Law & Mercy (Week 4)
Notes
Transcript
Announcements:
Announcements:
YA bonfire October 11th,
This will be at Josh and Jen Combs House. There will be A&Q and a for Josh Combs, so feel free to bring questions. And also bring your own chair.
Trunk or treat Oct 26th
If any of us would like to do trunks, I think it would be really awesome if the young adults had a couple different trunks at the event. So get together to night or this month and try to get some details on that.
All Location YA
This Thursday, we have our all location young adult night at Holly its @ 7PM Volleyball, basketball and all the things will be available following Worship and message.
Would you be interested in a 6:00 PM young adult prayer meeting before young adults?
I want to really push community involvement and gospel opportunities through our lives, and I thought it might be cool for us to spend time in prayer for our community every Tuesday night. If there's interest. so if you think you’d be interested in that please lmk tonight
Prayer:
Prayer:
1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:1–13 (ESV)
1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
So immediately right off the bat, we see that James is still referring to his brothers and sisters in Christ
James, isn’t speaking to people who aren't Christians
He's referring to the Christians. He is speaking to you and I, and He is saying Brothers sisters you and i Show no partiality
so what is partiality?
One way we can read it through a Greek is a denoted fixed position.
meaning, based upon the look of a person, we come to a conclusion before we know anything at all.
For those of us who were here last Sunday, pastor Chuck went over judgment.
We looked at what it meant to judge nut lest ye be judged. And James is hitting on a very similar point.
James is saying that we should not look at the outward appearance of a person and come to an conclusion.
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
In this passage, Samuel is looking for the next King of Israel, and he sees a strong and tall, confident man in front of him. But God says that's not the one.
The one who was to be king was David, the smaller, weaker, lest desirable man But the man who ended up being the man after God's own heart.
And James goes from this statement and moves into an illustration of what he's trying to say.
2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in,
3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”
4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
So we see the illustration there are two. men, the poor and the rich. They come into the church. and James is saying that if you look at the rich man and give him good things and you look at the poor man and give him bad things, you have become evil in your thoughts and in your actions.
Now in this room, I'm sure we have a spectrum of higher and lower income. And James is saying, if you know somebody with wealth, do you treat them differently than somebody who does not have wealth?
This is a strong danger in the church, especially for pastors and elders. If we know who pays, who tithes, who has money, if we we can fall into catering towards those people exclusively. ignoring the poor.
And a big, big reason why this is wrong is because we are made in the image of God. And because of that, we all have valued despite or regardless of our socioeconomic standings
in the world today, how do we see this play out in churches? Do we see this same discrimination in partiality today?
Now I have a question for us in our church. Do we see this and be honest?
Now I believe that we can look at this through another lens do we show Partiality as Young Adults?
My personal opinion is, yes, we tend to show partiality in a different way. Instead of looking at someone's financial statements, we look at someone's social credit score
We oftentimes get into holy huddles, and we only talk to and welcome people that we know already. And it makes it hard for the new believer or the outsider to come in and join the community.
I remember at one of the all location, young adult nights. I met a guy who was new and I shook his in hand, introduced myself and after a short conversation, walked away to talk with other people. and I met him a year later At Young and don't retreat.
He told me that I was the only person who talked to him that night, and he left feeling alone. frustrated and not really happy with the younger dog group. But he decided to try your adult retreat in it was really good for him.
He connected and made friends. But there is an issue in young adult communities with partiality.
He told me that I was the only person who talked to him that night, and he left feeling alone. frustrated and not really happy with the younger dog group. But he decided to try your adult retreat in it was really good for him.
And that hurt me. because I didn't go back and circle back with him and talk with him and connect him and spend the time to make sure that he felt like he was a part of the church.
In that moment, I showed partiality. I didn't want to break through the awkward conversation I chose to do the right thing, quote unquote, and say hi, but then I moved on.
So as a small application point, when it comes to partiality, whether it be rich or poor or socially rich or socially poor, how do we interact with people?
Are we taking steps to bring people into our communities? Or are we becoming holy huddles and keeping people out?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
James is hammering the point even further, saying, Don't you know that those who are poor in this life will be rich in faith
Oftentimes I've wondered what James meant by this, but as I've lived life and experienced and heard stories from older believers, it's clicked.
When you and I are doing well financially. when you and I are not in financial need, we tend to feel like we don't need God. We aren't praying for this bill that's coming up. We aren't praying for this random expense. We can't afford. We're just living life
But those of us who have been in financial need know that when we're in financial need, we live and rely on our faith in a deeper way, naturally.
Whenever I talk to a married couple who was once poor and now doing financially well, they talk about how their poor times of marriage were the best times of marriage because they relied on God.
Now this passage isn't saying that we must be poor physically to have strong faith, but it is saying Is that when we are physically poor, we naturally have to lean into faith or despair.
And as Christians, we should always lean into faith that God can and will provide.
Have you ever had a time of financial or physical need And you saw God work, and you had to lean on faith for him to work?
Now on the other side of that, have you noticed that when you're not in financial need, you don't tend to lean on faith as much.?
Now James continues. in his. rebuke of. us and those of his day. who had partiality towards the rich. and negative partiality towards the poor.
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?
7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
What he is saying is, oftentimes the rich are cruel compared to the poor.
Now does this mean that if you have money that you're automatically root. or evil? No. But oftentimes money can corrupt.
And especially in Jesus Day, that's what it did. Those who were rich tended to look down and poorly on the poor.
And let's look at an example in. luke.
19 “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.
20 And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores,
21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried,
23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
24 And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’
25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’
In this passage, the man continues to plead and ask for mercy, but the reality was in his life he did not choose God. He chose physical possessions and never felt a need to have faith.
And this is a danger if we allow money to provide distractions from our need for faith.
So when it comes to how we treat a poor versus rich person, we should treat them with the same respect because they're made in the image of God.
Another danger, rather than just treating the poor person poorly, is never telling the truth to the rich person out of fear of offending them.
We see this often with celebrities or mega rich people that their friends will never tell them the truth, because they are afraid of offending them because of their money.
And this is another form of partiality.
Let's continue with our text in verse 8.
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
James makes it clear that all these things that we're talking about when it comes to partiality are sin.
And that as Christians, if we say, well, I love my neighbor as myself, but we show partiality to which neighbor we love, we are still in sin, and we're breaking the law.
And that takes us to verse 10.
10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
And here we see where it becomes very, very, very serious. James is pointing out our need for Christ. James is pushing against the idea of sinless perfectionism.
Oftentimes, as Christians, as we continue to grow up in the church or grow in faith, we tend to become almost legalistic thinking that we are better than someone else because we don't sin like that.
But the reality is, if we have lied, we are a liar. If we have stolen any amount of anything, we are a thief. If. we have hated our brother, we are a murderer.
And this idea of breaking the law do we understand it? to break the law in one point We've broken all of it do we understand that?
How would you describe that?
An illustration that makes sense to me is one where you have a cup of water and then. you put a drop of food coloring in the water. It's only one drop. It's only one broken law. But can you ever remove that food coloring from the water?
The answer is you can't. You can't remove the food coloring from the water. What needs to happen is that there needs to be new water.
no matter how great or small our sin has been, it still separates us from God and requires payment.
And what happens is we have our cup full of stained water in Jesus pours his righteousness into the cup till it overflows and removes our sin. And he can do this because he took our sin on the cross and paid the penalty.
And James brings all of this back into perspective in verse 12.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
What would you say James is saying here?
What I believe James is saying is that you have failed. You and I have both failed in at least one point of the law, and therefore were guilty of all of it.
So we need to live in an understanding way, because we have been forgiven and shown mercy.
A person who has been forgiven much will love much.
A person who has been shown mercy will show mercy.
God has forgiven you. God has been merciful to you, and he did not show partiality to you. So therefore do so to others.
There's a parable in Matthew 1823 through 33 that I really like.
In this parable, there is a master and his Servants, and he decided to settle accounts with his servants.
One servant came to him owing several years worth of wages, and was unable to pay. And he decided to show mercy on this servant.
But then the servant who had received this mercy immediately went to his other fellow servant, who owed him a weeks wage. And he was unable to pay.
So the servant who was forgiven a great debt through his fellow servant into prison.
And when the master had heard of this, he was furious and brought the servant back to him and said this.
32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’
34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
We are called to walk as those who have received great mercy to live under the law of liberty, not judging some one based upon their outward appearance.
James wants us to remember that when we serve the least of these, we are serving Christ.
When you and I have unexplainable mercy and a grace for others, it is a witness to what Jesus has done in our life, and it can open up gospel opportunities.
So a few questions for each of us
do we show mercy to others?
Do we live in a way that is impartial?
Are we welcoming to the poor or socially awkward or social outcasts in our community? Or do we live in holy huddles?
And one thing I just want to close with is this doesn't mean that you and I don't look at each others lives and push us towards love and good works.
God's word is good reproof, rebuke and exhortation.
You and I are supposed to help each other as believers grow in our walk with the Lord. We're supposed to remove the plank out of our own eye and then help each other gently with care. Remove the spec out of each other's eye.
5 Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.
We are called to help each other grow and we are called to be impartial while we do it.
So this week, I want us to focus on ways that we can welcome people into our communities Focus on ways that we can be impartial and show mercy to others, because mercy triumphs over judgment.
Let's pray.
