PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION

Transcription

1 PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION James 1:27 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. Do you ever tell yourself off? I began my thoughts in the study, I don t think the world has ever seen as much religion as today! But when I thought about it I was embarrassed by my own naivety. Of course, the world has had as much religion as today! There has always been as much religion as today, - the only difference is there are more people today to be involved in these religions! Read the Old Testament and you are confronted with all the idolatry surrounding the people of Israel, and also how some of that idolatry made its way into the Jewish people. In the New Testament all kinds of religions had been firmly established in the towns and cities and countryside Paul and the other missionaries visited. Ancient religions. When you read and study Church and secular history and the missionary stories of people like Livingstone, Slessor, Robert Moffat you find that from the high-flying cities of Corinth, Athens and Rome to the jungles of Africa and the Amazon there has always been religion religion contrary to the worship of one true God. And here in the UK we live in a society that applauds itself for its great tolerance of the various religions, - our governments encourage different faiths and beliefs. While this is fine, - and we ought to have mutual respect for each other as fellow-human beings, - where we, as Christians, must draw a very definite line is when it comes to matters pertaining to the uniqueness of the Christian faith and truth. That which is contrary to the Word of God is false pure and simple! Under the umbrella of Christianity there are also many variations. Again we must examine ourselves in the light of God s Word to ascertain the behaviour and pattern of God s people. This is a very striking statement James comes out with ; he is being so brave in defining pure religion. Were it not for the fact his words are inspired by the Holy Spirit we shouldn t waste time studying this verse. But since his words are inspired and infallible because the Holy Spirit put them in his mind to write them down, they are profitable and necessary for our consideration and study.

2 2 Just to get some things out of the way James is not just saying that charity, - i.e. good works for your neighbour or for the poor, - is adequate to bring salvation (for they are not!); no, he makes the point of highlighting charity alongside purity for one without the other is insufficient (cf. his teaching on faith and works). Here is one way we can divide this verse to understand what he is saying: I. CHARITY AND PURITY INDICATE SEPARATION II. CHARITY AND PURITY IMPRESS UPON US SEPARATION III. CHARITY AND PURITY INSIST UPON US SEPARATION I. CHARITY AND PURITY INDICATE SEPARATION Now, I know any talk of separation isn t always welcome; people throw up all sorts of reasons why separation is a bad idea: We ve got to be like them to win them, You ve got to see the other man s point of view, You don t want to set yourself up as being the only one who is right, If you are too dogmatic you ll drive people away. But separation is a Biblical principle, - it is demanded of God s people: in the Old Testament: Dt. 14:2 For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. when Solomon dedicated the Temple in Jerusalem, he prayed, I Kgs. 8:53, For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD. Ezra told his people, 10:11, make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land. In the New Testament: II Cor. 6: 14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And

3 3 will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Titus 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. I Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. A believer in the Lord Jesus, - the Bible teaches, - has a different standing in this world to a non-believer! They are on two different wavelengths. They are not compatible; they don t harmonise. They have two very different sources, - one excludes the other; Christ put it like this, Mt. 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. They are mutually exclusive, - God s Word plainly teaches it! The old saying goes, We are in the world but we are not of the world. That simply means if we are truly the Lord s the things of the world and its pleasures hold no attraction for us. And what do I mean if we are truly the Lord s? [Not advocating living in the hills] What are your interests? What are your desires? The state of your heart tells you what kind of a person you are before God. Does God feature in your plans? Do you give any worthwhile time over to Him? Do you consult Him even about the simplest things? What about when you take the Bible and you read and you search out what it has to say to you? Do you do that? What about when you close out the world and you bow your head and speak to your Heavenly Father? What about the effort you make to be with God s people? Have you come by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked Him to forgive you your sin, to take it all away, and to make you into a child of God? Are you His? Are you sure that if you were to die this very moment He would take you in His arms? Or come at it from another angle: What pull has the things of the world upon you? Do they win when it comes to making a choice? Is their attractiveness stronger than the things of God? Are you more content in the world than with the people of God? These are questions I ask myself, as well as putting them to you.

4 4 You see, what s in comes out! The Bible says, - in preparation for the Lord s Table, - I Cor. 11:28 let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. II Cor. 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? The proof you are a Christian is the simple litmus test that you stand out for Christ, - you re different ( for His glory), and this being different is because you are separate unto Him. Charity and Purity indicate Separation II. CHARITY AND PURITY IMPRESS UPON US SEPARATION It is an absolute spiritual impossibility for a true believer to be consistently found where he ought not to be. Tomorrow I shall have been in the pastorate for eighteen years. As you can appreciate I have had many experiences and seen and worked with many things during that time. I ve seen people claiming to belong to the Lord, and yet trying to justify adultery: In my first church a husband (an elder) was cheating on his wife and I went to visit the woman he was cheating with. (She, - also a Christian, - had left her husband as he had left his wife). Of course, she came across to me that there was nothing go on, - no foundation to the allegations. [Not sure if it was sexual.] I asked her where he was was he in her home at that moment? She told me he wasn t. Now I can t see through walls, but I knew she was telling a lie for he told me later he was there hiding. Some time later the affair finished and he returned to his wife. Not so long afterwards his wife died, he began working in a Christian ministry for drug addicts he became emotionally involved with one of them (the girl was less than half his age, with a child, a violent boyfriend, and a drug habit). It was obvious to the birds in the trees the young girl was using him but he couldn t see it. He ended up being knifed and nearly killed; he then married this young girl, he stopped any contact with church. He was a reformed alcoholic and he went back to the booze and today he is again in the grip of alcoholism and far away from God. I had another very respectable man, - a former elder, - with a wife who loved him dearly.

5 5 She didn t have good health and she couldn t accompany him to all the functions he wanted to attend. So what did he do? He found himself another woman. He easily justified adultery with this woman because his wife was limited in giving him the more intimate features he desired. Tell me is the continued justification of sin consistent with being a child of God? Does God accept excuses when we try to explain to Him good reason for disobedience to His Word? Lord, I know what your Word says but Lord, this is different what I am doing and Lord, I believe You understand and you ll change so as to fit in with what I m doing. Ah, no true faith in Christ and obedience to the Lord doesn t work like that. It s His way or not at all! You see, the Bible says, 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. In his hymn Am I a soldier of the cross, Isaac Watts wrote, Is this vile world a friend to grace, To help me on to God? Of course it s not. It will set out to make the journey as difficult as it possibly can and if it were not for the grace and keeping of God we would never make it home to Heaven. This charity and purity James is speaking about not only indicates separation, it also impresses upon us separation. Finally CHARITY AND PURITY INSIST UPON US SEPARATION Where you find your pleasure, there your heart is. The Bible clearly says (James 4:4) the friendship of the world is enmity with God. You will never get anything good out of the world, - even though you stand and listen to its philosophies and religions and explanations of some new philosophy or ideology it s empty! You see, when you turn our verse around it says, Impure religion and defiled religion is this, to reject the responsibilities to those in need and to become stained with the things of this world. I used to belong to another church and on the Saturday nights some of its members went to the pubs and yet, on the Sunday morning they were at the Lord s Table. But you cannot belong to the Lord and also to the world, - it is either one or the other!

6 6 Spurgeon confronted his large congregation, Do not pretend that you can wallow in the mire of open sin or secret sin, and yet belong to Christ, for that cannot be. Keep yourself unspotted from the world s puddles. The lepers had to call out Unclean! Unclean! so they wouldn t contaminate, - the Old Testament insisted upon separation. Pray for our young people that God would keep them away from spiritual uncleanness. Pray for each other that God would keep us from the world s puddles (CHS). The proof you are saved is that you serve the Master and you are separated unto Him. If anything threatens that relationship put the barriers up! Study God s Word, be faithful to it in prayer and practice. His Word insists upon us being separate! In its closing chapters it commands, Rev. 18:4 Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Conclusion Each of us as believers has a personal daily responsibility before God. We have His promise that I Jn. 1:7 the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Our soul, our heart, our innermost self must strive to be unspotted. God has gifted to the Church the Holy Spirit, I Cor. 3: 16 ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you 17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Harsh words but they are God s words! That is why we need to wash often, avoid careless talking and careless walking, - stay out of the puddles, not even dipping our toes in them. And avoid slapdash, slipshod walkers, - avoid the company of those who take you along lanes and roads you shouldn t be on. And call upon God to keep you covered and protected by the cleansing power of His grace. James 1:27 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. In this verse then, we discover Charity and Purity indicate Separation, they impress upon us separation, and they do indeed insist upon us separation. May God help us to understand His Word and bless the study of it to each of us.