminds us, too, that it's
our sin that nailed Christ to the cross. But we rejoice in the fact that
he died in our place, that he obtained eternal salvation for
us. And this will cause the believer...
When we contemplate that it was our sin that nailed Christ to
the cross, this will cause the believer to let go of any notion
of self. Any notion of self. The Gospel. The Gospel is wonderful. It is the truth. And it discounts
and disallows our opinion. Right? It's so. It's so. And isn't it amazing
that what it says, we as God's people bow to it. We might come
to a point where we don't understand certain scriptures. We all do.
We come to that where we're like, well, Lord, I don't understand
that. But we bow to Him, don't we? It's in His Word. Okay, Lord. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it? Well, I'm going to have to continue
this next week. I got carried away there, so we didn't get
to finish it. But next week, we'll look and
see that we are admonished, even in the Old Testament, to be slow
to speak. So it's in the New Testament
and in the Old. It's in both Testaments. And
isn't it wonderful that God's given us ears to hear and eyes
to see Christ? It's wonderful, isn't it?