In the sermon 'To You I Lift My Soul' by Kyle Nickerson, the focus is on the teachings from James 1:19-27, emphasizing the importance of being quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, as human anger does not produce the righteousness of God. The sermon highlights the necessity of both hearing and doing the Word of God, likening someone who only listens to a man who forgets his reflection after looking in a mirror. Trials are presented as opportunities for growth, where God provides wisdom rather than just grace, helping believers navigate life's challenges without confusion. Meekness is essential in receiving the implanted Word of God, which can save souls. The speaker cautions against deceiving oneself by merely hearing the Word and not acting on it. The concept of pure religion is defined as visiting orphans and widows and keeping oneself unstained from the world, emphasizing humble acts of service over ostentatious displays of piety. The sermon calls for introspection, encouraging believers to let their actions speak to their faith, and to engage in conversations that promote growth and understanding.

Verses 19 through 27. Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls 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 who would look intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away at once, forgets what he was and forgets what he was like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts. He will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. 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. This is the word of God.

You may be seated. Now just prior to coming up here, my little box fell off of its perch. So I had to regain myself. It is a pleasure to be here this morning. And before we get into the text, let us pray.

Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for engaging us in conversation. Thank you for speaking into our lives. Wisdom through your word. Thank you for giving us ears to hear, Lord.

I pray our hearts would receive from you, Lord, and that the Word of God would press hard into our hearts with barbs that won't release, that will pester us all week and not let us move apart from your Word, that will not release us from its grip and its power that changes our hearts and our lives, Lord. Let us meditate on your word not just today during the message but as we go out during the week Lord that it may do its work and bear fruit in Jesus name amen. So are we good on this? Okay. So we are in the book of James, and as I mentioned last week, the book of James was given, and meant to be understood as a sermon.

And oftentimes we have our favorite preachers and we want to listen to a sermon. And so this is a sermon straight from the Holy Spirit. It's the best sermon you could ask for. And last week we went through the first half of the text of chapter one. And we are going at a fast rate.

So we could have taken all points of last week's message and made them into one or two messages. But the idea here, going through the James at this pace, is to understand the flow and the general message that James is trying to reach us with. So this is a text of chapter one, and this is the mistake we make when we read the word and we open up your average Bible. It says right here, the testing of your faith. That's not part of the text.

That's what the editors put in to kind of give you a hint that that's what this section is talking about. But I think if you were to look at the whole chapter one, that that would be a misleading header. If I was to hold up page 2 at the top of verse 19, it would say, well, and I don't have that per se, but it would say, doers of the word or something to that effect. And that would lead you into the next section saying that that's what this section is about But if we eliminate those headers and read it in one general flow we'll see that verses 19 through 27 are meant as As a dovetail to that first section if in fact if I was to put a header on that first section that we did last week, verses 1 through 18, I would say the process and the point of sanctification and what that looks like. Or the process and the point of God's wisdom as he speaks into our life.

That would give me a better idea of what God is working in chapter one. As we saw last week, the trials was the purpose that, God is giving us the purpose that trials serve. In fact, I remember last week mentioning trials of many kinds, and I was at Starbucks yesterday getting a coffee. And there was a gentleman sitting at the table next door, and the traffic's coming in from the street, and they're not providing enough, They're spacing their cars too much, and cars are being left out on the street. And so the man's not upset, but he is bothered by the fact that they're not moving their spaces up.

And so he wants to go tell the people to move their cars up in their space. And me and his friend, we just start laughing because he's so embroiled in this circumstance that he really wants to become, so to speak, the crosswalk guard and help traffic move along. That's a trial of many kinds. It's really small. And I said to him, I said, you know, I kind of suffer from the same thing when I'm in my car in traffic.

I want to help everybody out. That's a trial of many kinds, but that's just a little trial. And in fact, in these trials, we were in the parking lot at Kohl's yesterday because I had to buy a tie and We pull into our parking spot. We're in this nice little rental car. We get a nice shady spot and everything's wonderful and This is Peter's prayer today in his prayer.

He was asking forgiveness because we were not thankful and we complain and I Said this and as I said it my wife was already on page How thankful we should be that We have it so good in the United States. We have mostly first world problems. And it's those, I say mostly because we all have big testing points too, but we let those little ones become prominent. And we really need to have more perspective. So in the first section of James here, he's giving us the purpose of trials.

In the second section, he's giving the provision that God gives us in those trials, which is wisdom. Remarkably, James is not saying ask for grace. He's saying ask for wisdom. And in another point in Peter's prayer today, he was asking for wisdom. He was thanking the Lord for the wisdom that makes our souls wise and to salvation.

And so because the world lives in a trial just like we do but they live in confusion God's word gives us the wisdom so that we don't go through the process with confusion. He helps us settle out these processes. And then he gives us an example of what that looks like to have wisdom in the middle of a trial Like it says in the scripture that why do the wicked prosper and I didn't understand this until I went to the house of God That's because it takes wisdom to understand. Why do the rich people look like they're prospering and we don't look like we're prospering but God in his wisdom teaches us no the flower fades and the rich man is not is not on top but the man who's rich in God's Word is on top. That's wisdom that gives us strength to work through trials.

Why does it look like the wicked are having their way on your website and they're twisting your words? Oh Lord, give us wisdom to maneuver through this difficult trial. And then he gives us the promise, coming through these circumstances that we will receive a crown of life and become like Christ, become perfect in all things. Like Him who has no shadow of turning. God is consistent, stable, deliberate through every circumstance.

And that is where God is bringing us from point A to Z. And he starts off with the testing of our faith because basically that's what we live in in this life, just one long movement of sanctification. And the encouragement there is it only takes a lifetime. It doesn't take eternity. It's just a short little lifetime.

It's just that little dash on your tombstone between birthday and your death day. Just that little dash. That's all it takes. So hang in there and be encouraged. So when we get to the next section, verses 19 through 27, this is really an extension of what he's been sharing with us.

And in fact, I was meditating on it in the, as we were going through the liturgy this morning, there's a little thing we learn, a little children's thing, stop, look, and listen. And that's what's happening here in the second half of the first chapter of James in verses 19 through 27. It is often said that life is a conversation, but rather than a dialogue, it often feels like a world full of voices speaking over each other, actually competing with each other to win. In the midst of that noise there is one voice, a clarion call. It is the voice of a shepherd.

He is the good shepherd, and only his sheep hear his voice. By his providential care, he speaks to us through trials of various kinds, working all things for the good of those who love him and are called by his name. And so in the first chapter of James, God speaks to us where the rubber meets the road in the midst of our trials, and so that we are not left to our own devices and despair without hope, or just plain frustrated and confused. He gives us the road map to lead us from trials to triumph. So in James chapter 1, 19-21, he begins with, Know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls." So right out of the gate, God says, okay, so how, we're in trials, we're asking for wisdom, but what does God say while we're asking for wisdom? What does he say? He says listen. It's probably one of the biggest lessons we as human beings can learn in our whole life and it usually takes a long time to get to that place.

In fact, the longer I go, the more I learn that the better I listen the better off I am When I'm in a conversation with someone I'm seeking to listen and I'm seeking to ask questions because we are terrible listeners We're not good listeners. I've said this before probably in this congregation, but I say this frequently, our brains are going four times faster than what our ears listen to. So as I'm speaking to you today, you're going faster in your head than I'm going with my tongue. That's why it's a challenge to keep people's attention. That's why people nod off.

That's why people look at the exit sign and say, wow, Who made that exit sign? Where's the manufacturing plant for that? Because your brain is going. And when you're in a conversation with someone, guess what? It's moving along.

And you know what makes us terrible listeners? We come to conversations with presuppositions, with preset ideas and preset notions. And I think the older and wiser you get I think that that serves to Your benefit, but I think the trap we fall into in conversation And I don't even mean just casual conversation. I mean conversations where we're having a discussion about X, Y, and Z. We come with presuppositions when we're predisposed to what we think and what we know and a lot of that listening is just the dues we're paying so we can get to the point, and the point is what I think.

The point is what I know. Because I'm here to tell you what I think and what I know, because you need to know what I know. And if you don't listen to what I know, then I'm going to start competing with you until you know what I know. Where wisdom tells us to stop, look, and listen. This is what we tell little children.

The little song in my head is stop, look, and listen. You don't know what you're missing. Because we don't know what we're missing we really don't if we knew what we were missing we'd be the Lord and we'd have great Retrospection we wouldn't have blind spots. We'd know what we were missing But we because we're not and we're not wise because our nature has been damaged by the fall we need to listen We need to stop and listen and God is saying okay, so this is the process and we're gonna get you to hear. And how do we do that?

We listen. We are very slow to listen, but we are very quick to speak. Now what I find, and this is typical of how wisdom literature works, instead of explaining something, he just says, okay, be slow to speak, quick to listen, and he says slow to anger. Where'd that one come from? Why slow to anger?

That's a roundabout way of saying something. Now what happens when you come to the table knowing what you know, you've already sized someone up in the controversy or the discussion and they don't listen. What's your reaction? What's the failed human reaction to that frustration maybe? Is anger.

In anger and frustration we speak over each other and we shut down the process. What process? The process of learning. Do you come to a conversation not just to tell what you know but you come to a conversation willing to learn. It takes some humility to come to every conversation and be willing to learn.

I've had to learn it the hard way. If someone knows a better way, and there is a better way, it's called the easy way. Some people are better at that than I am, or have been over the years. But I've learned having to deal with a lot of people. When I say I've learned, what I'm not saying is I picked up a book, read it and said, okay, step one, listen.

What I'm saying is I learned the hard way that when I didn't listen, it didn't work. And so I've had to learn to listen, and the best way I can listen sometimes is just to ask questions. When I approach someone and I think I know their circumstance, maybe I don't know their circumstance. Maybe I don't know their circumstance. Maybe I don't know all the hidden features that are involved in a particular trial.

Or the hidden features that are inane to that circumstance of the opponent of my discussion. Maybe they're angry with me and my position for reasons that have nothing to do with reason. And I'm just talking to a wall full of emotions. The best way for me to find out is to do what? Ask questions.

I'm sure on your website, asking questions is one of, in fact, isn't that the whole thing you do? If I'm not mistaken, you've got cards. What's the name of that site? Yeah, things things you say It's all about asking questions and hearing from people. In fact, that's a big thing in apologetics.

When someone has a position, instead of answering their position, ask them why. Ask them to show me why your position is your position. But what should our posture be? Rather than being quick to speak and slow to listen, our posture is quick to hear and quick to listen. This is not our immediate inclination.

Proverbs 10.19 says, when words are many, transgression is not lacking. But whoever restrains his lips is prudent. Isn't that a neat way to say, be quiet? I mean, how else are you going to have a discussion without many words, but that's not what the proverb is saying Says lots of blabbering is really what it's saying without listening That's not that's not prudent the One who restrains his lips is prudent. Prudent being wise.

Listening requires a willingness to learn, a humility that says I need to learn, a willingness to be humble and say I don't know what I thought I knew. And even that process is almost a moment by moment learning process sometimes. And we need to ask questions first and shoot later. And often times we come to shoot first and ask questions later. Because I've got something to tell these people.

Emotions really get in the way of that process. I know that in my home with my lovely wife, if emotions take center stage, we're done. It's very hard to get past that so that I can learn to love my wife well. It's very hard. And I've had to learn, in fact, I was telling Miss Alice this morning that sometimes I'm just a big dope.

And I'm not listening to my wife and I don't hear her words. I'm not hearing, I'm projecting life from man position and I'm not hearing female position and what how she thinks and how she perceives things and So I have to learn to slow down and listen to my wife and every once in a while I get that epiphany and I go That's what she's saying and I haven't been I haven't been listening and you know when I don't listen to my wife in that context, I'm usually, even though I don't think I'm being that way, oftentimes I can be mean and unloving and unkind. And so I seek and strive in my personal journey to quench my emotions to get them under control to listen and that is that is nothing more than a process and you will fail many times But it is by faith we are intentionally moving forward and saying we're back at it we have another conversation until we get it right because I love you so much that I'm going to give it another try and try to get it straight, and forgive me along the process. Now, interestingly enough, I've been talking in horizontal relationships here, but this is the same process with the most important being in our lives, and that's Christ.

We can, if we're not careful, in fact, not if we're not careful, we're frequently not careful, we do the same thing with the Lord, and we don't listen to him and we tell him. That's where that comes from, I had plans and the Lord laughed. Because we're not listening. God is speaking into our lives with His word. Politics is not the answer.

Mechanisms are not the answer. His word speaking into our lives, setting us astray. Setting us, you know when a guitar has to be straightened so that it plays smooth and right to the note, they call it being trued. You have to true the neck of a guitar so that it will play right, so that all the tones will be right. And God is speaking wisdom into our lives through His Word so that we get lined up true.

Because when you get lined up, and by the way, that's the point, Conversations are not about you straightening out the rest of the world. Conversations are about the Lord straightening out you. So that you can be a mechanism to glorify the Lord, and to speak wisely, and to speak truth into the conversation well. Because we all talk, it's whether we talk well. We all think, it's whether or not we think well we all behave it's whether or not we behave well and And you know we all know this I'm not here to make you better If we're If we're in every conversation and circumstance, think we're here to make everybody better, then that means we've arrived and we're not gonna grow, and that's a problem.

And that's not humility. Anger and emotions prohibit clear and objective thinking. It cost Moses the promised land. We all remember Numbers 20, verse 11, and Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank and their livestock. Why did Moses strike the rock?

God said speak to the rock, but Moses and his frustration and his anger struck the rock. His anger prohibited the process, and it cost him something. Sometimes we act in emotions and it costs. And sometimes it takes a long time to repair things that come out from ungodly emotion. And we're all guilty of it.

We've all done it once or twice. When I'm at Peter's house, I don't see that very often. I see Peter to be a very stable and not emotional guy. So I asked my wife, I said, what does it look like if Peter's house has a disagreement? I just can't see the toe malt.

But I'm sure it happens in his life too. It says in verse 20, For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Verse 21, Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness. We receive with meekness in the process of clearing away the clutter, The implanted word, that is the gospel, that is the truth of the word of God, which is able to save your souls. So meekness.

Humbly, patient, or docile. As under provocation from God's Word due to our own sin. That's my addendum to that definition. God's Word provokes us. It stirs us.

It's what challenges us. It's what we face in the mirror. And so with meekness and humility, we must receive God's word. In my own life experience, and particularly in the last 10 or 11 years, we stumbled into a church that had certain doctrinal necessities that I needed to have to be in a church. And I was kind of new to Presbyterianism and new to this whole system of polity and just all kinds of things.

In this church had had had some areas to be that it needed to move and grow, but it had one. I remember asking the pastor, do you allow female elders? He said no, and I went, all right, that's a good start. And so I joined that church and brought my family, but it had a lot of room to grow. It was very seeker-friendly at the time.

The new pastor was bringing us into a more orthodox direction. But in the midst of that process, I was very, very on a different page with a lot of people there. And I had no choice but to be there because that's what God had planted in me. So what am I gonna do with all this friction and all this disagreement and all that? What am I gonna do with that?

And the hard road of that lesson that I had to learn and my motto that I've adopted is be patient, loving, and kind. And that little setting in my home church was a microcosm, really, of what we all go through every day. What are you going to do with your circumstances when they're presented to you? Are you going to make them go away? If it weren't for all these people in the world, I'd be just fine.

If it weren't for that Lord pushing me around and not giving me all the money I think I need to be happy or a better house to be happy or a better circumstance then everything would be just fine. But for some curious reason our circumstances are not lining up with our ideals and this is where the rub this is the rub And God is teaching us to be patient, loving and kind. You know, I wrote in my notes, that's a horizontal relationship I'm speaking of, but I wonder if God's not wanting to us to be patient loving kind to him, too That comes in the form of praise thankfulness humility I Mean just imagine if we didn't mumble and complain in our circumstances just just imagine I think that's like a sweet aroma to the Lord, I really do. I think that he appreciates that a lot. It's funny to talk about the Lord in that way, but the Lord is a person.

The Bible says to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself and the royal law in The Sermon on the Mount Jesus says this is this is the this is all the law and the prophets to love your neighbor as yourself The Lord is your neighbor Now he's more than your neighbor, but he's certainly your neighbor. And I think he wants to be treated kindly too. Thankfully, he's bigger and he's more capable and he has a parental demeanor towards us and he is condescending to us and teaching us to be patient, it's just like your own children. You want your children to treat you with kindness and patience as you teach them not to fight with each other. So let us keep in mind that these Relationships are not just horizontal.

How can a man love God if he does not love his neighbor? Man says he loves the Lord and does not love his neighbor. He lies and he sins First John When so I don't want to flip too far ahead. Sure, okay, so, verses James 1, 22, 25. I would say that first section we just covered, we could call that listen.

That would be point one in our little alliteration. Listen. And the second point of our alliteration here that helps us have mental hooks, point two would be learn. So we don't just listen just to be good boys and girls and now can we go out to play? We listen so that we can learn.

James 1.20-25 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 who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror for he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he is like but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts he will be blessed in his doing." So verse 22, when we only hear and do not do, The scripture says we deceive ourselves. Now that's easy to read and get it logically, but let's place ourselves in what that looks like to live it through. So when we hear only and don't do, we deceive ourselves. Well, how would that be?

Well, because you're hearing today. You came to church, you did a good job, you listened. And So the deception is when you're not doing you think you've done because you did you came and listened and you thought that was enough Now this isn't just I mean that seems so simple why explain it, But the Scripture says you deceive yourself. So it must not be that simple. It must be really easy to deceive ourselves with thinking that we just listen, But we don't really do that we've done enough.

That we've fulfilled what God is trying to do when He speaks into our lives. We believe the lie that if we just hang around the church hearing the Word, that we're growing. We believe that if we just memorize God's Word, that if we just catechize well, that we've completed the process, that we're growing. Now those are all necessary steps for growth. Eating food is necessary to grow.

Hearing your parents' commands is necessary to grow. But once you eat the food and hear the command, what do you do with it? You have to go do. You have to actually do something. That's how little ministries start in the church.

The scripture says that pastors and leaders and elders are given to equip the church for the ministry. We're not here to do the ministry, we're here to equip you to do the ministry. And in the process, we're doing the ministry. But if it's only just so that we can be circular in our process, then we're missing something. That seems very common sense, like, you really?

I had to come here and hear that? That's kind of common. But the Bible says we deceive ourselves when we don't do it. Now, I don't think that the Holy Spirit tells us we deceive ourselves because we don't. I think he's telling us, you know, when you do that, you deceive yourself.

And so we have to stop and look and listen and say, who are we? It says, but we never really acquire the experience of doing that the hearing actually teaches us. A picture or experiential knowledge is how we actually grow in Christ and become more like him. So when we say to someone love one another we have to see what that looks like and so we have a picture in the Bible his name is Jesus Christ and he fulfilled the law so we want to know what it looks like we have a picture and so it's insufficient just to hear We have to do so that also part of the process is so that people can see what it looks like. It is a binary, it is a complementary relationship, hearing and doing.

It says in verse 25, but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres. Joshua 1, 8, This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth But you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success You will not have good success until you do. Don't think that all the, in fact I was sharing with Peter and Ed Donaldson last week, that family devotions is critical. It's a necessary part of your family growth. But if it doesn't play out in the morning and as along the path and at night, then you're not doing.

And all the family devotions at that point is going to suffer. Because what your children are looking at, what the world looks at is, what is your conversation? What is your speech? What is your doing? What does it say about who you are?

That's part of the conversation. Hebrews 5, 14 in the ESV says, But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. You can't even discern good from evil unless you do. Romans 12, lay down your lives as living sacrifices. Lay down your bodies as living sacrifices so that you may know what the perfect will of God is.

You can't even discern the next step until you do the first step. That same Scripture in the King James, which I love the wording is, but Strong meat belongeth to them that are full of age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. It is in the doing that we actually learn. Scripture says that you will be blessed in what you do. So we have to listen and then we have to learn.

We do so by reading the Word of God, by letting it examine our lives and looking straight into the law of liberty, which James really expands in chapter 2. It's a great text. You won't hear that next week because I won't be here next week. But it's wonderful to watch how James see we think that when James is talking about the sin of partiality That's the point of that chapter, but that's really not that's the occasion At which the law of liberty gets to be exercised, and that's the royal law, which is several verses down. But once again, if you go to the chapter heading, it will say sin of partiality.

It won't say the royal law. And you will miss the weight in the emphasis there. And so when we look into God's Word, the law of liberty and persevere in it, that is the law of grace. That's where we actually learn. So What does it look like when we're listening and we're learning?

And that's what the last part of this text is telling us. Verse 26, it says, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. So the title of this message is pure religion, which is really just meant to be a catchy title. Because in Christian circles we say Jesus is a relationship not a religion and Yet James uses the word religion that's always struck me every time I read the book of James I said well look at that. I guess it is a religion not just a relationship Although it is a relationship and much more which produces a religion.

One definition of religion that works is something one believes in and follows devotedly, a point of matter or ethics or conscience. So when James says if anyone thinks he's religious the idea here in a colloquialism is talk is cheap If anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart So how do you deceive your heart? Your unbridled tongue is doing this. But your doing, see this is not unrelated to doing. Hearing and doing.

That's pure religion. Hearing alone is not pure religion. Doing alone is not pure religion without hearing. If you're doing and you're not listening, you're beating people up and shooting people first and taking questions later. If you're hearing only and you're not doing, you're stagnating and becoming a legalist because you're so proud of all the listening you do After all I have the best home school in town, and I'm good listener and my kids are catechized well But if it's never getting past that point You're like salt What good are you if you're salt who's lost your saltiness?

So these two things are tied together. That's what makes pure religion pure The idea is that talk is cheap and we deceive ourselves if we are all talk and no action. It is hypocrisy. And we're all guilty of hypocrisy. This is why we all have to grow.

There's no condemnation here today when I say, that's hypocrisy. We all find ourselves in that, You know, there's no perfect church and when you show up, if there is, you'll ruin it. And we start to believe our own press. We start to believe ourselves when we think we're doing great. That's how we deceive ourselves.

So James twice is warning us, don't deceive yourself, thinking that these two things uncoupled together is what we're looking for. Not coupled together is what we're looking for. What we're looking for is the hearing and doing to be together and it starts with listening to what God is telling us to do. In half of that process, there's simply the posture of learning to listen. As James already said, be slow to speak.

Let your walk do the talking. Let your walking do the talking. We've all heard these. These are all simple little proverbial statements in our culture that we whisk by that James is telling us to slow down and take note of. In fact, it's so important.

Chapter 1, by the way, sets the stage for the rest of the book. Like any good sermon, there's an introduction. It has all the meat that needs to be teased out for the rest of the book. This is really important that we get off to a good start here as we read through the book of James. It says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this.

Now what I want to highlight to is before God the Father. Not before men. Matthew 23, 1-13. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you, but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Christ is very concerned in the Sermon on the Mount about doing and hearing, being together. They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift the finger to move them. Everything they do is done for people to see. That is not Imago Dei. That is not before God.

That is before people. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and they most important seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called rabbi by others. So when you're doing, when you're speaking and not doing, you know what we call that in modern vernacular?

That's virtue signaling. That's what you're doing, your virtue signaling. You're telling Everybody, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is the right thing. But there's no real doing associated with it. And the doing, by the way, I'm not trying to qualify what that looks like.

I'm not telling anybody to run out and start a ministry. It starts in the little things in your life, The very little things. It's the little foxes that spoil the vine, right? But you are not called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are called brothers, and do not call anyone our father, for you have one father, and He is in heaven. Nor are you called instructors if you have one instructor.

Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees you hypocrites you shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces you yourselves do not enter, nor will you enter, who are trying to. So, if I was to say what does pure religion look like? So James here, he says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and keep oneself unstained from the world. There's no pizzazz to that. That's not what I call a glory ministry.

There's no glory ministry, and I just keep focusing over here on the left side of the room. There's no glory ministry to putting questions online and being berated by people who hate you. That's not very glorious. There's no glory ministry in trying to protect unborn children. Most people, I say most people, in the church world, there are people that love to be seen.

They want that ministry that's up front or that looks important. And James is drawing our attention to it. You know what pure religion looks like it looks like remaining unstained from the world Which is really unseen by a lot of people that's really just a you and a very tight circle and then to visit orphans and widows. Nobody sees that. You're not getting a lot of fanfare for doing that, okay?

That's the humble day to day bringing someone a meal, checking in on someone, visiting orphans. Here's another one, visiting people in prison. Not something everybody just thinks about right off the bat. I used to do that years and years ago when I was in Bible college and visited in prison ministry these are not ministries that that are attractive see I read about the Pharisees because they're doing all the things everyone sees their virtue signaling they look pious but they're not really doing They're doing the letter of the law, the scripture says, but not the spirit of the law. So what does it look like, pure and undefiled religion?

Well, it looks like quick to listen. It looks like so to slow to speak. Slow to anger. It's about sanctification, being unstained from the world. It's meekness.

Notice none of these things are stand out, up front, go raise money off of this ministry kind of thing. These are very day to day practices that we live. It's not hearing by faith alone, but doing. Pure religion studies the Word of God. Pure religion perseveres in the truth.

Pure religion is lived before God in the Imago Dei and not before men. So that you can live before men for the glory of God. If life is a conversation, what is your life saying? Are we quick to listen and slow to speak, listening to the voice of God, not angrily kicking against the word of God and the providence of God that is at work in our lives? Are we modeling the meekness necessary that receives the implanted word of God?

And finally, are we demonstrating pure religion that humbly embraces not just the letter of the law, but the spare of the law? You know, pure religion is not limited to, James didn't give us pure religion is visiting Widows and orphans because it is limited to that or because it is it is the acme point of pure religion He gives us that Really as a starting point that says pure religion demonstrates itself in loving one another in humility and kindness and then so much more Because really God will determine what you do in this life, but he does so with vessels that he is sanctifying as we submit to that process. I pray today that we become good listeners, that we learn to engage in the conversation of life well, that our lives would speak well as we listen to our Heavenly Father well in humility and in meekness as we become doers and not listeners only. Let us pray. Thank you Father for your word.

I pray that you indeed would implant it deep in our hearts That we would learn to have a posture of humility and meekness and kindness and love towards one another to slow down to listen to you and not come with our own presuppositions and with our own ideas of what right and wrong are but that we'd humble ourselves and we would listen to our brothers and sisters and seek to minister them in love and not try to just Win every discussion with what we know I pray Lord that we would learn to be doers Not here is only that we may indeed practice pure religion in Jesus name amen