Qualities Needed in Trials

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We'd like to continue our message through James. I'm going to do my best to finish up chapter 1 today.
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The last two verses. So please turn with me in the book of James to the last two verses.
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We'll be looking at verse 26 and 27 of James.
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And I'd like to minister to you this morning, and it's already stepped on my toes, is three vital signs of your religious...
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if your religion is genuine and real. Three vital signs that your religion, or should
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I say Christianity, is genuine and real. And very, very few times that you hear the word religion in Scripture, this is found right here in James.
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And he's meaning something that's very important in the sense of that our
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Christianity is shown by our actions and not by our words only.
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So that's what he's going to be talking about to us today. These are just two verses of Scripture, but we see that within these two verses of Holy Scripture that James packs a very powerful punch, doesn't he?
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And why? Well, I would believe that the only answer that I could see is because the power of the blessed
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Holy Spirit that's behind James' words is spirit -filled.
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It is the inspired, all -sufficient Word of God. So hear the word of the living
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God, James chapter 1, verse 26 and 27. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not brattle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless.
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Verse 27, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their troubles and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
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May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts as well as to our hearing this morning.
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Let's pray. Our God and Father, as we come to you this morning, we do, first of all, recognize that all religion is not pleasing to you, as it is said here.
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And just as all worship is not pleasing to you, I believe it goes hand in glove.
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Father, we even see back in Genesis, two brothers. Two brothers,
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Cain and Abel. Both were very religious. Both were very devout.
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Yet only one, only one truly pleased you. And Lord, we know that answer.
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And he's found in Hebrews 11 as well, under those men and women of faith, that one was able, because his sacrifice was one of blood by faith.
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Help us to remember that, Father. That it's not of good works and it's not of our righteousness that has saved us.
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It's not through self -righteousness such as Cain. Father, I pray that you would deliver us from any
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Cain's self -righteous worship today. May we see that it is only through the faith, that only through faith alone in the blood of Jesus, that most pleases you.
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So Lord, I would pray to give us ears to hear what your word and your spirit says to your church, to your people, and give us eyes to see that the great sacrifice on Calvary's tree, the cross of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, the blood sacrifice, that was once and for all sufficient, has wiped away our sins.
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Our sins has been atoned for. So Lord, help us to see only
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Jesus. Only Christ, who has given himself that we may have eternal life, and please you through faith.
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Only faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is what pleases you. And that is in worship as well.
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How can we even worship you unless we come through blood? You've always required this, Father.
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And now it's through the blood of your Son. And that is the only way to you. And it's the only way to worship you in spirit and truth.
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So we would ask this in the name that is above all names. And for your glory, in Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen. Well, as I've already pointed out, that all religion is not pleasing and acceptable to God.
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Commentator Daniel Duran gives us some very personal insight to a story that illustrates this truth.
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And I quote him here. He says, I was once part of a large team mission project that most of us stayed in the same house.
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So we were together many hours a day. And one man rose first daily, every morning.
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We spotted him on the porch reading his Bible at sunrise.
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One evening he told me this. Quote, I'm excited to go to bed each night because I am that much closer to my time alone with God in the morning.
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I can't tell you how close I feel to God. End quote. Daniel Duran continues and says,
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I felt like a spiritual dung beetle. I can relate to that. A spiritual dung beetle next to this lion of the faith.
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Months later, our spiritual lion was in legal trouble for getting drunk and doing things that were both sins and crimes.
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And I believe that was more involved here. He just doesn't go in detail, which scriptures do tell us not to go into those kind of details.
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So worse yet, he goes on to say he was doing such things for years, come to find out.
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So our spiritual giant was a giant hypocrite. This turn of events would not surprise the apostle
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Paul and all the apostles. Paul knew religious talk can be cheap.
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He said in 1 Corinthians 7 .19, keeping God's commands is what counts.
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And in Galatians 6 .15, what counts is a new creation. James agrees, and this is
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Daniel Duran, he goes on. James agrees what impresses him is the devotion to God and that manifests itself in concrete acts of love.
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That's the key right there. Concrete acts of love and righteousness.
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He goes on to say he mentions three tokens of true spirituality in James. In chapter 1, verse 26 and 27, our text today.
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And he says this, one is in negative terms and two is in positive terms. He goes on to say true religion is to look after, and this is what scripture says of course, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
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I like that word there, polluted, end quote. Another quote is by John MacArthur.
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I quote him quite often because he's one of my favorite pastors. He says this in his commentary.
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He makes a very good comment concerning these two verses in James. He acknowledges, quote,
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Just as there are three elements to hearing and receiving the word with submission and purity and humility, so there are also three elements to obeying the word.
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Thus, the true believer, the hearer, and the doer of the word proves his faith in three ways.
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In relation to himself, he's willing to apply the word without deception in verses 22 through 26.
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Second is in relation to others, first is to himself and second to others, he's willing to apply the word without selfishness in verse 27.
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And third, in relation to the world, he is willing to apply the word without compromise in verse 27b.
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And that is pretty much Pastor John MacArthur's quote. So there we may see very good observations from these men that from their experience as we study and observe from verse 26 and 27 today, so beginning at this point, let me ask this question.
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And I think it's always good to start with a question because it helps us probe and examine ourselves and what's in the text before us.
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And I was asking myself this question as I was writing this down and I was just doing my best gleaning from what these men said and what the text says.
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How do we know if our religion, our Christianity, even our very own conservative evangelical
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Bible -based religion is acceptable to God? How do we know this? That's a good question, really.
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And we're going to dig in a little bit this morning and see what the text says to each and one of us here as we glean from these two verses.
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So James 1 26 -27 really gives us three signs that prove our religion is genuine and real.
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And James says the religion God approves impacts three things here.
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And this is not original. And I saw this with a message and I could not find the name,
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Brother Keith. So I was going to give that person credit, but I couldn't find the name. But I'm sure it's not original to him because this is an awful good outline.
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It's three points and it does fit perfectly with verse 26 and 27.
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And he says these three signs is number one, notice this. It's our conversation.
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Our conversation in verse 26. Secondly, it's our compassion in verse 27a.
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And then third, it is our character in verse 27b.
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Our conversation, our compassion, and our character. If anything, don't leave this apartment without knowing those three vital signs.
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I believe they will change your life. And as I was studying, they really did some change in me because I'm thinking this is really concrete.
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This is the anchor right here. Those three points. Conversation, compassion, and character. And we're going to see what the verse is.
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A word of God. Yes, it is. You can take this all through the word of God. As a matter of fact, we can just extend this and I can just take one of these and just build upon it and just take.
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I mean, we could spend hours and hours, but I'm going to try to pack it in all today so we can move on in chapter two.
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So this morning, we're going to look at these three points, which James gives us. And believe me, there will be enough punch to it, enough for us to chew on throughout the whole week and even further than that, which
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James gives to us in verse 26 and 27 to the end of this chapter. We could say that James has given us application.
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I believe this is just pure -out application of everything that he has said previously in chapter one.
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This is the application here. And you can see that. It's in action. It's in conversation.
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And then he moves on more than just conversation with our tongue and that our tongue needs to be bridled.
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And this is actually where he begins, and we see this. He picks this up more even in chapter three.
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But some things we're going to observe. This is the practical, as Brother Keith and I always talked about, the shoe -leather faith right here,
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Brother. It is faith and obedience together to the commandments of God, and that's what really matters.
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And this is what really matters. What Solomon says, and this is one of my favorite verses, and I posted this on Facebook before, and I have got people howling mad about this verse.
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Why would a Christian, a professing Christian, get howling mad about this verse?
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But this one particular person did. And I put it,
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Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verse 13 and 14. Maybe you can observe from it. But if you really love the
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Lord as hard as this is, this is what Solomon says in chapter 12 and 13 and 14,
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Ecclesiastes. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep
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His commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.
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That is some powerful truth, but it is so true, isn't it? This is the conclusion of the whole matter.
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This is man's all. It's to fear God and to keep His commandments. So that's what is
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James. Does that tie in with James? Absolutely. This is what James is talking about. So in essence, this is what he's talking about.
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That's what he's telling us. What really matters before God is what really counts. So there are three signs here in verse 26 and 27.
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James gives them the proof that our religion will be acceptable and pleasing before God.
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And as I mentioned, number one, your conversation. Number two, your compassion. Number three, your character.
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Those three things. Let's take a look at it. Let's first start with the first sign of this important, important sign.
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James speaks of real and genuine religion is known by our conversation.
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Notice what the text says. If anyone among you thinks, thinks he is religious and does not bridle or should
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I say controls, that's what he's talking about, controls his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless and vain.
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Or there's another translation that says worthless. That's a strong language. James is concerned about deceit at first.
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Notice what he says. He thinks. He thinks he's religious. He thinks he's a
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Christian. We can put it in our words today. That entails, this deception entails blindness and hypocrisy.
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You know the word hypocrisy. It's really the old word of meaning play actor. Someone putting on a theatrical play on a stage.
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Acting. Acting. Remember James says we dare not merely listen to the word.
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In verse 22, be you doers of the word and not hearers only. And then what does he say?
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Deceiving yourselves. It is a mirror to the soul. The word of God is revealing our moral and our spiritual flaws so we can amend them.
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Actually, that's the purpose in verse 23 and 24. 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.
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And if we observe, then he says in verse 24, if he observes himself and goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was, he forgets.
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So when we obey the word, it gives freedom and blessing to all who live by it.
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Verse 25, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, that's the word of God, and continues in it.
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There's the key word right there. He continues in it and notice what he says.
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And is not a forgetful hearer. That's the deal there. We must not be forgetful.
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And oh my goodness, how forgetful we are most of the time. Not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.
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That's interesting. He says the work. This one will be blessed in what he does.
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And I personally believe he's drawing from Jesus' conclusion on the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus gives the parable of the two houses that's built, one on the rock and one on the sand.
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The storm comes, the one that's founded on the rock stands because he speaks about that particular person, hears the word, and is a doer of the word.
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He obeys. The other one did not obey. They heard it, but did not obey.
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So therefore, that house went down. And great was the fall of it,
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Jesus said. So I believe James is drawing from that. So we can gaze at the word without listening.
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We can forget it, and we can forget its objective claims and its commands, and go away deceived.
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And Lord, help us that we will not be deceived. Because if we're not practicing it and obeying it, we are deceiving ourselves.
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That's what he's saying. We can listen to it, but if we're not practicing it and putting it into work in our lives, that's what is displeasing to God.
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So what is he saying? But James says we should control our tongues. Oh my goodness.
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And be slow to speak. He's introduced this in verse 19. Be slow to speak.
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Our religious speech should be cautious as well. So if we profess faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and have no deeds, our profession is vain. Our profession is vain.
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What's an example of this? And I was thinking of this, and go with me to the book of Acts very quickly, to Acts chapter 5.
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You know the story. It's a very strong story. It's a very sobering story. And it's one case of church discipline that Peter executes by the authority that it's given to him.
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And Ananias and Sapphira. So a lot of people said, well, where are you going with this,
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Pastor? Well, if you notice, what did they do? What was the sin that they did?
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They lied to the Holy Spirit. That was the sin. But they did not have to say what they said.
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It was in their own power. Amen. They really should have thought through this before they made a vow before God and did not live up to that vow.
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They lied, not to men, but to the Holy Spirit. And Peter brings that to their attention.
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But I want you to notice very quickly, and I'm just going to read these verses and just point out some things, but notice this.
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And you're very familiar with the story, but the problem is what they said with their tongue.
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That's what I'm thinking of. But a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, that's his wife, sold a possession.
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Now, where did this come from? If you notice the verses prior to that, it says in verse 36, and Hoses, whose name was
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Barnabas, by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, and Levi of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it.
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See, they were doing this. And brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So Ananias and Sapphira was picking up on this.
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So they want to do it too. They want to be known as givers to the church and be well liked,
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I suppose. Sold a possession. So this is what they did. They sold a possession. And look at what happened.
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And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.
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So they kept back a part of it. A part of it. But Peter said to Ananias, that's why has
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Satan filled your heart? To lie to the Holy Spirit. There it is right there. He did this sin with his tongue.
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But where did the tongue link into? The heart. The heart.
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And he says, and kept back part of the price land to yourself? While it remained, it was not your own?
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Was it not your own? And after it was sold? These are questions Peter is saying. And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?
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Notice that. Why have you conceived this thing in your heart?
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That's where the sin was. You have not lied to men, but to God.
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Wow. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.
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God brought judgment on him right then and there. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.
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And the young man arose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. Verse 7.
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Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in. I like what
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John MacArthur put here. She must have been having a pretty bad hair day. It was a space of three hours.
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And here she comes, not knowing what happened. She didn't know about her husband, that he was already dead, lying to the
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Holy Spirit. Then now Peter, being the apostle, that is given the authority, he asked her a question.
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Tell me whether you sold the land for so much. She said, yes, for so much. Then Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the spirit of the
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Lord? Look, to the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door.
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They will carry you out. That is strong, isn't it? Then immediately, immediately, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.
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And the young men came in and found her dead and carried her out and buried her by her husband.
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That is powerful. And then in verse 11, so great fear, once again it says, great fear came upon all the church, upon all who heard these things.
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And rightly so. God was demonstrating, you do not get away with lying to him.
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And what I'm bringing out here is that even though the sin was in their heart, and Jesus says, but what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.
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That's what he said. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
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But great fear came upon all those who heard these things. Great fear came upon all the church. Why?
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Because they lied. But it was through the tongue, the sin of the tongue. And notice what
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Peter says, and I pointed this out, he says, after it was sold, was it not in your own control?
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You didn't have to make these promises. That's what he's saying. They didn't have to say, oh, we're going to sell this big part of the land and the possessions, we're going to lay it at the apostles' feet, just like Barnabas.
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They didn't have to say that. But it was in their own control. And that's what I'm saying. Getting back to James.
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If you think of it, see, it's how to bridle our tongue.
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That's what we need to be careful. Like I said, Ananias and Sapphira made a vow to God and did not follow through with their vow that they made.
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And it was in their heart, but it came out of their mouth. And usually what comes out of our mouth comes from our heart. It's a very sobering, very sobering story, isn't it?
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But one translation, back to James here. If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself.
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And his religion is worthless. So first and foremost, true Christianity, true religion controls the tongue.
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Controls the tongue. That in of itself steps all over me, doesn't it?
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The word translated control, this is interesting, control comes from a word that means to put a bridle in a horse's mouth.
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That's where the word control comes from. That's why some of the translations mentions the unbridled tongue and others talk about keeping a tight rein, the bridle, the tight rein on your tongue.
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So true religion bridles the tongue. Angry talk, gossip, filthy talk, as Paul talks about, should not be mentioned, and deception or leading failures of speech.
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James develops quite a literary of verbal sins here. And we're going to look at a few of them.
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His concern for the proper and improper use of the tongue pervades his letter, doesn't it?
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And we will see this once we get to chapter 3 and it's going to really walk on all of us.
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You know as well as I do. We've all sinned somewhere along the line with our tongue, haven't we? Think of this.
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Here's just a few, okay? And there's much, much more, but I want to just name just a few. In verses 13 and 14 of chapter 1, he warns against self -justifying speech.
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When tempted, no one should blame God. Saying, notice that, saying
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God is tempting me, he says it with a tongue. Verses 3 and 4 of chapter 2,
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James criticizes those who flatter the rich and humiliate the poor. In James chapter 2, verse 16, he condemns the careless speech that wishes well but never lifts a hand to help.
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In chapter 2, verse 18, he questions the superficial claim. I have faith, he speaks, they say, if no deeds can confirm it.
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In chapter 3, verse 9, he deploys the tongues that praise God one moment and then curses people the next.
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In chapter 4, verse 11, he chides those who slander and judge their brothers.
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And in chapter 4, verse 13, he condemns boastful plans as if one can do whatever he decrees.
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So you see how the tongue, that's just a small example of just a few.
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You see it all the way, it pervades all the way through the book of James. James also says, boasts and curses and sparks conflicts that prove that it is set on fire from hell itself.
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Yet heirs of true religion will reign in these sins. We will do something about it, right?
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There will be sanctification. We're going to look at that later on. So why is this so important?
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Well, as you well know, Proverbs 18, 21 gives us a powerful answer to that. The tongue,
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Solomon said, has the very power of life and death. Life and death.
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Think about that for a second. Think about it. Every time we open our mouth, life is coming out or death comes out.
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One of the two. Life or death. The word of God speaks also of the throat, the very throat, as an open sepulcher or grave.
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Romans 3 .13. When there's death on the inside, it will eventually show up in our words, doesn't it?
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So did you know, now I got this from studying a little bit and I had no idea. And Ben, you're going to love this.
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I know how you like facts, but this is really incredible. But it gives us some facts about how many words we all speak within a day.
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And it takes it a little bit further. Did you know the average person speaks 16 ,000 words a day? 16 ,000 words a day.
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That's equivalent of a 64 -page book. That's the average.
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There are some people who probably do more than maybe some does a little less. It just depends how many words comes out.
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Now think of this. In a month, to those statistics, in a month you speak 480 ,000 words in a month.
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That's equivalent of a book of 1920 pages. That's incredible.
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Think of this. This is what this person did. I don't know who did this, but somebody took some time to put these numbers together and crunch some pretty good numbers.
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In one year, to those statistics, you speak 5 ,760 ,000 words, which is roughly equivalent to four volumes of the
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Encyclopedia of Britannica. That's a lot. Now think of this.
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If we stretch that over 70 years, oh, this is mind -boggling, 70 years of time, the average person will end up speaking 403 million words, roughly equal to the entire 44 -volume set of the
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Encyclopedia Britannica. Wow. Multiplied nine times.
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Think of that. That's sobering, isn't it? How many words we speak.
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Now, there's a reason I wrote this down, because it helps us think, oh my, look at the words
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I'm speaking, that we will be more conscious of how and what we speak. Think of it this way.
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Today, you and I will speak the equivalent of a 64 -page book. Tomorrow, another book.
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We know people that get into writing books. Look, we are a walking book.
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We are a book that people read every day. And think of it.
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By the words we speak, there's a book that's printed, and God keeps that book.
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Now think of this. The day after another, imagine when someone reads the contents of the book you're writing with the tongue, the words you're speaking.
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Suppose it was recorded somewhere, written down somewhere, somehow, caught on a video, and then played back on the
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Internet. And could you imagine for the whole world to hear and see what you have learned about your vocabulary and what you have said?
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That's convicting, isn't it? Well, I've got something more convicting. Listen to this. The words of Jesus in Matthew 12, 33 -37.
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So go with me to Matthew 12. You know where I'm going. Brother Keith, you sent this to me
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I think a few weeks back. And I mentioned this is one of the strongest passages of Scripture found in the
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Word of God. Oh, yes. Matthew 12, verse 33.
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Matthew 12. Yes, 33 -37.
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Yes, Jesus speaks. A tree is known by its fruit. Either make the tree good or its fruit good.
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Or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For a tree is known by its fruit.
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Then who is He talking to? Eventually, He's talking to the religious people of His days. A brood of ivors.
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How can you be an evil? Speak. Notice what He says. Speak good things.
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For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasures of his heart brings forth good things.
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And an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment.
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For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.
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That is one of the most powerful verses, I think, in the Word of God. That every idle word that we speak, we're going to give an account on the day of judgment.
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R .C. Sproul said that when I was hearing him on a lecture about the power of the tongue.
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That, no doubt, is one of the... I think that needs no more commentary or anything because it speaks as it stands.
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Very strong words, isn't it? Well, that's talking about the tongue. Very strong admonition from our
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Lord. And I believe it's one that can wake us up. Perhaps we need to pray for the gift of silence.
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Lord, help us to tame our tongue more often. Help me to tame my tongue, to bridle it.
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So James draws a shocking conclusion when he says the unbridled tongue, it's not controlled, makes our religion useless and worthless.
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He speaks about our conversation. So we need to keep this warning in mind at all times, but especially when we are tired.
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I don't know about you, when I get very tired, I say things I shouldn't say. That's one time
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I need to say, Lord, help me to have self -control, to keep my tongue, to bridle it.
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Because when you get tired, you get irritable and you say things that may really hurt. Under pressure.
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What about when you're under pressure? That's another time when we can say things when we should not say things.
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And when people are trying to provoke me, I don't know about you, when people are trying to provoke you, you have a temptation and a tendency to fire back.
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Oh no! And then you want to say some very strong words. May the Lord Jesus just grant us a special grace to help bridle our tongue, that we might keep a tight rein on our tongues.
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Well, I can go on and on about that. But that's the first sign of true religion is to control our tongue.
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Control our tongue. Bridle our tongue. It's in our conversation. The next sign is a very good one,
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I think, and it's a very strong one and a very important one. And that is your compassion.
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Your compassion. Verse 27. Notice what he says. Pure and undefiled religion before God.
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I love the way he says that. Before God. It's before the face of God. Just not man.
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It is, but it's before God and the Father. Notice what he says to the Father. He speaks of God as the
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Father. To visit orphans and widows in their trouble. That means in their distress.
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So true religion before God is the real and genuine one that always moves us to action. And action is motivated by compassion.
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There are several verses I'd like for you to follow along. But first of all, I'd like for us to look at one, and Brother Keith brought this to my attention, and he said
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Brother Michael brought it to his attention, is the Good Samaritan. That is a perfect, perfect illustration and example that the
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Lord gives to us about true compassion. Let's just read those verses real quick. Go to Luke chapter 10.
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I believe it's in Luke's Gospel, chapter 10. Chapter 10.
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Look at verses 25 -37. I'm not going to comment a lot on it. I'm just going to let the Word of God speak to our hearts.
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Notice what the Lord says. This is the parable of the Good Samaritan. And behold, in verse 25, a certain lawyer stood up and tested him, saying,
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Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And he said to him,
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What is written in the law? Notice how Jesus comes back with questions. What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?
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Boy, Jesus knew how to open up a person's heart. Listen to what he says. And then he says this in verse 27.
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And he answered and said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
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Now notice in verse 28. And he said to him, You have answered rightly. Then Jesus says this.
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Same thing what James says. Do this and you will live. Do this.
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Amen. You just can't know it. You've got to do it. There has to be obedience.
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And what he's referring to is the first and great commandment that he just quoted from the
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Old Testament and actually Deuteronomy chapter 6. This is really incredible because the lawyer responds to Jesus' question by quoting
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Deuteronomy 6 .5 in the text that was recited twice a day by every faithful Jew in that day.
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This text summarizes the central ethical standard of the law. So the lawyer was alluding to Leviticus 19 .18
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but he was quoting from Deuteronomy. And the basis of man's response is the expression of allegiance or devotion that also can be seen as the natural expression of faith since the total person.
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Notice the heart, the soul, the mind, the all, the whole person. And that's really the theme of the love of God is picked up here and the emphasis on the devotion to Jesus Christ is to love
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Him with everything, right? So he answers right. And then he says this. You have answered rightly.
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And do this and you will live. Verse 29. And he wanted to justify himself.
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Notice that. And he said to Jesus, Who is my neighbor? Interesting.
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And then Jesus tells him. And then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem in Jericho, fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, departed, leaving him half dead.
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Now by chance, a certain priest came down the road. This is interesting. The priest first came. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
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So the priest passes him. Likewise, in verse 32, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed on the other side.
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But a certain Samaritan, he passed him up. Not the Samaritan, I'm sorry, the Levite passed him up.
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Then a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, and you've got to remember this too, the Samaritan was the half -breeds, the rejects, came where he was and he saw him.
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He had compassion. There's the word right there. I believe that is the key.
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Amen. He had compassion. In verse 34, so he went to him.
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See, notice, compassion always goes in action and does something about it.
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Notice what he does. He goes to him first of all. He bandaged his wounds, pouring an oil and wine, and he set him on his animal, brought him to an inn.
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Notice all that he did for him. He took care of him. And in verse 35, on the next day, that's a full day there, on the next day when he departed, he took out two denarials, gave them to the innkeeper, he even paid the way for him, and said to him, take care of him.
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And whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you. Oh my, such compassion.
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So which of these three do you think was the neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? Jesus is asking this lawyer this question.
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And then the lawyer says, he who showed mercy on him. And then
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Jesus nails it, doesn't he? Then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.
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There you have it. Do it. Just do it.
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That's the key to it. And we can say so much more about that, but that's a perfect example of true compassion.
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True religion gets its hands dirty, doesn't it? And this is what James is saying.
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You get your hands dirty. You nailed it this morning, Brother Keith. Getting dirty for the gospel's sake.
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Getting dirty for our Lord's sake. Getting in the trenches. Getting our hands filthy. For the
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Lord's sake and for people. And having compassion for people. For our Lord. That's our neighbor.
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Do this for your neighbor. True religion sees the distress of the world. Then moves to meet that need in compassion.
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Our Lord demonstrated this time and time again all the way through the scriptures. He was moved. Our Lord himself was moved with compassion on the needs of the multitude.
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Spiritual and physical needs. Just very quickly, I'm going to try to go through this. Go back up a little bit.
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Go with me to Matthew chapter 9. We're going to kind of run through the pages very quickly.
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I don't have a whole lot of time here, but we'll see what we can do. Notice in chapter 9, verse 36,
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I believe. Yes, that's it. Verse 36, yes.
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But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.
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And then he said to his disciples. Notice he teaches his disciples a lesson. The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
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Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers into his harvest.
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Why? Moved with compassion. Moved with compassion. Go with me to Matthew 14.
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We're just going to highlight and just hit just a few of these. Notice Matthew 14.
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Look at verse 14. And when Jesus went out and he saw a great multitude.
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Notice again the multitude. He was moved. I like that, don't you? He was moved with compassion for them and he healed their sick.
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And when it was evening, his disciples came to him saying, this is a deserted place and the hour is already late.
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Send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. And Jesus said to them, they do not need to go away.
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You give them something to eat. That's powerful, isn't it? Jesus said, you do something about it.
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Jump with me to Matthew 15. Look at verse 32. Here Jesus is feeding the 4 ,000.
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Now Jesus called his disciples to himself and said, I have compassion on the multitude because they have now continued with me three days and have nothing to eat.
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And I do not want to send them away hungry lest they faint on the way.
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Why? Because Jesus had compassion on them. Incredible, isn't it?
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He's moved with compassion. Look at Matthew 18 as we go along Matthew's Gospel.
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This will be the last one we look at here and then we've got to move on. I love these words, don't you?
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Don't you love the Scripture when it says Jesus was moved with compassion? Chapter 18 verse 27.
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Then the master of the servant, he's speaking here about the parable of the unforgiving servant, but here he speaks about the master of the servant was moved with compassion.
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He released him and forgave him his debt. Jesus emphasized this time and time again.
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That is so important. If Jesus himself has compassion on the multitude, we should have compassion as well.
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That's just a few. There's so many more. So James singles out two groups that deserve special attention.
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We need to have compassion on the orphans and the widows. And then he adds a qualifying phrase, in their distress, in their trouble.
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That means their trouble. In their distress. What is he talking about? He means those who are alone, to those who are forgotten about, to those who are destitute, to those who are poor, to those who are rejects.
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That's Jesus. Those are the ones that Jesus wants us to go after. And usually you find them on the streets.
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And don't get me wrong. We've got to be wise. There's a lot of people out there freeloading. They want to use the church.
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And we've seen this. I've got so many stories I can tell about that. I won't go into detail, but you know as well.
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We must have wisdom in how to discern because there are people in the Scriptures who say if a person is able -bodied, they should be working to get the food.
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And I don't want to leave that out because if he's not working, and the Scripture says also, if a man doesn't work, he's not going to eat.
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So if he's able -bodied, Jesus is, actually James is talking about the people that's not capable and that's destitute and that's in distress and trouble.
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That's not capable of taking care of themselves. It should not be the government's responsibility.
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It should be the Christian's responsibility to reach out to these people and the church. Christians make up the church.
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So we've got to be wise also to these things and be very careful.
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There are in distress precisely because they have no one to care for them.
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That's what we're talking about is people that don't have someone to care for them and that's not able -bodied.
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This echoes Old Testament verses such God is a God of compassion. Brother Keith, thank you for sending me this.
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This is what I'm using here. Psalm 68, 5 A father of the fatherless and a defender of the widows is
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God in His holy habitation. Psalm 146, verse 9 The Lord watches over the strangers and He relieves the fatherless and widow but the way of the wicked
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He turns upside down. Wow, what a verse. Deuteronomy 10, 18
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He administers justice for the fatherless. Notice how many times He speaks about the fatherless and the widow.
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The fatherless and the widow. And loves the stranger. God loves the stranger giving him food and clothing.
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Jesus, notice how many times Jesus acted upon mood with compassion and ministered to those people.
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In Matthew 6, 32 Jesus says for after all these things the Gentiles say for your heavenly
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Father knows that you need all these things. Exodus 22, 22
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Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless. Isaiah 1, 17
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Defend the cause of the orphans. Fight for the rights of the widows. Zechariah 7, 10
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Do not oppress the widow or the orphan. Notice how many times He speaks about the widow and the orphans and the fatherless.
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So the religion God approves cares with compassion who cannot care for themselves. I would think that would be a lot of those people that's in nursing homes and hospitals.
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The homeless. Those types of people. And I tell you,
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I've been and I was telling my daughter this morning I need to get back into the nursing homes because there is where God really works.
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It's amazing. In my early years it was such a blessing to go to nursing homes.
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And I found out most of the people would go to sleep hearing me preach. They usually eat.
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And they wouldn't make it through 10 minutes, 15 minutes. And I think, is my preaching that bad?
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I mean, am I that boring? But you know something when I come to find out I learned not to take that even in the early years not to take it personal because a lot of them couldn't help themselves.
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But you know what I found out and what I learned when I went to their room, they were perked up and how they loved my attention just holding their hand.
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And I noticed many times I would hold their hand I'd try to pull my hand up gently and they just grabbed it.
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And that's a sense of loneliness. That's a sense of they want me there. It's like, don't go, don't go.
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Yeah, they wanted that companionship. They were very lonely. And I noticed that's what they wanted most is me just being by their side listening to them speak about maybe some children that has gone on with the
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Lord. I remember this elderly lady. She was in her 90s. She had her mind.
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She was sharp as a tack. But she had a son years ago in the 50s that got killed.
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Had a picture of him up there. And it really melted my heart. I'm thinking of it right now.
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It just blesses me. But she started tearing up. And she said, God has comforted her so many times by losing her son years ago.
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Of the pain back years ago. She was in her 90s right then. And it wasn't until maybe a month after that she went home to be with the
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Lord. But I remember those times so vivid. That's what she wanted more than anything.
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Just to be by her side. To hold her hand. And to pray with her. And to comfort her. That, I believe, is where God wants us.
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Lord knows, maybe we can get back in a nursing home or something, right? I think that's a place that pleases
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God. Well, there's so many stories in that. Bless her heart. She's having a hard time, isn't she?
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The third sign of having true religion is that genuine, real religion is our character.
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First, our conversation. Next is our compassion. I was trying to tell Brother Keith my outline yesterday and I couldn't believe it.
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I could not believe myself I forgot this word here. Character. Well, I've got it written down for me here too.
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So I won't forget. Verse 27b. What does it say? To keep oneself unspotted, unspotted, unstained from the world.
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Now, I want to try to wrap this up as quick as I can, but this is something very important. Genuine religion keeps us from being stained by the world.
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Now, I'm going to try to give a small illustration here. Imagine a little boy coming from school one day and here he is.
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It's been raining, so there's a mud puddle in his path. You know how little boys are.
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They're tempted to jump in that mud and have a good time. That's how children are.
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So it's been raining, and here's a big puddle. What is he to do? Well, it depends.
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If he remembers what Mom tells him, well, he's going to walk around the mud puddle and he won't get dirty.
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Okay? But if he feels in a frisky mood, like most boys do, he may jump into the puddle, get all muddy, and get it all over his clothes.
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And so what would Mom say then? He might get something else. That's right. He might get a warming on his backside.
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That's sort of... Honestly, I know that's a simple illustration, but really, in a sense, that's what
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James, I think, has in mind here. What do you mean? We're talking about getting muddied from the world.
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We live in a very dirty world. Don't you agree? It's filthy.
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Folks, it's so filthy, and you know it as well as I do. The language is filthy. The lives are filthy, and we would be filthy with them if it wasn't for the grace of God.
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And we still have to take care of some of the filth that's remaining in us, don't we? But what is
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James saying? We must have a willingness to apply the word without compromise. That's what he's saying. Keeping oneself unstained, or should
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I say, unspotted from the world. To keep. That word, keep, translates in the
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Greek indicating a regular, continuous action. It's another action word.
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Don't you love that? Compassion is an action word. Here, this word to keep is an action word.
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In other words, keeping oneself unstained by the world is a perpetual obligation of the Christians, allowing for no exception or qualification.
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That's what he's saying. Those who truly belong to God are to be characterized by moral and spiritual holiness and purity.
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That's what he's saying. Staying unspotted, keeping oneself unspotted from the world.
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It makes me think of those scriptures time and time again. You see it all through the Word of God. What does it say?
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Sanctify yourself before the Lord God. Sanctify yourself.
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Peter says it. Paul says it. The Old Testament prophets say, sanctify yourself.
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Sanctification is something that we must discipline ourselves to do as God gives us the grace and the power to do so.
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So Peter mentions this. He admonishes us. Turn with me to 1
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Peter 1 very quickly. Yes, sir. I think that's one to lay hold of, isn't it,
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Brother Keith? 1 Peter 1. There's so many verses on this.
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I was looking on sanctification. Oh, my goodness. I got them written down. I don't think I'm going to be able to hit them all today.
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But this is a good one here. Let me back up.
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Look at verse 15. I don't believe we can get enough from here from verse 15 tying that in.
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But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
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And the Old King James says conversation, but we know conversation means conduct in the Old King James.
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Because it is written, Be holy for I am holy. He's quoting the Old Testament prophet from Leviticus.
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And then he says this. If you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by the tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot.
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And there is the emphasis on holiness. Now go with me real quickly to Titus chapter 2.
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This is another one. Titus chapter 2. This is one of my favorites here.
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I love what Peter says, but I think it ties in very closely. You know, God's grace saves us from sin, but God's grace also trains us to live holy.
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You don't hear that often today, do we? The grace of God literally teaches us to live holy.
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God's grace. I really believe an antinomian would not like this verse here.
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Verse 11. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Notice this.
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Teaching us. What is teaching us? The grace of God. The grace of God teaches us that denying ungodliness.
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In other words, we say no to ungodliness. Anything that's not godlike. And worldly lust.
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That word lust, as you well know, is desires. Worldly desires. We should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great
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God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works.
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There it is. That's the pattern right there. He saves us from our sin to cleanse us.
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He cleanses us. He puts us back into the world to keep us clean through the word.
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And we're going to see that in just a minute. Speak these things, he says, exhort and rebuke with all authority.
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Let no one despise you. Now, I could not help but think about what James, if you think of it, neither
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James, Peter, Paul, and all the apostles are speaking of sinless perfection by no means. He's speaking of a human spiritual condition solely manifested by Jesus in his incarnation.
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Only Christ lived a perfect life. So we cannot live it perfectly, but we are to strive toward it, aren't we?
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I like what John MacArthur says, it's not perfection that matters, it's our direction. That's what counts.
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It's the direction that determines our regeneration before God.
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So there is a tie -in from the previous verse. Now, how does this tie -in to the previous verse in verse 26?
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Usually, if we're reaching out to the homeless, to the destitute, to the people like that in the world, there's a lot of dirt.
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We're going to get dirty. So isn't it interesting that in verse... Doesn't it make sense that in verse 27, that here he says, stay clean.
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Stay clean. When you get out there and get dirty, well, you've got to stay clean. Now, that's the dilemma here in James 1 .27.
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I really believe this is what he has in mind. You're getting in the trenches, you get dirty for the Lord, you have compassion on people, you reach out to them, but that mud's everywhere.
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And there's filth. And you know this as well as I do. When you reach out to people, Jesus could go there.
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And we're going to look at that in just a minute. When we reach out to the hurting people, we end up in difficult situations.
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I don't know about you. I've ended up in some difficult... I know you too, Brother Keith, and the rest of you.
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You know what I'm talking about. You girls. It's there. Yeah.
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Even in the job. I know fees bat on this. And I know Hannah, I remember, used to tell stories.
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And Elizabeth worked at the same library. And you'd come home and talk about all these guys talking dirty and filthy and stuff.
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And you want to reach out to these people, but we've got to have wisdom here. We've got to be cautious. We've got to be wise.
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And what do we do? Jesus teaches us what to do. But while we are going out, we must not be...
01:02:47
Here's the dilemma. It's not to be contaminated by the filth and the dirt of the world around us, but we must stay spotted from the world.
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We must not allow it to take our hearts. If you look at our Lord Jesus Christ and all these things, we have the perfect example that Jesus...
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My time is gone. Good night. Perfect example that Jesus, who left glory...
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Think of this. He came from glory and the beauty of heaven for a barnyard birth in a filthy manger.
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Think of it like that. He came to a world that's dirty. He came from glory of perfect holiness and splendor and beauty.
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He left behind the splendor and purity of heaven to rescue us from the impurity of the world.
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He walked among us. He lived among us. He talked with us. He ate with us. He wept with us.
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He associated with tax collectors, sinners, outcasts, rejects.
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He rubbed shoulders with gluttons. He rubbed shoulders with drunkards, with winebibbers, and he was made fun of about that, lacerated because of that.
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He knew the Pharisees and the Sadducees and those are the ones who really did not like it.
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And Jesus called them what? Hypocrites, brood of vipers. Yet the prostitutes, the rejects, the lowlifes, the people that Jesus came to rescue, the outcasts that knew
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Jesus and recognized Him as holy, yet Jesus was full of grace and truth and forgiveness.
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Jesus was completely set apart. That's amazing, isn't it?
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The holiness of Jesus. That He can go into a situation like that and not be in the least contaminated.
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That's something we've got to watch. I know He's Jesus. We're not capable of doing that, but that's why we must be wise.
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Now that's the dilemma. We reach out to people, but we've got to make choices.
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We cannot associate with people in the sense that we associate with the things of the world. We're going to look at that in just a minute.
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We've got to be different, set apart from everything that they believe in, yet Jesus was set apart.
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He came not to call righteous, did He, but sinners to repentance. That's what Scripture says.
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So we reach out to these people, but that's the dilemma because He was the Son of God as well as the
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Son of Man. He lifted up fallen man, but He did not fall Himself. Incredible.
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Well, there's so much more that could be said of this. I need to wind this down. We have warning not to love the world, right?
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Love not the world, neither the things in the world. And if any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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That's basic. That's what it says. But what's He talking about, love not the world? Does it mean the world in the sense?
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No. He's talking about the things of the world, the system. And you know this as well as I do because it would not make sense because Jesus loved the world and the
01:06:06
Father loved the world. God so loved the world. Let me give you something here.
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It's speaking of the people of the world we must reach out to, but the system of the world we must hate because the system of this world is operated and controlled by Satan.
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So, MacArthur says, love of God and love of the world and the things of the world are totally incompatible and mutually exclusive.
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That's what MacArthur said. The phrase, the things of the world does not pertain to such things as participating business, involved in social activities, or buying and using the material necessities of life.
01:06:46
As well as you know, we've got to do those things. It is overriding, the overriding love and allegiance to those such things that are ungodly that come between men and God.
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Well, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, you can look at this in your devotional time, it talks about come out from among them and be separate.
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So, we're to separate ourselves and to be holy. So, I have one application.
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God has called us in holiness. Therefore, we must understand how to live in a dirty world without becoming dirty by it.
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And I believe first, go with me very quickly to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and I'm going to close with this.
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You know, keep in mind also that Jesus prayed in John 17. What did he say?
01:07:34
What did he pray? I have given them your word, he speaks about the apostles, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world.
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Just as I am not of the world and I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.
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That's what Jesus prayed. And they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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What does he pray? Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth.
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As you sent me into the world, I also send them into the world and for their sake,
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I sanctify myself that they may be sanctified by the truth. Now, if you think of it, that's what
01:08:16
Jesus is talking about. He is talking about keep them, keep them. He prays that.
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Keep them holy. Keep them from the evil one. Keep them sanctified and the truth sanctifies us.
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Now, I think this is a great application because how do we do that? I struggle with that at times. But I also do know that we are not to love the things of the world, but what does it say in 1
01:08:39
Thessalonians? Paul nails it right here. Look at chapter 4.
01:08:46
Finally then, brethren, we urge you and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that you should abound more and more just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please
01:08:56
God. For you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he's talking about commandments.
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Keeping the commandments that you love God. When we do love God, we keep His commandments, right? 1 John, the whole book of 1
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John is talking about that. What does he say in verse 3? For this is the will of God, your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality.
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Now, there's some of the filth of the world right there. Breaking the covenant.
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That each of you should know how to possess His vessel and sanctification. Oh, the word know.
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We should know how to possess His own vessel and sanctification. Talking about your body and honor. Not in passion of lust like the
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Gentiles who do not know God. That no one should take advantage of or defraud his brother in this matter because the
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Lord is the avenger of such as we also forewarned. You testify. For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness.
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There it is. Therefore be he who rejects this does not reject man, but God who has given us
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His Holy Spirit. And I don't know if you notice this, but if you look at the next verses, but concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you.
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For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. Notice how all this is connected with loving one another, loving
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God, being holy. It's all part of the fruit of the
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Spirit. So we got to remember that God has called us in holiness therefore we must understand how to live in a dirty world without becoming dirty.
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That's the dilemma. Amen. We got to walk and live in the
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Spirit and let the word of God sanctify us. And this is the purpose of the Lord's day to come together, to hear
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God's word, and to allow it to sanctify us. Well, I think
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I've said enough. That is a mouthful. James says a lot, doesn't he? What does it come down to?
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It comes down to the particulars. This was on the mind and heart of our Lord Jesus Christ as he prayed that great prayer in John 17.
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Godly religion that is biblical Christianity is a matter of holy obedience to God's word.
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That's what it comes down to. We must obey the word of God because we love God. And it's reflected among other ways by our honesty in regards to the needs of others, and that's what he talks about, orphans and the fatherless, the widows, and by our uncompromising moral spiritual stand in regard to the world.
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Well, may God give us grace and wisdom on how to deal with this. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this time we've heard your word and we've sung your praises.
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Lord, there's so much that could be said but Lord, I believe enough has been said to help us in this world which is so dirty and filthy but Lord, at the same time, there are people that are in the mud.
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They're in the dirt and Lord, only you can clean them up. Only you can clean the heart but someone must go to them that they may hear the word and not only hear the word but Lord, to see the word in action.
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Lord, to have someone have compassion upon them. So Father, give us and just give us more the love.
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May it abound more and more in us and I think it boils down to this one thing to love you and to love others.
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To love you and to love others. So Lord, just light a fire to us that we may reach out as we are showed and as the book of 1st
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John speaks of. How can we say we love God and not love our brothers?
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By this, all men shall know that we love you. It's by loving one another. This is the new commandment that the
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Lord Jesus gave to us. So Father, help us. Help us in our obedience to you, to your word.
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To love you and to love others. We ask this in Jesus' name.