Religion That God Desires | Sermon 03/27/2022

Apologia Utah

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

James chapter 1. The title of this sermon is Religion that God Desires.

00:08

Religion that God Desires. James chapter 1 verses 26 through 27.

00:15

My friends, these are the inerrant and infallible words of the living and one true God, starting in verse 26.

00:23

If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

00:34

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

00:46

Thus saying, the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray real quick, church. Father, please speak through me today,

00:53

Lord. Please, Lord, let us to know in this sermon what true religion is according to your word.

01:00

We've heard so much about religion. That term is thrown around all the time in our conversations,

01:07

Father, so I pray that you would make it clear to us today. Help us, Lord, to be focused on your word.

01:13

Get me out of the way. Lord, you increase and I decrease. And Lord, please help me to speak in a way that is clear, helpful, and let it always be true.

01:21

In Christ's name, amen. So, religion has been said to be something we shouldn't talk about, right?

01:31

You've heard that before. Just eat your turkey and cranberry sauce and don't make a scene this year, is what you might have heard close to November, especially husbands, right?

01:44

It's the rebuke we all hear. Countless people, though, have their opinions on religion in general and especially on specific religions.

01:54

They have deep opinions. One World Religion article stated, although difficult to tabulate, there are roughly over 4 ,000 religions in the world today, they say.

02:07

4 ,000. According to the Pew Research Center, more than 8 in 10 people, or about 85 percent of the world's population, identify with a religious group, okay?

02:22

And the overwhelming majority of those people are in the top five mainline religions of the world.

02:30

That is Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the growing religion of secular humanism mixed with atheism and agnosticism.

02:41

Those are kind of the top five in the world today. There are so many religious people in the world, am

02:49

I right? Everyone claims some sort of religious beliefs.

02:56

Numerous people tout themselves as religious or even cooler, spiritual, right?

03:01

That's what they say. I'm not religious. I'm spiritual. I've got spiritual beliefs. But the reality is,

03:08

James chapter 1 makes it very clear, saints. There are two types of religion in the world today.

03:15

There are only two. Religion that is worthless, we see, and religion that is pure and undefiled.

03:23

That's it. Worthless and pure and undefiled. There's nothing else. And so many deceive themselves thinking they are religious.

03:34

However, at the final day, they will find all their rites, rituals, and spiritual experiences were in vain, unfortunately.

03:44

And that is a terrible, terrible danger. The Bible shows those who pretend to be something they're not as well in Judges chapter 12.

03:56

At this time in Israel's history in Judges chapter 12, there was no king. There was often infighting between the 12 tribes, okay?

04:06

There was no king. This was a time where these judges rose up and they would be used by God to help lead the people or deliver the people from some foreign invader or something like that.

04:18

So the judge Jephthah had just led the Gileadites. The Gileadites are a sub -tribe within Manasseh, okay?

04:28

He led the Gileadites to victory against the foreign Ammonites. They asked for help of the neighboring tribe of Ephraim, but Ephraim did not come to their aid in the battle, okay?

04:41

Gilead of Manasseh was without help from their brothers.

04:49

And so after the victory, which they got from the

04:55

Ephraimites, I'm sorry, from the Ammonites, the Ephraimites then came to Jephthah, okay?

05:00

The tribe that didn't help them out came to them saying this. They said, why did you not call on us to go and fight

05:07

Ammon with you? Now we will burn your houses down. That's literally the chain of events. That's pretty quick, right?

05:14

Why didn't you ask us to help you? We're going to burn your houses down now. So they were serious. But Jephthah said to them that he and his people were in great strife, and they did call upon them.

05:26

They did call upon their brothers in Ephraim, but they did not render them aid. They did not come to help them.

05:34

It was likely that the men of Ephraim just wanted some of the spoils and plunders of war.

05:41

Now that they saw that, they beat Ammon, right? And so Jephthah and the people were unfortunately forced to defend themselves and fight against their brothers from Ephraim.

05:54

We're talking about 12 tribes of Israel and two tribes, Manasseh, which is the sub -tribe with Gilead, was fighting against Ephraim.

06:05

They came and said we're going to burn your houses down and Gilead, who just, you know, vanquished their foe, had to then fight their brothers.

06:13

They had to defend themselves. Yet again, Gilead won the battle, the

06:18

Bible says. The Jordan River at that time split their lands from one another.

06:25

The Gileadites were on the east of the Jordan River, okay?

06:32

And then Ephraim was on the west side of the Jordan River. The river split those two tribes and so the

06:39

Gileadites, when they beat Ephraim, they captured the fords, the fords at the river where you could cross.

06:49

And so there were plenty of Ephraimites who had survived the battle and they were seeking to go home.

06:57

They were done. They were in the land of Manasseh. They were near the Gileadites and they needed to go back over the river to get home to their homeland, okay?

07:06

And so what they would do to cross the river, these Ephraimites, they would strip off their armor and they would try to appear as a

07:16

Gileadite. And so they'd come up, they'd try to look like them and they'd come up to the fords at the river and the

07:22

Gileadites were standing guard. And so the Gileadites had a simple test to see if they were truly

07:30

Gileadites or not. And so they would ask these fugitives and simply, they would ask these fugitives to simply say, hey, say the word

07:40

Shibboleth. Say Shibboleth for us. And they're probably like, what? You want me to say

07:45

Shibboleth? And you know, we're all wondering why that it simply means in Hebrew an ear of grain, an ear of grain or some form of grain.

07:56

But the thing is, the tribes on the east side of the river started to have over the years pronunciation and dialect form that was similar to the foreign

08:10

Canaanites. Their dialect was different than their brothers west of the

08:16

Jordan. And so when asked, the pretender Ephraimite would respond, not

08:23

Shibboleth, they would say Shibboleth. They would say

08:28

Shibboleth indicating to the Gileadites that this person was a fraud. And it says with that, that 42 ,000

08:37

Ephraimites were then killed. And I hope when I read that, I think of the sequence of events and I'm guessing that meant the whole of the battle.

08:48

It'd be kind of odd if 42 ,000 men were in a line going on a bridge and each one kept getting killed because they said

08:55

Shibboleth instead of Shibboleth. But it's just interesting how the Bible says it.

09:04

If they were really there for the plunder, Ephraim, the lesson would be greed kills.

09:10

If that's truly what they were there for. But what I am trying to actually demonstrate with this example and judges is that these

09:19

Ephraimites tried to act like Gileadites. Nonetheless, their words and actions found them out.

09:27

Found them out. They used a test for this. And in a similar way, James uses a test to determine who is merely one that acts religious versus the truly religious person.

09:43

And there are three categories to that test according to the word here.

09:50

The first is the tongue. The tongue is the first test. Second test is the care for orphans and widows.

09:57

And the third test is being set apart from the evil of the world. And so let's take a look in our text now to see what true religion is according to the

10:10

Word of God. Starting in verse 26. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.

10:23

If anyone thinks himself to be threskos, religious, devout, pious, or someone who observes religious rites and rituals, the words religious and religion are actually very rare in the

10:39

New Testament, believe it or not. There's only about two to three other times that this occurs in the

10:46

New Testament. They were meant in a general sense of the worship of God or the worship that occurred in the temple.

10:54

It's quite possible James wanted to use this broad meaning, religion, to capture anyone who makes claims to genuine religious devotion so that no one would be missed with these tests of authenticity.

11:12

He didn't say if anyone thinks himself a Christian, if anyone thinks himself to be a follower of the way, he didn't say that.

11:22

He didn't say that. Remember my statistics? Over 4 ,000 religions, 85 % of the people say they're religious.

11:31

James was capturing not just Christians or Jews, he was capturing everyone in this. If someone thinks he's religious but he doesn't pass the tests, his religion is worthless.

11:42

That's what's going on here. This is a dangerous reality.

11:48

We see here it's possible to think oneself religious when the truth is they may not.

11:56

They may not be. You know who's a prime example of someone like this?

12:02

Saul of the New Testament. The Saul who became Paul. He was circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law a

12:14

Pharisee. By all accounts, Saul performed all the correct religious rituals and had the blessed inheritance of being an

12:25

Israelite. He had it all. He had it all. He was religious. And beyond that, he put those things into action.

12:34

He records in Galatians chapter 1 verses 13 through 14, For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how

12:43

I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.

12:58

Saul was religious. Saul was religious in that sense. He believed in what he was doing for God so much.

13:07

He was so zealous for religion that he was even destroying the very thing he was now trying to spread, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

13:18

One can only suspect the same sort of blind zeal and ignorance is what it takes to be something like a

13:25

Muslim suicide bomber. They have this idea, I'm going to go to paradise now. I'm going to see Allah.

13:31

I'm going to get all the rewards of heaven. All this zeal, this blind zeal.

13:38

Of course, these examples are still prevalent today. Nevertheless, what do we see typically in the

13:46

Christian church? What do we see? We learn the correct terms. We start saying all the right things here.

13:55

It's not, let's hang out. It's, let's fellowship, right? It's not, hey,

14:02

Wade and Sarah. It's, hey, brother and sister, right? We learn the terms.

14:09

We speak the language, which I think we should. I think that's a righteous thing. I think as we start learning the word of God and understanding these terms, these are good things to adopt.

14:20

I'm not saying that, but the thing is, we can't simply ask people to say

14:26

Shibboleth. It won't work. We all end up starting to speak the same way.

14:33

People call it Christianese, right? We all can sound like that. So, is that the best test, you know, that someone can determine?

14:42

It's like, well, I speak like them. I sound like them. Well, that's not what the Bible says to determine about your religion.

14:55

It's not typical that someone pretends to be religious and is faking. What we see here is that they believe themselves to be religious and don't realize they are really not, at least not religious in the right way.

15:11

And so on April 2nd and April 3rd, thousands of people will assemble together downtown in what they believe to be a religious building for a religious event made for religious people.

15:25

Am I right? They will think it's their religious duty. But this is no rare phenomenon.

15:30

This sort of thing is occurring all over the globe at this very moment. People practicing these very religious activities.

15:40

But now starts the test. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his own heart.

15:50

James has already exhorted his readers to be slow to speak, quick to listen.

15:56

And chapter 3 will have quite the discourse on the tongue. It's going to be a great passage for us to go over.

16:03

But here James tells us first not how one can positively be religious, but how to see that one is not truly religious.

16:15

He does not bridle. He does not control. He does not hold and check or restrain his glossing, his tongue, his words, his language.

16:25

The New International Dictionary of the New Testament Theology says, the tongue as the organ of speech reveals one's inmost self.

16:36

That is an accurate statement to be certain. Remember what Jesus said?

16:42

Luke chapter 6 verses 43 through 45. It says, for there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.

16:55

For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.

17:05

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil.

17:16

For his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. His heart.

17:22

Jesus makes it clear. You can't produce something good out of something bad.

17:28

A tree that is rotten on the inside will produce rotten fruit or no fruit at all.

17:35

You don't pick grapes from a briar bush. So out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

17:42

Out of the abundance of what is in the inner man, the mouth opens up and speaks what's from inside.

17:50

So the first test is the mouth, the tongue. What you speak and how you speak, according to the text, will be a reliable indicator to determine if I am merely religious on the outside but not on the inside.

18:09

Christ is showing us the connection between the heart and the tongue.

18:16

The heart and the tongue. The uncontrolled tongue participates in lying, cursing, slander, gossip, mocking, coarse jesting, outbursts of anger, and vulgar language.

18:31

Let's be honest. Often for many of us, the crude joke, the tame cuss word, and the quick juicy detail about someone else, those things are no problem for us.

18:46

No big deal. Yeah, I want to hear that. Yeah, I do that. But from God's perspective, it's an offense to Him.

18:55

It's an offense to Him. He purchased us to be unblemished, but our tongue seeks to cover us in filth.

19:06

The person with the untamed tongue in that moment does not love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

19:13

They're not doing it. When they're speaking those things, they're not able to properly love God in that moment. They're not able to love their neighbors themselves in that moment with the unbridled, uncontrolled tongue.

19:26

Breaking the primary and secondary commands in this way makes a man's religion worthless.

19:32

Worthless. But worse, it even brings a reproach upon Christ and His church. You ever think about how you tell people at work you're a

19:41

Christian, and then you go and you cuss and you say the same vulgar jokes with them? They go, we know this guy.

19:50

We know what he really stands for. They see right through it, right?

19:58

Yet again, for the third time in just one chapter, James says the person who believes himself religious but does not control the tongue deceives themselves.

20:09

This is the third time in this chapter he says they deceive themselves. They delude themselves.

20:16

Self -delusion with sin is so rampant. He, apaton the word is, deceives, seduces into error his own cardion, heart, his own heart.

20:28

Heart here can be similar to the mind or the inner man. How do the truly religious respond to this?

20:37

We examine ourselves to see that this might be an area of sanctification.

20:43

This might be an area that we need work on, right? We need to examine ourselves and see how we're doing with this.

20:49

I had to do this myself, and I was reminded again as I was going back over this how

20:56

I fell short even this week. You know what I mean? Or for some

21:04

Christians, it may be a stronghold of sin for you, the tongue.

21:10

And some of us just need the constant maintenance. No matter which you are, we need to repent.

21:18

We need to turn from the unbridled tongue, from the wild uncontrolled mouth. By the

21:24

Spirit of God, you inform your mouth how to speak, what to say.

21:30

We don't allow the flesh to unleash the tongue to act on its own. We crucify the flesh, the

21:42

Bible says. We bridle the tongue like a trainer puts the bits and bridles in the horse's mouth.

21:50

Speak scripture instead. Remember the slow -to -speak admonishment from the sermon a couple weeks ago.

21:57

Be slower. Think more, brothers and sisters. Slow down in what you say.

22:03

We ought to be like the psalmist. In Psalm 39, he says, I will guard my ways that I may not sin with my tongue.

22:12

I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle, especially while the wicked are in my presence.

22:18

Now, that's application right there. I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle, especially when

22:24

I'm in the presence of my enemies. May we pray like the psalmist did in Psalm 141, set a guard,

22:35

O Lord, over my mouth. Set a guard over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips,

22:42

Lord. Certainly, that's our prayer. He says, the person who doesn't do this, their religion is worthless.

22:53

A man's threskia is the Greek. His religion is his expression of devotion to God or worship of God.

23:06

Some scholars see the Greek word Eusebia, which is sometimes translated godly, to be related to threskia.

23:16

Eusebia is the relationship one has to God, which is rooted in the heart. Eusebia is the relationship that you have with God in the heart.

23:26

Therefore, threskia, religion, is the outward display of the inward

23:33

Eusebia, the godly relationship with God. They're related. So, with those definitions in mind, we can see how

23:43

Jesus's words apply. A false threskia is a result or even manifestation of a

23:53

Eusebia that is unchanged by the Spirit of God, or possibly even more accurate, no

24:00

Eusebia at all within that person. So, they are related.

24:14

And that sort of religion is mataios. Mataios, it is of no use.

24:21

It is idle. It is empty. It is fruitless, useless, powerless, lacking truth.

24:29

Mataios shows up in several places in the New Testament. It is translated vain things.

24:37

Vain things pointing to idols that don't save, like in Acts chapter 14. Paul warns if Christ hasn't been raised, their faith is worthless.

24:49

They are still dead in their Corinthians 15. He says, avoid vain controversies.

24:56

Vain is the word there. Same Greek word. That try to argue to be saved in another way or in a way added to what

25:04

Christ has done in Titus 3 .9. The life before Christ was futile or worthless,

25:13

Peter says in his epistle. So, one can deduce then that worthless here is the state of unredeemed or unsaved.

25:24

So, you attend church, you pray, you even fast. Even the

25:30

Pharisees did that. They prayed and they fasted. The Pharisees had a worthless religion, one of mere formalism, externalism.

25:40

That's all it amounted to. No true religion. We can attend church, we can pray and fast, but according to James here, if our tongue is still wildly unbridled, these things, those things, praying and fasting, they're worthless to us.

25:57

They won't do anything. So worthless, the

26:04

Bible uses that very word to indicate something that can't save in Acts.

26:10

It was referenced to idols. What are idols? What do idols, what can idols do for you?

26:15

They can't do anything for you. They might as well be worthless. That's what he says. That's the comparison.

26:22

Your religion is like a religion of idols, and it will do nothing for you. James pairs it up with that.

26:32

That your faith is worthless and keeps you dead in your sins the same way that if Christ wasn't raised, we're still in that status.

26:42

How utterly bankrupt, hopeless, and futile.

26:48

The solid preachers who have congregations see this happen so often in the

26:54

Bible Belt. They do. Many people play church, but don't realize that they're on the fast track to hell.

27:03

They go to church, they wear the outfit, they go on Sunday, they give their tithe, they say all the words, they know the language, but they're not truly religious according to this.

27:17

Their faith is their self -delusion that they are religious enough to go to heaven.

27:24

Not in the only way to heaven, which is the complete and total work, finished work of the

27:30

Lord Jesus Christ. They don't have faith in that. They have faith in some delusion of their religiosity.

27:39

So you could restate this verse 26 like this. If anyone thinks himself to be devout to God, yet does not restrain their words, they seduce into error their own heart.

27:51

This person's devotion to God and worship of him is worthless to save them. You could say it that way.

27:57

Or you could bring it closer to home. If anyone thinks himself to be a Christian, yet does not obey

28:04

Christ's commands, deceives themselves, not realizing their worship of God is in vain.

28:10

That's kind of what's being said here in this verse. Pastors and overseers especially are to know very clearly what true religion is and what false religion is.

28:24

I have to know both. Thankfully, if I know true religion well, I will also be able to spot counterfeits well.

28:32

But we have to know both of them as pastors. Of course you guys should as well. We must teach true religion to God's people and guard them from the false religion.

28:46

All the false religions of the world. Many of these false religions are external works devoid of spirit -wrought internal change.

29:01

That's what they are. They are merely external works that have no internal change that has ever been done in that individual.

29:11

They are often the formalism of the Pharisees or in our context, the Mormons. It's just outward appearance.

29:20

On the outside, it looks white and pure. As Jesus said, these marble graves, but on the inside, they're full of dead men's bones.

29:32

The people who are simply going through the religious motions will typically be found out.

29:38

They'll be found out like the Gileadites. They are often found out due to their speech.

29:46

It's like when a character in a movie is under disguise, and they have a mask, and they're even changing their voice to sound like who they're supposed to be.

29:58

All of a sudden, they break that character. They break the disguise, and their true voice comes out, and they're found out.

30:06

We see that in movies often. So now that we know what religion isn't, let's see what it is according to verse 27.

30:20

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

30:33

I want to say something first regarding this verse. The Bible has precise commands where applicable, but many times, we have to use general biblical principles for our specific situations.

30:48

Okay, and so James is not giving a precise command here so as to say, this is the exact focus and way that we do true religion.

30:59

I don't want you to look at this and go, oh, that's all that we have to do. No, that's not what

31:06

James is hitting at here, and this is a partial statement on true religion based on righteous commands and examples set forth by God.

31:17

In fact, Douglas Moo says regarding this, we would badly misunderstand these verses were we to think that James is intending to summarize here all that true worship of God should involve.

31:33

So, the true worship of God involves more than just this list. That's what I'm trying to mention here. This is not the full scope of what we do as Christians, and these are just some of the ways that we practice our religion.

31:48

So, that brings me to something else that I want to call to your attention here today that is not exactly detailed in the text.

32:00

Religion can be worthless according to this, but religion can also be pure and undefiled.

32:06

We talked about that today. The term religion has taken on negative connotations.

32:15

People associate religion with forced rituals, rites, and outward performances that they would say are part of a religious legalistic system.

32:28

Legalistic being a big part of their gripes, and what's interesting is that the true religion that James is arguing for is expressly against mere externalism.

32:43

He's not saying to be just externally a Christian. He calls it pure and undefiled.

32:50

He says to be unstained by the world. That's the inner man. He's addressing both.

32:57

It's what we do, and it's who we are. I've already touched on this a bit, but a religion, according to the

33:04

Bible, is the component of our salvation that manifests from the internal change wrought by God flowing out into the external functions of worship.

33:17

From the inside to the outward, that is religion, according to the Bible. How often have you heard

33:25

Christianity is not about religion. It's about a relationship. It's not about religion, man.

33:32

It's about a relationship. You know that. How many times have you guys said it?

33:38

How many times have you said it this week? Don't raise your hand. Okay. Not religion.

33:46

It's a relationship. It's like saying, I want marriage, but none of the outworkings and benefits of that marriage.

33:53

I want to know more about Christ, know more of Christ.

34:01

Some will say, well, when you do that, your deeds of religion and worship will be directly correlated, meaning the more you know

34:11

Christ, the more your deeds of religion will increase with your knowledge and love of Christ.

34:22

Christianity doesn't stay in the inner man of each person who's been saved. It doesn't stay in just the internal.

34:31

Your Christianity just doesn't stay in the inner man. Otherwise, nothing would be done with it.

34:39

No gospel shared, no assembling together for church. Relationship, not religion, was a sales pitch, especially in the

34:50

TBN megachurchy Hillsong era in the 90s through the 2010s.

34:56

I still hear it from time to time, but it was a big deal during that 20, 30 years. It's not a religion.

35:04

It's a relationship, is what they'd say. And it was an attempt to enhance or modernize what people considered dry or stale

35:15

Christianity. But it wasn't merely a slogan. It didn't stop there.

35:22

Typically, along with the endorsement of that phrase, churches threw out high theology, good theology.

35:29

They threw out reverence of God. They threw out biblical liturgy or worship and healthy tradition.

35:37

It's about a relationship. But the thing is,

35:43

Jesus isn't our boyfriend. He's the bridegroom king, right? There's a difference.

35:51

The other problem I've noticed with this is it can breed something called nomadism or what

35:59

I call recluse Christianity. So this is just one stays home with their

36:04

Bible and they participate in none of the Christian life. It's just me and Jesus at home.

36:11

I practice my religion at home. That's man -made. That's a system. That's an organizational structure.

36:18

No, this is what the New Testament preaches. This is what the New Testament teaches on how we worship

36:24

God. It's just me and Jesus, us and our relationship.

36:31

I'm not discounting the relationship part. That is essential, but I'm saying they go hand in hand.

36:37

It's not one without the other. It's religion and a relationship with God, a restored relationship with God.

36:46

And that restored relationship with God impacts the religion part. That's what I've been trying to say all along.

36:53

The relationship impacts the religion, the outward. If you're part of his bride, he wants you to be adorned, ornamented, dressed with the rest of his church.

37:07

You can't be ready for the groom if you're not at the wedding, okay? James is about to define religion and he says it's pure and undefiled.

37:19

Kathara is the word. Clean, pure, free of adulterating matter.

37:26

It's been used to describe pure gold or a pure heart or a clean conscience.

37:33

In John chapter 13, Jesus told the apostles that not all of them were Kathara. Not everyone is clean here, indicating to Judas.

37:44

This is what he said. True religion is undefiled, untainted, free from contamination.

37:56

Christianity is of God and from God. Therefore, it is not man -made. And that's what people will say.

38:03

You guys participate in a man -made religion. No, we don't. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for God.

38:11

You wouldn't be here if it weren't for Christ. This is not man -made. This is exactly, we're doing exactly what the

38:17

New Testament told us to do. To assemble together, to hear the preaching of the word, to administer the sacraments, and to have fellowship with one another.

38:26

That is what we're doing. That is what the Bible shows. And where did that instruction come from?

38:32

Not from man, from God. From God. This is God's, okay?

38:38

This is from the Lord. This is not man -made. Atheists will say that.

38:43

You're just part of a man -made thing. I'm spiritual. I don't even know what that means. Goodness.

38:52

True. The word articulates that Christianity is pure and perfect.

39:01

There is no human contamination with how God has established the way he ought to be worshipped.

39:08

When it says pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God, that word in sight of is actually the

39:14

Greek word with or by. Meaning pure and undefiled religion by our

39:21

God, or with our God, meaning God's approval. God has put his stamp of approval on what's being said here.

39:29

They estimate over 4 ,000 religions. Well, there is only one pure and undefiled religion from God.

39:39

There's not 4 ,000. There's one pure and undefiled religion. Only one. Only one.

39:47

And that's not just because we want it that way, or we want an exclusive club. That is what the word of God says.

39:55

Now, besides restraining the tongue, the second test shows to be the care and concern of orphans and widows.

40:05

It says to visit, which is episketesai, visit with helpful intent, look after, exercise oversight with a desire to help.

40:17

In fact, that word shares the same root as episkopos.

40:22

Now, what is episkopos? It is the word for overseer in the pastoral epistles.

40:30

Think about what an overseer does. They care for the flock that God has given them. They watch over God's people.

40:37

They teach them. And so, in a similar way, this word is to look after.

40:44

It's no simple one -time visit. It's not just calling grandma once a year.

40:50

This is being invested as a church body in those who need our help.

40:58

We are to follow the example of our God and have mercy on such people in our communities.

41:07

I think this is also why James says, in the sight of our God and father, father.

41:16

Why did he not just say theos, God? But he says father as well.

41:22

I think it shows a familial aspect of God, a family aspect, that he loves us as his children.

41:32

God is the father to the fatherless, the word says. When all else abandon,

41:38

God will not abandon those who need him. The Lord watches over the fatherless and widows,

41:46

Psalm 146. He defends their cause, Deuteronomy 10. You know, it reminds me, we did foster care for three years and we were not the best at it.

42:01

It was a difficult ministry, to be honest, foster care. You know, all the kids come with different, they're exposed to different drugs and things like that in the womb and they often have a lot of behaviors.

42:13

They've brought things from other households and they come into your home and the state makes it hard to, you know, practice biblical discipline and it's a hard ministry.

42:24

But I remember that there would be times that they'd have to go to court.

42:31

There'd be a court hearing and we would get asked our opinion, right?

42:38

And it often felt like we were the only ones advocating for the children.

42:44

There's all, there's the judge, there's all the lawyers and all these people supposed to be appointed for the kids.

42:52

Then they'd ask us our opinion and it'd feel like, are we the only ones that actually care about the children here?

42:59

We sense the duty to defend them against the system and everything else. And so it says our

43:05

Heavenly Father defends their cause, defends the cause. Jesus said our

43:11

Father knows what we need in Matthew 6. In most other cultures, to be a widow or orphan was a death sentence, okay?

43:22

It was a death sentence. But God, through His people, was to fulfill the role, that role, to the destitute, to the needy.

43:33

Jesus told the disciples and by extension all of us that He wouldn't leave us here as orphans.

43:39

He says that in John's Gospel. I will not leave you here as orphans.

43:46

And so we are called to follow the example of our Christ. Our Savior models this.

43:53

That's why we tell every woman going into the abortion clinic, we are ready to adopt their baby and we'll pay for the whole process.

44:00

We are not lying when we say that. We are not bluffing. We will literally adopt their baby.

44:08

There are families here who have raised their hand and said, I will do that so a baby doesn't go to the slaughter.

44:15

We back that up. Acts chapter 6, when the first deacons were appointed, shows a need for more, showing a need for more leadership, was born out of the care for widows in Acts chapter 6.

44:33

First Timothy 5 is one of the most detailed sections in the New Testament on how to properly care for widows.

44:42

Paul says, now she who is a widow indeed and who has been left alone has fixed her hope on God and continues in entreaties and prayers night and day.

44:53

So if you want to learn more about the care of widows, First Timothy 5 is like the perfect chapter on the care for widows for the church.

45:03

He says, such a woman should be put on the list for aid. The widows seem to be a big enough group to the fact that they were mentioned distinctly as part of the church in Acts chapter 9 verse 39 through 41.

45:17

It says, and all the saints were gathered together and the widows, they were mentioned distinctly. So there seemed to be a lot in those days with the church.

45:27

Verse 27 says, to visit them in their affliction, their oppression, their suffering.

45:35

And James is not far off here at all, brothers and sisters. 88 verses in the

45:42

Bible mention orphans and widows and some form of care for them. 88 times.

45:48

God is highly concerned with taking care of orphans and widows. Zechariah 7 verse 10,

45:57

Malachi 3, show God is angry with those who oppress orphans and widows.

46:02

He was angry with them for oppressing them. You know, often the measure of Israel's faithfulness in the

46:10

Old Testament was their care or lack of care of orphans and widows and the poor in the

46:16

Old Testament, right? That is true. If you look at the Old Testament, it wasn't just about idolatry and their harlotry with those idols.

46:26

A lot of what God was upset with was their lack of care for orphans and widows and the poor.

46:35

You see that especially in Isaiah chapter 2. That's a great chapter for that. God cared after us, so we care after others.

46:47

This is the kind of care for others that expects nothing in return. You just do it.

46:53

You just do it. First century Christian writings like the Didache showed the church was against infanticide and abortion.

47:02

It calls babies children and to not kill them. But in Rome, babies were brought all the time to dung piles.

47:13

In Rome, newborn babies were brought to dung piles of animals. They were brought to the trash heaps.

47:21

Babies that were alive and in good health who had just been born, and they were there left to die.

47:28

These babies would either die from exposure to the elements. These babies would be eaten by wild dogs, taken as slaves to be grown up as a slave, or even used for pedophilic acts.

47:42

Just absolutely sickening what the Romans would do leaving their newborn babies on these trash heaps.

47:51

As Christians, Tertullian says that the Christians sought out tiny bodies.

47:58

The Christians were always, they thought they were weird. They were always hanging around the trash heaps, but they were looking for tiny hands, tiny bodies.

48:07

And if they were already dead, the Christians would bury them and give them a wonderful burial, a rightful burial.

48:14

And if they were alive, they would take them as their own. They would care for them. That's what Tertullian wrote about.

48:22

As Christians, we care for the least among us because we know what we were purchased from and brought into.

48:30

Christ saved us. We could at least save the orphans and the widows.

48:37

We could at least care for them. James truly echoes

48:43

Jesus here. Listen to what Christ said a bit before his crucifixion as he talks about the judgment.

48:52

You'll recognize this from Matthew chapter 25. He says, then the king will say to those on his right, come you who are blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

49:05

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

49:12

I was a stranger and you invited me in naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.

49:18

I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and gave you something to drink?

49:28

And when did we see you as a stranger and invite you in or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you?

49:36

The king will answer and say to them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, these least of these brothers of mine, you did it unto me.

49:50

So you could have the best presuppositional apologetic method, but do you care for the needy?

50:00

You know what I mean? You could have, you could have the best theology, but if your theology doesn't inform your religion, it's worthless.

50:10

You could have all the head knowledge you want, but if you don't do anything with it, with the gospel and with caring for people, then that knowledge is vain.

50:20

It's futile. It's worthless. This is a side note, but Christ mentions caring for these brothers of mine.

50:32

Now he could be talking about Jews in general, but there's an important theme running through the

50:39

New Testament on practicing charity. I want to mention this because you see, especially early on in America, denominations would go and they'd make these wonderful hospitals and orphanages in Africa and India, but then they would never give these kids the gospel.

50:58

Never. And they are not exclusive from one another.

51:03

They're not divorced from each other. The gospel and caring goes hand in hand.

51:09

Right? But I want to say something too. A lot of times when they would do these things, they would do it at the sacrifice of their own congregation.

51:22

So what you see in the New Testament, Paul and Jesus talk about taking care of the brethren, taking care of the

51:30

Christians. So there's an example in scripture that shows our duty first, my duty as a pastor first, is to make sure you guys are cared for before we send money for a well to be dug in India for water.

51:46

That I'm not doing the right thing if I care for the poor, if I have poor in my congregation who need help.

51:55

Okay? You always see kind of the church rallying around each other first, and then they're helping the community.

52:01

So I just want you to understand that. Again, there's a priority with the gospel, and this doesn't dismiss the fact that we are to preach the gospel, administer the sacraments, and to help the needy.

52:14

That's all part of it. You don't do one without the other. Gospel and care.

52:21

Gospel and care. I remember one of my seminary professors said, if you don't give the gospel to a hungry person, and you only feed them, you send them to hell on a full stomach.

52:35

It goes hand in hand. The principle we gather from the second test is that true religion in a person cares for others.

52:46

It's unselfish. But the final test concerns mainly the individual self.

52:53

You see that? To keep one's self unstained by the world.

52:59

And God's word is so perfect. I told you it's amazing. Our text not only covers the external deeds a true

53:08

Christian is to commit to, but also the purity of the inner man. You could not claim that this is mere externalism.

53:15

He is concerned about the inner man as much as he is concerned about the outward religion. To keep one's self without blemish, without defects, spotless, untainted character, without faults.

53:29

And the world here doesn't mean people or the planet. It means the system in which evil is accepted and celebrated and where the prince of the power of the air operates, as Scripture says.

53:44

That is the world. The world is the system of evil that Christ has overcome.

53:51

He has overcome it. It was the place where we once lived and practiced our old worthless religion and sin.

54:02

We used to operate in the world, right church? We operated there. We operated in sin. But now as the redeemed people of God, we bring

54:11

God's kingdom to the world with the gospel and the care for the least of these. The apostle

54:19

John writes to not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the

54:25

Father is not in them. So this is the final test. Those of true religion keep themselves unstained, untarnished by the world.

54:39

We operate in the world to get the gospel out and care for those in need, but we are no longer of the carnal world and its fleshly lusts.

54:49

That is not where we operate anymore. The question is, church, do you still love sinful things of the world?

55:00

Do you look back at your previous life of sin and think fondly on the rebellion that you did, the evil that you did?

55:10

Or does thinking on it bring you shame? Shame knowing that it cost your

55:17

Savior his life. Of course, Christ bore the shame, but looking back on our old life should make us blush, should make us be like,

55:26

I can't believe it. And then we should look at the new life and go, I can't believe that. Oh my goodness, the

55:33

Lord rescued me. Do you love the things of the world? If you do, the

55:40

Bible says to repent, turn from that. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his own soul?

55:48

The Christian tastes of the things of Christ and his appetite cannot be sated by the false delicacies of the world.

55:58

He's tasted the things of Christ. The so -called delicacies of the world taste like vomit now.

56:05

They disgust the Christian now. They should. Everything to do with the world is against the lordship and kingship of Christ.

56:16

That is a fact. If you flirt with the world, you're liable to commit adultery with it.

56:23

If you flirt with the world, you're liable to commit adultery with it. Where does our fidelity lie?

56:32

Let's wrap this up, brothers and sisters. The first chapter of James has been a blessing to me.

56:38

I hope it has been for you as well. We've gone from persevering through trials, asking

56:44

God without doubting, to glorying in your humble circumstances, to resist temptation and stopping the birth of sin, that every good and perfect gift comes down from the

56:57

Father of lights, that we are to cultivate the word implanted in us, to be doers of the word and not merely hearers.

57:04

We've gone over all that and now we see what our religion should look like.

57:10

So don't be afraid of using that word religion anymore. But there's only one true religion. Everything else is, as it says, worthless.

57:20

And that should cause us to want to share with them the true religion because we care for them.

57:26

This theme of having saving faith that acts, a faith that doesn't simply sit idle, will remain to be the predominant theme throughout the rest of the epistle of James.

57:39

I think James has been such a good first series for us as a church because in many ways as James teaches these scattered

57:47

Jewish Christians to be the genuine church of Jesus Christ, we are also learning what it looks like to be authentic Christians in the world today.

57:58

I think it's been such great application. It's glorious. But the warning is always embedded in the text.

58:07

Take the test. Are we merely acting religious or are we of the pure and undefiled religion that the

58:15

Father desires of us? Does your new heart inform your religion?

58:24

And does your religion reflect the new heart? Or here's another challenge.

58:33

Does your religion leave the four walls of this church? Would the only way someone would know you're religious is if they saw you at church on Sunday?

58:47

Oh man, I didn't even know you're a As much as these first century believers were in danger of self -delusion, so are we.

59:00

So live and do the word, beloved. You don't need to act like the world or be with the world any longer.

59:07

The Bible says once he makes us children of God, the world won't know us anymore because it did not know

59:16

Christ. The world won't know us anymore. It says not to be surprised if the world hates you for the world hated

59:24

Jesus. Yesterday at the festival, the world did not understand us.

59:30

Right brothers who came with us? The world didn't understand what we were saying.

59:37

The world didn't understand the message. They hated us for it. That's to be expected.

59:42

Jesus Christ was as well. But the world could hate us all at once because there is one who loves us that is

59:49

God Almighty. The world could hate you all at once, but as long as you have

59:55

God who loves you, that is what matters. So with that, let's praise the

01:00:01

Lord Jesus Christ for his grace to us and bringing us out of that world into right relationship and true religion with God.

01:00:11

Let's pray. Father in heaven, please bless the message that went out. Thank you,

01:00:18

Lord, for your truth. Thank you, Lord, that, boy, man's wit and man's wisdom is nothing compared to yours.

01:00:30

We've made up these slogans. We've made up these things in our mind. But Lord, you show us what true religion is.

01:00:38

And God, thank you, Lord, that you have given us your word. Thank you, Lord, that you have saved us and that we are in Christ and you are ours and we are yours.