What is it is good to be here today?
It was good to be back. Back home with you guys Sherry
and I have definitely missed you all.
We have been out of town for several weeks now and might not
be that long on the calendar but man it is felt like months and
so we are very grateful to be back.
It's good to see everybody. It's good to get to hug
everybody. Just very, very grateful,
obviously, a lot of visitors today.
I want to welcome you to New Life Community Church and Echo.
What James is already said. We're glad that you're here
today to just make yourselves at home.
We hope you enjoy the service and so my name is Jasper, I'm
the associate pastor here, not a very good one because you don't
have bulletins today so you guys need to find somebody better, I
guess I'm sorry we're out of ink and so because we're out of ink,
also didn't print my sermon, it's on a computer.
So, forgive me for this. I know, I'm sure you might not
even see me over the screen here, but I'm going to move
around some. How about that you guys can
watch? Josh try to follow me with the
cameras. Drive him crazy today.
So anyway, it's good to be back. Good to see you guys hopefully
within the next few weeks. We'll be home for good.
Things are going great. So we're right on track, we
should be back by the end of the month and looking forward to
that. So be sure to hug Sherry.
Anyway, all right, so let's let's get rolling with this.
For those of you who maybe who are visiting or don't know,
we've been working through the Book of James on Sunday mornings
and on Wednesday nights in our home groups.
And so just to give you a really, really quick, snapshot
Into the Book of James as a whole and kind of some context
that will play a part. In what we're going to talk
about today, the Book of James was written by a guy named James
and it He's a very short book that is just packed full of
practical application for Christians.
Okay? So it's not a book that's full
of just a lot of real heady theological just thoughts and
stuff. It's real down, down to earth,
boots on the ground. This is how you should live as
Christians, okay? So it's a lot of application,
it's a lot of that. So the Book of James is known
for versus like don't just be hearers of the word, but be
doers actually do what it's saying.
It's also, Also known for what we're going to get into next
week that faith without works is dead.
And so we're covering some big big passages like that.
Today is no different. It's a passage that is very
practical and its application. It's just very simple stuff.
It's not anything too complicated.
So if you have your Bibles turn to James chapter 2, Now, the
Book of James also was written to Christians who were dispersed
at the time, James opens the letter by saying, greetings to
the Twelve Tribes of the dispersion, okay?
So there was a guy named Herod Agrippa, the first, he was
persecuting Christians, they were dispersed everywhere, and
they were meeting and house churches probably, you know,
underground churches. They were having a kind of hide
and be sneaky about it, so they're just kind of spread out
everywhere and So, he's writing this letter to these Christians,
into these churches about just very practical things.
So, these were would have been Jewish Christians that he was
riding to. And so he addresses them as
brothers throughout this letter, and gives them all kinds of
great instruction. Now, if you were able please
stand, you don't have to if you can, but if you were able to
stand we're going to read James chapter 2 verses 1 through 13.
My brethren do not hold your faith and our glorious.
Lord, Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism
for if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and
dressed in fine clothes. And there also comes in a poor
man and dirty clothes. And you pay special attention to
the one who is wearing, fine clothes.
And say, you sit here in a good place and you say to the poor
man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool.
Have you not made? Distinctions among yourselves
and become judges. With evil motives, listen, my
beloved Brethren did not God. Choose the poor of this world to
be rich in faith and Heirs of the Kingdom, which he promised
to those who love him. But you have Dishonored, the
poor man, Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally, drag
you into court? Do they not blaspheme?
The fair Name by which you've been called, if however, you are
fulfilling the Royal law. According to the scripture, you
shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well.
But if you show partiality, you're committing sin and are
convicted by the law as transgressors for whoever,
whoever keeps the whole law. And yet, stumbles at 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 you do commit
murder, you've become a transgressor of the law.
So speak and act. As those who are to be judged by
the law of Liberty. For judgment will be merciless
to the one who has shown, No Mercy.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. Let's pray.
Father, I thank you for your word.
Thank you. That we have it that we can read
it and I thank you for everything that Contained in it.
And God, I just pray this morning that as we talk through
this and we think through James chapter 2 that you just help us
to process this. I pray that you speak to us
through the Holy Spirit Lord, and that you help us to hide
these truths in our heart and apply it to our everyday lives.
We give you all the honor and all the glory Jesus name.
Amen. You can be seated.
Okay, so James does what? Any good pastor does and right
out of the gate, he has this format for how he's going to do
this. He tells them the topic and then
it gives an example and then it gets right down to the root and
his main point and then he supports it with scripture and
things that the Bible teaches. So it's a great sermon layout
and so we're just going to kind of follow through that today.
So right out of the gate, he tells them what the issue is and
verse 1. My brethren do not.
Do not hold your faith in our glorious.
Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude, a personal favoritism,
and then he launches into this example.
So personal favoritism, another way of saying this and some of
your translations. I think the ESV says partiality,
so showing partiality playing favorites.
Having bias amongst your brothers and sisters in Christ
within your church. Now, apparently, this was, this
was an issue for these churches and we know that this is not the
only time that this is in Scripture.
Right there, there are other examples of this.
You remember in First Corinthians 3 4 through 8.
Paul says this, for when one says I follow Paul and another I
follow Apollo's, are you not being merely human what?
Then is Apollo's and what is Paul servants through, whom you
believed as the Lord assigned to each, I planted Apollo's
watered. But God gave the growth.
So neither he who plants or he who Waters is anything but only
God who gives the Oath, he who plants, and he, who waters are
one, and each one will receive his wages according to his
labor. So, James is actually written
before First Corinthians, even though that's not that way in
your Bibles. But even Paul is saying here,
this was an ongoing issue for Christians, okay?
And the church at Corinth, the churches that James is writing
to, it's always been an issue, playing favorites showing
partiality. And so Paul is saying and this
is what James is saying today that we're not supposed to do
this, like Paul is saying He doesn't say, who is Apollo's or
who is Paul? He says, what are they?
What? Does Paul?
What is their servants? That's what they are.
They're nothing, it's God, that deserves the honor and the glory
and he goes on to say the one that plants in the one that
waters are one. And so he's stressing Unity
amongst the brothers in Christ and that all the glory goes to
God not to any one of us. Okay.
So that's what James is going to stress in his letter today.
So James is bringing this up apparently because this was an
issue, this was a problem. Problem for this for these
churches and it is still a major issue even amongst Christians
today, right? So we know this happens all the
time and I'm going to get into this here in a minute, kind of
some modern-day examples of this, but we know that this is
still still an issue. So he goes from, lay it out, he
lays it out there partiality. Okay, that's the issue.
That's what we're talking about. And then in verses 23, he starts
giving an example, okay? So he gives the example of the
rich man, and the poor man that come into your assembly.
Okay. That's another way of saying
into your church. So for us it would look like,
you know, this on a Sunday morning.
They remember their meeting in homes.
So the house you know, smaller houses.
Not as much room, it would have been about like a homegroup on a
Wednesday night and so not much room, may be kind of cramped, I
don't know how many people they had meeting in these, you know,
house churches. I don't know how big the houses
were but it's essentially like you meeting in homes seating is
limited. Maybe some people are having a
sit on the floor. Summer having to stand up and
all Of that. But you guys know, you've been
to a homegroup just about every house.
You go to is going to have a couch and maybe like a really
nice recliner that like, you know, somebody likes to sit in
and all that. So at home group on Wednesday
night, what happens after we eat the meal, right?
When it's time to kind of start working our way into the living
room, usually somebody's going to go on there and take that
Bible and kind of sit in like a really good recliner you know
like that's how you go ahead and get your spot right there.
Essentially that this is what's happening here is that he's
given the example like look. Guy walks into your, to your
assembly, into your church house into your church looking like
Tom Hanks off of Castaway and you're telling the guy like
okay, you can you can sit on the floor.
You can stand in the back if you want or just use hang out
outside, if that's okay. But then got looking like Tom,
Cruise walks in a suit with a fresh shave and smelling good.
And it's like, who come here Tom.
You get the best seat in the house.
Like, it's a horrible example, but you get what I'm saying?
They're showing preferential. It meant to People based on
appearances and based on wealth and money and things like that
external factors, and we're going to get into that more in
just a moment. So after he gives his example,
James jumps into and verse 4, the heart of the matter.
Okay, the root sin that's taking place in their hearts that's
working. Its way out and showing itself
in partiality what's really going on?
On in the heart and in the mind that leads to this.
So look at verse 4, have you not been made distinctions among
yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Again some translations, say evil motives So the partiality.
Okay, the favoritism treating people differently was the out
working again of something, something deeper that was going
on. Inside their hearts, the roots
in was that they were judging others.
They're judging other people. They're judging their brothers
and sisters in Christ, and they're not even judging them.
According to God's standard, they're judging them, according
to their own standards that they have set for who's worthy.
And who's not, who's good and who's bad, right?
They're basing it on things like wealth and clothing and stuff,
external stuff. That's what's going on in the
heart here in James recognizes this and he says, look, you are,
you're creating distinctions and you're judging for yourselves
between these people and what happens is the result of this,
as you begin to make what he calls distinctions.
Another way of saying this is separations, you start to make
separations in your own mind when you start to look at people
and look at external things, and you say he dresses really nice,
and he dresses really shabby. And so, I'm automatically going
to divide in my mind who's worthy, who's not, who's good,
who's bad rich and poor, you start to separate and now
because you've separated these people into two different
groups, you To treat them differently and treat them
accordingly in your own mind. And it plays itself out in the
way you act because of what's now taking place in your heart,
this is the very same sin that Adam and Eve fell into They
tried to play God, right? They wanted to be like God.
And that's what James is audience.
Since what we do to, when we start to judge people, we know
that we are not to judge. We can judge a tree by its
fruit. Absolutely.
That's according to God's word, but we are not to cast judgment
on others. We are not to make distinctions
and determined some to be worthy and some to be unworthy.
And that's what these people were doing.
James fully understood this, and this is why Why it mattered so
much to him? This is why he's placing such
high importance on this is because he understands what is
at stake. You see, James fully understood
that by people doing this, by just looking at external
superficial things and making distinctions and judging people
and starting to treat people differently that they were in
grave danger of jeopardizing. The unity of the church.
Christ called his church to be one body with many members.
Each one different serving, a different purpose, but unified
as one body and James understood that what you are doing is
you're taking all those different parts and you're
separating them out as if they don't belong together.
And this is a very, very dangerous thing for the church
or else, he wouldn't have even written on it.
And so today, the big point that I I want to make to you all and
looking at this, my big idea for you is that we maintain unity in
the church through impartial love for one another.
Okay, we we maintain Unity amongst ourselves amongst
Brothers and Sisters in Christ through an impartial love for
one another. We can't play favorites.
We can't begin to judge amongst ourselves who's worthy of my
time and attention and love and who's not Anyone in this room or
any other church across this country?
That has been. Saved by the grace of God and a
brother and sister in Christ is worthy of our love and
affection. We don't get to decide who those
people are, amen? Okay.
So let's keep moving the external things that they were
looking at here in this text was wealth and money and clothes,
okay? Pretty easy stuff to notice.
So I told you earlier that we talked about this, this happens
even still today in churches. So great example, you see a guy
Big beard, flannel boots drives, a truck likes.
The hunt and fish. Must be a man.
Right? He's a man's man.
He's manly. But almost did the Tim the Tool
Man, Taylor Grant thing. But you have no idea whether
that man teaches his children. You don't know whether that man
loves his wife, the way, he's commanded to the way Jesus loved
the church. You don't know what that man
does in his free time when he's alone.
But you see that man and you start to make judgments right
now, the flip side of that coin, that same guy beard flower boots
drives, a truck blue, collar job, you might look at him and
say, well, he's got to be just a dumb redneck, right?
Might be one of the greatest theologians you've ever met in
your life and you have no idea. And so, the point I'm making is
that we still do this. Now, we do this all the time, we
see people. And we just automatically And
it's just Instinct, we make assumptions about them.
You know, they must be x y, z or the fit into whatever category
and so they were doing this to, in these churches that James is
writing to. And when we do this, as we've
been talking about so far, it causes divisions amongst God's
people, it allows our mind and our thoughts.
Now, to start to affect our actions in the way that we treat
people. We begin to become judges, we
began to cast judgment. But we begin to act differently
around those people. Maybe there's someone that you
and your mind have deemed worthy and so on a Sunday morning, even
in here, you run over and shake that hand.
And you want to talk for five minutes to that person.
But then there's another person right beside that.
You had even said, hello to today.
Why will they not both bought and paid for by the blood of
Christ? Are they not both worthy and
God's eyes? And so we do this, we don't do
it on purpose. A lot of times it's just become
ingrained in us now. Following James's progression
through this, right? So he gives them the issue
partiality, he gives them the example, he gets to the root
cause here what's happening in their hearts and then he begins
to support what he's telling them.
Okay. Some scriptural support in
verses 5 through 7, he starts to point out to them.
Look this is not how God operates, okay, this is not how
God does things when you're doing this when you're treating
the rich man. Better than the poor man.
This isn't this isn't normal for God.
Okay? So the whole group curriculum
word it like this. It is not in sync with God's
character with who he is as Creator.
And so when we begin to do this, we are now acting in opposition
to who God is, okay? That's important to remember.
You remember the story in first Samuel when Saul was King and
God has decided he's going to choose a new King, right?
And who was that? Who was the guy that came after
Saul David, Okay? So, Remember, David was just a
boy and God sends Samuel to Jesse's house.
That's David's dad, goes to Jesse's house and tells him.
You're going to anoint a new king, okay.
He doesn't tell him who it is, right?
He doesn't say, hey, it's David go find David.
You just said it's going to be one of Jesse sons and you'll
know it. And so he gets there and right
off the bat, he starts to see some of Jesse's oldest son's.
And I'm not sure if it was his absolute oldest, but one of
them's name is reliable. And it says that when Samuel saw
him, he just knew by his stature.
ER in his bill and he's handsome, he's tall, he's
strong. All that he knew his like, this
has got to be the guy. I mean, look at this guy, you
know, I mean he's over there just he's living it up.
This is the dude for sure. This is what God says though in
first Samuel 16:7 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 God looks on the
heart. God doesn't look at the outward
appearance. God looks on the heart of man.
And that's why God loves the poor.
And that's what James gets into in these following verses in
verses 5 through 7. We see that God has chosen those
who are poor to be rich in faith.
Okay? Now multiple verses throughout
scripture support this, this is one of the exercises we did and
home groups. This week was to look up Old
Testament verses that support this idea that God favors the
poor. Okay, tons of verse Psalm 1012
song 41 1 through to Proverbs 22, 22.
I had all these listed I was going to read them, but it's
going to take too long, but there's a lot of them.
Okay, there's a lot of them in there.
Matthew Henry and his commentary, even says this
about, you know, what James is telling his readers, is that
Those whom you have such a low opinion of are, those whom God
has made Heirs of the Kingdom? They are princes and princesses.
They are going to inherit the kingdom and those are the ones
that you're treating. Eating like dirt.
Now we know that poorer can mean in impoverished, no money, but
it doesn't always just mean financially.
It also means those who are helpless, I love the way the
homegroup God's word. It it says those who are
helpless To whom God shows special concern those who are
marked by a recognition that they cannot help themselves.
And throughout scripture poverty, tends toward that kind
of humility more than wealth does.
Okay? And in the same way sickness
tends toward that kind of humility more than health does,
so don't miss this. I know I was reading a quote,
but the point is this, that that kind of humility that being
humble, knowing that you can't help yourself that happens more
times than not, when we're sick. Not, when we're healthy, right?
It's when we're sick and weird, Desperate and we're at our ropes
in or crying out to God, for help the very humble and we
recognize how powerful he is and how helpless we are and likewise
maybe it's not sickness and health, maybe it is money.
Maybe it's like, man, I don't have a dime left to my name.
I don't know how I'm going to pay my bills.
God, I need some help. It's then that we cry out to
God, right? It's never when we're rich.
And so, The point here is that those going through trials,
tribulations, going through tough times, usually tend to
lean more toward, that sort of humility and being poor in
spirit. Now, that's not an absolute hard
fast rule, right? We know that not every poor
person loves the Lord and is showing humility toward God,
right? We know that, not every rich
person is living in sin. Say, oh, I got this.
I don't need God, we know, that's not always the case, but
Typically, that's how these things work.
And that's why Jesus taught that it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into
the kingdom of God. Because with great money and
great riches comes, great pride and arrogance.
And this thought that I don't really need God, I'm doing okay.
And so we have to be very careful with these things but we
know that it's the poor that God shows special favor to.
Now, I want to, I want to point this out and Again, the whole
group, curriculum, I'm kind of reading through that this week.
I'm reading through this text and I'm seeing all these
connections, it did a great job of pulling this out.
Being poor. Okay, being poor weather
monetarily or poor in spirit or whatever does not mean that you
automatically go to heaven. Okay, that's not the
prerequisite to go to heaven, is I need to be poor and verse 5,
we see that he has promised the kingdom to those who love him.
Okay, it says, listen my beloved Brethren did God.
Not choose the poor of this world, to be rich in faith and
Heirs of the Kingdom, which he has promised to those who love
him. So we know that typically the
poor are rich in faith, but just because you're poor, doesn't
mean yep, your tickets. Punched, it's those who love the
Lord that will Inherit the Kingdom, God shows a special
concern for those who were helpless and those who cry out
to him and those who need him. But it is only those who put
their total and complete faith hope and trust in God that will
inherit the kingdom of God. That is the prerequisite.
That is the only thing you bring to the table as an
understanding. That all I bring into the
situation is sin. I'm just a sinner and I need a
savior and so I'm asking God to save All right that's that's
all. And so if you do that, if you
understand that you are separated from God because of
your sin that you cannot save yourself and that you are a
sinner. Romans 3:23 tells us this all
have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
If you understand that that you you look you can't earn your way
into heaven. You're not going to work your
way into heaven. You're not good enough.
You understand that then you can cast your cares on the Lord and
say, Lord, forgive me, I Repent in dust and Ashes please save my
soul. Then then you can be saved.
You've put all confidence in him and not yourself.
That is how we inherit the kingdom of God.
It's not just by being poor or being rich, or being ugly or
pretty or any of that stuff. It's total dependence on the
lord. It's repent and believe is what
his word teaches. So that's a word on the port.
Now the rich if being poorer usually lends itself toward
being humble in spirit, then like we've talked about being
rich most of the time can lend toward being a bit arrogant and
not dependent on God. So he James says, a couple of
things here about the rich he says, look, do you guys not
understand that that it's the poor that God's chosen to
inherit the kingdom and the rich over here are the ones who
oppose you? They drag you to court, and they
blaspheme Jesus. So back, then this was a pretty
interesting fine when I was studying for this, the ESV Study
Bible says like this, it's frequently recorded in the Old
Testament, but the wealthy would use the court system to steal
from the port. So back, then you had not only
people like these Pharisees that are running around taking
advantage of people, you know, living this lavish lifestyle and
all that. But the rich of that time use
the court systems to manipulate people, and steal lands and
titles and money from poor. All the time, they manipulated
the system. And so James is telling them
look. These rich people are walking
into your church and you're seeing all the flashy gold rings
and all of that you know who he must be special, come sit here.
Those are the very people that are oppressing, you, those are
the people that are opposed to God.
Do you not see? This is completely backwards.
God has chosen the poor. The rich will be judged.
You're choosing the rich and you're disregarding the poor.
You've got it completely backwards.
And then he gets to verse 8. James 2 verses 8 through nine,
say if you really fulfill the Royal law, according to the
scripture that says you shall not look or you shall love your
neighbor as yourself you're doing well.
So if you do that, if you're loving your neighbor as
yourself, you're doing well but if you show partiality, you are
committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
Let's think about this for a minute.
If you really fulfill the Royal law.
What is the Royal law? You thought, if you ever thought
about that, I kind of glanced over it when I was reading
through this, let's talk about that for a moment.
If something's the Royal something, what does that if
this is the Royal Pulpit, that means it belongs to the King,
right? This is the Royal laptop, it's
the Kings laptop, and so the Royal law is the King's law.
Who's the king. Jesus.
So the Royal law is Jesus law. But wait a minute, wait a
minute. I thought Jesus came to fulfill
the law. Not create new ones.
Well, what did we just talk about in Sunday school this
morning? Matthew 22 verses 36 through 40.
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment and all the law.
And he said to them, you shall love the Lord.
Your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.
This is the great and first commandment.
There's a second that is like it.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two
Commandments depend on all the law and all the prophets.
That is the King's law. That is the Royal law to love,
God, and love others. Jesus himself taught that to
love your neighbor. Is just as important as your
love for the Lord and that every other law, all of it depends on
your ability to do this. It can all be summed up in these
two laws. Love God, and love your
neighbor. So if you break this law, You
are becoming a transgressor and you're breaking all the laws and
that's the exercise we did this morning.
We see that in Breaking these laws, we break all of them.
That's how important this lesson was for these Christians.
That James is writing to That is what's at stake when it comes to
loving our Brothers and Sisters in Christ without partiality.
And did you know, this isn't the only verse in scripture that
says all the law and the prophets depend on that verse.
There's another one, Matthew 7, chapter 7 verse 12 says this,
whatever you wish that others would do to you do also to them
for, this is the law and the prophets.
That's known as the Golden Rule. You've all heard that your whole
lives, right? They used to be posted in
schools when I was growing up. So you've got the greatest
commandment, love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul
and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
And you got the golden rule, do to others the way you want to be
treated. Those two things, all the law,
all the profits depend on those two things, love God and love
people. And if you're not doing that,
you're breaking them all. You're condemning yourself,
you're going to jeopardize the unity and the church.
It all hinges on this first. John 4:20 says, if anyone says
that I love God, but he hates his brother.
He is a liar for he who does not love his brother.
Whom he is Meek, who he has seen.
Cannot love God. Whom he has not seen.
So you can't say, well, I love, I love the Lord.
I just don't like his church. I love God.
I like to spend time with him. It's don't like going to church.
I don't like Christians. Doesn't work that way.
We've I've heard this example. I know I've used this example so
many times, I'm going to use it against too good, not to use it.
If if I've invited some of you to dinner at my house, I said,
hey man, Sherry want to have you guys over for dinner, we'd love
to hang out, play some board games, and just have a great
time. And I said, hey, Dylan.
I'm gonna invite you guys over to play board games and sorry.
Ashley, I'm not picking on you. Hey Dylan, come over to invite
you guys over. But if it's cool with you man,
like look, could you just come by yourself?
Just leave her at the house. Would that be okay?
Like, you know, know, you know, you don't mean it, but that be
okay Dylan's gonna go like no. No, that's my wife, I love my
wife, we are one like, you know, we're a package deal and so you
can't say that you love Jesus, but you hate his bride, the
church that he gave his life for.
That's not how it works. It's against his character, it's
against scripture itself. You can't say, you love God and
hate your neighbor. It's not true.
And so, this is a huge huge deal for these churches.
This is a big deal for all Christians.
Back then and this is why James is taking the time to address
this issue in these churches and it still applies to us today.
This. Look, I get it.
This is not easy to do, okay? Doing church is messy.
People are messy, the whole room full of sinners in here right
now, okay? And all of you have your own
baggage and meant, trust me, I get to see and hear about a lot
of that and that's a whole side of ministry that I did not even
look forward to and didn't know that was part of it, but it is.
And I, you know what, I'm happy to be right in the middle of it
with you. It's tough at times.
Times but we all have that, we all have that junk and it is not
easy to love people. People are heart, people can be
really hard to love and that some people especially if you
ever heard that like a person's just hard to love, like some
people are annoying. They're just not fun to be
around, right? They're just not It's it's not
always easy but and quite honestly the way some people
treat you, they don't deserve to be loved.
But real Christian Brotherly Love covers a multitude of
offenses. Real love, overlooks.
All of that. But it's that it's that kind of
love. That is the only reason a
marriage can work, right? I love someone so much that I
care about them more than my own self.
And I'm willing to overlook those things because I know, I'm
not perfect either. It's only that kind of love that
can make this work. Romans 5:8 says, God shows his
love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died
for us. He didn't tell us, go clean
yourself up first, and then, I might think about giving my son
for you. God loved us so much.
He sent his only son while we were still Sinners to die for
us. I think God, I thank God that he
loved me even when I didn't deserve to be loved.
Can you imagine? But yet, we treat people like
they have to earn our love. If we are to love as Christ
loves, that means we love people, even when even when they
don't deserve it, even when it's really hard to love them, when
they're pushing every button you've got you, love them
anyway. If you have never experienced
what I'm talking about, if you don't know that kind of love.
And I and look, I get it, you know, our Earthly relationships,
our marriages, our relationships with our parents, or our kids,
or siblings can be really difficult, and maybe you've
never experienced that kind of love inside a Earthly
relationship. But that kind of love that, God
shows us is available to everyone that would call upon
the name of the Lord. And if you have never
experienced that I invite you to experience that today, Jesus
says, come to me all who are weary all, who are burdened?
I will give you rest. He invites you to bring all of
that. You know, we talked about being
poor earlier and I told you guys, it's not just always money
like Jesus, invites, you with all that mess, all that
poorness, you carry around everything you've got going on
to come to him, and lay it all at his feet and he will love
you. Despite it all.
He already has. He invites you to come to that?
At, and when you do and you do what I explained earlier, and
you say, look, Lord, I I've got a lot of sin that I'm carried
around and I want to lay at your feet on a trust.
In you on put my faith in you, please save me.
When you do that, you get to experience the love that only a
savior can offer you. A Selfless self-sacrificing.
Love like none other. And I invite you to that today
repent and believe the gospel and experience that kind of love
that only Jesus can offer you. And then do your best the rest
of your life to love other people like that.
That's the standard, right? That's the standard by which we
treat other people. Not our own hearts and Minds as
judges. Pn's James ends this text with
some really good practical instruction.
And verse 12. He says so speak and 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. So as those who have received
happily happily eagerly received God's grace, and God's mercy, we
should gladly extend that to other people.
Right? We shouldn't take be willing to
take all that grace and mercy from the Lord and say well thank
you God, I needed this and you know I deserved your mercy and
your grace but I'm not going to show that to other people.
We don't get to do that. We should be willing to extend
that same love that, same mercy and Grace to everyone and we can
do this. This is possible this.
This type of what's called agape.
Love is possible but only through the power of the Holy
Spirit through Jesus Christ, it cannot be done apart from him
and so again, I'm going to plead with you today.
If you've never given your life to the Lord to do that, you will
never know this kind of love and you will never be able to give
this kind of love apart from the Holy Spirit enabling you to do
that. You might love your spouse but
you'll never love your spouse. The way you were meant to if you
are not a Christian, It's not possible.
Again James wrote this. This was an issue.
He wanted to protect the unity of the church.
He wanted to show them. You are one body United together
under the blood of Christ and you have to love one another if
you don't it's all going to it's going to disrupt the unity.
Look you guys know. Satan is out to destroy us.
Any way you can. Scripture tells us that he
prowls around like, a lion looking for those.
He can destroy, he would happily do that.
From within try to destroy the church from within Right, we
have to do what we can everything we can.
To make sure we are guarding our own hearts and our own minds and
that we are loving one another in this kind of way.
If we want to protect the unity of this church.
You guys have done an amazing job of this over the last
several weeks of the last month of coming together as a unified
body of Believers. And just showing so much love
and support to Colin Patricia Sherry and I the other Elders as
they lead as we're out. What you guys have done a great
job of this. I'm not here today.
Scolding you, I'm here to praise you for doing.
Such an amazing job at this, but don't let your guard down.
Don't ever start thinking that you've got, it figured out and
it were good and we can just kind of roll on.
WE, this is something we have to step into every single day.
Have to make a conscious decision every day.
That I'm going to wake up today and love people the way God
loves me. Even if they don't deserve it,
I'm going to go out of my way to love people.
Well, today, I want to encourage you in that.
Now, one last thing, Galatians 3:26 through 29, we read in
Sunday school this morning, I had to add it.
We're in there in Sunday school and I'm like, this is I'm
talking about this text, it says this for in Christ Jesus.
You are all sons of God through faith.
For as many as you have many, as many of you were baptized into
Christ, have put on Christ, there is neither Either Jew, nor
Greek, there's not slave or free.
There's not male or female for, you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you were Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs.
According to the promise, I want to encourage you in that today
we are unified as a body of believers.
We don't make distinctions among ourselves that some are worthy
of my time and attention and love and some are not.
We love one another equally and we love one another with all we
have. And so, he ends this with two
instructions to his readers. He says, speak as those who are
to be judged under the law of Liberty and act as those who are
to be judged under the law of Liberty.
If I expect God to show me mercy, and Grace on the day of
judgment because I've put my faith in Christ.
I need to show Other Christians, that same mercy and Grace every
day. Okay.
So that's your application in your instruction today.
Leave this place today and go out and treat other people.
The way you want to be treated. Love them with brotherly.
Love knowing that one day. If I expect to stand before God
and be forgiven, I better be willing to forgive other people.
Love people in that kind of way, let your speech be marked with
love and grace, were people that you talked to let your actions.
Reflect the love of Iced and prove the faith that you claim
to have in him. Amen, let's pray.
Father. I love you and God, I'm so
grateful, Lord, for your word and I'm grateful for the
opportunity to read it and to see situations like this in
James, where we see issues going on in the church.
And we hear some practical instruction and just things that
we need to still here today. Things that we need to be able
to apply I to our lives of God. I'm so grateful.
So grateful that you sent your son Jesus to die for me when I
did not deserve it. Lord, I'm thankful for your
grace and your mercy in my life. I pray God that you helped
everyone of us to love others the way you love us to not.
Look on others with judgments and not begin to make
distinctions in our minds but to treat all equally to see them as
a bought and paid for brother and sister in Christ and to love
them that way. God, please give us the ability
to do this, Empower us to do this through your Holy Spirit
and for anyone in this place that doesn't know you.
I pray that through the Holy Spirit, you would just draw them
and convict them. You would show them their own
sin and help them to see their great need for a savior.
We praise you this morning Lord. And we thank you in Jesus name.
Amen. We praise you this morning Lord.
And we thank you in Jesus name. Amen.