Why This Way of Life Is the Right One

So how do you like this definition of what true religion is? This is something I wrote up, and I've believed it ever since I came up with it. Let's see what you think of it. It brings out the best in us and takes out the worst in us. True religion, if you find the true religion, it's going to bring out the best in you, and it's going to take away the worst in you. And that's what this way of life does, and that's why you see religions sort of drifting and floating out there without any anchors and losing faith on things. But God's way of life applied from the time of Adam and Eve to today. It's based on God's Word. It is stable. And so let's think a little bit what it means that it brings out the best in you but removes the worst in you. This means that we all have a great potential either to do a lot of good or a lot of evil. The potential is there. It can happen to anybody. We can either go off into left field and mess our lives up, or we can go into right field and have a wonderful life. Nothing is predetermined. Everything depends on the decisions that we make. And so in this message, we want to see why this way of life is the right one of all the different religions and churches that are out there. Why this is the right one? And we're not saying that we're the only true church, but we're saying we are part of the true church. Let God decide the rest. And why we have these hurdles in life that we have to jump over? And how does that true religion bring out the best in us and takes out the worst in us?

So, once we decided here what this purpose is, let's see what the first point is of all of this. To get spiritually anywhere, we first need an accurate understanding of our carnal human nature. If you're going to look for a church, see what kind of explanation they give you about human nature. Because you can go to churches where they say, well, God just loves you. Don't worry about it. He's got grace. And you can just go ahead and as long as you worship Him and adore Him and accept Christ, you don't have to worry so much about your own lifestyle and behavior. And as you see now, the churches are filled with all kinds of lifestyles. And so, we need, if we're going to grow spiritually, for the church to have an accurate understanding of our carnal human nature.

And so, what do we find? We find that the Bible is a spiritual mirror. Because it shows us how we truly are and not how we see ourselves. In other words, if you use the mirror of society, they might say, well, you're a wonderful person. And you're an upstanding citizen. But how about God's mirror? His spiritual mirror based on God's Word.

How do we fare there?

Let's go to James chapter 1 to see the definition of true religion, which has to do with what I just mentioned.

In James chapter 1, starting in verse 21, this is where James uses that analogy of a spiritual mirror. He says, verse 21, It's like a seed, God's Word. It can grow in you.

It can be doors of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. So, a person can read the Bible. They can believe in the Bible.

But do they apply what the Bible says or not? So, James is saying, true religion, you have to apply what the Bible teaches in God's commandments, or we are in violation of them.

And so, God says here through James, gives an analogy, For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, doesn't see too many problems, goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. He might be able to see there are things that need to work on, but he just basically just goes his way. But then he says the person who has the true religion is he who looks into the perfect law of liberty. That's the spiritual mirror. It's not a law of slavery. See, God's Word liberates us from mistakes, from sins, from errors. So, it's a law of liberty because we can live freely, not burden down with sins and vices and all kinds of bad habits that weigh us down.

The world which talks about freedom, it's actually a slavery to the flesh.

And they think, oh, everybody does it, so it shouldn't be too bad. But you see, it's not up to people to determine what is right and wrong. It is God who has the authority and God's Word that tells us. So, he goes on to say, he looks into the perfect law of liberty. So, this is a mirror that is flawless. It doesn't have any distortions. It shows us how we really are before God in particular and continues in it, continues cleaning himself, bettering himself, and is not a forgetful here, but a doer of the Word.

This one will be blessed in what he does. He'll please God, and God's going to bless him. But again, it has to be applied for it to have any effect. Then he goes on to say, if anyone among you thinks he is religious, he's walking God's way of life, and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, and how we control our tongue, and how we're careful.

That's the most difficult thing that we can control. James goes on to talk about the tongue in chapter 3, and he mentions how it's an unruly thing. Men can tame lions, they can tame bears, they can do so much, but yet this little tongue, it gets away, and says things that damage, cause enormous ill will, and so a person who's growing spiritually is going to better control his tongue. He's not going to be as cutting, he's not going to be blabber-mouthed, it just speaks before thinking, that person is going to think through things carefully and bite his tongue many times. So he says that this is an indication. By your words, you will be judged.

Verse 27. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this. By the way, I talk about Christ and the Father. To visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

These are two aspects of the true religion. These are part of the results of the true religion. Notice how careful this is because it's easy to help people that can help you out. But it says here about widows and orphans in their suffering, in their distress.

How you consider them, how you treat them, how you help them shows the conversion you have. If you're still thinking about your own problems and your own self-centered world, there's a lot of spiritual growth that needs to be developed. And so that's why when I read the announcements, why do you think God has sick people in the congregation?

He wants to know what we are doing. Is it something that we just ignore? If it was a family member, if it was your son or daughter that was going through this, would you just say, well, I'll just pray about it son, or I'll pray about it daughter, that's good enough.

Or you're really trying to go the extra mile. God has people that are sick in the congregation. One of the reasons is to see how the congregation treats them because they can't help themselves. And notice, it doesn't say that you make a full-time job of helping those that don't have parents or don't have spouses.

No, it says, in their distress, in their moments of need. That shows what kind of a generous and caring heart we have. And that's something that comes from God. God in you. You're going to put their interests before your own. But it's not enough to be caring and kind and generous to those who are less blessed that are going through these difficulties. The second is, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So here again, it's talking about avoiding letting the world corrupt you because it wants to.

I have this in the New Living Translation, verse 27. It says, Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. Refusing, putting a stop. No, I'm not going to go that way. I'm not going to let you corrupt myself.

By the way, there are three great temptations in this world.

I just was reading a book. It's called Cold Case Christianity by an LA ex-police detective that had to deal with these cold case files. These cases that nobody had been able to resolve. His name is James Wallace. He became a Christian. He was a hard-nosed detective, atheist. And then he came across a lot of these proofs that now through this movement of intelligent design and others, this Lee Strobel, The Case for Christianity or The Case for Christ. How many have read some of these? It's excellent. Please download it. Read these books, The Case for the Creator. That was one of the best books I ever read about science and the Bible. So anyways, this man changed his whole life around. His wife was a believer, but he didn't want anything to do. And he used his detective skills to determine whether Christ actually died, as he said, and that he was resurrected. And he looked at all the evidence, just as cold-headed as he could, and he said, yes, it has all the indications of being authentic. And so he mentions in that book the three great temptations. He says there are actually only three types of crimes that detectives find. Three great motives. These are the general categories. The first one has to do with money and the greed. That's why people steal and rob and kill and all of this because they want possessions. And we're always hearing about these poor people that maybe they want to sell a yacht or something and these people will come and kill them and try to take the yacht from them and whatever. But that's all under the category of greed. Money is my God. I want to be rich no matter what I have to do to get it. The second has to do with sexual crimes that have to do with all kinds of relations where somebody is jealous because the girlfriend is with someone else and they will kill for that. And the third has to do with power. Somebody wants the job that somebody else has, eventually wants to get rid of them or that somebody has been humiliated. That person has lost power. He's been embarrassed so much. So these are the three great reasons for it.

And James says we cannot let the world corrupt us either with money, with power, or sex. Does that sound pretty logical, Dave? Because he's looking at me intensely like, boy, he's absorbing this like a sponge. So how do we bring out the best in us to use that spiritual mirror that shows the potential we have for good or evil? Let's go to Proverbs 16. Because remember I told you the first thing is to have an accurate explanation of what human nature is. Let's go to Proverbs 16. And by the way, Proverbs 16 talks a lot about our human nature. Notice what it says in verse 2. Proverbs 2, it says, all the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits. So here it's very easy for a person to say, I'm pretty good. I'm a nice person. I don't have to change. I don't have to submit myself to God's laws. I'm doing fine. And that's what it says. This is the typical default. This is the go-to thinking. Oh, I'm not too bad. There are a lot of people that are worse than I am. And yet God says he knows exactly how we are. He has a spiritual mirror. He knows what we've done wrong.

Let's go to Proverbs 16 verse 12. It says, it is an abomination. Let's see. I think I missed that one. No, it's verse 9. In verse 9 of 16. It says, a man's heart plans his way. You decide. But the Lord directs his steps. God can direct our steps if we lead him. If we let him, he will guide our lives. He has all the resources in the world. He has all these angels to help out if we just do it his way instead of our way. And then in verse 25 of Proverbs 16, it says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. The wrong way. It looks okay. So the Bible teaches us that we are not trustworthy by our own selves. We need to have God's strength, his help, and humbly submit to him so he will lift us up. So he will strengthen us. Notice another scripture. Jeremiah 17. Jeremiah 17 verse 9.

It says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Human beings, again, they don't think they're so bad. Before God, though, we're all sinners. We all deserve death.

And God says in verse 10, He's the one that knows our hearts. Search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man, which means person, according to his ways, according to the fruit or the result of his doing so. We're going to all eventually reap what we sow. We're going to harvest. What are we going to harvest? Good fruit or bad fruit? And this is in particular so important as we get older. You have children. Eventually you have grandchildren. Are you going to be an example to them? Or an embarrassment to them? Or something that turns them off? So as we get older, we gain responsibility and we need to produce good fruit. If we don't, now we better change because that harvest is coming in and it's unavoidable. Eventually we will reap what we have sown.

So that's what the Bible tells us. That we're sunk unless God helps us out. And then secondly, how does God's way of life bring out the best in us and remove the worst in us? The answer is by having the right attitude toward God's laws. The attitude. You see, this is the way we look. This is the way we act, our attitude. It shows our motivations. It shows how we are on the inside. And that's going to affect the outside. Notice in Isaiah 66 verse 2.

Isaiah 66 verse 2. It's before Jeremiah, last chapter of Isaiah. It says, For all those things my hand is made, God's talking about the universe, and all those things exist, says the Lord. But on this one will I look, on him who is poor, talking about humble, talking about a person that doesn't see themselves so full of themselves, that is poor and of a contrite spirit. That means a repentant spirit. I hope we can all have that tenderness of conscience that we can just go and ask God forgiveness, receive his forgiveness, and then obey him of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word. He really takes it seriously. He takes it as a guide of life. So you have to form this attitude. It doesn't come natural. The unconverted mind, as we are born with, it's naturally against God's laws. Notice in Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8 verse 7. It says, it didn't get the right book yet. Let me get it here. Verse 7 says, because the carnal mind is enmity, which means it's against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be, because God's law is spiritual. And we are carnal. That's mentioned also in Romans 7. It says here in verse 12, Therefore the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good. And then verse 14, it says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. So the carnal mind is at enmity. It's opposed to God's law. So it takes God's spirit to soften that heart, to clean the mind, to give us the right attitude, to be able to bring out the best in us and take out the worst in us. Now, one of the persons in the Bible who gave us an excellent example of having this process of bringing out the best and taking out the worst, although it wasn't perfect as I'll bring out. But King David showed that loving attitude toward God's law. The second point that I'm mentioning. Notice in Psalm 119 verse 97. Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, and it is a mini Bible in itself. If you didn't have anything else but you went by Psalm 119, you'd be following God's way of life. You'd have to, obviously, study into other parts of the Bible, but that would give you the basis for the right attitude toward God. Notice Psalm 119 in verse 97.

He said, Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. How many of us can say that? That we have that same attitude? That we just love to study about God's law, laws, the principles behind them. Now, that doesn't mean you just read your Bible by itself, but you get out of the Bible the principles. For instance, I love to read all kinds of books that have to do with principles of the Bible. So, there's all kinds of things, even science. Isn't the Bible full of science? It is. And so, I love to read how God created this phenomenon and how the orbits of all the planets are in the same elliptical orbits. And they're spaced in the right way for them not to crash into each other. All of these things. Now, you're not going to look at the Bible and read about the elliptical orbits, but you're going to find, first, astronomers like Johan Kepler back in the 16th century. He's the one that found that the planets go on an elliptical orbit. And he set the foundation later for Isaac Newton, who then set up the laws of gravity and how these orbits have to do with gravitational pull of the sun. So, anyways, see, it's expanding on something that has to do with the Bible. So, there's so many things that we can learn. He goes on to say, in verse 98, You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies. So, reading and applying God's laws makes you wiser than college professors. They might know something about in their field, but do they know how to live? Do they know what sin is? Do they know how to follow God? No, they don't. So, just follow them in their particular area, but don't follow their examples because they're still unconverted. They still don't have the Spirit of God in the great majority of the cases. He goes on to say, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. So, don't underestimate the power of, especially on the Sabbath, read some of God's Word. Meditate on it. One of the US presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, said that reading the Bible is better than having a college education. Now, he didn't say don't go out there and get a college education, but he said, in life, it's a better understanding. It's more valuable to understand the biblical principles than the stuff you learn at college. He goes on to say, I understand more than the ancients because I keep your precepts. Notice, it doesn't say I read them, I keep them. He learned how to apply them. And then, verse 101, he says, I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. Here's the same principle. How do you stay unspotted with the world? It has to do with restraining that impulse that is going the wrong way.

So, it helps us restrain ourselves from going the wrong way. God's Word acts like a break. You stop. You don't go along with things because you have God's Word to guide us. What is right? What is wrong? It goes on to say, in verse 102, it says, I have not departed from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me. How? Through God's Word. So, God's Word helps us to remain faithful because God's Word and laws are the source of our religion, not man. That's where we get our standards, our values. Verse 103, How sweet are your words to my taste. Talk about God's Word. Sweeter than honey to my mouth. So, for David, studying God's Word became a joy and a delight, not a burden or something disagreeable. When we pray, we should have a Bible close by because many times you're praying and all of a sudden, oh, there's a scripture here that has to do with this. And we can go and we can explore and do a Bible study while we're praying. Here are two verses that came this way. Let's go to Ecclesiastes 7. Ecclesiastes 7, just a little bit farther forward. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 28, one of the scriptures that...

Verse 28, it says, Which my soul still seeks, but I cannot find one man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found, truly this only I have found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. So God created man to develop into the best he can. But man is so restless and always curious to the point where the curiosity killed the cat, that we can't avoid falling into these traps. But he made man in an upright way. But man doesn't want to know about God's way very much at all. The other scripture has to do with Proverbs. Proverbs 7, verse 18.

Oh, let's see. Wait a second. It's Proverbs 7. It's a little bit before that.

Let's see. No, I said it was Ecclesiastes 7, 28, and 29, and it's Proverbs 8. And I mentioned here in verse... Let's see. I should have written it down. It's where he talks about man as well. That man, God created him for good. Let me see where I have that. I might have to just skip that one, but you can look it up. It's around there where it says, God created man also for good, and yet he's always going the wrong way. Okay, 7, 29. Let's see. Proverbs? Or is it 8? 8, 29? No. Oh, okay. That's one of the ones I already mentioned, 7, 29, but it's the other one. There's in Proverbs it says about the same thing, but let's go forward in Psalm 119, 104. This is the last verse that I'm going to cover here because it is important. Psalm 119 verse 104.

It says, Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. Have we come to the point where we truly hate every false way, or do we tolerate it? Do we accept it? So reading God's Word helps us to hate every false way and not tolerate it. If we could take all the filthy things in this world and toss them out and burn them up, be wonderful. And one day we will do that. All of this junk and all this stuff that's going on, when Christ comes back, all that's going to be piled up and burnt. It wasn't worth a dime. Notice what it says in Isaiah 30 as I come to conclude.

Isaiah 30 verse 19.

He says, for the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem. This is talking about when Christ comes back. You shall weep no more. They certainly are weeping in Jerusalem now. But in the future, that's all going to be gone. He will be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you. And though the Lord gives you the bread of affliction or adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore. Talking about those that are going to be part of the resurrection, the first resurrection. They're going to be the teachers. And they will appear instantly because they'll have spirit bodies. They can materialize or not. It says, but your eyes shall see your teachers when they appear.

Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way. Walk in it. Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. So, Christ is not going to run a kingdom that just goes amok and crazy with all of these ideas and people doing what they want. No, it's going to be an orderly kingdom. It's going to show them the kingdom of God that, based on love, faith, peace, not going to have war anymore. And notice what is going to be the reaction of the people when all of this wrong thinking and wrong actions are destroyed. He says, verse 22, you will also defile the covering of your images of silver and the ornament of your molded images of gold. You will throw them away as an unclean thing. You will say to them, get away. So, you're going to throw all that out. Now, we have to live in this moral garbage dump in this present time, but that garbage dump is going to be removed one day and we're looking forward to it. So, do you know a better way to live than what we are expounding here? If you do, please let me know. That's why I love this way of life. And remember, why is it? Because it brings out the best of us and takes away the worst of us.