Pastor Paul Chappell: Be Real

would you take your Bible and turn now to the book of James and we're going to turn to James chapter 1 and let's stand together if you would please for the reading of God's Word James chapter 1 we're going to read two verses this morning last week we started a miniseries entitled because and why is it so important that a Christian lives a life of distinction and the reason for that is because we are to be living for the glory of God and we're going to take just these three weeks and give three reasons for living for God's glory we're gonna learn first of all last week how to be wise and how we need wisdom in the day that we live in especially and then today we're going to learn about how to be real what does it mean at the baseline to be a real Christian and then next week we're going to preach about how to be ready and I'm excited about that of course the last Sunday of August we begin a brand new series entitled one another there's a little flyer in your bulletin so you can give that to a friend and you know some of them maybe could use some encouragement in relationships at work or home this is gonna be a great series I'm excited about it but today James chapter one and let's read verses 26 and 27 follow with me please If any man among you seem to be religious and Bridal if not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this man's religion is vain pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world I love these verses where the Lord so succinctly gives us an essence and understanding of what it really means to live for him and if you're like me and you just need something brought down to the bottom shelf today's gonna be a great help as we learn about being a real Christian let's pray together father thank you for the wonderful crowd here at the end-of-summer not only Lord the attendance but the spirit in church today it's just been such a blessing to my heart now Lord as we open your word we want to thank and praise you that you give us such direction and guidance and I asked that our hearts would be very pliable and moldable Lord even as in the first service we were able to learn these truths may this service have an anointing as well and I ask that if there is anyone in this room that does not know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior that this would be the day when they turn and trust you and realize religion cannot save me only Jesus can save me and I pray and ask this in Jesus name Amen you may be seated several years ago as the conflict and the war in Afghanistan was heating up there was a young man that went to his local armory in his Texas Army Reserve Station and Fort Worth and this man's name was Jesse Johnston and as he walked in to this particular outpost he wanted to volunteer to be a part of the reserve program there and he walked in literally wearing a Marine uniform not only did he have a Marine uniform but he had fabricated a resume of prior military service and he presented that and he began to explain he was kind of a fast talker had some different medals on his chest and so forth and one thing led to another and before you knew it Jesse Johnston was a noncommissioned officer in the United States Army and it wasn't until several months later that someone began to become suspicious that this young man did not really understand some of the very basic elements of military life and soon they began to do an investigation into his life and background and they found in fact he'd never been to boot camp he'd never had any kind of training at all he had been a member of an ROTC class for just a few weeks and he had quit and somehow all of the sudden he was in the Army as a noncommissioned officer you know when I read that story I thought of so many people who know about God but they've never had a real relationship with God people that walk around and even know terms like praying for you god bless you people who know how to act the part but in reality there no power no true definition of spirituality in their life because they've never known the Lord Jesus Christ if you don't get anything out of the message today I want you to understand that religion does not impress God unless it is out of the Lord Jesus Christ being lived through you let me explain what I mean by that notice in the introduction this morning the word religion really does focus on the external in fact the greek word for religion emphasizes the external of ceremonies and religious discipline and sometimes we might see a buddhist monk crawling on his knees perhaps to a large statue or someone crawling up the steps of a basilica until their knees bleedin and we might say that that is very religious that act that they are doing it is a sacrificial act of their religion but the Bible is also very clear as you notice in the introduction that we are not saved by religion or by our good works that we are only redeemed from our sin and the penalty of our sin by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in other words it's not by works of righteousness which we have done do you see that in Titus 3 and verse 5 it says not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost or by being born again by the Spirit of God and maybe you can use that verse this week when talking to someone who has a religious background but they're not really sure that they have a real relationship with God you see God is not impressed with works that we do to gain his favor that work was done on the cross of Calvary his desire is that we would serve Him after our salvation from a heart of love and from a heart of joy and then notice thirdly in the introduction here that religion that is marked by formality and tradition but is without power is useless now let's how many of you understand there's a lot of religion in America today many churches and I'm not speaking this morning to be critical but the fact of the matter is there are many church buildings and sanctuaries and lecterns and musical instruments but God says I'm not impressed with any form of religion that has set aside my son the Lord Jesus Christ in fact the Bible says in verse a second Timothy three and five having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof from such turn away now where is the power the power is found in the gospel of jesus christ Paul said for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles so the power is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ and so religion alone cannot save us it is not impressive to the Lord unless it is the outflowing of his presence within our everyday lives and I believe this pure religion real religion should be a part of the revived Christians lifestyle but how can we this morning really distinguish between the false and the real and that's why I said a moment ago I thank the Lord for simple verses like this that help us to see that there is a false religion and there is a real religion that can be lived and God says I'm not impressed with a false religion that is not about having me at the middle of all of it he said I want you to have a pure and a real religion so let's dive into these verses notice in verse 26 it says if any man among you seem to be religious now I want you to notice in our notes this morning that false religion is very presumptuous it's presumptuous there is a form of reverence in false religion and the form is mentioned simply because of the fact that the Bible says if any among you seem to be religious the word seemed of course means to be reputed as being such or to appear in this particular way and certainly in the first century especially in the Jewish tradition we are mindful of those men that were called the Sadducees and the Pharisees and Jesus often battled with them because while they rejected him as Messiah they continually added rule upon rule upon rule they emphasized the external and listen to what Jesus said to them and I want you to imagine while I read this if Jesus was standing in this pulpit right here and speaking to those who were very presumptuous very proud full in their religious tendencies and listen to what he says in Matthew 23 27 he says woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye are like unto whited Sepulcher --zz which indeed appear beautiful outward but are in word full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness he says your religion is like a graveyard it looks clean on the outward you have something standing up there but inside it is dead verse 28 even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity now often time the Pharisee or or the legalist who's constantly adding additional burdens are constantly exalting themselves and and condemning others and yet Jesus Christ condemns them and he says while you put the emphasis on all of the outward you're missing that matter of the heart that relationship that matters most for Jesus thought blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and I want you to think about religion and how tricky it can be because many people trust in their religion and yet when I go back to the early church and I look at the very first called out assembly those early twelve all of them followers of Jesus imagine them walking around Judea Samaria Galilee imagine them watching Jesus as he fed the five thousand but one of them the one that was the treasurer a trusted member of the early church his name if you will recall was Judas Iscariot and judas judas iscariot who seemed to be right with the program had never even truly turned his life to the Lord Jesus Christ and been saved you see religion is us trying to prove to God how important we are spirituality is being humble enough to allow God to prove to us how important he is you see today is not about us trying to impress God about us let's just be honest today we're all sinners saved by the grace of God today is about all of us being here to understand how great God is and to exalt his name together tozer wrote many years ago religion today and this is amazing because you would think he's writing about the church in 2018 but more than 50 years ago he wrote these words religion today is not transforming the people it is being transformed by the people it is not raising the moral level of society it is descending to society's own level and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smiling accepting its surrender you see often times today the culture is affecting the church more than the church is affecting the culture and a lot of the reason for that is because we have a religion that is so presumptuous in its style there's a form of reverence but not the power of the true reverence of God but then I want you to see a second characteristic of false religion not only does it have this presumptuous form but the Bible says also that those in false religious mode will have uncontrolled speech they will say things that are harsh and critical they will say things that lift themselves up while tearing others down now notice what it says in verse 26 If any man among you seem to be religious notice this phrase and bridle if not his tongue let's say that together and bry knoweth now when I read that word bridle I get a picture in my mind of all the years out on the farm in Colorado and riding horses and I don't know if you've ever done much horse riding but boy you you put that bridle in that horse's mouth and sometimes they fight against that they don't want that bridle in there how many have ever seen a horse's tongue that big old thing drooling off and imagine that bridle coming in and it's interesting to me that when God's gonna talk about false religion he uses the horse's tongue as a as a picture he said I want to tell you something that that this tongue can cause great damage and it needs to be control just like a tongue in a horse's control James three and five even so the tongue is little a little member and most afraid things behold how great a matter a little fire kindle a--the now in the Word of God we're taught that we can speak to that which is towards the edification of another or towards the defamation of another and those that are involved in this pharisaical look at me I'm better I'm a better Christian we're better people look at those people over there they're not so good that's kind of the way that it always seems to go because instead of showing their works instead of living their faith they're gonna talk about their faith and they're gonna many times degrade someone else in the process can I encourage you with something maybe at work this week you don't need to lift yourself up by tearing someone else down make sure that in your life that you live in such a way that it's very obvious that there's a power upon your life and that God is resting in your life now notice five different types of wicked tongues the Bible condemns first of all there's the lying tongue the Bible says wherefore put away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor Spurgeon said he who tells little eyes will soon think nothing of great ones for the principle is the same then there's the slandering tongue and the men which Moses sent to search the land who returned and made all the congregation to murmur against him by bringing up a slander upon the land here we see that some in their religious form will even slander a good man or even a good leader like Moses in order to fulfill their little purpose of looking better somehow in order to justify their lack of faithfulness or their lack of holiness or whatever the case might be they will slander then thirdly we see that there's tale-bearing the Bible says of the tail bearer or the gossip in proverbs 20 and verse 19 he that goes about as a tail bearer revealeth secrets this is someone who breaks confidences this is someone that's so lowdown they will break a confidence in order to make themselves look better and then the Bible speaks of the one who sews discord or creates conflict we see this so often today on social media do we not Terry and I had some rest while we were away on vacation and taking some study time one of the primary reasons that we disconnected was because I unplugged all social media no no Facebook none of that just just taking time away from all the toxicity because there are so many people who are presumptuously religious who want to give their opinions and give their ideas and many times they're very sarcastic and very cutting and they are not speaking the truth in love and the Bible says in Proverbs 616 these six things death the Lord hate gay seven are an abomination unto him and notice in verse 19 a false witness that speaketh lies and he that soweth discord amongst the Brethren make sure that in your life and I'll preach a little bit about this tonight that you're a peacemaker make sure that in your Sunday School class if someone kind of cast doubt on someone else that that you give the benefit of the doubt that that you're a gracious person do your best to make sure you're in your life that you're edifying and then notice number five corrupt speech this is just flat-out profanity and sinful topics being discussed and God says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth and fellas maybe man just reminds you tomorrow at work you don't need to even listen to the dirty joke much less tell it God says I don't want my people coming to church on Sunday singing Amazing Grace and going to work on Monday and talking gutter talk and somebody give me an amen right there you see because when we do that it's a very vain in a very empty way of living we're just v-very presumptuously acting like we have a real relationship and there's real fruit but in reality we're just going through the motions now I gave this to our church some years ago but I want to give it to you again real quickly when it comes to our speech and here's a little acrostic and you might cut this out and put it on your refrigerator first of all when it comes to your posting on social media when it comes to your speech I want you to stop and ask this is it true is it true and secondly I want you to ask this is it helpful because not even everything that's true is helpful to put out there right the guy next to you might have terrible breath this morning you don't need to tell everybody on the other side of the P of you there are some things that are true that don't need to be repeated I is it inspiring if I say this if I post this how's it gonna inspire someone how is this gonna be such a blessing that they're gonna know this in is it necessary doctor do I really need to say this and Kay is it kind is it kind now I think of each of these I think of inspiring how many of you wives would say my husband has said things to me at times that we're extremely uninspiring anybody any wives want to be honest okay some of you wives are being so nice right now let me switch the way around how many of you husbands would say you know pastor there have been times in my life that I didn't think it through and I said something that was less than inspiring to my wife and I wished I could have taken the words back husbands how many of you would say that all right many husbands today my hand included and those of you that did not raise your hand I'm preaching this message exactly to you presumptuous haughty Pharisees that did not raise your hand because every single one of us has men who our husbands could say yep I have not thought it through there have been times when I said something that was not inspiring to my wife now you can take that acrostic and use it as as you will but I say with Facebook or Twitter or whatever it is that you're involved in make sure that in all forms of communication that you're not saying things that are unbecoming of your faith that you are not seeming to be religious but in fact just like every other talking head out there in society false religion is presumptuous it is big on look and on talk but it doesn't produce in the end of the day let's notice one more thing about false religion secondly false religion is deceptive and this is what I think breaks my heart the most for those times when I've kind of been skimming and going through the motions and haven't been walking to the depth that God wants for me it is very unfulfilling and if you've ever been there as a Christian when you just got busy and you were looking right but not having the prayer you should have not really letting the Holy Spirit work in your heart pretty soon you can get real empty and many times Christians quit in defeat and it wasn't God's fault it was just you went through a season where you weren't hearing that still small voice so notice this first of all false religion deceives the heart and I want you to see that in verse number 26 it says and Bridal if not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart the word deceiveth of course means to cheat or to beguile in other words you're only hurting yourself when you fail to live the power of the gospel you're only hurting yourself when you fail to walk in the spirit you're only hurting yourself when you're not listening in God's house or coming to the altar if God would speak to your heart and I want you to notice this little quote any response to the gospel that chooses not to include obedience is self deception this idea that we get Jesus into our life now we're not going to hell and that's a wonderful thing but now I can do whatever I want and I can I can look the part on Sunday but live how I want that is not the intention of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ his intention is that we would put our hand to the plow and never look back and be his true disciples James is very clear that the person who thinks that he can live however he wants is delusional in his thinking in fact each and every one of us must recognize first on 1:8 if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is the truth is not in us for someone who's just talking the talk like they've got it all together God says don't deceive yourself God says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the LORD search the heart I try the reigns even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings and so false religion deceives the heart in fact sometimes children and Christian schools and Bible colleges and great churches like this because they they tend to look more conservatively and they're surrounded by some rules they begin to think that all of that equals a spirituality from the heart and I want to tell you nothing ever substitutes your obedience from the heart to the Word of God it doesn't matter what you're surrounded by it doesn't matter what rules you're keeping what matters is does Jesus Christ rule in in your heart otherwise it becomes very deceptive and it's very empty notice what it says in verse 26 he deceiveth his own heart and this man's religion is in vain you see this man's having no rest because he's constantly having to put up this fake front like yeah I'm doing great doing great and and constantly having to act like the religious expectation and yet jesus said this he said look at my yoke is easy my burden is light he said if if you'll just let me come along with you and your witness and in your service and if you'll let me fill you with my spirit and encourage you with my word you you will be able to walk without this vanity you'll have strength that comes from me in fact jesus said in matthew 6 and 1 take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of them otherwise you will have no reward of your father which is in heaven jesus said look don't give your offering just so men see you giving your offering if you're doing all this for men if you're living a religious life just so that people see you in a certain way he said you're gonna lose the reward in heaven that you could receive there and so it's a very empty way of living if we're living just to seem religious so let me ask you this question if false religion is truly presumptuous and self-serving and if false religion is deceptive and leaves us feeling empty then what is the real religion how can we be real this week I don't think there's anybody here whose goal is to be a hypocrite I think everyone here is here today because you want to live the real Christian life you want to be genuine in your outflowing of the Christian life so how does that happen well let's look finally at verse 27 and I want you to read along here it says pure religion and undefiled before God and the father is this to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world now I think about this this morning real religion then is lived out in the service now Paul said in Galatians 2 and 20 these words I want you to listen to this I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not i but Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God in other words he said it's not about me my old man is dead I'm setting me aside I want Jesus to live this through me and when Jesus is living through you there will be some obvious characteristics of your life it will be a pure life a blameless life it will be a real Christian life it will be an undefiled life the Bible says pure religion and undefiled before God and so how does that manifest itself well let me give you two ways as we close first it will manifest in compassionate service compassionate service and the first venue with which this compassionate service is directed it towards is the venue of the fatherless or the field of the fatherless and the Bible says that a pure religion visits the fatherless and the word visit means to see to examine it is in the form of the word episkopos which is a word that means overseer it means that you see the fatherless and may I say sometimes we tell our teenagers let's go on a mission strip why we want them to go to the Philippines or go to a third-world country like like Haiti or some someplace like this where they can see with their own eyes the needs the hurts the the wants that those have in these different places and and that's why it's so important from time to time that we have our missions conference and the missionaries come and they share their hearts and guess their pictures why because the Bible says mine eye hath affected my heart and we begin to realize the needs of others you see and that's why we run the buses here at Lancaster Baptist Church the Bible says in James 2 and 14 what does it profit my brethren though a man say he have faith and have not works can faith save him if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them depart in peace and be warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body what does it profit even so faith if that hath not works is dead alone now the religious man talks about his faith and he talks about his religion and he knows perhaps his priest or his pastor maybe not but he knows a little bit of his tradition but he doesn't know he's God and because of that he's not involved in the sense of living a Pure Life and I think of how we ought to be a church that is concern for the fatherless I think of the hundreds of boys and girls that many of you never meet but we bring into this church and they meet in various classrooms and auditoriums and and about 70% of them are fatherless and members of this church go out and visit them on Saturday and knock on their door and they talk to them about Jesus Christ and they talk to them about a heavenly father that loved them so much that He gave His only begotten Son for them and they bring them to church and sometimes feed them or give them gifts or teach them what does it mean to be a young man or a young lady these are fatherless here in the Antelope Valley these are people who need to know the love of Jesus Christ many single moms are here today and just hoping that their children would see some some godly men that are faithful and I'm saying that God says if you want to be real then you need to consider those that are in need the fatherless and Lancaster Baptist Church has done our best to support missions as I mentioned a minimum a moment ago over all of these years and I love this particular picture when I was an eight-year-old boy I had a missionary pastor of missionary Woosley who signed my Bible in San Jose California in our church began to support him brother Woosley went to Manila they began winning souls for Christ and then he began building a building and he led this man pastor knobbly to Christ pastor knobbly now is the national pastor in Makati and Manila one of the very affluent areas of that city reaching thousands of people for Christ because of a missionary that our church supported when I was a little boy and I want you to know that every time we give the missions we're helping some fatherless child we're helping someone in need in a less fortunate country to know of the love of Jesus Christ and I don't say this meanly but don't talk to me about how great your religion is if you're not involved in helping if you're not involved in giving and honoring the Lord in the way that we should it's just a superfluous type of a show unless from the heart we're actually involving our lives to make a difference each and every day supporting missions and we can do that by sending buses out I think about our widows of our church we have 35 deacons in our church these are some of them each of them have a few widows we have 75 widows in our church we have a deacons meeting 10 times a year we start with prayer we then have devotions and the third item on every agenda before we talk about anything else building programs all these things the widows and we talked about which widows need their air conditioning fixed or which ones moved our which ones have a family that helps and those that don't but I'm telling you the widows of our church are wonderful members of this church and I'm telling you there are widows all over the valley and in convalescent homes today that never get a visit no one stops by no one cares no one spends time with them I think of our children's ministries here at Lancaster Baptist teaching and reaching the fatherless and every time that we're involved in our giving we're helping that ministry to go on and to continue the Gospel message the Bible says in first John 3 and verse 17 but whoso hath this world's good and see if his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him how dwelleth the love of God in him my little children let us not love in Word neither in tongue but in deed and in truth I tell you there are people all over the Antelope Valley even today just waiting for someone to be a real Christian it may be someone on your street a widow fatherless needy a woman whose husband was a drunkard and a fool and he's in prison now somebody that needs to see Jesus in you somebody that needs to have a member of Lancaster Baptists say Lord use my hands so that they might feel your touch and use my lips so that they might hear your voice I don't want to seem to be religious and be a good church-going person I want you to work through me a few weeks ago I was with my parents and we were at the memory care center where my mother lives and we were there of course she doesn't know who we are because of Alzheimer's but we were just there being with her and telling her we loved her and as she was trying to have some breakfast I found myself cutting her eggs for her and her french toast and the thought occurred to me she did this for me for so many years and I'm telling you there's somebody's mother in this city there's somebody's child God's child that needs our love today it's not enough to look good and carry a King James Bible we've got to be real in our faith a compassionate service but I want you to notice secondly and finally a consecrated service you see Jesus says I want you not only to serve me but I want your life to be a consecrated life in the service now there's a brand of Christianity today that seems to say and it comes around every 10 or 20 years well I'm under grace I can live however I want to live I can go to church on Sunday and party on Monday I can watch whatever I want consume whatever I want do whatever I want but notice what Jesus says here and James in particular the Bible says in verse 27 to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world the word unspotted of course means here approachable free from vice 1st Peter 1 in 14 as obedient children not fashioning yourselves after the former lust in their in your ignorance in other words don't live like you live before you met Jesus but there ought to be a difference in the way that you live as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation keep your life unspotted from the world and I'm going to tell you friends in the day in which we live it takes great vigilance the other day my grandsons came over Camden and Chandler there they're eight and five and and they came in the house and we were talking and wrestling and and they said Papa can we watch American Ninja Warrior I think it's the name of the show I can true name is show Ninja Warrior is that the name of it some of you American Ninja Warrior American Ninja Warrior and I said well try and I began to flip around looking for that bump and tell you while I was just trying to find that show I found myself saying boys close your eyes just to turn the channel close your eyes why keep yourself unspotted from the world some of you think you can raise a great family with hell's box-office in your house you can't if they don't don't come in here don't go to any church well praise the Lord and then go home and watching movies full of nudity and cursing and acting like it's all good with God that is a false religion I'm saying we've got to be vigilant to guard our hearts to guard our lives to guard when there's cursing at work and to memorize scripture to cleanse our heart I did watch American Ninja Warrior I will have you know I'll probably never be a contestant on the show occasion wandering there swinging on bars they're climbing up over different things kind of an amazing show but I'm telling you Jesus said I don't want you just out there serving me I want you to keep unspotted from the world listen because if you're passing out bread and my name and you're helping others in my name and suddenly you're the fool drunk on the block or you're not paying your bills or you're cursing out your neighbor all the goods you did is ruined by that single act now well Jesus forgive us yes but God says let's keep it real let's keep it real Bobby Robertson a dear friend who's in heaven now used to often say I don't have to worry about keeping the light shining I just have to keep the bowl but clean you see Jesus is the light but he says I want you to keep your life so resilient ly clean that Jesus can reflect from your life how many of you this week would like someone to see Jesus in you amen then we got to keep the bulb clean so that others can keep yourself unspotted from the world the values the beliefs of this world false religion is very presumptuous hey yeah well you know I'm I went to this church of that church by the way that guy over there he doesn't know what he's talking about he's a jerk very presumptuous false religion very deceptive there's no real meaning to it but real religion is a religion that is lived in the service of the Lord and the power of the gospel true religion is not a matter of forms church attendance or ceremonies it is a matter of a controlled tongue a sacrificial service and the clean heart and let me say this as I close you can have tons of religion and not one ounce of salvation you can have all kinds of religion and still be lost you can be religiously lost doing stuff hoping to please God but having never received Jesus Christ as your Savior and I got to tell you something the Bible says all of our righteousness is like filthy rags God is not impressed with those things he's impressed with this shed blood of his son the Lord Jesus Christ and I pray if there's someone here today that's had some religion but you've never had a relationship with Jesus Christ that you would receive him as your Savior today and for those of us who know the Lord that we would be real in our lives this week

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

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Keywords: lancaster baptist church, lancaster baptist, baptist church, paul, chappell, paul chappell, pastor paul chappell, be real, real, because, James 1

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Length: 37min 2sec (2222 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 15 2018