Unspotted from the world

Let's turn to James chapter 1 please. James chapter 1, there's a little expression that appears at the end of chapter 1 and I've been thinking on for a while and then we're going to look at it in the book of James. James chapter 1 and verse number 26 we have a contrast to what is in verse 27.

Epistle of James 1 and verse 26. If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this man's religion is vain. As you know that simply means empty, void.

Now verse 27, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction. Now notice this last sentence, and to keep himself on spotted from the world. It's just that last expression that I've been thinking on for probably close to two months.

On spotted from the world. That word on spot is the idea of a stain. Now you and I know that whatever we might be wearing we can tolerate a little stain and then it gets to a point where maybe there's a few more stains and then finally okay suits got to go to the dry cleaners right? Now I've been asking myself this question.

We had a Bible study on the epistle of James and I studied it for quite a while and I was quite impressed with the just the broad I guess overlook of the epistle. Let me give you where I'm coming from. If you're studying 1st John okay there's one thing you need to understand when you go through 1st John is you're not dealing with somebody who is away from the Lord.

You're not dealing with a Christian that is carnal, a Christian that is cold. 1st John is taken up with black and white. Okay it's just very simple.

You're either saved or you're not. So you tend to fall fall into difficulties if when you're going through John, oh if you don't love your brother, oh maybe I don't love, no no we're not looking at someone who's cold. We're not looking at that.

You're either saved or you're lost. Now the epistle of James is completely different. The epistle of James is dealing with carnal Christians.

It's amazing. You go through the book and you'll find at least I think it's 19 times brethren, beloved brethren. It's all through the epistle.

So you're not dealing now with a black and a white. You're dealing with somebody who is in touch with God and someone who is out of touch with God. That's sort of in the epistle of James.

One thing you'll notice and you'll only find this in the epistle of James is you'll find these expressions. You're either a friend of the world or a friend of God. That's in the epistle of James.

And it's amazing how that he will constantly start bringing up this contrast. And he's always trying to encourage like of I think it's what a hundred and eight, I think there's a hundred and eight verses in in the entire epistle. And there's over 60 verses that contain imperatives, commands.

I want you to do this. And really he's addressing believers and he's trying to get them to see how far they have drifted from God. How cold they have gotten.

How much of the world's thinking and ways have crept into our lives. So that was a question I asked myself when I discovered that. I just simply stopped and asked myself how much of the world is in me as a believer.

How much has the world stained me, spotted me. Now maybe right now those that are familiar with the epistle, you're allowing your mind to go through the entire epistle like chapter one. How do I handle trials? Now if you're carnal, if you're affected by the world, you tend to go the opposite for what the Word of God would teach.

Why is this happening to me? What is God trying to do to me anyway? You're going to get that right in chapter one. Well what is the what is the other extreme? Just submit to God in the trial. You're going to discover that when you go get into the epistle of James that he's going to contrast two wisdoms in James.

There's a wisdom that comes from above and then there's a wisdom that is from beneath. That's all there is. There's not even a mixture of them, okay? So it's kind of a very difficult question to to really ask yourself how much of the world is in me? That's really what pure religion is and on the fall before God the Father is this.

And really you have two different, here it comes your two again, to visit. Now listen if you're familiar with the Ten Commandments, the Lord Jesus broke them down into five and five. One is God word and the other is man word.

And when I come to the end of chapter one, I discover that the same thing is being done to visit the fatherless and the widow. There is man word. Keep himself on spotted from the world, there's love God with all your might and all your heart and so on and so forth, you know the verse.

There he's got it again. Sometimes we think that Christianity is this, I don't know, some, I'm gonna be a missionary, wonderful. I'm an elder in the assembly, wonderful.

I'm a preacher, wonderful. I go door-to-door and pass out in a traxum, oh wonderful. Do you want to know how simple the Word of God makes it? Are you on spotted from the world? Now what James is going to do is James is going to show us how you're acting, how you're talking, is what's in your heart.

You can't get away from that. You can't divorce that. And I can look at a person not only by what they say, but what they don't say.

And it will give me an indication as to what's in their heart. Because out of a heart, man speaks. And these are things that we can't hide.

And James when he writes this epistle, like I was, I didn't really know a whole lot about James when I started to study it, okay? You kind of just read through it and you don't really get the context because you don't spend enough time on how one thing connects to another. And by the time I was done studying, wow, James is desperate hard on the human heart. Every one of us got it.

That's something that becomes very apparent when you go through the book of James. Chapter 2, he's going to address the tongue. Sorry, respective persons.

That is going to show what's in my heart, how I handle those maybe not as educated as me, not as wealthy as me. On and on it goes. Chapter 3, he's going to address the tongue.

Now I'm not going to go to chapter 3 today, I'm going to go to chapter 4. But chapter 3 is really, to me, it's quite a pivotal point because you know that part where he talks about the bit and the horse and the rudder and the boat. And really what he's going to bring out there is it doesn't matter how expensive the bit is in the horse's mouth, okay? It could be a diamond studded golden bit. It's not going to control the horse.

The rudder underneath that big old ship, it could be the prettiest and the most cost, but that's not what's going to control the boat. What's going to control the horse and the boat? There's a hand that's controlling the bit. There's a hand that's on the wheel in the wheelhouse.

And you know what he's going to address? This is, I find amazing. Do you know what's going to come up 23 times in the book of James? It's the Word of God. The Word of God.

The Word of God. The Word of God. Do you know what will control this tongue? Do you know what will keep me on spotted from the world? Do you know what will allow me to have pure religion before God and the Father is this? It's the level of the Word of God that's in my Christian life.

Now how much am I giving myself to it? Is the art of memorization something that is just lost today because we think we're all so stupid and can't remember anything? Oh, we just don't challenge ourself anymore, but my, you take the world's songs and you can rhyme them up just like that. Isn't it something? You can take a Christian that's interested in hockey and he can give you the stats, the players, the ages, just like that. But you try to get him to quote you a particular verse in a particular chapter.

Where's my iPad? You see what I mean? It's very, very subtle. The world has a very subtle way of just creeping in and we don't even realize the stain that it's starting to leave and then before long we're starting to act like the world and talk like the world. And you know the amazing thing? Well, actually, let's turn to chapter 4. With all of the problems that were happening in the epistle of James, notice this.

I want you to look at verse number 9 and this is a sign, a symptom that there's worldliness in my life. Think of all of the problems. I don't have time to go into them, but just look at verse number 9. Look at what he says the latter part of the verse.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Go over to verse 16. Look what you have here.

But now ye rejoice in your boastings. All such rejoicing is evil. In the presence, this is an evidence that I'm spotted by the world, in the presence of problems in the assembly, issues, there was all kinds of things that were happening.

Do you know what they were doing? They were rejoicing. There was joy. There was laughter.

There was sort of a light-heartedness, like, that doesn't really matter. It does matter. It affects the testimony of God.

And that's really, that's the world out there. It just looks lightly upon everything. Oh, nothing matters.

But you get into the Word of God, you discover that that's not how we're to be. We're supposed to mourn with those that mourn. Rejoice with those that rejoice.

Problems, issues, we're so, the world just sweeps them under the rug. We're supposed to deal with them, like the person of Christ would have. So let's come to the first part of chapter 4 for a minute.

This is really where my mind, my mind is at. Chapter 4 and verse number 1, I know we're breaking into the whole flow of the epistle, but I'm just going to pick up a few things that I have enjoyed here. Look at what you have in verse number 1. Now notice what he says, from whence comes, now keep in mind, we are writing to Christians.

I'm going to keep on emphasizing that. From whence comes wars and fightings among you. Come they not hence even of your own lusts, that war in your members, ye lust and have not, ye kill.

That's the idea of there's murder in the heart. Can you and I hate our brother so badly, like to kill him? He's writing to Christians. Keep reading.

And desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war, yet ye have not because ye ask not. They were so busy fighting and no time for praying. That's almost hard to factor.

Come to verse 3. Finally when they do get a chance to pray, ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your own lusts. You say, could that actually be written to believers? Could we actually behave like that? Oh mind you, it's cloaked behind so many different things, isn't it? You see, what we all have to realize as Christians, you and I have got a very wicked heart. It doesn't improve with years.

It doesn't improve as you read the Bible. The closer you get to God, the more active it seems to come. And you know what? We have got a world out there that produces a wisdom that will just take that heart and just inflame it.

It will. We've got a wisdom that's in the Word of God, that if we give ourselves to the Word of God, it will actually suppress and help me not to listen to that heart. This is how important this is.

Going to conferences will not produce this, okay? Hearing more, preaching more. No, it's you and I personally reading the Word of God, getting it into our mind and into our souls, meditating upon it. It's not something where you just sort of give God 15 minutes in the morning.

That's what I fear as I travel around. This is what I am seeing. Picking up on my brother's comment about doctrine.

We are starting to lose doctrine because we don't know the Word of God. We're not allowing it to be the sole counsel of everything that we believe. And then we start to listen to men.

And because we don't have a good basis in the Word of God, we're unable to detect when error comes. Like my brothers. See, I'm with my brother.

The Internet has got tremendous advantages. We all know that. But it has also opened up a door where our young people can be going to Internet sites to prepare for a Bible study from denominational men that don't know the first thing about a New Testament church.

And dear brother and sister, we need to remind ourselves in 2016, there is nothing like light in a New Testament church. That is where God wants every single one of his people to be. And that's where the the priesthood has the the full access to the Spirit of God to provide teaching from the Word of God.

That's why I would challenge my young people. Get a hold of good, solid assembly writers and assembly teachers that are... the Internet can bring them to you. And I just fill my little iPhone with them.

And listen to these men over and over and over. Why? I want to get the Word of God into my head. I want to get what is right context.

So that when I'm listening to these other men of different denominations, which some of them can give you wonderful things, you know what you're able to pick up? Oh, that didn't sound right. And then you're able to compare it to the Word of God. And you can find out just where that's starting to go.

So that is something that is so necessary for us. So like I said, think about it. You've got ten ye's here.

It's amazing. It's just a... you could just write right over it. The effect of the world.

Now look what it leads to. It's like the idea of dominoes. You hit one, look what it does in verse four.

This is the effect of the world upon believers. Ye adulterers and adulteresses. Unfaithfulness to God.

That's the effect of the world upon me. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

Now look, this is where verse five comes into play. Look at what it says. Do ye think... now we speak into these believers.

Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain, the Spirit... that's a reference to the Spirit of God... the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy. Now this shows us how subtle the world is. With all of these wars and fighting... what's the difference between wars and fighting? Wars is the ongoing thing and then there's these little flare-ups.

The reason for the fighting is because the wars haven't been put to rest, okay? With all of these wars and fighting and lusting and envy and strife. Do you know the effect of the world had upon them? They were actually trying to spiritualize it. Oh, it's the Spirit of God.

This envy that I have is really spiritual. And that's why he says, do you actually think there's a Scripture that says the Spirit of God would do this? The answer is no! Absolutely not! The Spirit of God completely would divorce himself from it. You see, if you understand chapter 1, what do we discover in chapter 1? Trials.

So here's a believer in a trial. And because he doesn't take advantage of his great high priest, do you know what happens? He falls into sin. Do you know what we're told in chapter 1? Don't blame that on God.

God is not the author of sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted the any man. But every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

So what we're told in chapter 1 is this, when I am brought into a trial to refine me, and in that trial I don't take advantage of God and his help and I end up falling into sin. I can't sit there and say, God, it's your fault. Now he does a similar thing in chapter 4. He's looking at these believers with all of the lusts and desires that are in their hearts, and here they are almost trying to put it on the Spirit of God.

No, no, no, he says, you can't do that. He can't do that. And look what he does in verse 6. He gives the opposite, but he, God, giveth more grace.

And then he quotes scriptures from the Proverbs. Wherefore, he saith, God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble. So ask yourself, am I critical of another believer? You say, here's how I heard it.

Here's how I hear it cloaked. Well, you know, they had it coming to them. They need somebody to correct them.

Why don't you just let God do that? You and I can't handle a critical spirit. I'll prove that in just a minute. Now, look at what he has.

Remember, in verses 1, 2, 3, and 4, you have 10 yeas, okay? All these different problems. Then what he's going to do in verse 7, he's going to start and he's going to give you 10 imperatives. The first one, verse 7, submit yourselves, therefore, unto God.

That's where it all starts. How are you going to do that? Get into the word of God. Starts with submission.

Number two, resist the devil. Number three, eight, verse eight, draw nigh to God. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.

Purify your hearts, ye double-minded. Verse nine, be afflicted and mourn. Number seven, weep.

Number eight, your laughter turned to mourning and your joy to heaven. Humble yourselves, verse 10, in the sight of the Lord. So in 10 things that come from the world, he's got 10 things that come from the word of God to help us deal with the effect of the world upon us.

And then you look at what happens in verse 11. This just shows you another domino effect. Verse 11, speak not evil one of another, brethren.

He that speaketh evil of his brother and judges his brother speaketh evil of the law and judges the law. But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy.

Who art thou that judges another? Verses 1, 2, 3 is worldliness. The effect upon me is unfaithfulness to God. Then the effect upon me is I start to spiritualize carnal, fleshly desires.

The next effect is I stand in criticism of my brethren. I forget that God is the judge. I start to take the place of the judge.

And as a judge, I then use my words to speak evil. Can you see the progression? Now, let me ask yourself, just ask yourself, is that me? Do I subtly do this as if I'm the standard bearer? You see, what really is at the core of the world? It's all of itself. Entitlement.

Me, my, and mine. And I, nobody can criticize me. I can criticize everybody.

That's the world. And dear child of God, that starts to filter into us. And you know what happens? It becomes commonplace amongst us.

Almost like an acceptable thing. Coming back to my brother William's message, how does that affect the glory of Christ? And when as testimonies gather to the Lord's name, there should be such an atmosphere that's totally different from the world. But yet it just sort of creeps in, doesn't it? I know we're all looking so angelic here today, aren't we? Who is that McLeod fellow up there? He must be thinking he's back in Canada, where they have this major problem in Canada of evil speaking and taking the place of the law.

We all have got a wicked heart. And it just loves to come to the surface. And it just loves to downplay.

Oh, no, no, no, don't. You've read enough today. Listen, I couldn't get enough of the word of God in my soul.

I should be trying to surround every department of my life with it, because I'm unable to detect when that old heart of mine is starting to raise its head. I can't. It's far, far crafter than I am.

I pray that God helps me every day. I ask this of the Lord daily, Lord, keep me in love with your son. I don't want to fall out of love with him.

I just want to keep close to him. And I want the world as far away as I can get it from me. I can only do that through the word of God only.

Then look at the next step. Look at verse number 13. Here's another domino.

Look, look now what happens. Verse 13. Keep in mind, this is believers.

Go to now ye that say today or tomorrow, we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain, whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow for what is your life? Do you know what then starts to happen as a Christian? Well, I just already took the place of God. I'm speaking evil. My brother in the law, my words are more, but then I start to act as God.

I'm going to make plans for my own life. It doesn't really matter whether I prayed about it or not. I know better than the Lord does.

Look what he says. He has to remind them your life is a vapor. What effect does a vapor have? Gone.

You see the effect, the subtle effect of worldliness. It's just, it's a domino thing. It just keeps on escalating and moving, never satisfied to stop.

And now as a believer, I'm just doing what I want. I don't need to pray about that. It's obvious.

One and one is two. Let's just do it. You notice it says here, the will of the Lord.

It's not, doesn't say the will of God. The will of the Lord brings the relationship there. It has to be that idea of communion.

See, that's what the world will fight against. No, no, no, no. You don't need to address a higher power.

Is that not what started this whole thing off in the book of Genesis? When the devil says, basically, what he's saying is this. Don't you allow God to determine what you do? Oh, you'll be, you'll be a God yourself. Yeah, you'll be able to dictate what you can and can't do.

That's the world. And then you hear this grand, isn't it something? It's tremendous, eh? It's almost like a catchphrase that, uh, this is the opposite extreme. Someone does something.

Well, you know, I prayed about it. Oh, what does that mean? That made it okay? Do you have clear direction from the word of God that you're to do what you prayed about? You know, one of the hardest things we have is just waiting for it. Just waiting for an answer, direction.

If you don't know, wait. Maybe someone came all the way from miles and miles away to this conference and maybe that's what you're waiting for. If you are uncertain as to what to do, do nothing.

Wait. Just wait on God. It's a trial.

Chapter one. He's trying to teach us something. I love chapter one.

It's beautiful. I love the Greek words that are used there, the prepositions. I was telling them in the Bible study, if you've ever been through a, you know, some kind of a little game area where kids are, they might have this big tube and kids crawl in one end and crawl at the other end.

And there's a lovely preposition there. The very same God who brought you into the trial, just think of the tube and write trial over it. You know what it says? If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.

No, let him ask of God at your side. The very God that brought the trial into your life is the very one who's right in the trial with you. He's going through it with you.

And when you lack wisdom, just turn to your side and say, Lord, I need help here. It's not that the heavens are brass and God's way, way, way, way up there. So just keep that in mind.

And then you have, look at what verse 15 says. For what? For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live or do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings.

All such rejoicing is evil. Now, context, verse 17. Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him in his sin.

What does that verse mean? I've heard people say, well, you know, you're, and I used to, I used to teach this at one time. Okay, so I'm admitting a fault. Okay, well, you're driving to meeting in the morning.

You're kind of late. And all of a sudden, there's a dear old lady on the side of the road with a flat tire. And I should help her.

I'm late for a meeting. Off you go to a meeting. Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not to him in his sin.

Well, I guess you could apply it that way. I don't believe that's the context. He's writing to believers.

And he's showing them the effect of worldliness, the domino effect, cascading effect of worldliness upon them. And he's just ended up with this. Me taking the place of God for my life.

And in the immediate context, him that knoweth to do good. It's wrong what you're doing. And continueth in that state of mind.

I'm going to continue to act as God for my life to him at his sin. So we all need to sort of put the brakes on in our lives as believers. It's good to look around.

It's good to analyze our words. How are we speaking to one another? It's good to analyze our actions. What are we doing? You know that in the epistle of James, it's amazing.

Just in chapter two, when he deals with don't show respect to persons. Who are the two people that he brings into that chapter? He brings in Abraham, the head of the Jewish nation, a rich man. Then he brings in Rahab the harlot, a Gentile, poor.

Isn't it great that God doesn't show respect of persons? You'll discover that in the Bible. And then what he'll bring in there, and as he goes further, he'll start to develop this idea of works and faith, faith and works. Back and forth.

Some people often, those that don't really understand the Bible, they will say that James is in opposition to the book of what Paul wrote. Ephesians chapter two. Do you know what Paul said there by the Spirit of God? For by grace are you saved through faith.

What does chapter two tell you? Faith alone cannot save a person. Oh, we got a contradiction in the Bible. No, we don't.

Look at the context. What is the context? In James, here's a person professing to have faith. Do you know what they're doing? They're living like the world.

They're showing partiality, showing respect to persons. You know really what James is saying? That type of faith is not salvation. It's not.

There has to be an alignment of the inward with the outward. And you're going to get that developed once again in the book of James. Now, finally, just before I end, go back to chapter three for a minute.

I just want to end with just a few comments on the contrast of these two different wisdoms. You'll discover the wisdom that is from the world. You got the three, our three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil are right there.

Let's look at verse 13. Finally, to close, James chapter three, verse 13. Here's what it says.

Who is a wise man and, now this is one word in the Greek, endued with knowledge, just simply means knowing, among you. Let him show. Okay, see where he's starting now? The inward, what I know, outward, show, out of a good conversation, or be manner of life, his works with meekness of wisdom.

But if he had bitter, envying, and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth, the truth that he's teaching. This wisdom, the wisdom of verse 14, envying, bitter, envying, strife. Okay, this wisdom descended not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

There's our three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Look at verse 16. For where envying and strife is, there's confusion and every evil work.

That verse was quoted this morning. Verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.

Now, you know what you're going to notice here? You get eight things. And those eight things, I have put them into four couplets, inward and outward. Now, look at the first one, verse 17.

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure inward. How do I see that? Peaceable outward. How are you interacting with one another? Are you feisty, quick to put the fists up? Do you know what I can tell you from the Bible? No purity on the inward.

You're affected by the world. Come to the second couplet. Gentle.

Gentle on the inward. What's the outward? Easy to be entreated. Oh, that's a tough one.

That's a tough one for us brethren in a Bible study, you know, and so on. So he might even be younger than me and he disagrees with my thought. Am I easy to be entreated? If I'm easy to be entreated, it's a proof that there's gentleness on the inside.

Pretty tough, isn't it? Sometimes we might be... I had this experience happen with my dear wife. I really handled myself well in the presence of people, okay? Then I got out of the car and she said something and bang, I snapped. I blew up at her.

She said, wait a minute. How come you were corrected in there and you had a big smile on your face? And out in the car, I corrected you and you chewed my head off. I said, come on, you're my wife.

I'm allowed to do that. She did not let me off with that. See, we can be double-faced, can't we? We put just a lovely smile.

You look so great. And then on the way home, I just turned you into diced meat. That's the world.

That's what it is. I'm not unspotted from the world. Come to the third couplet, full of mercy.

How do I see that? Good fruit. Outward actions. Kind, considerate, giving.

It's very simple. Come to the last one, without partiality. How do I see that someone inwardly is without partiality? What's the next thing? Without hypocrisy.

No play acting. Let me ask myself a question in front of you. Is Scott McCloud the same in Stout, Iowa? As when he's back home in PEI.

Am I the same in the meeting as when I'm at work Monday to Friday? Everywhere. God wants me just to be the same. Allow that spirit from above, which we get from the word of God, allow it to saturate the inward.

And I don't even have to try. You know what'll happen? It'll just be evident on the outward. That dear child of God is pure religion and undefiled before God.

To keep himself unspotted from the world.