you say that's not on my paper it's okay if you're new in my class that's normal but you should have a new lesson it says the same thing last three lessons have said except for with one little notation it says part three so if you have one that says hear it speak it show it do it live it part three You're golden. If you don't, if you're still on number two, you don't have the right one. So if you need one, Ken is heading back now to grab some of those papers. Steven's got a bunch of them right now. So just stick your hand up and they'll get one to you so you have a new lesson. I don't know how much good it's going to do you in the beginning of the class because I just got off track this morning. Sometimes, I don't know what it is, I get up early in the morning, I had a let's say a short night last night, I had a, some of you know I'm a sheriff's chaplain, and so I got called out at about 10.30 last night, and I got home about 1.30 this morning, and then went to bed, and how many of you know, sometimes when you go to bed like that, you sleep really hard for a couple hours, and then your body just says, something's not right. So I woke up this morning about five o'clock just going, isn't that a great feeling to be laying in your own bed, and you're just looking at the ceiling going, Okay, so finally I just got up and went and sat in the front room with my Bible and my notes, and the next thing I know, I'm writing a whole nother message. And so there's just a phrase in today's lesson, by the way, there's not really a whole lot of announcements if you're going on that trip. We did get another room, so somebody on the waiting list now is back in the thing. So if you wanna be on that waiting list in case we can get another room, we have a statement, we have a thing with, the hotel in Shipshawanna, that if somebody cancels a room, they'll give me a room. So if you're still wanting to go, there's a possibility. So we're up to about 42 people now. So if you wanna join that group, let me know and I'll put you on that waiting list and we'll work that out. That's the only announcement. Oh no, there's one other announcement. Faith Promise, don't forget your Faith Promise cards. If you haven't turned those in already, make sure you turn that in. That helps us determine the budget for missionaries and our mission program, so do that. Okay, so anyway, I'm reading the passage this morning. I want to get, there's a part of me so bad wants to get through chapter 1 in the book of James, because I feel like I kind of got stuck. I hate to say this, but I feel like Pastor Monty. You know, he gets stuck on a thing, and I'm doing, sometimes I do the same thing, but there's so much things that apply not only to us as Christians, but apply to the world today. So I'm reading this morning, I'm just going through the notes, where we had finished verse 19, chapter 1 verse 19, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. We talked about that. And my goal this morning was to go from verse 21 to verse 27. I think that's what it says on the top, yeah, on your lesson. When I started typing a couple weeks ago, 20 to 27, I'm going to go through those verses, we're going to blow right through that, you're going to learn something. And I actually wrote the lesson, as you can see, you have it in your hand. And then this morning, I got caught again. So I'm reading, I'm reading, I want you to look at the next verse, verse 20 says this, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, going along with verse 19, slow to wrath. And then he says, he makes this phrase, verse 21, wherefore lay apart, and I love this phrase, all filthiness, right, and superfluity of naughtiness. I don't know why, I'm reading that, I've read that so many times in my life, and there's something about Maybe it's my opinion, I like to write, some of you know I write poetry and all that kind of good stuff, but there's something about that phrase, superfluity of naughtiness, that just, every time I read it, I have to stop and think about it. And so this morning I was thinking about that, and I wrote down a few notes, and it reminded me of some other phrases, like Romans chapter seven, verse eight, talks about all manner of concupiscence. Another poetic type phrase, all manner of concupiscence. Colossians chapter three, lay aside inordinate affection. How many of you could say, I don't think any hands are gonna go up here, how many of you could say, in the last year I've used all three of those phrases? That's not something we say, right? I don't know that I've ever said to one of my children, you need to stop with the superfluity of naughtiness. I don't know what they'd do if I said that. Or if they had a weird desire for the wrong thing, I said, that's inordinate affection. I don't see me saying those phrases. And so, for some reason this morning, I've already looked up the superfluid of naughtiness, I put that in your notes, we'll talk about that in a minute. But I looked up those phrases and I was really, You have to know how the mind of a pastor works or sometimes just a teacher. When you start connecting the dots, some of you know what I mean, when you're reading the Bible and all of a sudden dots start connecting and you see a pattern and you're like, wow, I've never really seen that before. It's not that I haven't looked at those phrases before, not that I haven't tried to define those phrases before, but the connection between those phrases and, so you've got those three phrases, right? And then you've got the connection of those phrases in today's society. So if I define those, you're gonna see the same pattern I saw. So let me, if you're writing this down, let's look at Romans chapter seven verse eight first, okay? That little phrase there, there's a lot of things in that chapter, but this idea of all manner of concupiscence. You'll see the same thing in Colossians. In Colossians, I think it says evil concupiscence. And in 1 Thessalonians, it says, I looked this up this morning, I should remember. Oh, in 1 Thessalonians, it talks about the lust of concupiscence. All three of those phrases are pretty much the same thing. Here's how you define that, okay? I did all the Greek study I could on all the phrases and everything, but basically it comes down to this. All manner of concupiscence means all types of forbidden desires or all types of forbidden lusts. Not just forbidden lusts, but all the types of it. In our society, when I was growing up, when I think of lust, I would think of it in a sexual context, right? And you say, well, lust is wrong. And in my brain, early on, you know, as a young Christian, that had to do with just sex. But no, it's all types of forbidden lusts. Lusting after the wrong thing, whether that's lusting after money, whether that's lusting after the flesh, whether that's lusting after experiences. So all, concupiscence, typically has to do with the sexual side but in that phrase that all manner means not just that any type of desire that you have that is biblically wrong is covered in that phrase okay so if you're writing down what does that mean it means all types of lustful or I mean all types of evil or lustful desires that make sense real simple phrase so Go to the next phrase Colossians chapter 3 verse 5 talks about this idea of inordinate affection. I don't know why I like that phrase. Those are great phrases. It literally means unregulated or depraved passions. Okay? I guess the best phrase, let me give you a couple more phrases. That first, when you go back to all men are evil concupiscence, here's a phrase I wrote down beside that. Anything goes. Anybody notice that in our society anymore? All manner of concupiscence means literally in your life, if I want it, I'm going to get it. I don't care what anybody else thinks. It's my life. I'll live it like I want. It just wears me out. You see that. So, now you get to the next phrase, inner affection, unregulated or depraved passion. That is not talking about a type. That is talking about the control of that type. So beside that one, I wrote just a simple phrase, out of control. So you have all types of desires or lusts, right? And now you have the second phrase, inordinate affection means you're not controlling anymore. You're just out of control. You ever met anybody just out of control and you're like, you ever wanna say to somebody, what are you doing, right? That's that inordinate affection. Your affection, your desires, People can't even believe it. They look at you and go, what? I do that sometimes. I work with addicts, whether it's drugs or alcohol, whatever. And I look at them and I'm thinking to myself, I say that to myself. What are you doing? It seems crazy that you're destroying yourself. So you got different types, and then you got those types out of control, and then you got this great phrase here that I defined in your notes. The superfluity of, probably my favorite phrase, I'm gonna be honest with you, I love that phrase. The superfluity of naughtiness. Now, I think I defined it a little bit. I'm gonna add something to the definition. If you look at that first paragraph, you know, we're called upon to suppress other corrupt affections. By the way, everybody look at me. Let me say something. You, all of you, at one point or another, are going to have corrupt affections. You hear me? You're going to love the wrong thing or desire to have the wrong thing. It's going to happen. I'm not saying that you won't have that. I'm saying you're called to suppress that. You're called to say, no, I will not do that. That's wrong. Okay, so that's what he's talking about here. We're called to express all other corrupt affections as well as rash anger. And he goes on to quote the verse, lay aside all filthiness, superfluity, obnodiness. The word here translated filthiness signifies the lusts which have the greatest depravity or shamefulness. He used some big words, so I just broke it down for you. and sensuality in, and the word renders superfluid of knowledge may be understood as the abundance of wickedness." Now I'm going to add something to that because as I'm studying this morning, there's a slight little, what's the word I want, there's a slight notation to the Greek text here, so where you see that definition where it says abundance of wickedness, right after the word of, add in this word, because this adds more accuracy, abundance of willful wickedness. In other words, you know it's wrong, and you know you shouldn't do it, but you do it anyway. Does that make sense? So it's an abundance, not just of wickedness, but it's an abundance of willful wickedness. I am superfluity of naughtiness. Not only am I going to do bad, I know I'm going to do bad, and I desire to do bad, and I'm going to do it, right? So I have made a decision to do wrong. That's that superfluity of naughtiness. There's a lot of other phrases I was looking at this morning. I'm not going to go through all those phrases, but as I'm going through that, I looked at, I think it was Ephesians, I wrote it down Yeah, Ephesians 4 verse 17 talks about, they walk, listen to this phrase, they walk in the vanity of their mind. These phrases say anything to you? We don't use phrases like this, but can I tell you something? I thought about this a lot this morning. I should be using phrases like that. You're describing, those phrases to me are descriptive of our society today, are they not? That idea of walking the vanity of mind means, the literal translation is, they walk in the emptiness of soul. You say, what does that mean? There's no future reference in their mind. Look at me. There's nothing in their mind that looks down the road like you do, if you're not thinking vainly, they don't look down the road and say, what is this gonna bring to me next year, 10 years? It's a vanity of mind, right? It's an emptiness of thinking. They only see this much of their life, right? They're walking, they can only see this. This is all they see. And they're looking at that like, hmm, this is all gonna be good. Okay, well you gotta understand, that's what happens. And then you can go back, and I'm not gonna give you all of this, this is just some notes I wrote. Someday, just so you know, I'm writing all this down, I thought this is gonna be a full message someday. Because I think it's something we need to talk about. So anyway, so I'm going back and I'm thinking about the other things like Romans chapter one. There's a lot of descriptive terms in Romans chapter one if you go through that. Like for instance, the inventors of evil things. Would you say the inventors of evil things describes a lot of our society today? They come up with stuff that I'm like, you can do what? How did they do? Right? It's like there's new forms of evil. For instance, you would have never thought, nobody in this room, nobody, and I'm pretty sure I mean nobody. Maybe there's some genius in here I don't know about. 50 years ago, you would have never thought of the things you could do with this, right? You wouldn't even have considered it. I mean, we had Dick Tracy watches, you know. Remember that, anybody know what I'm talking about in the car, anybody ever read cartoons in the newspaper? Newspaper, it's a big piece of paper that they, anyway. about dead now but yeah and we had Dick Tracy you know in the watch and he said that'll never happen guess what I have a smart watch right here you can call me on my watch and I can talk to you on my watch on my watch with my phone can be at home and I my watch now that's not necessarily a bad thing but what we do with it is that we become inventors of evil things. Amen? And so I'm looking through those phrases. There's another phrase in Romans 1, verse 31. It says, they are implacable. Another word we don't use. Anybody know what implacable means? It means they cannot be persuaded to change. You can't deal with. You can lay out all the facts all you want, right? I've done this to many a drug addict. And I've said, here's what's happening. Here is what's going to continue to happen. Here is what you're going to lose. Here is how the relationships are going to go, right? You can lay it all out and you say, there. And what do you expect when you do that? How many of you know what you expect when you reason that way with somebody? What do you expect? You expect him to go, oh, well, I'm not doing that anymore, right? but they are implacable, they look at all, they look at, I've had, seriously, I've had heroin addicts, I've had alcoholics, I've had guys who are deeply involved in pornography, and I've said, look, you're gonna ruin this relationship, this is gonna happen to your children, and scriptural, here's what the Bible says, here's what the Bible says, here's what the Bible says, and they look at all that, and they go, you're right, and I go, good. So what are we gonna do? Well, I'm not coming to that meeting. Well, I'm not doing that count, and you're like, You almost want to go, I don't think you heard me. No, they heard you. They are, as Paul said to the Roman church, they're implacable. It just hits them and they go, ugh. They have, Ephesians chapter four, I think it's, I'll write, somebody write notes, let me find it. Ephesians chapter four, verse 19. They have given themselves over to lasciviousness. And having you know that there's a lot more phrases in this than I could, I could be here all morning just reading these phrases to you. This is where my mind got sucked this morning. They're giving themselves over to the lasciviousness. The lasciviousness, by the way, is unbridled lust, lust out of control. You don't, you just, whatever. That, somebody, when somebody's giving themselves over to the lasciviousness, what they say is this. I don't care how bad it is, I don't care what it is, I want it and I'm gonna get it. Right? They've given, I'll take the consequences, I don't care. All this started, by the way, with the superfluity of naughtiness, and I could go on and on, I don't want to stay here all day, but when I say all those phrases, this is where I was this morning, when I say all those phrases, and they just kept coming to my mind, different phrases like that that I've looked at over the years, I got to thinking, wait a minute, this is our society, would you agree with me, this is our society today? I'm not talking about one or two people, I'm talking about our general concept, and I don't know how it is in other countries, but American society, does American society fall for all manner of concupiscence? Yes or no? Do we as Americans, many Americans have what we would call inordinate affections? Yeah. Walk in the vanity of their mind? I would have to say that. Inventors of evil things, you can't even argue with me on that one. Everybody like me, I'm terrified of AI. I have an iPhone 15 and somebody said, you ought to get the 16, it has AI, which immediately says to me, don't want it. You say, well, you're scared. It's probably nothing to help. I don't know. I'm getting the point anymore. I'm like, I don't even want that one now. I don't even know what's going on. I have, like all of you, experienced the same thing. I walk into a store, and my phone buzzes, and I have an ad for that store. There's a part of me, when that happens, I want to school. right because I know somebody knows something about me and I've had people say well you need to do this and this and this your phone most of us normal people don't know all those things right are we being tracked yeah all that stuff scares me I don't want to know what the future hold there's some things that terrify me in the future and I think sometimes as pastors as leaders sometimes as parents and grandparents I don't know that I've ever used those phrases with my kids. I don't remember. I mean, I've warned my kids of different things, but all of those phrases, I should have taught them that, you know, well, you're a pastor, you knew the meaning. Yeah, I know. I think those should be more common phrases for us, right? Anyway, all that came from, that's just a little extra Bible study. I know I haven't got to the pages yet, but it's right there. That's what it says in verse 21, right? Lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness in grafted word. In other words, let me say it another way. Stop at your own opinion and start taking God's opinion. That's simply what that means. Stop. In the foolishness, the vanity of your own mind, you don't know what you're talking about. You will deceive yourself. We know that your heart will deceive. You will deceive yourself. You will make a fool of yourself. Start listening to God. Amen. It's a simple phrase, that's all that verse really means. Put that stuff away, put this back on, okay? Which is able to save your souls. Verse 22, and then he goes on to say this. And again, does this apply to our church today? Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. Do you notice the next phrase? What does it say? What's the danger if you're just hearers of the word and not doers of the word? What happens? You deceive your own self. You're not fooling anybody. You know you're fooling? You! Okay? Now, let me finish reading this because there's some good points here. Go back up to the top of that page. We're still on the front page there. Hereby we are taught, you see where I'm at? Second paragraph. Hereby we are taught as Christians to watch against, to lay aside not only those more gross and fleshly dispositions and affections which dominate a person's filth, which dominate a person Why did I put the word filthy in there? But all the disorders of corrupt heart which would prejudice it against the ways of God. Sin, obviously, is a defiling thing. Filthiness, that's disgustingly dirty or obscene. You know that. That is a word we do use, right? That's a filthy habit. We say that. There's an abundance of that which is evil in us. And then there's another definition, not my definition, but Matthew Henry's definition. And again, I would add the word willful in that. His definition is this, superfluity of naughtiness is the unashamed and excessive abundance of ill will, wickedness, or disobedient behavior. And maybe because the word unashamed is there, I don't have to add. I would say the unashamed, willful, you know, because the concept is there. It's not enough to restrain evil of affections, but they must be cast apart from us. That's what he says in verse 21. Lay that apart. Get, stop, put that away. What are you doing? And I reason with people all the time. I don't know how many times in my life I've sat and talked to people, and I've watched them walk out, and I, you know what's the most discouraging thing about counseling is? Biblical counseling. When you take the Bible and you show people exactly what the Bible says, and they agree that's what the Bible says, and they agree that that Bible's right, I know what the Bible says, and I know the Bible is right, But you wanna be discouraged? As a counselor, that is so, I have so many times people, my office is on the end on the administrative wing here, I'm the last office as you go out the door beside pastor. And I don't know how many times I've stepped to the door of my office following people out, and I'm thinking to myself, they heard everything I said, and they're not gonna do anything I said, right? And I have to, sometimes you think I'm crazy, but I have to remind people sometimes, you're in my office. Because they'll say things like this, well we don't really have a problem. Really? So why are you in my office? I mean, you thought at one point you had a problem, you thought at one point there's something wrong, you thought it was bad enough that you not only shared it with other people, you made it public by talking to me, Not public as in everybody, but public as me knowing. And now you're sitting here asking for advice, and I give you advice, and you say, okay, well, we had counseling, so we're good. Nope, that's where the next verse comes in, right? But be you doers of the word. I talked to Brother Morris about our, we had some severe marriage problems. I mean, and I went to him, and we listened to everything he had to say. We were there for four weeks, two hours a night, and nothing happened. It's not hearing what I have to say that makes a difference. You understand that? It's not hearing what Pastor Monty is preaching that makes a difference. It's your response to it that makes a difference. You can be hearers of the Word all you want. You can hear everything there is to hear in the Bible and still not be a doer of the Word. And if you're that person, guess who you're deceiving, right? You get it. So keep reading. Let me go down a little bit further, because I want to get all this, the fourth thing here. This must extend not only to our outward sins, what we would call great abominations. We only think they're great, by the way. Our outward sins and inward sins are the same. You do know that, right? We think they're great because other people know about it, right? And it is greater because of its influence, right? For what I do, In here, you don't see, but what I do out here, you do see, and so now I have, not only am I responsible for my sin, but now I'm responsible for my influence to you and how you might sin, okay? Not only are greater abominations, but all sins of thought and affections, as well as speech and practice, all filthiness, everything is corrupt and sinful, all of that should be laid apart, right? Okay, so we get to the last part. So now we're talking about hearers and doers, and you can see that very well. I love this phrase. Look at the next verses. There's some great verses here. Verse 23 says, for if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, now think about this, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass, a mirror, we would say, right? It's like a guy looking in a mirror. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. By the way, the perfect illustration of this is as we age. Okay, I got up this morning. I had only about four hours of sleep. How many of you know what I looked in the mirror and saw? It wasn't it what I don't know how you do. I'm one of these people early in the morning about getting asleep. I had my eyes get thick right here. Anybody know what I'm talking about? It's okay, you can admit it, but I mean, you could see that whole puffy looking, I can't fake, if somebody came to my door and said, have you been asleep, I can't say no. It's pretty, I got the line on my face, you know, from the sheets or the pillow or whatever, and my face is all kind of puffed up, and my hair's like, yeah, you know. You guys laugh, but I have very thin hair and it is glued in place every day, just so you know. When I was a youth pastor, we had three rules in my youth department. I only had three rules. You don't talk when I'm talking was rule number one. If I'm talking, you're quiet, you're listening. If I ask you a question, I'm not talking anymore, you can answer, right? You don't talk when I'm talking. My second rule was you don't move my chairs. I set up my youth department different almost every week. Chairs in different places. Don't move my chairs. I set this up, I don't want them moved. That's a silly rule. No, it was a rule to teach them obedience. Kid would come move my chair and the other kid would be like, don't. Put that back. And if they think I'm crazy about moving chairs, guess what they all said? They're afraid, they're a little nervous about me. Don't move my chairs. You know what the third rule was? That's right, don't touch my hair. And every year at youth camp, 15 boys would tackle me and just. But the point is, I know who I am, and I see myself every morning. Every morning, I've said this before, I shave Ed Hunsucker. That's my dad. I'm a big version of my dad. If you've ever seen my dad's face. I know what I'm gonna look like at 93. I'm already very well aware of it. When my son got married, I told his wife, Bethany, my daughter-in-law, I told Bethany, I said, you have a unique privilege. You see Dean now, you see Dean what he's gonna look like in 25 years, and you see Dean what he's gonna look like in 50 years. If you wanna back out. This would be your best opportunity. She's stuck with him and so she's been fine. But the point is, I look at myself. Anybody else do this? I look and I see who I am. I see the white hair. I see the balding spot. I see the wrinkles. I see the whole deal, right? And, you know, like everybody else, you get older. Did you know your teeth start moving? I used to have a better smile. I'm like, what? But here's the thing that happens to me. Now listen, you laugh all you want, but does this happen to you? So I leave, I get dressed, all right, and I'm all spruced up, I'm looking better. I wouldn't say good, but looking better, right? But when I walk out the door, how do I see myself? I look good. I look sharp right now, you know? And somewhere in my mind, I am not 68, right? I'm probably in my early 40s. Okay, that was a little too loud, Gloria. Just stop that, okay? No, seriously, am I the only one who does this? I don't think of myself as 68 years old. I've forgotten who I saw in the mirror that morning. I'm somebody else. I am still young. I'm still vital. I can still do the things. How many guys would admit that you the same way? Okay, a bunch of you just afraid to stick your hand up, okay? All right, but that's what he's saying. So I looked, the honest reflection is what I really look like is what I see in that mirror. Amen, would you agree with that? Some of you are denying that, that's a real problem by the way. I don't look like that, now my mirror's messed up. Your mirror's fine, you're messed up, okay? What I see in the morning, that is who I really am, right? How many have ever looked at pictures and said, oh, am I that old? Or in my opinion, did I shrink? And I found that out, that happens, right? I'm starting to get smaller, and I'm like, I'm a big, in my mind, I'm still Big Red from Bible college, you know? I'm still the Big Red. I'm not him anymore, right? I don't see myself, how I see myself in the morning is how I really am, but as the day goes on, the longer I'm away from that mirror, I see myself in a different, I picture something. That's exactly what we do with the Bible, right? You read the Bible, you sit through a message, you hear the Holy Spirit talk to you through the Word of God, and it affects your heart and mind, amen? Would you agree with that? You should agree with that, by the way, that's not a trick question, right? And as long as you're here in front of the mirror of God's Word, you're reading it in your devotions, whatever, you're reading it as a study to teach a class or whatever you do, and as long as you're in that Bible, you got it, you know who you are. I am a wicked person, and all those things I talked about, the superfluity of naughtiness, right? Inordinate affection, I see that in me. Amen? But the moment I put this down and walk away, guess what happens? I forget who I really am. I'm a good person. I do better than, I start comparing myself among ourselves, you know, which Paul told the Corinthian church was not wise. I still do it. Well, I'm better than so and so, but I'm trying to do this, right? And that's what he's saying. You're fooling yourself. Now read it again with that in mind. Look at his verses again. We're gonna lay apart the superfluid of naughtness. We're gonna be doers of the word, not hearers only. For if any be a hearer of the word. By the way, just so you know, that's you right now. Nobody's exempt from that. Unless you're deaf right now, in this room you are a hearer of the Word. Can you amen that? Everybody knows that, right? So we know who we're talking to. We're talking to you. Look at it again, verse 23. Everybody in this room, you are like a person who beholds his faith in a glass or in a mirror and beholds himself and goes his way and straightway forgets what manner of man he was. You are just a hearer of the Word, you are not a doer. And can I tell you something? Hearing of the Word is good, but without being a doer, it's all vanity, it's all waste, there's nothing to it. Look at the next verse, he goes on to say, but whosoever looketh into the perfect law of liberty, you look into the mirror of God's Word, and continueth therein. I see it, I know who I am. One of the things I found out, the more I see myself as for who I really am, It really helps me a lot. I am a grandfather and I'm okay being a grandfather, right? I'm a white-haired 68 year old man I know that and I know this that nice-looking cash red cashier at Walmart. She's not flirting with me. I right oh no she is no no she's not right that because if you get caught up in the vanity of your mind that's what you think right well that nice guy he was so nice he probably thinks i'm attractive he probably doesn't notice you sweetheart sorry You're caught up in, listen to me, and if you understand who you really are and you see the picture of who you, you understand where your wickedness lies, you will be less condemning of other people. People ask me all the time, I don't know how you ever worked at the mission, four years at the mission with people with all those kinds, ah, you know what I saw when I was on the mission? Reflections of myself. I saw me. I saw me. Had one or two decisions went the other way, That was me. I'm capable of everything, everyone that ever comes in my office, every marriage that comes in my office and has it broken and destroyed home, and they look at me and say, I wish I was like you. You are like me. You're just like me. Just a few decisions different. You don't think I have lust? You don't think I have desires? You don't think those things come to mind? Of course they do. But I don't want to just be a hearer of the Word, right? That's the difference. You heard it, are you doing it? This is a real simple message, okay? So keep reading here, again, whoso looks in that, being not a forgetful hearer, I'm in verse 25, but a doer of the Word, this man shall be blessed in his deed, in what he does. You are not, listen to me, again let me make it real practical, you are not blessed because you came to church and heard the Word of God. It can be a blessing, but that is not God's blessing on your life. God's blessing on your life is when you take what you heard in church from the Word of God and you go and practice it. That's when your life is blessed. And I've heard this so many times, we went to church all our life and it never did anything for me. No, you never did anything with it. There's a difference between the Word of God doing something for you and you doing something with the Word of God, and that's what he's talking about today. That's why I like James. James is this in-your-face practical like, hey, shut up and listen. Every now and then I need to be preached at like that, right? Every now and then somebody just needs to say, Morris, Morris, stop. You're off track, right? Get back on track. And I need to hear that. And that's exactly what James is doing. If you're, that's how you get blessing. Verse 26, he goes on to say, if any among you seem to be religious, by the way, there's a good phrase. Anybody, how many of you know that in a church our size, there are many people who seem to be religious? You do know you can put, I said this last Sunday in our class, or maybe I don't, I preached a couple, oh no, I said this in chapel at Crosspoint, I preached for the high school the other day. I can seem to be religious. I can put on a show. I can put on a show like you ain't never, I know how to dress. I know how to, I didn't wear my handkerchief this morning, so I'm not quite as spiritual as I was last week. I know how to look religious. When I first got saved, I learned how the preacher carries the Bible. This is not, that's too religious. You know how preachers carry the Bible? You gotta kinda bend it a little bit in the middle, and you hold it like this. This is how a preacher carries his Bible. Doesn't that look religious? Right? You seem to be religious, but it's not real. Preachers can do that, but everybody I've ever met and every congregation I've ever been in can also seem to be religious. And I always find out later on, well, they seem to be religious, but they weren't. They're great hearers of the word, they're great showmen, but they're not doers of the word. Look at it yourself. If anybody seems to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, if you can't control your mouth, you're not really religious. How many of you know, well, that kind of knocks me right out of there. I struggle sometimes with my mouth, with the words I say. I know I want to say the right thing, but flesh gets involved and, right? If you can't, that's one of the conditions of being religious, so to speak, and he browses not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, that man's religion is vain. What does that mean? What does vain mean? Simple word. What? Somebody said something over here. You're probably right, it's okay to repeat it. Yeah, it's empty, worthless, vain, right? It doesn't mean anything. You could say, I've been to church, I go to Faith Baptist Church, I go to every service, I'm there Sunday morning, I go for Sunday school, I go there Sunday night, I go Wednesday night, I'm there whenever they have an activity, I've been there my whole life. And you can have the most vain of all religions doing that. Just empty shallow talk, it didn't mean anything. Then he makes this statement, now I may spend some more time, I'm going to run out of time this morning, but I may spend some time on this statement. This is a great statement and yet there's a part of me that goes, really? Because verse 27 says this, pure religion and undefiled, right? is reading your Bible every day and winning people to Christ. How many of you think this statement doesn't seem appropriate at this point? He's got all this stuff. So how should we live? Well, before God and the Father, if you're going to live right before God and the Father, right? To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That's an odd combination of things. How many would agree with me? That's not quite what I expected in that verse, right? So, am I not a good Christian if I'm not visiting the fatherless orphans and widows? Am I misreading this? Is that what it says or not? It is what it says. And now the second part, keeping himself unspotted from the world, I get that. By the way, that's an interesting phrase in itself. I'm all into phrases. I was going nuts this morning sitting on my couch. Becky walked by and I'm just writing and I'm just going. She goes, can I get you some eggs? I go, no, give me another cup of coffee. I'm just going, you know. You ever get in that kind of study mode where it's like, I don't care, everything's just hitting me all at once, so I'm writing. That unspotted from the world, I can explain that in one word, okay? Listen to this. This is a good word. How many hunters in here? Deer hunters? Other deer hunters beside me? Okay, this will help you. Splatter. Splatter. A couple weeks ago, I killed a deer, right? And so I'm in the woods, and there's some things that have to be done with the deer. You don't want me to explain it here, so I'm not going to. So, but it's getting the deer prepared for the process, or I'll say it that way, that's a nice way to say it. So, I leave the woods, you give the deer time to die, you go to the woods, I go back to my truck, I change my clothes, not thinking, I took my boots off and put some, my hiking shoes on, really nice hiking shoes. Some of you know where this is going already, don't you? Yeah. So I put my hiking shoes on, I go back into the woods, and now I'm preparing the deer. And now there is blood on the tree, there's blood on the ground, and there's, you have to get down on your hands and knees, and so now there's blood on my pants, right? And now there's blood on my hands, and there's just, it's what happens. How many of you know, I didn't want to get any of that on me? It was no, I didn't sit down thinking, I'm gonna get the, no, but in the process of doing that, I got splattered, my shoes, my nice leather keen, you know what keen, high keen shoes, K-E-E-N, covered in blood. By the way, Becky said, put hydrogen peroxide on it to work, and she was correct. Weird, but it worked. I'm like, I got up and was like, oh my goodness, my pants are ruined. My shoes, I was so upset, I'm like, oh, you idiot. And so, you understand that we live in the world? How many of you get that? I didn't get saved and walked out of the world and never to see them anymore. Wouldn't that be great if you came to Christ and you could leave the world's community and come into just a Christian community? How many of you know that doesn't happen? You get saved, but you're still, you're not of the world, what is that, John 17? You're not of the world, but you are in the world. There's a difference. I'm not them, but I have to deal with them. And I have to be careful not to let them splatter on me. Now here's a little truth, I'll help you out here, okay? And I know I'm out of time. You won't get splattered on if you're not close enough. Okay, somebody in this room, two somebodies in this room were with me, helping me get this deer out of the woods. And I noticed that the lady had no blood on, I'm not telling you who it is, because everybody said, can I hunt on your property and give him a hard time. The lady had no blood on her. Do you know why? How many know why? She didn't get that close. Now you say, well, of course not, Brother Morris, that's stupid. Really? You understand that, do you? well then back away from the world. Lay that aside or you will get splattered. If you get too close to it, it will affect you. It's a reasonable understanding, it's simple, and people are looking in the door trying to get in. So let me close up. We'll get back, don't, next week, don't get a new lesson, keep the same lesson. Maybe I'll get another verse in, who knows, okay? Let's pray. Dearly Father, Lord, I am thankful for the simple truths of the word of God. I know, Lord, sometimes these phrases that we hear, they seem hard, they seem harsh, and yet they should be. There's some things we need to have hard teaching about, some things we can't do anymore, some things we need to stay away from. We need to remember who we are, that we're just flesh. Without the power of the word of God, without walking in the right relationship, we will fail. We will fall. So Lord, I pray that you'll help us to keep ourselves not just unspotted from the world, but not to deceive our own selves with our own sin. Help us to stay away from the superfluity of naughtiness. Help us not to be implacable. All the phrases we talked about this morning, Lord, are descriptive phrases of who we are without you. Help us to be something different with you. Help us to put on the fruit of the Spirit and be Christians who make a difference in a lost and dying world. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen. All right, you are dismissed. Worship service will start a little sooner than it normally does now.