According to Jim
Pt. 2
Introduction
Practical advice for practical living! Wisdom that we often fail to apply or live out and therefore we pay the price. Let’s listen and learn!
James 2:1-9
1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here’s a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong? 8If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. 9But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
(He chose the world’s down-and-out as the kingdom’s first citizens, with full rights and privileges. This kingdom is promised to anyone who loves God.)
A. According to Jim there can be no class system for people in church!
There is no room for judging people according to skin color, social status, sexual orientation (don’t get nervous you know exactly where we stand on that – remember house rules – Word is the supreme authority here), or economic condition. There is no room for prejudice in form, shape, or color. The church must be an equal opportunity environment. If that is true, why do we continue to segregate and isolate?
This is not a new thing. From the very beginning of the existence of the church there has been this tendency to want to draw lines of separation. Jews here and gentiles over there. Rich here and poor over there. They started it and we have perfected it.
White here and black over there. BMW drivers over here and bike riders over there. House dwellers in this body and apartment dwellers in that body. There are white churches, black churches, Hispanic churches, seeker churches, and deep Christian churches!
Jim says that is SIN and at that moment we become law breakers! It isn’t just a preference! It is that we have allowed our comfort zone to trump God’s Word!
Have we forgotten one of the most profound and closest truths to God’s heart that we learned in children’s church? Red, yellow, black and white they are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world!
We all stand equal in the eyes of God. Get your nose down. Accept people from all walks of life. Sit next to people who aren’t like you. Speak to folks who aren’t like you! Quit settling into comfortable cliques. God has called us to be open!
In his autobiography, Mahatma Gandhi wrote that during his student days he read the Gospels seriously and considered converting to Christianity. He believed that in the teachings of Jesus he could find the solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. So one Sunday he decided to attend services at a nearby church and talk to the minister about becoming a Christian. When he entered the sanctuary, however, the usher refused to give him a seat and suggested that he o worship with his own people. Gandhi left the church and never returned, “If Christians have caste differences also, “he said, “I might as well remain a Hindu.”
Why I am thankful and declare here that we will continue to be a church that loves everyone at every level!
James 2:10-11
10For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.
(You can’t pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God’s law and ignoring others. The same God who said, "Don’t commit adultery," also said, "Don’t murder." If you don’t commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you’re a murderer, period.)
B. According to Jim there can be no class system for sin in our lives!
We have created a class system for sins too. We try to justify our sin by excusing ourselves because we haven’t committed sin in another area. We keep score. I did this, but I didn’t do that and that would have been worse. Sin is sin! Sin is the same. Sin may have various level of impact. Some sins are more devastating in their natural repercussions. Usually murder has a more devastating natural impact than say lying. At least that is how we see it because we see in the natural. But what Jim reminds us is that in the supernatural realm there is just destruction. Murder and lying have the same exact supernatural result separation from God. In God’s eyes sin is sin! So he tells us to quit trying to downplay our sin. If you have ever uttered the words, “It doesn’t hurt, impact or affect anyone but me” you have set up a class system for sin! We must understand that it is an all or nothing deal. We either keep all the law or we have kept none of the law.
James 2:12-13
12Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!
(For if you refuse to act kindly, you can hardly expect to be treated kindly. Kind mercy wins over harsh judgment every time.)
C. According to Jim we should judge, but differently!
There is a lie that has invaded our lives. We have listened to the cry for tolerance so much that we have believe the devil’s lie that we should not judge. We hear people say, “don’t judge me cause the Bible says judge not that you be not judged.” No, you haven’t read the Bible if you says that because the Bible specifically teaches (even has a book dedicated to people who acted as Judges), and Jim reiterates it here, that you are to judge, to discern, to weigh in the balance, to examine fruit! So we cannot become tolerant of sin. However, we are to judge with a tendency towards mercy. Because the same measure of mercy you give will be the same measure, the same dose, the same level of mercy you will receive. Or said another way the lack of mercy you give will come back to bite you in the hind parts when you are the one standing in judgment. So we must also be intolerant of merciless judgment!
I want to make a statement to you here and try to drive it home! Learn to give people the benefit of the doubt in the body! The body is too full of suspicion and thinking the worst about people. We expect people to hurt us. We expect people to be terrible. We expect people to be vile sinners. We expect people to stab us in the back. We expect that people are talking bad about us. Let’s become people of mercy and give people the benefit of the doubt. Every person I have ever met that expected to be hurt, expected to be lied about, expected to be misused and abused . . . was! They go looking for it and project their expectations on every situation! MERCY should rule the day!
Judge but judge through the lens of mercy. We have been forgiven much and that should cause us to quit longing for revenge! True forgiveness is revealed when you no longer want revenge.
Sinners should feel comfortable here in that they are loved. They should not feel comfortable here with their sin! We judge, but we judge with mercy! Sinners were comfortable around Jesus they just weren’t comfortable with their sin! I want you to be able to judge effectively. I want you to see sin for what it is, but at the same time I want sinners to feel at home around you, but leave feeling like I have got to get rid of this sin . . . not this friendship!
James 2:14-26
14What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? 15Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God’s friend. 24You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. 25In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
(Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? 21-24Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It’s that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God’s friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works?)
d. According to Jim . . . faith and works are married and can never be divorced.
We don’t work to be saved. But because we are saved we work. Some of us reveal the importance and status of our faith by our lack of works. Some of us show the importance and status of our faith by excess works. There is a plague that has trapped many of us. It is called the plague of performance. We perform hoping to earn God’s love, be accepted by God, earn our salvation. Nothing you can do right now can make God love you any more or any less than He already does. We work because we love Him and because He loves us not to earn it!
How do your works reflect on your faith? What are you doing that reveals that you have faith in Christ and that you are living for him? How does your faith show up in your works? Are you working with the right attitude? Are you trying something so big that unless God intervenes it will fail? What are we credited for? The something for nothing mentality has invaded the hearts and minds of Christians until we have created a whole new oxymoron (jumbo shrimp). Two words that shouldn’t fit together. Opposites. Lazy Christian! Those words should never go together or even uttered in the same sentence. However, we have allowed consumerism and laziness to invade the church until we will actually attend church, sit back soak, drain resources, drain energy, demand services, demand programs and give nothing back – no tithe, no help, and if the church doesn’t come through we will shop until we find one that does. A lazy Christian is a parasite. It lives off the host – takes but never gives anything back. Jim says we should be the hardest working folks in our job, in our communities, and at the church! Our faith should drive us to do something about poverty, about the hungry, about the needy! Talk is cheap. We are a lot better at verbalizing our faith than practicing it. Faith in action is real faith!
Jim tells that even demons have faith. Think about that a moment. If all we have is faith in God we are on the same footing as demons. They believe God they just don’t exercise their faith in working for God. It is our works that we do for Him that reveal our faith!
See the root of your salvation is faith! The fruit of your salvation should be works!
A famous tightrope walker named George Blondin who, for a publicity stunt, decided he would walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. On the appointed day they stretched a tightrope from one side of Niagara Falls to the other. He got out there and there were crowds lining both the Canadian and American side. Thousands of people showed up to see this unbelievable feat. Blondin walked up to the edge of the tightrope, put one foot on the tightrope and put another foot out and began to walk across -- inch-by-inch, step-by-step. He got out in the middle and everybody knew that if he’d make one mistake in balance he’d fall off the rope and into the Falls and obviously be killed. Blondin got to the other side and the crowd went wild, shouting and cheering. Blondin said, "I’m going to do it again." He got to the other side and the crowds went crazy. Blondin said, "I’m going to do it again but this time I’m going to push a wheel barrow full of dirt." He pushes the wheelbarrow across. He got to the other side. He did this nine or ten times. On about the tenth time, he pushed the wheelbarrow right in front of a tourist who said, "I believe you could do that all day." Blondin dumped out the dirt and said, "Really? Get in."
Some of us have talked about our faith for so long we have forgotten how to act on our faith! Our faith is not determined by what we do, it is demonstrated by what we do.
Get busy!
