For a lesson this morning, turn
with me to the book of James, James chapter 1. I want you to look at two verses
this morning, verses 26 and 27. My subject is the same as what's
stated in the verses, pure and undefiled religion. Let's read
these two verses together. James 1, verse 26. If any man among you seem to
be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his
own heart, this man's religion is vain. 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. No less than three times in these
two verses, the Holy Ghost inspires the apostle to write using the
word religion. It's a word that we use a lot
in our day. While the whole of the Bible,
this subject is incorporated, and everything in here finds
itself under that title of religion, James seems to have a more narrow
view than that. What does the word religion mean? You know, we use words all the
time and I especially, I sit down and I study these things
and I look at these words and word meanings and things and
a lot of times I discover that I've been using the word in completely
the wrong context. I mean, completely the wrong
meaning altogether. And we just use these words and
In fact, he talks about men teaching and not understanding what they're
saying. You have to understand what you're talking about if
you're going to talk and have it to mean anything. Well, what
does this word religion mean? The dictionary calls it an expression,
an expression of one's belief in reverence for and obedience
to what he calls God, what he calls deity, what he believes
to be a superior being, to be his creator in some cases, and
even governor of the universe. Religion is a very broad term. When you use religion, it can
mean almost anything. It's a very broad term. It takes
in the attitude and conduct of those who profess to have it.
It takes in any objective he may pursue with his religious
zeal or his conscientious devotion. It takes in all of that. It also
incorporates certain ceremonies, rites, ordinances attached to
his belief. Names and titles. Government. the government of it, the relationship
of others to you who are like-minded, who are also religious. Another word used by the Apostle
Paul in Athens, Greece, as he walked around Athens and he came
out to Mars Hill, a very notable place there. Everybody said,
boy, are you new here? Yeah. He said, I'm just passing
through. If you want to take in something, be sure to go out
to Mars Hill. Go out there. That's where the
philosophers meet. That's where the wise are getting.
Go out there. And so Paul did. He went out
there. And he wandered around and he
read all their memorials to all these gods. And having done that,
he told them, he said, I perceive that you're all too superstitious. That word is religious. Religious. Well, what's that word mean?
It means unfounded religion. Unfounded, irrational religion. It's something men practice out
of ignorance. And it can go to the ridiculous.
Don't go under that step ladder. Don't break that mirror. Watch
out for that black cat. On and on it goes. Superstition. If religion were not so diverse,
it would be easy to teach, wouldn't it? But it's so diverse, you
can't just throw the term out there, religious. If any man
seemed to be religious, boy, that takes in a whole world of
things. It's such a broad term that you can't
simply just use the term and expect all those you're talking
to to be on the same page. Everybody on the planet, without
exception, is religious. Even those who fight against
it, want no part of it, that's a religion in itself. There's never been a civilization
anywhere since the beginning of time, anywhere at any time,
that didn't have religion. They all were religious. They
all worshipped some kind of a god. And Cain and Abel, Adam's first
two sons, they were taught of the same father. They were taught
the same thing. They were taught concerning a
promised redeemer. They were both taught concerning
the fall of man, the reconciliation of God of that fallen man. And
a slain lamb was the center point of their worship. You can't worship
without a lamb. I know that's what he taught
him because that was what was passed down through all time.
The lamb, the lamb, the lamb. But Cain, he got to thinking. You don't want to do that. You
just want to listen. You want to read, you want to
study, you want to see what God has to say. You don't want to
just sit around and, well, I think, or it seems to me, that's what
Cain did. He was a killer of the ground.
His brother was a keeper of sheep. He said, my boy, my stuff ain't
even incorporated in worship. Seems to me like, you know, it
ain't much worse if you go down there and here's an old bloody
lamb with a stroke cut and you're going to take it, throw it on
a fire, you're going to skin it and cut it up, divide it up. That don't make me feel good.
So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to wash all these vegetables
up. And I'm going to put them on display. I'm going to put
them on the finest platters I got. And I'm going to bring them in.
And this is how I'm going to worship God. And he did. And I almost pictured him there.
If he had suspenders, I could picture them thumbs in them suspenders
just waiting to see how God was going to wow over his sacrifice.
And God just walked by and didn't even give heed to it. He ignored it. had no respect to it whatsoever. God had respect to Abel's offering,
but he rejected Cain's, and Abel's religion left him sympathetic
to Cain. He was sympathetic. He desired
to help Cain. He desired to teach him. He desired
to lovingly correct him. waited until he was alone and
went out there to him and one-on-one was no doubt pleading with him
over this thing of sacrifice and his anger and trying to... Cain's religion left him angry,
judgmental, and hating God's saints. In the book of Jude, the Holy
Ghost uses three men. From Adam all the way to the
present time, he uses three men and sums up in those three men
everything that's about this false religion. It's what seems
right to a man. In the book of Jude, the Holy
Ghost uses these three persons. He says they have gone the way
of Cain. They went the way of their own
imagination. They ignored the word of God.
They went their own way. They went the way of Cain. That's works religion. They ran
greedily, it says, after the heir of Balaam. Covetousness. And they perished in the game
saying of Korah. You remember Korah, Dathan, and
Abiram, what they did. Told Moses he had too much on
him. So we're going to relieve you of your responsibility and
we're going to take over. That's false religion. Actually,
the scriptures tell us that the vast majority of men are perishing
in a religion that's contrary to God. Broad is the road that
leads to destruction. It's a broad road. It's not just
a little narrow path. It's a broad road. Narrow is
the way that leads to life everlasting. The vast majority of men have
a religion and a passion in it. That's what the Scripture teaches.
These are ungodly men, Jude says, turning the grace of God into
lasciviousness. There's another big word that
we use a lot and don't understand what it means. It's an old word
that has to do with ungodly sexual activities. That's what lasciviousness
is. False religion is called in Revelation
17, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And that's what she carries in
that cup. And that's what ungodly men drink of. They speak evil
of these things, which they know not. He said, there are spots
in your feasts of charity, there are clouds without water, there
are trees without fruit, there are fruit withered, there are
twice dead, there are plucked up by the roots. Religion has
to do with every man, every woman, every boy, every girl in the
world, and our religion is the expression of our heart concerning
God and our affection for Him and His Son, our Savior. That's
what true religion is. It has to do with our understanding,
our attitude, our affection, and our devotion. Now I said
all that to say this. There are but two religions in
the world. Now you can spend a lifetime,
if you want to single them all out, you can spend a lifetime
and you still won't have looked into every false religion. It's unending. It just goes on
and on and on. But this much I know, there's
only two religions in the world, whatever their particulars. Works
and grace. Nothing's changed since Adam,
I mean since Cain and Abel. Nothing. It's works with grace. Pure religion and some ungodly
mixture. And this is what James is talking
about in these two verses. He's singling out what true saving
faith is. And he's telling us these things.
We've already been over those things. And now he's telling
you what the expression of this faith is. He's going to tell us about these
two religions. He's going to tell us what seems
right. And he's going to tell us what's
pure. and undefiled. So let's look at these two things
and see if the Lord will show us the difference. First of all,
he says this, verse 26, if any man among you seem to be religious,
how does a man seem to be religious? Well, he comes to the worship
services. He shows up. He gets dressed up. He says, I'm going to church
today. So he gets in his car and he drives over, he gets out,
he comes in, he reads the scriptures, if that's what they ask him to
do, he prays, he gives his income, he submits to baptism, he becomes
a partaker of the Lord's table. This man seems to be religious.
He seems to be an example of it, don't he? We've had men in
here who've done all of these things. And we were actually
shocked when they quit coming. Huh? If any man among you seem
to be religious, that's what he's talking about. He has all
the earmarks. He says all the right things.
He seems like he cares. He's friendly. He's courteous.
He's kind. So what's the problem? What's his problem? The problem
is he's still a wild-ass as colt. That's the problem. He has no
bridle, James said. No bridle in his mouth. He may
have a rope around his neck, but he don't have a bridle in
his mouth. He comes and goes as he pleases,
and you can't teach him anything. You can't reprove him of anything. And he's just not going to be
corrected. You can forget that. He explained
his part and walked away. He pulls his head like a wild
mustang, and if you get too close, he'll bite you. No bridle in
his mouth. I don't know why we're so prized
that there's always tares shown among the weak. Why is that? Well, the curse of God upon man
ensures us that thorns and thistles will always attend the harvest
of good fruit. That's right. And that's why
they're there. Where does the bridle go? In
the mouth. That's where it goes. That's
where it goes, in the mouth. My friend, when the glory of
God saves a man, when Christ comes into it, He comes inside
the walls of His castle, and He unseats the strong man. He takes him down. He don't reign
beside of him. He don't sit in a seat a little
higher than he is. He takes him out. He takes him
down. He spoils his house. What's that
mean? That means he puts his stuff
in there. That's what that means. It's
his house. It's his house. He sets up a
new seat of dominion. James says in chapter 3, verse
3, Behold, we put bits in horses' mouths, that they may obey us. That's the purpose of the bit. And we turn about their whole
body. Listen to this. Paul said, for
with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So what is the
tongue? when we're talking about an ungodly
man. What is the tongue? It's the
spillway of the heart. That's what it is. It's the spillway. In Matthew 12, 34, our Lord said,
O generation of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? You can't do it. You can't do
it. The mouth is the spillway of
the heart. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, Lies, thefts, all these things,
they all come forth from the heart. Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure
of his heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. For by thy words
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. James 3.10, he said, Out of the
same mouth Proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these
things ought not to be so. If there be grace in the spring,
there's going to be grace in the pool. And if there's grace
in the pool, there's going to be grace in the stream that flows
from the pool. That's what James is teaching
here. A man who seems to be religious, whose tongue is unbridled, his
religion, his way, his hope, his example, his lifestyle, his
religion is vain. They walk, Paul said, in the
vanity of their mind. It's all vanity. It's all vanity. It's put on. It's made up. He
may be deceived and thinks it's real, but it's put on. It's not
of God. It's the product of a corrupt
mind and heart, and he's deceived. And the Bible said, evil men
and seducers shall wax worse and worse. Why? Deceiving and
being deceived. That's why. That's why. There's a way that seems right
unto a man, Solomon said, but the end thereof is the ways of
death. False religion is a religion
that seems right to men. Seems right. You can always find
somebody. You know, you say something and
you get corrected. You go off and pout a little
bit. You can always find somebody to put their arm around. It's
okay. It's okay. If any man among you seem to
be religious, years ago, Someone come to me
and pointed out a man, and he said, he's the real deal. He's the real deal. And I said,
okay. Time went on. The real deal turned
out to be the most unfaithful member of the church. The person that pointed him out
quit coming. if a man seems to be religious. He seems to be religious. But there is a pure and undefiled
religion, and that religion don't just seem to be, but it is pure. It's pure. So how can we distinguish
the two? Well, one's of God and one's
of man. One by grace, the other by works. What have you got that you could
show me this morning that's totally 100% undefiled that comes from
you? Nothing. So whatever this religion
is, it comes from God because it's undefiled. You see what
I'm saying? It's a religion of grace. It's
a religion of substitution. It's a religion of representation. If it weren't, it'd be corrupted. That's why He chose us in His
Son and made provision for us in His Son that we might be holy. That we might be without blame
before Him being loved. You take a good long look at
yourself in the mirror. I will too when I get home. You
try to find something in that reflection that you see that
God could possibly love. You can't find it, it ain't there.
But boy, if you can see yourself in Christ, undefiled, holy, righteous,
just, huh? How can we distinguish the two?
Well, according to this chapter, by how that man endures the trial
of faith, he got nowhere else to go. He stays right where God
put him, at the feet of Christ. And we know by spiritual understanding
concerning what's of God and what's of man. Of his own will
begat he us with the word of truth. We don't have to guess
about stuff or make stuff up. And then thirdly, by the word
of truth, the engrafted word and how that word is received.
And then by the effect it has on the mind and the heart and
the life and the tongue. God puts a bit in our mouth. And we don't. Yvonne has a horse. My wife has a horse. She loves
that old horse. He's just an old horse to me,
but she loves him. And he loves her. And you can
tell. She hasn't rode that horse in
over a year. She got up on his back the other
day and rode him all around Walter's house and back. That horse didn't
buck. It didn't do anything. Isn't that something? God puts
a bit in your mouth. He doesn't do it. ripping and
tearing and forcing you to do. That bid is the bid of love. That's what it is. And you trust
him. Huh? If he pulls to the left,
you go to the left. If he pulls to the right, you
go to the right. Why? Because you trust him. You love
him. And he's your master. That man or woman in whom God
does the work, James says there's a kind of first fruits of his
creatures. He's not a proselyte. He's not
of the flesh. He's a person given power to
become a son of God. Believe on his name. God spoke
to him just like he spoke to those dry bones and commanded
him to live in the spirit of the living God came in him and
he lived. God did a work in him like he did in Saul of Tarsus.
being arrested of God, made blind, and then given eyes to see. God
doesn't work in a believer as He did in the Gadarene demoniac. He cleanses him of all the spirits
of devils. Why do men do what they do? Satan's ministers. That explains
the biggest share of it. He cleansed him of all the spirits
of devils and left him fully clothed and in his right mind. He finds him as did true Israel,
lying there in the sand, tiny baby, unsalted, unswaddled, filthy,
lying in his own blood. He took her in and made her a
queen. Took her to be his bride. Her renown went forth among the
heathen for her beauty, for it was perfect, God said, through
my comeliness." We're talking about pure undefiled religion. He bestows perfect, unchangeable,
effectual gifts on his saints, begats them with his gospel,
and leaves them a new creature in Christ. They had the right
motives. They had the power that they
didn't have before God saved them. He gave us power to become
sons of God. True religion is Christ. Everything's
in Christ. Everything they say and do is
washed in His blood. They themselves washed in regeneration. Without any monetary incentive
or law-threatening commandment, they visit the fatherless and
the widows in their affliction. They care about Him. Genuinely
care about Him. And the widows in that day were
left without any income. There was no welfare. There was
nothing. Most of the time they were just
paupers and they were left, some of them with children, responsibilities
and debt. It was a serious affliction and
one that needed attention. And an even greater evidence
of this is to keep himself unspotted from the world. I know that I shouldn't have
to explain this to anybody, that to keep yourself unspotted from
the world, part of that is not to go down to the bar and sit
there until you can't walk. Huh? Not to go down and visit
the houses of ill repute or any number of things that this world
indulges in, but to keep yourself unspotted from the world mainly,
mainly, You'd think that'd be the chief thing, but it's not.
That's the easiest to understand. The other thing is a little harder
to see. To keep yourself unspotted from the world is to keep yourself
unspotted from their religion. When God told his people, go
in there, but don't marry any of them women, it wasn't because
they weren't pretty. It wasn't because they weren't
good cooks. Why was it? Because they were
full of worldly religion, and they turn your heart, he said,
from me. Don't take them. Don't take them. Oh, this is the thing. Keep yourself
unspotted from the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. Well, what's so bad about
the world? Why are we so worried about the
world? Three things. John gives them
to us. The lust of the flesh, that means
desires. This world has a never-ending list of things for you to lust
after. It's unending. Treasures and
fame and reputation station and income, there's just no end to
it, to all of the things. And the second thing is the lust
of the eyes. Funny thing, we got a catalog
the other day in the mail, Christmas time, you know, you get catalogs.
And I didn't, I really didn't have a, she's asked me a hundred
times what I want for Christmas, and I said, I don't need anything. Boy, open up a catalog though. Boy, you can fill up a notebook
now. Oh, I like that clock. Oh, that's
a neat blanket. The lust of the eyes. It wants
what it sees. And lastly, and this is the worst
of the bunch, the pride of life. Cry, oh, how God hates a proud
one. Top of his list. Scripture said, what have you
gotten that you haven't received? And if you received it, why do
you act like you didn't? These things, he said, are not
of the Father. And then watch this. Here's another
reason why you don't want to love the world. The world passes
away. What good is it going to do?
If you gain the whole world, if you get a title that says,
I own the world, it's mine, the world's going to pass away. It's
just an empty box. It's an empty box. The world
passes away and the lust there. But he that doeth the will of
God abideth forever at Christ. And we're in him. Pure undefiled
religion is an attitude, affection, motivation of the heart. That's what it is. It's an expression
of what you have down here. That's what it is. And even when
you don't know, I can't tell you word for word what it says.
I know down here. I know down here in my heart.
I know. It's pure. It's undefiled because
it's by grace and it's fulfillment is in Christ. Put there by the
Lord Himself. And even our deeds that we do,
Our best prayers, our best gifts, they're all washed in the blood
of Christ and make them acceptable to God. That's pure, undefiled
religion. But don't let somebody give you
a list of things and say, now if you do these, you're on the
plateau now. Oh, nobody be that stupid. The religion I grew up in was,
yeah, you can get up to the plateau, see, then you're righteous. Then
you're righteous. And from that point on, you don't
sin anymore. Oh my, what a lie. All right,
thank you.