A Priceless or Pointless religion! (Part 1)
James 1:21-27
Introduction
Calvin Coolidge attended church alone because of the sickness of Mrs. Coolidge. When he arrived back home he went up to his wife’s room to see how she was feeling. She promptly reassured him she was doing fine, and asked him if he had enjoyed the sermon. He replied in weakly, “It was good.” “What was it about?” she continued. “Sin.” “What did the minister say?” “He was against it.” I hope you will go away this morning with more than that. Going through my notes I couldn’t get away from the first verse.
James 1:21 Tells us more than living against sin, it communicates more than sin is wrong. It communicates that when we come to a place to receive the word if we want it to stick we have to do something with our sin. The strategy of this message and these passages is to get you to move from a worthless, useless and pointless religion to one that is priceless. Is yours useless or useful? Is it full of pride or full of power?
The Lord speaks to us through James and shows us the important things we should be aware of to keep us from a hypocritical religion. Three important factors are pointed to in this text, the first one this morning…
I. It is important to implant the Word of God in us (Verse 21)
a) Lay aside the filthiness (verse 21)
i) I get the Feeling that there is an order here that we need to pay attention to. That perhaps there is a need for an altar call before the message.
ii) My desire is to give you the Word and have that Word implanted in your souls. But the first step is to lay aside all filthiness.
iii) When we come in to hear the Word are we sincerely ready to hear the Word. Are we coming in ready to lay aside all the filthiness or have we already come prepared and done that?
iv) If not I truly believe you will have static in your reception. James says to lay aside all filthiness, but which sin is filthy? All of them.
v) James says to lay aside too the overflow of wickedness.
vi) If I have a glass and give to somebody else and I start pouring the water in from a pitcher and yet do not stop what is happening? It is getting all over them and all over the floor and it is creating a big mess.
vii) That is what an overflow of our wickedness does. It affects others and the surroundings. We may have poured out so much that it has soaked others. In contrast what should we be pouring out? The Spirit.
viii) Overflowing with wickedness does not save your soul and it does not save others.
ix) John Wymer asked me to pray for him that he would be continually walking in the spirit. I thought Amen and that should be all our prayers.
x) Meekness is humility. Unless you deal with the filthiness and wickedness that is in you, then you can only receive the Word with false humility and trying to implant the Word into someone who has false humility is like transplanting a live pumping heart into a crash test dummy.
xi) Not only will it not affect the dummy in any way, but the heart will eventually die because it cannot be fed. And so too with the Word.
xii) The action that James is telling us is getting rid of these things like we would strip off dirty clothes, which seems right with scripture for in…
xiii) Isa. 64:6 it says; But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags filthy rags—literally, a “menstruous rag” (Le 15:33; 20:18)
xiv) Which is something we tend not to take off. We keep wearing the same garment defiling ourselves and living in our own waste.
xv) That may be disgusting, but think of how God views it…
xvi) We should start here so that the Word will live in us will not be corrupted in anyway and allow the implantation of the Word to take place.
xvii) Like a surgeon getting ready and prepping us for surgery, everything has to be sterilized and ready for the implantation
xviii) We are to lay aside ALL filthiness. Christians are so coddling about a persons sin. We are afraid to make frank and bold statements like the ones Jesus and John made “repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand”
xix) To put it easier “Change, Jesus is coming!” Jesus told people to change.
xx) He told an adulterous woman to go and sin no more. Don’t do that anymore (John 8)
xxi) He told a crippled man “go and sin no more” Change. (John 5)
xxii) Jesus told a rich young man who hadn’t quite changed everything, to change everything. (Mark 10:21)
xxiii) But he had that one thing. There is always that one thing we don’t want to change and it is the one thing that keeps us from indulging fully into God. We don’t want to be convicted on that one thing. (Earring illustration “gotta do something”)
xxiv) No I don’t gotta do something we have been called to holiness, a word fast escaping the mouth of the church. So we don’t offend people.
xxv) But God called us to “be Holy for I am holy” He said. (1 Peter 1:16)
xxvi) This rich young ruler couldn’t break away from his money and he broke the very first commandment with that “You shall have no other gods before me” and he chose the god of mammon over Christ.
xxvii) This is the one thing that kept him from 3 things:
(1) Establishing His rewards in Heaven
(2) Knowing Jesus through suffering and abandoning his carnal desires
(3) Following Jesus which means he would be left out of being a disciple and disciples were receiving the implanted word and the life giving nutrients from the Vine Himself.
xxviii) The most important thing we do in this place on Sunday morning is receive the Word of God and if there is not humility then there cannot be conviction. If there is no conviction there cannot be change. And if there is no change than what are we doing here anyway?
xxix) If we have not the implanted the Word in us then 1 John 1:8-10 says the truth is not in us... and the Word is not in you.
xxx) Every person in the media every news person Hollywood elitist can quote one verse from the Bible… Matt 7:1… Why are we so convinced that we have to walk around with a plank in our eye?
xxxi) We have been set as watchmen Exekiel 3:17-21
b) Implant the Word (verse 21)
i) No matter if you plant the seed or a seed is being planted in you the soil must be good loam… good soil. Russia has rich dirt and no one to cultivate it.
ii) What is your soil like when it comes to the word of God?
iii) James says receive the word with meekness that is humility and he says that it should be implanted, not just merely laying on the surface but implanted.
iv) We have an awful lot of surface Christians who know how to have a surface religion, but at any given moment in their life the enemy can come and peck away at them like the birds in Mark 4:1-9 & 13-20.
v) It is this word that is implanted in good soil and not choked out by other interests and desires. Not pecked away by the devil and not scorched by anger and trials because of the hardness of your heart, but that good humble soft soil that the word can be implanted.
vi) To plant something is to put a living or non-living thing in something that may not be living.
vii) But to implant something it is to put one living thing into another living thing. Like an organ is implanted or even transplanted into someone. You are to take the Living Word and thus make it live in you.
c) It is able to save you (verse 21)
i) It is the only thing that will save you. If you were told you needed to have a heart transplant you would want a heart that is living not one that is dead.
ii) For it is the living heart that will save you once it is implanted
iii) That is what we are here to do save people. Save them from what?
iv) A very real judgement that is coming upon all men and women.
v) Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your soul.
Conclusion
Challenge is this repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand
