Sermon Tone Analysis

Evidence of our Faith

It is what you do rather than what you say that is the most important aspect of living out our Faith in Christ.

There was a question that floated around the church back in the 1970’s that asked “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

That is a question that prompts us to start saying the things that we believe and the things that we do.

I’m a Christian

I believe Jesus is God

I go to church a couple of times a year

I put my spare change in the offering plate

I gave a dollar to that guy who was holding up a sign saying they were looking for work

One time I helped clean up around the church

Those things along with a hundred others that we could add to that list are not evidence of being a Christian.

I have said many times and in many different ways that we do not go through this life with a checklist of things we do and don’t do and hope to make it to heaven we will be horribly mistaken.

John Barry wrote “If religion is about practicing one thing, our religion should be about being like Christ.”

[1]

That is our calling isn’t it?

Do you believe that we are called to be like Christ?

We don’t make ourselves like Christ.

God, the Holy Spirit continues that work that was begun when we were saved.

He sanctifies us, he cleanses us from all sin.

The Holy Spirit is the one who makes us Holy just as God is Holy.

Paul Cedar wrote:

As we become more and more possessed by the Holy Spirit, we will increasingly enjoy not the overflow of filth, but rather the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

Sanctification is a crisis experience where we realize how much we still try to do life on our terms.

It is that moment that we yield to the Holy Spirit’s control and give Him free reign to transform us.

It is also a process that we grow in our faith.

It is that growing in our faith that many people struggle with.

In the Covenant of Christian Conduct that I have been referencing the past several weeks it states:

The Church of the Nazarene believes this new and holy way of life involves practices to be avoided and redemptive acts of love to be accomplished for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors.

[2]

I highlighted two phrases there.

The first is practices to be avoided because either they are sinful or they cause harm to our relationship with others.

The second is redemptive acts of love to be accomplished for the souls, minds, and bodies of our neighbors.

So when I talk about do’s and don’ts it is not as in a checklist.

The do’s and don’ts are meant to keep sin away from our lives and also to reach our neighbors with the message of Christ.

What would happen if we began to live that out daily?

I may come back to that question, but I will leave it to you to ponder.

In that related section in the Manual there is a statement which I have rephrased to emphasize what it is saying:

Identifying with the visible Church is a beautiful privilege and holy obligation for those who have been forgiven of their sins and desire fullness in Christ Jesus.

All who wish to join the Church of the Nazarene and thereby walk in fellowship with us must demonstrate their deliverance from sin via a godly walk and lively piety, and must be, or fervently desire to be, cleansed from all indwelling sin.

[3]

So the question that might be raised in your mind is that is all well and good, but how do I do that?

That is what James is addressing in his letter.

Look at verse 21 in our text

So what exactly is moral filth.

The word moral is sort of easy to understand.

When we say more we are thinking about knowing right from wrong.

The word filth implies something that is dirty or unclean.

When we put the two words together one author wrote that Moral Filth “It is something that is ok in the world’s eyes but unclean in God’s eyes.”

[4]

It is not hard to look around our world today and mind moral filth.

Sexual sins that never would have seen the light of day are celebrated and even called blessed.

A distinguished Methodist minister preached on sin, and one of his church officers afterwards came into his study to see him.

He said to the minister, ‘Mr.

Howard, we don’t want you to talk as plainly as you do about sin, because if our boys and girls hear you talking so much about sin they will more easily become sinners…do not speak so plainly about sin’.”

“Then my friend took down a small bottle and showed it to the visitor.

It was a bottle of strychnine and was marked ‘poison’.

The minister said, ‘I see what you want me to do.

You want me to change the label.

Suppose I take off this label of poison and put on some mild label, such as the essence of peppermint.”

“Did you see what happened?

The milder you make the label, the stronger you make the poison.

[unknown]

James says to set aside all moral filth.

So if we do set it aside, what do we put in it’s place?

James says in the later part of verse 21

James 1:21 (CEB)

welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.

The word that is planted is the Word of God.

James says that we are to welcome the word planted deep inside.

That word may have been planted in someones life years ago.

The Holy Spirit does not just let it go.

He is at work through that thing we call prevenient grace which is at work in the unsaved person’s life.

The word was planted and given the right conditions it will take root and begin to grow.

For the seed to grow, the conditions must be set.

In the spring, the soil is tilled, the seed is buried in the dirt, the weeds are kept away.

The soil is watered and the sun warms the soil so that the seed germinates and begins to grow.

The weeds of moral filth and evil have to be cleared out of our lives so that the word of God can take root and grow otherwise it will be chocked out.

James says that this is “the very word that is able to save you.”

Notice what he said that the word “is able to save you.”

You have to respond.

You have to seek repentance and forgiveness.

You have to clear out that moral filth.

The Passion Translation has this for the later portion of verse 21

James 1:21 (TPT)

Instead, with a sensitive spirit we absorb God’s Word, which has been implanted within our nature, for the Word of Life has power to continually deliver us.

The writer to the Hebrews said:

Hebrews 4:12 “12 because God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword.

It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow.

It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions.”

That is power, as we live and walk in obedience to God then through the Holy Spirit we are continually delivered from sin.

It is not a one time action.

It is a daily walk with God.

It is daily confessing any known sin.

It is a daily seeking out God’s will for today.

So what is James’ solution to setting aside moral filth and welcoming the word that was planted deep inside?

The message paraphrases verse 22 this way:

It is important that we hear or listen to the word.

This comes through reading the Bible, listening to a sermon, reading a book that teaches some aspect of Christian living, or reading a blog post.

There are lots and lots of ways to “hear” God’s word today.

There is a huge difference between hearing and listening.

We men are often accused of having selective hearing.

I know that I have been accused of that a time or two.

I know that Darlene gets aggravated at me when she is talking and she thinks that I’m not listening to her because I’m doing something else.

She’ll say “you weren’t listening.”