Receiving God's Word part 1

This morning we are back in our series, "Good Works Flow From Good Faith" in the book of James, looking at verse 19 through 21. Now, if you've kept up with the message series, you know that we have had six messages in the book of James. Now, one of the messages, the first message was an introductory message, but I want you to see that in these messages, we see that the true Christian is tested. What I mean is, in approaching these texts and approaching these messages, we see that the Christian is being tested. Now, before we get into the tests, I want us to see some things that we must remember.

We must remember the context of the book, and we also must remember what a test is. Now, remember with me the context. We know that James is the half-brother of Jesus. James is a leader in the New Testament church. James is a prominent figure, and he's used greatly of God in the New Testament church. And James is writing this letter to Jewish Christians who have been scattered because of the great persecution that broke out against the church. So we have these Christians, we have these church members, if I can use that term, and they've been scattered, and they are facing many different circumstances.

But then also, I want us to remember what a test is. Now, a test is not for God to see what we are going to do. God already knows what we're going to do. A test is an experience, positive or negative, that comes into our life that proves us for who we are. It reveals to us who we are. I've said it like this, if you squeeze a lemon, you're going to get what's in that lemon, and that is lemon juice. And when a test comes along, it can be negative and it can be positive, but it reveals what we are and who we are. It proves us.

Now, I said earlier that these messages that we have seen in these messages, that these have been tests for the Christian. Now, the first test that we looked at, they were trials. Remember, we had three messages on trials. The first one was, "Our faith is tested." The second one was, "Wisdom is needed." Excuse me. "And to trust in God." But then the second test was, "Temptations." Remember, we learned that temptations and sin, we can be misled how that comes about in our life. We don't just fall into sin, we ease in the sin, we slide in the sin. And it's not God that brings temptation into our life. It comes out of who we are.

That was a test. But this morning, we see the third test, and the third test is, "Our reaction to truth." Our reaction to truth are to God's Word. And if you want to jot that down, you can say it like this. The first test is trials, the second test is temptation, and the third test is truth. Now, we must always be asking ourselves a question as we are going through the book of James. And that is what is God teaching us out of this book. I want us to see that step by step, each way, each step along the way, He is showing us that true Christian works must flow out of our lives and therefore proving that we have true biblical Christian faith.

That's why we must emphasize the title of the series, "Good Works Flow From Good Faith." Now, there is a need for tests. There is a great need for tests. And a matter of fact, we need tests far more than we realize, whether they are from trials or temptations or truth that is brought to our life. Because you and I as individuals and as a church, we need our faith proven.

What I mean by proven, we need to be squeezed and we need to be challenged, and we need opportunity that might be positive, and we might need trial that might be negative to come along and to prove who we are so that we will remain Christians who produce good works from our good faith. And I am going to tell you, the lost world desperately needs this. I will read to you a quote that I have brought to you before. It is from the old English evangelist Leonard Ravenhill.

He said, "The world isn't looking for a new definition of Christianity, but a new demonstration of Christianity." Now, let me pause right here for a minute and explain what I mean out of my heart. There are many churches. They have great mission statements. They have great doctrinal positions. But that won't reach the world. If you study the life of the New Testament Christians, they reach the world by demonstrating their true living faith. The world could give a rip about our theological definitions. The world doesn't care about our mission statements. The world is waiting to see a new demonstration of Christianity.

That's why the message of James is so important. Now, if you are taking notes, and I trust that you are, the title of the message this morning is "Receiving God's Word, Part 1." "Receiving God's Word, Part 1." Now, let's get into the verses starting in verse 19. James says, "This you know, my beloved brethren, but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves." Now, you'll notice I went on down to verse 22, and I did that for a reason. We will only be in verses 19 through 21, but I went down to verse 22 because verse 22 ties these verses together. What I mean is, verse 19 through 21 is one section, and then the remaining verses all the way down to verse 27 are another section. And these verses are meant to be taken as a whole. But right here in verse 22, what we see is the theme of these verses. Verse 19, all the way down to verse 27, verse 22 is the theme of these verses. Let me go back and look at verse 22.

James says, "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers." All of these verses deal with our receiving the word and the truth. All of these verses deal with, now listen, the test of truth. The test of truth when it is brought into our lives. The old Bible commentator Warren Wearsby said, "The word of God cannot work in our lives unless we receive it in the right way." What does Warren Wearsby say? "The truth of the word of God can test us, and how we react to that truth proves who we are, what we are, and what we need." That is the beauty of the test of the word. And verse 22 tells us James' goal with these verses.

The truth comes to test us, to prove us. Now, in taking notes, I'm going to go ahead and give you the three main truths that we're going to look at this morning. You can write them down. Truth number one is, receive God's word with submissive hearts. Truth number two, receive God's word with pure hearts. Truth number three, receive God's word with humble hearts. You can abbreviate those main truths with submissive hearts, with pure hearts, and with humble hearts. That's how we must receive God's word. Now, let's dive into these verses, verses 19 through 21. Let's break them down, and let's see what the Lord would teach us this morning.

So truth number one, or Roman numeral number one, we must receive God's word with submissive hearts. Go back to verse 19 and 20. "This you know, my beloved brethren, but let everyone be slow to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." Now, on the surface, when we look at these verses, we can think that these verses are just a lesson on anger or temper. Now, some of us need a lesson every now and then on our anger and on our temper, do we not? That is another sermon for another day. But that's not really what God is dealing with here, because the remaining verses show us this.

What I'm showing you is, God is wanting to teach us a whole lot more than just lessons on our anger and controlling our anger. There is so much more important to these verses. Now, notice the opening words in verse 19. He says, "This you know, my beloved brethren." What do we see here? These are truths that must be re-taught to these Christians. What does he say? "This is something that you know." These are things that they knew. These are things that they needed to be reminded of. But also, James calls them "beloved." Beloved brethren, what do we see with that?

James is communicating his love for these people, his compassion for them, his genuine concern for them. He knew them and he loved them, and he's writing to them as a man of God, a leader in the church, to people who love God. And he's saying, "I love you and I have a genuine love for you, and you know what I'm going to teach you, but you really do need to hear this." That's James' heart. Now, I want us to break these verses down, and we can break these verses down in three quick, short commands. And I want you to write them down. First, I want you to see he says, "Be quick to listen." That's obvious right here in verse 19.

He says, "But let everyone be quick to hear." And James is communicating or commanding that they be quick to listen. Now, James is commanding us to be attentive in our listening to the Word. We are to take advantage of every opportunity of hearing the Word. Go back to what he said in the beginning of verse 19. "This you know." You already know this, but I need to reteach you. And what does he say? He says, "Be quick to listen to what I have to say." And James is teaching us the importance of being attentive, having both of our ears open, being ready to receive the Word of God. I think about a verse that we've not gotten to in 1 Timothy yet.

Excuse me, 2 Timothy. We're still in our study in 1 Timothy, but over in 2 Timothy, I love this verse. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. Paul says, "All scripture is inspired by God." Now, a more accurate translation is, it is breathed by God. And it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good word. Now, what did we learn right here from Paul?

Paul is saying, "God, breathe the Word of God, and it is more than adequate for everything you need in your Christian journey." Now, God does not tell us in this Timothy passage to perk up and listen carefully, but if you read between the lines and read between the words, that's what Paul is saying. He's saying, "The Word of God is breathed by God, and it is adequate for equipping you for every good word." That's what James is saying. He's saying, "You need to listen to what I have to say.

You need to be quick to listen." I was reminded of this truth this week as one of the men in our church came to me, and he was explaining to me that how our systematic study in 1 Timothy and some of the study that we had in calling us back to the biblical church had impacted him and corrected some erroneous thinking in his view and conception of the church. And when I heard that, it was like God just tapping me on the shoulder saying, "That's right, son. Just preach the Word, be faithful to the Word, and teach the Word." And see, that reminds us that we must be quick to listen.

The second command I want us to see, James says, "We must be slow to speak." What does he say? "But let everyone be quick to hear and slow to speak." I like what John MacArthur says. He says that being slow to speak is a companion of being quick to listen, that they go together. That's true. He's saying, "You be quick to listen, and then also you be slow to speak." In other words, just keep your mouth shut. John MacArthur goes on to say, "We cannot really hear God's Word when our minds are on our own thoughts. We need to keep silent inside as well as outside." And that's true. That is true.

In other words, we just need to sit down, and we just need to shut up, and we just need to be real quick to open up our ears. You know, we see this truth taught in other places. Matter of fact, in James 3, verse 1, James says, "Not many of you should presume to be teachers." What is he saying? Some of you don't need to open your mouth. Some of you need to sit and listen. That's what he's saying. As a matter of fact, we learned in 1 Timothy 3 in our study of the elders. You know, it says that an elder must not be a new convert. Now, what is Paul teaching? What is the word saying?

There are some men in the life of the church, they're not ready to open their mouth. They just need to sit down, be still, and be quiet. And these things go together. Be slow to speak, but yet be quick to listen. And this is especially a need in the life of new converts who need to just sit there, be quiet, and listen. A quote that I ran across from an old preacher, he said it like this, "Show me a person who is always talking and I'll show you a Christian who never does much praying." What is he saying? Sometimes the fact that we talk so much can reveal immaturity in our lives. And what is James saying?

He's saying, "I love you and you know these things, but you need to just sit down and you need to listen and you need to be slow to speak with what I'm going to share with you." Then he also says, "The third short command, be slow to anger, but let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger." Now, the word anger here does not mean what most of us would think. The word anger here does not mean an outburst of temper or the emotions. The word anger here means an inner resentment. The word anger here, it means an inner smoldering. That grows. And it is not necessarily an anger which others do see, but God obviously does see.

Now, what's the context? The context is receiving the word. Now, what is James saying? James is saying, "You do not get angry with what I'm going to share with you." See, this is far more than a lesson on controlling our temper. The object is, or the purpose of James' writing is sharing the word. And he's saying, "Now, what I'm going to share with you, it might hurt your feelings, but you be slow to anger." I remembered something like this. Years ago, in another ministry position I was in, there was a man in the life of our church.

And he had surrendered to the ministry, and I always knew this man, and I liked this man, and I thought this man like me. But he stood up behind the pulpit, and he began to explain about his call to the ministry and what was going on in his life. And he called me out, and he said, "You know, Chris, he said some of the things that you preached years ago angered me, and I didn't like it." And he began to explain how he didn't like things that I preached and things that I said, but he said, "Over time, I realized you were right, and I sat there and I had no idea." See, that was a good example of how the word, the truth had angered him.

And that's not this reactionary reaction in a violent outward way. No, that's an inner resentment towards the truth. And what is James saying? He's saying, "I love you, and I need to write these things to you, but you need to be quick to listen to what I have to say. You need to be slow to speak, and you need to be slow to anger." Now, what is the main truth? We must receive God's word with submissive hearts. This is a beautiful picture of submission. This is a beautiful picture of humbling ourselves and submitting ourselves to what? The truth of the Word of God. You know, as I was finishing last night, I thought about one word, authority.

God's word must have authority over our lives. We must submit to God's word. And see, if we do not submit to God's word, then we will not submit to God because in submission to God, we always submit to God's word. I mean, when the word of God is taught, it will either cause you to say, "Bless you, Lord. Bless me, Lord." Or, "Woe is me, Lord." Because this hits me where I don't want to be hit. But we must submit ourselves, look, to the authority of God's word. But see, it goes on a little further. We must submit ourselves to the authority of God's word, therefore submitting ourselves to God.

But in that, we submit ourselves to the authority that God puts over us. We submit ourselves to the authority of the leadership of the church. Now, I'm not talking about when men are hijacking the church. I'm not talking about when men are leading the church in an ungodly manner. No, that's a time when you bail. Or you stand up for truth. But what I'm showing you is, James is saying, "You submit to the authority of the word that I'm going to give you to God who rules over you and to my authority as a church leader." I was reminded of a family that I ministered to at one time.

And as I was preaching through the word, and preaching through the word, and preaching through the word, they were things that they did not like. I found myself meeting with them, talking with them. Found myself explaining myself to them, the word to them. I found myself listening to them. But I noticed certain characteristics in their life. I noticed certain characteristics in the way that they consistently dealt with me and dealt with the truth. I noticed this. They would not be quick to listen. They would not sit down and have both ears open. They would not be slow to speak.

They were always about sharing their heart, sharing their conviction, sharing what they saw. And what I really found out was, they were nursing an inner anger and resentment towards the truth. And they failed the test. Now, how do I know they failed the test? Because when they chose their way, it pulled them out of the life of the church. It pulled them out of the life of the church and the work of the church. And although they have a form of Christianity, and they can speak spiritual language, they are not plugged into the life of the church, and they are out of the work of the church. It is not important.

Now, look, let me tell you something. If you love Christ, you will love His bride. Jesus is coming back for the bride. And what they did was, they rejected the authority of the Word, and they were rejecting God when all along they said they were serving God. You cannot serve God outside of the church. And look, I can look at their life. I can look at what they stood for, and I can see they would not listen. They were always speaking. And the Word revealed that little anger that grew. See what James is saying? We must receive God's Word with submissive hearts.

Truth number two, or Roman numeral two, I want us to see that we must receive God's Word with pure hearts. With pure hearts. Let's look at verse 21. "Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness." Now, there are two key verbs here that I want us to touch on. The first verb is putting aside. That's at the beginning of verse 21. Now, I didn't read on into verse 21, but notice it says, "Inhumility received the Word implanted." That word receive is the other key verb. So there's two verbs here, putting aside and receive. Now, in the construction of the language, putting aside is a condition of receiving the Word.

What am I showing you? To receive the Word, you must first put aside. Let me repeat that. To receive the Word, it hinges on putting aside. So in a simplistic manner, I'll say it like this. We cannot receive God's Word implanted into us until we put aside the things that hinder. Until we move and put aside, until we're pure. Thus, the point. We must receive the Word with pure hearts. Now, two truths right here that I want us to see. First, I want you to see that we put aside filthiness. We put aside filthiness. Go back to the verse.

"Therefore, putting aside all filthiness." Now, the King James Version and the English Standard Version use the word filthiness. Now, the New International Version uses the word moral filth. Now, if you look at the original language, then the New International is a little more descriptive, and it is very accurate. Because the word in the original means any sort of moral defilement or impurity. See, I like lots of times referring to different translations. Because when you have word upon word, it helps paint a clearer picture. So what is he saying? "Put aside filthiness. Put aside moral filth.

Put aside moral defilement or impurity." You know, I thought about those things that can be in our lives that are of filthiness and moral filth or moral defilement. I thought about the TV and movies that sometimes can be before our eyes. I can remember years ago, when I was a new Christian, I remember one time I went to a movie on a Saturday night, and there were things that were said and things that came across the screen that were of filthiness or of moral defilement. And I remember going to church and being grieved, and I remember God showing me this principle and saying, "God, I can't do that." And I pushed that out of my life.

What am I showing you? There are things that come into our life, maybe they're television shows, maybe there are things on the internet, maybe there are friends, maybe there are attitudes that come into our life, and these things are filthiness. They are moral defilement. They are impurities. And what is he saying? You cannot receive the word until you put those things aside. But then he goes on. He says, "We must put aside wickedness." Now, it almost sounds like he's just throwing words around, but notice what he says. "Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness." Now, the King James uses the word naughtiness.

The English Standard Version uses the word rampant wickedness. The NIV uses the word evil. Now, the word simply means moral evil or corruption. But there is an emphasis here in this language on the intent. This speaks of sin which is deliberate. And I like what John MacArthur says. He says, "This sin may reside in the heart a long time before it is expressed outwardly, and may in fact never be expressed outwardly." I thought about things like this. I covet this heart. You know, there are some people, they just covet what everybody else has. They covet everything that's new. They covet everything that they want.

And what that is, that is wickedness. I thought about people who have a problem with lust. I thought about people who have problems with jealousies and greed. And see, the list can go on and on. And these are things that emphasize the intent. And what we see here is, he's saying, "Put aside these things. You can't receive the word." And when you look at filthiness and when you look at wickedness, we see that it's just not two different words meaning the same thing. No. What James is saying is, "We must receive the word with pure hearts." And that's what he's teaching.

And I want to tell you, church, I believe people today have a hard time receiving the word of God because their lives are so filled with filthiness and wickedness. And I believe even Christians are this way. It is so ingrained in our culture. And what James is saying is, it doesn't matter if you live in Corinth or Ephesus. It doesn't matter if you live in the suburbs or right in the middle of the city. He says, "Put these things out of your life." I think if James were here today, he would say, "Turn off the cable. Don't pay for that movie. Get rid of those friends.

Confess and pray over, fast and pray over your covetousness and your lust or your jealousy or your greed." He would say, "Put these things aside." Because if you do not, you can't receive the word. And I believe there are many Christians, they come into the life of the church and they cannot receive it because it's just clogged up their life. I will give you an example of how God has taught us this. Years ago, I know that most of you know that I've been doing a student camp for years. Keith's been involved for years. And God's taught us many things in that ministry and God's blessed it and we're thankful.

But years ago, I don't remember the year, Keith taught us a principle. Let me explain the geography of the thing and then you'll understand. The worship center that we used to use was up on a hill. It was an outdoor pavilion. Real pretty. Some mountains there in the view and some pretty trees, always a good breeze blowing. And it was just a beautiful outdoor setting for worship, unless it ranged. But one year, Keith came to the point where when he was struggling with certain things in his life, God showed him, son, leave all that at the bottom of the hill. See, this was a physical hill.

And so no matter what route you took to get to the worship center, you had to go uphill. And what God showed Keith was these issues that you're struggling with in your life. Not all of them were of filthiness or wickedness by no means. What God showed him was just leave your problems, leave your concerns, leave your worries at the bottom of the hill and just come meet with me. And in that he got a freedom and in that he got blessing. And in that when he came to worship, his mind and his thoughts were not cluttered. Now we could take that and use that same principle.

What James is saying is when you come to the word of God, put aside the things that clutter, put aside these filthiness, put aside these wicked things and come so that you can receive the word. Now our worship center is not on the hill. But look, what would it be like if every time we sat under the word of God, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, we made sure we had taken inventory and dealt with filthiness and wickedness in our lives that can hinder us receiving the word. So truth number two, we must receive God's word with pure hearts.

And then truth number three or Roman numeral number three, I want us to see we must receive God's word with humble hearts. We must receive God's word with humble hearts. Notice what he says in humility. Now some translations might use the word gentleness, but in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. Now this word humility, it can be translated meatness or gentleness, but the translation of humility is the most accurate here because of the main idea, which is being taught. James is teaching a receptivity to God's word, a submission to God's word.

James is teaching of putting sin, putting self, putting anything aside to receive the word in submission. And look, that is humility. Now we've seen this verb receive and look, this speaks of our responsibility. We have the responsibility to put aside and then to receive. So three truths here that I want us to see. First, we receive the word humbly. Yes, and gentleness. Yes, and meekness, but with humility, we receive the word. Now I thought about an example which will help us see this. You know, in our culture, in our world, we see people who are sick, don't we not? We see people who go to the doctor and receive treatment.

And I think about people who might be facing cancer. And you know, if a man or a woman or a child is facing cancer, they will go to that doctor and look, they will humbly sit at the feet of the doctor. And they say, give me what I need. They might not be able to understand it. They might not be able to explain it as a patient. As a matter of fact, that treatment might even bring great pain and heartache and trial in their life, but they receive it because they believe the doctor knows best. And what do we see humility in that picture? So we received the word in humility. Second, we received the word implanted. Go back to the verse.

In humility, receive the word implanted. Now, the word implanted here is the picture of a seed that is planted in the ground. Now we understand what that means, especially those of us who like to garden a little bit. It's a picture of a seed that is planted in the ground and it takes root. And I'm going to tell you, when I plant my garden, I go out and I put seeds in the ground and I cover them and I give it moisture. I give it fertilize. Why? So that that seed will take root. And I understand that that seed must grow down before it will ever grow up. And that's the picture here.

It is taking the word of God, receiving the word of God, and let it take root in our lives. I'll give you an example spiritually. At the student camp this year, I had a man come to me from one of the churches that comes. His name's Randy. I've known Randy for years. And Randy has come with his church and brought his son. And his son has just graduated from high school, a fine Christian young man, God working in his life. And Randy came to me and he said, Chris, I want to thank you. He said, year after year of you pouring into my son's life, year after year of you teaching and preaching into his life has formed him into the man he is.

And that is a picture of the word being received and implanted. So we receive the word humbly. We receive the word implanted to take root. And then third, we receive the word which saves. Notice what the verse says in humility. Receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. Now, this is a reference to salvation and the truth which is used in salvation. So we learned that in chapter one, verse 18, did we not? We are born of God through the truth or because of the truth. Now, this is a reference reference to salvation, but it is more than a reference to salvation.

It is also a reference to the fact that the truth of God, the word of God is what guards us and protects us. It is what protects and guards the life and the heart of the believer. It's not just conversion here. He's saying in humility, receive the word implanted, which is able to save you. Basically, which is able to guard you and to protect you. I thought about it like this this week. The word of God, it is our lifeline. Without the word of God, we perish. Without the word of God, we wither. Without the word of God, we shrink. And those of us, if we go periods of time without the word of God, we may think that we are stagnant.

We may think that we're in neutral, but in all actuality, we are going backwards. We are digressing. And what I'm trying to show you is the word of God. Yes, that is what saves us, but it is the word of God that grows us, that protects us, that corrects us, that teaches us. And that's why we must be on a steady diet of the word of God. So we see the word. We receive it humbly. We receive it implanted to take root into our lives. And we receive it because we know it will change us and save us. And we receive the word of God humbly. Now I go back to my garden illustration, and I want to give you one word. Expectation.

When I plant my garden, I have expectation. I expect produce. Right now we're putting up snap beans, and we have produce. It won't be long. My peas are going to bloom. And I expect produce. I have tomatoes that will soon ripen. And I expect produce. We have squash. And I expect produce. What am I showing you? Expectation. I expect results. I go. I break up the soil. I prepare the soil. I put seed in the ground. And I wait with expectation. And what do we see? When we receive the word of God with humble hearts, we should have expectations. What that tells me is year after year of being in the Word. Year after year. Month after month.

Month and week and week and week in and week out. Every week. Month in and month out. Every year as I give you the word and preach you the word, I expect to see results. And I expect to see change. That is this implanted word that takes root in our lives. And every now and then, I get to see that. Now, in conclusion, this is the third test. See, the first test that came along, that was trials. That can be positive and that can be negative. The second test that comes along, that is temptation. Temptation does not come from God. It comes from within us. It is a part of our fallen nature. We don't just flop or fall into sin.

We slide into sin and that is a test. But the third test is receiving the word of God. And I want to ask us, how do we receive it? How do we receive the word of God? When the word of God is preached, when the word of truth is delivered, it tests people. And look, as the word is preached and as the word of God, two things come together in the work of God. It is time and circumstances. The word is taught, the word is preached, you receive it. And over time, we see it is a test. And then when circumstances come along, that will test you as well. Are you going to believe and live the truth? Now I want to ask you two questions and then close.

But the two questions are going to lead to three. Two questions that lead to three. Number one, how are you receiving the word? I mean, how are you receiving the word? Are you receiving the word the way James says in your personal Bible study time? When you come to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, are you receiving the word? Second question, how do you react when you see others receiving the word or rejecting the word? Let me explain what I mean. When you watch others receive the word, does it bless you? Does it convict you? Does it encourage you? Does it just pour a little fuel on your fire? It should.

Or when you see others reject the word, what does that do for you? Does that confuse you? Does that hurt you? Yes, it should. Because when we are in this thing called the Christian life, and when the word is preached and truth is delivered, there will be people who will reject it. And it will cause us to have to step up and decide, are we going to reject it as well? Or are we going to receive it? That's what Peter did at the end of John chapter six. One day, Jesus had a great multitude. He fed the 5,000. And on the second day, he began to teach the truth. And you know what? The truth was a test of that crowd, and they fell away one by one.

And finally, there were over 5,000 on day one, and on day two, it was just the 12. And you know what Peter said? We believe and we know. You have the words of eternal life. What was he saying? I don't care what everybody else does. I'm going to receive it. How do you react when others reject the word? Now, the third question. What's the context? The context is the church. These are Christians. They're not just out there on their own. Yes, they've been scattered, but James is a leader in the church. And he's writing to them because he knows what they need. And the context is the church. We should come to what? To receive the word of God.

We should come with our mouths open, our hearts clean, our minds clear, our notebooks open, our Bibles in hand, a pen in hand, ready to receive it and take it and digest it and let it be firmly implanted into us to receive it in great humility, slow to speak, quick to listen, and slow to become angry. Why? Because this is what we need. And look, in that James's heart, verse 19, this you know, you should know these things, my beloved brethren. I love you. I pray for you. I adore you. But this is the things that you need. So the title of the message, receiving God's word, part one, let's pray.