Supernatural Or Superficial

Illus: Years ago, Dr. Odell Belger, pastor of Lykesland First Baptist Church in Columbia, SC, went into a restaurant to get a cup of coffee. This particular restaurant had a lunchroom and a counter that you could sit at to eat your meal. He saw a man that he knew sitting at the counter, the seat beside him was empty, so he sat beside him and they started talking. One of the waitresses who knew him came up to where he was and said to him, “Did you hear about that girl last night that was carried out into the woods and brutally raped and killed?” He said, “No, I hadn’t heard about that!” He said, “I sure hope they catch that individual and make him pay dearly for what he did.” The next day in the paper, they announced they had caught the fellow who did this horrendous thing. It was the same man that Dr. Belger was sitting with at the lunch counter when the waitress told him about this evil act.

When we go into the busy streets, places of business, and large sport stadiums we never know who we might be rubbing elbows with.

Even when you come to church we never know who may be among us.

Illus: Years ago Dr. Henry Ward Beecher kept getting anonymous letters sent to him that were somewhat disturbing. On one occasion he went to his office and found a letter slipped under his office door. He opened it, and in the center of the page it had one word written on it. It was the word “Fool!” In the next service, he told the congregation what he had received. He knew that the person was probably in the congregation. He said, “I have known many an instance of a man writing a letter and forgetting to sign his name, but this is the only instance I have ever known of a man signing his name, and forgetting to write the letter.”

When we come into a crowd, we never know the different kinds of people that might be among us. But when you come into a church service, basically there are only two kinds of people among us.

Let’s look at those two groups he talks about. There are those who have:

I. A SUPERFICIAL RELIGION

Look at verse 26. We read, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father IS THIS, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

WHO HAS SUPERFICIAL RELIGION? James tells us by speaking of a PURE RELIGION that is UNDEFILED.

Notice, when he spoke of a PURE RELIGION he does not give us any room to wonder what that may be. He said, it “Is this” and then he goes on to tell us two things about what pure religion is. It is:

• To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction

• To keep himself unspotted from the world

Now we can assume from these two things that a PURE RELIGION consist of:

• First, caring about those who are in need (Widows and Orphans especially)

• Secondly, caring about living a righteous life

Now if a person does not have these two concerns in their life, it is probably because they do not have a PURE RELIGION THAT IS UNDEFILED!

Illus: An old saying goes like this, "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, waddles like a duck, it must be a duck."

However, this is not true when it comes to Christianity. There are people who LOOK LIKE, "WADDLE" LIKE, and "QUACK" LIKE Christians, but they aren't.

James deals with this SUPERFICIAL RELIGION in a more specific way. Look at James 1:26, we read, "If any man among you SEEM TO BE RELIGIOUS… this man's religion is vain."

James makes it clear that a person can claim anything they want to claim, but if their ACTIONS do not support their claims they have a WORTHLESS PROFESSION.

Illus: People with this SUPERFICIAL RELIGION may be able to act as well as John Wayne. But we must remember, John Wayne was such a good actor, that he would actually make you think he was a cowboy, when in reality he was not.

There are those who SEEM to be religious, to the point that they make you think they are Christians, but they are not! It is only a show! They have a SUPERFICIAL religion that is as phony as an eleven-dollar bill.

You would never know that by looking at their lives. For example, many of the liberal churches and the Hollywood crowd in this nation are like this.

The reason they care about the social needs of people is not because they have a love for these people, but it is something they can do that SEEMS TO APPEAR RELIGIOUS.