Now, with the apostle here today,
this evening, my message there, what he says there in verse 19
of James 1, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, slow to write. Now, he's talking about
the Word of God, because he just told us about the Word of God,
the good gifts that come down by his own will, begatting us
with the Word of truth, that we should be kind of firstfruits
of his creature. So if this Word, Let every man
be swift to hear, slow to speak." And then he goes on down here
to say, "...lay aside everything that is against you hearing this
word, and receive with meekness the encrafted word." There in
verse 21. And then verse 22, he says, "...be ye doers of the
word, and not just hearers." Not just hearers. So you see,
he's talking about the Word of God and the effect it has upon
people. Now, the Word of God has an effect
upon us. for good or for bad. And some
here, they look at it and they see it in a mirror, and it has
no effect on them at all, no more than a mirror does not change
your appearance, does not change your heart. And that's what he's
talking about, hearing the Word of God and doing the Word of
God. And he's dealing with man's attitude and reactions toward
it. And that's why he says, "...of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth." So since this is the way God saves sinners,
with the Word of Truth, With regeneration, wherefore, my beloved
brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow
to rap. And this word, let every man,
this is the way God deals with men, through His word. He said,
be swift to hear. And that word swift means be
eager to hear. Eager to hear. You see, the instrument, the
gospel, the word of truth is the means by which God saves
His people. It's the means by which God,
it's the instrument God used to regenerate. Now over here,
James is your next book over. Look over in James, chapter 1,
verse 23. And that's why people need to be swift to hear. That's
why we don't want any distractions when we're preaching the gospel.
I said, first Peter, chapter 1, verse 23. Right over from
James. I said, to the right of James.
If I think, I think that's what I said. Did I say James? Hey,
don't argue. Can't win. Being born again, talking about
some gospel, the Word. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And then he says down in verse
25, the Word of the Lord endueth forever, and this is the Word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. So let every man be
swift to hear, eager to hear the Word. That's the means that
God uses. And that's why, so when He says,
hear swiftly, hear eagerly, hear closely, listen clearly, listen
carefully. And that's why we don't want
any distractions when we're preaching, because all it takes is a little
distraction. And you'll miss something, and
we want to carefully listen. And not only is the Word of God
given to us to regenerate, that's the instrument God used to regenerate,
but it's what God uses to comfort us. He says over in 1 Thessalonians
4.18, He says, Comfort ye one another with these words. Use
the gospel to be a comfort to one another. Use the words of
God to be a comfort to one another. Nothing comforts you like the
Word of God does. And it's the thing that God uses
it for us to grow. You know what God feeds us with?
We all, when a baby starts growing, first thing he has is milk. And
he said, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow
thereby. And then over in Hebrews, he says, then you have meat.
Some have meat and some are able to eat meat. And so you start
out on milk and as you grow in the word, you begin to eat. Stronger
meat and begin to eat better things out of the Scripture.
But it's what God uses to cause us to grow. And oh, how important
is the Word. Seize every opportunity to hear
the Word. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, Take
heed how you hear. Hear. And oh, take heed how you
hear, so be swift to hear. And then look what else it says.
Not only, beloved, let every man be swift to hear, but slow
to speak. What is he talking about here? Slow to speak against
what you do here. Slow to speak against what you
hear. Weigh it out. Consider it. You know, be slow
to speak for what's heard until we're taught in the Word ourselves.
And I'll tell you, I read something the other day and I wrote it
down. It says, come to the Scripture with a view to learn, not a view
to teach. And a lot of folks, they go with
the Scriptures with a view to teach somebody to find what's
wrong with somebody else, but go to the Scriptures with a view
to learn and not to teach. And that's what he says. We come
to learn. And don't set yourself, listen
to what's heard, because we're taught in the Word. Be careful.
That's why, you know, slow to speak, slow to stand up and debate,
slow to stand up and say, that's wrong, slow to stand up and say,
I don't agree with that, slow to stand up, weigh things out
before you come to any conclusions. Don't set yourself up as teachers,
you know, but be slow to speak. Don't set yourself up as teachers
of the Scriptures until we've listened and learned and been
taught of the Spirit ourselves. Look what James says there in
chapter 3 and verse 1. We need to be taught ourselves.
My brethren, be not many masters. What's that mean? That means
teachers. Setting yourself up as a master over others. knowing
that we shall receive the greater condemnation." Oh my, you know,
if a person has any idea the responsibility that goes with
teaching and the consequences of teaching and preaching, they
would really certainly weigh things out. They'd be very glad
to be content to sit and just listen, be content just to hear. And the gospel, the Word of God,
is the only thing, and I know this without a doubt, I know
this and you know it, The gospel, the true Word of God preached
in love, in truth, in the Spirit of Christ is the only thing that
will produce a true Christian character and mold a Christian
into the conformity of Christ. It's the only thing that will
change us day in and day out. That's the only thing that will
do it, produce a true Christian character. Then he says, not
only slow to speak, but be slow to rap. Slow to rap. Be slow to wrath at what we hear. We ought to become angry or upset
when someone disagrees with us. You know, if somebody disagrees
with what you say, don't be angry. I'm not going to get upset with
them if they don't believe our gospel, or they live a life contrary
to the way we think they ought to live. Don't get angry with
them. Don't get angry with them. We ain't going to change them.
Anger ain't going to change anything. All it is is going to make the
situation worse. And I know this, that when pure grace is preached,
When corrections come, when instruction is given and sin is exposed,
oftentimes a passionate, angry spirit comes and it does not
adorn the gospel. It's easy for folks to get upset
when correction comes. Look over here in 2 Timothy 3. Folks will get angry and say,
you know, boy, I don't understand why he said that. He's throwing
that right at me. Who told him what I said? And you know, folks, how many
times have we talked to somebody, and I'll tell you the truth,
this is the way, if a person does not want to believe, does
not want to believe, being mad at them is not going to make
them a believer. And getting angry with what the Word of God
says, and when you're corrected in the Word of God or instructed
in the Word of God, it ain't going to change the Word of God
either. The only person it hurts when someone's angry with the
Scriptures or with the Gospel is them. It ain't going to change
God. It ain't going to change Scriptures.
It ain't going to change the Gospel. It ain't going to change
the fact that there's something wrong with you, and you need
correcting about it. Is that not right? ain't going
to change a thing. That's what he said here down
in 2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God. And watch it, it's profitable
for doctrine, for teaching. For reproof, it's profitable
to reproof us. For correcting, oh my, we get
out, we get, you know, we get misunderstandings, we get things
wrong with us in our minds, get things wrong with us in our spirit,
get things wrong with us in our scripture, get things wrong the
way we act, and we need corrected in these things. And for instruction
in righteousness, the instruction in the righteousness of Christ,
what true righteousness is. And so you see, we're pure gracious
priests. And people are instructed in
sins exposed, often sometimes get very angry about it. Now
look back over here in James chapter 1. And he goes on, So
be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath
of man, watch this, worketh not the righteousness of God. And I know this for a fact. There
have been a lot of times, years and years ago, I'd get in the
pulpit just fighting man. Somebody had me upset. I'd hear
somebody tell a lie. I'd be upset with somebody in
the church, you know, about something. Garrett does not do a thing in
the world, don't help anybody, and certainly don't adorn the
doctrine of God. And beloved, let's be, we don't persuade men
to faith, we don't persuade them to righteousness, we certainly
don't promote the glory of God with an angry spirit. Oh no,
the wrath of man, it don't work the righteousness of God. I thought
you was righteous, I thought the glory of God was your motive.
I thought, and then you know you get angry and you get, wrathful
and you get mad and an angry spirit, it won't help anybody.
Look over here in 1 Peter 3. It doesn't adorn the doctrine
of God. And we can't argue with people and debate with people
and be angry with people and argue with them and promote the
faith and righteousness of God. It just can't be done. And 1
Peter 3 says this, But let it be the hidden man of the heart.
and that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit which is in the sight of God, of great price."
And men are converted, and I'll tell you this, we're not to be
angry and debate with people because we're not going to convince
men of faith and righteousness when we're promoting with an
angry attitude and arguing with them. And I'll tell you something
else, men aren't usually converted who get angry at the preaching
of the Word. They're generally not converted. And then he goes
on down here in verse 21 of James chapter 1. Wherefore lay apart,
since this Word of God, this gospel, the gospel that God used
to convert us and comfort us and cause us to grow, We want
to be swift to listen to it. We don't want to be angry. We
want to weigh things out, and we certainly ain't going to convince
anybody to righteousness by the wrath of God, by anger, preaching
in anger. So then, since this is the way
it is, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of
naughtiness, and receive with meekness, submissiveness, the
encrafted word which is able to save his soul. Now, beloved,
laying aside something here, we lay aside something, all manner
of filthiness. What filthiness is he talking
about? The flesh and spirit. And it's filthiness to resist
the Word of God. It's anger. Anger is filthiness. Anger and rejecting the Word
of God is a filthiness. What a filthy thing and what
an unclean thing it is to take the Word of God and say, I don't
receive that. I don't believe that. I'm not
going to accept that. But let aside all manner of filthiness
of flesh and of spirit, especially pride." Can you think of anything
worse than a human being to have than pride? Now you think about that. Is
there anything worse that a human being can have other than pride?
Pride produces self-righteousness. Pride produces vainglory. Pride
produces everything that's against God. It's against grace. It's
against righteousness. And oh, how filthy is pride to
set yourself up to be something when you're nothing? And vanity,
malice, evil speaking, lay aside all these things. And then he
says, lay aside superfluity. That's excess. Anything that's
excess about your spirit, anything in excess about your nature that's
not needed. Lay aside all this naughtiness,
this foolishness. And then he says, receive with
meekness. That word meekness, you know,
submissive, fabulous, gentleness. Oh, my. If it's contrary to your
thoughts and ideas, submit to it. Take the word and receive
it with meekness and gentleness. And oh, even if it's contrary
to your own thoughts and ideas, it'll be a crafted word. When
something's encrafted, you know when you craft something to something,
when you graft it to them, an encrafted word, when it's engrafted,
that means that it's applied to the heart, put in the heart. And that's what God puts in.
He encrafts the Word into our heart by the Holy Spirit. And
He says it's able to save your souls. You know, I think it was
Paul told Titus, he said, take heed to thy doctrine. And taking
heed to your doctrine, you shall both save yourself and them that
hear you. And he says, hear this encrypted
word, receive it with meekness. This word that God puts in your
heart. Because it's able to save your souls. Now, how in the world
is it able to save our souls? We say our souls are saved. But
it saves us from sin. Sins that we wouldn't commit.
Saves us from error. Saves us from our attitudes.
Saves us from heresy. Saves us from lots and lots. The Word of God saves us from
lots and lots of things. No wonder David said, Thy Word
hath I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
And then he goes on to say, this Gospel, this Word is able to
save your souls. And how many times? Does this
Lord save us? Every day. Dirk, when you pray,
save us every day. I need saving. I need saving
from myself. I need saving from my thoughts.
I need saving from my motives. I need saving from my desires. I need saving from temptations. I need saving from everything
that's so unlike God, so unlike Christ. Selfishness, hard-heartedness,
impatience, quick to fly off the handle.
I need saved from lots and lots of things. Do you all need that?
Do you need to? You know what saved us from this?
This Word of God. This precious, precious Word
of God. And then he says here in verse 22, But be ye doers
of the Word, and not hearers only. Not hearers only. Deceiving your own selves. Not
hearers only. He says, you know, he told us
to be eager to hear. Hear it thoughtfully, hear it
quietly, hear it humbly, hear it as the Word of God. Now look
over here at Luke 11. Luke 11. Here are some people
that listen to what our Lord said about it. Luke 11. Don't
just be hearers only. There are lots of folks who are
hearers only. Lots of you know, and these hearers
only, they're generally the ones who have something to say the
most whenever something, hear something, they want to make
a comment about it. But look here in Luke 11, verse 27, And it came to pass, as he spake
these words, a certain woman of the company lifted up her
voice and said unto him, speaking to the Lord Jesus, Blessing is
the wound that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. Now that sounds, you know, that's
what the Catholics say. Blessed is Mary. The Lord our Lord say, but He
said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God
and keep it. Keep it. Hear the word of God
and hear it. Keep it. And that's why He says,
not just be in hearers only, but be ye doers of the word.
Now, beloved, God's Word is to be believed. It's to be loved. It's to be obeyed. We're to put
into practice its commandments, its ordinance, everything about
it. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, If a man loves me, he'll keep
my commandments. And if a man loves me and keeps
my commandments, I, my Father, will come and make our abode
with him and manifest ourself unto him." Judas, which was in
Iscariot, he says, Lord, how wilt thou manifest thyself unto
him? He said, He that keepeth my commandments, I, my Father,
will come and take up our abode with him. We'll live with him,
we'll abide with him. And what is this doing of the
Word of God? What is this doing? It's hearing
the voice of Christ, believing Christ, trusting Christ, obeying
Christ, trusting never in yourself, trusting only in His righteousness. And it's by the grace of God,
as we find things in the Scriptures, that shows us that we're wrong,
we want to leave what's wrong and come to what's right. We
want to leave the darkness that we're in and walk in that light.
If the Scriptures correct us, we say, and that's what we say,
Oh Lord, if there's anything in me, anything in me that's
wrong, expose it and show it. Lay it back. Because I certainly,
that's what he says here, deceiving himself. He that's a hearer,
not a doer, he just deceives himself. Somebody that hears
and just gets up and just don't pay any attention to it, he's
deceived in himself. Look with me over Psalm 139.
This is what I'm talking about. Oh, my. And there are people,
there are people who, I mean, beloved, you know, That we want
the word of God to so change us. And I'll tell you this, this
is my view of it. This is my opinion of it. And
when our Lord says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments.
And you know what the greatest commandment he gave? Love one
another. And I know this, the scripture
says that, Oh, no man anything but to love another. And when
we get that debt left there paid, We'll be paid up. You reckon
that'll ever get paid up? But I'll tell you this. It's
the Word of God that teaches us that. It's the Word of God
that puts that desire in us. It's the Word of God that makes
us want to act that way. It's the Word of God that makes
us want to put others above ourselves to esteem others better than
ourselves. We don't have that. That's not natural to us. It's
not natural for us to take upon ourselves the concerns of others
and the burdens of others and the pains and sorrows and griefs
of others. It's natural for us to look to nobody but ourselves.
And I know that we want the Word of God not just to be hearers,
but we want to be doers. We want the Word of God to expose
us. Look what David said here in Psalm 139, verse 23. Search me, search me, O God,
and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. And see, and see, if there be
any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." That's
what David, you know what he's saying is? I don't want to just
hear. I want God to do something for
me in me. That's that encrafted word. And so he goes on back over here
in James chapter 1. Look what he says. You know,
if you rest on just hearing and not doing, you know what will
happen one of these days? It's like that stony ground here.
Once he receives the Word of God with joy, and then persecution
or tribulation arises by and by because of the Word. And you
know what he does? He falls away. And you know our
Lord Jesus says this. He says, He that built not his
house on the rock, he that heareth these words of mine, and doeth
them, is like an undoer man who builds his house on a rock. He
that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, he's
like an undoer man who builds his house on a sand. And the
same storm comes to both houses. The wind blows, the rain descends,
and the floods come, and the only one that stands is those
that hear and do. The ones that hear and don't,
the house falls. And if you've got a house that's
not built on the foundation of Christ and the Scriptures, that
house is going to come down. God will see to it. It may not
come down until the judgment. You know that old Roberts guy
the other day? Ninety-something years old. Big tent meetings,
had people lined up, throwing away crutches and all that. Started
out as a great big faith healer. Next thing you know, he built
a great big hospital. One time he seen a 900-foot Jesus
that told him, you know, how much money he needed to raise. I told Mary when he died, I said,
you know how shocked he is right now? Do you know what a shock
it was? Do you know why I know that?
He didn't preach the Gospel. He never talked about Christ.
He talked about healing. He talked about miracles. He
talked about money. He talked about His great works.
And the storm will come. It may not come until you get
ready to leave this world, but that storm is going to come.
It will tear that house all to pieces. And in fact, I don't
want to be shocked when I leave this world. Do you? No, no, that's
what he says. Don't just be a hearer, but be
a doer. Because if you're just a hearer,
you deceive yourself. Now, look what he says here in verse 23.
For any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto
a man beholding his natural face in a glass. Now, what does that
mean? You know, when you look in a
mirror, all you see is your own reflection and the things around
you. And he says a person who only
hears is like looking in a mirror. You know, we're sat preaching
the gospel, but he's a natural man, so he don't see the things.
And the Word of God not only reveals the Holy God to man and
the Gospel to man, and we preach Christ to a man, it also tells
about sinful man and reveals sinful man to himself. And the
man who only hears, only, he's like a man looking in a mirror,
and when he's listening and when he's looking, he sees the dirt,
he sees the blemishes, he sees the hair all messed up, but instead
of looking into it for cleansing, for being renewed, and changing
him, he gets up, walks away, and he forgets everything to
the earth. He didn't pay any attention to it. He just looked
in a mirror. And that's the fellow that just
hears and don't do. He's just looking in the mirror. The mirror
don't wipe the dirt off of you. The mirror don't comb your hair.
The mirror don't take the blemishes off of you. The mirror don't
adjust your tie. The mirror don't put your clothes
on you. The mirror does not comb your hair. All the mirror can
do is show you what's wrong with you. And a natural man who looks
and just hears, he just goes away and he stays just like he
did when he looked in the mirror. Still all messed up. Still dirty. Still blemishes, still wrong. He's a natural man. And oh, he
goes his way. But you know, David says, wherewithal
shall a young man take heed to his ways? Taking heed to thy
words. Where shall a young man cleanse
his ways? By taking heed to your word.
Oh, he forgets his condition. Look what he says in verse 24.
For he beholdeth himself a straight way, and forget what man or man
he was. He'll sit there and say, oh,
that preacher's right, he's so... But he gets up and he goes and
it's just, it's gone. He forgets his condition, forgets
his needs, forgets what he saw. He forgets his guilt in the grace
of God. He's just a natural man. He comes in and he looks. But
oh, now watch what else he says here. But whoso looketh... I love this. Whoso looketh into
the perfect law of liberty. Oh my. And continues therein. He being not a forgetful hearer.
He's not just looking in a mirror. He's but a doer of the work.
This man shall be blessed in his doing. That's what it means,
in his doing. Oh, who so looks. And that word, you know, says
it, looketh. Looketh. That's a man, he just looks.
But this fellow looking, if he's looking, that means he's continuing
to look. And oh my, he doesn't behold
and go his way. He's not a forgetful, but he
gazes into the gospel. He gazes into the Word. He gazes
into it with care and concern and interest into this gospel.
And it's called here the perfect law of liberty. Oh my, and he
looks into this gospel with the intention to receive it, believe
it, and obey it. It's the Word of God. I want
to know it. Thy Word is a lamp under my feet and a light under
my path. Open mine eyes and I may behold
wondrous things out of you, Lord. And the Lord Jesus said here,
the scripture says that this man shall be blessed. It is life of faith, life of
obedience. You know, when our Lord Jesus
washed His disciples' feet, before He'd done that, He says, Happy
are ye if you do these things. And how blessed are we if we
do these things. Oh, you know, joy, happiness,
and peace go with believing the Word of God. Oh, such contentment and such
peace. goes with believing it, and receiving
it, and obeying it. And then look what he calls it,
whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty. Why is it called
the perfect law of liberty? Well, first of all, because it
sets you perfectly free. Liberty is what we proclaim in
the gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, know
ye the truth, and what will it do for you? Set you free. Oh my, that's his subject. It's
freedom. Freedom. Free from the law of
all happy condition. The Lord Jesus freed us. from
the curse of the law, freed us from the condemnation of the
law, freed us from the bondage of the law. And that's why it
says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you
free. And he not only does that, but
he frees us, this gospel does, frees us from the power and dominion
of sin. Huh? You know, the law, all in
the world it does, when you're under the law, all you can do
is sin. It stirs up sin in a man. But
since we're not under the law, under grace, the law don't stir
us up. Because we understand it's fulfilled,
it's obeyed in our Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, beloved, I'll
tell you something else He gives us freedom to do. Freedom to
approach the throne of grace. Absence. Come bust, come boldly
under the throne of grace. Huh? Let us come boldly. And ah, beloved, he leads us
into the liberty of grace, and always the perfect law of liberty,
because it sets us free perfectly, keeps us free, keeps us free. And then it says, he that continueth,
continueth therein. You don't continue looking. What
he means is, once you look into this perfect law of liberty,
just keep looking. Just keep on looking. You see
the freedom, you see the liberty, you see what Christ has done
for us, just keep on looking. Why you don't look at it? I won't
look at it. One fellow looks at it, and all
it is is a mirror to him, he goes away and forgets. But this
person looks into this, and he's set free. Got this freedom. And,
O Beloved, continue looking, continue looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you know life starts with
a look? This is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son hath life. Secondly, do you know it continues
with a look? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. And do you know it will be finished
with a look? looking for the appearance of our Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, from heaven. And, oh beloved, looking not
only, looking into His Word, looking into His Word for faith,
looking into His Word for faith, looking into His Word for growth,
looking into His Word for leadership, for guidance, the way to go.
And looking to the Holy Spirit for grace, for strength, for
instruction. And I'll tell you this, I'll
tell you this, and some of you have been believers for decades.
I've been a believer for decades, and we hope by the grace of God
until we leave this world. But looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ and looking into His Word, looking to the Holy Spirit, is
a lifelong occupation. It's a lifelong occupation. Not
always a lifelong occupation, but it's a lifelong privilege
to be able to look to Christ, look into His Word, Look to the
Holy Spirit, and look unto Christ. Oh, what a privilege it is to
see that you look, and you want to look. You want to look. You know, people say, oh, I've
seen that before. I've heard that before. Wade
Boyd, him and I was talking the other night, he said, this is
amazing. He says, you hear the gospel, he listens to it all
day out working. He's got all kinds of sermons
on his iPod and listens to it. And he said he'll stop and tell
his wife, you've got to hear this, you've got to hear that.
But he says, you know, this is an amazing thing. He says, no
matter how much you hear it, you never get tired of it. And
it's always new. It's always new. Oh, and that's
what it is to us. That's why it's living. The Word
of God is living. And so back over here then in
James, he says, oh, we want to continue looking, looking to
Christ. This man will be blessed. in his doing. God will bless
him in his life, bless him when he's looking to Christ, bless
him when he's looking to His Word, bless him when he looks
into the Holy Spirit, bless him as he looks to Christ. And we've
already been blessed to be able to do it. Then he says in verse
26, If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles
not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion
is vain. And oh, what he says here now,
see, remember he started out being swift to hear, slow to
speak, slow to rap? Lay apart everything you know
and receive with meekness, be a hearer, not a doer? If a man
among you seems to be religious, professes to be religious, and appears to be so by preaching,
he may be a preacher, may be by praying, by personal Piety
that they may possess, but does not, now what's what he says,
but does not control his tongue. And what does he mean by this?
He said be swift to hear and slow to speak. What's he doing
when he's speaking? He's speaking, boasting of his
works, what he's done, what he's accomplished. He boasts to speak
evil of others, critical of others. That's why he says slow to speak.
soul's discord among the brethren, speaks in wrath, he's unkind,
uses gossip. And our Lord says here, the gospel
says here, that he's a fraud, he's a phony, he's a hypocrite,
and his possession is vain. I don't care what somebody says,
if they can't control their tongue about what they say about others,
about how they treat the brethren, how they boast about their own
And they go around angry all the time with no kindness and
gossiping. Their religion is absolutely
useless. As old Floyd says, save your
breath to cool your coffee. And then look what he goes on
to say. Pure religion. Sincere religion. Undefiled religion
before God. And that's what we want, ain't
it? We want something that's pure and undefiled before God. Oh, pure religion, undefiled,
religion that's sincere, genuine, honest before God, free from
hypocrisy before God, wanting God to expose it, is supported
by looking into the Word, supported by faith, supported by works,
and supported by labors of love. And he says, this is it, to visit
the fatherless and widows and their afflictions, to keep himself
unspotted from the world. Now, you know as well as I know,
This is not a full definition of true religion. No, no. If that's all you had to do is
go visit the fatherless, who are we going to go visit? Very few people. And widows in their affliction. Now, we know if that's all you
had to do to have pure religion, we'd go find us a bunch of people
who didn't have fathers. We'd go to widows' houses and
visit them and listen to them and say, oh, I'm sorry you're
in such affliction. This is just one of the things
you use in keeping yourself unspotted from the Word. This just shows
the effects and evidences of it, that you help people who
have nobody. You help people who have afflictions.
You help people who has nobody else to do it for them, like
the fatherless and like the widows. That's who God does for people
who can't do for themselves. That's just a small definition
of it. But I do know this, that where there's true faith in the
heart, there's love to God. And where there's love to God,
there'll be love to others. And you know what it'll do? It'll
manifest itself in doing for others, loving others, helping
others when they're in need. And our beloved, so be swift
to hear, slow to speak. Don't just be a hearer, but be
a doer. Look, look, look into this perfect
law of liberty. And when you start looking, just
keep on looking, don't we, Ruby? Just keep on looking. Just keep
on looking. That's what we do.