Books of James & Jude - Looking to God's word and religion - James 1:25-27

All right, so we're finishing James 1. And remember, as we study James, we have to put this on a foundation of Pauline truth. I think James studied in isolation is a bit misleading and misdirecting, but that doesn't mean the word of truth isn't also here. We just have to put it in perspective.

So I think getting into the last three verses, which is 25 to 27, entitled Looking to God's Word and Religion, Let's begin with James 1.17 and read down through the end of the chapter. Someone read for me please.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will beget he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and deceive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religious is vain. 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. This one will be blessed in what he does. Okay, sounds kind of work oriented.

Let's take a look at this. What's it mean to look into the perfect law of liberty and continue in it? What's your perception of that? Law of liberty, that's almost like an oxymoron, isn't it? Okay. Ingrid, I'm sorry. Just staying in the word, mine says the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this. Okay.

Well, in Christ himself, the perfect one, and so if we're in in Christ, we're in the perfect law of liberty. He is the perfect. Back to Paul. If you're not founded in Paul, taking James on is a bit difficult. In a sense, law of liberty is an oxymoron. We think of legal principles and then we think of freedom. Law doesn't declare freedom. It demands obedience. We've got to put this in perspective.

Look, as best translated here, is to look carefully unto, inspecting curiously, and more importantly, looking down at intently. And the good cross-reference here is in John 25 and 11. That's the tomb. Remember Mary went to the tomb and she looked into the tomb? That's the term here that's being used.

Not like looking in the mirror and seeing our image being reflectant of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a different kind of look. This is kind of looking down and inspecting very carefully. So it says, You know, look into the perfect law of liberty. It's kind of studying it and understanding it and perceiving it, looking, if you will, looking down at it.

Because where's our position? Our position is in heavenly places, right? Looking down into the law of liberty is kind of positioned above and looking down conditionally as to who we are and what rights we have as a believer. The perfect law of liberty, and I've defined this, this is my kind of definition of this, anything completed, perfect means complete, anything completed and approved by God, and that provides us with freedom. I struggle with that too. The question is, what's the perfect law of liberty?

Thanks Margaret. I think it's just so neat. If you think about grace and God's word, which tells us about grace. I mean, it is like an oxymoron, but his word is free, and it's perfect, and it's liberty. Margaret mentioned that. So I think it's got to be God's word, and there's actually freedom there. If you focus on the Old Testament law, if you bring in You've got a problem there because that's not freedom at all.

That's bondage. We know that from hundreds of verses that talk about how the law killeth, but the Spirit gives life. It's got to be focused on the wonderful truths that we know from Scripture that are freeing. What does Paul call the law in Galatians? He calls it a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

The law was never meant to be kept. It was meant to convict. This law of liberty, by the way, just on the side here, your handout is not bold here. Whatever is going on in this computer, I'm not quite sure I understand. But anyway, bear with me, I think the words will all be the same.

All right, so it essentially means being in Christ, is what the perfect law of liberty is. Because Christ gives us that freedom. Romans 8, for the law of the spirit of life, And Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. What a beautiful verse to compliment this one, Romans 8.

And John 8.36, Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I don't know why that didn't get kept. So there it is, free indeed. So the freedom we have, what does the freedom mean? As we're in Christ and have this law of liberty and freedom, how do we translate that into the day-to-day experiences?

Galatians 5.1, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which, oops my bad, stand free as made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. And I'm saying how is this freedom translated into our day-to-day lives? religion in that aspect, any other religion, they're not free in what they do. They're bound to whatever, you know, certain like rituals and traditions that they have to follow or want to follow or desire to follow because in their mind they think it's what they they have to do to appease whoever it is they're trying to please. And us, we don't have to please God. We want to please Him out of love, wanting to do His good works, but it's not for the purpose of anything we have to merit.

And we're already pleased because of our Savior. That's right. He's fully pleased. I know. God is totally pleased with the Son. I like the liberty as it relates to our day-to-day lives. It's a liberty to live life without sin. First of all, sin's been paid for. And by the way, don't forget this important truth. It's not only that sin has been paid for, but the source of sin has been crucified. So God doesn't see us in any other person but the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing we can do to please God. So the law of liberty is that we have the freedom to live a life without sin.

Now we fall short at times. In fact, sometimes we think we fall short too often. But that's because we put ourselves under law. I mean, when we're lifted up and encouraged by the truth of what the law of liberty is in each one of our lives, this really plays out in our day to day existence.

Again, the old man's still there. But God says, I crucified Adam, so why are you continuing to depend on him? So the freedom, the law of liberty that we're looking at, it's perfect. It's completed and it's done. And it's a life. It's being in Christ. Alright, good discussion. Continue. Remain. Beside. I like the term abide. The Lord Jesus Christ said frequently in the Gospel, abide in me and my life will abide in you. It's kind of like the tree, the root, the branch, the leaves, etc. in terms of abiding in Christ. And that fruit will be made available as we do that. And it says also, Norris, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work.

Now we've got to partition this a bit here. Forgetful, it's the only New Testament use with the word forgetful. Here, that's already been addressed in James 1, 22 and 25. That's been covered the last couple of weeks. And Margaret read that this morning, so we could go back and read it again. being a hearer is something we need to be. Adam is not a very good listener or hearer at times, but in the Lord Jesus Christ we are to be restful and listening to what the Lord has to say to us. didn't come across quite like I wanted, but anyway, there's no modifier, there's no adjective before work. It's doer of work.

So that gets us out of this idea of other than Romans 2.13 and Acts 17.28, all other uses of being a doer are in James and all but one of these is in this passage we're reading. So this kind of doing is really kind of not what most of scripture is about, but here we can't ignore this. Doer of work. Now doer of work is interpreted quite differently than doer of the work.

Because everybody is praying for God's will. What is the work you want me to do, right? Kind of like this shopping list that we have in terms of things that the Lord would have for us. Romans 2.13 says, For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified. How many doers of the law are justified? None, right? The law doesn't justify it. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So the law again was not there to be done, although Israel had that demand. But remember, Israel fell short constantly.

That was the annual sacrifice of the high priest to meet the needs of the believing Jew that ultimately he or she fell short. and that the sacrifice on an annual basis took care of this, at least in terms of the atonement as we understand it in the Old Testament.

What is the work and the italics there? An act, deed, or thing done? Well, if we think of the work and identify it as a singular term, perhaps, yeah, it's an act, a deed, or a thing done. But what was the source of the work? Or again, the work is probably not appropriately translated.

You're looking ahead here, how is it measured? In a manner, if you're listing the works you're going to do, you're doing or you're going to do, This is law, not grace. If we constantly have this list of things that we need to be doing, we are under a legal principle. That doesn't mean that the Lord doesn't look to us by faith to respond to who we are in Christ and allow work, the doing of work, meaning good deeds, is not a part of the believer's life. What's kind of neat is in Ephesians there it says he's prepared beforehand. the works. So it's just so counter-intuitive to what the natural man thinks. God has the works that were to do. He's prepared them beforehand.

And he asks us by faith to walk in those works. So we are doing works, but they're his works and not our works. And it's his list and not our list. And oh, by the way, he's giving us the ability to do the work. Exactly. And then he gives us kind of merit for doing the works. He gave us the ability to do the works and then he gives us credit for doing them. Boy, that's the best class you've ever given, right? Isn't that the truth? It's like, wow!

So contrary to what human nature in the world. And that's what you want to get away from. Thinking that any way we can do any work at all. That's totally... contrary to the Christian life. I think the beginning of a new life and understanding who we are in Christ is ultimately carried out through being frustrated and despondent with your own efforts falling short. That's kind of the beginning of seeing that Christianity is not paying God back for his great love and price. I mean we fall short. Ultimately, identification is where the Christian life really begins.

I think, again, before you study James, you've got to be founded in Paul. Paul's got a lot more to tell us before you get to James that also puts James into perspective. Well, that was one thing that Jim did pretty good last week. He went through and he found as many doing verses as we could. There's some in 1 John, we came across those before.

So there are doing verses. You always have to be careful when you enter into those doing verses. Who's doing the doing? If it's not Christ in you, then it's not the Christian life. And by the way, this is something you should be constantly examining. I think, go back up there. How is it measured? How do we measure being a doer of work? Let the Lord measure that. Live the life by faith and let him be seen through you and in you.

And we're told we're going to be blessed by what we do. Will be is future indicative. That means it's going to happen and it's factual. So even though we may not be able to put a gold star up on the chart to say how well we've done, which is not really an act of the Lord Jesus Christ led by the Spirit, it's an act of the flesh, ultimately the Lord will see that and reward us in that work. And that's not what we work for. But that is occurring in a spiritual manner that's not really reflected by red ribbons and gold ribbons.

Blessed is a term so frequently used, and I think perhaps abused. I eventually get tired of hearing blessed. I'm so blessed. It's a good term. It takes me to Beatitudes, and blessed is the he who is meek, or he shall inherit the earth. I always like to say, when I hear somebody say that, we're already blessed. You don't have to bless me. What does it mean to be blessed?

I have a tough time with people that sneeze. I'm sorry. My soapbox here. In the office, every place, someone bless you, bless you. Lord, I'm already blessed. And unbelievers are blessing me. Unbelievers are blessing me. I say, Lord, help. You know, if you look up, it's translated blessed most of the time, but it's also happy. Happy is the believer when he does good works.

I don't know. I just don't care a whole lot for that. So I was going to say, just like Roger did, aren't we already blessed with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places? I mean, we're eternally blessed. So we do a good work and we get blessed. I mean, even though it says we're blessed in the work, ultimately we're eternally blessed. And if the source is the Lord Jesus Christ, We're already blessed. Especially when he prepared the works ahead of time for us. So we were already blessed to receive the pre-chosen works. And then again, he enables us to do the work. So yeah, we're already blessed.

That's one of the hardest things really. As we walk in the Christian life, to really have that in our mind and our heart, to really think that. We get wrapped up in the world and it's hard and it's difficult, even though we know it's true. The earthly system puts a measure on everything, doesn't it?

And so this is not what we're talking about here. And here the blessing comes in the doing, not the deed. So the blessing is the doing and the source of the doing, I think. And again, we don't really personally realize that blessing, nor do we need to. The Lord is glorified if in fact the new nature of it in fact brings it across. Who knows? Again, there's something that's happening on the computer.

This is verse 26 now. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. What's this being religious? Today is Palm Sunday, right? So, I don't know, I grew up in a mainline church and there was no personal gospel there at all, I can assure you. Or I missed it. I didn't get saved until I was 30. So, in a sense, there was no impact at all other than playing basketball and softball on the church team. So, what's this being religious? Well, Thayer says it's fearing or worshipping God. Thayer's not always right, but that's the way he translates being religious. But then I like Merriam-Webster. Let's get out of this Greek philosopher, if you will. Some people question whether Thayer was saved or not. But anyway, all that aside, he's a Greek guy.

So Merriam-Webster says it's faithful devotion to an ultimate deity, reality, or belief. And I think in terms of the current use of the term, probably fits it better. And he also gives a Merriam-Webster dictionary also that says it could be fervent or zealous. So being religious is onto something that we believe strongly in.

Well, we've had a real view at that with the new Pope and all of the tradition and the liturgy and all the stuff that's been going on, the pageantry, I guess it's really pageantry that's been going on. That's religious. And the world thinks that the Pope represents all Christians. It's a scary thought.

Palm Sunday has a tradition to it, it has religiosity to it. There's nothing wrong with Palm Sunday. The Lord entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and there's a lot of scripture on it. We can look at that and put it into perspective. Some churches do a big deal over that.

It's more tradition than it is really reflecting what Palm Sunday really is. The Word of God doesn't tell us to celebrate Palm Sunday. That's maybe an example of religiosity. I think mostly religious reflects outward forms of worship. In a sense, Palm Sunday is an example of an outward form. I'm not judging the heart. I mean, some people really probably are saved to look at Palm Sunday as a very special day. It's not up to me to make that decision.

But religious does reflect outward worship of some sort to a deity, a belief, or some reality, typically zealous. Atheists are religious. They're very fervent about their Non-belief in God. Anything can be a religion. Football can be a religion. Oh, really? Basketball can be a religion.

I'm out for you. Okay. All right, now bridling his tongue, I don't know, it seems like kind of Hawthorne or something, Shakespeare. Okay, bridle, to guide, to hold and check or restrain. It doesn't say not to speak, it just puts the tongue under some sort of control, right?

Some of us have problems with that at times. In a sense, this is preparing us for James 3, 2, and 3, which deals a lot with the tongue, being a real true enemy, at least it can be in the life of a believer. We'll come to that probably in three or four months. Back to the point we made about ten minutes ago. Who's in control here anyway?

If you think of the tongue, bridling the tongue, it makes me think of this whole issue, are we responding or reacting? Being reactionary means something confronts us, we immediately react to it, rather than taking a step back and responding. So I think bridling the tongue is a good example of that. I think we're all put in a position of being defensive at times. Somebody confronts us with something, feel is critical of our performance or what we did or didn't do, and we tend to respond to that, and that's Adam showing up, right? That's reactionary, that's what we may say we regret. I don't know if you've ever been in that situation. I mean, when I've responded in the flesh, in the reactionary manner, that's something I regret later. And so responding is bridling the tongue and considering the circumstances and responding.

And we could put that now into email. Yeah, I mean email is a great place to... Roger into email, which is the same thing as the tongue. That's devastating. I've seen emails that just devastate people. Repeatedly in work. I have administrative responsibilities at my job and when I get a series of emails that are this back and forth kind of deal, boy, I call that on the table.

And by the way, the flesh is very capable of being reactionary. So I think bridling the tongue is bridling the keyboard too, although James didn't have that quite in mind there. So spirit versus flesh I think is what we're talking about. Bridling the tongue is really are we responding in that old nature, the sin nature, are we responding as part of the spirit. By the way, that may not make the facts change, it's just how we deal with them.

And I think, to God's glory, I think that being blessed is ultimately being responsive in the power of the Spirit and not reactionary in the power of the flesh. There's one thing I really love about Hal, and you guys have heard this, you know Hal Malloy, but he would say, I could win the argument many times, but did it really glorify God in winning that argument and making my point and nailing a person down? Does that really glorify God? Or bring Him to the Lord?

It may not. It may drive Him away. I don't remember myself a good indicator whether I'm walking in the spirit or walking in the flesh. Am I being responsive to something or am I being very... if I'm being reactionary. When I know I'm walking in the flesh, I'm a very prideful person. So if something crosses me, in a way, I will automatically react to it. yelling or screaming or saying something I didn't want to.

You would never do that. Let's ask your relatives. They might, don't ask them, no. But it's true, like, I mean, probably they even know that indicators, they see, like, oh, probably Denise is, you know, stressed or, you know, not walking in the spirit at this time because of the way I reacted in her response. But if I'm able to step back and respond in a way that's more calming or calm and stuff like it, I definitely feel like it's, like, me taking a step back to, like, be like, okay, like, Lord, take this.

But think of the old nature. The old nature is perfectly right in defending him or herself. The old man is all about me. It's not about the body. It's not about the unsaved world around us. It's about me only. And so the reactionary response, which we're all guilty of at times, is really of the flesh entirely. By the way, our relationship to the Lord is just the fellowship that's immediately broken. We reconfess and get back. in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the thing about the cross. The cross is final. Every sin for all time has been paid for.

Our sin nature has been crucified and we are seen as perfectly righteous before God. We still have this sin nature and we fall aside at times. confess it, and by the way, you may have to confess it to the person you've offended in your reactionary behavior, and there's nothing wrong with that. I think the world around us appreciates us falling short and admitting we've fallen short, but then that's an opportunity to share the gospel a little bit with them. I've fallen short, but the Lord sees me a little differently, and I know I made a mistake from your perspective, but don't question my salvation. It's sometimes an open door to actually allow you to share Lord Jesus Christ with people. And I've seen that several times in my own situation. That doesn't mean we should continue to fall short.

Anyway, in Philippians 1.11 I alluded to that. For me to live as Christ is the issue in terms of who is in control here anyway. Deceives his own heart. Deceive means to cheat or beguile. This is not an uncommon manifestation of the flesh, and we've got several verses there, but let's take a look at these.

So, Bonnie, could you look at 1 Corinthians 3.18 and 1 Corinthians 8.2 and Ingrid 14.37 and Roger Galatians 6.3. Let's just look at this word used elsewhere. Whenever you have it.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he may become wise. In a sense the old nature is constantly deceiving himself. Here it says to be wise is to ultimately realize that your wisdom, your earthly wisdom is actually a deception. 1 Corinthians 8. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know.

Okay, another idea of this cockiness, this world mindset, this overconfidence in what we know is really made foolish before God. 1437. If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command. Okay, read that again. If anybody thinks he is a prophet or spiritually gifted, let him acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command.

So there is kind of a deception there too if you think in fact you are operating on your own knowledge and experience. Galatians 6. For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. If we are in fact thinking that we have the answers and the earthly knowledge that we have, ultimately the power of the flesh really is the final word, that is the same kind of process that is going on here in terms of deceiving ourselves.

McCollum says performance religion blinds. It's funny, McCollum had very little in his commentary on this section of James. I don't know whether he doesn't want to deal with it, or I mean sometimes he gives you quite a lengthy explanation, but he didn't deal much. But I like this quote, performance religion blinds.

That's actually very true. You see people that say, well I'm doing great work for the Lord, and at this point we're doing magnificent work here, and they're willing to quote this and that, and you think, wow, why? You kind of scratch your head and I don't know about that. It sounds impressive. I've got a question for you.

I'm defining the heart as the source and center of both physical and spiritual life. I think we would agree with that. The heart doesn't beat anymore. There's not much physical life left. I deal with that medically. Unfortunately, at times, the heart's not beating. What's the status of the believer's heart?

By the way, I went back to Schaefer on this, and he's got about one paragraph on heart. I mean, it's just... I couldn't... I was going to get another pet peeve here, but... Okay, go ahead, go ahead. The song changed my heart, oh God. I don't know, I have a hard time with that song. What's the verse that says that the heart is deceptive or wicked? Okay. So, I mean, the heart, is it separate from the mind and soul? Or is the heart encompassing all of the above? Because you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. Where's that? Is that? Yeah, he believes in Romans 10 or something. Romans 10, is that it?

And then, like, I take a word of my heart that I'm standing in the city. It's sort of the center of view, it seems like, in some cases. I don't know. That's not even exact. Well, anyway, I'm not sure I have the answer to this, but when we deceive our heart, I mean, we're deceiving ourselves, right? Exactly. I think the heart we really envision to be encompassing all of our existence, our human existence, both spiritual and physical.

This one's religion is useless. Useless means vain, futile. Thoughts of the wise, they are futile. 1 Corinthians 3. If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile. Avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and useless. knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless, which is bold in your hand, but not here, conduct received by tradition from your fathers. So, I mean, this useless is used frequently in terms of how it relates to our faith.

Doesn't this all relate to how what we do reflects who we are? I mean, I think, again, being doers is being beers. And if we know who we are and the Spirit lives through us by faith in that, then what we do is an evidence of who we are. And I think really that's what James is really talking about here. And at times we're not. I mean, at times our being is not really reflected by our faith and what we're doing is reflecting of the other guy, the old nature.

But the thing is what we've got to constantly remind ourselves of is God still sees us in Christ. Our relationship to God is permanent and unending and eternal. It's amazing. And when we fall short, again, it's the old nature. We confess that we've lacked the fellowship that we once had and it's restored immediately and we live on.

Is our religion that is useless or our faith? I mean, again, it depends on how you interpret religion here, but I guess our religion could be a term that's applied to our faith and who we are in Christ Jesus. Our religion is not useless if we believe that our religion reflects who we are in Christ, but it's our faith that falls short, that ultimately makes us more reactionary and less responsive.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. All right, so let's look at this. Pure and undefiled religion, a faith that is without sin and totally sourced in Christ. Okay, that's how I'm defining it. Pure and undefiled, a faith that is without sin and totally sourced in Christ.

Now, pure has a bit of a sarcastic tone here, I think, which reflects the pious view of the world system. So, in other words, there's kind of this, if you think of religion as this vague kind of non-scriptural term, I mean, it's used in scripture, but again, it's being criticized here. So what is pure religion? Well, you know, in terms of works, it would be one in which all the works are good, there's no ugly works, none that fall short. So I think it has a bit of a sarcastic tone from this pious world system perspective.

2 Corinthians 5, he hath made him to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of Christ in him. So in other words, this pure religion is really this transformation that is taking place in the believer based on what has already been accomplished. And this is before God and the Father. So, and he sees us as new creations in Christ Jesus. Again, we've made this point several times this morning.

So, going back to what pure and undefiled religion is, again I define it as a faith that is without sin and totally sourced in Christ. That's really pure and undefiled religion. So to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, to visit present infinitive, that means it can happen now and it may be happening. It's not indicative that you must visit orphans and widows, it's that this is possibly going to be an example of the way this undefiled, pure and undefiled religion plays out. if you take that as a category, because you know, if you just say, check, orphans and widows, done my duty, I'm good to go. It seems like it's more classifying, that's the work that God has prepared beforehand.

So if you think that's an example of that, then the next one, I don't want to get ahead of you here. No, you're good. It's going to be another example of something else. So I think that helped me, and I looked through this last night a little bit, That's just not my checklist.

Orphans, widows, check. I'm good to go there on that one. I think that's where the Greek tense is so important because it's infinitive. That means it may occur or it may not occur. By the way, this is exemplary. I think we're on the same page on that. So what does it mean to visit? It means to look upon or look after, to help, to care for. I mean that's how that's played out.

And the important thing here is this is established repeatedly in the Old Testament. And by the way, I couldn't find any really other verse that really substantiated that. And that doesn't make it wrong. It's just that this idea of visiting orphans and widows really is part of Jewish tradition. and Jewish law. So they're the verses for you, we're not going to look at those now.

But they establish this kind of activity in the Old Testament. And by the way, in Psalms it says, it's a beautiful verse, and God is the father of the fatherless. So I mean, that's kind of neat, because when we visit orphans, you know, that's part of the message that we bring to them. in the Spirit to remind them that ultimately their Heavenly Father is there for them as much as he is for us. In fact, particularly directed towards them.

Should this be on our list of proving that we are saved? Well, not necessarily. But it is cited here as exemplary of the life of Christ within us. Let's turn to 1 John 3, 17 to 19. Those are nice verses I think to look at this section in terms of application.

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need and has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth. This, then, is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence. I mean that, I think, in a sweeping manner kind of deals with this visiting, you know, widows and orphans. Okay, good. Thank you. And to keep oneself unspotted from the world. Okay, keep oneself unspotted. Present, active, indicative.

That means now, we're responsible for this. And infinitive means, again, it's going to be occurring repeatedly, but infinitive means we're not quite sure in what way it's going to be manifested, but ultimately it's something that we're suggested to do. And I think the fact that it's infinitive means that James knew The Lord knew that sometimes we wouldn't be unspotted. Because again, right theology is that we've been saved unto a new creation in Christ Jesus. Spirit led, we respond by faith that that old guy is still around. And at times we may be in fact unspotted.

But does that really change the relationship we have with the Lord? No. 1 Peter 1, 17 and 19, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things. dot dot dot, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. So we were redeemed without spot, because Christ is without spot. And so as we live by the power of the Spirit in our lives, enacting who we are in Christ, that's an unspotted existence.

But by the way, at times we probably will fall short of that, as we become reactionary. And if you think about this, ultimately, with a couple of other verses to end this morning, John 17, 15, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but you should keep them from the evil ones. See, the Lord's prayer, his heavenly prayer for us as believers, is that the Lord's going to be working to keep us. unspotted. But that prayer does suggest that the evil one's about us.

And he's not taking us out. He said, I want you to be there. It's a really amazing statement. The Lord recognizes that we're in hostile territory. We're in a fallen world. We're in a world that hates us. There's other verses in there. In fact, actually, if you want to know more about this, come on Good Friday. We're going to go through John 17, the entire passage. I happen to have that verse.

I don't want to go all the way back, but keep in mind the world here is the world system. So think of the things that are ultimately working against who we are in Christ and the truth of salvation as it was, is, and will be, is the evil one, the devil himself.

We can't get too preoccupied with that because it says in Hebrews 2.14 that Satan has been dealt with already, eternally. Now we don't realize that on a day-to-day basis because we have other forces that are working against our Christianity and that's the world system. That's the world here, it's Cosmos. The world system is not of the Lord. Isn't that so apparent in today's world?

I mean it's just more and more and more. Right is wrong and wrong is right. And by the way, just think about this. We've got Satan, who in fact has been crucified before God. It's just that the final dealings with Satan will not take place until eternity future. Number two, we have the world system, which is anything but of God. And then the third thing, we've got the sin nature within. We've got three things that are ultimately defeating us.

And Christ's prayer was again to keeping us here but away from the evil one. And we are told here by James to be unspotted, but being infinitive makes me think that James knew and the Lord knew both that we would fall short at times, but yet the prayer is that we would not fall short. And then we end with Romans 12, and be not conformed to this world system.

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that that is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God. And what is the perfect will of God? To be conformed to his image. So we are being transformed into these new creations we are in Christ Jesus and ultimately conformed to be in the image of the Lord. thoughts about this today.

So we're told to visit orphans and widows and we're told to be doer of the work and we've tried to define that it's being doers, that it's not a defined work and we're kind of told to be responsive instead of reactionary, bridling the tongue and I think that's an example of this.

But what we're seeing in these verses in James is the devil, and we're seeing the world system, and we're seeing the flesh all wrapped up in the fact of who we're not in terms of our new creation in Christ Jesus. And it's easy to fall, and by the way, even though James seems pretty legal, I think if we put this on the foundation we have in Paul's epistles, we're fine here. I mean, this tends to be work-oriented, But, by the way, if works before the Lord are not part of our existence, then we're not really one of him. But it's not making a list and checking it twice.

It's in fact seeing who we are in Christ Jesus that really brings us home. My favorite way to end any study school lesson is keep looking down. We've been buried with him with baptism unto death. and risen with him in newness of life. And that newness of life begins at God's right hand. Christ wasn't resurrected to spend more time here. I mean, he spent 40 days here, but that was it, and then he ascended. But we're buried with him in baptism of death, risen with him in newness of life that stems from above.

So James 2 next week, who is teaching next week? Okay, well I'll be with you next week. Pray for Margaret and I the following weekend. We're going to be meeting Kimberly, my oldest daughter that I haven't seen or really interacted with much for two and a half years. Margaret has much more than I have. So that's a special trip for us that will be an important one to see. Any other points or questions about today? Father, we thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. We thank you that we can trust him in all things. In Christ's name, Amen.