What is Royal Mercy?
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Royalty fantasy
French royalty
Not everyone can be royal, because it would rob what makes royalty special
big bang theory- tiara
Girlfriend was mad at boyfriend for not acknowledging her work achievement.
damage had been done, and apology wasn’t enough
“You are the most shallow, selfish person I have ever met.
Do you think that the this transparent, manipulative gesture is going to make me forget?
tiara, it’s a tiara
put it on me, put it on me.
“This is my tiara and I am a princess.”
watching the prince fidget
royal law, royal decree
as opposed to a general decree
California decrees that just about everything causes cancer
James chapter 2 gives us five reasons we must avoid showing favoritism
Those who show favoritism disobey Scripture by acting like corrupt judges (1-4)
Favoring the rich over the poor is unwise, because God has chosen the poor to inherit the kingdom (5)
Favoring the rich is foolish since the rich often exploit and persecute poor believers (6-7)
Showing favoritism is a sin- it breaks the royal law (8-11)
To receive mercy from God, we must show mercy to others, without favoritism (12-13)
If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
Favoritism breaks the royal law
Favoritism breaks the royal law
What is this royal Law:
But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.
One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
“This is the great and foremost commandment.
“The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
“On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
This royal law is the idea of Loving your neighbor as yourself
Truly this law is royal, summarizing and reigning over lesser, more specific laws of God
If you welcome the rich man because you love hiim as you love yourself, then fine
but ifyou are giving him special attention, only because he is rich, you do wrong.
and you are breaking the very law you are referring to
Furthermore, whoever breaks part of the Law breaks the entire law
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
It is hypocrisy to overlook some sins, such as favoritism, and emphasize other sins, such as adultery and murder
The Bible reminds us that all sins are wrong, and breaking one law makes us lawbreakers.
It is like breaking a glass or a plate.
If part of the glass is broken, it is all broken.
-Using a glass cup with a crack on the bottom that you didn’t notice
We cannot ignore one of God’s moral laws, like showing favoritism, and remain innocent.
God expects us to walk in the full light of what He says is right and wrong.
We are not saved by keeping God’s laws.
We are talked about how God chose to give us birth “through the word of truth”
In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.
Like physical birth, spiritual birth and life are gifts from God
We cannot earn them
Still, there is law in God’s kingdom
Whenever we do wrong, God calls us to repentance.
That’s why we make it a regular part of our prayer life
Those who refuse to repent, refuse to have Jesus as Lord
It is pride to think you have it all together and are not in need of repentance
In the end, the Lord will say to all the lawless
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Those who practice what God hates are walking away from Him toward eternal judgment
For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,
idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,
envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
So since we know God hates favoritism, let us refuse to practice it.
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
If we want mercy, then we must show mercy (without favoritism)
If we want mercy, then we must show mercy (without favoritism)
These two verses serve as a bridge between the verses before it and the ones coming after.
This bridge reminds us to avoid showing favoritism
God will judge us for how we treat the poor, the widows, and the orphans
Connecting with what follows, the bridge emphasizes that faith and good deeds (like showing mercy) are inseparable
In this life, to please God we must obey the teachings of Jesus
Likewise, in the life to come, we will be judged by the teachings of Christ
Believers are not under the law of Moses.
But we are under the lordship of Jesus
which means obeying His laws and His teachings
“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?
“Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like:
he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
“But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”
The law or rule of Jesus is summarized by the royal law
The heart of following Jesus is obeying His teachings
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
And Jesus emphasized that to keep the mercy and forgiveness we receive from Him, we must pass these on to others
Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
“For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
“When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
“But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
“So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’
“And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.
“But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’
“So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’
“But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed.
“So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.
“Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
‘Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’
“And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.
“My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
“And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
“Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
“In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
“And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
“But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
‘And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’
“And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—
for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
“But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
“But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’
“But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
The rich man showed no mercy to Lazarus in life, the starving beggar at his gate
after feasting each day, the rich man would not even share the crumbs from his table.
Th priest and the Levite from the Good Samaritan had hearts of stone.
They showed no mercy to the man lying wounded beside the road.
In contrast, the Good Samaritan showed him mercy.
And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?”
And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”
But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead.
“And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
“Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
“But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,
and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
“On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’
“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?”
And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same.”
Jesus Counsels us to show mercy, as the Samaritan did.
For only those who pass on God’s mercy in this life will find it when they stand before His throne at the end of their days.
So let us remember often the mercy God has shown us
And let us respond to His Spirit and His Word that guide God’s children to be merciful.
Communion
Communion
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord.
But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly.
For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me and know my anxious thoughts;
And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
Preparation Prayer
Let us pray before we partake of the elements together
Father, we come together today to sit at your table as your guests, resting only in the worthiness of your Son.
As we look upon the emblems of our Savior’s death,
the cup and the bread, may we remember why He died
- to cleanse and to heal;
to satisfy your righteousness and justice.
We remember His eternal love and boundless grace.
May we receive the assurance of forgiveness, eternal life, and the hope of glory.
As the bread and cup nourish our body,
so may your indwelling Holy Spirit strengthen our soul,
until the day of Christ’s appearing when we will hunger and thirst no more,
and sit with Him at His heavenly table.
Bless these symbols of your grace and mercy as we remember your sacrifice today.
Amen
Bread
The Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said,
“Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”
Let us partake together
Cup
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Let us partake together
Lord’s Prayer
Let us pray together as Jesus taught us by saying the Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who is in heaven
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our debts
As we forgive our debtors
And do not lead us into temptation
But deliver us from the evil one
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen