We have two verses left in chapter
one of James. I believe there's some teaching in these verses that
will be a blessing to us. I know if the Lord blesses His
Word, it doesn't matter where we are in it. If we ever heard one sentence
from the Word of God, without the limitation of our sin keeping
us from understanding it, I'm not sure we could take it, you
think? And so we pray for His grace to reveal it to us, don't
we? He opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scriptures. I can't forget that
verse when I'm studying and when I'm preaching, when I'm hearing
the Gospel. I know what's necessary, don't
you? And so we do pray for it. The
Lord's gracious to do that. He does that for His people,
doesn't He? He'll open our hearts like He did Lydia's. But look
at verse 26, 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. I don't want to be there,
do you? I don't want the one thing that's
most important. And you know, there are people
in this world to whom their religion is everything. And it's obvious,
isn't it? Because everything they say,
you know, reeks of religion. self-righteousness. They can't
hardly complete a sentence without saying some cute religious thing,
you know. But it's vain. It's vain. Pure religion and undefiled before
God. Now that's interesting. Anything that's undefiled before
God. I want to hear about that. Don't
you? And the father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows
in their affliction. And to keep himself unspotted
from the world. Wow. Well, that would be disappointing
to most religious people, wouldn't it? Surely, it takes something
bigger than that, you know, to impress God, to visit the widow. Is that what it said? Well, let's look at James' manner
of teaching here. It's so interesting. In the last
several verses, he talked about how God begat us with the Word
of Truth. There's a new birth, and God
does that with the Word. The Word is the seed that He
said. And He plants in the heart. And
we're begotten again unto a lively hope. And He does that by the
Word of truth. In verse 18, He said that. And
then He gave this solemn and brilliant admonition. Be swift to hear and slow to
speak. And don't get caught taking issue
with God. Be slow to anger. Isn't that
what he's talking about? Don't, don't, be careful before
you start taking issue with God. Be careful before you hear God's
word and then say, well, here's what I think that means. And
then twist it around to where it's something that sits better
with your conscience. Your evil, twisted, depraved
conscience. And sense of fairness. Be careful. Be slow to get mad at God. In verse 19, he talks about that.
And if God blesses us by his gospel, then it just makes sense
to turn around and say, be anxious to hear it. If that's how he
begot us again into a lively hope, if that's how he blesses, then be anxious to hear and not
so anxious to have opinions about it or express them. If God, let
me say it this way. If God gave you faith, how does
faith come? By hearing the gospel. How do
you think he'll increase faith? Do you want, do you desire like
the disciples? Do you say, Lord, increase my
faith? How do you reckon he's going to do that? He gave you
faith by the hearing of the gospel. He's going to increase it the
same way. That's how he does that. If He gave you comfort to begin
with. You see, the wicked are like
the troubled sea, they never rest. But one day, we were able
to sit down, finally, and say, Oh, I can rest. I'm laying down
now in the green pastures of His grace. How did that happen? By the Word of the Gospel. How is He going to comfort you
this morning? If He gave you rest with regard
to your sin by the preaching of Christ crucified, how is He
going to calm your troubled breast this morning? By that same sweet
truth that Christ has died for our sins according to the Scriptures. And then naturally, He talks,
He progresses to the discussion of how to hear the Word. God
blesses you by the word, so hear it and do it this way. Verse
21. And the Lord Jesus himself said
in Luke 8, 18, take heed how you hear. And James says here,
this is how to hear God's word. Lay aside your own foolish thoughts
and preconceptions and submit to God's truth. Isn't that what he said there?
Verse 21. And then again, in natural progression
here, he exhorts that what we hear, we hear the right way. And then he says this, don't
just hear it. Don't just hear it. Don't be
hearers only, be doers. You see how he teaches here?
React to God's counsel. God's ways are not our way. We
know that. By God's grace, we know that.
So don't hear of His ways and then turn around and do your
ways. Doesn't that make sense? Don't hear His truth and then
continue in your lies. Don't hear that your righteousnesses
are as filthy rags before God and then continue to try to please
God in your flesh. Do the Word. People like to separate the practical
and the doctrinal. This is not a doctrinal message,
this is a practical message. If it ain't a doctrinal message,
it ain't a practical one. Is there anything more practical
than God's truth, is there? Do God's truth. You can't separate
them. Don't hear that Christ is all
in salvation and then continue to try to add something by your
obedience to His finished work. Do what you hear. Now in these last two verses,
He gives us an example of someone who is a hearer only. In verse
26 there, that's what that is. Someone who has listened to the
message, Someone who has understood the message mentally and even
agreed with it, but it has not affected them beyond that. It
has never touched their heart. Look at it with me. Now, it's
not difficult to seem to be religious, is it? He said, if any man seemed
to be religious, that's not hard to do. Pretty much everybody's
got that down, don't they? Everybody got that down. And
this is probably a good time to look at this word, religious.
What does he mean here by religious? It's probably not what you're
thinking. It wasn't what I thought exactly. And I knew to expect
something else. The word here means literally
fearing and worshiping God. So what James is saying here
is that if you seem to fear God, but your tongue is unbridled,
you're a false worshiper. You pretend to worship, and you
may have everybody else fooled about it, but you say things
that reveal otherwise. You've deceived yourself, because
you'll talk like what you are. Out of the mouth proceedeth the
thoughts of the heart. How instructive this is. And
how sobering. There are those who haven't missed
what they call church in years. They sing the loudest, perhaps,
and never let the offering plate get by, you know, without making
their move. Read your Bible through every year. Pray every morning
and night, sometimes at lunchtime. especially if people are looking. You appear before others to be
religious people, to be devout worshippers of God. Perhaps they
hold a prominent position in the church. Just about everybody
does some kind of position, don't they? They got to make up something
for everybody because my husband's as good as her husband, you know. And yet, all of the religious Costume is in place But James is saying here if you
say God loves everybody Or Christ died for everybody Or something like that What do
you mean by like that something in direct opposition to what
God said? I? That's what you call an unbridled
tongue. If you're not afraid to say just
the opposite of what God said, then your tongue is unbridled.
Mine is too. If it doesn't scare you to death
to oppose God's Word, Satan didn't have a problem with
it, did he? Are you like him? Hath God said, God said, Jacob have I loved
and Esau have I hated. And you don't hesitate even a
little bit to say to somebody, God loves you. You've deceived
yourself. You have an unbridled tongue.
It hasn't been bridled by the truth of God. If God's eternal word won't limit
you in what you say, than what in the world will. If you don't have any fear of
the God who said, if you take anything away or add anything
to my word, the word of this prophecy, I'll add to you every
plague that's written in this book. If you're not afraid of
him, you are unbridled in your sin. and it doesn't matter how
religious you look, it doesn't matter how much you appear before
men to be a reverent worshipper of God, you're deceived and your
religion is worthless. I've had people relate to me
wild stories about how the Holy Spirit came and did some miraculous
thing in their life, you know. Have you ever heard one of those?
And they did just to be sensational. You know, everybody got to one-up
everybody else. Here's what God did for me. Listen
to this story, you know. I got a question for you, if
you have a story like that. Don't you fear God? Will you make up some melodrama
for attention and bring God into it now? I know that God does wonderful
things for his people. Don't get me wrong. Don't misunderstand
me. But I also know that religious
man likes to embellish things and make sensational stories
that makes them look like somebody. I thought of this passage when
I was looking into this in Luke chapter 10. If you want to turn there, do,
but I want to be brief this morning. But Luke chapter 10 and verse
17. Talking about bridling our tongue
now. And it has to do with the fear
and worship of God. You see how he talks about, you
may seem to fear and worship God. That's what that word religious
is here. You may seem to fear and worship
God, but then you open your mouth and then we find out better.
That's what we're talking about. Listen to Luke 10, 17. And I'm
talking about people that love to just talk about, brag on their
religious experience. Luke 10, 17. And the 70 returned
again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto
us through thy name. Now, he sent them out to preach
the gospel and he gave them these miraculous abilities in order
to get people's attention. So people would walk up and say,
what's going on? And hear the gospel. That's the
way he did it. You look through all through
the book of Acts. That's exactly what he did. He accompanied the
preaching of the gospel with these miracles. to give credibility
and so that people would give audience to these worthless fishermen
that nobody cared anything about otherwise. Isn't that right?
And so, but they came back not saying, some people heard the
gospel and believed. We were able to preach, what
a privilege to preach. They came back saying, even the
devils are subject to us. Isn't that what they said? The
devils are subject unto us through thy name. You know why they can't fool
me? Because I'm just like them. Oh, they said through thy name.
But they said they're subject to us. I know where they're coming
from, don't you? And the Lord said to them, I
behold Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto
you power, I do, yeah, to tread on serpents and scorpions and
over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means
hurt you. I've given you unusual power as my preachers, as my
apostles. And no question about that. And
everybody will witness that, notwithstanding. They needed
to learn something here, didn't they? We do too. In this, rejoice
not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice. Oh, you talk about something that
will eclipse every other reason to praise Him. I'll tell you what. You say God
has worked some miracle in your life and you want to tell me
about it. I'll tell you that if you can talk this. Then I
want to hear it. That when God was writing his
book. When he was picking out worms. And writing their names down.
In his eternal book of love and mercy. He wrote my name down there. If you can beat that, I'll listen
to you. But otherwise, let's talk about that. Isn't that what
he's teaching them here? Here's what we need to be rejoicing
about. That God has a people. and their
names are written in his book that he has had mercy on whom
he would. Let's talk about how the son
of God came and sent his preachers into the world to tell people
what he did for them. To tell sinners that he wrote
their name in a book and that the ones whose name whose names
are written there The reason they're written there, that's
the book of the redeemed. Those are the names of the ones
whose sins he's washed away in his precious blood. Now that's
worth talking about. That's worth rejoicing in right
there. And the Lord Jesus said to them, think about this for
a second. Your names are in that book. When He shed His precious blood,
He shed it for me. You're not gonna beat that. You're
not gonna top that. That's worth rejoicing in. And
everything else revolves around that, doesn't it? Everything
else. Before you say anything, before
I say anything that involves God, His Word, His glory. May God bridle our tongues. If
there's any glory in it for me, God forbid that I ever say it. And then let me just add this,
if you're not afraid to complain against God, You may seem like one who fears
God. But then the mouth opens and
we start murmuring. What reveals a lack of fear and
worship of God more than to not be thankful for His
providence? To murmur against Him if we wouldn't
hesitate to complain against the God that made us and has
given us all things to enjoy and especially us believers who whom he's loved with an everlasting
love and drawn us with his loving kindness and given us all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. How can I ever
open my mouth to complain against him? How can I do that? Can you tell me that? If we can never, and some people
never seem to be able to say, whatever my lot, that has taught
me to say, it's well. It is well with my soul. Then perhaps we're deceived. Maybe we seem to fear God. Oh, if my sins are gone now, and
I know it, I know they are. If the Son of God is for me,
do we know what it means for the Son of God to be for me?
He entered into a covenant for me. He came into this world for
me. He lived for me. He died for
me. It's coming back for me. And I say I know that. How can a down economy bother
me as much as it does? How can things just not go in
my way for a little while really be that big of a deal? And then James gives some examples
of what a person will do if the fear of God is in their heart.
Ain't no reason to complicate this. That's exactly what he
does here. The man who has no fear of God
will reveal it sooner or later with his tongue. But here's what you can expect
of someone who does fear God. And what's striking about these
examples is the simplicity of them. One has to do with self and the other one has to do with
others. It speaks of how one will conduct
himself and how he will treat others. To visit the fatherless and the
widows. That's pure and undefiled religion
before God. That's what God does in his people. Now this word visit here, as
you may have guessed again, it doesn't mean to stop by and say
hello. That's not what this means. You
look it up, it doesn't even have anything to do with that. It
doesn't have anything to do with coming where somebody is or anything
like that. Although that would certainly
be involved in it perhaps. The word means to look after,
to provide for. That's what it means. The worthless well-wishers in
James chapter two that we've already read about in this study,
in James 2.16, those who came by, those visited in the sense
that we would normally think of this word, just to come by
to say hello, you know. Maybe bring a pie, which is a
blessing at times. This is more than that. This
is more than that. These worthless well-wishers
there, they had enough religion to do that. They came by and
said, be ye warmed and filled. We want it that way. We don't
want you to suffer anymore. We don't want you to go without
clothes and without food. Be ye warmed and filled. And
they probably had a prayer circle, don't you imagine? But this word means to look after. To provide for. It's the same
word that the Lord Jesus Christ used in Matthew 25, 36. When he said to his people, I
was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And not only is it the same word
there, but it's the same teaching. The Lord's people are this way. They're this way. And they don't
brag about it. In fact, when the Lord told these
ones here in Matthew 25, you visited me when I was sick. You
cared for me. You looked after me. When I've been sick, now Vicki's
sick too right now, but usually, you know, if I'm sick and she's
better, she's okay. She doesn't just stick her head
in the door every once in a while and say, how you feeling? You
know, just wanted to say hello. She takes care of me. She looks
after me. And let me say this, the teaching
here is not that people who care about others are saved. The teaching is that saved people
care about others. There's a huge difference. Huge
difference. Do you know why save people care
about other people? Because when I was in the ditch, bleeding out without any strength
and without any hope, the Good Samaritan came by. And
he didn't just wave and say hello. These are some of my favorite
words in the scripture, I think I've told you before. In that
passage concerning the Good Samaritan, it says this, he came where he
was. That's what my Lord Jesus Christ
did for me. See, I couldn't take a step. I couldn't decide anything but
it's something bad. I couldn't will anything but
sin. And He came right where I was
and did everything for me. And if that's happened to you,
It'll be hard for you to ever see somebody in need and not give it a second thought. It's not because of some great
character trait in me. It's because of something that
was done for me. Isn't this argument all through
the word of God? Forgive even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you The Lord knows Because he put it in there He knows how
to motivate us to me. It's the love of God It's the
it's the love of Christ to us that motivates not the law Not
the law If the Good Samaritan has ever
come where you are I and poured in the oil of his
grace and the wine of his precious blood and taken you where you could
never go on your own. You could never go without him
and paid your way and said to the keeper of the
inn, If there's ever anything else
that he owes, I'll pay it. And then you see someone in need
like you were, turn to 1 John chapter 3 and we'll be through.
1 John 3, verse 16. Hereby I perceive we the love
of God, because He laid down His life for us. He's not like religion claims,
you know. They make him into one of the
impotent well-wishers that says be ye warmed and filled and can't
actually do much about it. He did something about it. He
didn't just wish well for her. He doesn't just love us from
afar. He loved us and gave himself for us. That's how we know something
about his love. You want to perceive something
about the kind of love that God has for his people? He laid down
his life for us. That's how you perceive it. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. You see how that flows right
into that? But whoso hath this world's good,
verse 17, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God
in him? There's no way in the world, is there? No way. If he laid down his life for
you, it's just not going to happen,
is it? It's just not going to happen. Well, I know the flesh
doesn't care anything for anybody. Wouldn't give you two hoots.
Don't expect any sympathy from this world. Oh, I know they get
religious and it may look like it for a while. They may appear
to be religious. Don't expect it. Don't expect it. If you're going to find anybody
in this world that gives two hoots about you, when it comes
right down to it, it's going to be someone who has experienced
the grace of God in Christ. You can write that down and bank
on it. Don't look for sympathy or help
from this world. You know why it said, you know
why the prophet said woe unto them that go down to Egypt for
help? Because there's no help in Egypt. They got nothing they can give
you. And if they had, they wouldn't give it to you. That's why I thank God for his
people. Don't you? And I thank God for the work
that He's done in their hearts. You can see the grace of God
in them. Because this exhortation that He uses here to stir us
up and remind us what was done for us is one that they heed. Verse 18 of what we were reading,
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue,
but in deed and in truth. like he did. May he give us grace to be doers of that word. Let's
bow.