Tutored by Truth

We're swimming in an ocean of information and the ability for communication. Our generation has come to prefer sound bites and video clips.

A typical television show never has one scene lasting any longer than from somewhere between eight to ten seconds in length. What we see and what we hear, what we are swimming in, has the ability to provide for us information but not transformation. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. So far in our current series from the book of James, we've seen that we are to persevere through the trials that inevitably come into our lives. We've also learned that we are to fight against temptation. But how do we embrace suffering with joy? And how do we remain strong in our fight against sin?

We don't always feel God's joy when we're in the midst of a really difficult time. And often we grow weak or become distracted or we simply choose to give up in our fight against sin. James deals with this and that's the theme of Stephen Davies' message today.

Stay with us. I've recently read that there are now 3,000 new books published every single day throughout our world. The number of text messages sent every single day now exceeds the total population of the world. I've learned also that if you happen to read the New York Times newspaper for one week, you will be exposed to more information than the average person living in the 1800s came across in their entire lifetime. We're literally inundated with information, aren't we?

The ability to communicate with each other is greater than ever thanks to the World Wide Web, the explosion of everything from online advertising to online commerce, online shopping, online dating, online business, online research. And I'm glad for it, frankly, because of the tremendous potential we have for the gospel of Jesus Christ through internet streaming and websites. We're recording today a sermon from this microphone transmitted to a computer which is recording it digitally.

It will be edited on a computer digitally and then it will be formatted into a program that will be emailed to some kind of internet holding site somewhere out there that can be accessed by radio stations that then send them via transmitter to places around the world. I don't, frankly, understand any of what I just said, but I know I'm supposed to talk and preach and teach. I don't know how to podcast.

Does anybody here like me not know yet? But I'm grateful for the technology. 60,000 times this month somebody's gonna podcast from our website a sermon from 25 to 30 different countries on average.

The potential for the gospel of Christ is staggering. That's English alone. We're swimming in an ocean of information and the ability for communication. Our generation has come to prefer sound bites and video clips.

The typical television show never has one scene lasting any longer than from somewhere between eight to ten seconds in length. What we see and what we hear, what we are swimming in, has the ability to provide for us information but not transformation. 3,000 books a day can inform you and encourage you and move you and maybe even mislead you, but only one book can transform you. In fact, writing to his spiritual son in the faith, the apostle Paul wrote Timothy, from childhood, you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2 Timothy 3, 15.

Other sources can entertain us. This book alone can awaken us, right? No wonder Paul told Timothy to go out and get into the word to literally train himself in the word for the purpose of godliness, to train the word, he gives us the word exercise.

It gives us gymnasium, the word you go in as it were and you work up a sweat in the word. And that creates a different mental image for us, doesn't it? When we think about getting into the Bible, the average Christian's idea of devotions is to open the Bible and say, okay, Lord, give me a verse for today, something really catchy, something, you know, really zingy, speak to me, make it obvious and by the way, we've only got five minutes, so hurry. But the Bible isn't interested in hurrying. It intends to transform you by the renewing of your mind that is literally changing the way you think. And if we're going to grow up in the faith as James is ever passionate about, maturity is the main thing with this book. So far, he has challenged us in how to respond to, how to think about difficult trials. And then he's moved along to tell us, to challenge us how to think about, how to respond to temptation. And now, he's going to challenge us with how to approach divine truth beginning in verse 19. Look there, James chapter 1, this you know, my beloved brethren.

Now, let me stop there just for a moment. You need to understand this as another imperative from James. He's effectively saying, you need to know this. You got to get this right, he's saying.

You need to understand this. So don't go too quick or too fast. If you want to be prepared for the test of life, James says, there's something you need to know. And by the way, he's going to give us five imperatives for the believer as you approach divine truth. We could call these five ways to approach God's Word for maximum spiritual maturity. And the first way is to come with your ears open.

Let's look further. This you know, everyone, every one of you must be, here's the imperative, quick to hear. Now, many readers, and I've done it myself until I've studied this a little more thoroughly, will take this verse and pull it out of its context and turn it into a general statement. This is one of God's wise sayings. It is wise, it is from God, but he isn't just saying, be quick to listen. You know, don't go home and say to your spouse, have I found a verse for you?

This will revolutionize our marriage. Here it is, James 1. No, it's not what he's saying. There are other verses you can give your husband, okay?

But not this one like that. James is actually talking about listening eagerly and readily and primarily to the Word of truth. That's the context. A verse earlier, verse 18, tells us that the Word of truth brings us to spiritual life. You go further and it tells us, here's how you are to receive the Word of truth, and here's how you are to do the Word of truth. The context is responding to the words of God. You're facing difficult trials.

Are you ready? Are you quick to hear the Word of God? That's his thought. Maybe the reason we're not passing the test, maybe the reason we're not overcoming temptation is because God's Word is the last place we go. We listen to everybody else.

We listen to everything else. Finally, maybe we come to the divine tutor, which is the Word of God, and listen here. James is commanding us to literally listen with eagerness to the Word of God, understand as well.

If I can broaden the context some and take you back to the first century, you need to understand with the date of this epistle being early, which means the New Testament has not been completed. These letters are circulating. They have the stamp of authenticity. They are from the pen of an apostle who's been discipled by Christ. These are written with a stamp of authority. They resonate spiritually. They agree in content.

They were well accepted and agreed upon by the early church before ever a list was garnered by some counsel. And here come the letters. You need to understand that a church service could be nothing more than the reading of a letter. And it would be the congregation's part to be eager to listen.

It's the idea. So when he says a believer should be quick to listen, he's referring to an attitude as a person listens to the truth of the Word and eagerness to hear for our generation, perhaps like none other, listening is becoming an art of the past. But I would also say it's really a hard problem because you go all the way back to the time of Christ and you hear Jesus saying to the Pharisees and the religious leaders, have you never heard?

Well, of course they had. They had heard, but they were not listening. The problem wasn't that they were hard of hearing. The problem is their heart of listening. So yes, our generation is challenged like never before, but it is the same problem.

Here's the point. If you want to grow up and be prepared, be eager not to listen to everybody else. First and foremost, listen to the Word of God. So open your ears. Okay.

Second thing, close your mouth. Verse 19, you need to know this, get this right. Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak.

The adjectives, by the way, here in this text, quick and slow, do not describe our action, they describe our attitude. And what it means is when you come to the Word and you are confronted by the Word, be slow to talk back. You may not like what God's Word is saying. You're in a temptation, you're facing a trial, you go to the Word you don't like, where God's leading you. Keep in mind, again, a little bit broader context of the assembly.

In the first century, the early church services were very informal. Often the listeners would speak out, speak up, debate the speaker. Seems to be exactly what Paul is referring to in Ephesus when he told Timothy, Alexander, the coppersmith, did me much harm. How's that, Paul? Well, first of all, I want you to know I want the Lord to repay him for his deeds. He vigorously opposed my teaching. You might not do that today while I'm preaching and I appreciate that, but you might be doing it in your heart. I don't like what he's saying.

I don't like what God is saying because his words may be inconvenient or uncomfortable or demanding and we are tempted to quickly talk back. One of the marks of maturity is the ability to keep from talking too quickly, right? I don't know how they do it today, but I remember in elementary school when I was going through it, the third grade, fourth grade, that we had a report card and it had two sides to it. One side was the grade and the other side were those comments by teachers. And I don't know about your parents, but my parents cared more about the comment side than the grade side. I could get a B-plus in spelling. That was my favorite subject and I typically pulled in a B, B-plus, maybe an A, or whatever. But they didn't care if there was something written on the other side by that same teacher, like he talks too much in class or he's disruptive in class or he has difficulty remaining quiet in class. I remember all those.

The B-plus didn't matter. My parents ignored that and they were twisted. They had me memorize that classic quote by Abraham Lincoln, better to be thoughtful than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. You had to memorize that too, huh? I hated that quote.

Convicting. One of the marks of spiritual maturity is the ability to keep from talking when we need to be listening. Job is a wonderful illustration. He's going through massive transformation. He was peerless among the wise men of the east.

He was the epitome of maturity, thrown into turbulence like we can hardly imagine. His friends come along and they begin to talk and he talks back and the thrust of his talking is, I demand an explanation. God eventually shows up to speak and the text is so wonderful where Job responds with, I lay my hand upon my mouth.

What can I say to you? So keep your ears open, keep your mouth closed. A third way to gain the most from your tutor, the Word of God, is thirdly to keep your spirit teachable. Now I'll explain how I get to that point, but you see what he says here. He says, everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. If we turn this around, and I showed it to you in a negative way, maybe it explains the digression. It begins with not listening.

And then if I do hear a little bit, I'm going to talk back. And then if I don't get my way, I'm going to become angry. James goes on, by the way, and he taps us on the shoulder. He says, if you're going to get angry with God, remember verse 20, look there, the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. You understand James to be saying, anger with God, because of what he says in his word, does not bring about right living with God.

It literally hijacks the process. When we don't get what we deserve, we get angry with God, James is saying, we accomplish nothing. In fact, we only make matters worse. Truth is, in the spiritual world, our temper accomplishes nothing, but more trouble, meaning more to cry about.

We don't listen, we talk back, we get angry, we're setting ourselves up. Now don't forget James is writing to Christians, Jewish Christians, by the way, who've had their lives turned upside down. He's writing, remember verse one, to the diaspora, the dispersion, the disinherited, the disenfranchised, the dismissed, the removed ones from their homeland. And everything James is saying, they're feeling, they're struggling with, their world has been flipped upside down. James has some very hard things to say to them, and we've already looked at a number of them. And I think it's almost humorous how James begins, because he knows he has even harder things to say. So he begins verse 19, with this you know, or you need to get this, notice this, my beloved brethren, brethren whom I love, I love you. Now I want to say some really hard things. I love you.

Now I want to say some really hard things. Here's James' point. If you have an angry spirit, we do not have a teachable spirit.

In fact, the process has been cut off. So we approach the tutor of divine truth with open ears, a closed mouth, a teachable spirit. Forth we come with clean hands. Look at verse 21. James writes, therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. The Apostle Paul is using the same idea as he expands this thought to the Ephesians. He talks about sin as if it were dirty, putrid clothing. The same idea of James, put it away, take it off, that is. The writers of divine Scripture call it what it is. In fact, James selects two words to serve as categorical references to sin, and the first one he says, it is filthiness.

That's just cutting right to it. He uses the word ruparia, which is a word used of both dirty clothing and moral defilement. But he says, effectively, put aside things and actions, activities that are morally defiling. Now, the word James used here for wickedness is a word that denotes, again, moral evil and corruption. But the difference is the word for wickedness is something that may never be expressed. It may never be acted out.

It can stay right in here where nobody can see. So James is talking about outward actions that are morally defiling and inward thoughts that are morally defiling. He says, deal with it all. In fact, look at verse 21. He says, and all that remains of wickedness. He means to deal with the abundance of it. It doesn't mean you're going to get rid of it all and reach some state of moral perfection. One of the marks of maturing in the Lord is that you're growing more and more troubled, more and more intolerant of both external sins of the flesh and internal, hidden sins of the heart.

And let me illustrate this very quickly. I was reading the Spirit of Zodiacity, a little word study, and James, excellent word study, and he told the illustration of an incident in India. A setting, if you've ever been there, the church settings are much like first century.

It's just very informal, and people talk and ask questions. An unbelieving skeptic was listening to an evangelist preach about the burden of sin, and he interrupted him and sarcastically said, I feel no burden. How heavy is it? Ten pounds?

A hundred pounds? The evangelist answered with a question. Tell me, he said to the man, if you laid 100 pounds on a corpse, would it feel the load?

The man responded, well, no, it's dead. The evangelist said, exactly. That spirit, too, is dead, which feels no load of sin. James had every reason to believe that these dispersed Jewish Christians were struggling, just like we would, with the propensity to sin. The bent to sin. And as believers would feel the slightest sin, he's saying, you're headed in the right direction. Deal with it. There are certain things God does not choose to do for us.

We are supposed to exercise. That's why these are imperatives. You do this. When you choose and you act, you'll find the cooperating power of the Spirit to enable you. But you can't say, well, you know what? I'll do that when God does it for me.

You're going to have to do that yourself. Zodiadis went on to give another illustration I thought I'd share with you. He said he went to a little prayer meeting, a little church, and every time he'd go, the same man would pray the same prayer. He'd list the sin that he'd failed in, and it was somewhat generic, you know, like we would do in a church service. And then he would pray, oh, Lord, the cobwebs have again come between you and me. Please, would you clear the cobwebs away?

Every week, same thing. And he'd end it the same way. Lord, please clear away the cobwebs. Finally, an older Christian prayed right afterwards, Lord, would you have him kill the spider?

That's good, isn't it? Deal with sin. Clean hands. Make much of the Word of God. James writes, there's another thing here. You come with open ears, a closed mouth, a teachable spirit, clean hands. Finally, come with a humble heart. Look at verse 21 again. Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness and humility, receive the Word implanted, which is able to save your souls. Receive the Word implanted. How do you receive something that has already been implanted in you?

What does he mean? The planting of the seed, which is a reference to the Word of God, has already taken place in the soil of our hearts. It's there. It's buried in the soil of a believing heart at conversion. So we receive it.

You can understand that better when you think of it as you welcome it. You nurture that seed. You water that seed. You pull the weeds away from that as it's growing. And James writes, if you do that, it will rescue you. It will save you misery and guilt and sorrow and consequences because of rebellion and disobedience. He's saying, listen to the tutor. Put out the welcome mat in your life for the Word of God.

How do you put out the welcome mat? He says you do that by approaching the Word of God with an attitude of humility. We go to the Word now with the attitude of, I've got some things to teach you, Lord. There's some things you need to be aware of. But Lord, I need you to teach me. I need to listen. I need to speak less.

I need to hear better. Lord, I'm still. I'm here. I'm here. I'm open. I'm ready. I'm repentant. I am an open book to your inspired book.

Nothing's hidden. I'm ready to grow. You see, James here wants the believer to whenever trouble to listen to the Word, to go for passages of thanksgiving and praise when we're troubled to dig here for words of comfort, encouragement, in times of confusion to search here for wisdom and direction, when tempted to search out God's standards of purity and righteousness and for that accompanying power to resist as we act in agreement with His Word. The Word becomes our source of deliverance.

The Word becomes our most welcome friend, not only because of what it preserves and protects us from, but also because of what it delivers us to. Intimate communion with the author, the author, God Himself. Maybe the best thing you could do is to get a copy of the Bible that you're going to mark up and you're going to study. It isn't an attachment to your life and it's somewhere under the front seat of the car or in the back closet or maybe even on your desk, but it's something to study and peruse and memorize and learn. I heard it said that the Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't.

See, the question isn't how can we spend so much time in this book, but how can we afford not to? And so, like young Samuel, who was beginning to mature, we learned to say, speak, Lord, your servant is ready to listen. I'm willing to follow Dr. James' prescription for approaching the Word. My heart is humbled. My hands are cleansed. My spirit is teachable. My mouth is closed.

My ears are open. I'm ready for another session with my divinely inspired tutor who will teach me God's unfailing truth. Maybe right where you're standing, God's Spirit has provoked your heart and mine. It may be related to this text that we've studied.

It may be unrelated. And you need to say to him now, Lord, OK, I'm willing to start something. I'm willing to begin something. I'm willing to discipline my life according to something.

You've provoked my heart. I'm willing to listen and obey. I hope this message from God's Word has encouraged you today. Stephen Davey is teaching through the early verses of James in this series called Bringing Faith Down to Earth.

Today's message is entitled Tutored by Truth. This is Wisdom for the Heart, a daily Bible lesson produced by Wisdom International. I encourage you to install our app to your phone so that you can quickly and easily access all of our Bible-based resources. That app contains the audio and the transcript of each of these daily Bible messages. We also make available the archive of Stephen's Bible teaching ministry with full-length sermons arranged by Book of the Bible. You can follow along in our daily Bible reading plan and more. The Wisdom International app will work with your smartphone, your tablet, or a smart TV. People from all over the world are accessing these resources each day, and I encourage you to do the same. Our app is free to install and use and is a great companion for your personal Bible study. We're so glad you are with us today. I'm Scott Wiley, and for Stephen and all of us here at Wisdom, I thank you for listening. I hope you'll be with us for our next Bible lesson right here on Wisdom for the Heart. you