Atlanta Bible Baptist Church

Guest (Male): This time, as we stand for the scripture reading, it will be found in James chapter 1, and we'll start at verse 19 through 25. James chapter 1:19-25. And it reads: "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man 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. But 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 observing his natural face in a mirror; 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." May the Lord add a blessing to the reading of his word. Amen.

Pastor Ray P. Smith: Hearing the voice of God is one of the great privileges that we have in life. One of the things that I enjoy most about the 2:7 courses, the discipleship courses that we have, is the fact that in the latter two courses, we have what we call a half-day of prayer. It's really just four hours, which is a half of a work day.

The name might be a bit of a misnomer, but I enjoy it and I think most of you who have gone through that say that you enjoy it precisely because it allows you to slow down and get away so that you could hear the voice of God. Listening to him is so very important. If you have your copy of the scriptures or a device that contains them, I invite you to turn with me back to the book of James.

James chapter 1, and we will cover a few more verses. We'll be looking at verses 18 through 21. I begin with 18 because I want to make a point. Verses 19 and 20 say: "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God."

Father, thank you again for this morning and thank you again for allowing us to have come together. You got us up and out and in. You allowed us to sing your praises, to greet one another in your name, to give an acknowledgment of your ownership. Thank you for those who are our guests today who chose to spend time in worship with us. We thank you for them.

We pray that for all of us, we would sense your presence, we would be sincere in hearing your word, and we will make a decision to walk in it by the spirit's power. As we sit at your feet, we thank you for your willingness, your desire, and great compassion to speak to us. We thank you for your spirit whom you've given to us to nudge us into more Christ-like character.

Father, even as Samuel, we say, "Speak, Lord, because your servants are listening." Still the tongue of the evil one that he has no part in anything that is said or done for the remainder of our time. As always, we'll be careful to give you the praise and the honor and the thanksgiving which you alone so richly deserve. We ask all of these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.

I was reading an article this past week and it said this: "A new Common Sense Media report reveals that nearly 90% of children now use artificial intelligence. Experts warn that many teens secretly turn to chatbots for mental health support, risking isolation as well as academic cheating. While AI offers immediate accessibility, specialists emphasize that it cannot replace human connection or professional expertise for emotional well-being and social development."

There is a movement afoot to increase the availability of artificial intelligence. While AI can do some really wonderful things for you in terms of your productivity, it can never do for you what God designed people to do for you. We want to be willing and able to listen, to hear. One of the things that I'm finding is that as young people and not-so-young people spend a lot of time listening in to AI, what they're not doing is tuning in to listen to what Pastor Manil calls "GI," that is God intelligence.

Our creator is the one who gives wisdom in how to live. AI can help you lay out landmarks, but it cannot tell you how to navigate the vicissitudes of life. Only God can do that. While our world is enamored with all of these things and the stocks that are AI-derived and driven—they're all soaring—the truth of the matter is we need to be very alert at hearing what God has to say.

We need to be tuned in to him and we need to understand how to think biblically about all of the things that touch our lives. James has something to say about that. In fact, one of the pitfalls is that all of the AI stuff is programmed by people. People in their perversity, their depravity, and their earthly wisdom energized by the evil one will never take you where God wants you to go. We need to understand that.

There's a new movie that's coming out this week called Disclosure Day. I'm a big sci-fi fan, but one of the things that Steven Spielberg said in the coming out of the film, he says, "What this film is going to do is disturb the faith of some of the Christians. Because the notion that we're not alone in the universe—they think that man is the height of God's creation and they're going to be shook to think that there may be UFO data out there that suggests that's not true."

That's a diabolical thing. Why would he be motivated to put together something like that? Who is it that inspires him to think like that? Of course, we know it's the evil one. The same people who use the technology to drive all of these kinds of things are the same people that are developing AI. We want to be not so gullible as to be drawn in and enraptured with that which is opposed to what God has said.

I want to be careful in my use of AI. I don't want to become dependent on something that's not driven by God. Anyway, we're in the book of James. Last week we looked at verses 16 through 18 and we talked about the unchanging goodness of God. Because God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Amen. We talked about the goodness of God.

This morning, I want us to take a few minutes, or until my throat gives out, whichever comes first, to talk about hearing aids. Some of you don't want people to know that you have one, but that's okay. I'm not talking about that kind of hearing aid, even though I put that picture up. I'm talking about the aids that help us to listen and to hear the voice of God because that's what James is talking about: the fine art of listening.

Communication begins and communication happens when people are willing to listen to each other. James says this in verses 18 through 21. In fact, I put this up and I only highlighted those four words: the word of truth. That's how God describes his word. God's word is truth, as opposed to the other things energized by the evil one where the scripture says in John 8 that every time he speaks, he tells a lie because there's no truth in him.

He's a liar and the father of lies. But God says his word is truth. In fact, I put up James 1, verses 21 through 25. Just look at the number of times that "the word" is mentioned. Just in this one little passage, he talks about receiving the word that's implanted. He talks about being doers of the word, hearers of the word. He calls it the perfect law, the law of liberty.

He's talking about the word because he says to be a doer, not a hearer only of both the word and of the law of liberty. It's the same thing. He's talking about how important it is to listen to what God has to say. How do you become a good hearer of the word of God? In true pastoral fashion, I'm going to give you three thoughts on that. Amen.

To be a good hearer of God's word, number one: I have to appreciate its power. I have to appreciate the power of the word of God. I love Romans 1:16. Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone that believes." God's word has power. In Isaiah 64, he says that his word comes down and it doesn't return to him without accomplishing whatever he wants it to accomplish.

His word is powerful and it moves and it acts. It creates. It's the highest example of God's goodness because he gave his word to save us. I said this is the key to overcoming trials and temptation. We'll circle back around to that. I put down these 2:7 verses. I won't have any of you stand up and quote them, although I see you smiling and you know those verses.

Those of you that haven't taken 2:7, do not despair; Fall is coming. The sign-up sheet is out there in the back. But you notice those verses, John 1:12 and 13. It says as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on his name. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 talks about the fact that we were saved because we were able to do something good.

We're not able to earn our salvation. Ephesians 2:8 and 9 says, "For by grace you're saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." We're his workmanship, his poiema, his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for the sake of good works, to accomplish the good works that God has laid out ahead of time for us.

Titus 3:5 echoes that. It's not by works of righteousness that we've done; it's not anything that we've done. It's by his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration by the word and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The word of God is what came into our hearts, illuminated our minds, and caused us to turn from sin to embrace the savior.

The only reason that any of us is sitting here saved today is because God gave his word and God's word powerfully affected us. In fact, I put some other verses down for your salubrious edification, whatever that means. I just want to make this point. See the words I highlighted: "The father of lights brought us forth by the word of truth." God used his word to catch us, to change us, to convict us, and now we're saved. Amen.

Romans 10:17: "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." 1 Peter 1: "You've been born again, not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God." It's God's word that changed you, that shaped you. God's word is truth. That's why Jesus says in John 17:17, "Sanctify them in your truth; your word is truth."

I want to be able to hear the word of God. The person who decides that one day they'll listen to what God says will never really listen to what God says because the evil one will always give them reasons to put off hearing. Faith comes as a result of hearing, hearing by the word of God. He opens up our understanding when we hear his word.

That's why we put that tract rack up there and that's why we seeded the tract rack with all those different kinds of tracts. Those are Chick tracts. People like cartoons. They don't want to admit it, but they love cartoons. You pick up five of those bad boys, you'll probably say, "Well, let me read it first." That's good too. When you read those five tracts, then you'll be motivated to give them out to other people.

We want to get the word of God into the hands of people so that the Spirit of God might use the word of God to generate faith in them. We talked about temptation and I put this statement down: The solution for temptation is to be found in a close relationship with the Father and then a constant response to his word. The thing that we love about the 2:7 discipleship course is just being able to get away from everything.

No TV, no cell phone, no people. I almost said no children, but that didn't sound good. We get away from all the things that distract us so that we just sit there and we take in the word of God. When we have our half-day of prayer, I pull out my 2:7 booklets, I go to the back, I look at my quiet time discoveries working through the diaries and I say: What is it that God has been saying to me?

Those of you that are familiar with that in the 2:7 course, you do daily quiet time. You read the word of God every day and then you highlight something that stood out to you because the thing that stands out to you is the thing that God is pointing out to you. If God is taking the time to point it out to you, you ought to take the time to write it down.

You write it down and then when I'm having my quiet time, I'm going back through and reading over the things that God said to me to get an impression. Many times, in fact most times, I understand that in this part of my life, in this season of my life, these were the issues that I faced and God said this to me about these issues at this time.

I want to hear what God has to say and so I want to walk with him. I want to be close to him and I want to be constantly listening to him. The person who doesn't have time for God is the person who will never do anything meaningful for God. To be a good hearer of the word, I have to appreciate its power. Secondly, I have to adjust my pattern.

I have to adjust my pattern of hearing. Look at what he says in verse 19. He says, "This you know, my beloved brethren, but"—I wrote "the" there, I think it should be "and"—"everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger." The rabbis used to point out, as people say many times, God gave you two ears and one mouth. Why? You should listen twice as much as you speak.

God wants me to hear from him and he wants me to be quick to listen to what he has to say. Sometimes we run to the phone to talk to our BFFs instead of running to the throne to hear what the Most High has to say about the issues in our lives. Then we wonder why the advice that our friends gave us doesn't work because it's not sourced in the truth.

We should listen to what God has to say. He says be quick to hear and slow to speak. My beloved one whom I love more than life, she has this habit of finishing my statements. I'll start off and I will get five words and she will give the next 25. I'll say, "Well, that's not what I was going to say." "Well, yes it is." Okay. I'm not saying that she's not quick to—okay, well I am saying she's not all that quick to hear.

She wouldn't say that she's not quick to hear; she just says it takes me too long to say what I'm going to say. She ain't got time for that, I guess. So she finishes my thoughts for me. The scripture says we should be quick to hear. Stephen Covey, one of the great statements that he makes in his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he says: First seek to understand, not to be understood.

That's a great principle for communication. Because isn't it true that many times the person that you're talking with, they say something and you hear just enough to get a thought in your mind and you tune out everything else they say? You spend the rest of the time formulating your rebuttal or your adjournment to what they're saying.

You're not listening to them anymore; you're thinking about what you want to say and you're waiting for them to breathe so you can jump in. That's why you get frustrated when you talk to people who don't breathe when they talk because they just keep going on and on and you can't get a word in because they won't stop talking. You want to be able to listen to what they have to say.

I told you about the time that we were in a couples' study and one of the disciplines was to listen to your mate uninterrupted for 10 minutes. Just let them say whatever's on their heart and you sit there and you listen. I said, "Okay, I'll go first." "No, you go first. Ladies first." She was talking and I listened to every single word she said.

I didn't grunt, I didn't roll my eyes, and I didn't say anything. I listened to her uninterruptedly for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes were up, it was her turn to listen to me. I got two sentences in, if that, and then she went, "But you're supposed to—" and "How come it's been two minutes, let alone 10?" It's hard being quick to hear and slow to speak.

Do you know why some of us get bombed out in our faith? Because a circumstance comes into our lives and we don't go to the word and listen to what God has to say about it. We're so busy talking and not listening. The art of listening in prayer is an amazingly powerful thing that some of us know nothing about.

We're so used to running into God's presence—you remember the video I showed you about the guy? He's sitting down and it's called Breakfast with Jesus. Remember that? He sits down with Jesus and Jesus has his cup of coffee and he's ready to say something and the guy says, "Oh, Jesus, I have so much to talk about." He goes on and on and on and Jesus doesn't get to say anything.

He says, "Oh, well, time's gone, I got to go. Good talk, let's talk next time." And he's out the door. Jesus hasn't said a word to him. Sometimes we're like that. We run into his presence with the gimmies: "Lord, would you give me this? Would you give me that? I need help with that. I can't stand that person."

Maybe we don't tell him we can't stand that person, we just say, "I pray for them," which means I can't stand that person. We're going on and on and on and then we're done and we get up. We haven't heard anything that God had to say about anything. We don't know what his impressions for us are. He says: Be quick to hear and slow to speak, slow to anger.

Why? Because the anger of man doesn't achieve the righteousness of God. Sometimes when you're in a hurry to talk, you miss the boat. You don't think rationally. Look at what happened. This is with the number one news topic this past week: Carmelo Anthony. What was the issue? The issue was the boy down during the building test. He's not supposed to be at that tent, but he can go anywhere he wants to.

He's big, he's bad. He goes into that tent. They have a discussion that generates more heat than light. He gets upset and he stabs the boy; he kills the boy. When he's arrested, two things: number one, all the people culturally related to him are upset. They don't appear that any of them are upset about the fact that a boy died. There's nothing said about that.

They're upset about the fact that he's arrested and he's going to be on trial for murder, which he did murder the boy. But that's beside the point. Now they say, "Well, we have a GoFundMe," and the GoFundMe generates half a million dollars for his defense. But then at the end of the week, they file the motion to have him defended by the public defender.

Why? Because he doesn't have any money to defend himself. What happened to the half a million? The long and short of it is that the parents bought him a new house. They relocated. $900,000 home and a new car to boot. Now they're saying we need more money; we need 1.2 million more.

Good grief! They've used what happened to their son as an opportunity to enrich themselves. They could have played it out with the boy; he would have done time but he wouldn't have gotten 35 years if they had done what was in his best interest instead of using him for what they wanted. They were quick to do that because I'm sure someone said to them, "Oh, this is black and white. We could probably monetize this. You could probably make a million, two million, three million, five million."

They're looking at the money instead of thinking about what's right before God. They were quick to jump into that and then you have all those people out there who are angry. In order to adjust my pattern of hearing, there are at least three things found in this passage. I need to be receptive to the word. I need to listen to what God says.

I need to allow what God says to inform what I do. The question isn't "how do I feel?". The question is: What did he say? What did God say about everything? Psalm 119, the psalmist says, "I've decided that your word is right about everything." Whatever God says is right. I don't care if everybody else in the world goes in the opposite direction. Let God be true.

I need to respond to what his word says to me. I want to be quick to hear what he has to say and not run off at my mouth and then get angry. I need to design myself to what the word says to do instead of flying off the handle. Proverbs says, "He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him."

You hear three words, you assume 200 more and then you react to the 200 more that you made up in your mind because you didn't hear what they said. Sometimes when counseling couples, I quote that old saying: "I know you think you understand what I just said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."

Many times there's so much misunderstanding going on because we're not really listening to the other person, much less listening to what God said. Proverbs 10:19 says, "When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise." The Living Translation says: Shut your mouth. You talk too much.

The more you talk, the more you increase the odds that you're going to say the wrong thing. So just stop. I love Ecclesiastes 5: "Guard your steps as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen to what God has to say rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know they are doing evil.

Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God's in heaven and you're on earth; therefore let your words be few." Don't talk so much in God's presence. Come into his presence to hear from him: What does he have to say? What does he want you to do?

Human anger cannot produce God's righteousness. Anger clouds the judgment. Example of that is Moses. Moses got so upset with those people that he struck the rock twice. He was supposed to speak to the rock, but he was so mad at them that he took out his anger on the rock.

God said, "You know, that's not what I asked you to do. You dishonored me. You didn't do what I said, so you know what? You're not going into the Promised Land." Someone says, "That's not fair! Look at all Moses did! Look what those people drove him to!" Yeah, God's word, his instructions were clear.

Moses had a fog in his brain because he's mad. You get mad, you don't think straight and then you do stupid stuff. Anger damages relationships. In Luke 17, you have the story of the prodigal son. That's a great story. But then you know there's the older brother.

The older brother has an attitude because his father loves his youngest brother. His father welcomes him back and he says, "This son of yours"—he didn't say "my brother"—"this son of yours who devoured all of your living with harlots and all this crazy stuff, and you threw him a party?"

Then he gets to the point he says, "I've been with you all this time. I've been good. You ain't never throw me no party." "What about me?" Isn't that where we get sometimes? And we just get angry.

Anger hinders spiritual growth, like with Jonah. Jonah is actually angry with God because he knows that God is loving and gracious and compassionate and forgiving. But Jonah says, "They don't deserve it. Those Ninevites, they're ruthless people. They're evil. They deserve to be squashed."

"When you say go to Nineveh and cry out against it, telling them that I'm going to judge them, you only want me to go and tell them that because you're going to forgive them if they turn. They don't deserve forgiveness!" He goes in the opposite direction and God has to redirect him by whale-o-gram to get him to the shores of Nineveh.

Jonah has an attitude problem and he's angry. In fact, he sits there under a tree: "I'm going to watch to see if God's going to judge them, if he's going to keep his word." God grew a nice little gourd over his head, give him some shade. He's all happy; he's got shade. God's taking care of him.

Then a worm smites the gourd and the thing withers and the sun beats down on his head and he's upset. He's mad. He's thinking about his own creature comfort; he couldn't care less about those people and whether or not they turn from their sin and experience the forgiveness and the grace of God. All he cares about is himself.

Jonah's a picture of the nation. Many times, if the truth be told, he's a picture of people who name the name of Christ because we think more about ourselves and our own creature comfort than about the people who are in peril and at risk. We get angry about things.

Charles Spurgeon was talking about the fact that one day he was sitting at a table eating at a restaurant. He looked up and he saw a guy, a guy who was dressed in a suit like his. The guy was scowling. He looked away. He looked again and that guy was still scowling at him.

He had this mean, surly look on his face. "I don't know him. I don't know what I've ever done to offend him." Finally he said, "I'm going to go and ask him what's his problem with me." He stood up and then he discovered that it was a mirror.

He was looking at his own reflection in the mirror. He was the one scowling, looking mean and surly. He didn't realize what he looked like before other people. Sometimes we don't think about how we look when we're so angry and bent out of shape about stuff.

We don't realize what people see. The truth of the matter is you don't have to look at your face all day, but other people do. You don't want to hurt people's feelings. The third thing, the final thing: I need to abandon those habits that prevent me from hearing what God says.

I need to abandon those—I'm sorry the ear got in the way and prevented you from seeing the word "prevent". But that word is prevent. You look at verse 21. He says, "Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness." The image there, putting aside all filthiness, the word in the Greek for "putting aside" is the word that's used to speak of taking off a garment.

Like when Paul says put off sin and put on righteousness, put off anger—it's that same word. He's saying take it off. Put aside, take off all the filthiness. There are some things in my life, some dirty clothes, spiritually speaking, in my life and they don't fit anymore. I told you before: When you take a bath—I'm assuming that you're normal.

Normal people take off the dirty clothes, they take a shower or bath, and they don't go put them dirty clothes back on. If you do, we need to set up a counseling appointment. Most people put on some clean clothes. James is saying: Take off the filthiness. It's not fitting anymore.

God, by his word, he's changed you into a whole new creature. Sinful habit patterns, they don't fit anymore. You take off the filth and you put on the cleanness. You put on the righteousness. You put on the truth. You put on the holiness. You put on the character of Christ. He's saying laying it aside.

Then when he says "all that remains of wickedness", the wording there is a gardening term. You could say it like this: All of the weeds that are left over in your life, pull up the weeds. Because the weeds are choking the grass of growth in your life.

There are things in your life that have been planted there long before and they're still hanging around. You say, "Well, one of these days—" No, not one of these days; today. Get rid of them. Pull them up. Toss them away. All of the wicked things that remain.

Why? Because if you allow filthy habit patterns, if you allow weeds of immorality, impurity, indecency, lust, anger, pride, and avarice—if you allow those things to hang around, those things will keep you from hearing the word of God. You won't have a heart to hear the word of God.

The word of God won't penetrate into your heart because it's crowded over with all that mess. He says remove that stuff, get rid of it so you can hear what God wants to say to you in humility. Receive the implanted word. Say yes to God so that he can direct your life.

Because remember, that's the word that saves you. That's the word that's powerful. That's the word that's able to alter your thinking and put you on a right path. You want to hear what God has to say to you. The thing that Satan lies to us about is to say, "Well, one of these days, I'll hear what God has to say."

That's one of his most devious methods because he knows that once you say "one of these days," that means you ain't listening. And the next day, he'll have another one and you ain't listening. And five years later, you will not have listened.

It starts slowly. You got to remove that stuff. That's why God gave us the church so that we could be here to nudge each other to hear the word of God. I read this somewhere: "Lord, we long to be part of a caring church family, but often we're not sensitive to what people are really saying."

Some people, you say, "Oh, I don't want to hear anything they have to say." You don't like that person, so God can't even use that person to speak to you about what he wants you to do because you're not willing to listen. You have an attitude problem.

We're not sensitive to what people are really saying. Please teach us to listen with your ears of compassion. Lord, help us respond with a heart that cares the way you do. The scripture says be imitators of God as dear children. My time's gone, so's my throat.

What does God want me to know and feel and do? Let me end with these last few thoughts. James presents a powerful progression. Number one: God gave me new birth through the word. Therefore, I must listen carefully. Everything that God has to say is so super critical. I need to hear it.

That discipline—I'm not calling Regina out—that discipline to read through the word of God in a year is a struggle because the evil one doesn't want you doing that. But you need to be just as determined to do it as he is determined to keep you from doing it. Fight hard for the faith because it's worth it.

I have to listen carefully to what God has to say, and then I have to reject sinful anger, the result of listening to what people say instead of what God says. You read the news, you'll be mad every day because they only tell about the worst things in life. Then I must humbly receive God's word.

I need to humbly listen to what God has to say. Life is confusing, but James reminds us that God has been good. He remains good and he speaks in truth. Smartness on my part is to say, "Speak, Lord, because your servant is listening."

There was a man on his deathbed. His grandson came on, he said, "Grandpa, I'm going to miss you and the talks we used to have." And he said, "Listen, all of those years I talked to you about how to have a relationship with God, how to do the things that please God. Were you listening? If you were listening, you know exactly what to do."

Father, thank you again for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for the power of your word. Thank you for the way in which your word directs us and when we go astray, it redirects us. Where would we be without your word? We'd be lost.

We would have no faith. We'd be still under your judgment, awaiting hell and the lake of fire. Father, you sent your word and you healed us. You delivered us from so great a death and you set our feet aright. Thank you so much for all that you've done.

Thank you for what you're doing. The best is yet to be. Father, I pray if there's anyone here today under the sound of my voice, either through social media or sitting in the auditorium—if they're sitting here and they cannot say that they know Christ and the pardoning of their sins, if they're still trying to work out things on their own in their own strength the way they see fit—open their eyes to see the hazard of that kind of life pursuit.

Turn their eyes upward to see our Lord high and lifted up, worthy of admiration, willing to forgive. Help them to bow the knee, surrender their lives to him today and learn to walk with him. Father, for those of us that have received Christ, may we be sensitive to your word. Give us tender, sensitive, thirsty hearts that desire to know exactly what you say and what you want that we might do it. We ask in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.