Religion (Part 2 of 3)

Have you ever had anyone say to you, you look just like your mother?

Or your father? Well, it's not surprising that family members would share familiar traits or mannerisms, and that's true for children of God as well. We ought to resemble our Heavenly Father. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg shares with us how one of the evidences of authentic faith is that we are growing in Christ-likeness.

Here's Alistair. Let me turn back again to James chapter 1, and verses 26 and 27. And I encourage you to turn there. James chapter 1, verse 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—religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless as this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Well, that's our challenge for this evening. We'll ask for God's help now as we turn to the Bible. Father, we come just as much in need to do the work of thinking and to ask for the work of the Spirit to be in our lives, illuminating the printed page to us and giving us clarity and an understanding of the truth of the Bible. So help us so that we don't get it wrong, and help us so that we don't merely listen to it but we believe it and obey it and conform as increasingly to the image of your Son Jesus. Help us to bear the family likeness in every proper way. For Jesus' sake.

Amen. James has not provided us here with a comprehensive statement of the nature of pure and faultless religion. He is telling us what religion is, but he's not telling us everything that it is. He is providing us with a test regarding the authenticity of our professed faith in Jesus.

And that test has three aspects to it—the first being a controlled tongue, the second being a compassionate heart, and the third being a clean life. We spent all of our time this morning on the first and most uncomfortable talk on the pressing nature of what it means to have our tongues under the control of God the Holy Spirit, and that was verse 26. We move from there now to verse 27 and to his emphasis on a compassionate heart. If we are the children of God, our Father, then we ought to look, in some measure at least, increasingly like our Father.

We ought to bear the family resemblances. And one of the things that's said about God throughout the Bible, and particularly in the Psalms, is that he is a God who is particularly interested in those who are orphans, those who are themselves fatherless. And so, for example, Psalm 68 and verse 5—you needn't turn to it, but I'll just read it for you—makes this abundantly clear, where the psalmist says, God is a father to the fatherless and a defender of widows. He is the God who sets the lonely in families. A wonderful picture of God, when people say, Well, I'm not sure I know what God is like.

I'm not sure that I want to know God. We can say, Well, God is, as someone who is particularly interested in those who are fatherless, those who are lonely, those who feel themselves to be left out. And there are many people in our culture tonight for whom father means very, very little, either because they lost their father at an early age or because they have lived in a house where there has been an absentee father. And to be able to introduce them to God, who is the Father of the Fatherless, who is compassionate, who abounds in love, is a wonderful and compelling thing to do. The redeeming love of God as Father is, of course, crystallized in the giving of his own Son at Calvary, for God so loved the world, was so compassionate towards the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. Now, James is simply working this principle out and making it clear that it follows that his children, if they're going to bear the family likeness, if we're going to tell people that we belong to God as our Father, then we are to be those who are marked by a genuine concern for those who in society are themselves helpless.

Helpless. And that, of course, is an immediate challenge. It's a challenge to which James is going to return in chapter 2, a challenge that is represented in a congregation that is tempted to make much of those who fit the profile of their socioeconomic framework, to be able to welcome easily those who fit within the parameters of our accepted norms, to find it difficult to reach out and be kind towards those who are unlike a congregation, those who do not come in wearing gold rings and fine clothes, but those who come in wearing shabby clothes and who are so distinctly uncomfortable in a gathering marked by such material prosperity. James is going to drive this home in an unmistakable way in chapter 2. But for now, he simply introduces the theme. And as I said this morning, the three aspects that he raises in this test, he comes back to every one of them in the unfolding letter which follows.

The concern that God's children are to show is a concern which is moved by the needs of others and which reaches out to others without the prospect of anything in return. In other words, it fits in with what Jesus said about when you're giving a banquet. Remember, he said in quite categorical terms, he said, if you're thinking of having a party at your house, don't invite the people over to your house whom you simply anticipate will enjoy it on a normal basis and who will then in turn say, Well, I thank you so much for a lovely evening. How about you come back to our home now four weeks from Saturday? Don't do that, said Jesus.

Instead, invite over to your home those who would not normally have the opportunity to come into such a home, who do not routinely enjoy those kind of meals, and who will not themselves be able to invite you back, because they have no place where they can invite you back to. I hate to end a sentence on a preposition. That drives me nuts.

But it's done now. I hear Winston Churchill's voice saying, That is a preposition up with which I will not put. Jesus was striking in his condemnation for those who got this wrong. And that's why he said to the Pharisees of his day that he condemned them, and he pointed them out as those in Mark chapter 12, as those who devour widows' houses and for a show make lengthy prayers.

These were the individuals who gobbled up the houses of the widows and who at the same time ostensibly enjoyed making these lengthy prayers, much like the Pharisee described in Luke's Gospel who stands in praise, you remember, at the side of the road in the company of the publican. Now, what is James doing here when he identifies orphans and widows? Is he suggesting to us that orphans and widows are the only folks who are to be on the receiving end of the fatherly care of God expressed through his children?

No, I don't think so. I think what he's doing here is he is identifying the epitome of human need. I don't mean by this that we ought not to take at face value the emphasis on both orphans and widows, but that we would be wrong if we thought that all we had to do was to deal with orphans and widows, so that you wouldn't have to deal with anyone who was suffering from AIDS, you wouldn't have to deal with people who were paralyzed or whatever else it might be. All you have to do is deal with orphans and widows.

If you do that, then you're in the clear with everything else. That would be a very wooden way to interpret the Bible, wouldn't it? Now, I think what he's emphasizing is, here are the people in the time of James—a time that had no social structures that were organized for the care of the helpless and the poor, no social welfare programs in place—these were the people who epitomized what it was to be powerless, what it was to be without any kind of rights, what it was to live without any status at all. Those orphans and widows who were no longer on the receiving end of the support of a husband, which in the normal course of events would be the standard pattern, now provide, says James, a wonderful opportunity for the children of God to display one of the aspects of the family character—namely, to look after or to visit or to care for orphans and widows in their distress.

So this controlled tongue is to be set inside of the mouth—a mouth which is part of the head, which is attached to the rest of the body, which at the control tower level of the heart is to be one that is marked by compassion. Now, the word that is used here—and if you have a King James Version, you will remember this from growing up and memorizing this, that it reads something along the lines of religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless as this, to visit the orphans and widows in their distress. The Greek word is translated both to look after or to care for or to visit.

And it is a word that appears not infrequently in the New Testament. Actually, this phrase is carved in stone over the archway of the main entrance of the royal infirmary in Edinburgh, Scotland. And when you walk in under that old main entrance, you read the words from Matthew 25, the words of Jesus, I was sick, and you visited me. I was sick, and you visited me. And the word that is there for you visited me is the word episceptomai, which is the word that is translated here in James chapter 1 27, and you look after these orphans and widows. Now, you remember that Jesus said that in Matthew 25, where, in a very demanding little passage, he reminded those who were his followers that they had—in the words of the king, they had seen him in prison, and they had visited him, and they had seen him in distress, and they had come to him, and so on.

And of course, the reply on the part of the disciples is to say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you as a stranger and invite you in, or in needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

That's that same verb again there. And when did we see you sick and in prison and go and look after you? And you remember Jesus said, Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. I remember on one occasion when I was the assistant in Charlotte Chapel, way back seventy-five, now seventy-six, going in the course of the afternoon to visit a whole succession of elderly people. Some of them were in psychiatric hospitals, many of them were very impaired, and often, given the time I arrived in the afternoon, either as a result of the time of day and or as a result of their medication, they slept through my entire visit.

And I remember sitting and reading the Bible and praying with them and holding the hands of elderly ladies. And on one evening, driving to the Bible study with Derek Prime, I said to him, You know, maybe I should drop some of the people from the list. Oh, he said, Why is that? I said, Well, nothing actually happens when I go.

Many situations, they're not even compass mentis. They're not alert. I'm not sure they hear me. He said, Oh, but do you know what you're doing when you go? I said, Yes, I'm visiting the old people. He said, No, you're ministering to the Lord Jesus, inasmuch as you read the Bible and prayed with the elderly lady who never wakened up when you were there. You did it, said the king, unto me.

It's a quite staggering thought, isn't it? God is the Father of the Fatherless. Do you remember—and this is a real test of your memory—when we studied in Luke chapter 7, and we came to that wonderful moment where Jesus stops the funeral procession of the widow of Nain's son, and how he goes up and how the disciples must have wondered what Jesus is doing now? A large crowd was with him, and as he approached the town gate—I'm quoting Luke 7 now—a dead person was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow.

That's important, as it turns out. The only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her, and when the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, Don't cry.

In other words, he had a heart of compassion. And then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. And he said, Young man, I say to you, get up! And the dead man sat up and began to talk. And then Luke says—and this was the thing that struck us when we studied it—and Luke says, And Jesus gave him back to his mother. That's what Jesus was doing. He said, This lady needs this boy. This lady is a widow.

I will give her son back to her. And, says Luke, they were all filled with awe and praised God. A great prophet has appeared among us, they said. God has come to help his people, and the news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding countryside. Actually, in the King James Version, it reads what? God has visited his people. And, of course, by now you know that that is the exact same verb.

No surprise. When they saw this impact on the widow, knowing that God is the father of the fatherless and has peculiar concerns for the widow, when Jesus says to the boy, Here's your mum, and says to the mum, Here's your boy, the people says, God showed up. God showed up. Because that's what God is like.

Now, did you get the impact? When the people of God, out of a heart of compassion, do what the Bible says in relationship to the needs of humanity, to the needs of our culture, then in a graphic way, men and women may stand back and say, God has shown up. God has visited us. Visited us in the compassion of your interest in the needs of the helpless and the hopeless and those who, around you, despite all of their outward signs, being under control, you know to be helpless people. And when you go to them in their helplessness, you do so bearing the compassion of Christ himself. You see, what we have here is what God has begun at least to nudge us in the direction of as a church family. And that is to remind us of the absolute necessity of keeping two things close together—the genuine proclamation of the good news and a genuine participation in good deeds. Good news and good deeds. Emphasized not only by James but also by Paul when he writes to Titus, speaking of God, he says, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do good. To purify for himself a people that are his very own, and how will the purity of their life and the reality of their testimony become apparent in a society? Because they are eager to do good.

They are the epitome, if you like, of do-gooders. When Wilberforce was converted in his middle twenties while a student at Cambridge University, he wrote in his personal journal, God Almighty has set before me two great objects—the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners. You should understand the reformation of manners not now about which fork you use for your salad but rather the transformative impact of the gospel in a culture and in a community.

And here we are, two hundred years on from the historic parliamentary vote, which was actually in March of 1807—on the twenty-seventh of March 1807, two hundred years ago now—and that classic vote banned the transportation of slaves by British subjects. And if you've read of Wilberforce and if you've read of Newton, you will have found there that, again, you discovered the juxtaposition of good news and good deeds. In many ways, God raised up Newton, who was a slave trader, ironically, converted him, gave him a compassionate heart, made it possible for him to write hymns and to preach the Bible, to become, if you like, a proponent of good news, and to become one of the key influences in the life of William Wilberforce, who is epitomized by good deeds. And when you think about it, as God, in the immensity of his plans and purposes from all of eternity, causes the birth of these two little boys, one Newton and one Wilberforce, and the confluence of his redeeming purpose is to be found in this compassionate heart. When Wilberforce was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1833, seven years were to elapse before they put an epitaph on a statue in the abbey, which some of you will have stood before and have read. To the memory of William Wilberforce, born in Hull, August 24, 1759, died in London July 29, 1833.

For nearly half a century, a member of the House of Commons, and for six parliaments during that period, one of the two representatives for Yorkshire. In an age and country fertile in great and good men, he was among the foremost of those who fixed the character of their times. Because to high and various talents, to warm benevolence, and to universal candor, he added the abiding eloquence of a Christian life.

Fantastic, isn't it? A man of conviction. A man of great compassion. And two hundred years later, we are the beneficiaries of his willingness to combine a commitment to the good news that Jesus sets the captives free, and that the implications of that transforming power in a culture cannot leave the least and the last and the left out, absent the fatherly care of God.

We reflect the compassionate heart of God as we care for the helpless and the hopeless. That's Alistair Begg with part two of a three-part message titled Religion. The outcome of our mission at Truth for Life is to build up local churches. Today we're excited to announce registration for the Basics 2022 Conference is now open. This is a conference for pastors and church leaders.

Alistair is hosting the conference in May of 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio. If you're in ministry, you can find out more and sign up today at basicsconference.org. And along the lines of building up the local church, we are currently recommending a book that is all about the local church. It's titled Devoted to God's Church, Core Values for Christian Fellowship. The author of the book is Alistair's friend Sinclair Ferguson. In the book, Sinclair explains that belonging to a church involves much more than just showing up on Sunday. He challenges us not to ask ourselves how is church life fitting into my plans, but how do I fold all the aspects of my life into the life of the church? Request your copy of Devoted to God's Church today. You'll find it in the mobile app or you can request it by visiting us online at truthforlife.org. If you prefer, you can call us at 888-588-7884.

I'm Bob Lapine. Thanks for joining us. Tomorrow we'll conclude today's message in our series in the book of James titled Faith That Works. How can you serve in the world without becoming polluted by the world? Alistair shares the answer tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.