James 1:19-27, Do You Have the Real Thing?

You read in James chapter 1, verses 19 to 27? Hear the word of the

Lord. Know this, my beloved brothers.

Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.

Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror.

For he looks at himself and goes away, and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

If anyone thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

May the Lord add his blessings on the reading of his holy word. Well, how do you know it's the real thing?

It looks just like the real thing, but is it counterfeit? It can make a lot of difference.

If someone pays you with counterfeit money, and then after you've accepted it, you find it's counterfeit, you're stuck with a worthless paper, right?

You're not allowed to pass it on to the next person. Otherwise, you could be charged with counterfeiting. So stores often have their cashiers, you ever notice, mark every $20 bill or greater with a special marker, and I guess it turns to color or something if it's a counterfeit.

That means then, think about what that means, that the counterfeits, the funny money, is so good that you can't tell it's fake just by casually glancing at it or even just touching it.

It has to be chemically tested to check if it's really made of the right stuff. There's a lot of things that are counterfeited or just passed off as the real thing, but aren't.

The top 10 counterfeited items, I looked it up on the internet, counting down, are automotive parts, including airbags, and they could fail if it's passed off as the real thing, toys, computers and their parts,

DVDs and CDs, medicines, which could be really dangerous. Some are worthless, put off as actual medicines, especially over the internet, from overseas, you just buy from some person, and they could end up being just nothing and not the medicine you need.

Handbags and wallets, watches and jewelry, shoes, electronics, and finally, the most counterfeited item is designer clothes.

Jackets, hoodies, jeans, dresses, whatever, sold, suits, I guess, sold as if they're from some esteemed, valuable brand, when they're really not.

You can't tell, then, easily, just by looking at it, that these things are fakes. It takes an expert eye or some kind of lab test to sift out the real from the phonies.

How do you tell if your religion is fake? Now, right away, some people have objected today, you know, that, oh, religion,

I don't need religion at all, don't give me any religion. The famous theologian, Karl Barth, said religion is the affair of godless man.

I never cared for Karl Barth. True Christianity was supposed to be about, not religion, but a sense of dependence on God, on what people today might call spirituality, my inner feelings about God, my sense of awe at someone greater than myself, a perception of holiness, of eternity deep in my heart between me and God that can't really be expressed in something that's external or shared by anyone else.

It's just, it's purely between me and him. Spirituality, as many people today understand it, is inward, it's subjective, and so it's untouchable by the perception and certainly by the judgment of others, and it's individualistic.

It's what A .N., a man named A .N. Whitehead, called what a man does with his solitariness.

The church, then, think about what the situation, okay, that's what many people think of spirituality is, then what does the church do?

So, religion in the church, then, is left with fewer and fewer selling points. I mean, that's because that religion was supposed to be what we have, and now you're saying religion is worthless and all we need is spirituality, and that's just totally inward, you don't need religion at all.

Well, so we're left with, you know, what do we offer? What do we have to give you?

What good are we, the church, if spirituality is all that matters and if spirituality is purely inward and individual?

So, what I think is just a desperate attempt to kind of retain our market share to keep our customers.

Many earnest churches sell themselves as, quote, not about religion, you've probably heard it before, but about relationship.

That is, they exist to help you cultivate all that we just talked about, that inward sense, that subjective spiritual experience.

They help you with that spirituality. They're like a trainer at the Y that you go to to get in shape.

You can do it without the trainer, but maybe you're better off if you get a trainer. They're like a grocery store. They don't prepare the food for you like a restaurant does, they simply offer you the spiritual songs and the slogans and the exercises, the spiritual meat or vegetables or drinks that you can then take home and satisfy yourself with them, hoping not to bump your cart up against any other spiritual shoppers while you're there.

Not religion, but relationship is the new mantra. That sounds great at first, except if you think about it, it's kind of like describing marriages, not about keeping a commitment, but about sleeping together.

Wait, that sounds kind of creepy, because it is, it's kind of creepy.

It's useful that we just came, I think, from 2 Timothy, Paul in 2

Timothy seems to have a lot in common. You have all these people out there say, Paul and James are contradicting each other.

Actually, what we just read in 2 Timothy over the past month, it seems a lot in common with what we see here in James.

It just flows naturally. Paul warned of having a form of godliness, remember that? The form of godliness, the image, the appearance, the language, the practices of true

Christianity, but none of the life -changing power. But Paul doesn't reject the forms, does he? No, he doesn't reject the church and baptism and the

Lord's Supper and confessions and membership and services. Only, he's only criticizing if the forms are hollow, if there's no substance, no life in them.

Here, what we just read, James warns of worthless religion, but both never denounce religion.

In fact, James says there is, in that last verse, pure religion that is undefiled before God.

Now, sure, there are a lot of counterfeits, but there are counterfeits precisely because the genuine is so valuable, right?

No one counterfeits something that's worthless, do they? You don't put any effort into it. You counterfeit something because the real is a valuable thing.

Religion is the external manifestation of spirituality.

It's what true godliness looks like, how it expresses itself. It's what you do when you really love the

Lord. Genuine spirituality, a love for the Lord, a soul that's born again of God's own will.

You know, in verse 18, we didn't read verse 18, at least we read it last week, where he says there, you've been born again of God's own will by the word of truth.

That expresses itself in pure religion. Can you tell the difference between that pure religion and the counterfeits?

Well, James here shows us what pure religion, a manifestation of real spirituality, what it looks like. We see that here in two broad parts.

First, pure religion listens. Second, pure religion doesn't just listen.

Know this, he begins in verse 19. It's a command, pay attention, in other words. You are commanded to know something.

You better make sure you know it. My beloved brothers, calls them his sisters. Again, he's affectionate, we saw that last week to his audience.

Let every person, especially those who profess to love God, be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

Now, many people think true religion, and particularly in our culture, that it's about saying the right words in the right order.

Be quick to say the right thing. You can tell who is really spiritual by what they say, we think.

With spiritual, being spiritual is about talking. It's about having a gift for the gab.

You know what I mean? The more, the better you can talk, and the more you can talk about spiritual things, the more spiritual you must be, many people think.

But James says it's about listening. After all, that's how we came to be born again, isn't it?

By what we heard, how he brought us forth, as he talked about in verse 18, by hearing the word of truth.

Faith comes by hearing, not by talking. Something that since, well, now that I've heard, now we have all the answers, we're not supposed to listen, we don't need to listen.

The spiritual person, they think, what's he got to listen to? He knows it all already. They know the truth, so there's no need to listen to anyone anymore.

And that actually passes for spirituality. Spirituality, right now, for many people, in many people's minds, they might go to church, but only to hear what they already think affirmed.

So we have people who go to church to say amen, to what they, I like people when they say amen,

I like that. I'm sorry, no one does, but whatever, I'm not gonna browbeat you about it. But we have people that go to church to say amen to what they believe, and if they hear something different, though, than what they're accustomed to, maybe something new, maybe something that challenges them, something that exposes their family's sin that must not be exposed, something that is different than what their favorite teacher on the internet told them, they're not gonna listen, no way.

Again, like Paul warned us in 2 Timothy, in these last days, some people's religion, their form of godliness, they go to church to heap up teachers who will tell them what their itching ears crave to hear.

Hear, they're not quick to listen. They're quick to talk. Think what their refusal to listen does to the church.

What do we mainly do in church? What are we doing right now? We teach and we preach. Now, what's the use of teaching and preaching if no one's listening?

I mean, you know it all already, and so you don't have to listen to anything. Imagine a school where the teacher teaches diligently every day, but the students don't actually have to listen to anything she says.

They aren't tested. They don't have to learn. They aren't expected to change in any way.

They're only told what they already know because they won't listen to anything else.

We'd just say, that's a monumental waste of time and money. It makes a mockery out of the school.

Well, it's the same with church. If we're not coming to listen, to learn, to be challenged, with the attitude that, you know,

I might be wrong. And not about the fundamentals of the faith, but I'm talking about other things. I need to grow.

I don't know it all. I may have sin in my life. I may think deficiencies. I may have blind spots.

I need to be pointed out. If that's not our attitude, then we're making a mockery out of the church.

We're making this a total waste of time. We have the forum, sure.

The church attendance. Here we are, we're doing the forum. We're doing the religion. But it's fake.

It's worthless if we're not listening. You gotta be quick to hear, not quick to assert your opinion.

Slow to speak, not standing up in reaction to a video in Sunday school and shouting, he doesn't believe the Bible, thinking that's how real spirituality expresses itself.

Oh, it's zeal for the Lord. I just can't contain myself. No, it's not zeal for the Lord. It's zeal for asserting your opinion.

Real spirituality expresses itself, the external manifestation in pure religion that listens, that considers.

It's attentive. Maybe I have something to learn. Hmm, what a thought. Never thought of that.

Never considered that. I might have something to learn. Maybe what I've assumed is wrong. Maybe what

I've been told is not the whole story. Maybe I don't know it all. Who would have thought?

We have a religion today that many people think is supposed to fill us with a certitude about everything, make us refuse to listen, quick to denounce and then quick to leave.

No wonder that many people think our religion is worthless because that is. Being slow to speak means don't talk too much.

The person who is constantly talking isn't slow to speak. I once briefly worked at a home for disabled people and there were two other staff people there at least who were talking nonstop.

You know, it's not like you go to work for eight hours and you can, well, maybe they talk at work all the time and they go home and be quiet. I mean, there we were like, it was like two or three days in a row and couldn't leave.

I mean, 24 hours a day for two, that's a whole stretch. Nonstop, I mean, this is their whole life.

Never was there a moment of silence that they didn't feel the urge to fill with some kind of conversation. I don't even know how they did it.

How could you never run out of things to say? Christians need to understand that talking too much is like eating too much or drinking too much or watching too much

TV. It's excess. It's a lack of self -control. Proverbs chapter 10, verse 19 says, when words are many, transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent.

Be slow to anger. Don't have a short fuse, flying off the handle because something offends you.

Or maybe you don't express your anger in outbursts. And maybe you think, well, I don't do that. I don't fly off the handle.

I don't shout at people and throw stuff and kick shins and stuff like that. I keep it down.

Maybe, you know, you figure I'm not shouting and slamming doors and throwing stuff. Maybe the manifestation of the religion of your spirituality, maybe angry spirituality, is more sullen, simmering, withdrawing, folding your arms, grimacing, pouting, breaking relationships.

I don't have anything to do with him anymore. And that's okay, you think, as long as it's good.

I'm not being loud and violent about it, but he doesn't say be slow to be loud and violent.

He says slow to anger, however you express that anger, whether or not you outwardly express that anger.

That's not the point. Be slow to anger. Some people manage to stifle their anger, to muffle it, so it expresses itself only in, they're still angry deep down, but they only express itself in calm looking, inside voice, volume statements, folded arms, stern look, and then leaving.

And they think that's okay. Some people learn through painful experience that bursting out in anger just makes things worse for them.

So they put a lid on it, but they're still quick to anger. They haven't really changed deep down.

They've just learned to change how they express themselves. They're only controlling the expression. The spirituality is angry, even if the religion is not.

Instead, we're called to bear all things, including little offenses, inconsiderateness, things that don't go our way, believe all things, always give the people the benefit of the doubt, hope all things, hope that they're growing, not that, you know, just assuming they're going worse, endure all things.

That's Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Here, it's be quick to hear. Who do you think, quick to hear who, by the way?

Quick to hear yourself? No, obviously not. Hear others, particularly other

Christians, the other members of the Christian community, other church members, slow to speak, but sometimes you need to speak, sure, and slow to anger, because an angry spirit is never an attentive one.

He doesn't say never be angry, though, does he? I mean, he could have said it, if that's what he meant. Just to slow to speak doesn't mean never speak, but speak after some thought, speak with care.

So to slow to anger doesn't mean never be angry. Consider whether this, whatever it is that's irritating you, whether this should be making you angry.

Is it just a personal offense? My ego was wounded. I didn't get the recognition

I wanted. They didn't clap for me loud enough. Well, we're so small, we can't clap, we can't give that song all the applause it was due, sorry.

We're just too small. They didn't do the things the way I wanted them to do. They didn't listen to me. Well, that probably shouldn't be making you angry.

But if you're not made by, you're not made angry by some things, if you're not made angry by what angers the

Lord, there's a problem. The Lord is sometimes angry. You understand that, I hope. And what makes him angry doesn't make you angry.

Guess who's wrong? You better be slow to consider whether this, you need to be slow to consider who's wrong, or slow to consider whether this, whatever it is, really angers the

Lord or not, or it just angers you. But if it does anger the Lord, like hypocrisy, like lying, like injustice, and it doesn't anger you, if your attitude is, and I've heard this, sure, that person, he pours out his religious platitudes, but he doesn't keep his or her word, lies and slanders, and he's rash, and you can give a list of bad things he's done, but he's, they'll say, he's good to me.

I've never had a problem with him. So they say, I have no problem. That's your attitude.

You have a problem. For decades or centuries, the churches in the South lived comfortably with injustice perpetrated on their neighbors because of their complexion.

They were wrong not to be made angry by it. The Lord hates injustice.

So there's something wrong with a religion that lives unangered beside it.

Be slow to anger, because in verse 20, the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. If you're quick to anger, it's more likely that what you're feeling is just your own irritation, the anger of man, human anger, which implies the anger of man implies that there's an anger of God, which is different.

But the anger, our anger, comes just from us, does not produce the righteousness of God. We're angry that something didn't go our way, someone is driving in front of us.

And it's, you know, it's a yield sign, you don't have to stop. So that would be me.

Our will isn't being done. We're not so much angered by God's will not being done.

That doesn't irritate us near as much, does it? We want our kingdom to come. Eat where I wanna eat.

My favorite TV show to be the one we watch. My opinion's the rule.

In the family or at church. If God's kingdom doesn't come, well, that's not such a big problem for us.

So we show that our spirituality is all about ourselves. And that will express itself in a religion that is all about ourselves, a worthless religion.

Our anger cannot produce the righteousness of God. We can't make God's kingdom come by violently imposing it on people, by passing laws that make them convert or go to church, not that we're anywhere near doing that now, but in case we ever did, we just can't make it happen.

That's really the key difference between Christianity and Islam. Muslims believe that they can make people right with God by force, by making them say the confession and imposing

Islam on them. We don't believe that. God must do the work of making them right, of producing the righteousness of God.

You know, just in verse 18, in other words, he must be the one that raises up people from spiritual death. Like Jesus raised

Lazarus up, come forth. We can't do that ourself. So what do we do?

We pray, Father, your kingdom come. And then we have to leave it to him.

Our anger, our force, our politics doesn't help, but God's anger, or preferably his grace, can make his kingdom come.

So because of that, therefore, in verse 21, because we need to be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, we need to put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness that get in our way of the righteousness of God.

And that word filthiness there, the commentators say, they could refer to, oddly enough, earwax.

Could be specific like that. Clean out your ears spiritually so you can hear better.

Put away then pornography, whatever tends to pornography. Put away on the one hand, the stuff that makes it harder for you to hear.

Filthiness, wickedness, put that away. And then on the other hand, receive, accept what he calls here the implanted word.

An odd phrase, isn't it? The implanted word. I think it's the same as the word of truth in verse 18, just previous.

It's the gospel, it's the word of Christ that brings faith through hearing it. It's implanted, here speaking to Christians, because it was planted in your heart when

God brought you forth of his own will. Said just a few verses earlier. He brought you forth, he put his word in you, and it will save their souls.

Save your souls, I hope, in verse 21. God uses the word to make people born again.

It is the seed in their heart that brings them life. But some people have the word implanted in their heart, but don't yet express it in their lives, in their religion.

They've been born again, made right with God, but maybe they still have problems with their religion, because of their, maybe because of this, you know, that filthiness and rampant wickedness, the spiritual earwax.

Maybe the attitudes, that they don't need to listen. They can just blurt out whatever they think.

They can storm off in a huff, because they weren't listened to. Such people need to receive with, see, say here, receive, put away the rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness.

You know, meekness is some people, even some religious people, they think that's weakness. And some people's religion, you need to be assertive, you need to be demanding, it's gonna be your way, or the highway.

He said, receive with meekness. Into their mind, into their behavior, into their religion.

The word, receive that word, it should make them weak, should make us meek,

I should say. Pure religion is meek. It's teachable, listens, it's open to reason.

Religion is the external manifestation of spirituality.

Pure religion coming out of a healthy spirituality listens. And second, it doesn't just listen.

Don't just listen. But, in verse 22, there's a contrast here.

Verse 22, we've taken a sharp turn, and we're emphasizing something else. You've received the word already with meekness, but don't stop there.

But, be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Someone who only hears, even if he says he agrees, he likes everything he's heard, but he's deceiving himself, if he's only hearing.

He's lying to himself. He's telling himself that just agreeing with the word is good enough.

Just saying, oh, good message, pastor, powerful sermon. I wanna get that on CD so I can listen to it again.

They think that's enough. Again, James is a lot like Paul in 2 Timothy, where we were warned there, remember?

Of those who heap up mounds of teachers, and they hear them over and over again every day, always listening, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth, which would, if they ever came to a knowledge of the truth, would manifest itself and change life, and change religion.

They think they're never -ending hearing, that they're listening to preachers on the radio all the time, or on CDs, or on the internet all the time.

They're reading good Christian books all the time. They think that is good enough, but it's not.

James gives a little analogy in verse 23. The one who hears only, the one who hears but doesn't do, is like a man who looks intently.

Notice that he's looking intently. He's not just casually glancing. He's looking intently at his face in the mirror. He's studying his own face, looking at the scars and the wrinkles.

But even though he looked intently, he at once forgets what he looked like.

He forgot his hair was totally out of place. So he walks away, and he thinks he's fine.

He has so accustomed himself, and he thinks that way, because he's so accustomed himself to seeing the reflection of himself, even if it looks intently, but doing nothing about it.

It doesn't matter if he looks intently. He's still not going to change his appearance.

He's not going to comb his hair, or whatever. It doesn't matter how intently he looked.

He just so separated his looking from his doing that he just doesn't do anything about it.

It doesn't matter for some. If they read the Bible every day, they try to go through the whole thing in a year.

You know, they follow one of these plans, and they go through it a year. Or if they are attentive to the sermon. If they read good

Christian books, they listen to other good preachers on the internet. He's so severed what he reads or hears from how he lives, as soon as he has closed his

Bible, or as soon as I've said the benediction, he forgets everything. Nothing is applied.

Nothing is changed. Now, he might at first hear a message that challenges him, that moves him with conviction.

He's feeling, he's grieving for his sin. Maybe, for example, he hasn't been giving generously.

He hears it. He agrees. He confesses that he hasn't been giving like he should. And he walks away, and he doesn't change.

He continues hardly giving. And so his checkbook shows, despite all he heard, and despite everything he said, you know, despite looking intently, the

Bible studies he's done, that he's no different. Such a person is, says here, deceiving himself.

He's making it easier and easier to continue to ignore God's word. And so to justify anything that he then wants to do, to live in this fantasy world where he can claim a great spirituality inside his heart, that he loves the

Lord deep down, that God and right doctrine mean the most to him, he says.

But in his actual life, what expresses what can be seen in his religion, he doesn't have to show it.

He thinks. He is lying to himself most of all.

But in verse 25, the one who looks, who peers into the perfect law, the law of liberty, the same as,

I think, the same as the implanted word, the word of truth. And don't be put off by the word law there. I think the word law could just mean instruction.

It's the word of God that instructs us on the way to life. That instructs us on how to be free if you listen to it and do it.

He first hears, then he perseveres. Notice that he perseveres.

That is, he keeps hearing. He keeps looking into God's word. He continues to learn and memorize and meditate on it.

And then he takes that other step. He doesn't. He's a doer.

He doesn't just hear a message, maybe, for example, in giving that challenges him. He actually changes.

You could see the changes in his checkbook. You could see the changed priorities in his lifestyle and what he buys and what now he thinks is important to give to and what now he thinks is not so important to spend on.

And James says, he will be blessed in his doing. He'll be blessed. The end of verse 25.

God will bless his changed life. So if you think you're religious, that your spirituality, your relationship with God is expressed outwardly in your life, if you think that is good, well, then let's see.

Let's take three tests. He gives us three tests here, three ways to see if the manifestations, the outward expression of your relationship with God, are they pure or are they worthless?

Three tests. Your words, your relationship to the vulnerable, and your relationship to the world.

Test number one, do you bridle your tongue? Well, the word bridle, just like from a horse, implies restraint.

You're able to restrain your words like a skilled rider can restrain a well -trained horse.

You're able to control what you say. Not just say what you feel like saying. Maybe what's to your advantage at any moment to say, because if I say this, this is what the person wants to hear so I'll say it and I get what

I want. Are you in control of your words?

And so because you are in control of your words, you mean what you say. James will have a lot more to say about that later.

Are your words, the outward manifestation of your heart, really expressing what you mean, what you are committed to?

In other words, do you keep your word? Or you just say what you feel like saying at any moment, kind of like a wild horse can just do anything it feels like doing any moment, bucking and running as it feels like.

Is that what your words are? Are you, like God, faithful to do what you say you will do?

If not, then your words, the outward manifestation of your heart are worthless and so is your religion.

Second, second test, pure religion in verse 28, religion that is undefiled in God's sight.

Again, not all religion is bad. We have this kind of idea today, religion is bad, we don't know about religion. No, it is pure religion.

It's undefiled in God's sight, not polluted with our sin, with our self -deception, not polluted with this culture of religious hypocrisy that's so pervasive here.

Religion that is real, that's free of all that, that is the manifestation of a real heart that loves

God, of a healthy spirituality, is this, in that last verse, verse 28.

Visit orphans and widows in their affliction. Orphans and widows in their day were the most vulnerable people.

They had, because they had no man to take care of them. And on that day, if you had no man to,

I mean, you're a woman by yourself, you're in trouble. They didn't have guns back then, so a woman was had, people could only rely on their muscles.

And if you had no man to take care of them, to provide for them and protect them, and that day before welfare and police forces, that meant they were easy prey to anyone who wanted to abuse them and they had no way of taking care of themselves.

Now, in our day, we've taken care of a lot of that materially, you know, with Social Security and the like, with the government and police forces, you know, police, so when you call, and they'll come in a hurry if you dial 911.

We have foster homes for orphans. That's good, gone to the father of the fatherless.

We've taken care of many of the physical afflictions, but those aren't the only afflictions. We still have the emotionally vulnerable.

We have people who need help taking care of themselves. You know, visit them in their affliction,

James says. Practically relieve their affliction. Now, James is the one who later will talk about the value of prayer, the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

So he's not against prayer, but he's not, you know, don't just pray for the person, go do something. Now, there's a lot of different applications

I could suggest. You know, you could volunteer Meals on Wheels. You can consider taking in a foster child.

We sometimes have neglected, we've come across neglected children through Jim Jr. You could help with that. Usually, I suggest kind of general applications and leave it up to you to find the one that fits your life best, hoping you'll be a doer of the word and apply it to your situation.

But in this case, the application is so obvious, I would be doing pastoral malpractice, not to mention it.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, visit the paris.

Notice he says, visit orphans and widows, the vulnerable. Now, just pray for them.

Now, just give them money. Let's hope someone else will do it. Visit the paris. Some might say, well, that's your job, pastor.

Not any more than it is yours, member. Notice it's religion for anyone in verse 26.

If anyone thinks he is religious, and so this applies to you, to all of us, are you doing it?

Are you just thinking maybe you can pay me to do it? And maybe that through Mary, or we hope Wayne does it, which he probably will.

Visit the paris. You might say, but I don't even have their number to call ahead. Oh, guess what?

Now you do, take your bulletin home. You might say, well, I don't know what to talk about. Oh, don't worry about that.

Oh, the paris of all people are perfectly able to fully supply you with enough conversation.

Now, they can keep you busy for a day. You might say, well, come on, but I have kids. I mean, well, that's even better.

You get to show them, the kids. Hey, kids, this is pure religion, undefiled before God the Father, us visiting these elderly church members.

And then the kids give you a good reason you gotta leave early. I mean, visiting doesn't mean you have to spend half the day there.

Just a brief visit would be appreciated. You might need to have a good reason in case it starts to take too long.

You might say, I'm not much for merely social visits. I'm just not the kind that likes just to hang out, visit and talk.

Well, fine, that's fine, I respect that. Well, then call them up and ask them when you can mow their grass, or do some other such chore.

You know, they're now having difficulty keeping their lawn mowed. Now, I bet if all of us who mow grass at home would mow their grass once a mowing season, just once or twice, right?

Take our turn. They could probably take care of the rest and possibly help Mr. Perry stay at home longer instead of having to go into a nursing home.

The affliction of old age has prevented them from taking care of themselves like they used to, right?

They're not the kind of people that try to get people to do something for them they can do for themselves.

They're not like that. Visit them to relieve that affliction. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the

Father is visiting the Perrys. Third test, keep yourself unstained from the world.

Don't let the world spill its values, its filthiness, its obsession with appearances, with what can be held and felt and spent with money and cars and vacations.

Don't let it spill that, those values on you. Don't let it stain you so that now you are all just like the world.

You're all about the money and the sensations and the looks and your American individualism, which gives you an individualistic spirituality.

It tells you that there's, you know, that your spirituality is just you and God, isn't it?

It's a relationship, just you and God, not religion, all by yourself. It's a relationship between you and him.

I know whose I am, you exclaim. So you don't need to be attached to anybody, even though he is.

Do you really know who you are? Christianity, you think, is all about being God. There's only two sets of footprints in the sand, after all, right?

Walking side by side. And so that personal relationship, which is what term we made up, can't be expressed in something external, like the church, or shared by anyone else.

It's inward and so untouchable by the perception and judgment of others, we think.

It is what someone called what a man does with his solitariness, unaccountable and detached.

That passes for spirituality these days, but it is pure worldliness when it leads you to spout worthless words that you won't keep, to pour out religious platitudes while breaking your commitments, asserting your opinion, and ignoring other members of the body and their affliction.

It's self -deception, worldly self -deception, and it's worthless.

It's counterfeit religion. You want the real thing?

Don't you want the real thing? The real thing's much better. The real thing, the kindness, not just a jumble of phony words that we throw together to make us feel good about ourselves, then receive with meekness, you know, with heads bowed, hands empty, the word of truth, that word that tells the truth about you, that shows you that you are a sinner, that you need him, you need him to call you by his own will.

That phrase we saw last week, they call you by his own will to bring you forth from spiritual death, like Jesus brought

Lazarus forth. You need him to speak that word, come forth, to give you liberty, to set you free from the chains of sin, to make your heart come alive so that it expresses itself in pure religion.

You manifest a new life. It's quick to hear, quick to listen, because your life came from his word, that trembles at his word, because you dare not disobey it.

It trembles at his word, and so does it. Don't you want the real thing?

Put away the counterfeits that the world is selling for cheap. Get the real thing.