Simple christianity

In my Bible there is a section in the book of James entitled 'Doers of the word' and that is what we have been working on in these last few weeks: obedience, holiness, the Christian life as something practical. It does not only consist of words, the Apostle Paul says that the Gospel does not consist of words but in deeds, in works, in actions.

We have talked about holiness, we have talked about valuing the word of God, which is what acts in us, implanting itself in us, changes us, transforms us. We have talked about not being mere hearers but doers of the word, because if we are mere hearers and do not treasure the word and meditate on it and incorporate it into our lives, we are deceiving ourselves. We are coming to church but it is useless, we are not fooling God, we are not fooling the devil and then we are simply fooling ourselves.

And we say that you have to focus the word because if you just look quickly at a mirror and forget what it was like, instead of focusing it clearly, you say that you consider yourself as in a mirror but then you go, you forget. And so there are many people who do not meditate on the word, they do not work on it and we have to treasure the word. We have to look closely, he says, at the perfect law.

That is why Christ says, search the Scriptures. When you scrutinize you are looking at it very carefully to extract its meaning. And so we have to consider the word of God, as something worthy of scrutiny, of looking carefully, in that perfect law that is the law of freedom. It frees us despite being a law, it does not enslave us, but it frees us because we said that when you obey, when you live in the holiness of the Lord, when you adjust and adapt to the principles of the word of the Lord, that makes you truly free. You live life more lightly, with more freedom, the devil can't bind you, he can't hurt your life, he has no reason to enter your life because he enters where he has a right to enter.

The person who conforms to the law of God, to the word, the commandments of the Lord, is a person who paradoxically is free and can live life with perfect freedom and lightness of spirit.

He who perseveres in the word, must fight to obey the word. Many times we go a little off track, but we come back again. The Christian life is a continuous struggle to stay within the framework of God's word. You have to persevere until the last moment.

It's a lovely word to 'persevere'. The Pentecostals, I remember years ago, sister, how are you? Oh, persevering. Have you heard that expression? Very spiritual. That little sister with her Bible that weighed like 7 pounds. Like this sister? Persevering. Her big bow in the back here too. Persevering. You have to persevere, it is a word that has been forgotten.

The Christian life is like this, after many tests, many difficulties we finally entered the Kingdom of God. The one who perseveres to the end will be saved. Let's not falter in our spirit, even if the tests come, the struggles, the difficulties, the losses, the failures, persevere until the end.

The word says that he who looks at the perfect law and perseveres in it, not being a forgetful listener, will be blessed in what he does. When you have the backing of God you are always blessed, blessed.

We read something, I think it was from Psalm 1, if I'm not mistaken, where it talks about whoever delights in the law of Jehovah, verse 2, Psalm 1, will be like a tree planted by streams of water that bears its fruit in his time, his leaf does not fall, and everything he does will prosper. Hallelujah! When you have the grace of the Lord in your life, it's like you have the Midas touch.

Does King Midas know that everything he touched turned to gold? It was a problem because then he touched the woman and the woman turned to gold and was of no use to him. Well, there are many men who might want to do that, touch the woman and then sell her and exchange her for money. But King Midas asked for that gift, it was granted, and then everything he touched turned to gold.

The children of God when we have the grace of the Lord in our life, when we have the blessing of God we are like King Midas, everything we touch is blessed. Our life prospers, our children are blessed. Yes, we go through trials, difficulties, but in the long run our family is blessed, our economy, our health, our emotional life, the shalom of God, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding governs our life.

Brethren, that's real, that's true. It does not mean that we will not go through tests, but the net result of our life is a positive result. Glory to the name of the Lord. Because that's the blessing that follows.

Remember Joseph in the Old Testament? José wherever he went everything prospered. He went to this man Potiphar's house and Potiphar realized that everything that Joseph administered prospered, because the grace of the Lord was with him, so he put him in his house. Evidence came, Potiphar's wife slandered him and then they put him in jail, but God was with him.

That is the paradox of the Christian life. It is not that everything will go well for you in the sense that you will never have any problems, that there will be no process in your life, but God will be using everything because even when José goes to jail it is because God has a purpose to finally bring him to the attention of Pharaoh so that then comes his final destination that God had told him from a young age what was going to happen to him.

In other words, tests often come but it is because God wants to use that test as a stepping stone for the next blessing in your life. So never doubt the Lord, simply because you had a setback in your walk. No, say Lord, what do you want from this? Teach me, I'm going to hold onto you tooth and nail, I'm not going to deny you, I'm going to wait for the blessing and the answer to come.

They put him in jail and when he gets to jail there it is also a blessing and they put the man on top of all the prisoners to rule in jail too. What a bless! Because he had the touch, everything he touches thrives.

There is something like that, brothers, in life, when God is with a person in a truly powerful way and that person loves the Lord, you love the Lord, you serve the Lord, God's blessing is upon you. That is something that is there from Genesis to Revelation, my brothers. When we honor the Lord and put him in the first place of our life, his word, we adhere to his laws, his commandments and we want to please him and we adjust our life, we pay the price, we discipline ourselves, we begin to cut everything that does not align with the word. There is a price to pay.

Someone is speaking to God. We are going to be Pentecostals. Turn around to your brother and tell him, God is possibly speaking to you. Brothers, the price must be paid. You know one of the problems of the church today, truly, and we ourselves perhaps have to learn a little more in León de Judá, about that. We have to learn and it is that when one enters the ways of the Lord, one cannot continue the same as when you were before.

I believe that one of the problems with many people who convert today is that they do not understand that they have to go from death to life, they have to go from living a life that is not aligned with the commandments and then they have to change, that means change. That's the thing I love about the classic Pentecostal town. They have many things with which I do not agree, legalism, for example, but one of the things that I see, if there is a sense of spiritual intelligence, is that, let's say, in that spiritual approach when a person converts, it is expected that there is some kind of change, a sign, so unfortunately women are the only ones who have to put on their skirts and stop painting and all this. But the idea is like there has to be a change, a sign. The positive part of that is how it marks the person that there is a change in my life.

But it doesn't have to be the physical, it doesn't have to be. The thing is that you change inside, your way of being, surrender your habits to the Lord, your bad behavior, that you understand, 'I can no longer be hitting the dog with my feet and be yelling at the boys and cursing in the house like I did before.' You have to start acting in a different way. And then when you align and change, God's blessing enters your house.

Peace comes, prosperity comes, provision comes, but there is a price to pay.

And that's what James continually says in this passage, and his entire epistle is about that. Look, finishing this section now, you already have what you need for tonight there, but verse 26 says, “if anyone among you thinks he's religious and doesn't hold his tongue, − say ouch, say I should have stayed home tonight – and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, the religion of such is vain." This man did not mince words, the Apostle Santiago. This preacher is clear. Again the same theme, of fooling yourself. Before I said, well, if you are a hearer and not a doer, you are deceiving yourself. He is saying the same thing, if you believe yourself to be religious and don't hold your tongue, James talks a lot about the tongue. It has quite a long passage later, in chapter 3, which is one of the most interesting treatises on language.

It's almost like a poem about this mouth that sometimes does so much damage and many times dominates man.

He says that horses are easily restrained with a small muzzle but the tongue is not tamed by anyone many times. And it is true. For some reason Santiago chooses at that moment the idea that the tongue is like a sign of how spiritual a person is and it is true.

Many people, when they enter the spiritual life and if they have not had a true encounter with what the Lord Jesus Christ is, do not realize that there has to be a change, something interior. And I think that Santiago chooses the tongue simply as a symbol of genuine spirituality and then he says, well, if you think you are religious... notice that he chooses a very interesting word, it is tresqueia, which refers more to the external of the religion, ritual and true. His idea is saying, if you are religious but not spiritual and you believe that it is a great thing, you have already failed there.

But then if you think you're religious but don't guard your way of speaking to others, it's like one way to see what level of spirituality a person is at is to see how they speak, how they express themselves. And that has a lot of cloth to cut, because it can be when he expresses himself, when he is silent and when he speaks, when he criticizes and when he praises someone, how he criticizes, if he criticizes hurting the person or if he criticizes leaving a possibility of change and redemption. Or if it hits the person in a way that kills their ego and destroys their self. If he is hurtful in the way he speaks or if his word is a blessing, medicine to the body, as an expression in the Bible says; if you choose the moment to speak to the person to whom you speak, the circumstances in which you speak.

In other words, speaking has so many ramifications with respect to character, wisdom, prudence, that it is like a good measure of where the individual is, how one expresses oneself, the nuance with which one expresses things, if one speaks too much, if he speaks just enough. There are many nuances about this talk. And all this, I believe with spiritual growth, one learns. If you're discreet, if you're a gossip, there are many ways – sometimes you could say something to someone at one point and you would be one hundred percent correct and within your rights to do so but you say, you know what? It is not the right time, there are others around and I may make the person feel embarrassed or I will reveal a secret that is harmful to their well-being, so I will wait until they better keep it a secret. And even if you have to wait one or two days, three days, and you wait.

All of this indicates tremendous self-control. Because there are people who, when they have something, have to get it out right away because they can't keep quiet. Notice that the use of the mouth and speaking is closely linked to the level of maturity, self-control, discernment, and mercy that one has and that is why Santiago says, this is a good indication of where the person is.

So we have to ask the Lord, brothers, to help us to bridle our tongue. I think that applies to everyone. Imagine preachers, us, you know how many words come out of our mouths all the time. Look tonight, I've been here 15 minutes, 20 minutes, how many opportunities to say something stupid, to offend, to say something out of place, to give bad doctrine. So one has to say, Lord, have mercy, help me to speak. We are fragile. When we are up here we are fragile.

We all have to be asking the Lord, 'Lord, give us wisdom, how to use our mouths,' and everything in marriage, in fatherhood, in motherhood, in friendship, in teaching, in relationships with our brothers in the church. Ask the Lord that you always have the ability to see yourself from a corner of the room speaking because many times we are so involved in what we are saying that we don't see ourselves as we sound and we have to ask the Lord, 'Father, give me that ability to observe myself while I speak and think what impression I am causing in what I am saying.' And ask the Lord to help us so that our word, there is a passage that says, that it always be seasoned with salt, as May you have that touch of the Lord's grace in our lives. May our mouth be gentle, loving, uplifting and that requires the work of a lifetime.

I believe that if we manage to dominate our mouth we are spiritual giants. Churches are destroyed by misused mouths. Yes sir. People who hurt someone, a little brother who murmurs, who criticizes the person. If you don't have anything good to say, don't start talking about another person, sister, pray better, shut up, or brother, and think about where that person is, what harm can I do, cover up the mistake instead of publishing it.

Let us ask the Lord to give us self-control regarding the tongue. And that's why I think Santiago takes it so seriously and takes that as an example. If someone among you believes he is religious and does not restrain, does not control, does not dominate, does not govern, does not direct his tongue well, but rather deceives his heart, religion – look, he believes himself religious, religion, that is, is pure externalization, it is ritual, it is pure straw. The religion of such is vain, empty, useless, it accomplishes nothing.

How many can now say, 'Lord, have mercy on my mouth and heal me, help us, oh Lord.' Help us to make our mouth a garden, a place of blessing, Father. Shut up when we have to shut up, speak when we have to speak, bless others, not hurt anyone if we can.

How many make a resolution right now to meditate on that, and to ask the Lord to help us. If I have offended someone right now, today, forgive me, Lord, and help us to be better every day. What a blessing that alone.

Then the pure and unblemished religion before God, the Father, is this. He goes into another topic.

But now to finish this passage I will simply touch it quickly, "visit the orphans and the widows in their tribulations and keep oneself unspotted from the world." He is a true preacher, he is reducing religious life to a couple of details. It's not like that's all, you're not saved by anything you do, but he's kind of trying to simplify.

Because sometimes we make things so complicated in the Christian life and what James is saying, look, this is not that complicated. This is quite simple.

What is the other passage? I'm trying to remember. Micah? Does anyone remember that passage where it says – Micah is one of those books where you never learn the order it's in.

Micah 6, hear me this, "with what shall I appear before Jehovah and worship the most high God?" He is asking, how can I get closer to this almighty, wonderful, most high God that I have. What will I introduce myself with? They are rhetorical questions. He knows the answer but he is asking.

Shall I appear before him with burnt offerings? I am going to bring 10 oxen. In the Old Testament these sacrifices were used. I will appear before him with burnt offerings, with one-year-old calves – that is, very tender ones, − Jehovah will be pleased with thousands of rams – people brought a ram for sacrifice to appear before the Lord, for their sins, for whatever to honor the Lord. – Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams or with 10 thousand streams of oil? They also brought oil as a libation offering.

If I brought 10 thousand, I'm not saying cans of oil, streams of oil. Obviously what is the answer? No. He won't be pleased with any of those things. Jehovah will be pleased, says, will I give my firstborn for my rebellion? There are people who perhaps say, well, if I give up my firstborn whom I love so much, perhaps God will forgive me and have mercy on me.

Maybe if I give my firstborn then he will allow me to get close to him. You see that people sometimes make Christianity very complicated, very complex, very difficult. And what God wants are simple things. Look what it says here.

“I will give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my bowels, for the sin of my soul. Here is the answer. Oh man, oh woman, he has declared to you what is good and what does Jehovah require of you? Just do justice, love mercy and humble yourself before your God.” Glory to the Lord. I don't know if we had to give this meditation a title, I would put 'Simple Christianity'. Sometimes we think like God is very complicated. Look, God is infinitely complex but also infinitely simple. He likes himself with simple things but those simple things are very difficult many times.

Love others, do justice in our walk and be humble before the Lord. if you have those three things you are covered. Yes sir. It's simple. What we have to ask is, Lord, help me to see what pleases your heart and not be around building castles in the air. I am going to walk to Rome on my knees so that the Lord forgives as many people do. Arrive with bleeding knees because I made a promise. Nothing of that. The Lord is very simple.

I think that is why Santiago puts it that way, but it is more like simply a symbol. Pure and unblemished religion, as opposed to false and superficial religion, pure and unblemished before God the Father. Not in front of men because many people, what happens, vain religion is pure show so that others think about us. But the pure religion, of the inner heart, in spirit and in truth, is this.

In other words, do good to others. Again, it is not about earning salvation.

What you are offering is a poetic contrast, that is all. Actions of mercy, of kindness, visiting orphans and widows and keeping oneself without stain from the world. The Lord Jesus Christ once said it to the scribe who asked him, what do I have to do to be saved? Two things, love God and your neighbor as yourself. In this is summed up all the law and the prophets.

Sometimes these summaries of the word come to show us something and that is that what God wants is a simple, humble, generous, merciful, compassionate heart and he puts it this way. It could be other things, forgiving others and blessing those who curse you.

He says, visit the orphans and widows in their tribulations and keep oneself spotless from the world, in other words, holiness. That concludes this beautiful meditation. May the Lord, brothers, tonight reinforce in us this idea of being simple in our hearts, loving others, feeling sorry for others.

Something is being focused here, we have not talked about brothers who are sick, have had losses, and we have to pray for them, feel sorry for them, visit those who are in jails, those who are in hospitals. Let's not forget to do good that way. With that we are not going to earn salvation, because salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ. But it is a beautiful ornament and it is evidence that God is working in our hearts, because we are generous people, of mercy, of compassion towards others. And we keep our mouth and seek to be a blessing.

May the Lord so be it. Lower your head for a moment. I am also going to ask the Lord, that 'hey, work with me, Father.' Work with us, Lord, tonight, you have spoken to us, Father, you have rebuked us. We have all sinned, Lord, saying things that we shouldn't but, Father, tonight, we repent, we confess any mistake that we have made, any sin and we ask that tonight you put a burning coal over our mouths and that help us to be better, to discern, Lord, better your purpose.

If we have offended our wife or husband, children, siblings, friends, co-workers, forgive us, Father, forgive us tonight and put us on the right path and thank you for your mercy.

Help this church, Father, that this word reaches those who are not here tonight as well, Father. May this spirit that has been declared through this word spread in this congregation, those who are far and those who are near, those who will come on Sunday, those who came last Sunday and filled this place twice, Lord, who This church is characterized for the glory of your name, for being a church of people who dominate their mouths, who do good, who obey, who walk in holiness, who each day are subjecting ourselves more and more, Lord, to your word, and then we will experience real blessing, great prosperity and great joy. Thank my Lord. We adore and bless you, Father, in Jesus name.