James 1:19-27 | Kent Stiles

[0:00] Well, good morning. I never got caught up in the rock-a-thon thing. I never volunteered for it.

[0:11] ! KJ's gotten a little smarter.

[0:31] He does it for a few hours and then goes up and sleeps in the loft for a bit. Caleb was going to sleep for a few hours when he got home and rolled out of bed at 4.30 in the afternoon, so I know he must have made it, but good to see the kids using their time that way and helping others.

[0:48] So if you would, turn with me in your Bible to the book of James. We are going to continue in this New Testament book, and we started about four or five weeks ago.

[1:00] I am going to, or we are, Lord, really going to wrap up chapter one this morning. Just a little bit of background reminder. We have here this written by James, the brother of Jesus, and it was written to believers.

[1:11] That's important, as we, always important to know the context, who it's written to, when it's written in the background, when we look at interpretation. But it's written to believers, to Jews that were scattered or dispersed among the nations, it tells us.

[1:24] And I think, in knowing James, and what we've even seen thus far, is James is a very, what I would term to be a very practical book. It's practical, one for instruction in godly living.

[1:36] If we think back on the first 18 verses, we saw trials producing patience. It's very practical. We see the idea of seeking wisdom, that if we do that, God will give it liberally.

[1:50] That is very practical. We see the example of the poor and the rich, and that the wealth and materialism, that it fades away and it perishes. Now, that's a practical thing for us.

[2:00] And last week, we saw the idea of temptation and enduring temptation. And I think in our society today, that is especially practical for the believer. And so this week, we're going to continue to look at what I would reference here in chapter one as the blueprint for a mature believer, a blueprint for the mature believer.

[2:22] So if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and we're going to read James chapter one, verse 19, and we're going to go all the way down through the last part of the chapter, verse 27. James says this.

[2:33] He says, so then, my beloved brethren, let every man or person be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

[2:52] But be doers of this word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.

[3:07] But he who looks at the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not forgetful here, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless, pure and undefiled religion before God.

[3:26] And the father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Heavenly father, we thank you for your time this time this morning. We thank you that we can get together, Lord, as a body of believers, Lord, to look at your word, Lord.

[3:40] We thank you for the ability to come together. We just ask that over the next half hour or so that you would open eyes and ears, Lord, help my own voice get out of the way of the word going out, Lord, and that it would, the seeds we planted and that it would be fruitful.

[3:57] We ask this in your son's name. Amen. Okay. So a mature believer, I think we've already seen a couple of examples in this chapter. Mature believer, number one, we see in verse two, is joyful in trials.

[4:12] It says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. Incidentally, back to that word practical, I find myself gravitating more toward like doctrinal components when I, when I look at the word, when I, when I speak, this is a very practical one.

[4:28] So when you are, when we're going through this, just look at this in relation to your life. We're going to look primarily at the scripture and how it applies to our life and how we should be handling that as believers.

[4:39] And so I think it's just some real pointed questions to ask yourself. Is this, it's talking to me. If you're a believer here today, it's talking to you. And you know, how, how can we utilize that?

[4:49] So number one, again, count it joy when you go through trials. That's pretty tough. Second, the second mark of maturity is that they are triumphant in temptation.

[5:00] So verse 13, let no one say that when he's tempted, I am tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So we're joyful in trials and we're triumphant in tribulations and temptations.

[5:14] And then now we have this morning, what I think is the third mark of maturity here in chapter one, it's that mature Christians are doers of the word. Verse 22, but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourself.

[5:30] And so we cannot be, in my opinion, a mature believer. We can't be a mature believer without a right relationship, obviously with the Lord and also alignment with the Bible, with his word.

[5:45] And I've heard it said, and I think it's to be true that your relationship or your alignment with God's word, uh, the relationship to scripture, it's the most, or one of the most important relationships that you have that, and that may sound extreme or odd, but I believe it to be true that the Bible is God's love letter to us, so to speak to you, if you're a child.

[6:05] And if you want to know God, if you want to serve God, if you want to have fellowship with God, if you want to reflect God in your life, in your marriage and in your family, then I think you have to be a man or a woman of his word that you can't neglect the Bible and be a mature Christian.

[6:24] And as we break down our text, I think you'll see that this morning. And I, what we're going to see this morning is we're going to see three specific things. We're going to see number one, that we must be hearers of the word of God.

[6:38] We'll see that in verse 19. Number two, that we must receive the word of God. That's verse 21. And number three, we're going to see that we must obey the word of God.

[6:49] So hearing, receiving, and obeying. And so all three of these points, they're called imperatives or commands. And so these aren't optional. If you're not too busy, or maybe you feel like it, or you've got time in your life for things like hearing and receiving and obeying.

[7:06] No, these are commands. And from God's commands comes God's enabling you to obey them. So let's go ahead and start with number one. We must be hearing the word.

[7:19] Verse 19 to 20 says this. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. And he gives a reason for that. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

[7:33] Now notice in verse 19 that the section starts with the phrase, so then, or wherefore. And you may have heard this rule that whenever there's a wherefore or therefore, that you want to ask yourself the question or find out, what is it there for?

[7:48] And so you go back to 18 to kind of set the premise. And James says, of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, or the Bible, or the word of God, that we might be the first fruits of his creatures.

[8:04] And so James ended the previous section by saying that God, in his own sovereign will, regenerated us, or that we were born again. And that one of the instruments in our rebirth was the word of truth, which is the reference to scripture or the Bible.

[8:20] And having mentioned the Bible in verse 18, James goes on then to talk about that in verse 19 through 27, that we should be doers of the word, not just hearers only.

[8:31] And the context takes us back to verse, to one verse, to the word of truth, which is also, we're going to see it's going to be referenced as the implanted word in verse 21, or the perfect law of liberty in verse 25.

[8:48] So the word of God in relation to the child of God is very important. And in verse 19, we see that James is speaking here to believers.

[9:00] He says, and that's important when we go forward, he says, my beloved brethren, my beloved brethren, and he gives us three commands. Again, first, he says, be swift to hear.

[9:13] And that means it's a readiness or an eagerness to listen to God's word. Be swift to hear. In the Old Testament, I think we're all familiar with the story of a young boy, Samuel.

[9:28] And Hannah said, oh Lord, if you'll give your maidservant a son, I will give him up to the Lord for the days of his life. And so after Samuel was born and he was roughly five years old, we see Hannah takes him to the temple.

[9:43] And Samuel there is entrusted with Eli, the priest, and he's raised in the temple. And he would later become one of the great prophets in the nation of Israel. And most of us know the story that when Samuel lay in bed one night, he lay there and he hears a sound.

[10:02] And the Lord calls to Samuel. And Samuel thought Eli was calling him. He jumps out of bed. He goes and sees Eli. And he says, here I am. And Eli says, I didn't call you. Go back to bed. He goes back to bed.

[10:14] He hears him called again. He gets out of bed. He goes and sees him. And he says, I didn't see you. I didn't call you. This happens a third time. And on the third time that God called, Samuel again went to Eli and said, here I am.

[10:28] And now Eli realized at this point that it was the Lord that was calling Samuel. And he said, the next time when he calls, say, speak, for your servant hears. And so the Lord called Samuel an additional time.

[10:41] And Samuel says, speak, for your servant hears. And I would suggest that's essentially the same mindset that we should have in our prayer.

[10:52] That when we read the scripture, when a believer goes to the word, that he should say, Lord, speak. For your servant hears. For your servant hears.

[11:04] You know, the word of God, it demands our attention. When you read the Bible, again, a letter from God. Be swift to hear.

[11:14] Now, second, you'll notice in verse 19. Not only are we to be swift to hear, but we're to be slow to speak. You've probably heard the saying that the Lord gave us two ears and one mouth.

[11:32] Therefore, we should listen twice as often as we speak. I think that's a good saying. I don't always adhere to it myself, but I think God's trying to tell us something.

[11:43] And I think one of the biggest problems that we have is that, unfortunately, we are quick to speak or swift to speak and slow to listen. You know, I'll ask you, do any of you have friends that when you get together, that friend does all of the talking?

[12:02] And you do all the listening. You don't put your hands up. Don't point to them in the room. I know you all have them. I have them. I might be that friend for you. I don't know. But they don't allow you to talk or to share.

[12:13] They just talk. And the reality is when we're talking, we're not learning. When we're listening, we're learning. And I think that's an important point to remember. So sometimes if you just keep your mouth closed, you'll be the wise one in the conversation.

[12:29] Proverbs 10, 19 says, he who restrains his lips is wise. He's wise. And, you know, have you ever, if you've ever been with someone who's really quiet, initially, when they're quiet, you usually think, huh, they're a pretty, pretty smart person.

[12:45] You know, they only speak when they need to. And it would be best for that person at times to remain quiet. But they'll open their mouth and then they'll prove and they'll dispel all those doubts. And they'll say, nope, nope, that person wasn't very smart.

[12:57] You know, I find myself doing that a lot. Like, I'll say something and it's like the spirit just convicts me right away. Like, why did you say that? That really is silly. Unnecessary, wasn't fruitful.

[13:08] And candidly, make me look pretty foolish. So the Bible says it's better to keep silent. People will think you're smart. Then you open your mouth and you're now a fool.

[13:20] So let us be swift to hear, slow to speak. Swift to hear, slow to speak. And then third, let us be slow to wrath. Verse 19, swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

[13:34] Wrath is a harboring of anger and of resentful feelings. An angry spirit is not a teachable spirit.

[13:45] Have you noticed that in your interaction with believers, with your family, with your spouse, with your kids? Do you find your, or yourself, do you find yourself to be the most teachable when you're angry?

[13:57] I certainly don't. When I'm angry, I'm concerned about being right, not being taught. In verse 20, what's the rationale for this? Look at verse 19. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

[14:13] So when you're angry, you don't hear from God through his word. When you're mad at the world, when you're mad at God, when you're mad at others, there's anger in your heart and your heart is not open.

[14:25] And it won't be soft and it's not receptive. So be slow to wrath that we might hear the word of God. Slow to hear, or swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.

[14:38] Well, here's the second thing that we need to do in regard to our relationship to his word. We need to receive the word. The first thing that we see the word is to be heard, that it demands our attention.

[14:53] And number two, it should be received, that the word of God demands our reception. It demands our attention and it demands our reception. Look at verse 21.

[15:04] Therefore, and here we have another so then or wherefore or therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. So not only get rid of anger, we saw that in verse 19, but get rid of wickedness and sin in your life.

[15:22] And here's the command, receive with meekness the implanted word. So the word of truth, it's the implanted word. And it's able to do what?

[15:35] Save your souls. The word of God demands our reception. And the word receive in verse 21, it speaks of a welcoming or an appropriating reception.

[15:51] Speak, Lord. I'm listening. I'm eager to hear. It means to embrace it, to make it your own. This is used of the Bereans in Acts 17, where it says, they received the word with all readiness.

[16:05] And they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. They listened. They received. So when Paul went to Berea, they didn't reject the word. They searched out the word.

[16:17] They listened to the word. They received the word. They checked out what they had heard with the scripture. And so when you read the Bible, note that in God's word and make your heart receptive to the word of God.

[16:37] It means to embrace it. First Thessalonians 2.13, Paul says, You received the word of God, which you heard from us. You welcomed it, not as the word of man, but as the truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.

[16:57] You know, I think that's really an amazing statement, to have a congregation hearing the word. And not only hearing the word, but receiving the word.

[17:07] And not the word of man, but the word of God, the word of truth. And you'll notice there is an interesting word. It's called the implanted.

[17:19] Or some versions might say the engrafted word. So God wants to graft his word into your heart. He wants to implant his word in your heart, that your life might bear fruit, like seed does, to the glory of God.

[17:37] In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus gave an interesting parable, a well-known parable. Most of you likely know that a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.

[17:53] In this parable in chapter 13 of Matthew, it's the sower and the seed. And in this parable, Jesus gave or references four different kinds of soil.

[18:04] And it's about how the soil received the seed from the farmer and the fruit that was born, or in some cases, not born of it. And the soil is a picture of the human heart, and the seed is a picture of the word of God.

[18:18] And that he preaches the word and our receptivity to it. And so in the Bible times, you had the farmer, and he would go out, and he would pull up his garment, and he would make a basket of it.

[18:29] And he would put seed in there, and he would walk down the furrows, and he would throw seed as he walked. And it was somewhat of a primitive way. We don't see that now, right? You see 18-row combines or whatever, and they plant the seed, but that's not how it was at the time.

[18:42] It was primitive, but it was effective. And so Jesus said there was a first soil, and some seed would go where the farmer didn't intend or want for it to go, such as on the beaten path.

[18:53] And that soil was hard. So the seed in that case would just sit there. It would lay there on the surface, and the birds, they would come along, and they would eat it. And this seed didn't penetrate, so it wouldn't bring forth fruit.

[19:05] And I think this represents the hard heart, that your heart has been hardened. So Satan is able to pluck and steal God's seed, and it's not penetrating your life. So, you know, you can come to church week after week.

[19:17] You can hear the Bible being taught. You can even read the Bible yourself, but your heart is hard, and Satan will steal the seed. It's not bearing fruit. Well, in the second soil, it's shallow, or an emotional heart.

[19:30] And it's a thin layer of soil over the rock, so it lacks depth. And so when the seed in that case lands, it starts to take root because there is some soil that's present. But because the dirt is shallow, the plant will spring up, but then it will wither, it'll die.

[19:45] It can't get moisture. And that's the person who hears the word, who starts to respond to the word, but there's no real spiritual, there's no real growth there. There's nothing that brings forth fruit because of that soil.

[20:00] The third soil, which is called, I would call the crowded heart, one that's full of weeds, and that the seed lands here, and it begins to take root. It begins to grow, but the weeds choke out the plant, and it doesn't bear fruit.

[20:15] I don't know about you guys, but I am not a big fan of weeds. As a child, now I can speak, it was more, I will admit, it was more prevalent for my older siblings, but my mom did not use our garden as a reward, but as a punishment, right, to go weed the garden.

[20:35] Weeding the garden is not fun. Because what happens with weeds? You know the cool thing with weeds, you pull them up and they never come back, right? You pull them up and it's like a week later, they're back. They grow back.

[20:46] At some point, I'm not much of a gardener again, and when I would have tomatoes, I'd say, you know what, just give me half the yield, I won't do any weeding, I'll sacrifice it, right? You know, I can't think of anything more aggravating than pulling weeds.

[21:00] And let me ask you this, think of all the weeds that you've pulled in your lifetime, and they just keep coming back. And so this soil, it represents a crowded heart where the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and prosperity, and the lust for other things, they choke out God's word in your heart so that you don't bear fruit.

[21:19] Or you bear limited fruit. And you have so many things in life to deal with that they choke out God's word. And then finally, though, we see the fourth kind of soil or heart, and that's a fruitful soil or a fruitful heart.

[21:33] So unlike the hard heart, it's soft. Unlike the shallow heart, it's deep. Unlike the crowded heart, its soil is clean. And so that when the seeds land on this soil that is soft, that is deep, that is clean, they bring forth fruit.

[21:50] That there is a fruitful heart. The soil produces 20, 60, 80, or 100-fold. So I think a good question this morning for us is, or for you, what is the condition of your heart?

[22:05] When the seeds go out, what is the condition of your heart? Is it firm? Is the seed being stolen? Is it shallow? In that it might take root, but it goes away quickly. Or is it crowded?

[22:15] Are there weeds in your life? Are there sins that are entangling you that are not allowing for that fruit to be born? Or is your heart soft, deep, clean, fruitful soil?

[22:26] So that when God's word comes into your heart, it finds root and it brings forth fruit for the glory of God. I think that's a good question to ask ourselves.

[22:39] We'll note the condition for receiving the word in verse 21 of our text. It says you have to lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness.

[22:52] So number one, God's word will be hindered if we're angry. So lay aside anger. And number two, God's word will be hindered in our life if we have sin.

[23:04] So we must pull out the weeds of the sin that you can't grow unless you're willing to give up that sin that you're harboring in your heart.

[23:15] You know, if you're reading the Bible, guys, and you come across where it says, husband, love your wives. As Christ loves the church, you say, yeah, let's go to another chapter.

[23:26] I like to read about what the Lord has planned for me and all the good things. Or ladies, if you come to the verse that says, you know, submit to your husband and you say, not a big fan of that chapter.

[23:38] Let's go talk about what good things the Lord has so many promises in Scripture. I'd rather reflect on those things. You know, we can't pick and choose. The Bible is not a smorgasbord in that regard that I'll take this first.

[23:51] I'll take that one and I'll throw away the others. I'll tear that one out. You know, if you have sin and you're unwilling to repent, you will grow no further. And as a matter of fact, you oftentimes go backwards instead of forward.

[24:04] You'll be hitting a wall as far as fresh understanding or fresh transformation. God won't take you deeper if you don't accept and respond in obedience to that which he reveals to you.

[24:17] And it's important that we lay aside all the weeds that are in our lives that are hindering us. And I speak to myself in that regard. All too often, I have these entanglements that keep me from being in his word, from being in fellowship, from spending time with him.

[24:33] And they just, they cause me to be treading water, standing still, or sometimes, like I say, you know, moving backward in regard to my maturity. Well, notice the manner in which you receive the word in verse 21.

[24:48] It's an interesting word. It says, with meekness. You hear the word and you receive the word with meekness. And the word meekness, that doesn't convey weakness.

[25:01] Oftentimes, that's a misunderstood word. The word meekness conveys power under control. A meek horse is not a weak horse. Okay? A meek horse, it's a horse that responds to every movement of the rider.

[25:14] It's an obedient horse. We see in scripture, it says that Jesus was meek and lowly in heart. And he was obedient to the Father's will and his command. So if we're going to grow and we're going to mature, we need to have meekness toward God and toward others responding to the word of truth, to God's word.

[25:33] And what compels us in meekness to receive that word? The end of verse 21. Because the word is able to save your souls.

[25:43] Now, when he uses the word souls here, it's also, it could be translated the word psyche. He's able to save my soul and my life.

[25:55] And what is meant by that? It's essentially, it's like the salvation of past, present, and future. It's a word that continually delivers me from sin. Continually saves me from myself, from my sin.

[26:08] That continually conforms me to the image of Jesus Christ. That's what it means. 1 Corinthians 1.18. We are being saved by the power of God. And so it's the word that does that.

[26:21] It's a word that sanctifies and nurtures and builds us up. Paul said to the Ephesian elders, it's the word that builds us up and gives us inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

[26:33] So he's not talking about regeneration here. So we already know he was talking to believers, right? The seed is implanted. He referenced them as brethren.

[26:44] So this, what he's talking about to these saved believers is he's telling them that the word has already been implanted. So that salvation, sanctification, service, it involves all of your life being blessed by the impact and the influence of the word of God.

[27:01] So receive it with meekness. As it's able to save your soul. So number one, we hear the word. Number two, receive the word.

[27:12] That's able to save your soul. And number three, obey the word. So the word of God demands, again, our attention, our reception, and ultimately it demands our application.

[27:26] Verse 22 to 27. But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourself. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in the mirror.

[27:37] For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

[27:52] So let's break this down. Number one, the command is to be doers, actively doers of the word. So hearing and receiving must be resulting in true obeying.

[28:05] Hearing, receiving, obeying. We can't circumvent those three. They go together. So we must hear the word. We must have receptivity to receive the word, and we must be obedient to the word.

[28:17] Not enough to hear, not enough to receive. We have to obey. And if you hear the word only, then you're deceiving yourself. Hearing is not enough. So many professional Christians, I think they had that problem.

[28:30] That's one of the biggest problems in the church today, that for many believers, there is a significant gap between his word and between our actions. That we believe the Bible. We believe the inerrant word of God, but we don't obey the Bible.

[28:44] That it's wonderful to have an understanding of the Bible, but the goal of Bible study is not to have some intellectual enlightenment or to have a big head. It's to transform character.

[28:55] It's to build that relationship with the Lord. So I'd ask you this morning, how are you doing in that area? Is there a gap between what you believe and how you behave?

[29:07] And I'd say, let's close that gap by obedience. We believe the Bible, but do we obey his word? We are to be doers of the word, obeying the word.

[29:19] In Matthew 7, Jesus closed his sermon on the Mount with another parable about the wise and the foolish builder.

[29:30] You know, he said the wise man, he builds his house upon the rock. And so when the rains descend and the floods come and the winds come and the winds blow, the house stood strong because it was built upon the rock.

[29:46] And a foolish man, he built his house upon the sand. And when the wind and the rain and the floods came, the house fell and the great was such that fall. And so Jesus explains this parable and the Greek word for parable is parabolae, which means to lay alongside.

[30:04] And so Jesus takes a story and he lays it alongside his spiritual truth. And what spiritual truth is that here in this parable? That the wise man is the one who hears the word and he obeys it.

[30:16] It's that simple that when you hear the word and you obey the word, that you're called what? You're called wise, that you're building your house on the rock and your house will withstand the storms at the time that it comes.

[30:31] But the foolish man is the one who hears the word, just like the wise man. So they both hear the word, but he doesn't obey it. And he builds on the sand rather than the solid foundation of Christ and his word.

[30:43] And when the storms come, his house fails. And so again, the question would be, what are we building our house on this morning? How are we receiving God's word?

[30:57] What are you building your marriage on, your family on, your life on? The word of God is the only sure foundation, the only thing that will stand the storms of life.

[31:13] James gives us an illustration in verse 23 to 25, and he says this, For if anyone's a hearer of the word, not a doer, he's like a man observing a natural face in the mirror. For he observes himself, he goes away, and immediately he forgets what kind of man he was.

[31:29] You know, mirrors are brutally honest. Unfortunately, I can attest to that.

[31:39] The mirror only reflects back that which it sees, right? I oftentimes want to blame the mirror. I know everybody, does everybody have that mirror in their house?

[31:53] Excuse me, they kind of like. Maybe it makes you look a little taller, a little thinner. Call that a deceptive mirror. Well, the Bible, the word of God, it's a mirror.

[32:04] And if you open up the Bible and you see your true condition, but you close it up and you walk away forgetting what you look like, it's like someone who looks in a mirror and he needs help or she needs help.

[32:17] They don't comb their hair. They don't shave. They don't prepare themselves. They don't put on makeup. They don't get ready for the day and they just go off. You know, have you ever seen someone in the morning and you almost wonder to yourself, I wonder if they had a mirror.

[32:32] I mean, should I tell them what they're looking like? They need help. And so the Bible is like a mirror. And so the spirit of God uses the word of God to change into the image of God, the son of God.

[32:50] And so we need to look deeply into the word of God and to receive the word of God and to put it into practice. And that's the illustration. If the musicians want to come up, we've got just a couple more verses to wrap up here.

[33:02] Verse 25. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not forgetful here but a doer of the work, he will be blessed in what he does.

[33:15] And this means to look carefully. Study the word. It's called the perfect law of liberty because it brings freedom. And we're to continue in it, which speaks of habitual activity.

[33:26] And this one is emphatic. It means only this man or this woman, this one will be blessed in what he or she does.

[33:38] So obedience brings blessing. Psalm 1 is often referred to as the happy psalm. Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the path of the ungodly or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scornful.

[33:57] But he delights in the law of the Lord and he meditates it on it day and night. And he is like a tree planted by the rivers of water that he shall bear fruit in season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does will prosper.

[34:15] You want to be happy? Who doesn't want to be happy? Who doesn't want to prosper? Now, prosper in a biblical sense. Be the blessed man or woman.

[34:27] Meditate on God's word. Don't walk. Don't stand. Don't sit with the ungodly, with the sinners, or with the scornful. Be the blessed man or woman. Meditate on God's word.

[34:38] And it says you'll be like a tree planted by the water. Now, notice the application here in closing in verse 26 and 27. If we give God's word our attention, if we hear it, if we give it our reception by receiving it, if we give it application, therefore obeying it, it'll be seen in three practical areas of your life.

[34:59] This is what you'll see. Number one, it should be seen in our speech. We'll have wise words. Verse 26, If anyone among you thinks he's religious and doesn't bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.

[35:14] This is one of the few places in Scripture that we see the word religion or religious. Depending on how you translate, it's only a few times. And this verse is talking about a pious individual, someone who follows religion, who says they're a Christian or a believer or religious, yet their mouth and their life are anything but.

[35:31] And there's a contradiction there. So we'll see it in our speech. The second way that will be seen is in our service or our works. In verse 27, Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and the widows in their trouble.

[35:47] So you'll have wise words. Verse 26, You'll have a loving heart. Verse 27. And that's about service, the way you live your life. God is always taking care of the fatherless and the widows in Scripture.

[36:02] And third, it'll be seen in your walk. Verse 27, That you will live a separate holy life and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

[36:14] So our words, our works, and our walk will be seen if we give God's word our attention, our reception, and our application.

[36:26] Psalm 119 and 11 say this, How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. And then verse 11, Your word have I hidden in your heart that I might not sin against you.

[36:41] So hearing, seeing, and applying. A story told, it was told that John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, he had written, many of you may know this or have heard this, he had written in the leaf of his Bible, and it said this, this book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.

[37:08] This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book. Are you slow, quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath?

[37:19] Hearing, seeing, and applying the word of truth. Heavenly Father, this morning we thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you that you sent your son, Lord, to pay the penalty of sin, a penalty that none of us could afford to pay.

[37:33] Lord, and not only that, but we have a relationship with you, Lord, that you are one that communicates, Lord, you're living, Lord, that we can come to you daily. And we pray, Lord, that each one here would be encouraged, again, to be swift to hear, Lord, to listen to what you have to say, to look at your word, to look at the truth.

[37:51] Slow to speak, Lord, slow to wrath, Lord. We pray that each one of us would just desire to have a closer relationship with you, Lord, that we can, Lord, here as we see in James, that we can be justified before man, Lord, that they could see our works and that they may know you, Lord.

[38:06] We thank you for this time this morning. We thank you for your word. We thank you for all this in your son's precious name. Amen. Amen.