300: Bob Lloyd - Friendship with the World

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:13

   Welcome to good Christophian talks. I’m Levi. I’m Chris. I’m Kristin. And I’m Brian, thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our Daily News feed. Each week we post a talk that we previewed from suggestions sent in by listeners from around the world.

2. 0:30

   Then we record a short intro beforehand as a personalized recommendation to you on why we are sharing the talk. And now let’s talk more about this week’s talk.

3. 0:50

   Welcome to the good Chris Adelphian Talks podcast. This is brother Brian this week’s talk for episode 300 we return to where it all started with a recommended talk by brother Bob Lloyd. This is the 4th class from a series he gave on James back in 1998. The title of this particular class is Friendship with the World. My favorite point, or part of this particular class, is the focus on how important the act of showing our faith is, based on James’s decree that pure religion is to visit the orphans in the windows in their distress and to keep yourself unspotted from the world.

4. 1:33

   And while a big chunk of the class and series focuses on the unspotted aspect, which I think is Chris Adelphian’s We Take a Lot of Pride in, it’s the first aspect of getting involved in the lives of the needy that I find even harder to do. Even though it does sound so simple on the surface, it’s an aspect of my own discipleship that I feel is severely lacking and that I spend a lot of time thinking about but not doing enough of. And especially as Brother Bob importantly ties it into the harsh warning from Christ Himself in Matthew 25 that those who fail to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the sick essentially have a judgement already waiting for them.

5. 2:21

   Or as Brother Bob points out, we already know the script as you have done it or have not done it unto the least of these, you have done it or done it not unto me. Faith without works is dead. And Brother Bob has a lot of impactful ways of pointing out how we can go about taking action and transforming into doers of the Word and not just heroes only. So with that, I’ll turn it over to the man who actually recommended the talk himself nearly three years ago. Jason, what are your thoughts?

6. 2:55

   Thanks, Brian, and hi, everyone. This is Jason Hensley. As you know, we’re going to be listening to Uncle Bob for this 300th episode, and what I just wanted to contribute here is a little bit different. This class is all about friendship with the world, and it’s a lot of the fun, standard things that made Uncle Bob really helpful for a lot of people. So I think you’re going to appreciate it for that. I just wanted to quickly tell a little bit of a story. Uncle Bob has a very special place in my heart. He was really one of my major mentors. He lived about 45 minutes away from my house. And so as I was in my late teens, early 20s, I used to visit him every Friday and we would spend a few hours together every Friday.

7. 3:40

   And it was just, it was incredibly helpful and a really big deal for me. So I just want to put out there that I’m really excited that we get to have Uncle Bob here again for our 300th episode. I’m really thankful for the impact that he had on me and that he had on a lot of others.

8. 4:00

   And hopefully as you listen to this episode, he will have that same impact on you, that you will be moved, encouraged. And I think most of all, what he really does is he motivates us and motivates us to say, because I follow the Lord Jesus Christ, I am going to live differently. And so I think you’ll experience that as you listen to him talk about what true religion really means. So with that said, I’m going to go ahead and pass it off now to Levi.

9. 4:34

   Wow, I so enjoyed this class. This was such a fun listen. Uncle Bob, I think at his prime, late 90s, definitely the peak of his mental acuity. He’s still very much a professional, very active at this age. I would argue he kind of does slow down into the 2000s and 20 tens. His style, you know, having all the stories and doing so much illustration is perfect for books like James. I really enjoyed the point where he talked about the tongue is a fire, talking about how a forest fire can be started with such a small match.

10. 5:01

    And that is so, so true in our ecclesial life. And it’s something I’ve made the mistake quite often that, you know, you can say one little thing and it can go on to cause so much more damage than you would ever expect. We have to be guardians of our tongue. We have to be, you know, wiser about that and talk less.

11. 5:16

    So, yeah, very, very thankful to listen to this. It hit me at a really good time because our business, the business that I’m still working in that Bob Lloyd technically founded 65 years ago, the insurance industry is in California, is totally turned over due to the fires. We’ve had massive forest fires. And he kind of mentions that off handed 99. It’s almost prescient the way he says that. So super happy to share this here for episode 300. Sending it over to Chris.

12. 5:40

    Thank you, Levi. This is Chris to close us out and with one little comment before we get over to Uncle Bob’s talk. For me, the thing that stood out in this particular talk was the importance of what visiting meant. This is something that I think I have understood more as I’ve gotten a little bit older and being able to spend time with our brothers and sisters and not just the sort of casual, hey, how you doing, but actually getting to spend time with them. I really appreciated Jason’s comment about the time he got to spend with Uncle Bob and the importance that that had in spending time with him.

13. 6:18

    And Uncle Bob covers that in his class in a way that I think is is really, really powerful. One little anecdote that kind of goes off of that that I wanted to share. Leo I mentioned as he got older and sometimes he would make comments about how young people like to avoid the older members of the Ecclesia. And one of my fondest memories of Uncle Bob is if there was a young person that was trying to get by him at Verdugo Hills, he would keep trying to get ahead of that young person to force them to have to at least acknowledge his presence and say hello before he would let them pass. It was one of his favorite little games that he would play. So I just thought both that anecdote and the story that he told really reminded me of the importance of visiting and spending time with one another, really understanding each other. So that was the the little take away that I had from that. So with that, I’m going to turn it over to Uncle Bob Lloyd for his class, taken from his series on James entitled Friendship with the World.

14. 7:18

    If anyone was to ask you this question, are you religious, what would you say? Well, of course I’m religious. I’m a Christadelphian. I go to meeting on Sundays, I do my Bible readings. I always give thanks before I I eat. Of course I’m religious. Well, I’m going to ask it again. Are you religious?

15. 7:43

    You really haven’t answered the question the way James is going to ask us to answer it. We believe that we are Bible Students and I believe we are. But James is going to give us a different definition than anything that we would have ever come up with had we been on our had we not had his help.

16. 8:08

    And it’s in James chapter one. We’re going to be looking at verse 26. If any man among you seem to be religious. So I could certainly say are you religious? And you could certainly say, yes, I seem to be religious. But James says, well, you might seem to be religious and you may not be religious if you don’t bridle your tongue, but you deceive your own heart.

17. 8:36

    He says this man’s religion is vain. Now, those are very strong words. I wouldn’t dare come all the way from California up to talk to you wonderful brothers and sisters who mostly are from Canada and some from other places in the world and tell you this, if it weren’t inspired by God. So we may seem to be religious and not be religious if we do not bridle our tongue. And then he goes on and gives us the definition of pure religion in verse 27.

18. 9:06

    Pure religion is undefiled before God, and the Father exists to visit the fatherless and the widows and their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

19. 9:17

    Now of all the things that we would cite to make us feel we’re religious, we would certainly mention the fact that we are Christadelphians, that we beat on the meet, on the Birmingham Amended Statement of Faith. We are particular who we fellowship. We call a spade a spade. We don’t mince words. We stand for purity, the doctrine. And yet, all that being true and all that being important and not in any way minimizing one of those things, we still could not be religious because we do not watch what we say. If we bridle, if we don’t bridle our tongue, if we just have running off of the mouth and we just say whatever comes into our hearts and minds, we could have.

20. 10:17

    All the truth could be vain. All the wonderful things we stand for and believe and and defend to others could all be in vain if we don’t bridle the tongue.

21. 10:34

    It was that serpent’s tongue in the garden that first planted the rebellious thought in the mind of Eve. As a result of that, we know he was accursed by God. Now David tells us in the Psalms, Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men, preserve me from violent men who plan evil things. In their hearts they continually gather together for war. They sharpen their tongues like a serpent. The poison of ASP is under their lips. Well, that’s not us, of course, but that’s we’re who we’re being warned about.

22. 11:06

    But this little tongue of ours is an amazing instrument. It’s quite small. I don’t know if you ever see New Zealanders, but in the New Zealand war dances, the New Zealander warriors, they stick their tongues out at you and I guess they practice it. Their tongue comes all the way down here. They must, I don’t know, it may just New Zealanders have all New Zealanders have long tongues.

23. 11:32

    But when you go to a doctor, what does he do? He says, well stick out your tongue and he looks at it and he can tell pretty much your condition of your health by looking at your tongue and James to sell say you we can determine the determine we can determine the condition of your spiritual health with that same little instrument.

24. 11:56

    Jesus said out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and first Peter, Peter, of course we’ve looked at this before. Peter and and James are on the same wavelength and he says for he who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. But when he said that, he’s quoting Psalm 34, which is back to David again.

25. 12:22

    And of course, if you in verse 26 of James one any among you thinks he is religious and does not bide his tongue, you’re deceiving your own heart and your religion is useless according to the new King James. Now we just read chapter 3 of James and we’re going to look at some of those verses again because the word tongue is all the way through of those verses.

26. 12:45

    Turning to chapter 3, coming in at verse 2. For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in Word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole bottle body. Indeed, we put in horses mouths, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us. We turn their whole body, Look out at the ships.

27. 13:08

    Although they are so large and driven by such fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest A little fire Kindles, and the tongue is a fire of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the the whole body. Your whole body can be destroyed by your tongue, James says. For verse 7, Every kind of beast and bird and reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue.

28. 13:48

    It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With our tongue we bless our God and Father, and with our tongue we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth precede blessings and cursings. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Does the spring bring forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brother, and bare olives or grape figs? No, no, spring yields both salt water and fresh. Just think of the the damage that can be done to us by our tongue.

29. 14:33

    James compares it to a fire. We know we live in a We’re in a beautiful area where forest fires could be devastating. With one little match, you can start a fire that can destroy thousands of acres and many homes and much wildlife and sometimes people. Missus O’leary’s cow kicked over a Lantern, and the whole city of Chicago burnt down as a result.

30. 15:01

    So the tongue is like that, says James. He can start something that it cannot stop. He says no man has ever been able to tame the tongue. But the good news is that God can remember. On one occasion Jesus met a Wildman and he drawed among the tombs, and he wore no clothes, and he cried out to Jesus.

31. 15:22

    What am I to do with you, Jesus, our Son of God Most High? I beseech you to torment me not. Jesus tamed the untamable, and we next see him sitting and clothed, and in his right mind we see the young man’s soul breathing out threatenings and slaughters against the disciples. And through Jesus his tongue is tamed.

32. 15:48

    And he says, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? David has a lot to say about the tongue. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, My strength and my Redeemer. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips.

33. 16:16

    This is David asking God’s help in taming his tongue. I said I will guard my ways lest I sin with my tongue. I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle. All the wicked are before me. So coming back to James, we have James telling us that no man can tame the tongue without God’s help. We we are hopeless, no matter how faithful we might be, at all the things which we consider important to be a good Christian alphion.

34. 16:54

    If we talk too much, if we gossip, if we betray the confidence of those who have confided in us, if we spread rumors, not just rumors, if we spread the truth that ought not be told, well, it was true. Well, it might be true, but it might not be kind, it might not edify, it might not help.

35. 17:31

    So out of our same mouth, we come to a meeting and we talk about the truth and how wonderful it is. And then we say things to and about others that hurt and wound and destroy. And James says you might be a Christadelphian, but your religion is in vain.

36. 18:02

    So this is this is the kind of thing we need to take home with us because it’s so important that we think before we speak that we consider will this help or hurt some in, in in Paul’s day, those that lived in Athens, they, they only wanted to learn, hear and tell some new things. And I don’t know if you have the Christadelphian Grapevine up here as we do down our way, something can happen and it spreads all over so fast.

37. 18:36

    Now we have a Christadelphian tree in our ecclesia. We call it a tree because in order to get word out. But if someone hears something that they should be told, they tell these and these tell these and pretty soon they’ll hold ecclesias. No, they’ve it’s been said this is not true that the fastest communication or telephone Telegraph and tell a woman I already said it wasn’t true.

38. 19:06

    Hebrews 11 I mean hymn 111, one of my favorite hymns. The second verse goes like this. Take my voice and let me sing Always, only or for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from Thee. So let’s watch what we say. We are responsible for what we say.

39. 19:38

    We talked yesterday about Moses when he spoke unadvisedly with his lips, and as a result he was kept out of the Promised land. We must be careful what we say. If we just learn to stop before we speak, take a moment to say, will this help? Will this encourage or discourage? Will it? Will it send someone away or bring them closer to God? And don’t take comfort in telling something just because it’s true.

40. 20:11

    There are a lot of true things that are terrible, and if we know something, that won’t help. Or let it stay with us. So James is now bringing us to this definition of pure religion. We’ve just learned that the person who does not control his tongue, his religion, is vain. Now he’s going to turn to something positive.

41. 20:35

    We talk about the negative, and now we’re going to talk about the positive. Again, this is not the definition that Christadaphians would give. I won’t give you a definition of pure religion. And we would immediately bring up the Birmingham Mental Statement of Faith. We would talk about the exceeding great and precious promises made to the Father, to the to the patriarchs. We would condemn the false creeds of Christendom that contradict the true teachings.

42. 20:58

    And we would be right in all of that. But that’s not what James talks about. He doesn’t say that at all. Not that we’re minimizing those things. Please don’t misunderstand this. And I don’t believe these are important. I believe they are important. But if we don’t do what he’s going to say next, it doesn’t matter what you believe.

43. 21:16

    It doesn’t matter how pure your doctrine is and how straight your fellowship is. If we’re not doing what he next says to do, he’s going to say pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father. Is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and keep himself unspotted from the world? We would never come up with that definition if James didn’t help us.

44. 21:54

    Now, Brother Neville Smart wrote a book on the book of James, and I’m going to quote a little bit from his book because he talked about the word visit. And when we we might have a different definition of visit than the one he’s going to share with us. I mean, sometimes we go to visit somebody and we pop in and say, how are you?

45. 22:13

    And they, they say, I’m terrible. He says, that’s good. And you’re gone again. You know, visit, it takes some time. Visits takes a part of you. You you can’t visit without making a personal sacrifice to do so. And so brother Smart quotes 333 places in Luke Pardons to our brother Peter. Luke 1 and 68 Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed His people, Luke 178 through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us.

46. 23:01

    And Luke 7 verse 16 Then fear came on all upon all, and they glorified God, saying, a great prophet has risen up among us and God has visited his people. So brother Smart comments on that. And he says this visiting was a testimony to the interest and the sympathy and the love of God in regard to man. So when James exhorts his readers to visit, he’s suggesting much more than a mere visit in our modern sense of the term.

47. 23:36

    He implies we must manifest a a lively interest in the needs of others and earnest, warm hearted solicitude of their well-being. Only by such an attitude do we show ourselves to be children, indeed of the Father who visited us in our own need. Other virgins say, take care of orphans and widows, go to the help of orphans and widows, look after others.

48. 24:04

    The only picture we have of the judgment seat of Christ has this subject. And we all know this. It’s in Matthew 25. And I, I, I only stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. But this is a picture of the judgment seat. My brother says you’re gonna be there, you’re gonna be there.

49. 24:25

    You’re gonna be there if you’re ready or not. You’re gonna be there if you want to be there or not. We’re all gonna be there. And this is what the King will say to you and to me. We already have the script.

50. 24:46

    Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And those are the words we long to hear. But he’s going to tell us why we’re on the right hand and others, you’re going to tell him why he’s on their left hand.

51. 25:12

    When he says, depart from me. I don’t even know who you are. And, and, and the same reason is why you’re on this side or you’re on that side. And so he goes on to say, for I was unhungered. You gave me meat.

52. 25:29

    I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger. You took me in naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came in. We don’t remember doing that for you. Jesus.

53. 25:45

    Eat as much. You should have done it until one of the least of these, my brethren. You’ve done it unto me. So James and Jesus are in agreement that this is pure religion and we’d better listen. No, we’d better do more than listen. We’re to be doers of the Word and not hearers.

54. 26:16

    Only Apostle John agrees with this. Whoso hath this world’s good, see if his brother have need, and shut up with his bowels of compassion from him. How dwelleth the love of God in him? You, you know a brother or sister that’s having a tough time, and you’re not doing anything about it. How can the love of God dwell in you?

55. 26:42

    Says James. John, My little children, let us not love in Word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. James, when he comes to compare faith in works, uses the same example in James 214. What does it profit, my brethren? The old man say he hath faith and hath not works. Can faith save me save him? If my brother or sister be naked or destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him, departed peace be warmed and filled, it’s going to be all right. Don’t worry about it.

56. 27:24

    You don’t do anything. He said what does that prophet so so how, how, how are we measuring up to pure religion and undefiled before gone the sisters that are busy helping other sisters in rest homes visiting the sick. The visiting committee on an ecclesia is probably one of the most important. We think, Oh the exhorting brethren visiting is more important.

57. 27:57

    We need to care about each other in in very real ways. When was the last time that you visited one of those, we call them convalescent hospitals over our way. It’s pitiful to go to them. There’s so many people in there that are they they send you there to die. Most of them never come out alive.

58. 28:31

    And while a lot of them are out of their mind, we stopped at a convalescent hospital halfway here in Medford, OR to visit somebody that won’t even know we were there because his mind is gone. But the sister wife was saying some members of the ecclesia won’t visit this man because he’s out of his head anyway. What does he, what will he know?

59. 28:58

    And then I don’t think they realize how much she’s hurting because they won’t visit her husband who is out of his mind. He does smile. You don’t know. You don’t know what’s going on when you talk to somebody like that. The subconscious mind, some things get through. I think sometimes we don’t realize how how important it is just just to sit and hold a hand and say a prayer over someone who who could even be in a coma.

60. 29:35

    They say people in comas can hear a little Side Story on this. A family had a, had a, had a father that was dying. And the family all gathered at the bedside and they, they, they knew that he had very short time to live. And they said to the doctor, well, what, what do we see? What do we do, you know, And he was in a coma. And the, the doctor said, why don’t you just stand around his bedside and talk about experiences that that you all remember together as a family.

61. 30:08

    And I guess this man was somewhat of a character. And so all the children started recalling different things that Daddy had done over the years. And as they were, were telling you remember when Daddy did this and they would all be laughing. And they, we had, well, you know, dad did that. And they were all laughing and, and they looked down and he was laughing and he died. True story.

62. 30:31

    He died laughing at the happy things that his family were recalling about his life. And nobody thought he they, they didn’t know he was here listening. It went through until he in that subconscious mind, he was laughing and that they as he laughed, he breathed his last. So what a nice way to go, isn’t it?

63. 30:55

    But you see, you’re needed there. You can say, well, why should I go see them? You’re in a coma. I don’t think very many of us enjoy visiting people in some of these places. I know my own mother was in one for years and years and years. And I went to see her every day. I went to see her just a few hours before she died. But I didn’t know she was going to die. I wouldn’t have left because she was in that same situation for, for for for months.

64. 31:28

    And I went to see her and I left and I went to calling the customer. When I got there, they, they phoned and rang and they said you have a message, your mother just died and went right back to the home. And there she was. She just just as I’d left her before. They hadn’t even come to take her away yet. Of course I felt terrible to think that I had left and not be with her at the time of it.

65. 31:49

    But no one knows. But when Peggy’s father was going to die, he, he lived there almost 102. They said he’s not going to live through the night. So we decided we were going to stake out. We we stayed with him all night. They said he will not live till morning. And so because he was totally deaf, we knew that he couldn’t hear.

66. 32:09

    So we kept physical contact with him. We took turns holding his hand, rubbing him and kissing him and that kind of thing. He didn’t die till 6:00 in the morning. He lasted all night and we watched him die, but we were there.

67. 32:27

    That’s what God wants us to do is to be there with others when they need us. And you can’t do it by remote control. It is good to clone. That is good. And when you, when you know someone is not well and you can reach it by phone, you can talk to them. I’ve, I’ve prayed and cried on the phone with people. I had a phone call one night.

68. 32:51

    It was about 11:00 at night and it was a sister. She says you don’t know who I am but I’m going to kill myself tonight. It’s 2:00 in the morning where I live so I figured out she was somewhere on the East Coast 3 hours from me. She says my husband is already asleep and she says when he wakes up in the morning I’ll be dead. But I had to tell somebody I thought I’d call you. So we I thought can’t hang up on this lady. We just kept talking.

69. 33:22

    We talked and we prayed and we cried together. And the happy thing is she didn’t do it that night. I think she was just reaching out. She probably was needed someone to talk to. Sometimes that’s all you need to do is just be there to, to someone to talk to. Abraham Lincoln was president of the United States and he was at war with the South.

70. 33:51

    And there was a it was a terrible war. More Americans were killed in the Civil War than all of the wars that America has ever been involved in because they were killing each other. And he was up against it. And he sent a telegram to Illinois, to a friend of his. He said, you’ve got to come to Washington.

71. 34:11

    I’ve got to see you. So this man got on a train, It wasn’t no planes in those days. And he travelled a distance from Illinois to Washington, DC And the president had a coach and, and a horse and carriage meet him at the station. And they brought him to the White House. They ushered him into the White House and the president was waiting for him. And when he when he got there, the president walked up and he said, I am so glad to see you.

72. 34:40

    Thank you for coming. Sit down. I’ve got to talk to you. And then the president began to walk and he talked and he paced and he told his friend all of these problems. And if I do this, the cabinet’s after me. If I do that, the Congress is going to get me. The troops are losing here.

73. 34:57

    And he talked and he did this for about 3 hours. This one just sat there. He never, he never said any more than hello, Right, Abe. And for three hours, Abe Lincoln poured his heart out to this friend. At the end, he said, it’s so nice for you to come. You’ve helped me greatly. And the man got on a train and went back home. But he had to be there to be of help. You wouldn’t say, what will I say? Just be there.

74. 35:30

    Just care. There’s pure religion under file, says James. James knew what he was talking about. We have to care enough to go where we’re needed to be and be with those who need us. Telephones are wonderful, letters are great, e-mail is fantastic. I don’t understand it, but it works. But there’s nothing that takes the place of being there. And so if you know someone that would be helped by your visit, be there.

75. 36:13

    And it’s more than just popping in you. You just have to stay a while. My mother, in her her weak condition, she said, I wish we could get an extra bed and put it in here beside me and you can sleep here. I was an only child and spoiled rotten and that was not possible. But yeah, you can’t just pop in you, you just have to be there. We went to see a brother, Bill Robinson, who’s had a stroke up in Brantford and he has to be fed. We have timed it so we could be there to feed him. And the nurses let us feed him.

76. 36:53

    And he’s a he’s a dear brother that we love very much. But it’s so pitiful to see someone who’s so full of life just a few days before and, and now, thanks to a stroke, as totally incapacitated. But he could talk. And he, he, he gave us some good words of wisdom. In fact, we’ve written a meditation about our visit with him because he said good enough is not good enough.

77. 37:27

    And that’s true, isn’t it? And that was a, a Pearl of, of, of a jewel that he shared with me. And the more I think about it, the more true it is. So in, in our life, in the service and the truth, good enough is not good enough. Are you just doing enough to get by? I think if I do this much at all, I ought to be enough for God if I just do my Bible readings. Well, thank, I’ve done that, God. I think sometimes we think that doing the Bible readings is sort of like a debt we owe Jesus.

78. 37:56

    OK, I’m supposed to do the Bible readings now. I’ve done that now. Now the rest of the day is mine. It’s wonderful to do the Bible. Please don’t think I’m not putting that down. I am not. But would you say that’s the maximum or the very minimum that you do for the Lord? Good enough is not good enough.

79. 38:19

    And I wouldn’t have been able to to have shared that with you if I hadn’t bothered. It was no bother but to go to see if a brother, very dear brother in the hospital. So who benefits? I’ve already talked about Diane Grandchamp. Those who see her benefit from visiting her because she is such a wonderful personality and she’s so cheerful. You got to cheer her up and she cheers you up. But you got to stay a while.

80. 38:45

    You don’t just pop and say hi, Diane, nice to see you and gone think. Well, I did that. I mean, I think that’s the way some doctors make their rounds. And of course, you can. You can always be misunderstood in trying to do good. There was a sister who had several little children and an old sister Jones lived down the street 3 or 4 doors down South. One morning she said to her children, would you would you run over and see how old sister Jones is today? She was wanting to be thoughtful of how this, so the Kitty said, sure, mom.

81. 39:20

    And they ran off and they came back in a few minutes and they they said, she says it’s none of your business how old she is today. So sometimes in doing good, you can be misunderstood. And so sometimes people who have been misunderstood for the good they wanted to do said, well, that’s the last time I’m ever going to do good.

82. 39:52

    And so we have to keep on doing good whether we’re misunderstood or not. If you turn to Second Samuel 10, you’ll see a a wonderful example of a person who tried to do good and was misunderstood for it. And as a result, many thousands and thousands of people died. Second Samuel 10 And a king has died. A king has died who had been kind to David. And as a result, David said, I will show kindness unto Hainan. This is verse 2.

83. 40:32

    The son of Nahash, as his father, showed kindness to me. And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his servants for his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. And the Princess of the children of Ammon said unto Haman, Hainan their Lord, thinkest thou that David doth honor thy father, that he sent comforters unto thee?

84. 40:52

    Hath not David rather sent his servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it on and overthrow it? Wherefore Heinan took David’s servants, shaved off half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, and even to their buttocks, and sent them away. And you know the story as a result of that. 700 Chariots, 40,000 horsemen and show back the Campton died 40,701 people died as a result of a misunderstanding.

85. 41:29

    So but David didn’t stop doing good just because one person misunderstood his good actions. And sometimes you can go to visit someone and you can tell that they they weren’t prepared for you to come. So it’s an act of kindness if you’re going to people’s homes to to call them and say, is it Lord, if I, if I stop over? You can kill some people with kindness. Certainly when you go to hospitals, if they’re really desperately, I’ll you don’t sit by their bed too long because company wears people out when they’re sick. So then you say, well, then I won’t go at all. You see, it takes takes a little bit of common sense to know what type of visit and how much of A visit is required. But the point is, if we’re not doing this according to James and our religion is in vain.

86. 42:21

    And so let’s remember to think of others instead of ourselves. Who can I write to today? Who can I telephone today? Who can I visit today? The second part of the test is keep yourself unspotted from the world.

87. 42:49

    Now this is easier said than done. It was hard to do this when James wrote it. It’s a lot harder now because when James said don’t get spotted by the things of the world and there were no daily newspapers, printing had not been invented. There were no magazines to be delivered into your mailbox.

88. 43:13

    There was no radio and there was no television to pipe the world right into the your home where you could see and hear all the sounds of the world that are going on all around you.

89. 43:24

    You probably have gone, you ladies love to go shopping. You probably have gone to a store and you saw piles of clothes of bargain basement kind of thing. And there’ll be a sign up that says slightly soiled, greatly reduced, and getting spotted by the world greatly reduces our value to God. How thankful we are that as Isaiah spoke to us in Isaiah 118.

90. 44:04

    Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. Friendship with the world causes stains and spots.

91. 44:26

    Paul makes a a whole long list of very serious sins and then proceeds to tell us that none of those who do these things will be in the Kingdom. And then he adds, Such were some of you. It’s in one Corinthians 69. Don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived.

92. 44:49

    Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So all of us have received spots, James says, to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. And we all have gotten spots on us, and the spots greatly reduce our value.

93. 45:39

    But thanks to forgiveness, we can have all the spots removed. We don’t have to stand before the judgment seat with dirty garments unless we want to be that way.

94. 45:55

    John to the seven of Cleesians, mature in Asia, grace be to you, and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

95. 46:15

    To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. If it were not for Jesus, we could not keep ourselves unspotted from the world because we could not be forgiven. It’s only through Him that we have washed or robes and made them white by his blinds. So just how do we keep ourselves unspotted from the world?

96. 46:51

    Well James is going to give us a whole list of things that spot you up, defile you, make you dirty and so these things are spots that we want to avoid. There is a wishy washy double minded person who is easily influenced to do wrong. This person is soon spotted by the world.

97. 47:15

    James one verse six. But let him ask in faith with no doubt. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. Do not let that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He’s double minded and he’s unstable in all his ways. So we have to be single minded.

98. 47:34

    We have to be focused, otherwise we’re going to get spots on us there. There was in James’s day and in our day those who respected the rich and despised the poor and this was a spot. James 2 verse one. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

99. 48:03

    For if there come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and say to you, Oh, sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourself? You become judges with evil thoughts. Listen, my brothers and sisters, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he has promised to those that love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? It’s still true today.

100. 48:47

     We must not respect riches. We look up to people who may be rich and look down on people who may be poor. And we’re we’re the poor of this world. God has not chosen the rich people, the faint, the famous, the mighty. He God on purpose has chosen us. And then for us to respect someone higher up and not show respect to our brothers and sisters who who may not have very much. It’s a spot.

101. 49:14

     We’re supposed to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. There are spots caused by envy and strife, James 31416 But if you have bitter envy and self seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there are we envious of others?

102. 49:57

     Are we full of strife? You know, there are, there are Christian Alphians that wherever they go, there’s, there’s strife. I, I like to tell the story about a, a realtor who was showing a home to prospective buyers as they showed this home in the morning to a family. And they, the family said to the realtor, what kind of neighbors will I have here? And the realtor says, what kind of neighbors do you have where you are now?

103. 50:28

     They say, oh, we have lovely neighbors. They’re, they’re really nice. We get along. They, they water our flowers when we’re gone. We feed their cat when they, we get along just great. She says, you’re going to have the very same kind of neighbors here In the afternoon. She showed the same house to another family and they said, they said, what kind of neighbors will I have here? She says, what kind of neighbors do you have at home? She says, they’re terrible.

104. 50:50

     Oh, we go get along. We don’t even speak. They, they don’t want our dog on their yard and their kids. We chase them off for them. Whoa. It’s terrible. You’re going to have the same kind of neighbors here. See, wherever we go, there we are. And if, if there’s always strife and confusion and bitterness and problems around you, you have sighted the enemy. And it is me.

105. 51:20

     We are the one. There are some people who are everybody’s out of step but them. That’s a spot, the big spot. We need to look ourselves in the mirror, says James, And realizes that we’re the problem. You know, you could never, ever, ever, ever belong to an occasion that’s pure. Because when you join it, it won’t be. We are the problem to allow other people to have problems, not to allow them to have the problem, but allow be be compassionate about their problems. So often we have a double standard. We, we want justice for other people and mercy for ourselves. I like the story about the stop sign that that illustrates this one to me.

106. 52:25

     You may have heard it before, but I want to hear it again. You’re driving down the street and you come to a four way stop and you make a good solid stop and you’re just about to start up and all of a sudden here’s comes a car and you can see he is really barrelling and he goes flatly and you turn to the people in your car. You know, we could have been killed. I was there first.

107. 52:49

     It was my turn to go. And had I gone when I should have gone, he would have hit us broadside. Nobody. We could have all been killed. I wish he was a copier to get that guy. Oh, he’s a Minnesota highway. You want justice for him? You’re same same, same car, same day, same, same, same occupants.

108. 53:09

     You’re driving along and you’re now in the neighborhood where you’re not. Don’t normally drive. And you’re, you’re driving along and you’re having a really good conversation on the truth. And you, you go through an intersection and as you get through, everybody says, did you know there was a stop sign back there? There was, oh, I hope there’s no cop around here.

109. 53:28

     You see, we when we do something wrong, we don’t want to get caught as somebody else does. We want them to pay. So if we’re like that, it’s a spot, and we need to realize it’s a spot and the more merciful of the other fellow and perhaps be more hard on ourselves by being a friend of the world, we get spotted. James Ford, Ford, adulterers and adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world is empathy with God?

110. 54:02

     Whosoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. But we want to be friendly with the world, don’t we? We like to have worldly friends. If all your friends are worldly, you go to a meeting on Sunday. But when you want to really have a good time, you you choose to to spend your time with people who are not in the truth.

111. 54:26

     It’s a spot. Recognize it as a spot and realize that you can’t serve God and mammon. If you’re trying to teach these people the truth, that’s one thing. But if you’re doing the worldly things that they do with them, then you’re mixing too much with the world. You’re spending too much time with those who don’t love Jesus and recognizes as that and do something about it. If we speak evil of one another, we become spotted. James 411 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of his brother and judges his brother speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you’re not a doer of the law, but a judge.

112. 55:21

     So bite your tongue. Don’t say anything bad about anyone. That’s that’s a very good rule. There’s a saying, if I can’t say something good about a person, I won’t say anything about him at all. And then somebody said, what do you think about him? He said, I have nothing to say about him.

113. 55:40

     So you can you can even in a roundabout way, try to say something unkind without well, I didn’t say anything, did I? But you LED them to know what you feel.

114. 55:54

     We there’s so much good in the my mother taught me this poem. I hope I can get it out now. There’s so much good and the worst of us and so much bad and the best of us. It doesn’t behold any of us to speak I’ll of the rest of us. And so when I point my finger at you through your pointing at me, I’ve got so many problems. I don’t have to be talking about yours. If if it’s, if it’s a arranging brothers meeting, we’re we’re dealing with the situation.

115. 56:15

     That’s that’s not gossip, but don’t let it get outside that meeting either. I mean, sometimes something comes up in a arranging brothers meeting and before you know it, the whole occasion is the word of something. You thought only a few knew. Somebody sinned. That kind of thing happened. Somebody sinned. We have to be careful that that’s a spot.

116. 56:34

     Spots can keep you out of the Kingdom. So let’s don’t speak evil of each other. Try to only say good things. We get caught up too much in this world’s mad rush to get things. We get spotted. James 4 verse 13 Come now, you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and spend a year there and buy and sell and get a profit, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.

117. 57:04

     For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say if the Lord will we will do this or that. You, you put the Lord will in front of all the things you’re going to do. I think if and then do you do something you don’t think the Lord would will you do? You can’t say Lord willing.

118. 57:23

     I’m going to go to the racetrack and bet on Sleepy Sullivan on the fifth race. There’s no Lord willing in that thing. I mean, let’s be careful that we don’t say Lord willing to do something that we think the Lord would not will us to do. We can simply be too interested in having a good time. And therefore I have no time for God. This is a real spot.

119. 57:50

     James 55. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury. You have fattened your hearts as in the day of slaughter. We mustn’t spend our time just having fun. We can begin to boast and to be cuffed up and this is certainly a spot. 1st chapter 4 verse 16 but now you boast in your arrogance.

120. 58:15

     Such boasting is evil. We should be humbling ourselves. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up. Verse 10 of chapter 4, all the things that the world considers to be with pride and they, they say pride is a virtue and we know it’s a sin. And so Jeremiah 923 God says, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom. And yet people say, well, you know, I’m a PhD or call me doctor or whatever.

121. 58:48

     And, and I, I, you know, some real smart people who, who just use big words that I don’t understand just to make me feel stupid. It’s been too hard to make me feel stupid. I already know I am. But if you have, if you’re wise, don’t flaunt it. This is what Jeremiah is saying. Nor let not the mighty man glory in his might. We have a beach down our way, Santa Monica, called Muscle Beach.

122. 59:19

     And the people with big muscles go there and they flex them, you know, and, and the girls go, oh, and all. And he says, if you’re strong, use it for the Lord. I mean, there’s too many people willing to carry the bench when a piano needs to be moved. If you’re strong, help us move the piano, but don’t wear tight sleeves and let us know how strong you are. And nor let the rich man glory in his riches. Well, what a rich is for if you can’t flaunt him, That’s what the world thinks.

123. 59:53

     But let him get glory, says Jeremiah. Glory in this, that He understands me, that I am the Lord. Exercising loving kindness, judgment and righteousness than the earth for in this I delight says the Lord. So there are all kinds of spots, brothers and sisters, that we can we can have and pure religion is to keep yourself unspotted from the world.

124. 1:00:28

     And so let’s try to get rid of our spots by first asking for forgiveness and God will wipe them out. And then by knowing how it’s so easy to get them and what what little things we do that end up with a spot on us that we shouldn’t have. So we’re just going to close with some beautiful words from Isaiah chapter one.

125. 1:00:54

     Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good. Seek justice. Rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

126. 1:01:23

     Though they be red like Crimson, they shall be as wool. Thank you for listening to the good ’cause Adelphian Talks podcast. We hope this talk helped you in your walk and brightened your day. If you would like to hear more, please subscribe for new episodes. We are on all major podcast platforms and also on YouTube. If you enjoyed this particular talk, please share it with someone else who you think might enjoy it too. For show notes on the talk you just listened to, visit [email protected] or check out the Show Notes section of your podcast player.

127. 1:02:15

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128. 1:02:31

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