TRUE RELIGION
#417 TRUE RELIGION
Scripture: James 1:22-27 NIV Orig. 6/24/1962
Rewr. 2/5/1987
Passage: 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. 26 Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Purpose: Preaching in conjunction with a beginning Bible study a message signifying true religion.
Keywords: Character Love Religion
Introduction
Those who have studied history closely tell us many things. They tell us of the progress made in discovery. They tell us of journeys that, over the process of time, brought continual discovery. They tell us of the discovery of tribes of people even under the most inscrutable of circumstances.
When explorers went to the far north country, they found a people called Lapps. People who had lived for centuries beyond the Arctic Circle. It did not surprise anyone years later to discover that there were people called Eskimos who lived out much of their lives in a land of darkness and ice.
When other explorers were directed to the south and more humid conditions, tribes were found still. In the jungles, in the deserts, in the mountains, on the flood plains.
Even the most rabid scientist says that these people came from a common source, in fact, beyond that from amoeba, protoplasm, or primitive life form. There are all kinds, shades, cultures, with a common benefactor in Adam. Black, white, red, yellow meet in him, created that way by God. All the families of the earth from common blood lines. We are of one blood.
Acts 17:26 “And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.”
Even so, there are many religions. All of them contain truth. One is truth. All have polemists who particularize their truth. But only one is the epitome of truth as God revealed it conditionally to especially chosen messengers, Jesus, Himself, being chiefest of all. It should not be any more surprising to us that there are no more ways out of this world than into it. It is erroneously claimed that “there are many ways out of the world, and but one coming into it.”
I. True Religion Reaches First Inward. V23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass . . . and . . . forgetteth what manner of man he was.
There is the mentality of faith: Emotions have their place. But one whose faith is expressed only through his emotions is only half a believer. No doubt the emotions are important:
· I Corinthians 14:15 “I will pray with the spirit, . . . I will pray with understanding also.”
· Romans 12:2 “Be ye transformed by the renewing of mind.”
· Acts 17:11 From Thessalonica to Berea “These [Berean Jews] were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily.”
But faith is an inducement of the heart as well. Deuteronomy 6:5 “Thou . . . love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” Old Testament example: When Solomon came to throne, he asked for wisdom. I Kings 3:12 “. . . I have given thee a wise, and an understanding heart.” New Testament example: Paul had a pretty good case of religion before his Damascus experience. But it only set him to the task of getting in the way of what God was doing in the lives of people around him.
I Kings 4:29 “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much, and largeness of heart.” When one begins to practice hearing without doing, then self-deception is practiced. “Be ye doers of the word.” How can mind and heart both be involved when one fails to perceive himself in mirror?
V21 Paul uses “engrafted word.” Who has heard of one using a dead branch? Bro. Morgan’s living Christmas tree. Lady in Ruston with a peach tree with 7 different __?___. Dogwood with both pink and white blossoms. Taken into the mind with understanding. Dedicated with the heart to committed use.
Thus, the entire personality becomes emblazoned by what our faith means.
· Christians ought to look better--not better than anyone else, [but] look the very best that we can look.
· Christians ought to act differently. We know what keeps us fixed on the Lord, [and are] to be constant in these things.
· We ought to feel better. What is happening when we are doing something that is not in our best interest? We know that the Lord doesn’t intend it, so we are out of His will. We are running the risk of taking something precious away from those who love us.
II. True Religion Reaches Upward. V25 “. . . whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, . . . this (one) shall be blessed in his deed.”
Religion can be a self-made ideal. Many people are living by such a standard. It does not necessarily mean their lives are better, just on a margin of acceptance. Do they give even a passing thought to the sovereignty of God?
Our lives could be better without God’s intervention.
· Psalm 23:5 “Thou preparest a table before me.”
· Psalm 78:20 “He shall give His angels charge.”
· Psalm 94:19 “. . . Thy comforts delight my soul.”
· Lamentations 3:22 “His compassions fail not.”
· Romans 5:10 “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
True religion must be acknowledged to have come from above. Not a prepared philosophy. The world has its fill of philosophers, some sincere in helping others, but at best their schemes seldom outlast their own lives, except in the classroom: René Descartes / Immanuel Kant / Voltaire / Thomas Paine / John Dewey. But a higher goal of truth. The prophets left three great marks. Knowledge of a word from God. Knowledge of existing conditions. Will to obedience to higher voice.
Thus we remember that such truth transcends the times. Lady Jane Grey—put to death in 1554 at 27 for her part in intervention against crown by “bloody” Queen Mary. “I ground my faith on God’s word and not upon the church; for, if the church be a good church, the faith of the church must be tried by God’s Word, and not God’s Word by the church, or yet my faith.”
III. True Religion Reaches Outward. V27 “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.”
True, or pure, is a medical term kathara: Cathartic—purgative, used by psychiatrists for cleansing of the turmoil of emotions; use it here for a religion that keeps the spirit clean.
The word visit episkeptomai, means to see with purpose: An act in another’s behalf; the word used by Jesus in Matthew 25:36,43, (35f—“For I was hungered and . . . .” Acts 6:3 “Look ye out” (deacons). True religion looks for ways to help others. It cannot do all things well. Some things are beyond reach. But people-help is the magnet of truth.
And to remain “unspotted” without defilement: Paul and Jude both use it for moral defilement. Paul to I Timothy 6:14, “That thou keep this commandment without spot.” No better use can we put to the word than to see it as an enjoinment to live by the Word. No clearer word comes to us than that of Christ as Lord to whom we are responsible.
Conclusion
According to a minister who talked with him just before his execution, the German war minister, Adolf Eichmann, had a religion. He claimed to believe in a “personal God” who “did not judge sin,” and “would not condemn” anyone.
Ah, but he, himself, judged it a crime to be a Jew, and condemned six million men, women, and children to brutal deaths. We rightly raise legitimate questions about such a religion as this. It is a form, without substance. What he believed might have even contained some truth, but it was not the truth. It sought not the betterment of others, and drew no strength from the unadulterated Word of God. How secure are we in what we call our religion?
Lady Jane Grey: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/grey_lady_jane.shtml
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
#542 THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN
Scripture James 1:15; Daniel 12:1-13; II Thessalonians 1:6-9, NIV Orig. 1/19/1969
Rewr. 8/15/1985
Passage:
James 1:15
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Daniel 12:1-13
12 “At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. 2 Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise[a] will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, roll up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”
5 Then I, Daniel, looked, and there before me stood two others, one on this bank of the river and one on the opposite bank. 6 One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, “How long will it be before these astonishing things are fulfilled?” 7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, lifted his right hand and his left hand toward heaven, and I heard him swear by him who lives forever, saying, “It will be for a time, times and half a time.[b] When the power of the holy people has been finally broken, all these things will be completed.”
8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” 9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand. 11 “From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. 12 Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days. 13 “As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”
II Thessalonians 1:6-9
6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might[.]
Purpose: To share with my people for a deeper understanding that there are grievous consequences to sins.
Keywords: Death Hell Judgment Sin
Timeline/Series: Deeper Life
Introduction
Someone has said that “Death is the most democratic institution on earth. It comes to all men, regardless of color, education, wealth, or rank. It allows no discrimination, tolerates no exceptions. The mortality rate for mankind is the same the world over: one death per person.”
There are two questions for which answers are needed. The first is rhetorical. It asks: “Why do we die?” The second, for the believer, is redemptive. It asks: “What happens after death?”
All literature is full of pithy statements of death. From Shakespeare’s “The weariest and most loathed worldly life that age, ache, penury, and imprisonment can lay on nature is a paradise To what we fear of death.” Measure for Measure, III 1 127. to John Donne’s “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved with mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” (Devotions XVII)
But these two questions continue to haunt us: “Why do we die?” and “What happens after death?” Searching for answers, we discover that both questions are related to our topic for this morning, “The Consequences of Sin.” Why do we die? Because death is a consequence of sin. What happens after death? Judgment, and heaven and hell are the result of death.
I. First, We Must Appraise Death. James 1:15 “Then, when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.” (RSV).
Judge rightly that sin and death go hand in hand. Paul gave a strong reminder to the Roman Christians. Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Used in plan of salvation; Explain “wages”—pay, or substitute for pay, [or] the fruit of our labor.
Thus the discovery that before Adam and Eve’s sin, no knowledge of death. In the garden were two trees. Tree of knowledge; tree of life; invited to tree of life, denied tree of knowledge; warning: “Lest you die,” which Satan challenged, “You shall not die.” Their disobedience was their sin.
After their sin a moral directive was given. Genesis 3:22 “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.”
Let it be clear, the first consequence of sin is death. Story of unnamed. ____ requested a visit. Her brother was involved. Took 6 to 8 weeks to get courage. Talked for over an hour. Open, seemed interested and concerned. That night she died in a drunken stupor with the man. She was dead before the fire.
The scripture so warns us. Ezekiel 18:2 “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” James 1:15 “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”
II. We Must Then Be Warned about Judgment. II Thessalonians 1:7f “To give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from Heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those . . . who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is a universal judgment. No distinction of religious culture; the wealthy hold no favoritism with God; education will not be considered as positive or negative factor; time of life, or length of life, will gain no advantage.
Too many of us have a distorted view of such judgment. When Amos was sent to prophesy, Amaziah (Amos 7:10) “priest of Bethel” confronted him because he had spoken against the royal family. Amaziah justified their actions by who they were. It still happens. We loathe the pervert who molests children, but put him in a $400 suit and a $30 tie, let him drive up in a BMW—he becomes something else, an unfortunate man needing help.
It is a judgment on deeds done in flesh. A judgment on opportunities—Matthew 7:19 “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.” What are we doing with our opportunities?
A judgment on our activities—II Corinthians 5:10 “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in the body.” We think of Dante’s Inferno and his Divine Comedy, and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. This awful picture of death and hell is only literature. To the person in hell, they haven’t half pictured it.
It is a judgment concerning Christ. II Thessalonians 1:8 “In flaming fire taking [vengeance on them that know not God].” Imagine chaos of social order without law. Consider a mechanical world without predictable guidelines. Mull over where the farmer would be without defined limits on seed, chemicals, and fertilizer. How can we even tolerate a world without moral and spiritual limits.
Revelation 20:12f “I saw vengeance on them that know not God the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened . . . . Whoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”
III. Judgment Must Remind Us that There is a Hell as There is a Heaven. See Revelation 20:12 above.
Reason bears witness that there is a judgment, and if judgment then hell also. What is a court of law without a jail cell for the guilty? What good comes to the child in the remonstrance of wrong without a rod of correction?
Even more important than reason is what the Bible says. Psalm 9:17 “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” Isaiah 5:14 “Hell hath enlarged herself and opened her mouth without measure.” Revelation 21:18 “The fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Closing
The two questions remain. “Why do we die?” Because death is the fertile ground through which we pass to that for which we have labored. “What happens after death?” Through Christ we pass to eternal life. Life forever spent in the joy of oneness with God. Without Christ, we pass to eternal death. Imagine a forever spent with the pains and hurts of death and dying.
He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought
The United Methodist Hymnal Number 128
Text: Joseph H. Gilmore, 1834-1918
Music: William B. Bradbury, 1816-1868
Tune: HE LEADETH ME, Meter: LM with Refrain
1. He leadeth me: O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be, still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
Refrain:
He leadeth me, he leadeth me, by his own hand he leadeth me;
his faithful follower I would be, for by his hand he leadeth me.
2. Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where Eden's bowers bloom,
by waters still, o'er troubled sea, still 'tis his hand that leadeth me.
(Refrain)
3. Lord, I would place my hand in thine, nor ever murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see, since 'tis my God that leadeth me.
(Refrain)
4. And when my task on earth is done, when by thy grace the victory's won,
e'en death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me.
(Refrain)
Shakespeare: https://shakespeare.mit.edu/measure/measure.3.1.html
Donne: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23772/23772-h/23772-h.htm
Gilmore/Bradbury: http://www.HymnSite.com