Now we live in a time, we live in a day where everything wants to be personalized and customized.
People want things to be made in such a way as to suit them personally.
You know, I think of Burger King's motto, have it your way.
Tell me what's personal about this word, whosoever.
That doesn't sound very personal.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
So having a relationship with God can't get you to heaven.
It's your faith on Jesus Christ as your only way to heaven.
That's salvation.
Shouldn't you start changing to line up more with what God is like?
And shouldn't you change to where you line up more like what the Bible's like?
You see, the liberals and the new evangelicals and modernists of our day, this is what they proclaim.
And you've heard this before.
We don't have a religion. We have a relationship.
Who's ever heard that statement before?
Look down in your Bible at James 1.26, the Bible reads,
If any man among you seem to be religious,
and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
Look at James 1.27.
Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,
to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Isn't that terrible? Isn't religion a terrible thing?
Keeping yourself unspotted from the world.
Isn't that terrible?
Isn't it terrible to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to control your mouth and what you say in your heart?
It sounds like religion is a pretty good thing.
Look down at your Bible. Does religion look like it's good or bad?
But you see, modern day Christianity doesn't want religion.
They want a relationship instead of religion.
Why? Because religion involves controlling what you say and what you don't say, according to these verses.
You see, religion involves controlling what you sing and what you don't sing.
Religion involves you keeping yourself unspotted from the world.
How are you going to have fellowship with God when you're walking in darkness?
You think you're going to have fellowship with God walking into the dark place, walking into a bar?
Will you fellowship with Jesus Christ in the bar stool? No, you will not.
Will you fellowship with Jesus Christ down at the movie theater watching all the filth of Hollywood?
No, you won't.
You say, but in my personal relationship, I do fellowship with Jesus while I watch R-rated videos and the PG and the PG-13.
I do fellowship with Jesus over a cold beer.
I do fellowship with Jesus. It's my personal relationship.
Your personal relationship is not the relationship that God called for.
Your religion is vain.
You are not spiritual. You are not religious unless you keep yourself unspotted from the world, it says in James 1-27.
Unless you visit the fatherless and the widows and their priests. Unless you bridle your tarp.
Control what you say, control what you sing, control what you do, control where you go.
That's religion. That's what's going to bring you into fellowship with God.
Well, does your personal relationship involve reading God's word and letting Jesus speak to you?
Or does Jesus speak to you in an audible voice? Did he appear to you in your bedroom last night?
The way that Jesus will speak to you is through the Bible.
If you don't pick up the King James Bible and read the Bible, you don't have a relationship with Jesus.
If you're not getting on your knees and praying to Jesus, and it better be the Jesus of the Bible, you don't have a relationship with Jesus.
And then you don't want to just be a hearer of the word, because we're in James 1, just look a few verses up.
This is after you're saved, of course, talking to brethren, he says.
We just saw pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father is this, but go up, if you would, to verse 22.
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man beholding his natural face to the glass,
for he beholds himself to go this way, and straightway forgives what manner of man he was,
but whoso looketh in the perfect law of liberty, and continueth then, therein,
he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
That's the religious man. That's the spiritual man, the man who reads God's word.
He fellowships with God by letting God speak to him through the Holy Spirit, through the pages of the Bible,
and then he gets on his knees and speaks back to God, then he gets off his knees and is a doer of the work.
That's the man who's going to be blessed in his deed. That's religion. That's fellowship with God.
But religion has been thrown out. Now we just have the relationship.
The imaginary relationship with an imaginary God who goes everything our way, anything goes.
He doesn't enforce the rules of the Bible. He doesn't care what you do.
He doesn't care whether you steal, kill. Isn't it so terrible, all these do's and don'ts, like, thou shalt not steal?
God, you're so restrictive. Thou shalt not kill? Come on. Thou shalt not commit adultery? What?
Thou shalt not bear false witness? Come on. These sound like good rules.
In fact, they're called commandments. And Jesus said, if you love me, shouldn't a relationship, quote, unquote, be built on love?
Right? Well, didn't Jesus say, if you love me, keep my commandments?
Sounds like the do's and don'ts. Sounds like the religion is a big part of the relationship.
You see, Mr. Personal Relationship is too busy driving his personal car.
He's too busy living in his big personal house. He's too busy feeling all lovey-dovey in his little personal way.
He's not obeying the command of God, the chance to go, go ye therefore into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be full.
Who's got the love this morning? Is it you? Do you have love in your heart this morning?
Because the love in your heart will be evidenced by your following God's command to bring the gospel to a lost and dying world. That's love.
Love is when you reach out your hand to that one who's unsaved and on their way to hell, and you reach out and pull them out of the fire, as it says in Jude, verse 23.
Love is when you get the gospel to somebody and get them saved.
Love is when you live your life in a clean and godly way that doesn't hurt and harm other people.
That's what love is. That's what religion is.
That's what God wants.