Beginning from verse thirteen, James chapter one, verse seventeen. Onward. Thirteen onwards. Let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. May God bless the reading of his Holy Word. In the past sessions we have been looking into the Epistle of James. In verses two onwards, two to twelve. We were looking at trials. We were looking at having a, a different or a right perspective of trials, a right perspective of trials. In the last session, we looked at verse thirteen to seventeen and we saw a right perspective of temptations. So trials, we distinguish trials from temptations, though the Greek word is the very same word, and it can only be rightly seen according to the context.

And we saw how from verse thirteen onwards that every trial can also present with it an opportunity for us to fall into temptation, and the blame does not go to God as we saw. Clearly it is coming out of our own lust. The only person to be blamed is definitely not God, is not people around us, it's not even the devil. But we saw there's only one person to be blamed for our sin and for temptation: it's our own lust. And we were looking at having a right perspective of temptation itself. Now, today, especially looking at the verses from seventeen onwards till twenty five, what do you think would be the main theme that James wants us to find here? If you look at that portion, which is a word that is repeated more than once? What do you see the word that is again, again coming up? Word, word. Right. So verse eighteen, we see word of truth and then we see about receiving with meekness the engrafted word. We read about being doers of the word. Then James also gives this very important title or important definition of the word as the perfect law of liberty.

So this is very undoubtedly the theme running here in these verses is about the Word of God. So we saw good perspective, right perspective of trials, right perspective of temptations. Now today we are, God willing, attempting to have a right perspective of the Word of God. And we'll start off with looking at verse seventeen and verse eighteen, where we saw who God is. We saw God being the father of lights. We said that that is a clear reference to the creation, going back to the creation, when he is the one who created the lights. And we see the physical world, the physical lights, which do have a sense of shadows, a sense of being there today in the morning, not there in the night, in that kind of way. But the father of lights, he is without variation. He's without variableness. He's without any shadow of turning. But note here now the important part that it is through the word of truth that he has begotten us. He has begotten us by the word of truth.

And last session we looked at how lust conceives sin. And when sin is fully matured, it brings forth, or when it is finished, it leads to death. And I want to do a small comparison here between those two verses to start off with. So in verse fifteen we see that then when lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin. But here in verse eighteen we see of his own will he begat us with the word of truth. So on one side, you see sin being brought forth, on the other side you see us being brought forth. How that is coming is clear: it is by the word of truth, and therefore also to see how sin is brought forth. It is largely when the word of truth is not understood, or the word of truth is distorted, or when the word of truth is given as a deception, or it is presented as a deception for us to turn away from the word of truth. And I want us to go, first of all to Genesis chapter three, where we see—and hopefully that brings us to having the right perspective about the Word of God, why it is so important, why it is so important for us living in this world, living in this generation. Why is the Word of God so important?

In chapter three, verse one, the tempter comes to the serpent—the tempter comes to Eve, saying, "Yea, hath God said, 'Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" So you see here a distortion of the word of God. God has not said anything like this. God did not say that you cannot eat from every tree of the garden; he said, particularly the two trees, that the tree of knowledge of good and evil you cannot be eating from. He presents with a distortion of the Word of God, and had Eve purely remembered the word of truth, it would have been different how she would respond. Even because we read in verse three, she says, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die." Quite clearly she is not very certain of what God has actually said. God did not say about touching; God did say about not eating. But by the time she responds, there is a small addition to it. Satan has succeeded in distorting the word of God before Eve, which has led to her having a seed of dissatisfaction.

So if you look at temptation, if you look at sin, it has its roots in this: what does this lust offer? This lust comes from us, yes, but it is after a bait like we saw last week. It is after a bait that our lust is hooked on to. It offers great pleasure, it offers some kind of success, it promises a lot of things, but in reality it is a lie compared to what the father has done for us. It is a lie which promises a lot of things but leads eventually to a death. So Satan has put this seed of doubt, seed of not only doubt, but dissatisfaction by distorting who God is through the Word of God. It does not stop there because then Satan, as we know next, would very blatantly deceive Eve. He says that, "For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." In the earlier verse he would say that "Ye shall not surely die" in verse four. "Ye shall not surely die."

It is a lie when compared to the truth that God said; Satan presents us with a lie. And that deception very clearly led to disobedience from Eve. That is the nature, a very clear pattern that we see always when people fall into temptations, when our lust takes us into being held prey, and fall into temptation. It is when we don't see the word of truth for what it is. It is when we are not understanding what the word says truly about God or about a particular situation. We start distorting the Word of God, we start believing a lie, we start believing the promises that that lie offers, and we get hooked on to it and we go after it. And that is why here James presents very importantly, our origins. So as we want to look into this portion from verse seventeen onwards, we will look at three main points here as we look at the right perspective about the Word of God. Firstly, we are going to look at the regeneration—regeneration that is accomplished, or regeneration through the Word of God.

Secondly, we see also the reception—we saw that "receive with meekness". So second point would be the reception of the Word of God. And the last point will be the response. So we are regenerated, there is a reception that we have to have towards the Word of God, and lastly it's really our response to which it all boils down to. Having said so much, let's look into in detail these verses. Verse eighteen: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures." The complementary portion that we must also see is from First Peter, First Peter chapter one, verse twenty three, we read, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." Here Peter emphasizes about how we were born again. It is referring to the reality of regeneration that is needed here as we look into this passage, that it is about people who have been regenerated.

It's about people who have been born again and the means that God has used in order to accomplish this miracle, in order to accomplish this regeneration, is the Word of God. In First Peter, we see it as the incorruptible, whereas everything else around creation, in creation, we find being corruptible, being something that will decay, something that will not last. Here we are seeing that we are brought forth by the incorruptible word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And here James would focus, saying it is the word of truth. And the outcome also what James says is that we are brought forth by the word of truth to be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. And there is a relation we have to understand here: what has God done, who is God as he reveals us in this way, and therefore also, what is the purpose to which he is calling us? It is the word of truth, we read here very clearly, emphasizing what we have understood about God, very clearly emphasizing as we read in the later portions about God's righteousness—it is through the Word of God.

It is through the gospel that this particular aspect of God's righteousness is revealed to us in His Word. We see God as righteous. We also see where we stand then before God; we see what is the value of our righteousness. We see also thereafter how we may get the righteousness of God by faith, and slowly that will translate to us being righteous or showing forth his righteousness here in this world. Because I say that as the outcome is presented to us as being a kind of firstfruits of his creation, it is taking us ahead into what will come. The Lord has been promising about the kingdom to come. Looking at James, especially looking at the Old Testament, looking at the Jewish believers who had a firm foundation in the Old Testament prophecies and promises, are they well aware of what is to come, of the Kingdom to come? And that is the kingdom that is very well characterized by righteousness. It is in Malachi that the Lord is referred to as the Sun of righteousness, who will arise with healing in his wings.

It is offered to that hope, that peace, that comfort is offered to those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness in a day of much corruption. There he is referred to as the one who will come as the Sun of righteousness. It is showing how he, when he comes into his kingdom, he will be the center of it, and he will also be the one to dispel all unrighteousness from his kingdom. Only righteousness will prevail. And as that righteousness prevails, we will see the outcome being peace; we will see the outcome being much joy on this earth. In the Gospels, we get the spiritual applications of it that spiritually, when we are made righteous, we have peace with God, which is also always followed with joy. It is a very same thing that we will witness in the physical kingdom as well. When righteousness truly prevails, there will be peace which will be followed by joy. So when the Lord comes as well, we see in Matthew's gospel, righteousness is the key.

Righteousness is what he continues to talk about in the sermon. He will not remove the righteousness of the law, but rather he establishes the righteousness of the law. He clearly gives or elevates the righteousness of the law unto a different pedestal altogether in how we are then to show forth the righteousness before the people, as the citizens of that kingdom, as members of that kingdom. How are we then to be, because the King of this kingdom is the Lord Jesus Christ, that he is the Sun of righteousness? So it is very clearly taking us way ahead into the future, into the creation that he is going to bring about. And we are told here that we are the firstfruits. And last session we covered part of it, and I want this much for all of us to at least remember: always when we look at the term firstfruits, we saw that firstfruits—it is fruit, which means it is evidence of the tree. So a tree is known by its fruit, which also means when you see the fruit, you know what is the tree, you know what is the origin of it, so you know what is the source of that particular fruit.

When you hear firstfruit, it also means it's a sample, so when you taste it, when you have seen this firstfruit, you know also what is the kind that is going to come after this. What is the rest of it going to look like can easily be understood when you taste and see the firstfruit. And thirdly, it is a guarantee, that it is an assurance that there are many more to follow, there is much more fruit that is going to come because this is the firstfruit. And this is how the Lord would present us with the regeneration that he has given us, this regeneration. He has done it through the word of truth, that we should be firstfruits of this new creation. Which means, very simply put, that as we live here today, when as of yet his new creation is not yet fully revealed, it's not yet fully made manifested unto this creation, we are here as that sample. We are here on this wicked and perverse generation to appear and to show forth what is going to come.

And this is firmly based on what we have understood of who God is. We cannot show forth anything about God unless we know something about God. And that's why I try to look at that portion from Genesis, where Satan misrepresents who God is, while those who are regenerated, they have their origin itself from the word of truth, which reveals clearly who God is. What James is trying to do in all of this is to instill that emphasis, that importance of the Word of God. Understand how you have been born again. In John three, we see that it is through the Spirit, that our flesh can profit absolutely nothing. We can try our level best to—let's go to that portion also, John chapter three, verse three. We read here about the same kingdom, what is required here: "Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"

This is the absolute necessity that the Lord says: there is many maturity, many outward external things that a man can do, but it all comes down to just flesh. Everything that the flesh can produce, whether it be by producing more flesh, whether it be by any works that the flesh does, it all just boils down to saying that it is still of flesh, and it is absolutely necessary that if one is to enter into the kingdom of God, if one has to even see it, if one has to have any portion at all with the kingdom of God, they have to be born again. And here the clear creation is seen to be by the power of the Holy Spirit, while in James and in First Peter we have seen the agent used. How does the Spirit give us that new birth? It is through the Word of God. We are clearly to show here in this world, in this current generation, who is our Father, who is the one who has begotten us, who is the one whom we claim to be our Father, who is the one that we claim to know.

And we are to stand here in this generation as a sample, as also an evidence that who is it that we come from, and also as the guarantee that things are going to change, things are not going to stay the same as you see it today. There is indeed much suffering, there is indeed much unrighteousness, there is an absolute lack of peace in countries, in people's hearts, in every way that you see. But we are going to be here in this generation, showing forth who the Father is and also showing forth what the Father is about to bring. And that is the whole purpose of us still being here, as James puts it here. And it is firmly based on, again, again I'm stressing, on the word of truth. The regeneration has happened only because of the word of truth. Many have said how James is a kind of commentary or an exposition on the Sermon on the Mount, so many of the principles that James puts here is straight taken from what the Lord would say in the Sermon on the Mount.

So the Lord also says the very same thing: be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect; that we are to be as light, to shine in this world. We are not to hide what the Lord has called us to be, we are not to be hidden somewhere, but rather, there is a clear purpose of us standing here in this generation, even today. We are clearly a foretaste, a taste of what is to come from the Lord. So that would be the regeneration that we get, or that is from the Word of God. Second point that James here stresses is about how are we going to receive it? How are we going to receive it? We read from verse nineteen: "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." We should continue as we are here still, even in the regeneration point itself, we see here that the end outcome is to have the righteousness of God being displayed here.

So because knowing our origin that this is from the word of truth, James tells us, what are we to do? We are to be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath. We may question or think or should think: why are these three terms put there? Swift to hear clearly indicates about the Word of God—we are to be eager to listen to the Word of God, whereas we are to be slow to speak, we are to be slow also to wrath. Imagine ourselves in a situation of persecution, a situation of trials, situation of when things are not going as we want it to go. These are the most difficult things for the natural man to do. The natural man, the one who is not generated, not regenerated, the one who is still an unbeliever, these are the opposite things that will come from that man. Being swift to hear will be very difficult to do. Similarly, being slow to speak, very difficult to do; being slow to show wrath, very difficult to do.

Even in the believer, we know that there is this continuous conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, that these are the very characteristics of the flesh in us, that we want to retaliate. We want to show how strong we are, what we can do and how we can get our due, or what we think to be our due. And James is here instructing that, remember who you are representing. Remember where you are coming from and why are you here. You are not here to show your wrath, but you are here to show the righteousness of God. And the problem with being eager to speak, being eager to show your wrath, is that it will not work out to the righteousness of God, as James puts it here. The problem is that our anger is seldom or never against sin; our anger is always aroused because of our pride. It's always when something hurts our ego, it's always when something causes us to be put down, that's when our anger is always instigated.

But the anger of the Lord is different: his is a righteous anger because it is always against sin. And so when we try to put ourselves in that position of trying to be angry and trying to extract exact vengeance, it will be simply just plain fleshly wrath of man, which never will work out unto the righteousness of God. Remember the context once more why James is writing this letter itself. We have tried to highlight that it is during a time of much trials, during a time of much persecutions, during a time of much things that they have lost; they have gone through a much difficult time. And this is the response then that James wants us to have: things are not favorable, things are not according to our plan, things are in fact very adverse and very difficult. Natural man will retaliate, natural man will stand up, will fight, will rebel, will do everything possible to ensure that their justice is given, that justice prevails for them.

But this is the consistent pattern we will see not only in James, but all the other New Testament epistles where we are told to submit. We are told to submit to every authority that God Himself has appointed over us, however displeasing it might appear, however damaging its effects might be on our physical bodies. This will be always the instruction that we see. And James is one of the first letters, as was highlighted. These are the same principles we see following up in all the other epistles as well. From the very beginning, this has been the character of the believers, this has been the character of the church: that as being born again, as being those who trust in the justice to come, in righteousness to come, what will they do? They will be swift to hear—hear from the Word of God, hear the instructions, the wisdom that the Lord gives—and be very slow to speak, be very slow to try and get justice for themselves.

"Slow to wrath" clearly indicates that part. And that concludes then the point about the regeneration from the Word of God, because James is putting very clearly it is for the righteousness of God that you are here; you are here to display that righteousness of God. Now let's move on to the second point, which is the reception of the engrafted word. Now, how is it going to be possible for us? So we have seen origin, we have seen the ideal, what should happen, what we should be doing. How is this going to be possible? Can a believer, having been born again, ignore the Word of God, ignore the sound teaching from the Word of God and expect himself that because I am born again, because I have the new nature, because I have been brought forth by the word of truth, that I will automatically, naturally respond in this manner? James then gives us the answer: no, there is, besides knowing your regeneration, a reception of the engrafted word that is expected from you.

It is put as our responsibility; it is put as our expected natural reception, how we are going to take in the Word of God. So firstly, begin with an eagerness to hear the Word of God, begin with an eagerness to take in the Word of God. But here we are going to see how to take in, how should we receive the Word of God? Often, what happens in practice: there are so many things that are with us, there is so much uncleanness, there is so much filthiness, there is so much wickedness continuing in our lives. I'm not talking just about our flesh nature, but I'm talking even about our thoughts, even about our practices, even about what we let our eyes see, what we let our ears hear, what we engage in. And yet with that, we want to go hand in hand with the Word of God, we want to go hand in hand with listening to the Word of God, we want to go hand in hand with reading the Word of God and speaking from it.

But while these are the very things that still are clinging to us, clinging to our self, so James puts here very clearly there are two parts—two parts to how we are going to receive the Word of God. It is firstly laying apart: there is a putting off of certain things that are needed. It is a prerequisite, it is an accompanied requisite for us to receive the word as it ought to be received. Lay apart—and strong words is what James used there—filthiness and superfluity, overabundance, it's overflowing, overflowing of wickedness. That "naughtiness" is the old word for wickedness. These are the things that characterize our flesh; this is what is the old man, this is the one that is from Adam, this is the nature that we have inherited physically. We must know that; we must not take it lightly, thinking that this is a light matter, that "I am born again and that I am quite secure." No, that's not the response that we are to have.

Rather put it off. The same principles are later elaborated in Colossians, in Ephesians, where we think about the putting off—that is the old man that has to be put off. First Peter also characterized same things. Let's come here: First Peter chapter two, chapter two, verse one: "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." Peter also puts it in the very same way that James is putting it here, that firstly, put all these other things aside. Take it off, put it off, and then comes the second part of receiving. Peter puts it very visually represented for us as a newborn who desires the milk. We know that's because of its nature: the newborn does not have to be taught to desire for milk, it's in its nature to want milk, it keeps on crying for milk.

It's not taught; nobody can teach the child, the newborn, that you must now start desiring to have milk, but having tasted it, he or the child desires for it. Going back to James, that's exactly the thing: that this desire for the Word of God will not come in one who is not regenerated. It is essentially a characteristic of those who are regenerated, who have been born again by the Word of truth; knowing their source, they want further of it. Knowing who is the one shown in this world, they want more of it. They in themselves, because of the new nature, desire the sincere milk. And here again, the first point is to take away—take away all those things. So it's a call for examination: how do we conduct our daily affairs, how do we spend our time in proportion to the Word of God and to other things that we are engaged in?

There would be that desire to come and listen to the Word of God, there would be the desire to open our Bibles and read from the Word of God, but is it accompanied with all the other things that James puts here as filthiness, as all malice, as all envying, all lies? Is it with that accompanying us, and then we are reading the Word of God? James says, that's not the way. Put all aside and receive with meekness the implanted or engrafted word. So firstly, word of truth, now engrafted word. Again, a visual image here: the engrafted word, as we know, when we engraft something into something, it is because we want that to grow, right? When that is being engrafted into a plant, the idea is that this engrafted object, this part will grow, it has to grow. That is the way we are to receive the implanted word: when we are listening, when we are reading, when we are letting our minds be open, hearts be open to the Word of God, we want to clear all the other junk that is there.

We want to fully plow that ground, remove it from all the stones, remove it from all the thorns, and receive the implanted word such that with a desire it should occupy us more. This word should grow in us; this is Christ in us, this is Christ growing in us. We want to receive him in a way that it does not stop with it, but this word is what has to permeate more and more of us. The word should become more and more of how we govern, how we do things, how we think things. Everything has to become more and more word-centered. Paul says the same thing in Romans: how we are to renew our mind, we are to be transformed, our minds have to be renewed in this manner. And that is what is happening if we let the implanted word, which has in it that characteristic—we don't have to make it appear like that; the very characteristic of this word is that it can grow if we allow it to grow, if we receive it in that manner.

It is able to save your souls. We have already received salvation, but this is referring to the daily overcoming of the sins, daily overcoming of the power of sin. As we know very clearly, we have been saved from the penalty of sin, and we are today to be saved or delivered from the power of sin, and at the end even from the whole presence of sin. So here it is referring to having that overcoming life, that we can lay apart these filthy things and we can actually be those who are overcomers, demonstrating that salvation which we have received. Now we come to the last point, which is, as we see, how are we going to respond to it? So we have known this is how we are born again, we have seen this is how we are to receive the word, taking away all filthy things with a desire for this word to grow in us. That is not enough; there is a third critical, most important step of how we are to see the Word of God, how we are to have a right perspective to the Word of God: it is that we should respond, it is that we should respond to it.

If we take a review, if we are to look back to our lives, the number of messages that we have heard in today's time, it is even more superfluous, it is so much more abundantly, easily twenty-four by seven available on online platforms everywhere. We can continue, continue hearing, listening the Word of God. James says there is one third step, very, very important, else we are one of these two people. So James says, you have received the Word of God, now how we are going to respond will determine which kind of person are you. Are you a forgetful hearer or are you a doer of the work? And every time we listen to the Word of God, every time we open the Word of God, we read it, we are to ensure we are to, in the grace of God, see to it that we respond as the doer of the work. The principle is very clear, I don't have to explain that much: James simply wants us to be obedient, respond in obedience to what we are hearing from the Word of God, respond in obedience to what we are reading from the Word of God.

But James makes it very visual again for us, as he has been doing with the different illustrations here. He gives a very beautiful image: he shows us two people, two people who are having the same kind of mirror. So what they are looking at is the same thing, so they are having a mirror. We must understand also this is referring to an olden time; it's not the nice clear glass mirrors that we have today, but at that time it would be metals. So it can be gold, it can be silver, it can be some fine metals which are flattened, polished well, and it is a reflection on that that is referred to as the mirror. So it's not the nice clear mirrors that we see today, which means already that anyone who is coming to see on that mirror, it requires some effort. And that's the word he uses also for the first one, for the forgetful hearer: James says he is like unto a man beholding. Verse twenty three: "He is like unto a man beholding his natural face." That word is contemplating.

It's not just a casual glance, even that also is putting some effort to look okay, putting some effort to actually look into that mirror, because like I say, it's not a glass mirror, it's still like looking at a spoon reflection of yourself. You have to put in some effort: it's contemplating, it's looking, it is pondering on "what do I see?" But what does he do with it? He does nothing with it. Instead, what he does, he goes on his way, so he knows what way he was in before, he's shown what he looks like, and he does nothing about changing it. He just goes back to what he was. So the principle or the application is very clear: like physically we would see our face, if you see something wrong in it, if you see our hair is messed up, if you see we appear shabby, naturally, the first thing, the immediate response—isn't it the immediate response we would do? We would not contemplate about whether I should comb my hair, whether I should appear presentable; when you see it, what would you do?

You would correct it. You don't wait for a different hour, a different appointment to come back and correct it when you hear it. When the Word of God speaks to you concerning certain things of our life, the immediate natural response: correct it. Be prepared in the heart to immediately accept "this is the Word of God, this is the correction I need in my life," and accept it in our hearts with the willingness to immediately obey it. That is the clear principle of the forgetful hearer: he is seeing all this, but right after that he goes back to his way, and then what happens? He forgets; he's forgotten whatever he saw of himself. That is the same picture of anyone who is listening continually, but immediately goes away back to what he was. So what happens? He forgets everything he heard. We will not remember what we have heard unless we are following it through with obedience.

The second person, he is the doer of the work. We must note that that is the doer; it's given as a personality, it's given as a noun that this is what characterizes this person—he is not only someone who is doing things, but he is a doer. You know, it's a characteristic trait that is given, like we say about endurance becoming a characteristic here: he is a doer of the work, that's what defines this person. When you hear something, when you read something from the Word of God, it is his natural thing to simply go ahead and correct it, to obey it. The word used here for that person—and that's from verse twenty five: "But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty." The word "looketh" there, it's more deeper than contemplating. Contemplating itself was, as I said, not a casual glance, but "looketh" is to really stoop down, to look further in—that is the word "looketh" there.

That's the kind of way this person is looking into the Word of God, with a very clear, genuine interest to change his life according to or change his appearance, according to the illustration, according to what he sees. And this is what James wants us to also do when we have understood how we have been born again, what is it that has caused us to receive this new birth, what is it, why are we here on this earth, what is the purpose with which we are? We should firstly be very willing to receive—receive this implanted word, that it should grow in us. But it's not enough, it's absolutely not enough that we just listen, we are swift to hear, we are receiving it also, if we don't follow through with it. James says that the one who is a doer of the work, what does he do? He continueth therein. He is continuing in it, which means whatever he gets, he does; whatever he sees, he corrects. That is his path now.

He is not going back to his own way, but his way is: see, correct; see, correct—it just goes on like this. And there James describes the Word of God as the perfect law of liberty. It is perfect in the sense you do not need to add anything else to it; this is mature, this is finished, this is full in itself to provide everything you need. We need to be mature, to be perfect. It is yet a law: it is a clear definition of what is right, of what is wrong, of what is God's way, of what is my way. It is yet a law, it is yet a force which should restrain us, which should guide us, which should give us light in the distance that we make. And it is of liberty: the Lord says that if you know my word, you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. It is liberty, it is becoming born to something else so that we can truly be free.

We are by nature slaves of sin, we are by nature the law of sin that works in our flesh, that is there. We don't have to do anything about it, it is just there. If we want to escape from it, if you want to have that what James says, the salvation of our souls, that overcoming, that deliverance from the power of sin daily, firstly we have to be born again. Secondly, we have to receive the implanted word. Thirdly, we have to obey, we have to respond in obedience. It is a very simple thing that if we follow, it will greatly revive our character, it will greatly revive how we see things, it will greatly revive how God can truly witness through us. And this is God's intention, this is our Lord's intention, that even as he would say in the Sermon on the Mount, he wants us to shine, he wants us to respond in ways to different situations which show forth the glory of the Father.

And again, we come back to that whole topic, that whole context: this all is happening in the context of trials. This is how we are to respond, that though our own flesh may want us to do a lot of things, we are to restrain ourselves, we are to be submissive, to be meek, to exercise restraint. Though we may think we have much power, we are to exercise restraint and let the Word of God work in us. Let God do his righteousness, let him work out his righteousness in the world. May God bless us with these words.