Latest / Admonition Podcast / Imagine Pure Religion - Justin Evergarden - July 05, 2026

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Imagine Pure Religion - Justin Evergarden - July 05, 2026 · Admonition Podcast

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If you would please turn your Bibles over to James 1 and verse 27.
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James 1 and verse 27.
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Romeo Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?
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These are words from the uh very well known poet Shakespeare.
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It was during the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet.
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The same balcony scene where Shakespeare's immortal words are engrafted on the minds of so many people, where they say, Ah, a rose called by any other name would smell just as
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sweet.
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However, I disagree with Shakespeare.
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If any of you have ever taken classes on argument, or even basic English classes, as many of you probably have, we know that words have definitions, and those definitions must be
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exact.
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In the subject of argument in and of itself, the very first thing you have to do with any argument that's going to have any form of foundation is to define your terms.
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So every word has a direct meaning.
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And the meaning must be very specific.
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Few words in modern culture produce as many different reactions as the word religion.
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For some, religion may bring to mind faith, hope, and even the meaning of life.
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For others, unfortunately, it brings to mind division, hypocrisy, conflict, disappointment.
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And even violence.
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These reactions often come from personal experience rather than history or scripture.
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And to be fair, not all of those negative reactions are without cause.
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Throughout human history, terrible things have been done in the name of religion.
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Specifically, false religions have done everything from human sacrifice to oppression to exploitation.
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In our history books, one such example we can see is the Catholic Crusades.
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How many millions of people died during the Crusades?
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If we look to Scripture, we can see the prophet Jeremiah condemning the worship of Molech, where children were literally offered as sacrifices.
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Back then, the image of Molech was a statue with his hands held out, a fire placed underneath, and they would take the children and set them on top as sacrifices.
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Jeremiah said that never never have such things ever been commanded by God.
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Jeremiah in thirty-two, verse thirty-five says, And they built high places unto the places of Baal, which are in the valley of Hinnum, to cause their sons and daughters to pass
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through the fire unto Molech, which I commanded them not, neither it came into my mind that they should do this abomination.
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Because of such horrible things in history, many have concluded wrongly that religion is the problem.
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The idea was probably most famously expressed by one of our musicians, John Lennon.
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He wrote a song named Imagine, granted, with a very catchy tune, beautiful melody to it.
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But the wording, he imagined a world without heaven.
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A world without hell, a world without nations, possessions, and specifically in his song he says without religion.
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His thought was that mankind might finally have peace if these things were removed entirely from mankind.
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Truthfully, I think these are some of the worst song lyrics to have ever been written, because they are simply not true.
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The song may be catchy, but the message is not.
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Because his conclusion misses something very, very important.
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The problem is not religion itself, the problem stems from man's corruption of it.
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Turn in your Bibles over to Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 29.
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To save time tonight, I've put all the verses up on a PowerPoint because I've got a lot to go through.
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In writing to the Ecclesiastes, he says, Lo, this only have I found that God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.
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This is exactly what mankind has done with the word religion.
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Men have altered it, they have abused it, they have politicized it, they have even in some cases commercialized it.
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But that's not what it's about.
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They want to reshape it according to human desire.
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But the abuse of something good does not prove that the thing itself is evil.
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To condemn religion because some have abused it would be like condemning medicine because some have misused it.
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There's a large difference between taking cough medicine to cure your cough and taking cough medicine to overdose on it.
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It does not make the medicine itself the problem.
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And the same is true with religion.
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The New Testament does not define true religion by worldly terms like pride or violence or hypocrisy and specifically not man-made tradition.
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God defines true religion by purity, by compassion, by holiness, by definition obedience.
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So let's look at what James says in James 1 and verse 27.
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He says, and I quote: Pure religion, and undefiled before God, and the Father is this.
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To visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
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This one verse brings us back to God's standard and the correct definition of what religion is.
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So imagine so instead of imagining a world with no religion this evening, we need to ask ourselves a better question: What would the world look like if people actually practiced
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the religion that God approves?
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There's a major shift there.
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So we're going to break down James 129 and we're going to look at the characteristics of pure religion.
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He uses first off two words, pure and undefiled.
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Pure religion, meaning religion that's free from contamination.
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It hasn't been mixed with human tradition or philosophy or invention or human preference.
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It remains what God intended it to be.
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And that matters because God has because mankind has always been tempted to improve on God's design.
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We've never been able to do it, but mankind is always tempted to try.
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Men often assume human wisdom can make God's way more appealing, more digestible, more acceptable.
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But Scripture warns us about trusting our own way above God's way.
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Proverbs 14 and verse 12 says, There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
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Something may seem right and still be wrong.
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It may feel sincere and still be unauthorized.
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It can be popular and still be false.
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Pure religion asks, what has God said about it?
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In Colossians 3:17, we read, And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
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Now in the name of the Lord Jesus means by his authority.
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When the police come and knock on your door, they say, Open up in the name of the law.
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It's not just the law named, it's by the authority that's given to us by the law of the land.
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This is what this verse means.
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So pure religion does not begin with, do I like this?
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Do I like this congregation that I'm going to?
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It asks and begins with, has Christ authorized this?
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This is why purity matters.
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If a glass of water had a few drops of motor oil in it, no reasonable person on this planet would say, well, it's mostly water, I'll drink it anyway.
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The issue is not the amount of water.
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The issue is the contamination of the water.
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In the same way, a religious system may contain many elements of truth and yet still be corrupted by doctrines and practices that God never authorized.
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James also says that true religion is undefiled before God.
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This is the second one.
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This phrase reminds us that God is the judge of religion in and of itself, not culture, not tradition.
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In Japan, they have a problem of family history that defines their religion.
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What defines it is God.
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A practice may be ancient and may be still unauthorized.
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A congregation may be large, but it's still wrong.
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How many times do we read in the Bible, and few there be that find it?
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It's not saying the larger the congregation, the safer you are.
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There's not safety in numbers here.
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The standard is not what man accepts, it's the standard which God approves of.
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So Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 10.
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Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Again, remember that's by the authority of that ye all speak different things.
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I'm sorry, I read that wrong, didn't I?
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He said, Speak the same thing.
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That there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
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We can reference this with Ephesians 4, verses 4 through 5, where he says, There's one body, one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith,
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one baptism.
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That's not six different things.
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I know I'm holding up all the fingers.
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It's just one.
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One, one, one.
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Six different times.
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These verses do not describe religious confusion, they describe unity in truth.
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Pure religion requires us to have much more than simply good intentions.
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Some of the worst things that have ever happened on this planet have become because of good intentions, gone about the wrong way.
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But James does not stop with doctrine.
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Pure religion is not merely something we believe in, it's something we have to practice.
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So we have the practice of pure religion.
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James gives us two clear evidences of pure religion.
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First, we see that pure religion cares for those who are suffering.
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In James 1 27.
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Second, he says pure religion remains unstained by the world.
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These two pictures that we're given give us a very good balanced view of what Christianity should mean.
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We must reach outward in compassion while at the same time guarding ourselves inwardly.
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Now, for those of you that like to watch uh MMA or like the boxing, you always see them with their hands up protecting the heads, the most vulnerable part.
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When you go out to do the work, one arm is bat out while the other one stays back protecting.
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It's the same imagery used here.
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You have to be doing something while protecting yourself at the same time.
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James says pure religion involves visiting the fatherless and the widows in their affliction.
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Now in the ancient world, widows and orphans were among the most vulnerable of the population.
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Many lacked financial support.
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Back then they didn't have legal protection.
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they didn't have very good social standing.
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They were easily forgotten and unable to defend themselves.
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Back then they did not have welfare, they did not have snap benefits, they did not have all these things to care for them.
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So many times they were simply left to just fend on their own, and they were forgotten.
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But Psalm 68 and verse 5 says, A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation.
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Let's look further into Psalms 146 and verse 9, where it says, The Lord preserveth the strangers, he relieveth the fatherless and the widows.
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He's there for them.
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And these verses reveal the heart of God, a God that cares, a God who loves the afflicted.
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He notices that all the ones the society has forgotten.
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Because pure religion is a religion that reflects the character of God, not one that's just lip service.
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It must produce that same concept in its followers, in its people, in its Christians.
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James is not saying widows and orphans are the only people Christians should help.
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He's using the examples of those who are vulnerable.
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Those who are in need, those have afflicted by something.
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Genuine faith is one that moves beyond words and into action.
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First John three, verses seventeen through eighteen.
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But whoso hath this world's good and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
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How how is it possible?
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He's being facetious here.
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It's not possible.
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To shut yourself up from those in need and still claim to have God.
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And then he has a kind remark.
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He's he's appealing to the ones he loves.
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He says, My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth.
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We read elsewhere in the Bible it says, They shall know you by your works, not by your lip service.
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This is practical Christianity.
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Yeah, it's easy to say we love people.
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It's easy to fly a flag all month long.
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It's easy to speak kindly about compassion.
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But pure religion will ask is our love visible?
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Is it actionable?
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Are we helping?
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Are we serving?
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Are we noticing?
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Are we making time for those that are hurting?
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We need to make time.
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Look at Galatians 6 and verse 10.
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It says, as we have therefore opportunity, when opportunity presents itself, let us do good unto some men.
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No.
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The men which we agree with.
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No.
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The ones we disagree with?
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Yes.
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Unto all men.
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Doesn't matter what their background is.
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Doesn't matter what their belief system is.
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Doesn't matter what their history is.
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It says, do good unto all men, especially unto those that are of the household of faith.
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It's telling us that opportunity matters.
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And when God places someone in front of us who's hurting, who's lonely, who's discouraged, who's sick, who's grieving, who's recovering, who's struggling, who's spiritually weak,
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who needs prayers.
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Who's broken down on the side of the road?
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Who's broke?
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I could keep going on.
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He is saying we have an opportunity there to practice pure religion.
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The world likes to ask, What can others do for me?
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God tells us to ask, What can we do for the world?
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Who needs me?
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And this is what we see in Christ.
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Jesus noticed the people who others ignored.
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He spoke with the outcast.
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He touched the untouchable.
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He comforted the grieving.
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He showed compassion to those whose society often rejected.
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Think back at the lepers.
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Matthew nine and verse thirty-six says, But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them.
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This is a Savior who had enough compassion to see hearts and souls in need.
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In Luke 10, verses 25 through 37, which I don't have on the slides, Jesus gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan.
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A man had been beaten, robbed, and left half for dead.
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A priest passed by.
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A Levite passed by.
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Both were religious men, as the world would define religion.
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Both knew the law, but neither stopped.
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So then the Samaritan came.
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He saw the wounded man, he showed him compassion, he treated his wounds, took him to an inn, and even provided for his care, paid for it.
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When we read that, a lesson becomes very clear.
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Actions
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mean more than words.
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Religious activity alone is not the same thing as pure religion.
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Attendance matters, yes, worship matters, doctrine absolutely matters, but outward religion without compassion is not the religion James described.
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Just read the all of chapter one.
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Charity, love.
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There's multiple different types of love there.
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Pure religion helps, it does not harm, and it seeks the good of others rather than personal advantage.
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Wherever people are suffering, Christians have not only the opportunity but
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But we have the need to do good unto them.
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The second evidence of pure religion we see is personal holiness.
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He says, Remain unspotted from the world in James 1:27.
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Compassion without holiness is incomplete.
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Christians are called to serve the world, yes, but we are not called to become like the world.
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And we have to be very careful there.
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Let me ask: if you have a rescue swimmer, you go to most public pools, I try to not go to those places for other reasons.
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But for sake of an illustration, you go to a public pool, they always have a lifeguard on duty.
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Can a lifeguard save someone if he himself does not know how to swim and he jumps in that water?
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No.
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He can't save someone when he himself is being overcome by the same amount of water.
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This is the same thing.
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Christians face a similar challenge.
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We are called to go forth and teach all nations, help the world, love souls in the world.
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But we must not adopt the values.
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We must not adopt the attitudes.
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We must not adopt the desires.
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And we absolutely cannot adopt the practices of the world.
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Romans 12 and verse 2.
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It says, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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First John two fifteen.
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We can cross reference.
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He says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in it.
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James uses the word unspotted.
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It gives the picture of a very clean garment, a wedding dress.
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You haven't spilled ketchup on it yet.
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Because you're you're not to that point.
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You're not eating at the end.
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A small stain would be very easy to see against that clean of a background.
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In the same way, sin can stain our souls, and the world is full of it.
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It damages our influence and weakens our faith.
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But most importantly, sin is what distance and separates us from God the Father.
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Even a small sin is enough to distance us.
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And the world constantly applies pressure to do just that to sin.
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And sometimes, yes, that pressure is obvious.
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It comes in the form of immorality, of lies, uh drunkenness, using profanity, greed.
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Sometimes it's even as as blatant as simple rebellion to God.
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But sometimes it can be a lot more subtle, can't it?
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Pride?
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Bitterness onto that anger?
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Materialism.
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Being so hooked that you just can't let go of something.
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Laziness is one.
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Or it could be just the quiet acceptance of worldly values.
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It's the idea of, well, I'll do me and you just do you.
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That's not love.
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Is it love whenever you see your
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We'll say two or three-year-old child walk up and they're gonna go put their hand on the hot stove.
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Do you intervene because you care?
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Or do you say, you just do you, man?
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Hopefully you'll learn.
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I mean they will learn.
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But he's gonna be punished because of it.
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It's gonna hurt, right?
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We all know that.
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That's simple.
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This is the same thing of why we try to teach the world.
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We're trying to keep them from that ultimate harm because we love them.
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Love is not bailing your buddy out of jail.
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Love is sitting there next to them saying, Yeah, I know you messed up, man, but I'm here for you.
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I'm gonna help you through this.
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Modern technology has made this even more difficult.
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Entertainment, social media, streaming platforms, digital content putting the thinking of the world in front of us every single day.
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And you don't get a reprieve from the program just because the commercials come on.
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They've infiltrated almost every single commercial out there.
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Yes, technology can be used responsibly, but they can also shape our desires and dull our senses in a spiritual manner.
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Holiness does not happen by accident.
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No one drifts into holiness.
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No one accidentally becomes Christ-like.
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We have to pursue that.
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How?
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Psalms 119 and 11 says, Thy word have I hidden mine heart that I might not sin against thee.
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Psalm 119 11 on the slides.
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missing it.
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There we go.
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Alright, we're gonna go to the next one.
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First Peter 1, 15 through 16.
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But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
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The world do not need Christians who blend in.
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We've got to stick out from the world.
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It needs Christians who show a different way of living.
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As Jesus said in Matthew 5, 16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your lip service.
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Shake your heads like this.
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No.
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He says that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
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They see our light reflected by his light.
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Light is noticeable because it's different from darkness.
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If Christians ever became indistinguishable from the world, do you think our influence would weaken?
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Yeah.
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When we live lives that are holy like his, our conduct becomes a testimony to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ working in us and through us.
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Pure religion is not about merely avoiding obvious sins.
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It's cultivating an entire lifestyle for us, that's why we call ourselves Christians, that reflect the character of Christ.
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When we understand James' definition of pure religion, we can better understand why so many people are disillusioned with the word religion.
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Much of what they reject is not the religion described in Scripture.
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They have not started by defining the terms they are using.
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They are rejecting human religion, shaped by ambition.
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And all the other things we listed before.
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And rightly so, we should absolutely reject all of man's religions all the time.
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In the days of Jesus, many religious leaders elevated human tradition above God's commands.
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Let's look at Mark seven and verse seven.
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How be it in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
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It's pretty scary statement.
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They worshiped, but their worship was in vain.
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God does not have to accept every form of worship.
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They were religious, but their religion was corrupted.
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Yes, the Pharisees prayed, they fasted, they followed many traditions, yet Jesus exposed the difference between outward religion and genuine submission to God.
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Shakespeare likes to say that we're all just actors playing the part.
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We're all actors on a stage.
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Again, I disagree.
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You can become something.
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You are not merely playing the part.
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A Christian is a Christian, not pretending to be one.
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We need to define our terms.
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The same danger exists today.
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A person can be sincere, very much so, and still be wrong.
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Look at Saul when he was confronted on the road of Damascus.
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He was very sincere in what he was doing, but he was wrong.
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A group may be passionate and still be teaching an error.
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A practice may be popular, but still be unauthorized.
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Jesus said in Matthew 7 and verse 21, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of the Father which is in
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heaven.
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So what is he saying?
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He's saying religious claims are not enough.
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You can say you're spiritual till you're blue in the face, it doesn't mean anything.
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Your actions are how God is going to judge us.
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Jesus continues by describing people who would say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy names?
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And in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works.
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But his response was, I never knew you.
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Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
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These people were deeply religious.
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But they were rejected because they did not do the will of the Father.
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They did their own will.
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If we don't learn anything else tonight, it's that the answer to false religion is to return to God's will.
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John 8 and verse 32, Jesus said, And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
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Truth matters, truth exists, truth can be known.
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It is not a spectrum.
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We do not get to pick our truth.
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You do not get to have your truth.
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There is the truth and there is the lie.
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It's that simple.
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Jesus did not speak of many conflicting truths.
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Contradictory doctrines cannot all be correct at the same time.
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It's simple logic.
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Not hard to understand, but that creates a serious problem in a religious world filled with division.
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Many groups claim allegiance to Christ while teaching different doctrines concerning salvation, concerning worship.
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Concerning church organization, concerning morality, and Christian living.
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But the New Testament calls us back to unity in truth.
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I've said this before, once once before, maybe you remember there's a difference in unity and union.
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Imagine two cats running away from a dog.
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You have unity.
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They are one in purpose.
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Escape the dog.
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If you take those two cats and you tie their tails together and you throw them over a clothesline, they are in union.
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I promise they will not be in unity.
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They will be fighting each other.
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There's a massive difference.
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First Corinthians one and verse ten says it all.
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That ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you.
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None.
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Zero.
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If I disagree with you on a topic, we need to open the word of God and see what God says about it.
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Because if he said it, that settles it.
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Our opinions do not matter.
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Ephesians 4 and verse 4 through 5 again one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one.
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It is either total immersion or it is sprinkling.
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What does the word of God say?
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Immersion.
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Second John 9 says, whoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God.
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The solution to religious division is not to ignore doctrine.
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This solution is not imagine no religion.
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The solution is to return.
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To the doctrine of Christ.
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So human religion will ask, What do I want?
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Pure religion will ask, what does God want?
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Human religion seeks convenience.
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Pure religion should seek obedience.
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Human religion follows the culture.
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Pure religion follows Scripture.
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Removing religion has never removed any of mankind's deepest problems.
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It hasn't removed greed, selfishness, hatred, immorality, and many, many others.
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People have tried time and time again.
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If you Google search, there have been a couple cities where they outlawed religion.
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They didn't last too long.
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Problems do not originate with pure religion.
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They originate in the human heart.
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Jeremiah seventeen and verse nine says, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
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Who can know it?
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God can.
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So we need to look towards the greatest example of pure religion that we have.
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That's Christ.
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It's not found in a human system, it's Christ.
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Jesus perfectly demonstrated everything James described.
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He cared for the vulnerable.
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He remained perfectly unspotted from the world.
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He lived in complete submission to the will of the Father, even when it came time for him to die on a cross.
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Remember the prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane?
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Lord, if there be any other way, however, not my will, but thine.
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If there's not, I will submit.
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He was compassionate without compromise.
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Hebrews 4 and verse 15 says that Christ was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin.
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Jesus entered the world and faced sorrow.
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He faced everything that we had to deal with.
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And he remained pure.
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There were no motor oil in that water.
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Pure water.
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John 1 14 says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
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He had the ability to remain distance.
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He was God in heaven.
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Further on in John chapter 1, you see where he made the world.
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But he became just like us.
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He understood how it felt to be sick, how it felt to be poor, how it felt to grieve.
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One of the first Bible verses our little ones learn to memorize is Jesus wept.
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He was definitely an outcast.
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Matthew nine and verse thirty six says, But when he saw the multitude he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no
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shepherds.
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Where others may have seen interruptions, Christ would have saw souls.
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Luke nineteen and verse ten says, For the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.
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He did not merely talk about love, he lived it.
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He came down from heaven to prove it.
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The greatest demonstration of pure religion was seen at the cross.
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And you'll never be able to convince me otherwise.
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First Peter two, verses twenty one through twenty-two says, Christ also suffered for us, leaving an example that we should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was found
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gil f guile found in his mouth.
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Tell me, was he reviled on that cross by the people there?
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Yeah.
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Did he revile them back?
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No, he fully submitted himself, and he even said, Forgive them, they know not what they do.
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Romans 5 and verse 8 says, But God commended his love towards us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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That's the heart of the gospel, right?
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The good news.
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So when the world says, Imagine no religion, the Christian must answer.
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No.
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Imagine pure religion.
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Just take a moment and imagine a people who actually followed Christ.
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Let's let's take John Lennon's song for a second.
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I'm not going to go through all the lyrics.
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But let's just turn that upside down and imagine an entire world of people who care for those who are suffering.
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Not a single person does not care about those who are suffering and willing to put the work in to stop the suffering.
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Because you can care and do nothing about it, right?
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Or say you care.
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But again, pure religion is one that works.
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How about an entire world who defend the helpless?
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How about an entire world of people, no one left out, who teaches the truth?
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How about an entire world of people who love God enough to obey Him and who love souls enough to serve them?
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This is the religion James described.
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This is the religion Jesus lived.
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This is the religion that God ordained.
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And this is the religion every Christian in the world is called to practice.
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The question is not whether or not the s the world has seen false religion.
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It absolutely has.
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The question is whether the world can see pure religion demonstrated when we leave this building out those back doors.
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Remember that James one verse twenty seven is God's definition of religion.
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So if we want that pure religion, we must come to God on his terms, right?
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Yes.
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Jesus said in John fourteen, verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
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No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
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Acts four and verse twelve says, Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
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Christ has all authority.
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Matthew 28:18, all power is given to me in heaven and in earth.
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And since Christ has all authority, we have to obey his gospel.
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We must believe because Hebrews 11:6 says, But without faith, it is impossible to please him.
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We must repent, because Luke 13:3 says, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
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We must be willing to confess to Christ, because Romans 10 10 says, For with the man with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
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salvation.
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And we must be baptized, because Mark 16 and verse 16 says, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.
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And finally, we must live faithfully because Revelation 2.10 says, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.
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Pure religion should never be something we just discuss.
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It has to be something we obey.
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It has to be something we practice.
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It has to be something to live, and it has to be something that I hope every one of us loves.
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Because there's no downside to pure religion.
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So tonight before we leave, I hope you ask yourself the simple question: Are we practicing pure religion before God?
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If not, now is the time to return to his standard as we stand and