Would the rest of you join me in James, the first chapter? James chapter 1 tonight. If you hadn't been with us, some of the younger ones, we've been working our way through the book of James. It's a very interesting book, very different from a lot of the letters that we study. This is a series of sort of wisdom sayings. We could call it that, I guess. and very practical. In fact, it is strikingly practical as we will see tonight. James was called James the Just, was known for his character, his righteous life. He was martyred about 61 A.D. and thrown off the wall of the temple that the fall didn't kill him, so they basically clubbed him and stoned him to death. after that he was an old man at that point but uh... had a right reputation for being a righteous man we see that coming through this letter uh... tonight we're just a look at two verses james one the last two verses of chapter one verses twenty six and twenty seven follow along as i read it if any man among you seem to be religious and bridal if not his tongue but deceive a 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 widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. If we look back we can see that we have already been impressed with the importance of the word and keep in mind that in this context the word of God is specifically speaking of the gospel the gospel message and notice we've already had back in verse 18 that the word the gospel is the instrument by which we are regenerated I said the hard shell Baptist call us gospel regeneration is which is not bad. I'll take that. That's a pretty good description. Yeah, we believe that it is through the gospel that the Holy Spirit regenerates the soul. The Spirit is the agent. The gospel, the word, is the instrument. And then notice again we have in verse 21 had the admonition that we are to receive with meekness the engrafted word. In other words, it is not just to be exposed to the word, But like a limb is vitally joined and grafted into a tree, that gospel is to be engrafted into our lives. And then last week, we saw in verse 22 the warning that we are to be doers of the word and not hearers only. And notice that we're not talking about someone exposed to a false gospel. This is clearly the word here speaks of the gospel of Christ, the true gospel. So we're not talking about exposure to false teachers. We're talking about one who simply hears and perhaps mentally assents to the truth of what he hears. But it never produces a doer. And a doer is more than someone who simply does. This is speaking of one who becomes a doer I don't know, it's the difference between someone who goes and swings a hammer occasionally and a carpenter. This becomes the lifestyle to be a doer of the Word. And so we are not to be mere hearers. We are to put into practice what we hear. But we also see tonight that we could be a hearer of the Word and not a doer. What I'm trying to impress upon you, there's two kinds of non-doers. the ones who hear and don't do and then tonight it would seem that the emphasis is placed on those who are talkers but don't do because notice much of what we're talking about is involves the tongue let's um let me get through that we've we've talked about that we've talked about that now let's go to this Notice the emphasis here in these two verses you have three occasions where thresh costs or thresh Kia is mentioned and this is a very rare word thresh costs the word religious here it's only place in the New Testament you'll find this word religion thresh Kia very similar word is found twice right here and then it's found in two other places I think I put them here acts twenty six and verse five where Paul is speaking of the Jews religion and then in Colossians two verse eighteen very interestingly he talks about the worst worship of angels and it literally is the religion of angels after the rudiments of the world at that opens up a whole new idea and I'm going to not try to chase that rabbit but uh... when we think of someone being religious or when we think of religion what what do you suppose we're talking about what what comes to your mind when we talk about a religious person piety and what do you mean by pious yeah i know everybody knows we say well man you you must be a religious person what do we mean what are we saying what does the Well, righteous, yeah. Some standard of conduct or some... What it really refers to, this Greek word, is the rituals, the practices that are attached to a given religious system. For instance, when Paul was speaking of the Jews' religion, he's talking about those rites, those ceremonies. things like circumcision, keeping feast days, not eating pork, all of those things that went around along with the idea of being a Jew. It's your religious practice. Now, we have... I know men who would say, well, Christianity is not a religion. It is not a religion, it's about a person. Well, that's technically true, but I think we would have to say there are trappings of religion that attach itself to christianity so i want you to stop here for a moment and tell me what things do you associate what religious rituals practices observances a company christianity baptism lord supper or ordinances we would say those are religious things feet washing In certain places, yes. Okay? Okay. Katie said, worship on Sunday. What we're doing right now, if the people driving by out here say, look at those folks, that's a bunch of religious people in there. They're here on a Wednesday night. That's religious people. Right? What other things do you associate with religion? In certain cases, it's how they dress. That's right. Put on certain outfits or robes, clerical robes in certain situations. What's that? Evangelism, certain activities, religious activities, witnessing evangelistic activities. Prayer. Absolutely. Not just prayer. What else have we been doing tonight? Huh? Fasting. Fellowship. Singing. What we just got through doing. Huh? Eating in our case. That's a religious activity here. In other words, it's the whole system of conduct and observances that goes along with a particular religion. And we would have to say the Muslims have a religious system. They pray five times a day. They fast. They have Ramadan. They have all their religious things. Jews have their religious things. And, yes, Christianity has religious activity connected with it. Its worship, what we would call its worship, involves a host of religious activity. Now, notice in these two verses we have a contrast between a religion Look at the last phrase of verse 26. A religion that is vain. Vain here has the sense of being worthless, empty, of no value. But then in verse 27, we have a pure religion, undefiled religion before God and the Father. So notice that we have in these two verses a contrast between a religion that is worthless and a religion that is pure and undefiled. Okay? We're going to talk about that a little bit. Notice in verse 26, he said, if any man among you seem to be religious, but the word seem there is the Greek word dokeio, which means to think or to suppose himself. In other words, a better translation, for instance, when I say, well, he seems to be religious, It almost has the sense of how others view him, but the real sense of the Word is how he views himself. Here is a man who thinks he is religious. Okay? And yet, notice, he's deceiving himself. His religion is actually vain. He believes the right things. That's important here. Again, we're not talking about believing a false gospel. It's the real deal. It's the word, the same term James has been using throughout, and it is not saying that he's worshipping wrong. He's not worshipping idols. In other words, it's not the activity that's worthless. True doctrine and worship is necessary. Is that true? Do you have to believe truth? Okay. Do you have to be religious? We don't like that, do we? We don't like to be called religious. But in essence, what we're saying is there is a religious connotation to Christianity and a Christian who doesn't pray, a Christian who doesn't sing, who doesn't meet with the saints, who doesn't give, who doesn't do any of these things that are the trappings of religion. Would you consider him a Christian? In other words, there are certain activities that Christians are expected to perform. I mean, is that off the wall? And yet, what I'm saying here is that those things are necessary. It's not that the activity itself is not vital and not necessary. It's just that it's not sufficient if that's all you're doing. that the goal of Christianity is not merely that you believe certain things and that's it. Or that you come together and perform certain religious activity and that's it. That's the problem. It's not that these things are not valuable in their place, but if this is all your Christianity amounts to, then your religion is vain. And the features of a vain religion, When you go to the doctor, what does he do? He sticks that stick in your mouth and tries to choke you, right? I have a tremendous gag reflex. So I come close to vomiting every time the guy sticks a stick in my mouth. But what does he do? He says, stick out your tongue. Now why in the world does he want to look at your tongue? Because the tongue can give you an indication of what's going on inside the body, right? Well, we might could say if we want to check a man's religion, stick out your tongue. Let's check your tongue. Because your tongue, what is it from the out of the mouth? The heart speaks. We can check the interior of you by checking your mouth. By the way, the word tongue is glossa in Greek, which is where you get the term you heard glossolalia speaking in tongues and so forth. Well, that's where it comes from. So we're going to check your glossa. If the doctor says, stick out your glossa. You'll know what he's talking about. Stick out your tongue. And notice that the tongue is to be bridled. Now, you who have some experience with horses, you know the importance of a bridle. But the word here, bridle, is not quite an accurate translation. Some just suggest the word muzzle would be much better. or the word reigned i think the uh... in ivy is is reigned the tongue is reigned is the idea that the tongue is controlled and that the tongue is able to be shut up that's the idea of muzzling it you muzzle it to where you don't say uh... certain things they don't come out so it's not just a bridal that that's going to be built on as we go later and by the way I've told you before that one of the traits of Eastern man's thinking opposed to Western man's thinking is the Eastern man tends to think in a circle. Remember how we saw that first John just keep coming back to the same old stuff. Well notice same thing's going on here. James is an Eastern man. He thinks like an Eastern man. We have the tongue being mentioned here in our text tonight. But look at the first verses of chapter three. We're going to get into the tongue again. We're going to make another pass. And we're going to enlarge upon the scope of this. So notice the tongue is to be bridled. Back in verse 19, we've already been told that. Let me read verse 19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, slow to wrath. In other words, be quick to hear someone, but very slow to respond. We know certain people that blabber a lot. I'm one of them. Yes, that's my job, I suppose. I'm thinking about my dear brother, Mike Frisbee, whom I preached his funeral this past spring, and the most gentle, quiet guy I've ever known in my life. And I probably said a hundred words to every one word he ever said. But the one word he said carried more weight than the hundred that I said. He was just one of those guys that was very slow, to speak. When he spoke, it was something worth listening to. He had something to say when he spoke. He wasn't just filling time. And that's what's being pointed out here. The tongue is to be under control. But tonight, I want to take this in a little bit different turn, and it's to point out that it seems to me the context begs for us to understand this text in this light. that what he's really saying to us, just as faith without works is dead, we're going to get into that in the next chapter, so words without works is dead. High sounding, highfalutin religious words without works is vain. Vain religion. In other words, we have things that come out of our mouth, our prayers, our singing, our preaching, Whatever you want to list. We have a profession as Christians. Things that we claim and maintain. But the question is, is that all our Christianity is? Is it merely our profession? Or does it translate to action? And that, I think, is what is being especially pointed out to us here in this text. In Matthew 15, verse 8, Jesus says this people he said it's well spoken of you Jews this people draw off nine me with their lips but their heart is far from me in other words they say all the right things then in Matthew twenty one verse twenty eight thirty one that little section he's talked about two sons is this sort of a condensed version of the parable of the prodigal son Two sons, the father says, go work in my field. And he says, no, I won't. But he repented and goes and does it. And the other son says, yes, I will. And then he doesn't go. Notice that's the condensed version. One says, no, I won't. But he repents and goes. The other one says, I will. But he never goes. Jesus questioned at the end of it, which one did the will of his father? In other words, what the point is, it's not enough to be able to say the right things, that we get together, we sing the right hymns, we pray the right way, we have a profession that is right down the line with orthodoxy, but if it goes no further than that, our religion is vain and empty. If that's the case, let's look at the hallmarks of truth. what he calls here, pure religion. It's pure. Meaning, in this context, it's unmingled. It comes out of a single-mindedness rather than duplicity. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Anybody give me an example of a double-minded man? Of course, there's always Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, you know. But we talk about somebody being, what, two-faced? They say this in one situation, say another in another. Okay, that's the idea that their heart is not pure. They have mixed motives. Okay? So a pure religion is a religion that is coming from an unfeigned heart. It is pure in the sense it is unadulterated. Our heart is wholly directed towards God. We would say many times when we worship, I'm speaking for myself here, but we have one eye on heaven and another eye on everybody else. How do I look? How does that sound? Right? How do I appear in the eyes of man? Our motives are mixed. In one sense we want to please God, but in the other sense we want to have man's approval too. So we're constantly fighting that battle. undefiled means simply clean it's you can be you can have a pure bar of gold that's dirty right needs to be washed off it's still pure but it's dirty that the dirt is the defilement purity is the pure bar of gold well that's the distinction there and James will give us two examples of what he calls pure and undefiled religion other words religion is good say if it's pure and undefiled Okay, well, James, what constitutes this pure and undefiled religion? Well, notice the first example involves widows and orphans, and the second example involves the world. First of all, he says that pure and undefiled religion, the thing that truly will stand the scrutiny of God the Father, as he's saying here, is to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. of when we read this we assume this means that well I show up every now and then I say hi and see how they're doing and that kind of thing well it certainly involves that but the word here in Greek is a derivative of the word episcopal it's where the Episcopal get their name. Episcopalian comes from that episcopal epi means over scope boss means look so to overlook or to oversee Remember, that's one of the words that is applied to an elder, a pastor in the church. He's an overseer. He's a bishop. That's the translation. Someone who oversees something. That's the idea here. It's not so much looking in on the orphan and widow, but looking after the orphan and widow. So this isn't talking about merely a temporary checkup. But it is taking on responsibility for their well-being. Plus, it would appear to me that what James is doing, and a lot of times the Hebrew mindset works like this, is that he says, pure and undefiled religion is this. When what he really means, it's like this. He doesn't mean it's only this. In other words, the only religious practice that amounts to anything is visiting widows and orphans. If that's the case, we ought to shut down everything else and just spend our time visiting widows and orphans, okay? But the point is, no, it's not that only, but it's like that. This is the kind of religious practice that truly constitutes pure and undefiled religion. This is the kind of religious practice that really pleases God. Now you may or may not know that in the Old Testament law. There's tons of references to widows and orphans. I'm just jotted down a list here let me just go through a few of these in the book of Deuteronomy that's where all these come from. It says that God in Deuteronomy ten eighteen executes the judgment of the fatherless and widow and loves the stranger now the stranger usually is found along with the with an orphan the stranger in this case is the guy who's just passing through he's a tourist he's traveler so you got the three classes with us orphans and strangers he says god executes the judgment of the fatherless with a love of the stranger in giving him food and Raymond In other words, God, sometimes it speaks of he has a ear that is inclined to the prayers of the widows and orphans. He has a special tenderness towards widows and orphans. In Deuteronomy 14, 29, we read that the widow, the fatherless, the widow, which are within my gate, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied. It's talking about eating at the Feast of Pentecost. You're to invite the fatherless You're to invite the widows into your home as you partake of that phase. Same thing going on in the Feast of Tabernacles in Deuteronomy sixteen eleven. He says thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God thou thy son the daughter of a man servant the maidservant and the Levite that is within my gates and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow. When you observe these feasts. Keep in mind the Feast of Tabernacles was a week long blowout. You were required to spend a tenth of your income celebrating the feast of tabernacles this is party time is the end of the year harvest has now been gathered in you're to spend a tenth of your income celebrating before god but you're not supposed to celebrate alone here to bring in your servants the strangers the levi who has no inheritance he didn't have a crop and especially the fatherless and the weather is to enjoy the past uh... the tabernacle meal with you uh... verse six uh... Deuteronomy sixteen fourteen thou shalt rejoice in thy feast thou and thy son the daughter the manservant the maid servant the Levite the stranger the fatherless and the widow that are within my gates and then in Deuteronomy twenty four seventeen God gives them a warning you shall not pervert the judgment of the stranger nor the fatherless nor take a widow's raiment to pledge other words God is warning them because what of all people these are the easiest to take advantage of The widow doesn't have a man around to watch after her. The orphan has no parents to take care of him. The stranger, you ever had trouble on the road? Well, then you know how vulnerable you are to somebody taking advantage of you. And so God is saying, do not pervert judgment. You may be tempted to prey on these people, the weakest and the most helpless among you. Don't you dare touch them because I'm watching. I'm watching what you do I know a man one time he was a builder out in Wyoming and he would work for anybody he said but a widow. And I asked you why are you. Why won't you go to work for a widow he says because of all the warnings in the Bible that if you mistreat them what's going to come to you. I'm not sure of his logic but I understand his his reasoning there in other words God is saying you cheat a widow. And I'm coming after you. So he said I'm just I just don't Yes ma'am. Yeah. Well it really is. It's interesting. While in Greece we went up to Thessalonica and rendezvoused with a woman there who was a Southern Baptist lady working with refugee camp right outside Thessalonica about twelve hundred people in the camp. And I tell you it break your heart to hear the stories and of course she deals with the mothers and children, can't do a lot with the men, but people that are fleeing for their lives with a little more than what they had on their back. And yeah, that's exactly what I was talking about, the refugees, the people that are passing through that have no provisions. Yeah, it's definitely speaking to that. Now, what's happened is that these refugees are coming to shore in Greece. That's their entrance into Europe. They have these camps there where they vet them and process them before they'll let them go further. Most of them are trying to get to Germany or Scandinavia, one of the countries further north. And some of them are so desperate, as she told us the story of one family that had sent back to Syria for help from their relatives and got enough money to pay this smuggler about 5,000 euros to smuggle the family on up into Europe. Well, they got in the middle of the night in a forest somewhere along the border, and the mother fell and hurt herself so badly she couldn't go on. So they just left the family there in the middle of the woods. The rest of it, they were taking a large party through. They just left them. And they finally got picked up and sent back to the refugee camp, where now they, sure enough, have no hope. All the money that their relatives had sent them now is squandered. So it's just things like that these people in many cases now clearly you know you need to be wise here. There may be some folks in amongst them that are intent on doing harm but so many of them. Their house has been bombed out. Nowhere to go just fleeing for their lives and most a lot of them never make it across the Mediterranean. Boats capsizing people hundreds people drowned. So they're just desperate to get out you know get away from it. And then they have, as she told us, a story of two men came to her and said, we want to be Christians. Said, we were sick and tired of all this Muslim stuff. We've seen what that does. And now we're in Christian Europe, so we want to be Christians. And said, then you got to deal with that. That's the mentality. I'm now in a Christian nation, so I want to be a Christian. And very little understanding of what true Christianity is. Anyway it's a it's a huge problem especially for Greece Greece got enough problems just dealing with their own economy let alone this is one of a whole bunch of refugee camps in Greece right now. So yeah that's who it's talking about those that are just passing through and not part of you foreigners tourists we would say or journeymen pilgrims and so those are the folks that it is so easy to take advantage of anyway there's a whole bunch more by the way part of this has to do with when you cut down it says your harvest I'm in Deuteronomy twenty four nineteen when you cut down your harvest in my field and has forgot a sheaf in the field you forget your sheaves of corn or grain thou shalt not go again to fetch it it shall be for the stranger the fatherless for the widow that's exactly remember what Ruth was doing gleaning in the fields of Boaz. Then he says in verse twenty-one, twenty, when thou beatest thine olive tree. I saw enough olives. I'm thinking how many olives would I go through in a year? Three? I don't know. I'm not a big olive guy. As far as the eye can see, olive trees. They got more olive trees in Greece than they could possibly be a demand for in the world. They ought to be cheap as anything anyway. But anyway he's talking about you beat your olive trees to get the olive. He says you can't you can't go back and beat them again. If you say well there's still some up there. I missed a few. You can't go back and beat it again. It shall be for the stranger the fatherless the widow. Then in verse twenty one when you gather the grapes of your vineyard you shall not glean it afterward. You can't go back over again. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and widows. You understand what I'm saying? In the law of Moses, there is this theme that just runs right through it, of all these things that especially pertain to the fatherless, orphans, widows, and included with them, the stranger, that they are to be watched out after. And when you have your feasts and you invite your family, your servants, you invite these as well. So is it any surprise then that James, especially with his Hebrew Old Testament mentality, then says true and pure religion, the real deal is those who will visit the widows and the orphans in their affliction. The word is in their pressing circumstances. They're being squeezed. They're in great difficulty. Now, why would that be an example of pure and undefiled religion? I'm going to answer my own question here. Because the second test of true religion is to keep yourself unspotted from the world, that you don't get the world on you. You tell your kids to go out, it's muddy, don't get mud on you. James is saying when you go out there, don't get the world on you. Well, what does he mean? How would you know if you were spotted? You got soiled. with the world. He's not talking about dirt. I hope you understand. Because when the Bible uses the word world, it means something else. It means this system of things. First John will tell us that it is a system based on three things. The lust of the flesh, self-gratification, the appetites of the flesh, self-glorification, the lust of the eyes. I want to look good. I want the world to think I'm something. And then, self-exaltation, the pride of life, he says. Three things, John says, constitutes the world. The love of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And so those three things is what constitutes the world. So James is telling us, don't even let your clothes get soiled spotted with those elements. Now, do you see any connection between this second feature of pure religion not being spotted with the world and the first feature of visiting widows and orphans in their affliction? Is there a connection? Yes, and I think that's it. In other words, visiting the widows and the orphans is an example of the kind of activity one does when you're not interested in gratifying self, looking good, I mean, or looking exalted, proud, because why? They can't do anything for you. They can't pay you back. There's no quid pro quo going on here. You know, it's not like taking a salesman, taking a customer out for lunch. because you're hoping to sell himself in the case of the way to the orphan they don't have anything to buy and i have no money so this is just pure mercy and there's no brownie points the world is not going to pat you all about on the back because you're aware of visitor or an orphan better that that is considered and i'm thinking of the billionaires donald trump's on what goes to mind only use him for obvious reasons but uh... The point is, how many billionaires do you see down at the orphanages? You know, it's not where they hang out. It's not the country club. It's not the penthouse suite. This is not the place for the high-minded, for those concerned about how they're going to look in the eyes of the world, those concerned about gratifying their own fleshly lusts, or those concerned about looking proud and boastful. This is not the environment for that. Does that make sense? That you see this, then these are sort of two sides of the same coin. This is what true religious practice looks like. And do you understand then the thrust of this whole argument here? That just as you can believe correct doctrine, and if that's as far as it goes, it's worthless. Because it never translates into you doing anything. Your doing is the whole point. of your believing correctly is so that you will act correctly. But just as that is true, you've got the equally possible thing of coming through all the show of worship. And it never translates into how we behave. That our heart is never really changed. In other words, we can be, as I put up there, religious but worldly. Do you know any, I don't want names, religious, worldly people. In other words, the whole reason they worship, say the right things, sing the right songs, go where they're supposed to go on Sunday, put some money in the offering plate, all of it has to do with what am I getting out of it. To look good, to stroke my ego, that I can pat myself on the back and I've done my duty. And the question is, and this is what James, the whole book of James is so intensely focused on. Does it translate into how you act? Now, let me give an example of words without works. I said, you know, we got faith without works. What about words without works? I'm getting ahead of me. But in chapter two, in verse 15, James says, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, and be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" In other words, we have the words, but the words never translate into action. So that's something for us to chew on tonight. All of us, I trust, examine our hearts and say, why are we here? What are we doing here? Are we just putting in our time? Paying our dues so that God will treat us right? You know, so he'll be happy with us. And the point is, yeah, there is activity that truly pleases God. But this is just the filling station. It's where you just get tanked up with the instruction and the motivation to do it. But this is not the doing. Not within these walls. This isn't where true religion shows itself. And if it only happens within these walls, our religion is vain. Well, all right. Your toes hurting? Ought to be. Mine are. I had listened to this too. Oscar? Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I was trying to say. This is just a sampling. It's just a sampling of the kind of thing and and anyone in a helpless difficult squeezing situation yeah yeah fellow student of yeah yeah you're exactly right and i was trying to make that clear that james yet james james is not saying it's just this but what he's saying is it's like this it's these kinds of circumstances where you act and that constitutes true religion at work Now I'm glad you brought that we'll make sure that's clear or or else we just do a wooden orphans ministry. Yep. Like dirt. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Good point. And I hope that's clear to everybody. James is just using this as a sample of the kind of thing he's talking about. It's basically those kinds of works that the world really has no use for. The world will not stoop. unless you know they're made to they're forced to. They don't stoop to this lowly stuff. Christians both seek that out. Right. Yeah. Yes exactly. It's is anybody looking. It's sort of like I'm doing this. I'm doing this this wonderful act. But I want to make sure that everybody knows I'm doing it. You're exactly right. The world has its benefactors it has its benevolence and It's philanthropy. But it's a very different thing than Christianity where Christianity is seeking not to be known most of the time not to be glorified. That is not what's at the heart of it. It's of course always the motivation is what Christ has done for us. He stooped he came he humbled himself. And so the question is is your religion puffing you up. Or is your religion humbling you. At the end of the day, that's what matters.