River
Road Church Baptist
Dr.
Cecil E. Sherman
August
31, 2003
Dr.
Cecil E. Sherman
“Pure
Religion”
James
1:17-27
The
text comes from the James reading. The letter of James might
be better labeled, “The sermon of James.” It’s an example of
first century preaching. There’s not much overt theology in
James. Theology is assumed, ideas pounded in Paul are taken
for granted in James. That’s because James was dealing with
a different kind of church. In James the church is established.
The members believe in Jesus. He’s taking his audience beyond
entry level Christianity. He’s trying to do what Paul talked
about when he talked about people maturing or growing up in their
faith. So, James is practical. Often, it’s been called the
wisdom literature of the New Testament. And like first century
sermons, the material is not organized. He darts from one subject
to another; maybe it’s like twenty-first century preaching!
The
title comes from the last verse. Religion that is pure and undefiled
before God is. So, that’s where I got my title. I call it,
“Pure Religion.” The first idea and remember these ideas do
not necessarily run logically into each other. But, the first
idea in the text is, recognize the beholden nature of life.
Every generous act of giving and every perfect gift is from above
coming down from the father. This is a powerful idea. The
text makes no attempt to explain evil, simply cites the source
of good. God gives good things. The good things in our life
are gifts from God. Now we are Christian when we own Him as
the source of the good. We are pagan when we forget to say thank-you
or when we do something is probably more heinous, we come to think
that the good things in life are because we’re smart, or clever,
because we’re strong, I did it myself, and perhaps the highest
vanity of all is to say I am self made. Now I’m not talking
about small stuff. I’m talking about basic things. If you
have parents who wanted you, parents who took you seriously, you
are blessed beyond all measure and it’s a gift. You have a sound
mind, you can think, you can learn, you are blessed beyond your
knowing. It’s a gift. We are beholden. If you have good
health, so many don’t or they have a piece of health. If you
have good health you have something to do with it, but you don’t
have everything to do with it – a lot of it’s a gift. Thank-you.
If you have chosen a happy time to be born – how would you have
liked to have lived in Richmond between 1860 and 1880? What
a ghastly time to be dropped on the earth! What a terrible place,
what awful things were all around!
I
talked to some people in my father’s generation just as the time
they were getting into their careers. October 29th happened
and for the next 15 years, it was struggle. I have not known
that. I had nothing to do with it. It’s a gift. If you have
been spared plague, epidemic, give thanks! Give thanks! You
ought to see the things children died of as recently as 100 years
ago. Give thanks for the happy time you appeared. These are
the kinds of good things God is into.
Second
idea – control the dark side of our nature. Let everyone be
quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, rid yourselves
of all sordidness. James wanted self-control in his people.
Now all of us are a bundle or drives and urges. We love to
eat, we love to compete, we love to do sex, we love to have the
good life, we love to come to power over one another, we want
place, everybody wants some of those things. James does not
say all of that stuff is wicked. What he says is, build a fence
around it. There’s a way to do it. There’s a right way and
there’s a wrong way. The church is lined out for a long, long
time - how to do a lot of these things – if we just take it seriously.
In the first instance we can miss a lot of pain. We can enjoy
the good. We can pass along a tradition that is worthy. These
are the things that happen when we get hold of ourselves, when
we come into control. And he talks about things that are of
the mind. It’s not just the deed, because the New Testament
takes the law and innerizes it. Jesus said, “You’ve heard it
said, do not murder. I say to you, don’t hate.” You have heard
it said, “Do no adultery. I say to you, don’t lust.” Now,
getting control is getting hold of the stuff that’s inside your
head before it comes out of your head into your pattern. That’s
the idea.
You
see there’s a dark side in all of us. There are mean and wicked
thoughts and that wander through the mind and he says that stuff
needs to go. Especially, does James warn us of misuses of the
tongue. Now, that’s an idea that James just sort of circles
around and if you’ll just stay on the merry-go-round, he’ll run
you right back by that one again. There’s a long paragraph later
on the book about the tongue; who can tame it? In this passage,
he’s warning about quick speech and anger. Actually, the Bible
is full of that and the sages of the ancient world talked about
it. One of the Proverbs is, “Even a fool when he holdeth his
speech is counted wise.” Might be a thought for preachers!
The founder of stoic thoughts, Zenov, said, “We have two ears,
one mouth. That we may hear more and speak less.” Or, maybe
the Lord is telling us something.
A
tribute was paid a linguist. It was said that he could be silent
in seven different languages. Be careful, be careful with the
tongue. The foolishness of ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones
but words will never harm me’; that was put together by someone
who hadn’t lived very long. Can words harm you? Well, run
for office and see if words can harm you - your own and the words
of your opponents. Try being a teacher and see if words can
harm you. You can be fired if you misspeak. You think words
could harm me doing what I do? Well of course they could.
The text says, “Be careful about how you talk and be careful when
anger and your talk come together.” I gather it’s your libel
in anger to speak before you think on impulse. Watch that stuff!
The sense of the text is, rarely does anger serve God’s purposes.
There are exceptions, but not many. People like to say, remember
how Jesus cleansed the temple? Yes. That’s true. But remember
how many times Jesus kept his tongue, guarded his speech, or returned
good for evil when questioned or insulted. Rarely does anger
serve God’s purposes and all of us need to take that to heart.
Third
idea – Beware substituting form for actions. Be doers of the
word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. Now, going
to church is good. I’m glad you do it. That gives me somebody
to talk to. And you’ve put yourself in a place where often,
good things happen. But just going to church, just listening
to scripture, just bowing your head in prayer, these things are
not the end, except as they are the front end of the Christian
religion. We are asked to believe in Jesus, but that is not
the end of the matter. Then we are to go out and act like Jesus,
be hearers, be doers. So, we act like Jesus. We teach the
unlearned, we heal the sick, we feed the hungry, we oppose the
Pharisee spirit, and we help the confused, the helpless, and the
sheep without the shepherd, that’s the doer part. That’s the
part that goes beyond worship, which is terribly important.
The church is the worship center. But the church radiates out
from worship into service. This is the teaching that he’s trying
to get across. When we only believe and do not act, James raises
a question. Are we really Christian? Or, are we only pretending
we are Christian? You see, his faith and works die tribe will
come shortly. You say you have faith, I have works, I will show
you my faith by my works.
Why
is he saying this? Because so many people are into believing,
in fact, we’ve taken a little snippet of a verse in Acts 16 where
a jailer in Philippi is about to commit suicide because his prisoners
are about to run away and he says to Paul and Silas, “What must
I do to be saved?” In that setting, Paul says, “Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thall shall be saved. Well, in the setting,
what did you want him to do? Take out a book of theology and
read it to him? In the setting, he got a quick compression,
this is entry level Christianity, but when you’re in a more normal
circumstance, you take entry level Christianity and you build
on it, and you build on it, and you build on it, and you believe
until you do. That’s what James is trying to get these people
to do.
Last
idea – Good religion is not as complicated as we make it. Religion
that is pure and undefiable toward God is this – care for orphans
and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by
the world. A good illustration of how we’ve cluttered the faith
is to remember the Pharisees. Moses started off with ten rules
and the Pharisees got hold of them and they began to break them
down and multiply them and redefine them and talk about this situation
and that situation until, remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy became practically a whole section of law. And the same
with all the other rules too, when he just started off with ten.
Now,
Jesus, looking at those people and the way they had multiplied
and fractioned the law said, “They strain at a gnat and swallow
a camel.” They get so caught up in the picky stuff they lose
the big idea. Keep the big idea. Sometimes we’ve asked you
to believe too much, when really, it’s fairly simple. Here’s
what he says, “Here’s what I want you to do. Do practical service
to humanity.” Care for orphans and widows, is his illustration.
Second, “Keep your personal life pure.” You know right from
wrong. You don’t need a long discussion from me about what’s
right and what’s wrong. Our problem is not knowing, our problem
is mainly doing. Now, if we were talking to 10, 12, 14, 16-year-olds,
we need to talk about what’s right and what’s wrong. But most
of you aren’t 10, 12, 14, and 16. You know right and wrong as
well as I do. James says, “Do it.” That’s it. Do it. Keep
yourself unstained from the world, keep your personal life in
appropriate bounds in a way that would bring credit if somebody
found out you go to church. That’s it.
Good
religion is not as complicated as we make it. Do practical service
to humanity and keep your personal life pure. That’s pure religion
and that’s the end of the sermon.
CES;
Lisa King, mt
