“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction”.

Remember from last time, we concentrated for a minute on the words, “before God and the Father”, which is how every one of us as believers in Christ should and must live by faith in our Christian lives!

From John 4, we know that God seeks “true worshippers” who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. Here, James writes, if your worship of God is true, if you are truly born-again by the Spirit of God, it will transform your hearts and minds, so that you practice your religion or your Christianity, you practice what you believe!

Those who PRACTICE their Christianity are DOERS of the Word.

James is teaching us what pure religion or genuine Christianity looks like, first, it is visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, in their distress, and in their need. It’s being a parent, a spiritual mentor, a brother or sister who is borne for adversity, it’s being a friend at all times, it’s loving the unloved, and being there for those who have no one else!

It’s the quintessential meaning of “loving your neighbor as yourself”!

This morning: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to keep yourself unspotted from the world”.

As believing Christians, it is your business, your responsibility to keep yourself unspotted from the world, to keep yourself from sin and wickedness, to keep yourself and your Christianity from being diluted and corrupted and accepted by the world; you must keep yourself from rejoining and reuniting with the world.

Each of us are to be obedient and responsible Christians! If YOU WOULD keep yourself unspotted from the world, you must keep yourself in the Word, you must keep yourself in secret prayer, you must keep yourself in good attendance to the church, the gathering of the saints….

“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; for He is faithful that promised; And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching”.

And then, when you’re out in the world, keep yourself in the good and right ways of the Lord! Psalm 139:23-24. Lead me not into temptation!

Psalm 25:4-5: “Shew me thy ways O LORD; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day”.

Show me your faith in Christ by “keeping yourself unspotted from the world”.

I thought that I was kept by God and by His power! You are! Jonah 2:9: “Salvation is of the LORD”. IT IS God’s business to save you and to keep you saved. This is a wonderful truth! God WILL NOT FAIL to do that; He will lose none of those for whom He suffered and died. John 10:27-30

Being kept by God, and keeping ourselves communicate to us “The power and Sovereignty of God” and “The Responsibility of Man”.

You must always remember, as Christians, you and I live in “The Realm of Responsibility”. When we preach the gospel of Christ to lost sinners, we preach to their responsibility! We bid them to come to Christ, we compel them to repent of their sins, we warn them to flee from the wrath to come; we preach and witness to them as those who are responsible to turn themselves from their sins and to believe Christ.

But we also understand “The Sovereignty of God” in the salvation of lost sinners. The scriptures teach us if God does not awaken sinners from being dead in their trespasses and sins; if God does not give them life so that they will believe the gospel; if God does not draw them and give them a new heart, they will not believe or be saved. John 6:37-40, 44

What is Biblically true of every Christian is this: You came to Christ because God opened your heart when the gospel was preached to you; just like when He opened Lydia’s heart; Acts 16:14-15.

When the Spirit of God awakened you and opened your heart, you came and believed Christ!

The Sovereignty of God and the Responsibility of Man are like the two (2) railroad tracks. They never cross, and yet if you remove one of them, the train will derail and crash.

Not only are the lost responsible before God to believe the gospel, but as a child of God, you’re responsible to continue to believe the gospel, and you are also responsible to live by faith and obedience to Christ and His Word.

James 1:27 teaches us about our responsibility as children of God to “keep ourselves unspotted from the world”!

But I also know and believe that I CAN keep myself unspotted from the world because God, by His power and grace is always right there, KEEPING ME, enabling me to KEEP MYSELF with the help of every means of grace that He has provided for me.

Jude 1:20-25, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Philippians 2:12-13, 1:6, 2 Peter 1:3-12, Revelation 3:7-12.

Remember, as children of God, you’re no longer of the world, you’re citizens of heaven and the Kingdom of Christ. John 17:14-16

Because you’re a new creature in Christ, your heart, your affections, your desires, and your will should be focused on things above, not on the world!

1 John 2:15-17, 5:21, Romans 12:2, Ephesians 2:2, James 4:4

Show me the purity of your religion and your Christianity, not only by what you believe about Christ but also by what you DO for Christ and His Kingdom in the world. Show me the purity of your religion and your faith in Christ by how you keep yourself unspotted, uncorrupted, and unstained from all that is in the world.

To the lost, I compel you to believe Christ in the words of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost: Acts 2:37-42…..Note: Peter preached to their responsibility!