Mercifully Good News
Notes
Transcript
Good morning, it is great to be with you on this day after our nations birthday celebration, I’m sure this message may be finding some of you a little foggy eyed from the “bombs bursting in air” last night.
Our text this morning comes from James 2:1-13, here this words from God’s Holy Word. Our “reader in residence”, Drew will read for us this morning:
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 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, 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,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 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? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill 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 but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 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. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
This is God’s Holy Word.
Thanks be to God.
Let us Pray:
Glorious Lord, Sovereign God, as we come before you on this day we are reminded from these words from your Holy Word penned by your servant James that no follower of you is better in your sight than another, that we all stand on the same ground humbled in the presence of your glory. And so we come together to hear from your Word, and we say together, “speak Lord for your servants are listening.”
And now may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable to you our Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
I want to thank Drew for his reading of our Word this morning.
The book of James is such a powerful book. It’s so practical in its application and we come to our passage this morning that begins with:
My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
My siblings - the Greek word is brothers, but the term was not meant to only address the men but all in the family, some translations will say brethren, or brothers and sisters - this is a letter to the family of believers.
And then the command - show no “partiality”.
The favoring of one over another based upon… wealth? stature? looks? social status? race? gender?
James begins this entrance into the meat of his letter that we who are followers of Christ, we who are family are not to allow the the stains of this world pollute and defile us “as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.”
The NIV translates it this way:
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.
Favoritism is if we break it down - ism - a belief in, and favor, = the belief in favor, the belief in the giving of or showing of favor, or the belief in playing favorites. That’s not the gospel. In Jesus there is no raising up of another based on some attribute because in reality there is only one who was raised up to be above all that at His Name alone would every knee bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord! That person is Jesus Christ.
James goes on in verse 2-7 expounding on how we might show partiality in our places of worship - he actually uses the term synagogue - and because of the way the person is dressed we either show them honor or dishonor we have polluted the gospel, we have allowed the world to stain our faith.
Church, hear me. If we are seeing categorizing people’s worth based on anything in this world we are defying the Gospel message that is presented in the Scriptures. It doesn’t matter which categories we are using. Lately in the news I’ve heard people shouting against the church reminding us that Jesus wasn’t white. I don’t know how much you might have thought about this, most people will picture Jesus to reflect culture familiar to them.
I quoted G.K. Chesterton last week, “God made man in his own image, and man was quick to repay the favor.”
The late Rev. Dr. E.V. Hill is quoted:
“I don't know anything about a white Christ - I know about Christ, a Savior named Jesus. I don't know what color He is. He was born in brown Asia, He fled to black Africa, and He was in heaven before the gospel got to white Europe, so I don't know what color He is. I do know one thing: if you bow at the altar with color on your mind, and get up with color on your mind, go back again - and keep going back until you no longer look at His color, but at His greatness and His power - His power to save!"
As we the church worship “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” it is He and not we that is glorious. It is He and not any of us “we” that is deserving of that glory!
I want to focus on verses 8-10 for a moment.
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
The “royal law” - remember how Jesus summed up the Law - “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
If you love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well, and then we get to v. 9 and it begins with “but...”
But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
But - remember how that cancels what came before? If you are showing partiality you are not loving your neighbor as yourself. and you are convicted by the law!
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
If you have your Bible open, I encourage you to underline this passage, highlight it, do whatever you need to do to recognize the weight of this statement. James 2, vs. 10 says that if you keep all the dietary laws, all the laws of worship, all the offerings, all the cleanliness laws, and you go to church, you tithe, you honor your parents, you keep don’t murder, you don’t commit adultery, you don’t steal, but tell one little white lie - BAM! - the judgment comes down, GUILTY!
Jesus said in Mt. 5:18
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
James is giving a presentation of the Gospel message right here: “Whoever keeps the WHOLE LAW but...” it all falls apart on that one little conjunction.
Wait, you say, the Gospel is supposed to be good news! You’re right. And it is.
James here is reminding us that God’s standards are not our standards. God said, “Be Holy, for I am Holy!” Not one of us has the right to claim any sort of favoritism in God’s eyes. We are called to keep the whole law and we’re all in the same boat, we simply can’t - and God’s law stands.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
The Law and the Prophets is the summary of the Old Testament - all the things that we are supposed to do, and one might say all the things we would willingly do in right relationship with God. And, as we see over and over again throughout the Old Testament, despite humanity’s best intentions and efforts, we simply can’t live up to God’s standards. But God can.
Jesus as fully God and fully man, can and did live up to Law and fulfilled the Law. What we were unable to do, Jesus did - not by the power of man but by the power of God. If we jump back to vs. 8 we read,
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
The sin of partiality is based in comparison. Anytime we compare we lose, we either think the other person is better than us - and that’s making them a sort of idol, or we think ourselves better than the other person and that’s pride. Either way, we’ve taken our eyes off of the Only One who is worthy of our worship and that is our glorious Lord, Jesus Christ. The only way you and I can truly love our neighbor as ourself is to first love God, for God is love. It is in knowing God and experiencing God’s mercy through the glory of Christ that puts us all on the same level before Him. There is no reason (or even means) for partiality if we recognize our own need for a savior and other’s need for the same.
Without our putting God first and experiencing God’s love for us, we cannot truly love others because it will be for our own gains. And that’s not love.
Love is patient and kind. It doesn’t envy, boast, and isn’t proud. It doesn’t dishonor others, seek its self, anger easily, or keep a record of how it’s been wronged. (See 1 Cor 13:4-8)
The good acts that we do for others are often not selfless at all, but selfish. We want them to think well of us, they make us feel good. We want others to think of us as good people, or at least be able to think of ourselves this way. And once again we’ve caught ourselves in the trap of works based righteousness.
One of the great missionaries of the 19th century to Inland China was Hudson Taylor. He wrote to his children who were at the time in England:
Hudson Taylor - “I wish you knew what it is to give your hearts to Jesus to keep every day. I used to try to keep my own heart right, but it would always be going wrong. so at last I had to give up trying myself, and to accept the Lord’s offer to keep it for me. Don’t you think that is the best way?”
God says, “Be Holy for I am Holy,” and we can’t, but Jesus can. To live as a Christian is to understand that the Law has been fulfilled in Jesus - let Jesus take the wheel, let Jesus take the burden of obedience, and you just keep your eyes fixed on Him.
The Law of Christ provides freedom from sin through the Good News that by following Christ it is no longer up to me in my own power to live the “good Christian life.” It is Christ in me that lives for me in God’s great mercy. To God be the glory, always.
The Word of our Lord. AMEN.