Introduction

James 1:27 ESV  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

• “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”
  • “God hates religion”
  • “Religion is evil”.
• These are things I hope to never hear anyone in CLC say.
  • Because according to the verse that we just read, according to James 1:27…
    • Pure and undefiled religion is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
    • So if you think Religion is evil, I ask you, which part is evil?
      • Is it the taking care of the orphans that is evil?
    • If you think God hates religion… which part does He hate?
      • Is it the looking after widows in their pain and sorrow?
    • If you think “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”
      • Are you suggesting that we SHOULD be stained by the sin of the world?
        • Because Jesus says to be in a relationship with Him you have to be not of this world, that you have to obey Him.
        • In fact the Bible makes it clear, as you will see in this sermon, that you can not have a relationship with Jesus if you are not obeying what He says.
        • THEREFORE without pure and undefiled religion, YOU MAY NOT HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST AT ALL.
• But I get ahead of myself… before people start leaving because they are angry that, let’s slow down, pray, and then get into the Word.

• Pure, Undefiled Religion
  • If you get this right, dear saints, then your life will be a pleasing sacrifice to Christ… your life will bring joy to the Father… your life will be worthwhile, and at the end of it you will hear “Well done my good and faithful servant”.
    • I know that sometimes I get a little harsh, and I preach the fire… and sometimes we just need a word of blessing and encouragement.
      • What could be more blessed than living a life pleasing to God?
      • You can keep your cars, your money, your mansions with airconditioned dog houses.
        • I just want to wake up and hear “Well done, my good and faithful servant”.
• But I think if we can get today’s message in our hearts, and I will be the first to say I am not perfect at it, but if we can get this message, this scripture, this religion into our hearts… then we will be well on our way to that great morning when we wake up to the love of our Savior.

Point One – God Has Not Forgotten the Widows and the Orphans

James 1:27 ESV  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

• It seems to me that maybe the modern American church has forgotten about the widows and the orphans…
  • At least to an extent.
    • But I assure you that God has not forgotten about them.
• Think for a moment about the first time that deacons were installed in the Church, do you remember this?

Acts 6:1-3 ESV  Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.  (2)  And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.  (3)  Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

• What is happening here?
  • Well, there were a bunch of widows in the church who needed help with food.
    • And there were two major groups of widows, the Jewish widows and the Greek, sometimes called Hellenists, widows.
    • The Hellenists widows were not being taken well care of, and the leaders of the church KNEW this was a problem.
      • They easily could have ignored this complaint and said “Sorry, we can only help so many people”.
      • But they did not, they KNEW they had to help all the widows of the church. Why? Because pure and undefiled religion is to take care of the widows and orphans and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
    • In other words, to NOT take care of these widows would be to practice defiled and tainted religion.
  • So they created the position of Deacon to help with the widows and orphans.
• In fact, the Bible is full of references to taking care of widows and orphans, and warnings for those who don’t:

Psalm 68:5 ESV [God is the]Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Proverbs 15:25 ESV The Lord tears down the house of the proud but maintains the widow’s boundaries.

Exodus 22:22-24 ESV You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

Zechariah 7:10 ESV Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

Isaiah 1:17 ESV Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.

• CLEARLY it is important to God that we take care of widows and orphans, to take care of widows and the fatherless.
  • So why is this not a big ministry of the church in America?
    • Why is this not a big ministry in our church, in Christian Life Church?
      • Why is this not a big ministry in most of our lives?
        • Has God forgotten about the widow and the orphans?
        • NO! Of course not. God does not change.
• God does not change, but society does.
  • You see part of the problem is that we have been derelict in our duty, we have failed to live up to pure and undefiled religion.
  • But part of the problem is that society has changed drastically, especially in America.
• You see, in Biblical society, it was always the man who worked.
  • Feminism wasn’t a thing.
  • The idea of a woman having to work to provide was seen as just plain wrong.
    • Men go out in the field to labor and work, women stay home to take care of the children and family.
  • This is the way it was for MOST of history.
    • But this provides a problem… if the husband and or father were to die… then the wife and or kids would be left with no way to provide for themselves… they would be, in a sense, homeless.
    • The issue was not a lack of husband or father… the issue was lack of financial support, we see this proven in the book of First Timothy.

1 Timothy 5:3-4 ESV  Honor widows who are truly widows.  (4)  But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

• In other words, the adult children and grandchildren should be taken care of their mom and grandmother… not the church.
  • BUT, if there is someone who can not work, and has no support structure… then God tells us to rise up and take care of them.
• So what do we do?
  • First of all, we take care of our own… the people in the church.
  • In Matthew 25, Jesus gives a perfect example for us…
  • Describing what judgment day will be like Jesus very clearly says that some will go to heaven and others will go to hell… and in this story the deciding factor is that some of them feed those who were hungry, visited those who were sick and in prison, and clothed those who were naked.

Matthew 25:37-40 ESV  Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?  (38)  And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?  (39)  And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’  (40)  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

• Now it is important to note that Jesus is not saying that the works of the righteous saved them.
  • Works based salvation is heresy. In other words, what we do or don’t do does not save us, the blood of Jesus Christ and His mercy and forgiveness save us.
  • BUT OUR WORKS DO DEMONSTRATE OUR SALVATION. THEY PROVE OUR SALVATION.
    • Saved people help the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry, the naked.
      • We practice PURE AND UNDEFILED RELIGION.
  • But there is another important thing to note here… something that a lot of people miss… and it is from verse 40. Let me read it in the ol’ King Jimmy’s English.

Matthew 25:40 KJV  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Matthew 25:40 ESV  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

• Did you catch that… MY BRETHREN… MY BROTHERS.
  • Not just the least of these… but the least of my brothers… meaning, other Christians.
  • People who are not born again are not brothers to Christ.
    • This is talking about people in the church.
• If we can’t take care of our own widows and orphans, meaning, if we cant take care of people who really need help in our own church… then we shouldn’t be calling ourselves Christians.
  • This is why I am thrilled that David Jaramillo is setting up a food pantry in our church.
  • I don’t want anyone in CLC to go hungry!
    • I am thrilled when I see people who really need help getting rides to church, being discipled, being taken out to lunch, getting help for all sorts of things from the church.
      • And this is why discipleship is so important because if you are discipling someone who is in need you are going to help them!
• So we must take care of our own.
• But we also need to take care of others too… the story of the good Samaritan makes that clear.
  • Not to mention, orphans may or may not belong to the church… or to anyone…
    • Which is why I am also THRILLED that we can be helping Bridge haven by donating new baby clothes. GUYS, GET ON THIS! Let’s overwhelm them with generosity!
    • Bridgehaven is LITERALLY helping widows and orphans!
  • And what is so amazing is that indpendantly, Dawn and David came to me about Bridgehaven and the Food Pantry and aske to share about it today! They had no idea what I was preaching on… but God did.
• Now listen, I don’t want to belabor this point any longer… but next time you see someone in need in the church, or outside of the church. Pray about it, then remember this quote I read a few weeks ago about our religion:

Instead of asking yourself whether you believe or not, ask yourself whether you have, this day, done one thing because He said, Do it! or once abstained because He said, Do not do it! It is simply absurd to say you believe, or even want to believe, in Him, if you do not do anything He tells you.
-George McDonald

• That quote brings me nicely to point two this morning

Point Two – Keep Yourself Unstained From the World

James 1:27 ESV  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

• “It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”.
  • You know I think there are a lot of people who really believe this… and they think they have a relationship with Jesus while still living in the world and all it’s sin.
    • I think a lot of people are going to get to judgment with this “it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship” mentality and they are going to here Jesus say “Be gone from me, I never knew you”.

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  (22)  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  (23)  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

• In other words people will be like “But Jesus, we had such a good relationship…” and Jesus is like “What are you talking about, I NEVER KNEW YOU! If you had a relationship with me you would have done what I said… instead of pure and undefiled religion, you practiced a fake an hypocritical religion that was stained by the sin of the world. Instead of doing what I said, you did what made you feel good. BE GONE FROM ME I NEVER KNEW YOU!”
• When I get to heaven I want to hear “Well done my good and faithful servant”.
  • But the Bible says that the way to destruction is wide! More people will hear “Depart from me” then will hear “well done”…
  • AND I DON’T WANT THAT. I DON’T WANT THAT FOR ME. AND I CERTAINLY DON’T WANT THAT FOR YOU.
    • That is why my skin crawls when people say “It’s not a religion it’s a relationship”… because even though I know that most people are trying to make a statement about vain religion… about worthless relgion… I also no that in so doing they throw out all religion as being bad.
    • They suggest that all we need to do is have a relationship with Jesus… but all the worship, and ceremonies, and obedience… that all of that is worthless.
      • That don’t mean to make that suggestion, but they do!
  • Instead we should be saying “Praise God for the Christian Religion, because when practiced perfectly, purely, and in an undefiled way… then the homeless find homes, and the hungry get food, and the naked get clothed. Then people find rest for their bodies and their souls, healing for their flesh and their spirits, salvation now and forevermore!”
    • We should be saying “there are many religions that are false… but Christianity, when done as Jesus commands, is beautiful, life changing, eternity changing… and unlike those other religions, IT IS TRUE!”
• But for this all to be true we MUST keep ourselves unstained from the world.

James 1:27 ESV  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

• No it’s not ok to pirate movies and tv shows from the internet… that’s what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok to watch filthy things that show off woman and men’s body parts… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for you to get drunk on the weekends… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for you to talk filthy with the boys in the locker room… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for men to have sex with men and women to have sex with women… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for our school libraries to have pornography in them, that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for doctors to mutilate children, trying to make boys girls and girls boys… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for men dressed as women in lingerie to read books to kindergartners… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• No it is not ok for you to sleep with people who are not your wife… that is what the world says, we are not ok with it.
• NO IT IS NOT OK FOR DOCTORS TO DISMEMEMBER LIVE BABIES AND SUCK THEM OUT OF THE WOMB WITH A VACUM JUST BECAUSE YOU DON’T WANT TO PAY THE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR SEXUAL SIN. THAT IS WHAT THE WORLD DOES BUT WE ARE NOT OK WITH IT.
• WE ARE CHRISTIANS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! IS IT SO MUCH TO ASK THAT WE BELIEVE CHRISTIAN THINGS? THAT WE TEACH OUR KIDS CHRISTIAN THINGS?! THAT WE LIVE CHRISTIAN WAYS?!
• If this nation falls it is because the CHURCH failed to practice pure and undefiled religion… because the church failed to be unstained from the world… because the church failed to be the light on a hill that we were designed to be!
  • Please, saints… I want you to be blessed… I want you to have all the Jesus has for you!
    • I want you to prosper, and grow, and be healthy, and be full of joy and peace and contentment.
    • I never want you to be lonely again, I never want you to be full of hopelessness again.
    • I want you to know all that God has for you! I want you to have life and life abundantly!
      • But you can’t have a beautiful white robe and play in the mud at the same time… you have to chose… do you want what God offers you, or do you want the filth of the world?
      • Do you want that pure life, that comes with all these blessings… or do you want a filthy world stained life?
      • Make a choice! Choose Life! Choose Blessings! Choose Jesus!
        • Love the widows and the orphans, help those in need, stay unstained from the world!

Conclusion

Deuteronomy 30:11-20 ESV  “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off.  (12)  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’  (13)  Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’  (14)  But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.  (15)  “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.  (16)  If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.  (17)  But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,  (18)  I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.  (19)  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,  (20)  loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

• Gospel Call – Mud can be washed!

Aaronic Blessing