If you have your Bibles, I’m gonna ask that you open up to James chapter 1. Be looking at verses 22 through 27 this morning, finishing up the first chapter of James. It’s taking me a while to get through, but it’s been a… An amazing journey, just studying it and reading it.

Though I do have to, before I continue, I have to redeem myself from the call to worship. It was 1 Samuel 2, verses 1 through 3, which is Hannah’s song of Thanksgiving when she finds out she’s pregnant. So to the guys in the back, sorry for that. That’s on me. I gave you the wrong passage. But all of it’s inspired still. So James chapter 1, verses 22 through 27.

I’m going to go ahead and read those verses real quick, even though Pastor just went through and read it all, just to focus our minds on those verses. And then I’m going to pray. James writes, it’s inspired by the Holy Spirit, starting in verse 22. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. And I pray that as we read and study today, you speak to us through it. I thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who can help illuminate your word for us. And I pray that as I preach this morning, the Holy Spirit will speak through me. And bless this time together in Jesus’ name, amen.

So we’re coming to the end of James, we’re finishing up chapter one, and remember that obviously verse 22 is coming right off the heels of verse 21, and really 19 through 27 are one main unit. I split it up so we could have more time to discuss each part. But verse 21, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls. So we’re talking verses 22 through 27, these seven verses, are really in a way centered around this word, meaning the word of truth, the gospel message, the truths of scripture. And when we come to this passage in James, James chapter 1, 22 through 27, we see that if Christians are to practice a pure religion, they must first obey the word of God.

And we will be analyzing this idea by looking at two main themes found in the text. And the first theme is that of obey, and it covers verses 22 through 25. So 22 through 25 focus on contrasting those who obey scripture and those who do not obey scripture. In verse 21, like I said, James told them to receive the implanted word, receive the truths of God’s word. Now he is telling them to do it. You know the gospel, you know the scriptures, do it. And doing the word that we read about in this text is synonymous with obeying the word. In fact, as the sermon goes on, I’ll be using the words doing and obeying interchangeably at times. But these Christians that James is writing to, he’s telling them, you need to obey scripture. But it’s an imperative. But prove yourselves doers of the word. I’ve said this several times as I was going through this first chapter, but that’s not vague. It’s not ambiguous. There’s no confusion about it. It’s very simple. Be doers of the word. Obey.

And verses 19 through 21 actually provide some of the things that they are to obey. And I talked about it last week. Verse 19, everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. Verse 20, for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. So James is telling them what to obey. And of course, these handful of verses here don’t cover all the things that Christians are to obey. They’re to obey all of scripture. James doesn’t say be doers of the Torah. Don’t be doers of just wisdom literature be doers of the word be doers of all of Scripture of even what I’m saying So the Christians who are listening and reading this letter in the first century cannot walk away from it saying I don’t know what I’m supposed to do Pastor Pite said James is about practical Christian living. They know how to live after they’ve heard and read this letter James makes it clear So these Christians, they believe the gospel message, now they are to live it out.

They are Christians, so they need to act like Christians. Rob Plummer, a New Testament scholar, says this, obedience to the word of God is the true test of spirituality. And this obedience comes from a heart that is truly devoted to Christ, that has been regenerated. But obedience is the true test of spirituality. You say you’re a Christian. Are you acting like a Christian? Are you obeying what is in this book? Or are you not? The test of a good soldier is one who follows orders. Within military discipline, it’s required for a soldier to follow the orders he is given. If a soldier does not follow orders, you have a breakdown in military discipline, and that causes many problems, especially on a ship that’s out in the middle of the ocean. If you have soldiers who start disobeying orders and not doing what their commanders have told them, then you have a breakdown of military discipline. You can have a serious issue. You can have a mutiny in the middle of the ocean.

So soldiers must follow orders. They have to. It’s necessary for them. And if they are to have a good career and even a good time as a soldier, they need to obey. They need to do what’s necessary. And as we continue on through this passage, we’ll see that it’s actually good for Christians to obey God’s commandments and to obey the law. And the one in these few verses we see that the one who obeys the word is contrasted with the one who only hears it. Verse 22 again, but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. Christians, now James is not contradicting what he said earlier in verse 19, I just read it. So in verse 19, James says, this you know my beloved brethren, but everyone must be quick to hear. So as we read quick to hear, but then we read don’t be merely hearers only, it can seem like a little bit of a contradiction, but it’s not.

When James is talking about do not only be hearers, he’s talking about those who have heard the truths of God’s word, those who have maybe sat under the preaching and teaching of God’s word, they’ve heard the gospel declared to them, But they have not believed it. They are not truly regenerated. They are not truly saved. And they’re not obeying the truths they have heard. So that’s what James is talking about when he’s saying, don’t be a hearer. These hearers think they are religious or even Christians, but they have deluded themselves. They have deceived themselves. And we see a little bit of this illustrated in Amos chapter four and Amos chapter five. And Amos chapter four, verses four through five, Amos writes. And he’s writing, in the book of Amos, Amos is prophesying to the northern kingdom of Israel. This is when Israel had been split. You had Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom. And it seems like he was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel.

And he writes this to them in verse four. Enter Bethel and Transgress. transgress, in Gilgal multiply transgression. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three days. Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened, and proclaim free will offerings. Make them known, for you so love to do, you sons of Israel. Now it seems in these passages, and when you read Israel, Amos at times is making it seem like the Israelites are acting religious, that they are a religious people. But when you read these verses and you look at Amos as a whole, you see that that was not what was happening with the northern kingdom of Israel. They may have been offering more than they even needed to or were commanded to. They were even maybe being more religious than they needed to. But the problem was, it wasn’t from a heart that was devoted to serving God, to serving Yahweh.

They were focused on themselves. They were not obeying properly. And in fact, if we go back and look at chapter 2 of Amos, God levels his indictment against Israel. And he says that you are a people who are unjust. They follow other gods and they engage in sexual morality. So Amos is saying, hey, you do all these quote-unquote religious things, but you don’t follow Yahweh either. You worship other gods. You engage in sexual morality. You’re unjust. You’re unkind. So they’re not truly obedient to the word of God, they’re actually not following the law as it was intended to be followed, as God wanted them to follow it.

And in chapter 5, verses 21 through 27, Amos says this. This is God saying, I hate, I reject your festivals. So God’s rejecting the Israelites’ festivals. Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. Take away from me the noise of your songs. I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Did you present me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for 40 years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikoth, your king, and Chium, your images, the star of your gods, which is made for yourselves. Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus, says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. So, God is leveling, He’s saying to them, I’m not accepting what you’re bringing to me. I’m not accepting your sacrifices. I’m not accepting your worship because it is not true worship. It’s not worship that comes from a heart of obedience. They worshipped Yahweh, they worshipped God, but they were also worshipping other gods. Which actually means they were not worshipping God, Yahweh, as He should be worshipped. Because it’s God or nothing. They were not truly obedient. They had deceived themselves into thinking they were religious. They were hearers only.

And as we move into verses 23 through 24 of James, he gives an illustration of a hearer who doesn’t obey. Verses 23 and 24, for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror. For once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. And he takes these two verses to focus on the hearer. And he wants to really emphasize the seriousness of being a hearer only. And that’s why he provides such a vivid illustration. It’s an illustration even we can recognize when all of us will look in a mirror for maybe a period of time and we walk away and we may not even remember what we looked like. And that’s what James is talking about. He’s going to great lengths to show the seriousness of not obeying the Word of God, of not being a doer of the Word of God. I like the way the ESV actually translates verse 23, because it says, the man who looks intently at his natural face. Some translations just say the man who looks at his face, but the ESV translates it as the man who looks intently at his face. And it translates it that way because in the original language, that’s what the word means. It’s not a man who gives a passing glance at himself. It’s the man who gazes upon his reflection.

So James is saying these hearers, they’ve heard the truths of God’s word. They haven’t heard a partial gospel message. They haven’t heard just a little bit about God. They’ve heard about God. They’ve heard the gospel. They may even know of the gospel and they may even understand it. But they haven’t fully believed and followed Christ wholeheartedly. They haven’t given their lives to him. Oftentimes people like to say, well, what about the person who’s never heard the gospel or this? But there’s many people around the world, more people than not, who have heard the gospel. Especially in the day and age we live in. And sadly, there have been many people, many, and some of us can even think of some that we’ve known personally, but there have been many people throughout church history who have claimed to be Christian, who have claimed to be religious, who have claimed to be a doer of the word, and they may even have appeared as one, but in reality, they were just hearers only.

Joshua Harris was a well-known Christian writer about 10, 15, 20 years ago. Wrote different books, such as I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and different books that dealt a lot with purity culture. He was a pastor, and he had become fairly well-known, and many Christians read his books. But about 10 or so years ago, between 2015 and 2018, he started changing some of his views on his things to the point where he came out less than 10 years ago and rejected everything he had written in his books. And then he rejected the Christian faith. He ended up later on divorcing his wife and he got to the point where he even embraced certain worldly godless ideologies, such as the LGBTQ movement.

And whether or not you agree with some of the stuff in his books, he was someone who said he held to the Christian faith, who acted as a Christian, who acted as if he was a doer, But a doer of the word would not have this quote in their Instagram bio. And I have this quote intentionally, because when you go to his profile on Instagram, this is the quote you see that he put on there. It says, I used to have all the answers, chapter and verse. Now I’m happily uncertain and enjoying the wonder and mystery of life. And when you read that, I’m sure there’s so many people who read that and think, oh, he’s enjoying the wonder and mystery of life. He’s just living his life and he’s not making any decisions about anything. He’s just letting life change him. But that’s a godless statement. And it’s not a statement from someone who obeys the word of God. And it’s sad when you look at his life and you look at the lives of people like him. Because people who said they were believers and who even appeared as such, But now their life is totally opposite of the gospel message of truth. He was just a hearer, and hearers do not obey the word of God. And as we move into verse 25, we are seeing things shift back to the doer of the word.

So James introduces the doer and hearer of the word in verse 22, and 23 through 24, he focuses on the hearer only, and then as we move into verse 25, he’s focusing again on the doer. In verse 25 he writes, but one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer, but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. So even in that verse he brings up again the hearer. He’s like you’re a doer, the one who’s a doer and has not become a hearer. The law makes us think of the Torah, and the perfect law of liberty, when we see that read, is probably the gospel message, the message that Christ saves. But he also uses the word law, which also probably does refer to the Torah that’s in the Old Testament.

The law, the first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch. And he’s probably referring, when he says the law of liberty, to both the Torah and Christ. Because when you’re talking about the gospel message, you are talking about the whole Bible. You’re talking about the law and Christ. You’re talking about how Christ fulfilled the law completely. And James is also probably wanting to remind these Jewish Christians of the fact that God was the fulfillment of the Torah, of the law. And it’s this law of liberty that liberates people from sin and from the constraints of the law. And in fact, this law of liberty, it’s interesting when we see the words law and liberty together. Because when we look at it, we see that we have freedom when we follow the law. We have freedom when we follow God’s commands, which is an odd concept to think about, because as humans, we usually think of freedom over here and laws over here, and that the two can’t be joined together, that they’re separate.

We think, well, if I’m free, then there’s nothing constraining my liberty. I am a citizen, and I have liberties, and no one can tell me what to do, and that’s freedom. But if you tell me what to do, Well, that’s a law, and I’m not free anymore. But as Christians, it’s different. And I’ve talked about this already through the book of James. The Christian life that God has designed for us, the redemptive plan that God designed is totally different from everything else in the world, as it should be. Our lives are totally different. In the Christian life, there is freedom in following God’s commands, obeying His commands. Anthony Hokema, who was a well-known systematic theologian in the 20th century, had this to say regarding the idea of true freedom that’s found in obeying God’s law. And it’s a very helpful quote. He writes, in the redemptive world, it is also true that there is no freedom without limitations. True freedom, in fact, consists in the joyful keeping of God’s law.

That law, when observed in gratitude, does not bring us into new bondage, but leads us into a life that is rich, full, and happy, as we try to keep ourselves in the center of God’s will. So true freedom is found in choosing to obey God’s laws and not just doing whatever we want. True freedom is not you standing there saying, I’m gonna do what I want. True freedom is the joy of following God, and the grace and mercy he gives to us each day as we follow him. That’s true freedom. The one who does, and the one who does obey God’s law, the one who is a doer and continues to obey it, because listen to what he says in 25. The one who looks intently at the perfect law, so remember, looks intently. Like the hearer, he gazes upon it, but the doer gazes upon the word of God, listens, and actually believes it. He loves it. He wants to obey it. He grows.

The one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer. So he obeys it, but he abides by it. He lives by it. He continues to live in it. This is what his life looks like. The pattern of his life is one who’s a doer, one who obeys the word of God. So the one who continues to obey it will be blessed. And this is why obeying God is good for us. We will be blessed. Obeying God is good for us. Should not be a new concept for many of us to understand, but it’s true. It’s good for soldiers to obey orders, but it’s even better for Christians to obey God. Hokema, in that quote I just read, talked about how it leads to a life that is rich, full, and happy. Now, of course, that doesn’t mean that you’re gonna become super wealthy, you’re gonna get everything you ever desired, but it does mean God will give you what you need and he will sustain you. He will provide for you. And you may not be a millionaire or a billionaire one day, but if you have Christ, that’s all you need. You will have a rich, full, and happy life because you are in Christ and you are obeying him.

And this passage in James chapter one, verses 22 through 25 can help remind us of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, 24 through 27. Jesus said this, therefore, or I’m sorry, Matthew 7, 24 through 27. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock, and the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house, and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house. And it fell, and its collapse was great.

And these now, Matthew chapter seven, verses 24 through 27, are Jesus’s closing comments on the Sermon on the Mount. He started in chapter five, and these are his closing comments. So he’s told these crowds that are these thousands of people that have surrounded him how they are to live in the kingdom of heaven, how they’re to live in the kingdom of God. This is what it looks like to be one of my followers. To be a Christ follower, this is how it looks. And he finishes with saying what it looks like to follow his words. He’s finishing by saying, this is what it looks like to obey my words. And if you don’t obey my words, this is what it looks like. Believing the words of Jesus and living by them means we stand upon a firm foundation. That’s our foundation for life. We live in a day and age where we live in what they call modern era, but we’ve even entered a part of that era that’s postmodern, which means truth is subjective. You can essentially choose what you want to believe, which means nobody has a foundation, or the foundation everyone has for their truth is themselves, which means what you say is your truth, and that’s what matters. But as Christians, we have the ultimate standard. We have the ultimate foundation.

We stand upon Christ, and we stand upon his word, and there is no greater foundation. The words of God are our foundation, and we must obey them and not be hearers only. When we look at these three verses and think a little bit more about applying them to our lives, right off the bat, don’t just be a hearer. If you’re sitting here today and you’ve sat in church all your life and you’ve listened to the gospel but you’ve never believed, you need to believe it. Believe the word of truth that James talks about. Believe that Jesus Christ came to earth as both a man and God to save sinners from their sins. And that by putting our faith and trust in him, and that what he did on the cross, we can be saved. Starting a life that is dedicated to doing the word, a life dedicated to obeying the word of God, starts by throwing up our hands and saying, I need you, Christ.

And to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t stop the day you get saved. That cry goes on to the rest of our lives, because the cry of I need you, Christ, is something that we need every day. We need to say every day, because we need Christ every day. We need his strength and power every day. We need to obey God’s Word. It’s just that simple. I remember as a kid, or even as a teenager, maybe even in my young 20s, because I still need it now, but my dad would often say, I’d ask my dad a question, my dad would look at me and he’d go, he’d just say, just do the right thing, son. Just do the right thing. And sometimes it’d be like, I don’t know, I’d like it to be a little more profound than that.

But as I got older, I realized that when he said, do the right thing, just be right, what he meant was, be a doer of the Word. Obey God’s Word. Like when someone asks you, how do I obey God’s word? It’s like, well, obey it. Verse 19, be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. Be a doer of the word. And obedience starts with reading this book. We need to make it a point to be reading this book every single day of our lives, whether you’re actually physically reading it or you’re listening to it, you need to be in it. And whether or not you start the day with it or end the day with it, you need to be in it.

This book is important, and it tells us how to live our lives. It tells us how to be doers of the word. And obeying the word of God, obeying the word leads to practicing a pure religion, which brings us to our second theme, practice, covering verses 26 through 27. I’m gonna read those two verses. 26, if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Now the word religion that’s used here was not a common word used in the New Testament. And a New Testament scholar said that this word religion would have referred to the outward practice of ceremonies in honor of a God.

So James still, as we’re moving into verse 26, he still seems to be focusing on talking about how Christians are to act and what our actions are suggestive of. Are our actions suggestive of a heart that is devoted to Christ or not? Because a heart that is devoted to Christ is one that is dedicated and lives in obedience to Him. So remember, 26 and 27, they’re still connected to 22 through 25. He still seems to be focusing on the doers of the Word and the hearers only. In fact, 26 and 27 can almost, in a way, serve as a picture of 22 through 25. 22 through 25, the doers and the hearers, 26 through 27, here’s a picture of what this looks like in life.

James is talking about the person here in 26 who is seeking to be religious, who is maybe acting religious, but doesn’t obey. They’re just still a hearer. They are not following the imperative of verse 19 by not being slow to speak. It says, yet does not bridle his own tongue. Bridle brings the imagery of a horse to mind. The bridle is what you put in the, or the whole bridle and the bit are what you put in the horse’s mouth and it’s how you control the horse. So the man who does not bridle his tongue, It means he is not in control of what he says. He lacks control, he lacks self-control. And he may be tearing other Christians down with his words.

And Colossians 4, 6 says, your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. We should bridle our tongues so we know how to speak to each person. The man who thinks himself religious but is not has deceived himself. And remember, going back to verse 22. But prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. These words of delude and deceive, they go together. The hearers only, and those who think themselves religious deceive themselves. And notice it says deceive themselves. It’s not Satan or his demons or even the world deceiving them. They are deceiving themselves. almost blinded their eyes, deceived themselves to the point where they think they are religious, but they are not. And this man’s so-called religion is meaningless and does no good.

It says at the end of verse 26, this man’s religion is worthless. It doesn’t say it’s so-so. It doesn’t say it’s not great. It says it’s worthless. I hope and pray that’s not what God would say about any of our religion, about how we live our lives. The one who hears only and doesn’t obey, their religion is worthless to God. Proverbs 21.3, and this is a powerful verse. I just recently read it in my own personal devotions. To do righteousness and justice is preferred by the Lord more than sacrifice. To do justice, to do righteousness and justice preferred by the Lord more than sacrifice. To obey God, to honor Him, to act like a Christian is better and more important than acting like one. And we see, I’m sure many of us can think of somebody we’ve known and maybe even in our own personal lives we’ve done it. We’ve acted a certain way, maybe we’ve put on a face, maybe we’ve dressed a certain way or done whatever it is to act a certain way, to act more religious. But if that’s why we’re doing it, and it’s not out of a heart devoted to Christ and to following Him, it’s worthless.

To do righteousness and justice is preferred by the Lord more than sacrifice. God cares about right, godly living. It doesn’t matter how holy you act if your heart has not been changed, if you have not given your life to Christ. And this verse, verse 26, should make us think, okay, that’s not what pure religion is. So what is pure religion? And remember, I talked about this last Sunday night. When we’re looking at the Christian life and we’re figuring out, okay, what are we supposed to do? We oftentimes have to start with, okay, this is what we are not supposed to do. And in verse 26, that’s what James says. He says, Okay, the man who is not obeying, the man who does not bridle his tongue, this man’s religion is worthless.

So what is pure religion? Verse 27, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” And the words pure and undefiled are in there. And it brings to mind verse 21. of just up above where James writes, therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. So pure religion doesn’t have filthiness or wickedness. Practicing a pure religion means that you have put off filthiness and wickedness and means that you are continuing to put it off because pure religion is pure and undefiled. It’s godly. And James talks about orphans and widows, and he mentions these two in particular because they would have been some of the most helpless in society at this time. They would have been, orphans and widows would have been some that could not have survived without the aid or help of others.

You know, it was a day and age in the first century Roman Empire where there wasn’t exactly a lot of programs or government programs to maybe help orphans and widows. So James is telling these Christians, hey, these people who need our help, the essential downtrodden of society, We need to help these individuals. They need our help. And you notice James says, visit them. But he doesn’t just mean go visit, say hi, and leave. He means care for them. He’s telling the Christians, care for the orphans and the widows. Help provide for them. But James has one more thing to add as to what pure religion is. Oftentimes when people say, well, what’s pure religion? They say to care for orphans and widows. But there’s one more important part about it. To remain unstained by the world. Christians are to remain unstained from the world. And as I was just saying, James is talking a lot in these last several verses about putting away filthiness and wickedness.

The pure and undefiled religion remaining unstained from the world. Stay away from the wickedness of the world. Have no part with it. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. That’s our call as Christians. And it’s not always easy. In fact, it rarely will be. It’s never easy. But it’s what we are called to do. The NIV describes it as not being polluted. And I like that. We are not to be polluted by the world. Practicing true religion means that we do not follow the wicked ways of this world. And Christians are to practice a true obedience, a pure true religion that comes from obedience. That’s where this pure religion starts. It starts with obedience. And when we’re looking at these last couple verses and applying them to our lives, we need to be a truly religious person, a religious person that James describes.

Many people today will say they’re, in fact, people oftentimes, they’ll say they’re religious, but in our current society, you also hear people say they’re spiritual. And some people even make a distinction between religion is kind of more so what they would say traditional or formalized. A religion has an actual set of beliefs, whereas spirituality is more so kind of your spiritual journey in the world, sort of you making your way through life and trying to make yourself better. And a lot of times when we hear someone use the word religion, unfortunately it can maybe put a bad taste in our mouth because they’re not, when we hear them talk and we start talking to them, we see that they’re not talking about pure and true religion. And we may even see that with some of the people in our church. But we need to make sure that we’re practicing a pure and true religion, not just one who goes to church and is nice.

Now, Pastor Stephen is not saying you shouldn’t go to church and you shouldn’t be nice. Going to church is important, being nice is important, but those are not the most important thing. The most important thing is that you’re saved and you’re obeying Christ. Because when you get to heaven, or when you die, and you stand before God, and He’s like, should I let you into heaven? And you’re gonna say yes, and He’s gonna say why? If you say I went to church and was nice, He’s gonna say no, that’s not it. Did you believe in my son’s name and what he did? That’s what matters. It’s not about being religious or being a certain way. It’s about saying, I need Christ and giving your life to him. The Christian message at the end of the day is repent and believe.

Now there’s many things you need to believe if you’re a faithful Christian, but it starts with that. And it doesn’t end with that either. You continue to believe that every day for the rest of your lives. And if you’re believing that message and you’re believing the words of God, you’ll do what it says. And you’ll care for orphans and widows. And here at Fellowship Baptist, we care for our widows and orphans. We value our widows. We love them. They are important. And we also support a ministry called A Woman’s Choice Ministry. And this organization not only fights abortion, many organizations these days will fight abortion, which is important, but one of the reasons we support a women’s choice is because they not only fight abortion, but they also help pregnant women and families be better equipped to be parents. They provide resources for them, to help them in parenting, and actually will help encourage people to keep their babies. So we support this ministry, and what this ministry does is essentially help people It helps prevent people from getting rid of their babies. So this organization, in a way, tries to help stem the flow of orphans. And that’s a good reason to support this ministry.

They’re trying to make it so kids have families that they are born and grow up in. Because we can all understand in some ways, though some of us, I’m sure many of us have grown up with a mom and a dad, some of us in godly families, but there are children out there who are not that blessed. And not having a mother and a father, especially a Christian mother and father, has very negative consequences. And individually, on an individual level, we can also support these two groups. We can call on widows, we can visit them. Maybe you’re feeling led to adopt, or you’re feeling led to support someone who is adopting. Also pray, pray for widows, pray for orphans, pray for those who are adopting. And I just don’t wanna limit it to orphans and widows.

There are many people in their walk with the Lord who at times are in seasons of where they need more provision, or there’s some people who maybe due to medical conditions or physical disabilities, they always need some more help and provision. And we as the church should come alongside these people at various times. That’s why here at Fellowship Baptist, we take a benevolent offering every month after the Lord’s Supper. It’s for the help of the congregation. In the book of Acts, where we see the start of the church, we see in a couple places it says that the church, they had everything in common, which means they shared, they cared, they took care of one another. We should be helping and taking care of each other. Now, when I say taking care, I don’t mean that we are, you know, people are leeching or being mooches and we’re not paying for somebody’s lifestyle. But we are helping them in times of need, in whatever way we can. And finally, we must remain unstained by the world.

One way I think of this is don’t give in to peer pressure, which is common in school settings, whether elementary, middle, or high school, but even as adults, it can be easy to be tempted by peer pressure and to give in to it. But we are to remain unstained by the world. And remember that we are in Christ, which means we are called to live differently. And when you are tempted to stain yourself by the world, pray to the Lord and say, keep me unstained, Lord, because only you can. To be truly religious, we must obey God’s word. And this is how Christians are to live in this pagan world.

I wanna end with a quote by the famous French reformer, John Calvin. And this is in his systematic theology book, but he has a section where he wrote about the Christian life. And he titled this section, the Christian life is not a matter of the tongue, but of the inmost heart. And this is what he says, and I ask you to follow along as I read. Calvin writes this. And this is the place to scold those who, having nothing but the name and badge of Christ, yet wish to call themselves Christians. Yet how shamelessly do they boast of His sacred name. Indeed, there is no association with Christ save for those who have perceived the right understanding of Christ from the word of the gospel.

Yet the apostle, meaning Paul, says that all those who were not taught that they must put on him have not rightly learned Christ, as they have not put off the old man, who is corrupt through deceptive desires. Therefore it is proved that they have falsely and also unjustly pretended the knowledge of Christ. Whatever they meanwhile learnedly and fluently talk about the gospel, For it is a doctrine not of the tongue, but of life. It is not apprehended by the understanding and memory alone, as other disciplines are, but it is received only when it possesses the whole soul and finds a seat and a resting place in the inmost affections of the heart. He goes on to say, it must enter our heart and pass into our daily living, and so transform us into itself that it may not be unfruitful for us. It must enter our heart and pass into our daily living. Has the truths of God’s word passed from your heart into your daily living? Are you living and acting like a Christian each and every day?

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for James 1, verses 22 through 27. We thank you that you explain to us and tell us how to live. We cannot walk away from the Bible saying, I don’t know how to live because you make it clear in your word. I pray that everyone here is a doer of the word. In Jesus’ name, amen.