September 3, 2006am    Did you get Religion?        James 1:17-27

By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

The Giver and the Gift.  What kind of religion do you have?  There is a True religion and a false one.  Today is the day to look into the mirror and examine ourselves. 

 James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. 19 My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. 22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does. 26 If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. 27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

True Religion is:

·         A relationship with the only true living God.

·         A fulfillment of His plan for you to become one of his children.

·         A life with a relationship with God which produces characteristics that resemble the Lord.  Remember he gave his life and we ought to be willing to give ours. 

·         A soul has been saved and a life has been changed to look like him.

·         A relationship with God which produces actions and that fulfill the word that has been heard.

·         A hearer who acts on the truth they have heard; therefore they are the blessed of God. 

·         Someone who looks in the mirror and examine himself, but he doesn’t forget who he is. 

·         Someone who listens to the word.  And does what it says. 

·         Someone who is careful about what he says. 

·         Someone who looks after orphans and widows, and those who are powerless to do anything to help themselves.  They are willing to make the sacrifice.   

·         Someone who doesn’t allow the sin of the world to pollute their lives.  They remain pure. 

·         Someone who is accepted by God as being his own child, but the one who looks after others who can’t help themselves. 

·         Someone who is willing to sacrifice themselves for others.

·         Who are you?  Will you look into the perfect law of liberty?  Do you have pure religion or a defiled version of the truth?

Two Religions

I

“A woman sat by a hearthside place

Reading a book with a pleasant face,

Till a child came up with a childish frown

And pushed the book saying, “Put it down.”

Then the mother, slapping his curly head,

Said, “Troublesome child, go off to bed;

A great deal of God’s book I must know

To train you up as a child should go.”

And the child went off to bed to cry

And denounce religion—by and by.

II

“Another woman bent o’er a book

With a smile of joy and an intent look,

Till a child came up and joggled her knee,

And said of the book, “Put it down—take me.”

Then the mother sighed as she stroked his head,

Saying softly, “I never shall get it read;

But I’ll try by loving to learn His will,

And His love into my child instill.”

That child went to bed without a sigh

And will love religion—by and by.

—Aquilla Webb^[1]