We're gonna be in James 1 to start this morning, so if you'd like to turn your Bibles to James 1, verses 26 and 27, take out your sermon outline, if you would, and let's take a look at some good things that the Lord has shared with us. We're gonna be looking at Old Testament and New Testament as well. I know there's at least some statements being made now that we need to, the Church of Jesus Christ needs to detach itself from the Old Testament. And I wanted to share this with you. It's not possible to detach ourselves from the Old Testament. It is not possible because the Old Testament and the New Testament are the history of the world. This is how we exist. This is how things are. This is God's revelation to us. If it means by that that we should not put ourselves under the old covenant, we never were under the old covenant. Most of us, my brothers and sisters, were Gentiles anyway, and we're never under the old covenant to start with. But 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that that old covenant, that the Old Testament, all of that is for examples for us. We're to use it to learn from. It wasn't written to us, but it was written for our general edification. So we do have a responsibility. So I don't make any apology for going back to the Old Testament to find what's the nature and character of God. For it's in that Old Testament, I find the nature and the character of God. It's not always the one that people like because they see it as very judgmental and harsh and that sort of thing. They like Jesus in the New Testament. I've got to tell you, Jesus in the New Testament, if you read it to the end of the book, it's harsh. There's some hard things ahead for us all, even now. So today, I'd like for us to focus on the cloud of compassion. And by me, I'm just taking off on the last point of last week's message, the cloud of compassion. How important is compassion? Well, taking a look here at 127 of James, it says this, pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. I want to focus on this just for a moment. There is a pure and undefiled religion before God. Yes, religion has been messed up all the way around by many times. Religion is not our expression to God. It's God's expression through us. Religion is the outworking of the relationship that we have with God. The more of a relationship you have, the more pure and undefiled your religion's going to be. And James was here to share with us. This is the head of the church. This is the one who wasn't Peter that was the head of the church, it was James. And James was beheaded as the head of the church. James is the one who's sharing this. He shares with us very practical stuff. James is sort of the Proverbs of the New Testament. He shares with us important things about very practical information that we need to know. And this thing he shared with us is a pure and undefiled religion before God. Because it's what God revealed. It's what God had said. These are the things that God wants us to know. This is not about a moral covenant we're having with each other. This is God's nature. And God's nature is being expressed in this way. And if we're going to be a part of pure and undefiled religion before God, we want to express the very nature of God in whose image we have been made. We have been recreated, if you would. Those of you who trusted Jesus Christ, your Lord and Savior, you have been born again as children of God. And as children of God, we are beholden, we are obliged to act like and be like our Father, because that's our birthright. So he's the standard. The standard for our religion is not our moral codes. It's him. What is his person like? What is his character like? What is he like? That's what sets the standard. And we want to rise above even all the moral codes and everything that are told. Those things are basically our expressions to sort of judge each other. to see how we're doing along, we have to rise above that and see the standard of Almighty God. And he says that in that standard is to visit widows and orphans in their time of trouble. Today, I'm going to focus on widows. I'm going to start here with the creation of purpose. Last week we had talked some about responsibility. And I want to just share this about responsibility because this is what we're looking at today. What is our responsibility? Just as Cain asked a long time ago, am I my brother's keeper? What am I, what's my responsibility? What am I supposed to do here? Well, here's our responsibility. And I'm going to tell you this, it is our responsibility to understand ourselves this way. You are the summation of the choices you've made in your life. You are the summation of the choices that you've made in your life. You are not the result of what other choices were made by other people. Responsibility and choice tell me I have to take extreme responsibility for my life. Yes, I'm not the one who did everything in my life. That's true. It was not necessarily my fault. But it is my responsibility since that's where I am to deal with who I am and to make right choices in it. So the life I'm living today, I'm living because of choices that I made throughout it. And it's my full responsibility. Everybody follow who we're at here? We have to get this bottom line because as long as we keep blaming somebody else, the only good change is going to happen in my life is when that somebody else changes. That is no way to live. The only change that's going to happen in my life is when I decide to change me and I take responsibility for who I am and deal with what I'm doing. It may not be my fault where I am, but it is my responsibility to take care of where I am. Everybody follow where I'm at? All right, let's go a little further then. Let's go back all the way to creation. When God said that he made everything, he said that when he had finished it all, he looked at it and said, it's very good. That's a joyful time when God can say something's very good. And yet in the next chapter, chapter two, which is the details of pretty much day six, he says this, it is not good. That's the only time you see not good. He said, everything is good. This is good. This is good. Then finally he said, everything is very good. But he said this, it is not good. You remember what that was? That man should be alone. There wasn't anyone corresponding to Him. There wasn't anyone to share the relationship. You see, the Father shares a relationship with the Son and the Spirit all the time. They're in a complete, total relationship all the time. But when He created us, there wasn't someone to correspond with us, someone for us to have this fellowship. So he created the woman in order for the man to have fellowship. Now they are a team. Everybody follow that? This is not about which one's better than the other. It's not about better at all. This is about a team that's to carry on a relationship. And that relationship is going to express what God is like. So he made it as a sharing. So when that husband and wife are married together, it is a shared relationship. It becomes a problem when either of them dies in that relationship. It becomes a problem when either of them break the trust that's in that relationship. It becomes a problem to what God had created in the first place when anything splits that relationship. When any sort of unfaithfulness is found in that relationship. It hurts that relationship. And if I can say this, God says he hates it. God says he hates it. You see, anything that is not like him becomes evil. Anything that's not like him, he hates. So when this relationships gets broken, relationships gets broken. When this relationship gets broken, it's a broken covenant. With that broken covenant, God has said, I don't like broken covenants. He said, it's better to me that you don't make any covenants at all. Then you make a covenant, break a covenant. He said that the horrible thing that Israel did was to break their covenant with him. Matter of fact, because they broke their covenant with Him, He'd make a whole new covenant, by the way, which is where you are today, in the benefits of that new covenant that God made because of a broken relationship that He had with Israel. Widows, the fatherless, and the stranger are in an unprotected state in which advantage can be easily taken. This could lead to oppression, neglect, and abuse. This study has been good for me because it's been good for me. I have had opportunity to look over and see what is it that God's most bothered by. And I can see this. One of the things that God says he's very bothered by and takes a very serious look at is widows, orphans, the stranger, the poor, the needy, the alien, the stranger or foreigner. He takes a very serious look at all those kids. And I think it's time for us to start taking a very serious look ourself at what he counts to be a very serious thing. We read in Exodus 22, just a few moments ago, that God said, don't pervert the justice that goes to the widow, the orphan, or the stranger. For if you do, he said, I will take up their cause. Do you hear that? To do something opposed to that widow, to do something that afflicts that widow, to do something that hurts that widow, God takes up that cause. Some time ago, those of you who were with us a long time know that we had purchased this land from a husband and wife that had a home right down where all this shopping center is right now. Well, we had purchased it and we had several contracts and things for different parts of the land and so forth. And we were trying to work out all we could to pay it. Well, as we began to pay the property off, as God was giving us resources to pay the property off, we were paying more of it, more of it and more of it in larger sums. And we were saving a lot of money in interest. Well, in that interim period where we're paying off this group and this savings and loan and this little group over here, the husband passed away. That put us in a whole new category, from what I understood. From what I could see, we had to deal with a widow now. And dealing with a widow, you have to be very, very careful. Why? Because God says he takes up the cause of the widow. And so we did everything we could to try to make sure the property fit just right to what you see now is not the way the property was. It was really a mess, to be truthful with you, but we worked with it nonetheless. And we worked very carefully with it because we understood this, you don't mess with widows. Period. God takes up their cause. God is their husband. And that's serious business. So when you find widows, the fatherless and the stranger, they are in an unprotected state. And that seems to be something that's very close to God's heart. You see, he's a provider and protector. As a husband of the earth, if I can say it that way, he provides and protects it. And when anything is in an unprotected state, he takes its cause up. And he gets very concerned about that. Why? Because that often, because of the wickedness of humanity, we often wind up taking advantage of people that way. That leads to oppression, that leads to neglect, that leads to abuse. That's one more thing. The father says, I will take up the cause of the oppressed and I will rise in their benefit. I will rise in their behalf. But then on the other side of this, when we by faith behave like God, letter D says, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to a greater and honorable level of accomplishment. That's glorifying God. As I've tried to share with you simply this, when we look at the Word of God and we see this is what the Word of God says, and I believe God's right. I believe that what God says is the right thing to do, and when I take a faithful step of obedience that father I'm doing this because you said this is right I trust you implicitly and when I take that step faith-filled step of obedience I am filled with the Spirit the Spirit then empowers me to do the work of God even greater so let me just say this if I take a faith-filled step of disobedience and defied to afflict a widow what can I be sure is going to happen God will take up her cause. If I take a step of disobedience and I come to the point where I afflict an orphan, what can I know will take place? He takes up the orphan's cause. But if by the same token, I take a faith-filled step of obedience toward doing that, the Spirit of God fills me and gives me the power to accomplish that. In that, I will glorify God. If I do that on my own, I will not glorify God. I will wind up glorifying me. Does that make sense? Look, I'm trying to share this with my Sunday school class. We have been called by the Spirit of God, the Church of Jesus Christ. Our life is the Spirit of God. If we're not filled with the spirit, we are not the church of Jesus Christ. Everybody following that? That is our power. That is our life. That's everything to us. Being filled with the spirit is not optional. It's intentional. That's exactly what he intended for us to do is to look the scriptures over, understand what God wants to do, understand we're born again, and we want to walk in faith filled obedience that the spirit of God will fill us. So there is a pure and undefiled religion. That pure undefiled religion is that one. It's the one by the Spirit of God. It's the one that's enacted. It's the one that's empowered by the Spirit of God. We wanna do that as he puts it here to the widows and the orphans. Let me go on further. Pure and undefiled religion handed down from God in Israel. Let's look at the nature of God. Exodus 22, 22 to 24. Turn there with me. I think that's the one we read just a few moments ago, but if you turn your Bibles to Exodus 22, you say, wait a minute, that's the law. We've been freed from the law. I'm just gonna say this. The new covenant said this, that I will write my law in their inward parts. So I know that when I'm looking at this, this is what's written in your heart. So I know that as we look at it, you're gonna be saying, I agree with that. It's not about your obligation to it, it's about knowing that you agree with Exodus 22, 22 to 24. Have I got the, yes, here we go. It says, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way and they cry out at all to me, I will surely hear their cry. Now look, I know there's the wrath and everything will become hot and I see all that. I want you to look at how closely and tenderly God looks at that. They are alone. They have been without a husband. They're without protection. The orphans are without a protection. And being without a protection and being alone in that situation, God says, I will step up for them. That's His nature, to take care of the unprotected. to take care of the ones who don't have that extra level of protection there. Look at Deuteronomy 10.18. Well, matter of fact, we've read, I think, all of those this morning in our reading. Deuteronomy 10.18. Let's take a look at that one real quickly. Deuteronomy 10.18. Talking about God, verse 17, it said, In consideration of that, I want you to see the nature of God is to care for that which isn't protected. Look at that, what, verse 19 there. Therefore, love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. Why should we love the stranger? Why was, I should say, why did he want Israel to love the stranger? Cause they had already been one. They already knew what order should at least know what it is. You shall fear the Lord, your God, you shall serve him and him only shall you hold fast and take oath in his name. So he wanted them to have that. If you would, Psalm 146, nine says that he will establish the cause of the widow. So Psalm 146.9, I'll get there real quickly and I'll read it for you. We had read this earlier. 146.9 says, the Lord watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and the widow, but the way of the wicked, he turns upside down. In Psalm 50, he don't explain to us what the wicked is. The wicked is that person who knows what God says. and turns his back on what God says and does something different. That's the wicked. So he had said here that he establishes, or better, the Lord watches over the strangers, relieves the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked he turns upside down. And finally, Proverbs 15 25. I just want you to see that this is the very nature of God. This is at His heart. This is something that's very close to Him, so it needs to become something very close to us. The Lord will destroy the house of the proud, but He will establish the boundary of the widow. So that's what's in God's heart. God's intense love extended to the unprotected, such as those oppressed, the stranger, the poor, the needy, the widow, and the fatherless. Because God is all about good relationships. God is all about good relationships. Matter of fact, so important was this, that when God wanted to correct Israel, for the wrong they had done. He wanted to show them what would be good signs of repentance. Listen to how he said it in Isaiah 117, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. That's what he said when Israel was heading in a wrong direction, this is how they were corrected. Daniel, in speaking to Nebuchadnezzar, when Nebuchadnezzar had done something that was very, very wrong, Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, look, God rules over all things and what you've done is very wrong, but here's what do. Go for the poor and the needy, go for the fatherless, go for the widow. It might be that God will put off his judgment against you because of it. So in other words, when God wanted to put off judgment, he said, focus back on the things that are at my nature. Focus back on the things that are like me, go to the unprotected and begin to protect them. Go to the unprotected and begin to do good for them. That's pure and undefiled religion. But I know this, some would say, well, that's in the law, we didn't have to do the law. Well, I'm gonna just share with you this, and we don't have time to go to all the different verses that deal with this. It's in pre-law times. You see, if I can remind you this way, we had creation. Here's my timeline on the stage again. We had creation, and from creation, we move our way up, and we come up to, let's call the time of Abraham. The time of Abraham is just the call of the Jewish people. That's going to be their first call. And at this time of Abraham living at the same time of Abraham was Job. They're living at the same time. That's really, really pre-law. And here's Job living pre-law and in Job 24, three. Let me go back to that one real quickly, just to share with you Job 24, three. There are many here that I found in the book of Job. So here, prior to the time that there is any law at all in describing the wicked, since time's not hidden from the Almighty, why do those who know him see not his days? Some remove landmarks. They seize flocks violently and feed on them. They drive away the donkey of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox as a pledge. Look. It was already pre-law. It was already in the hearts of people to know then you don't mess with widows. That's immoral. That's unethical. All right. So there are other passages there that deal with that. We'll let you look at those yourself. It is the nature of redemption. Turn to Deuteronomy 24. Deuteronomy 24. Here the Lord is wanting the children of Israel to understand what's on His heart, what's important to Him, Deuteronomy 24, 17 to 22. Here's what he says. You shall not pervert the justice due to the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow's garment as a pledge. But you shall remember that you are a slave in Egypt. The Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, I command you to do this thing. Stop just for a moment. They should do this because this is what had happened to them. Someone had done this to you. You were treated as a slave in Egypt because you were treated as a slave in Egypt. When you come into this land that I'm about to take you, don't you treat any stranger or fatherless or widow in any wrong way. Don't pervert their justice. Don't take the widow's garment as a pledge. Do to them exactly the way I would do to them. I set you free from there because I redeemed you. I want you to redeem them. This becomes an important part of the whole, of the way things were. If I could say it this way, letter C, number one, remembering from where you came. One of the first things you need to do is remembering from where you came. He said this, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. That's where you came from. And considering where you are now, if you are in a land right now that you have fields, that you have anything you can harvest right now, you have come a long way from being a servant, right? You've come a long way from being a slave. So he said to them, look at verse 19. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you should not glean it afterward. It should be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore, I command you to do this thing. Because that's what you were. When you come into a land where you begin to prosper, then don't take everything off there. Leave some for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Then that was going to do this. Number three in your outline there, letter C, to keep one from comfortable complacency. Comfortable complacency is probably one of the worst places you can ever be because that hardens your heart. Your heart becomes hard. He was wanting us to know, look, I prosper you when these fields. And when I prosper these fields and you get all this harvest going for you, don't take all of it. I have provided you with this extra great harvest in order that you can provide for the widow and the stranger and the fatherless. And you remember that you were redeemed and because you were redeemed, I want you to redeem them also. In the law, we won't get a chance to look at the verse there, but the law in Deuteronomy 26, one to 15, what a great passage. It's the law about the tithe. What you set back. What are you supposed to do with what you set back? Well, definitely one part of what they're supposed to do, bring it into the storehouse. It was there for the Levite. That was one of them. But that wasn't all. That storehouse would be the place where the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, the poor and the needy could come get food. could come get a tithe of what you had. So if I can say the very purpose of the tithe was taking care of the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, the poor, and the needy. And then as you've seen here in Deuteronomy 24, that was the purpose of the kindness of the harvest. When you are getting more than what you need, when more of it's coming in, that's a sign that you're ready to share with somebody. That would keep your heart from being hardened. It would give you that compassion of God again, at least that was the intention of it. I know we can all change from that intention, but I want you to consider just for a moment, Ruth, there's a whole story about the heart of God. That story's about a widow, two of them, that were being taken care of by God. And that those two precious widows, Boaz was remembering what God had to say. Then Boaz becomes a picture of a kinsman redeemer. Very picture of Christ. He's not taking all his field. He's leaving it. And he's even telling his people, drop some and leave it. Drop some and leave it. They need it. There's two widows there and Boaz is taking care of them. That's the heart of God. And so when we're considering these things, let's don't consider it as our duty, this is something we gotta do, let's consider it, what would make me most like God? What would bring me into the very image I know I've been recreated in? What would do that? What would reveal Jesus if I became compassionate, if I became like a Boaz, if I became like a Lord Jesus Christ who looked at all the people out there and said, I am moved with compassion for them? And because I move with compassion for them, I'm gonna feed them. I move with compassion for them, therefore I am going to heal them. I move with compassion for them, therefore I'm gonna teach them. Jesus' life reflects this pure and undefiled religion that visits people in their trouble. If I want to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, whose I am, that needs to become my ministry. Going on further, pure and undefiled religion is continued. It became a part of the church. Now, I'm going to assume that many of you will have at least enough history to know what Acts chapter six about. We call that the story of the first deacons. But I want you to remember what the story was about. The story was about the ministry, the daily ministry to the widows. There was a big number of widows who were getting their daily food from what everybody was bringing in. So people were taking their property, they're selling it. And as they sold their property, they were providing it for the widows. They were providing for those who were poor and needy. Why would they do that? Why did the church start thinking that way? What I've written in your outline is this, the church is Jewish. The church is Jewish and is thought to be a revival of Israel, the new covenant Israel. This would have been a normal expression of compassion. What would it have been? The care of the poor and needy, especially widows. Now get this, here was this people, Jewish people, they knew what the law had to say. On that day of Pentecost, they were filled with the spirit and transformed. They were now children of God. They were born again. I'm not saying that's the day they were born again. I'm just saying they were filled with the spirit at that moment. And the spirit is downloading in them all of the new covenant. He's downloading in them what was the whole nature of God. The character of God's being downloaded in it. The very gifts of God are being downloaded in him. So what do you think would be the natural expression of compassion? Who do you look to first? You look to the heart and nature of God and you say, who are the poor and needy among us? And standing out primarily were the widows. So in Acts chapter six you see this enormous work of the church being done to take care of the widows. And they had to have deacons to take care of that because there was getting to be some jealousy and some abuses as they thought. Because some of the Jewish widows who had come from the diaspora were not getting a fair shake with those who were living within Judea. So they're calling for some justice to be done. So what do they do? They appointed Hellenistic Jews to be over the distribution to the widows. But don't miss the point. It was distribution to widows. That was what the church was doing, okay? In 1 Timothy chapter 5, 1 Timothy chapter 5, We find them in that chapter organizing the widow's ministry in the church, not creating one, organizing it. Why? Because it continued every place the church went. Wherever the church went, it was having a ministry to the poor, the needy, the widows, and the fatherless. In 1 Timothy chapter 5, we start reading, In verse three, honor widows who are really widows, but if any widow has children or grandchildren, let them first show to piety at home and repay their parents for this is good and acceptable for the Lord. So the first obligation was the church would take care of widows who are really widows, those who are not really widows. And by that, it meant simply this, they did have children. They did have somebody that could help them meet the need. So rather than the church be responsible to take care of widows who have children already, the church should be responsible to those who had no one left, no one to take care of them, not someone out there in their family that could do that, all right? He goes on. Now, she who is really a widow and left alone trusts in God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day. But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives. And these things command that they may be blameless. But if anyone does not provide for his own house, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." So in other words, within the church, if your mom is a widow and you're within that church, you don't turn her over to the church to be taken care of. You do it. You take care of it. If you've got to have some assistance beyond that, then that's a whole other situation, but you take care of it. That's where the first obligation was. Then there was an obligation to the church, or at least an opportunity for the church to go on with it from there. So here's what I can find. I'll let you read the rest of that yourself and find more. In this chapter, we find there was some type of financial assistance to those in need. Don't know a great deal more about than what I'm reading right here. I don't know what the financial assistance was or whether it was just daily needs. I don't know what it was, but I know that many times that tithe was set up to take care of the poor and the needy. Again, the church was Jewish, so that's going to be a natural part of what they knew and thought and understood. It just is going to fall into it. Why? Because they thought they were a part of the new covenant. Okay, I'll go on further. Number two in the outline, letter B, was qualifications. They listed what age the widows start at, whether they were engaged in an active ministry, whether they were genuinely without help, what to do about younger widows, what to do about a family responsibility, all of that's there. Let me come down to some applications. The application I'd like to make, and again, I'm going to encourage you to read that yourself and ask yourself this question. Am I wanting to be close to the heart of God or I wanted to have my own religion? Just as simple as that. It's not more complex. It's not more than that. It's just simply this pure and undefiled religion is the heart of God. Do I want to be there or do I want to establish myself in my own self-made religion and run the risk of what that means? If I can say this, the church has been doing its own self-made religions since about 300 A.D. And it wasn't really until about 1900 that there was any sort of understanding that there's something more the church is supposed to be doing than its obligations, than whatever things it creates. That'll be another message at another time, and I think I can show you what I'm meaning with that. Here's our application. The first thing I'd ask you to do, become aware. Become aware. So the first thing's awareness. Am I aware of what God's wanting to do? Am I aware of the situation? Am I aware who's a widow? Am I aware who's a stranger? Am I aware who's fatherless? Am I aware who's poor and needy? Have I had an awareness of it? Listen, don't let the culture define us. The culture has all kinds of its definitions about who gets to have help and who doesn't get to have help and who should do this and who shouldn't do that. Don't let the culture define us. Don't let your political beliefs define us. I'll be glad when the church can finally rise above this political stuff, can finally come back to what we really are about. We are citizens of heaven and we are to speak to this thing right here. We're not to just go away and run away from us, but to speak to it and to demonstrate to it what is the real way. We are the real way kids. It's in our hearts. It's already within us. It's just simply gonna be, am I aware? Am I aware of what God said? Am I aware of the circumstances and situations that are around me? Second thing, respect, value, and honor. Once you've become aware, respect widows, value widows, and honor widows. Let this start being a faith-filled step of obedience to you. If God loves them and takes up their cause, don't you want to be involved with that? Don't you want to be involved with the respect, the value, and the honor that's in that? The third one, what would you want done to you? What would you want done to you if you were in their situation? What would you want done to you? Or, perhaps another way, some of you may be here and your parents live a long way away. What would you want done to your mother? What would you want done to your sister? What would you want done to someone that's very close to you? And finally, number four, relationships. Build relationships, conversation. Adopt a widow. Adopt her as your grandmother. Adopt her as your mother. People are people. And if you remember what the whole creative purpose was, it was it's not good for man to be alone, but they would be in sharing. So in a good relationship. Father, thank you that you have given us life, life everlasting, and that you've called us to be just like you are. It's a task that's largely undertaking and I ask you to forgive us for wanting to be our own people rather than your people. And I'm not being a condemning of anyone, Father. I don't know enough about people's hearts. I don't know anything about people's hearts. You do. But I can see what's worked out. And I can see what the end result has been. Father, in Jesus' name, grant that we might have the closeness to your heart that allows us to be the compassionate people we need to have. Use the great power of compassion to change the world we live in, Father, in Christ's name. Amen.