True Religion
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Introduction
Steel Toed Boots.
My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger,
for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Therefore, ridding yourselves of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Because if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like someone looking at his own face in a mirror.
For he looks at himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of person he was.
But the one who looks intently into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer who works—this person will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, his religion is useless and he deceives himself.
Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
We Control Our Interactions
We Control Our Interactions
Verses 19-21
We Must Be Quick to Listen
It is vital that we listen. It is through hearing that we come to salvation.
So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
What does it mean to listen?
Consideration for what is being said.
More than remaining quiet and waiting for your turn to talk.
This is the first thing in this process we are called to do.
To be Quiet and Listen.
The one who gives an answer before he listens— this is foolishness and disgrace for him.
Academic Team. You could buzz in whenever, but they stopped reading the question.
Are we hearing what is being said? When we interact with believers with the world around us? Are we listening to what is being said.
Many interpersonal problems can be boiled down to miscommunication.
Meeting my mom at the restaurant.
How can we avoid miscommunication?
Communicate well.
What is essential?
Listening.
With all of the things happening in the world, we have strong opinions.
When we have a strong opinion, the last thing we are inclined to do is to listen to someone who is opposed to us.
This is especially true when we have biblical opinions (or think we do).
I do not see an exception in this passage for people that we disagree with.
Through listening, we are able to understand the heart of the people that we are interacting with.
Through listening we are able to be informed about how best to interact with one another.
We Must Be Slow to Speak
I want to start with a few Scriptures that express this same idea:
Do you see someone who speaks too soon? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent— discerning, when he seals his lips.
A fool does not delight in understanding, but only wants to show off his opinions.
When there are many words, sin is unavoidable, but the one who controls his lips is prudent.
Whoever shows contempt for his neighbor lacks sense, but a person with understanding keeps silent.
One of the worst temptations against being slow to speak is social media.
We are able to voice our opinions immediately to lots of people, with little perceived or actual consequences.
So how should we talk?
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.
We Must Be Slow to Anger
Just like being slow to speak, the Bible has a lot to say about being angry:
Patience is better than power, and controlling one’s emotions, than capturing a city.
A patient person shows great understanding, but a quick-tempered one promotes foolishness.
A person’s insight gives him patience, and his virtue is to overlook an offense.
A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise person holds it in check.
A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but one slow to anger calms strife.
It is clear that we should do whatever we can to keep ourselves from anger.
The one rebuttal I have heard to this is: Well Jesus flipped tables, sometimes we need to get a little angry.
We must be very careful with this and understand that Jesus was God in the flesh. His anger is righteous, very often ours is not.
We are not Jesus and we cannot assume that we will be righteously angry.
Even at the times when anger seems and possibly is justified we must remember that we cannot allow anger to drive us to sin.
Be angry and do not sin; reflect in your heart while on your bed and be silent. Selah
This does not mean that we don’t stand on truth. This does not mean that we ignore sin and evil. It means we respond in a Christlike way, and not in our anger.
Consider walking into a room to find your child or grandchild coloring on your walls with crayons.
This is not acceptable behavior. You don’t need to act like it is.
But you should not mercilessly scream at and begin hurting the child.
That would be allowing anger to turn to sin.
Rather you stop them, tell them why what they did was wrong, and provide discipline that is appropriate and applicable for their age.
We cannot let our anger drive us to sin because:
Human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
No matter how justified we might feel, we need to make sure that we do not become consumed with anger.
Because, human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
We might like to think we will only get angry at things that God would get angry at, but I can promise you that is not the case.
I have heard the statement before that Baptist churches multiply by division.
Meaning that many of the Baptist churches we have today are the result of a church split.
In many church splits both sides feel confident and indignant that they are right and that God is on their side.
Their human anger in those situations did not accomplish God’s righteousness.
God does not delight in the fracturing of the body of Christ.
Even in situations where we are confident in our position, we must still be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
This passage could not have been timed better. We are going to do a case study of how to apply this passage to a very recent and very controversial event.
With the reversal of Roe. vs. Wade. this week you have no doubt seen the outpouring of opinions and thoughts.
This is a win for the sanctity of life, but it is also an issue that people feel strongly about.
With that, people on both sides are very often unwilling to hear the other side at all.
They are slow to listen, quick to speak, and quick to anger. This human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
There is perhaps nothing else not explicitly addressed in Scripture that I feel as confident in as knowing that God does not take joy in the slaughter of unborn children.
If you feel that is too harsh a statement, I fear you have not seen what takes place in an abortion.
With this confidence, how do we interact with James 1:19-20?
Just as it says:
We are to be quick to listen:
If someone disagrees with us, we need to listen to them. Why do they feel this way?
What you will find is a vast array of answers. From my personal experience, here are some of the responses I have heard:
They are personally opposed to abortion and would never get one, but they don’t want to tell others what to do.
They are opposed to abortion except in the most extreme of circumstances.
They are only alright with abortion to a certain point in pregnancy.
They think it is should be available for people who may need to make a hard decision about what is best for them.
They view it is as an acceptable method of birth control and see it as no big deal.
One of the reasons it is so important to listen, is that if you are having a conversation with someone, how will you know what they believe?
If someone expresses frustration that Roe. vs. Wade was overturned, and you don’t listen to them, how will you know on which end of that spectrum they are?
How will you know what you should say?
We are to be slow to speak.
If we have been quick to speak that means that we haven’t been quick to listen.
To give a thoughtful and compassionate response to someone we must have listened and then processed it in such a way as to be thoughtful and compassionate. This does not happen quickly.
We should ask questions.
We should be sure that we understand what they think.
We should speak truth lovingly and compassionately.
We are to be slow to anger.
We know that human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
While we may have an opinion that is aligned with God’s we must remember our ultimate goal:
Telling people the Gospel so that they might be saved from the coming wrath.
Our goal is to lead people to Christ. Not push them away by our human anger. This does not accomplish God’s righteousness.
Because that person you are angry with is a person Christ died for.
If they are lost, they will die and go to hell. Not simply because of their view on abortion or whatever else you may disagree with them on, but because of their sin.
We must remember the grace we have been given and interact with others with such grace.
If we are dealing with a Christian with a view that is clearly contrary to what God desires we remember Paul’s advice to Timothy 2 Timothy 4:2-5
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.
For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear.
They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths.
But as for you, exercise self-control in everything, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
We must stand firm in truth when others do not. We must correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching
We must believe what Paul said in Philippians 3:15
Therefore, let all of us who are mature think this way. And if you think differently about anything, God will reveal this also to you.
When you are confident about a biblical truth, we teach and correct and rebuke, but we trust that the God who revealed to us our need for salvation will reveal to them their error.
In all of this understanding about how we are to have Christlike interactions James goes on to give more admonition to believers.
We Purify Ourselves
We Purify Ourselves
Therefore we are to rid ourselves or all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent.
What does this mean?
We actually repent.
This is the clearly stated idea that we are walking in a new life once we have been saved. This is the ridding of moral filth and evil.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
We no longer walk as we once did, but we are walking in accordance with what God calls us to do.
What is the result and goal of this ridding of moral filth and evil?
We become like Christ.
There are two ways that we must submit ourselves to be like Christ in this:
The first is that we must submit our values and ideas to Him, and allow them to be conformed to Him.
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
What we think must come inline with the nature and character of God and our worldview and values should be in agreement with his word.
The second is that we must submit our actions to him.
If we have a biblical worldview but are constantly expressing those ways views in a worldly way, we will not produce the righteousness of God.
We must be Christlike in our actions.
Humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
This is the Gospel.
Understanding our sinful condition, that we like everyone have moral filth and evil and that we need salvation.
Realizing that all of Scripture ultimately points to Christ, believing that He did die on the Cross for our sins, was raised again, and is coming back to judge the living and the dead.
This implanted word, is able to save our souls if we will believe it and cry out on the name of the Lord.
This is the beginning of your walk with the Lord.
James continues on with an admonition of what it then means to follow.
We Must Be Doers
We Must Be Doers
This is a very simple passage to understand.
Don’t just hear the word, do what it says.
A person who hears the word and does not do it, he is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror and forgets what he looked like.
This would be like me looking in a mirror, walking away and saying I was a 6 ft 2 man with dark hair, clean shaven, and dark complected. That would be ridiculous.
In the same way it is ridiculous that Christians would know what God says, and not put it into practice.
This is where we make Christ not only our Savior but our Lord.
We obey what he calls us to do.
We lay down what we think and we say “Yes Lord.”
I think that a failure to do this is what gives people confidence in their rebellion against God.
People who are lost need no reason to be angry with God, they are actively living in rebellion against Him.
However, when Christians do not obey Christ, we cast mud on the name of Christ.
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
When through our disobedience we cast shame on the name of Christ, we are doing the very opposite of what Christ calls us to do!
No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
We are called to faithfully follow. To be obedient. To be a shining light in this world distinct and different proclaiming the love, goodness, and mercy of God through our lives.
James goes on to express very clearly in tying up this passage what it looks like to be obedient to what God calls us to do.
We Must Show Compassion
We Must Show Compassion
Verse 26 reaffirms what he said in verses 19-21. If you cannot tame your tongue, If you spout of at the mouth, you are not living a faith that is honoring Christ.
He is much harsher saying “your religion is useless and you are deceiving yourself.”
He goes on to say this: Pure and undefiled religion is this: look after orphans and widows in their distress. Keep oneself unstained from the world.
Care for those who are hurting. Live pure lives.
At the beginning of this sermon we looked at how to interact with someone who may disagree with you about Roe being overturned.
Now we come to the part where we look at what our responsibility as Christians is in light of this.
We cannot allow the accusation of being “Pro-Birth” and not “Pro-Life.”
What does this look like?
David Platt Phone Call:
One day I called up the Department of Human Resources in Shelby County, Alabama, where our church is located, and asked, “How many families would you need in order to take care of all the foster and adoption needs that we have in our county?”
The woman I was talking to laughed.
I said, “No, really, if a miracle were to take place, how many families would be sufficient to cover all the different needs you have?”
She replied, “It would be a miracle if we had 150 more families.”
When I shared this conversation with our church, over 160 families signed up to help with foster care and adoption. We don’t want even one child in our county to be without a loving home. It’s not the way of the American Dream. It doesn’t add to our comfort, prosperity, or ease. But we are discovering the indescribable joy of sacrificial love for others, and along the way, we are learning more about the inexpressible wonder of God’s sacrificial love for us.
We must be people who give of ourselves.
We must be willing to support single mothers, single fathers. We must be willing to adopt, foster, and if we cannot support those who do. We must be willing to interact with love, grace, and the gospel with women who have had abortions. We must be willing to let our light shine before mine in how we interact with those around us.
It must be clear in any circumstance that we face be it abortion or anything else that the love of God is what motivates us to think and believe differently than the world, but it is also God’s love and grace that causes us to love and behave radically different from the world.
As we come to the time of invitation:
How well do you communicate in regard to following Christ?
Are you quick to listen?
Are you slow to speak?
Are you slow to anger?
Have you sought to purify yourself from all moral filth and evil?
Are you a doer of the word? Or a hearer only?
Are you living out your faith actively showing compassion to those who are in distress?