Both Sound and Sight Part 1

Girls, during the early years of the church, until Christianity took root and things changed in the fourth century, they would be left out on the porches where at night they could be carried away by wild animals or brothel owners to be raised as prostitutes or as slaves. So the first century church began going around collecting and raising these children.

Why? Because there's value in human life, because life is the creation of God, and God, by the way, happens to have a Father's heart. That's the Gospel. If you've ever planted a vegetable garden or grown a fruit tree, you expect it to yield a crop. Tomato plants bear tomatoes.

Apple trees bear apples. And when they don't, there's some sort of a problem. Well, there's a spiritual analogy to that as well. Spirit-filled people bear spiritual fruits.

But if that's the case, then why do so many Christians seem to bear so little fruit? In this message, Stephen shows us where the problem lies. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Today, Stephen Davey begins the final message in this series. This is part one of a message entitled, Both Sound and Sight. There's something wrong with my cable box in my house.

It's unpredictable. I wanted to watch Monday Night Football the other week, assumed that I'd have the time to be able to do it, and I did. It didn't matter, because all I could get was sound.

Nothing on the picture. The television screen stayed dark. I did everything I knew to do. I hit the menu button, and the menu actually showed up at the bottom, but no screen, but sound. I didn't want to listen to a football game.

I have a radio for that. I wanted to watch it, so I didn't know what to do. I tried everything. I pushed a few more buttons.

It got to the point where it was pushing mine. Do you know what I mean by that? Have you ever been talking to your television, thinking it could respond to something like, come on, let's go. The kickoff is, well, I finally had to give up, turned it off, asked God to judge it, and went on and did something else. Then I'm studying the book of James, and one commentator that I've really enjoyed begins his chapter on this paragraph that we're about to study with these words. These are his opening words. To get the maximum enjoyment from your television, you need sound and picture. He missed a football game, too. It's bothering him.

He's writing commentaries on it. He went on, sight without sound or sound without sight just doesn't work. It's not enough to see the picture with no sound or to hear something that have no picture.

Television was designed to deliver both sound and picture. I thought, man, this is great theology. This man understands my life.

I like where he's going. Then he makes this application. The Christian life is a lot like television. It's not enough for people just to hear what we say. They need to see a picture, too. Our Christianity must deliver both sound and picture as we put our faith into action.

How true. Ladies and gentlemen, the book of James understands that the cable box of our heart which has received the data of God's truth has daily problems transmitting that data to the screen of our lives where people can not only hear but see a picture of godly Christianity. Maybe you've wondered if there was anything that you could possibly do to show that your Christianity is distinctive or different, that somehow the world would be able to notice a difference. Well, James is going to answer that question in this paragraph. And remember, he's writing this letter to believers. And he's going to deliver three ways for us to show distinctive Christianity.

And he's going to challenge us along the way in three areas with respect to our conversation, with respect to our compassion, and with respect to our character. James chapter 1 and verse 26. James writes, if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is worthless. Now, you might notice that there are two times in this verse alone that he's going to talk about and use the word religion.

It's also going to show up as a word in the next verse. The original word is a rare word, actually found rarely in the New Testament. It's a word denoting in secular culture someone who was trembling before their gods, someone who was fearful in the presence of their gods. And over time, it came to refer to careful, trembling observance of religious exercises. In other words, a real carefulness to do it right because God or the gods or whomever they followed was watching. Now, James is speaking to the first century Jewish Christians who would immediately understand this.

In fact, they had been very careful and were even at this time in their praying and their fasting as they attended the synagogue for worship services, as they gave of their resources there in the early church. So you need to know that James is not referring to spiritual slouches. He's referring to people who chair the committees. He's referring to key volunteers.

He's referring to the people that show up early to set up and the people that leave late so they've cleaned up and they turn the lights out as they leave. That's the kind of person that is the audience of James' letter. But everybody knows, as he writes here, that this individual has a problem. Their tongue is unbridled.

Literally, it is, as it were, a runaway horse. Now, the class condition he uses here, even though he doesn't name the person, he knows who the person is, or he assumes that the assembly knows who the person is that he's talking about. Their Christianity is being overshadowed by their conversation. Now, for the second time in this chapter, James warns the believer about being deceived.

You may remember, if you were with us, back up in verse 22, he wrote to the believer. He looks into the word but doesn't do anything about it. James calls him an auditor who is deceived. That is, he doesn't do anything about it. He listens, but he doesn't put it into practice.

He doesn't want the homework. He wants the advantage of hearing the lecture. Now, just a few verses later, here in verse 26, James refers again to a believer who is deceived. The word he uses in this verse is different. He's now talking about someone who is being seduced into believing some kind of error. In other words, here's the Christian who's doing all the right things, attending all the services, he's fasting, he's praying, he's giving, and then at the same time he's being deceived, he's being seduced into believing that those external acts are all that matters, never mind the runaway tongue. And isn't that the case in the church? We typically don't deal with the internals.

We would rather deal with the externals, and so if they show up and pay up and dress up, they're fine. In James' mind, he's going after the heart, out of which issues things from the mouth. The verb tense for bridling the tongue, by the way, deceiving your own heart, or in the present tense, indicating this is an ongoing daily struggle for every Christian and everyone would know it. Just like earlier, he talked about temptation, an ongoing battle. Just like he talked about being tutored by divine truth, an ongoing willingness. Just like he talked about even before that, the daily struggle with trials and asking God for the wisdom to respond with trust.

Now here, in relation to the tongue, this is a daily, daily battle. I remember being in a home years ago when some friends of mine had some horses and we were gonna ride them. They were out in the pasture, big pasture, probably 50 acres or more. The problem was the horses saw us coming toward them with bridles in our hands, swinging by our sides. And the horses evidently didn't feel disposed to be ridden upon that afternoon because they ran from us. Can't understand that at all. They ran and we tried everything we could possibly try to get near them and we could only get so close before they would gallop away.

Not one of us got near enough to any one of them to slip a bridle over their heads and into their mouths. James is saying, Christianity radically impacts your conversation. Are you running from the bridle or daily surrendering to the Spirit's control and confessing when you don't and surrendering again and again and again? Now he says here at the end of this text that that man's religion, the one who runs from the bridle, that man's religion is worthless. He doesn't say the man's religion doesn't exist or that he isn't a Christian. He's not only a Christian in this text, he is a devoted, active, busy Christian. But his religion is worthless.

James writes, the word for worthless or vain is the Greek word matias which means non-productive. It isn't leading him toward the goal that God wants as it relates to spiritual maturity which fits again the context that James is calling for. He's saying in a word or sentence this, external religious activity does not automatically produce spiritual internal maturity. You can come to every service, you can never miss a prayer meeting, you can never miss a morning's devotion, you can never miss putting the five dollars in the plate every time it shows up and never grow an inch which according to the mind of James can be measured by the quality and control of our conversation. Now I'm going to get a little more specific as to what James is talking about in a moment but let me share this with you. I was reading once John Wesley was preaching, John Wesley was the founder of Methodism in the 1700s.

At one time Methodism was evangelical and basically the church planting denomination in both England and America. He was preaching in an audience that he knew well. In fact a lady that had a critical attitude and an unkind spirit was sitting on the front row and through the entire sermon she sat there on the front row staring at his brand new bow tie. And when the service was over she came right up to him and said Mr. Wesley the strings on your bow tie are much too long they are offensive to me. He asked if any of the ladies present happened to have a pair of scissors and one of them did. He handed the scissors to her and asked her to trim the streamers to her liking. After she clipped them off near the collar he said are they right now?

She said yes that's much better now. Wesley said then let me have those scissors for a moment madam I must say your tongue is offensive to me. He said let me take some of it off. Ever since I heard that I want to use that would you come up make fun of my neck tie or do something.

I found a pair of scissors I'm ready for you. If you want to measure the depth of spiritual maturity effectively measure as it were the length of your tongue. Now let me say this I could I could go from here into all sorts of uses of the tongue and all the different ways the tongue can destroy deceive and discourage and come up with a lot more D words and we can all crawl out of here and go cry in our soup. James never tells us what the unbridled tongue is doing. He leaves it blank. He never tells us what it says. Later on by the way in chapter 3 James is going to deal with our tongue in detail so don't worry it's coming.

OK because all of us have the same problem. The bridle keeps slipping off but James has something more specific in mind with the tongue in this context which I think must be understood before I tell you let me set it up by telling you something else that may be missed here if we're not careful it's possible to come to the conclusion at the end of reading verse 26 that religious activity doesn't matter to God. That's not what James says. In fact if you know this text well you know that James is about to introduce to us religious activity that he says is pure.

He's not against religious activity. I believe the way to understand verse 26 is to contrast it with verse 27. In other words religious activity verse 26 that serves yourself that promotes yourself with your tongue that brags about yourself with your mouth that constantly turns people attention to you and what you're doing for God and why you're so important and on and on and on. James is saying that kind of unbridled speech is fruitless.

Yes you have activity but the sound doesn't match. On the other hand verse 27 religious activity that uses the mouth to defend the defenseless religious activity that speaks for the needy religious activity that cares about those who need help. That is pure. So of whom should we promote it. Should we promote their their welfare.

Of whom should we defend their rights. Of whom should we speak. This is fruitless religious activity. This is pure.

And James will answer that. Here's of whom you should be speaking. Notice verse 27 pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father. Make note of that by the way not necessarily in the sight of man. Mankind may not care but you're not doing it for them. You're doing it for God. Pure religion and undefiled religion that is in the sight of God and our God and Father is this.

To visit orphans and widows in their pressure, in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Keep in mind James is not telling people that if they want to get into heaven they need to start a visitation program to orphans and widows and keep themselves pure and unspotted from the world. He's not talking to people who need to be saved. He's talking to people who are. But there's a disconnect as it were in the cable box.

There is sound but nothing to see. James is saying we need to measure our maturity in light of these things. In other words if you're growing in Christ your Christianity will impact not only your conversation with others.

You won't be the subject of conversation. It will also impact your compassion toward others. Before we look specifically at that would you notice this unique description of God in verse 27 where James says pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is to visit orphans and widows. God and Father.

Hard to understand as an English reader these are two singular nouns separated by the word chi or and. And that grammatical construction means that the second noun is describing the first noun. In other words James refers to God and he says let me describe him for you. He is God who happens to be a father. Our father which is precious in this context because James is about to start talking about the defenseless and the fatherless. So he is saying God happens to have a father's heart.

David the psalmist wrote a father of the fatherless and a defender or a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. So James is basically saying that if you want to pursue Christian activity that really impresses God and reveals you are growing into the likeness of Christ you will demonstrate parental care and compassion and specifically in these two areas orphans and widows in the first century there was no life insurance and there were no welfare programs. In fact there were great needs surrounding the early church as soon as it was created.

Now these aren't the only two classes of society that needed compassion. In fact it's interesting as you trace the history of Christianity. Christianity was the primary influence as it gained acceptance and a hearing in the Western world establishing hospitals founding orphanages starting rescue missions building alms houses for the poor opening kitchens for the for the for the hungry. It was the Christian who chartered societies for the poor Christians who chartered societies for the homeless who built infirmaries for the mentally handicapped and the physically disabled and the elderly.

It was the Christian who was passionate about changing laws to free the slave and protect the child from cruel labor at the hands of cruel adults and on and on and on. Listen you need to understand that the Western world is what it is because of Christianity. The Western world did not produce Christianity. Christianity produced the Western world. You sure go ahead. Why not. And you won't hear that in sociology or history either.

You'll hear it here perhaps for the first time. Three hundred and fifty years before the birth of Christ Plato said a poor man who is no longer able to work because of sickness should be left to die. He was the great philosopher. A hundred and fifty years later another philosopher by the name of Paulus or Plautus argued that to feed a beggar was doing a disservice to yourself because you gave something away you should have kept and to serve.

It's a disservice to the beggar whose life you merely prolonged for more misery. When the city of Alexandria was hit by plagues the Romans abandoned their children their parents their citizens and fled the contagious disease. It was the Christian who stayed. In fact Julian the apostate the Roman emperor who called Christians Galileans as a way to scorn them he called Christ the Galilean. He said these Galileans are the ones who do service and relieving both their own poor and ours. In other words we can't quite figure out what it is about these Christians so that they actually risk their lives for the sake of people who do not belong to them. When our people leave those who belong to them for the sake of their own health to put it simply the nation that embraces Christianity as Christianity grows you discover something else growing and that is the value of human life and the nation that refuses Christianity. You see at the same time a devaluing of human life and the results are tragic. See Christianity introduces this stunning concept that life matters and every single person does too and no matter what condition no matter how sick no matter how healthy no matter how poor no matter how wealthy no matter how disconnected or well connected mentally capable or mentally unable no matter what it is no matter how old or young they matter and Christianity provides this rather radical impact in the culture that accepts it and that culture changes. Medical historians whether they're Christians or not admit and I'll read from one of them who said quote before the birth of Christ the spirit towards sickness and misfortune was not one of compassion the credit of ministering to human suffering on an extended scale belongs to Christianity.

If this is the first time you've ever heard that you ought to pick up a book like the way Christianity changed the world and it just traces historically everything from hospitals to orphanages. This issue and this problem of the devaluing of human life belongs to the God of this world who hates life. He's a destroyer. He's a killer.

He's a deceiver. The believer loves life seeks to enhance life protect life. This wasn't unique in Rome. Travel around the world during the time of Christ and you'll bump into a Japanese priest who for instance maintained they did as a collective group because of their theology that the sick and needy were actually odious to their gods and prevented the wealthy from helping them. In India in fact to this day there are millions and millions of people who are designated to be unhelped because of their class. They are viewed by their false doctrines as simply reincarnated people who lived their previous life in such a sinful state that they've now come back in this lower class. They're getting what they deserve so you don't try to alleviate their suffering they're getting what they deserve from the gods.

And so it struck me as I traveled through India on a couple occasions you will see well fed cattle walking around the street and starving children. The value system with Christianity stands on its feet because we believe in a creator God. The church was birthed in a culture where the value of human life was at an all time low. You travel back to Greece travel back to Rome you travel back to the 1st century and abortion and infanticide were universally accepted in fact Seneca the Roman historian who died around the same time James wrote this letter said and I quote we drown children who at birth are weak and physically impaired and quote it was so common the killing of children after birth that one historian blamed the population decline of Greece upon that practice. Infant girls were especially vulnerable simply because they would not be able to care for their parents or carry on the family property through inheritance. The girls during the early years of the church until Christianity took root and things changed in the 4th century they would be left out on the porches where at night they could be carried away by wild animals or brothel owners to be raised as prostitutes or as slaves and so the 1st century church began going around and I collecting and raising these children why because there's value in human life because life is the creation of God and God by the way happens to have a father's heart that's the gospel God is saying to his servant James he's asking are you helping those who cannot pay you back that's a genuine compassion and that is the gospel because God can say to us look what I've done for you and you can never pay me back we're not done with this message but we're almost out of time for today on our next broadcast Stephen will bring you the conclusion to this message you're listening to wisdom for the heart Stephen Davies current series comes from James and is called bringing faith down to earth we have a companion resource I want to make you aware of Stephen has written a commentary on the entire book of James it's his practical and pastoral exposition of this great book during the series we've been making it available at a very special rate this book is a great resource to help you dive deep into this important epistle we've also had several people use it as a guide for a group Bible study again it's available today at a special rate and you can order as many copies as you need our website is found at wisdom online dot org that's wisdom online dot org you can also call us at 866 48 Bible that's eight six six four eight two four two five three and I hope we hear from you today as I mentioned we will conclude this lesson on our next broadcast so join us then for more wisdom for the heart