Genuine Faith (faith and works)

James  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  50:12
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Scripture Reading 1 Cor 1:26-31
Welcome
Good morning church family. I hope you had a very blessed week and if you didn’t I hope you will find a time of peace and encouragement as you worship and grow under the guidance of his word today. If you are a guest with us today I would love to follow up with you and learn about your story and what God is doing in your life. We have a couple of announcements this morning.
Announcements
Small groups are staring up this week.
New Member Class - See Pastor Kyle
Operation Christmas Child - See Mary Long
Prayers
Rex Phillips
Poor in our community
Pray for Wisdom for the Church
Let us Pray
Last week we started James chapter 2. In this chapter James deals with the sin of favoritism. James was clear that believers were not to show favoritism amongst each other as it is a sin. Favoritism is the opposite of fairness and is the treatment of people differently not based on who they really are but on the outward appearance of a person. James defined the principle, that believers are not supposed to play favorites and he also gave a made up example to make his point. We looked at why this was sin by looking at the character of God and that throughout the bible the bible is clear that God is impartial and does not have favorites and as a believer that is supposed to reflect the character of God that the sin of favoritism is in direct conflict with God’s character.
James 2:1–13 (CSB)
1 My brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. 2 For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, 3 if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,” 4 haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? 6 Yet you have dishonored the poor. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Verse 5 begins with listen, brothers and sisters, he is calling them to slow down and take head for what he is about to say is vert important.
Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?

Principle 1

Favoritism is opposed to God’s selection of the poor to demonstrate his Glory.
1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (CSB)
26 Brothers and sisters, consider your calling: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. 27 Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong. 28 God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world—what is viewed as nothing—to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, 29 so that no one may boast in his presence.
The history of the church and in the time of James the church was primarily filled with those that the world defined as poor. Those that were insignificant, unwanted. Those that were foolish. Not to say that there have not been those with wealth in the church but that has not been the majority. The world has defined who is powerful, or wise, strong, valuable or significant. We have seen periods of time where those of power sought out to wipe out those who were defined as insignificant.
Per the UN Genocide Convention defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.
They listed just 39 of these genocides.
The holocaust: 1941-1945, 4 to 7 million of the Jewish population in Europe.
During the same period Nazi Germany killed around 3 1/2 million Soviet prisoners because they believed they were sub-human.
Cambodian Genocide: Lead by Communist party of Kampuchea, between 1.3 and 3 million Cambodians
Rwanda Genocide: 1994, 1/2 million Tutsis killed for just being them.
Darfur Genocide: started in 2003 and is still going on today with hundreds of thousands killed
The sin of man continues and will continue to separate, divide, elevate and define what is significant in the world. But in the church this cannot be. This cannot be how believers look at the world around them. Why? Because God commands it.
Galatians 3:27–29 (CSB)
27 For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. 28 There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.
Each and every believer is clothed in Christ. Chosen not because of who they are but because of who God is. there are no distinctions among God’s people. We are one people, saved by one God, for the Glory of the one and only God.
It is completely against God to create divisions in the church. Divisions, by age, by economic status, by gender, by race, by married status or any other way we can think of. Now I am not saying that God has equal roles for everyone in the church. Husbands, wives, children, deacon, elders, and others have been defined in the church as God has established but to show favoritism to one person over another for nothing more than worldly definitions is against how God looks at the world.
Favoritism dishonors those that God honors.
as verse 6 starts:
Yet you have dishonored the poor.
God has chosen to give honor to the poor and favoritism is not consistent with God. We are basically saying “God it is nice that you saved them but I don’t think they are worth my time. They are not as important as that person over there.” This is what we see in the church. How many people come through a churches door and and are not greeted or engaged with for the sole reason they are not one of us. I am encouraged that over the years we have recieved feedback that we are a very welcoming church but that isn’t always the case.
Pastor Gary’s experience.
Each end every person who walks through a door of a church this morning should receive equal consideration as people that God has brought to church this morning. We should look out and not see what separates us but what unites us. And that is a desire to follow God, no matter where a person is at with their walk with him.
Not only does favoritism not honor those God has honored. Those that God has called and chosen, But
Favoritism leads to false honor
Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into court? 7 Don’t they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
The word for oppress here is like being a tyrant of you. When believers look to outside appearances or those that have money is is too easy to be distracted and loose site of what is real. What is important. This was an issue that James was addressing. Why are you captivated by the rich. They oppress you and take you to court and Blaspheme the good name over them. Blaspheme can also mean slander. He is looking at the people and going why are you doting on the rich when they oppress and slander the name of your Lord, namely Jesus. Why? Wake up and see what is really going on. You have elevated these people to a status that they have not earned.
Today we may not exactly be honoring people who take us to court but we do have a culture of Christianity that is chasing after celebrity Christians and non Christians. We see people following so called Christians that are full of false teachings because they tickle their ears and make them feel good. Some of them are using people as sheep to pay their bills and the people are following, giving them honor, and they are ignoring the pastor of the church down the road that opens the bible and talks about love, hope, blessings, and sin, repentance, forgiveness and correction and teaches the complete word of God. Which is uncomfortable because it reveals to us things that we have to deal with.
James adds another angle to his argument

Principle 2

Favoritism violates the Greatest Commandments, Love God and Love your Neighbor
8 Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. 9 If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the entire law, and yet stumbles at one point, is guilty of breaking it all. 11 For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
Favoritism is not only contrary to God’s character and those he chooses to honor it is also not compatible with God command to love. James refers back to the Old Testament law in Leviticus.
Leviticus 19:18 (CSB)
18 Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
There isn’t anyone on this planet that we love more than ourselves. We may not like ourselves sometimes but in the end we will always love ourselves. From the beginning of the Law that was revealed for Israel, Love has been the center of the community of God’s people. When they asked Jesus what the greatest commandments were he responded with:
Matthew 22:34–40 (CSB)
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”
37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
The second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Many times we leave off verse 40 but I love verse 40. All of the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands. Every in the law even the two specific commands on murder and adultery are grounded in love. Jesus said in John
John 13:34 (CSB)
34 “I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another.
We are to live a life of love. Love for one another. just as Jesus has loved us and id God and Jesus are impartial and do not have favorites then and John also says God is love then how can favoritism be loving. As Paul puts it to the Romans
Romans 13:10 (CSB)
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.
As James has made it clear favoritism is wrong to do to someone else and therefor not loving. But love is not just the foundation of the Law and Prophets, it is also the fulfillment of the Law.
Romans 13:8–9 (CSB)
8 Do not owe anyone anything, except to love one another, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not covet; and any other commandment, are summed up by this commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.
As we grow in Christ’s likeness we should be giving one thing to everyone and that is love. Love is one of the greatest indicators of salvation in a believers life. We give out of love, we teach out of love, we correct out of love, we fellowship in love, we worship in love.
John 13:35 (CSB)
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The mark of a person who has been freed by the royal Law of the gospel is their love for one another. James speaks of transgressing the total law to address one of the issues with Jewish culture of that time. They viewed the command of scripture and a list of rules to follow and as long as you followed more of them then not you would be fine, but James is correcting that view. AS we have the same issue in the church today. We look at all of things we are supposed to do or not do and as long as we feel we are doing enough good then we do not have to address the bad. If i go to church every Sunday than I can watch any movie I want in my own home. If I read my bible everyday then I don’t have to deal with other sins in my life. We are so comfortable in many of our sins because we take the same mindest at James is talking about. But we need to see the Word of God as a complete unified authority in our lives and that we are to submit our lives to it. This means to purge the sins that are unacceptable in the church like abuse, theft, sexual immorality, and also the ones that are acceptable in the church like slander, gossip, complacency, laziness, pride and many others. We have been set free to obey the life giving word of God not to say in our old destructive ways.
Favoritism shows a lack of the transforming work of God in a believer
When we do this out lives will look like this.
Philippians 2:3–4 (CSB)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others.
and
Luke 6:31–33 (CSB)
31 Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.
Believers are to look into the world around them with love as the guiding force behind it all. Not a made up love but a love that comes from God because he first loved us.
James end this section with a final warning.

Principle 3

Favoritism is judgment without mercy.
12 Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Remember James told us earlier that favoritism is to be a judge with evil thoughts. This final warning is to the unbelievers in the church.
“the one who has not shown mercy” refers to an unregenerate person. Believers show mercy to the people around them because they have been shown mercy themselves. No matter how generous or how kind or any other greatness a person may achieve in this world, they will not give mercy unless they are first shown mercy buy God. This mercy is what triumphs over the final judgment of sin. There were very honored people in the church who liked to be there for their own motives and not because of the gospel of Christ.
Matthew 5:7 (CSB)
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
A believers mercy will bear witness to the saving grace they have been given.

Conclusion

Much of what James addresses with favoritism is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.
I am reminded of the story of the good Samaritan.
Luke 10:25–29 (CSB)
25 Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
The account ends with
Luke 10:36–37 (CSB)
36 “Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
37 “The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
Love your neighbor as yourself, and who is our neighbor? Anyone who we show mercy to. Anyone God put in our path, not just believers but also unbelievers as well. In today's world we have defined and redefined the basics of favoritism in many ways such as: discrimination, prejudice, racism, chauvinism, and bigotry to name some. All of these look at treat others without love. These cannot be present in the church if we are to be loving disciples of Christ.
As we go into communion this morning I ask that you examine your heart and sit before God asking that the Holy Spirit reveal to you any sin that you need to repent of today. We take these elements of communion and we remember the love of God who showed us the definition of mercy. That even though we were still sinner, still enemies of God, he chose to die on the cross as the substitution for the punishment of our sins.
Let us pray.
Luke 22:19–20 CSB
19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Where are you at today?
See me after church.
Romans 15:5–6
5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
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