I never heard some of those verses.
That was beautiful. Blessing. Turn back to James 1. If any man among you, verse 26,
seem, appear, think himself to be religious, and bridles not
his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is
vain. It is pointless. It won't do
him any good at all. Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Now, when I read those verses,
I dare say maybe everybody in here felt just a little bit uncomfortable. What does that mean? Well, I hope by the end of this
message you're going to find these verses a comfort and a
thrill to your soul. I've entitled this message, Is
My Religion Vain or Pure? Now we read in these verses of
vain religion, empty, powerless, non-saving, and we read of pure
religion, a religion that's actually undefiled before God and the
Father. Now there is such a thing as
vain religion that is powerless and non-saving. And there is
such a thing as pure religion. I want to have this, don't you?
Whatever it is. And I want to be delivered from
this vain religion. Now, I think it's interesting.
We don't read the word religion in the Bible much, do we? But
here the word is used three different times. There are other words like godliness,
and piety and the fear of God that emphasize the inner aspect
of religion, but the word here refers to the externals of religion,
that which can be seen and verified, that which can be seen by others. What has been done on the inside
will come out on the outside. And if something has not been
done on the inside, that will come out on the outside as well.
And this is talking about religion. This is talking about what can
be seen and what can be verified. That's why James chose this word.
It's a very important word. Somebody says, well, nobody can
see inside of my heart. Ah, the other can. The scripture says, Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. What's on your inside
will come out on the outside. And that's what he is talking
about when he talks about religion. The words that come out of my
mouth will reveal what's in my heart. Now, verse 26, If any man among you seem to
be religious, and I think this is interesting, that word can
just as easily be translated, if any man thinks himself to
be religious. That word is generally translated,
think. If any man think himself to be
religious. Kind of like when John said,
if we say, we have fellowship with him. A lot of people make
that claim. I pray, I talk to God, God talks
to me. I serve him. He's my savior. I know him. I walk with him.
He walked with me. A lot of people make that claim,
the claim of fellowship with God and religion and so on. But James tells us if we say
that we're religious and that man doesn't bridle his tongue
and the things that come out of his mouth reveal what's in
his heart. That man's religion is vain. It's pointless. It is not saving. Now let me give you an example
of what James is talking about. Let's take the Pharisee in the
temple. It's not hard to figure out what's
in his heart, is it? When he says, I thank thee that
I'm not as other men are. I'm giving you the credit. But
what he's thanking God for was not his mercy. He didn't thank
him for the freeness of his grace. He didn't thank him for the blood
of the atonement. He said, I thank thee that I'm
not as other men are. He looked at other men, he compared
himself to other men, and he thought he looked pretty good.
Now it's not hard to see what is in this man's heart by what
came out of his mouth. He then began to boast. And that's what happens when
a man doesn't bridle his tongue. You find out what's really in
his heart. He began to boast of his own works. I thank thee
that I'm not as other men are. I fast twice in a week. I give tithes of all I possess.
I'm not an extortioner. I'm not unjust. I'm not like
this publican. And I give you all the credit
for it. Now, can you see what was in that man's heart? You
can see real clearly, can't you? What about the publican? God
be merciful, be propitious is the word. Be propitious. Not
just general mercy. Do something about my sin. I
can't do anything about it. I need you to put it away. God
be propitious to me, the sinner. You know, I can see what's in
that fellow's heart, can't you? You see, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So if somebody says, you can't
see what's in my heart, granted, but what's in there comes out
in your speech. And that's what he's saying. He that thinks himself
to be religious, and he bridles not his tongue, but boasts of
his own works, looks down at others, telling lies, We can see what's in his heart. Now these two men actually are
the two representative men. You and I are represented by
one of these two men. They describe me or you. The man who boasts of his own
works and speaks ill of others in order to make his own light
shine brighter and is always finding fault with God's Providence,
which is another form of self-righteousness. I say by that I deserve better
than this when I find fault with God's providence and murmur at
God's providence. This failure to bridle the tongue
comes because there's no grace in the heart. Now, if there's grace in your
heart, it'll come out in the speech. It'll come out in how
you speak of yourself. It'll come out in how you speak
of others, if there's grace in the heart. Now this man's religion
that fails to bridle his tongue, his religion is vain. It is not saving. It won't do
him any good. Notice what James says, if any
man among you seems to be religious and bridles not his tongue, but
deceives his own heart. This man has deceived himself.
Now this man's religion is vain. It is not saving. It won't do
him any good at all. Now look in verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled before
God. Now that is some kind of statement,
isn't it? Wow. This is what God would call
pure. This is what God would call undefiled. Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction. Now, when's the last time you
visited an orphanage? Anytime recently? When's the
last time you visited a widow? Is that talking about the outward
doing of these things? Now, the outward doing of these
things is good, no doubt, but this is speaking of a principle.
I hope you'll see this as we go on. Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. Now that word pure, you know
what it means? It means unmixed. It means simple. It's not made of two things.
It's not a compound. It's pure. It's 100% pure, not
made of other things. Undiluted. Undefiled means unsoiled,
free from that by which the nature of a thing is deformed or debased
like a disease eating away at the body and depriving it of
its strength. Now, pure and undiluted and undefiled. I love these words that describe
pure religion. Pure and undefiled. Now, what
this is talking about, this is really so simple. It's talking
about the simplicity that's in Christ. Not Christ and, Christ only. That's pure religion. It's not
mixed. It's not mixed with human works.
It's not mixed with human religion. It's Christ only. Now what do I mean by that? Well,
it means all I have is Christ. That's it. I don't have anything
else to bring to the table. All I have is the Lord Jesus
Christ. I don't have anything else to
plead. Now that is pure religion. It's simple. The simplicity,
the singleness, the onlyness that's in Christ. I've got nothing
else. I have one way to interpret the
Word of God. You know what that is, don't
you? Christ, the gospel. I have one reason for being elected. You know why God chose me? For
Christ's sake. That's the only reason. I have
one reason for standing just before God. Just one reason.
Christ's righteousness. was given to me. I have one reason
why I was redeemed, and it's not because of anything I did
or even asked to be done for me, but because Christ died for
my sin. That's the one reason I'm redeemed. I have a single reason for being
sanctified. Christ is my sanctification. I have a single object of faith, Christ only. I have a single motive for obedience,
for Christ's sake, not for hope or reward, not for fear of punishment,
for Christ's sake. I have a single grounds of acceptance, Christ. Now, I've got a single way into
heaven. Christ. Now, that is pure religion. It's not mixed with anything
else. Let me ask you a question. Do you have anything other than
Christ that you would bring before God? Or is your prayer, oh, that
I may win Christ, and be found in him. That's all I want. That, my beloved brethren, is
pure religion. Undefiled. Undefiled before the
Father. It's not polluted and corrupted
by human works. Now, may I say why this is pure
and undefiled, this pure religion that we're speaking of? That
it can actually be said to be pure? What God would call pure? What God would call undefiled?
How can something be that way? Well, look in verse 17 of our
text. Every good gift, which pure religion certainly is, and
every perfect gift, it's complete, it doesn't lack anything, is
from above. That's why it's pure. It's from above. And it cometh
down from the Father of lights, in whom is no bearableness, neither
shadow of turn." Now this pure religion and undefiled before
God is summarized by two things. What we do. We visit the fatherless
and the widows. And what we keep ourselves from. We keep ourselves unspotted from
the world. Now let's consider these two
things that comprise pure religion and undefiled before the Father.
Here's the first thing. If I have pure religion and undefiled
before the Father, I visit the fatherless and the widows. Now
I have visited some widows. people who are in this church,
what a blessing that's been. But I've never been to an orphanage.
And I don't really recall ever visiting someone that was fatherless. But really, that's not what this
is about. Actually, although it's good,
if you go visit widows, go visit orphans, that's a good thing
to do. But what this has to do with me doing something without any hope
of compensation or reciprocation. I'm doing it for Christ's sake. Not out of reward, not out of
salvation by works, not because of what I'm going to get out
of it. I'm doing it realizing I'm not going to get, I'm not
doing it in order to get compensation. I'm not doing it to get reward. Now who is unable to compensate
you? A widow. She's represented as
someone who has nothing to give, completely dependent upon the
charity of others. What does an orphan have? All
an orphan can do is ask you to give to them. There's nothing
that they can do to remunerate to you what you've done for them.
They're without the ability to compensate and this is a great
spiritual principle. Now turn with me to Matthew chapter
25 for a moment. Verse 31, When the Son of Man shall come
in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, Then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered
all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd
divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father,
inherit, not earn, but inherit. The kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. You know, we're even going to
hear that on Judgment Day. This kingdom that you're getting,
that you're inheriting, you didn't earn it. It was given to you
from the very foundation of the world, and now you can come and
take it. Well, I want to hear those words,
don't you? 4, verse 35, I was hungry, and you gave me
meat. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you
clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall the righteous
answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee, and hungered, and
fed thee, or thirsting, and gave thee to drink? When saw we thee
a stranger, and took thee in, or naked, and clothed thee? When
saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the king
shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch
as you've done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren,
you've done it unto me. Now, it's good to do all those
things physically. I hope we do. I hope we do. But what this is more than anything
else is the preaching of the gospel. People who are naked, sick, in
prison, starving, with no help. That's what the preaching of
the gospel does for them. We're all identified in the preaching
of the gospel. We identify now, like I said,
it's good. I hope we do these things physically.
But you know, there's a lot of people say, man, we, when the
Lord says depart from me, we made food kitchens and hospitals
and we did all these good things. He'll say depart because they
had no idea what it meant. No idea. This has something to
do with the preaching of the gospel. You know, when we're
visiting the fatherless and the widows, We're identifying with
them for one thing. I'm poor and I'm helpless and
I'm dependent upon the complete charity of God. And this is the
person we want to bring the gospel to. The person that doesn't have
anything but bring to the table. The fatherless and the widows. And that's a summary of what
half of what pure religion is. It's to visit the fatherless
and the widows in their affliction. But not only is pure religion
seen in visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction,
it's seen in keeping ourselves unspotted, untarnished, unaffected
by the world. Now, somebody's thinking, I'm
not doing a very good job of that. Well, no doubt. Every one of us had too much
worldliness in us. Every one of us beginning here. But that's
really not so much what that's talking about. So please listen
real carefully. They keep themselves unspotted from the world. Now, true religion is first seen in
keeping ourselves. You know what that means? It
means persevering. It means not quitting. That's what you do when you keep
yourself. We're told to keep yourself in the love of God.
This thing of perseverance, continuing in the faith, that's the evidence
that God's done something for you. I liked what one preacher said
to a young lady who had confessed her faith in Christ, and she
asked him probably a foolish question, but she said, do you
think I'm saved? Do you think I'm really saved?
And his answer was to her, well, honey, see me in 30 years, and
perhaps we'll get some kind of answer. True religion is keeping
yourself. It's persevering in the faith.
We are made partakers of Christ. if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end. Now, any believer is going to
persevere. And somebody that doesn't persevere
in the faith, they're not a believer. Pure religion is seen in keeping
yourself. And notice what he says. It's Let me say this first. If we
keep ourselves, how come? You know the answer to that.
Because we're kept. If I keep myself, there's only
one reason. I'm kept. Preserved by the power
of God through faith unto salvation. He that is begotten of God keepeth
himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. It's the new
nature that does not sin, that keeps himself, and keeps the
commandments and the word of Christ. He that keepeth my commandments,
he that keepeth my word, he it is that loveth me. You know, we're even commanded.
I like this command. We're commanded to keep ourselves in the love
of God. Who wouldn't be anywhere else? I want to be in His glorious,
free, complete love. Now, what are we said to keep
ourselves from? Look in Back to James chapter 1, verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless
and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. What's meant by the world? We'll
turn back to 1 John chapter 2. Turn over to 1 John chapter 2. Now when the scripture is talking
about the world, it's not talking about this planet. Not at all. Don and Mary Williams right now,
I hope they're listening to this. They said they were going to
be listening to all of the live broadcast, but they're driving
all over the United States seeing these parks, and I guarantee
you they love the world. I do too. I mean, it's a beautiful
place. The Lord made it. And there are
many great blessings. in the world. What a great blessing
it is to have a happy marriage. What a great blessing it is between
the relationship between parents and children. And what a blessing
it is to be able to work and to do a good job at something
and to feel good about it. Those are great blessings. This
is not worldly. Somebody said that's worldly.
No, it's not. It's being thankful to the Lord for His blessings.
All things are yours, are given to you to enjoy. And so that's
not worldliness. And look what John says in verse
15. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, what? The love of the Father is not
in him. It's absent. It's not there. For all that is in the world The lust of the flesh. The flesh's desire for pleasure. The lust of the eyes. The flesh's desire to please
people. Popularity. The good thoughts
of men. And the pride of life, the desire
for power is not of the Father but is of the world. Now that's
the world he's speaking of when he says love not the world. You
know what? In my flesh, and if you're honest
you'll say the same thing, in your flesh You see a desire for
the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of
life. You still got that? Sure you
do. But if you're a believer, you
know what? You don't love it. You hate it. And you pray for
complete deliverance from that. You don't want to see him. You
don't want to sin against God. You want to sin not. And you hate the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, which
are dogging you constantly and will until the day you die. Now that's the world he's speaking
of. It's the same world of which
the Lord refused to pray for. He said, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, but for them which you have given me. It's
the same world of which the Lord said to unbelievers, the world
cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify of it,
that the works thereof are evil. It's the same world over which
Satan said, When he brought the Lord up, when he was tempting
him, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment
of time, and he says, all this is under my control. It's given
it to me. And whoever I will, I give it
to. You know, the kingdoms of this
world, the governments of this world, the nations of this world,
they're not Christian. Including the United States,
this is not a Christian nation. Never has been one, never will
be one. all the world, over, Satan's got, he's called the
God of this world. We read of the cares of this
world, the choke, the thorn choked hearer, the maxims, the principles,
the philosophies of this world, and most especially, the religion
of this world. the religion of this world. Now the believer, the possessor
of pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father, is called
upon to keep himself unspotted from this world. Now somebody
says, how am I to go about doing that? How do I keep myself unspotted
from the philosophy of this world, the desires of this world, the
religion of this world? How am I to keep myself unspotted
from the world? Well, I can answer that question
by looking to the Word of God alone. Desire, Peter says, the
sincere milk of the Word. And I don't know why the translators
translated that the sincere milk of the Word. Desire the pure
milk of the Word that you may grow thereby. The only way you
and I will be unspotted from the world is if we look to the
Word of God only. That's my only I don't even want to call it
a source of information. It's all I want to hear. The Word
of God. I could care less about religion
and men's denominations and all the foolishness that goes on
under the name of religion. Oh, I want the pure Word of God. How do I keep myself unspotted
by the world? By looking to Christ alone. It's called pure faith. Pure
faith. You look to Christ only. You
don't look anywhere else. He's everything in your salvation.
He's everything in your acceptance before God. You're resting in
Him only. Nowhere else. You do that? That's pure faith. That which rests in Christ alone. You know, I think this is very
interesting. The world cannot be satisfied with faith alone. They've got to have something
else. Give me something to do. The world, a worldly person,
an unbeliever, a man of this world can never be satisfied
with faith alone. And that's all a believer can
be satisfied with. That's it. They can't find any
comfort, any joy, anywhere else. Now that is pure faith. It looks
to Christ alone. How can I be unspotted from this
world? Well, purely the Word of God,
pure faith in Christ looking nowhere else, Him only. And I
love this, pure grace, pure Unmixed grace. Electing grace. Redeeming grace. Justifying grace. Regenerating
grace. Calling grace. Preserving, keeping
grace. Glorifying grace. Pure grace. Now the only way that you and
I are going to be unspotted from the world is if we look only
to the Word of God. If we look to Christ only and
if we rest purely in His pure and free grace. And you know
something? Every believer does that. Every
one of them. No exceptions to this rule. They
all do it. They all, they don't want to hear the words of man.
They want to hear the words of Christ. They want to hear nothing but
the word of God. They look to Christ only and
they're scared to death to look anywhere else. You know how I
can tell if you really believe you're a sinner? Because you
really believe you're a sinner if you're afraid to look anywhere
but Christ. Would that be you? You're afraid
to rest anywhere but in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you really
believe in pure grace is the only thing that's going to do
you any good. Now that is pure religion. Now there's such a
thing as vain religion. That man who Appears to be religious,
he does, but he can't bridle his tongue. Works come out, boasting
comes out, you can hear it, you can see it, it shows itself. It's vain, and that man's deceived
himself. But there's such a thing as pure
religion too. Undefiled before God. And it's seen in doing what
you do without looking for compensation. It's against works, visiting
the fatherless and the widows, and to keep yourself unspotted
from the world. And every believer, every believer,
possesses this pure religion, undefiled. You do. And if you're
an unbeliever, you have vain religion. that will not do you
any good at all. May God give every one of us
this pure religion. Let's pray together. Lord, take your word and bless
it to our hearts. Lord, cause us to have this pure
religion that's undefiled before thee. Lord, cause us to visit the fatherless and the widows
in their affliction. Cause us to serve freely. Deliver
us from ever trying to earn anything. And Lord, keep us persevering, keeping ourselves
And Lord, by your grace, cause us to keep ourselves unspotted
from the world. And Lord, bless this message
for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray.