Creatures Of The Word

Your soul is taking in words all day long, and none of them are neutral. We start with a gritty, local image of the Ohio River, how a life-giving waterway can be corrupted by what gets poured into it, and how restoration begins by cutting off the source of pollution. James 1:18-27 uses that same kind of realism for the inner life: what we listen to will either purify us or slowly poison us.

From there, we work through three angles James gives for Christian discipleship. First, we are brought forth by the Word. Scripture is not just useful religious information; God meets us through his living Word, and the gospel sustains faith the way water sustains a plant. Second, we resound the Word, which means God’s truth must reshape our speech. James’s command to be quick to hear and slow to speak lands in everyday life, where a careless comment, a harsh tone, or an overconfident promise can leave a deeper mark than we intended.

Finally, we reflect on the Word the right way. James says the Bible is a mirror, not a magnifying glass, and the real test of hearing is doing. We talk about perseverance, repentance, and why looking honestly at ourselves can be painful but also freeing, because the One we meet in the Word is Jesus Christ who cleanses and restores. If you want practical Christian living rooted in Scripture, wisdom for controlling the tongue, and a clearer path from hearing to obedience, this one is for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs steadier words, and leave a review with the line that challenged you most.

Transcript

Scripture Reading From James 1

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And for the rest of us, I will invite us to stand for the reading of God's Word, which this morning is found in James chapter 1, beginning in verse 18. The word of God reads this way of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away at once and forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. This is God's word. Thanks be to God. You may be seated, and may God bless this reading and preaching of his word. The

The Ohio River And Pollution

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Ohio River has been an important body of water for many centuries. It has been the gateway for commerce and for trade and for industry for many years in this region. It's been a significant waterway for travel and a significant source of drinking water, believe it or not, for the cities built on its banks. But the Industrial Revolution and the aggressive expansion of cities like Cincinnati really did a number on the Ohio River and many such rivers around the world. Modern sewage systems dumped into the river, chemicals from nearby factories dumped into the river for a long time, animal byproducts from processing plants, and trash all found its way to this important source of life. By the late 1800s, the waterways in Cincinnati had become so polluted that the city dealt with ongoing outbreaks of waterborne illness like typhoid fever. So if you think that the recent flooding was nasty in Cincinnati, which it was, it could be far worse. Something had to be done, they realized by that point. But how do you restore a river that has become so polluted and corrupted? Well, there's two things, and Cincinnati did this, and every other city around the world that lived near a river has done this as well. They realized that the first thing that you need to do is you need to stop the sources of pollution. So stop putting the chemical waste and the human waste into the river, do something else with it. You need to stop those sources, and then you just need to wait a long time because the river is supplied by fresh sources of water, and as the river is inundated with a continual source of fresh water, over time the impurities will be washed away, but it does take a long time, and eventually it will be restored to how God made it to be. At least that's the idea. Many laws and regulations have since been enacted to restore this waterway, and it is better than it used to be, but it is not yet fully recovered. As we

Words That Purify Or Corrupt

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continue in our study in James, we turn to the incredible importance of words. As a body of water is either purified or polluted based on what is put into it, so our lives are either purified or corrupted based upon the words that we are most deeply listening to, and the input of words that are entering into our minds and into our soul. It cannot be said better or more truthfully. When I get up here to preach, the last thing that I'm trying to do is to say God's words in a better way. No one could ever do that. God's words are pure words. If anything, I hopefully I'm just presenting those words to you and trying not to get in the way. But God's words are the most powerful, pure, and enduring words in all of creation. Jesus said that it is easier for the heav for heaven and earth to pass away than for the smallest part of God's word to become void. And James wants us to understand that a Christian person, a believing person, is first and foremost a creature of the word, that we're people of the word. What makes us different from anyone else is that our lives are created and shaped by the word of God. We have the words of the living God that are pouring into our lives. We're brought forth by God's Word, we're sustained by God's Word, and we come to resound and also to embody God's word. So in order for our lives to become pure and healthy and restored to what God made them to be, and to also to become a source of life and a source of refreshment to others, we must no longer listen to the father of lies. We must be diligent to stop those sources from entering into our hearts and minds. And we must meekly and regularly receive the pure words of the Lord. That's what this section of James is primarily about, is the word of God. So what does it mean that we are creatures of the word? Well, we'll look at three angles of that this morning. We are brought forth by the word, we resound the word, and we reflect upon the word. We're brought forth by the word, we resound the word, and we reflect upon the word. So

Brought Forth By The Word

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first, brought forth by the word. Our spiritual health absolutely depends upon the word of God. And so we must hear it quickly and meekly. In verse 18, James writes, Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So James makes it clear that the scriptures, the Bible, is not just information about God. It's not like other books. There are other books that are very helpful, that are information about God, but the scriptures are different. The scriptures are living and active and powerful and dynamic, and God Himself is encountered when the Bible is opened and read and meditated upon and preached. As Jesus speaks through the reading of Scripture and through the preaching of the gospel, his word is powerful to open the eyes of the blind, to open the ears of the deaf, and to raise the dead to newness of life. It's important to understand that the Bible is not like other books, and that a sermon is not like a TED talk, because when the Bible is opened and when the preacher is preaching, even if he is just a mediocre preacher, Jesus Christ himself is speaking. Jesus Christ Himself is encountered. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it so well. He said, the preached Christ is both the historical one and the present one. The proclaimed word is not a medium of expression for something else, something which lies behind it, but rather it is the Christ himself walking through his congregation as the word. I think that's remarkable. When I prepare for preaching and when I stand up here on a Sunday morning, my hope on Sunday morning is not in my own ability as a preacher. But my hope is that we would encounter Jesus Christ Himself as we read the scriptures and as the gospel is preached, that He is walking through the aisles, He is teaching, He is ministering in ways that I never could. He's our teacher. He's the one who's speaking, as the Bible is opened and the Word is proclaimed. That is the power of the Word of God. But God's word does not only begin our faith, it also continues to uphold and sustain our faith, as James says in verse 19. He says, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. This word, as we continue to receive it, is able to save our souls, is what James says. And by save, James is not just talking about recording our name in the Lamb's Book of Life so that we are sealed for eternity. That's part of salvation. But James means everything that is included in our salvation. Of course, God's word is able to convert us to Jesus, but it is also able to keep us in Christ and to mature us in Christ and to heal us of our worldly anger, as James gives the example here. So to summarize, the Christian through and through is a creature of the word. And the health of our Christian life absolutely depends upon a continual exposure to the Word of God, a being washed with the Word of God.

Quick To Hear With Meekness

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One of the first things that I noticed when I returned from vacation, you guys did a great job, by the way. You guys took care of the things that we normally take care of. You took care of the guest preachers that we have. You guys knocked it out of the park. But one of the things that I notice is the plants that we have hanging here in our church, which my my wife normally waters these every Sunday. And I think we forgot to pass that responsibility along to someone else. But since we were absent for two weeks, I'm, I don't doesn't look like anybody watered them. I watered them last week. So they were looking noticeably withered and feeble, and they were on death's doorstep, crying out for help. When they have a regular supply of life-giving water, they're thriving and growing and looking healthy and they look strong and independent. But when they are deprived of water for just a short time, just a short time, they wither and they languish. They're so dependent upon that water. Psalm 1 talks about the righteous man who meditates on the word of the Lord, and it tells us, it says, he is like a tree planted by streams of water, that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The health of your spiritual life depends on being regularly refreshed from the streams of living water that are found in the words of the Lord. As you regularly hear and ponder and listen to the words of God, you will be refreshed and strengthened. But as you are deprived of these words even for a short time, you will wither and fade. And what does that look like? Sometimes I think about this in terms of the fruit of the Spirit. A thriving, well-watered Christian would be patient and kind and gentle and truthful. A withering Christian would be easily angered, would be impatient, would be would be insensitive, would be harsh. That's what it looks like to be withering on the vine because we are not being refreshed by the waters of the word of the Lord. So how are we to receive God's life-giving words? And James tells us here that we should receive these words quickly and meekly. He says, Let every person be quick to hear. And sometimes we read this and we think that what James is talking about is that we should be good listeners to other people. And I don't have any problem with that. But what James is really talking about is that hearing God's word should take priority in our lives. We should be quick to hear the word of God. We should certainly prioritize and anticipate encountering Jesus Christ on the Lord's day. We should seek to spend time in God's Word every day as much as we can, but especially when we encounter trials of various kinds, as we talked about last week, as James mentioned just earlier in this chapter. Perhaps things that would tempt us to be angry or tempt us to be harsh and not gentle or to be unkind? As we encounter trials of various kinds, before we speak or before we act, we should be quick to return to the word of the Lord, quick to consider the word of the Lord. What does God's word say about this situation? Did Jesus Himself ever face this kind of discouragement or this kind of frustration that I'm facing? And how did he respond to that? Do I ever impose this kind of frustration on the Lord Jesus, the way that someone has imposed it upon me? This is us considering the Word of God. Do you know when Abraham Lincoln was very mad at someone, what he would do? He would sit down and he would write them an angry letter. And he would give full vent to his anger. And this would give him time to reflect on his anger and consider it from different angles and say all of the nasty things that he wished to say. And even to consider whether Jesus faced similar frustrations and how he dealt with them. And he wrote that letter and then he would file that letter away and he would never send it. Slow to speak and quick to hear the word of God. So he says that we should receive it quickly, but he also says, receive with meekness the implanted word. To receive with meekness means to receive with no resistance, not to kick against the goads, but to be a broken animal, as the Psalms encourage us to be, to hold fast to our master, to resolve beforehand that whatever God's word says, to trust and believe that we will trust it, and whatever God's word says to do, we will do it. If today we hear his voice, we will not harden our hearts. The Christian is a creature of the word, totally dependent upon the word of the Lord. So let us hear it quickly and meekly. But

Resounding God’s Word In Speech

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point two, we also resound the word of the Lord. God's words, as we regularly take them in to our minds and hearts, God's words change our words, and they make our words measured and valuable and enduring. James does not just talk about God's words here, but also about our words. And he says that we ought to be slow to speak. And he says in verse 26, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. And as we go on in James, we will see that James, like the book of Proverbs, has a huge interest in our words, in our language, in our speech, in our tone, in the quantity of our words, in the quality of our words. In our culture, we tend to think that words really are not very important. We say things like, actions speak louder than words. Talk is cheap. It doesn't matter what you say, it matters what you do. And there's some truth to that. I understand what we're saying when we say stuff like that. While there is some truth to this, it's a huge mistake to think that words are just words, or to think that words don't matter. James says that the words that we say are of utmost importance. He will later say in this letter that if a man can exercise self-control over his speech, that if a man or a woman can control the words that exit from their lips, that you can control anything in your life. That is the hardest part of your life to control is the tongue. James says that words have the power both to do massive amounts of damage and also to bring massive amounts of clarity and healing and help. Words are so very important and so very powerful, and so we must be slow to speak. We must be very careful with the words that we say, and we must bridle our tongue, as James says here. Well, what does that mean? Well, slow to speak. To be slow to speak simply means that there is some kind of filter, some kind of filtration process or editorial process that happens between what we think and feel and what ends up passing through our lips and into the world. Many of us, most well, let's just put it this way: all of us are born without that filter and without that editorial process. And it is through wisdom and growth that we must learn to edit and filter the words that pass through our lips. And why would that be important? It's important because our words are far more powerful and make a far greater impression on people than we think that they do, even our most careless and thoughtless words. Jesus said in Matthew 12, 36 and 37, he said, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Now what that means is that when we stand before God in judgment, there are many things that he could use to justly condemn us. He could look at our actions, he could look at our thoughts and what's going on in our minds. But all he has to do is just play back the videotape on our words, on the things that we've said, and we will be justly condemned based on our words. So we must be very careful with the words that we allow ourselves to speak. June, my youngest daughter, will be eight years old this year, and at some point in her life, I said something to the effect of, don't be a crybaby. And I don't remember that. I don't remember saying that, but she does. And often she will say to me, I remember when you called me a crybaby. I'll never forget it. It left quite an impression. I can see her in her counseling sessions, you know, when she's in her 20s. I mean, this is this is a foundational word that I spoke to her. And that's just the beginning of how powerful words are. I must be very careful with the things that I say that I will do in the hearing of my children because they will remind me. They'll say, Dad, you said. They say, You said, Dad. Remember when you said, Dad, you promised, you said that you would do this. They'll call me, call me to account. I must be very careful with the encouragements or the criticisms that I give to my children because whatever I say, for good or for ill, will be branded into their memory and will shape their perception of themselves. When you appreciate that your words have incredible power, both for good and for ill, it will make you want to be slower to speak and to be more careful with the things that you say. And to this end, James says in verse 26 if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person. Religion is worthless. The bridle is what is put on a horse's head that allows it to be controlled and directed by the rider. And even a trained horse, even a broken horse, is still an unpredictable animal. If it gets spooked or behaves erratically, it's the bridle that can pull it back into submission. So too, even if we are very civilized and well-educated, the tongue is an unpredictable animal. And we are liable to say all kinds of things that we shouldn't say, things that we later regret, whether they are words spoken in anger, or careless words spoken without thought, or commitments made that we did not carefully think through, that now other people are counting on us to fulfill these commitments. So the tongue must be bridled. Being a student of God's words helps us with our words, and it helps us to ensure that our words are measured and valuable and not reckless and harmful and unreliable. James later says that the tongue is a, his his words, a world of unrighteousness. And we'll look at that as we get to it in due time, but for now I want you I want you to think about it like this. He says, a cosmos of unrighteousness. How many different species of plants and animals can be found in a rainforest? Rainforest is one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Inside a rainforest can be found two to three hundred different species of trees, 40 to 50,000 different species of plants, and up to three million different species of animals. And this isn't even counting all the bugs and beetles and other things that can be found there. It is a whole world. The tongue, James says, is a whole world of unrighteousness, which means that there are countless ways to sin and to do damage just by speaking. There are innumerable ways to damage yourself and others just by talking. Every word that passes across our lips. We are in danger of overpromising. We're in danger of speaking a harmful word, speaking a harsh word, tearing down and not building up, being discouraging, boasting in arrogance, countless other sins. There is an innumerable ways to sin just by speaking. The reason that you are not slow to speak and that you don't bridle your tongue is that you do not appreciate how much damage you can do with your words, or how helpful you can be with your words. And it is when you are under the discipline of God's words that these things become more clear to us.

The Mirror Test Of Obedience

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So we are creatures of the word, we resound the word, but also we reflect upon the word. In order to rightly hear God's words, we must reflect. You must reflect. James wants to make it clear that we're only really hearing the word when we are doing what the word says to do. In verse 22, he says, Be doers of the 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 who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. So what he's saying here is that if we listen to many sermons, read many books, read the Bible, but we do not do what God's word says to do, then we are not really hearing what God is saying. And James gives this illustration of the mirror that a man who hears the word but does not act is like a man who looks in the mirror and then just walks away. That can be a little confusing, but what he's talking about there. But the idea is that the man looks in the mirror and sees, like me, that he needs a shave, or that he needs to wash his face, but he does nothing about it. He walks away and forgets what he saw. There is simply no reflection on the part of the man looking in the mirror, right? We must reflect, we must see what the word is showing us. In the same way, the word of God is not given to us as a magnifying glass, as if you were Sherlock Holmes, and we are to use it to inspect and to scrutinize the lives of others and to find the flaws in their lives and in the world around us according to the Word of God. If that is how we use the Word of God, then we are misusing the Word of God. We're mishandling it because it is a mirror. And as we look into God's word, we look at what God, what God desires that we would reflect upon ourselves, that we would reflect upon our own lives. Beware of using the word as a magnifying glass only to scrutinize the problems of society or the sins of others while never acknowledging our own significant problems. The Word of God is to be, in a sense, a mirror that shows us our own brokenness and our need for cleansing and washing in our own need for the Savior. So when we walk away from a sermon or from a time in the scriptures, the most profound impression that we should receive from the Word of God is not how much others need a Savior. They do, that's fine. But the most profound impression that we should receive is how much we need a Savior. How much help and healing and restoration that we need. And if this is not your most profound takeaway, then you are simply not hearing what God is saying. In 2 Samuel 11, we find the famous story of David in Bathsheba. And David the king neglects his duties as a warrior and he stays home while his men are fighting, and he sees the beautiful Bathsheba bathing from the roof of his palace, and he sends for her to unlawfully take her as his own, and then he tries to cover up his sins, but he's unable to do so, and so he sends her husband to the front line to die so that he will not be found out in his sin. And it appears that he wants to let the whole matter remain a secret, because the story ends and David goes back to his business. But the Lord sends Nathan, the prophet, who gives David a report. And in this report, a rich man has oppressed a poor man by stealing his beloved sheep. And David listens intently to the story, and he's scrutinizing the sins of this rich man, and he grows angry because he is the king. He is the chief executive of justice in his kingdom. So he must rise up and punish this wicked man. And as his ire rises, Nathan knows that he has him, and he replies to him and he says, Atta Haish, you are the man. You are the man. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? And then David finally hears what God is saying, and he repents with tears, and he gives us Psalm 51, which is one of the most beautiful prayers of repentance in all of Scripture. When Jesus says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, you must understand that he is talking to you. He's talking to you. We must repent, we must keep with repentance. We must be focused on our own need for repentance first and foremost, otherwise, we are simply not hearing what God is saying. God desires that we would reflect upon his word, because ultimately the word of God is not just a book, although it is contained in the scriptures, but the word of God, in the fullest sense, is a living person, fully human and fully divine, Jesus Christ, the word made flesh. And as we hear the word of God, we hear Jesus Christ. And as we look into the scriptures, we aim to see him with unveiled face, so that we might be transformed into the same image, one degree of glory at a time. And I think it's interesting that James says here, when he talks about reflecting upon the Word of God back in verse 25, he says, But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres. That's interesting. Perseveres. Why would it require perseverance? Because it's it can be painful. It can be painful to look into the face of Jesus Christ and to see all of our own brokenness and all of the ways that we fall short of the glory of God. But if we persevere, what we will find as we look into the face of Jesus is that we are not looking at an angry countenance, but we are looking instead at a beautiful Savior, a Savior who allowed himself to be broken so that all who looked to him could be made radiant. Remember when Peter told him Jesus was washing the disciples' feet, and Peter said, Lord, you will never wash my feet. It's my I'm the servant, it's my job to wash your feet. And Jesus says, I tell you the truth, unless I wash you, you have no place in me. And that's true of us as well. We must be cleansed and healed and washed by the Savior. So

Persevering To See Jesus Clearly

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let us look to Jesus this week in his powerful word. Let us hear that word quickly and meekly. Let us resound that word in our own speech and let us reflect. Let us not scrutinize the lives of others, but allow the word of God to scrutinize us so that we might be healed. To this end, let us pray.

Prayer And Final Charge

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Our Father, we thank you for your wonderful word, which tells us the truth, which dispels the lies of the enemy, which shows us the face of Jesus Christ, which nourishes us and makes us fruitful and abundant so that in all that we do we prosper. So we pray that you would help us to be slow to speak and quick to hear the words of God, so that we might benefit from them. And we pray all of this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Let us stand and worship God.