James 1:21-27

well good morning good morning welcome to Coffee coffee and devotions this morning we're at James chapter one beginning at verse 19 what's fake religion and what's real religion let's have some coffee we'll pray we'll get into God's word too hot it's too hot for you you sure yeah okay have I'll drink all of it oh you'll drink all of it okay let's pray God we thank you so much for this day we thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word and we thank you for time together Lord we pray that your spirit would be with us teach us God please do not let these words just go into our ears and just flitter away but God we pray that it would seep deep down into our hearts take root in our lives and play out Lord as we are united to Christ and bear good fruit in Jesus's name amen okay so here we go we are at James chapter 1 beginning at verse 21 how about you read verse 21 and I'll read 22 through the end therefore a in aside the all filthiness and overlow oh so it's two words together overl of wicked no overflow Wick of wicked good of wickedness yes and and we receive receive with meus the implanted World which is able able to say your souls good job but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does if anyone among you thinks is religious and does not Bridle his own tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world well we got three questions to ask ourselves a a what's this about B what's the best first to summar C what are called to do all right so a what's this about B what's the best first to summar and C what are we called to do so what is this about danan uh I think it's it's that if you're just sitting around and you're like oh look at me he oh I believe in God but you actually don't it's useless well how do you show that you don't actually believe in God you like oh I'm so cool yeah okay so what does it look like to show that you believe in God that the god of that he's good okay so you think there's a certain amount of pride in this with people deceiving themselves right um so there's a few things here right so I think the first side part is in verse 21 that you read is that how do we show that we're actually saved right we turn away from filthiness we turn away from sin right this is no different than what Jesus says repent and believe for the kingdom of Heaven's at hand can somebody be saved and not repent of their sins yeah no if you love your sin but you're saying you love God you don't love yeah right now does that mean sometimes that we might still get insens snared by sin yeah yeah sometimes but do we love that sin no no we should cast off that sin that so easily and snares us right and so that's the first thing a second thing is not just being hearers of the word only but doers doers right yeah uh so if you come and you read your Bible and you listen to the sermon and you hear God's word you think oh yeah that's good that's good that's good and then you go home and it doesn't change you at all one iota me just call this yeah he says yeah he says you're deceiving yourselves I should go make a fire well the well the point being right you deceive yourself right you're like a person who who went to the bathroom and you looked in the mirror you saw your face you turned around you walked away and what' you do you forget that's that's like going to church you go to church you read the Bible you see God's you see what God says about who you're supposed to be and who you naturally are and then you leave the church you walk out the doors and you forget yes and you go back to living like a non-Christian God says don't do that don't do that but he who looks into the perfect law of Liberty into into the law of Jesus right sees the grace and the love that God has poured out in us in our hearts by Jesus Christ and we continue in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work that one will be blessed in what he does like David well yeah but was there a point in time in which David kind of it seemed like he almost just forgot or didn't think about God's law at all y yeah the same one who said oh how I love your law it is my study all the day it makes me wiser than my foes its precepts with me stay that same one is the one who would then sleep with another man's wife and even have her husband killed pretty horrible and wicked isn't it yep yeah he deserved death but did he stay there yep no M no God's law was pointed out to him by the prophet Nathan and did he to say well okay well that's life no he repented he turned from his evil ways he turn from that wickedness right and so um yeah so so we can't just be those who hear about the good things we should be doing and hear about how Jesus loved the orphan and the Widow and cared for the poor and the oppressed and then turn around and not do any of that ourselves actually that's what he says here is that what is pure and undefiled religion before God the Father believe in him no it's not just belief it starts with belief that's for sure just don't but true belief does something just don't give up what does true belief in Christ right belief in Christ unites us to Jesus so believing in Jesus unites us to him by his Holy Spirit and then from being united to him it's like he's a he's a Vine and so now now we're like a branch that's that's that's put on to him what should a good branch do should stay there well should both stay there but uh should produce fruit toe yeah it should produce fruit if it's a fruit tree yeah well well we're supposed to be a fruitful tree aren't we so what are the fruits here that James points out what are some of the good fruits pure and undefiled religion mangoes taste good no I don't think he's talking about mangoes did you notice this verse 27 pure and undefiled religion before God and the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world so caring for people who can't even ever pay you back caring for the most vulnerable of society and also keeping yourself unpolluted from the world all right so you can't go and run Barefoot in the dirt anymore because that's what this is saying you would be polluted by that dirt that's sus do you think that that's what this is talking about no it means being polluted in sin yeah being polluted in sin that's right good so uh great what would what would you underline as the best verse to summarize all of this probably all of them all of them well I have verse 26 and 27 underlined but I can see people underlining other things like maybe verse 25 we didn't even talk about verse 26 right about the tongue right you got to Bridle your own tongue James is going going to go on more in that in chapter 3 so we'll leave that there um let's talk about SE calling what do you think you're called to do how does this show you Jesus Christ uh don't get don't get polluted in sin okay how do you keep yourself from getting polluted by sin ask God to help okay how do you know what sin is well you know something's wrong and somebody's trying to make you do it so how do you know something's wrong because God told you that's wrong where did God tell you it's wrong in the world that's right that's right so we go to the scriptures that's where we find out what's sin and not sin right and so we go to God's word and we look at that we try to figure out okay is this sin or not and then if it is sin what should we do don't do it don't do it and if we have done it what should we do try to undo it well yeah confess repent maybe if the sin was against somebody restore and be reconciled good and is that against the the grace of Jesus that says that by Grace you have been saved and that by faith not through Works no is this saying that you're saved by those good works oh Jes if you you if Jesus didn't die we W people be healed yeah so it's because of Jesus that we do these good works isn't it yeah good hey you ready to pray all right Lord we thank you so much for this day thank you for the blessing it is to get to read your word to spend time together Lord we pray that you would please help us Lord we know that we are tempted towards hypocritical and dead religion and so father we pray that you would please turn our hearts to Jesus Christ Our Only Hope in life and death and as we look into that perfect law of Liberty father we pray that we would have good works because of your your spirit in US father we thank you for what you have done in our lives and what you continue to do in our lives in Jesus's name amen all right well may God bless you may you walk in coffee done nope coffee's not done yet oh you want to drink it though it's hot it's no it's pretty warm but it's not hot well may the Lord bless you as you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus may you be not just a hearer of God's word but do her I'll see you next time bye