Big Picture Theology (James 2)

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I recall with fondness the newsletter, Our America, and this particular story about a high school teacher named
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Dodie Gradient, and she taught for 13 years the history of America and she wanted to rent a truck and a camper and travel across the land so she could know more about what she's been teaching.
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The newsletter reads, quote, one afternoon rounding a curve on I -5 near Sacramento in rush hour traffic, a water pump blew on her truck.
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She was tired, exasperated, scared, and alone, and nobody seemed to help her.
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Leaning up against the trailer, she prayed, according to the account, please God, send me an angel, preferably one with mechanical experience.
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According to the story, four minutes later, huge Harley drives up, ridden by, quote, an enormous man sporting long black hair, a beard, and tattooed arms.
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According to the account, he jumped off his motorcycle, began working on the truck, didn't even really acknowledge the lady, and she was too intimidated or dumbfounded to say anything.
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He finally fixed it all. He hopped back on the motorcycle without a word, and the account reads, especially when she read the paralyzing words on the back of his leather jacket, hell's angels,
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California. The motorcycle. If you'll take your
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Bibles in terms of James Chapter 2, I'd like to address the topic of partiality, discrimination, judging people on the inside based on what they look like on the outside.
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James Chapter 2. If you're new to the church, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church. We're teaching through the book of James chapter by chapter.
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We went through Hebrews, took a few years to get through it, and now we're going to do some overviews. And so instead of a verse by verse, three or four verses sequentially, we're going to go chapter by chapter.
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And so we had Chapter 1 last week, and today is all of Chapter 2. You probably sense there's a speed to this because I have to do it for the 26 verses.
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And you'll probably also have a desire to go get a commentary on your own and study more because we can't dive into every little bit of information as we're going through the passage.
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And so Simon Kistemacher on James would be a great place to start. John Calvin, it's free online to study, to listen to what godly men have said about this.
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That's all the commentary is, some comments about the scripture. And so when we come to the book of James, as I said last week, this is how you see
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James rightly. You see James rightly in light of the person and work of Jesus.
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Jesus' virgin birth, His call to ministry empowered by the
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Holy Spirit, His healing the leper, the servant of the centurion,
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Peter's mother -in -law, walking on the water, stilling the waves of the sea. Who is this that even the winds and the sea obey
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Him? His prayer in Gethsemane, His crucifixion at Calvary, His resurrection, yes, even
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His ascension, that has all happened. And there's been no book of the New Testament written yet, although those things had happened around 0 to 33
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AD approximately. So the church needs to know how to live in light of that. How do you live in light of the risen
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Savior? Jesus has actually fulfilled the law. He's fulfilled the prophecies of the first coming.
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So how do I live now? And if you see James that way, you won't see it a book just full of law.
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Because if you just look at a book full of law, 54 imperatives and 108 verses, you might say to yourself,
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I've been taught at this church that law doesn't motivate. There's no animating power for law.
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Law is like your GPS in your car. It tells you, good job, you're on track, turn left, you're deviated, but it doesn't give you any power to go.
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That's the engine. So James has to be read in light of the engine, the motivation, the person, the work of Jesus.
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How do I live in light of the cross? And so James doesn't talk about the death, burial, resurrection. He'll talk about Jesus, but he knows they know the story.
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So please, anytime you come to the book of James, instead of just saying there's one more thing after another to do, you say, you know what?
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Knowing that Jesus saved me, I deserve to go to hell because I recognize my sin and my transgressions.
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He saved me at his own cost. The father sent him at his own cost.
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This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased and he, the son, has taken my sins and I get his righteousness and I deserve to go to hell and I get to heaven.
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How do I live? To quote Francis Schaeffer, how then shall I live? So now I want to live a life of not to obey the law to stay in, we could never do it.
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Obey the law to become a family member. That makes no sense. It's impossible. Standards are too high.
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But because God has saved me and I want to live a life of gratitude and thanksgiving, we come to the book of James.
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How does a Christian live? And in chapter one, it was simple. A Christian in light of the cross sees trials differently.
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They see them with joy because God works everything together in a marvelous way for his glory because he's sovereign.
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And we would receive Jesus incarnate. How would we receive his word?
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That's the second part of chapter one. We would receive it gladly. We would accept it. So now we come to James chapter two and we have two sections here as well.
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How do Christians live in light of what we know about redemption and propitiation and reconciliation and this
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God man, the Lord Jesus, who's our captain and friend and advocate? How do we live a life to honor him?
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Two sections, verses one through 13. How do we deal with partiality and discrimination?
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And chapter two, verse 14 and following the second half, is there a faith that doesn't save?
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Faith without works is dead. So we have two sections today, super simple. That's exactly the way your
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English Bible probably breaks them out. First section on partiality, verses one through 13.
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The second section on faith without works is dead. Verses 14 to the end of the chapter, verse 26.
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How do I live in light of the cross? Verses one through 13. I want to live with no partiality.
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Verses one through four. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our
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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, sit down on my feet.
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Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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How do I see people, then how do I act towards people in light of the cross?
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Remember this God -man who didn't just die for Gentiles, but for Jews, for all different kinds of people.
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He loved all kinds of people. How do I live in light of that kind of redemption and that atonement and that kind of savior?
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Partiality, when we see it in other people, we know it's wrong, but what about in our own lives? What if I told you that Steve and the deacons and the elders have been doing a really good job on how can we do some administrative things here better?
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And what if I have a new policy in 2021? Here's the policy. I'd like to keep an updated copy of all the church members' contributions to help me decide what my availability will be to those people in case they might need my services.
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Sound good? You should see your faces and you would say, that's partiality, that's wrong.
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Yes, that's true, it is wrong, but it's not just partiality with money, although that's the main part of our passage here.
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It's partiality in any way, shape, or form where you look at somebody in the outside, by the way, that's the text there, as you hold the faith in our
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Lord Jesus. Literally, when you receive a face, you look at the face and you make all kinds of judgments.
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And by the way, man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. So, how do we work through this?
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And by the way, the answer is found in verse 1. And by the way, you won't see this answer with critical race theory people who are dealing with all kinds of social injustice, and systemic racism, and identity politics, and microaggressions, and micro -white spaces, and white privilege, and all that.
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This is what's missing. So, the next time you're hearing from Southern Seminary, or the Southern Baptist Convention, or CNN, or on the radio, they're talking about systemic racism, here's what you need to listen for, which they'll never talk about.
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The end of verse 1. My brothers, show no partiality, that's sin, as you hold the faith in the
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Lord Jesus. He's Lord, He's human, He's the Messiah, and what does it say, comma, the
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Lord of glory. Dear friends, if you understand the Lord of glory, it will unlock all these issues that the world is trying to jam down your throat, and sadly, churches are trying to jam down your throat.
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There's a thing called micro -insults, and I'll just read it to you. It says, it's characterized by communications that convey rudeness, and insensitivity, and demean a person's identity.
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A micro -insult demeans a person's identity. There's a macro -insult that they don't talk about, and that is excluding the glorious Lord Jesus Christ when it comes to racism, and partiality, and discrimination.
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You mean to tell me that the Lord of glory, 1 Corinthians 2, they crucified the
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Lord of glory. You mean to tell me on the Mount of Transfiguration, with Peter, James, and John there, and the
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Lord Jesus manifests His Shekinah glory, the Shekinah glory of the pillar of fire, and the pillar of fire that would lead them.
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And all of a sudden, you're looking at the other person when you're in front of the Shekinah glory, and you're trying to look at, are they rich, are they poor, do they have more pigment, do they have less pigment?
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No, no, you would be like Isaiah, would you not, in Isaiah chapter 6? You'd be on your faces.
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Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. If you extract Jesus from this debate on systemic racism, it's over.
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And you say, well, you know what? You, as a white person, just need to sit and listen. No, no,
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I don't need to sit and listen. I need to take a long look at who Jesus is. Because by the way, if you tell me
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I will have the stain of racism until the very end, and it can never be cleansed, you will get my ire.
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Because guess what happens when the Lord Jesus dies for sinners and their sins? Well, they'll always have those sins to pay for, won't they?
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Of course not. Because when Jesus forgives, He forgives your sins as far as the east is from the what?
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He throws them behind His back. He's eager to forgive. And so when you show me someone who says, we're going to deal with this ungodly tool to help
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Scripture, and the first thing it does is it jettisons the Lord Jesus, you ought to say to yourself, there's going to be no real solution.
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Additionally, verse five, do you ever hear the pundits are from the pulpits these days that spew forth this critical race theory?
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Do you ever hear them talk about this? Verse five, listen, my beloved brothers, has
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God not chosen? Stop there just for a second. Where are the men and women who talk about unconditional sovereign election of God in the middle of all this?
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You extract and gut out Jesus the glory and you no longer talk about the sovereign hand of God electing, then you can't teach me anything because you're going to get my mind off the solution to the problem.
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And that solution is Christ Jesus incarnate. I'll be back up just a little bit.
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You can kind of get the idea of what was going on here. You have this guy walks in, and it was probably like a house church, so there's not like extra seats, there's not many seats there.
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And this guy walks in, and you see that he's rich, and maybe he's got Armani on and Gucci and Rolexes and all that.
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And you're like, hey, you sit over here. And then another person comes in, I like the way that ESV reads it, poorly clothed or with shabby clothes.
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Now, when Kim and I first got married, I inherited from Kim this really cool couch. It wasn't white, white, ivory white, but it's kind of like almost like a
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Berber carpet kind of off white. And we had this packed Bible study, 25 people, not much room, a lot of metal folding chairs, by the way, and the couch.
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And a guy came to visit, and his name was Denny. And Denny was a homeless man.
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And Denny was also a car mechanic. So you can imagine, when he walked past over those three folding chairs, those steel chairs, you know, they're kind of comfortable, good for your back maybe.
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And he walked past my feet where he could have easily sat. And he sat down, yes, in fact, on that white couch.
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I said to myself, Lord, I understand James too. And that was the passage
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I was preaching that night. We see people on the outside, we make all these judgments, and we don't see them in light of the cross.
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We don't live in light of the cross. When you know you've been saved from your sin, you're like, you know what?
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I don't see people the way I used to see people. I see people in the first Adam, unbelievers. And I see people in the second
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Adam, believers. And I don't care where they come from, what their background is. I'm just glad to be adopted in the family.
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I mean, at least, you know, people might say, well, I gave this guy a choice where to sit.
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He could either sit over there or sit on the floor. This guy walks in, he's gold -fingered literally in the
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Greek. And a writer said, he's got a gem in every joint and a nugget on every knuckle.
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Hey, we need good givers at the church because I could put him on that new list, remember, that I had earlier on.
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John the Baptist walks into church. Where do you put him? You think he smelled good?
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You think he looked good? Hell's angel smells angel. I mean, it's just like, here comes
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John the Baptist, where do you put him? We have an overflow room up there, right? Yet Jesus said, the greatest man ever born of a woman.
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How would we know that? Well, we would only know because Jesus said it, but not on externals. So even as Christians, we're prone to just judge people.
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And the way you live in light of the cross and the way you live in James 2 is, we recognize this is sin.
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It's a forgivable sin, but it's a sin we don't want to get caught up in because this is not the nature and character of God reflected in our lives.
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He says in verse 4, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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It's a wrong judgment. It's a false judgment. God is the judge and he's handed that judging over to the son.
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That's not for us to do. I can't look at somebody and go, I know what you're like on the inside. It's fundamentally wrong, especially at the foot of the cross.
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Verse 5, he says, 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?
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God purposely, sovereignly, unconditionally chose some people that were poor.
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And then now you're going to look at them and go, yeah, they're poor and treat them poorly when God has exalted them to be sons and daughters?
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That doesn't make any sense at all. God gives grace to people who deserve it not and then we say, you know what, if you can help me,
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I'll be nice to you. May it never be. Verse 6, you've dishonored the poor man.
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That's bad. Are not the rich ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court?
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That's bad. But then on a religious level, the worst level at all. Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
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It doesn't make any sense. One question after another, after another, James is appealing to common sense and also religious sense.
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They're slandering the noble name of who you belong. Why is discrimination wrong?
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Ultimately, verse 8, James was familiar as the half -brother of Jesus and a scholar from the
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Old Testament. He knew what Leviticus said and he quotes that here today in James 2 .8,
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if you really fulfill the royal law, why is the law royal? Because it's given to you by the king. So the king gives you a law.
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According to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You're doing well.
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How could I look at someone and say, you know what, I'm to love them as myself. By default,
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I love myself. Sadly, I love myself. But the way I defaultly love myself, I'm to love them.
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And love means I want what's best for you. I'm willing to give from what I have to make sure you are benefited.
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And of course, you think about the love of the Lord Jesus and he demonstrates his love towards us that while we were yet sinners,
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Christ died for us. You know what? I don't kill people.
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I don't sleep around. I just kind of judge people on how they look. No, no, because all those laws come from the law giver.
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And that's exactly how James talks in the rest of James chapter 2, verses 9 and following.
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If you show partiality, you're committing sin. It doesn't matter how, like you think it's a little transgression, it's a little boo -boo, it doesn't really matter much.
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You're committing sin and are convicted by the law, Leviticus 19, as transgressors.
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For whoever keeps the whole law, we could see the 600 and some odd laws in the
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Old Testament, but fails in one point, discrimination, has become guilty of all of it.
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For you said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, which is the end result of discrimination, this partiality that leads to hatred, that leads to no love, which ends up in murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
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Back in Deuteronomy 27, the text reads, cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of the law by carrying them out, then all the people shall say, amen.
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What if we tried that with James 2? For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point, discrimination, is guilty of breaking all of it, and all the people shall say, amen.
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If you're hanging over a precipice with a chain link with 10 links, how many need to snap before you plunge down into the abyss?
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How many leaks will sink a boat? How many holes make a flat tire?
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Jesus fulfilled all the law and considers the law an organic unity. And so, if I'm breaking one law,
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I'm breaking the law of this organic unity given by the law giver. It's disobedience.
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Mutner says, to say that one of the commands does not apply to me is to say that there is some aspect of the nature of God which does not matter as far as I'm concerned.
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I can get on without it. It is of no particular value. Of course not.
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So, is there a solution? Verse 12 and 13. How do I live in light of the cross? I don't want to be partial, so I'll do the right thing, right?
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It's put off and put on now. And this should remind you of be doers of the word in chapter 1, verse 22.
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So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
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For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
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I need to live in light of this God who gives me his standards. Jim Roskopf said, when a man lives without mercy to others in God's world, he simply shows off the fact that he himself has never responded rightly to the immeasurable mercy of God.
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So put it properly, positively, since we have received the mercy of God, God who's rich in mercy,
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Ephesians chapter 2, then how do we treat other people? We treat them with mercy. That's the idea.
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The Lord Jesus, who laid down his life for all kinds of people, Jew and Gentile, and accepts all those people by faith, should have followers who say, do you know what?
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If Jesus accepts them, I will too. But most importantly, when you see people in light of the effulgent glory.
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By the way, sometimes when I preach, I've learned different words that I never thought I'd get to use, but that's one of my all -time favorite, is effulgent.
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Just kind of this, this. Remember Jesus, he's Mount Transfiguration, and what he is on the inside, glory comes out on the outside.
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The effulgent glory of God, the Shekinah glory of God, when you see Jesus rightly, then you can size up, okay, how am
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I supposed to treat other people? Because in my mind, I shouldn't even be comparing, you know, can you imagine
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Peter, James, and John? Hey, James, I think I look a little more
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Semitic than you do, right? I mean, really? No, no.
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It's again on your face before Jesus who stands there on the Mount of Transfiguration.
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If you're a Christian and you live in light of the cross, you don't judge anybody based on how they look.
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You accept them as God does because he sovereignly made them actually that color.
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He is sovereign over their poverty, our riches. All right, now let's go to the second section. That could be a whole sermon.
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Last service, I preached two sections. It felt like two sermons. So I've got three sermons down this morning.
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This is my fourth and final sermon, Chapter 2, verses 14 through 26. Again, we're going quickly but on purpose because I want you to get kind of the sweep of redemption.
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Now, here's something to think about before we get into this section because it's complicated.
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It is a section that people argue about, especially Roman Catholics and Protestants.
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It's caused Luther to say, well, I don't know about James so much. It's certain places. So there's some things
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I want to remind you before I get into the passage. If you remember that the ground of your salvation is the person and work of Jesus.
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He's the one that causes my salvation. The root of my salvation is the work of Jesus.
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He obeyed the law. He merited righteousness in my place. He bestows it by accrediting, by a forensic declaration like a banking term.
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All my obedience, you get in your account. And simultaneously, all my disobedience, although Jesus didn't sin,
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God treated him as if he were a sinner by imputation, by crediting. You get this put in your account.
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And we know that God, the Son's sacrifice was acceptable because the Father raised him from the dead.
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So if you remember, the root is Jesus and his works. That's how you stand before God. But the fruit of your life or evidence flows from that.
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There's the root and there's the fruit. There's the ground of Jesus and there's evidence of.
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You're going to be fine if you understand that. When you confuse the two, you know what?
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I've got to have more evidence to be right in God's eyes? No, no, that'd be the wrong question. You'd have to have perfect evidence, perfect fruit.
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The root, ground, Jesus. I will have evidences. And in this section, he's basically going to say this.
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If you run around saying, I have the root and I have no fruit, whether it's attitude fruit, action fruit, belief fruit.
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If I have faith and I have no works, it's the wrong kind of faith. Because when justification happens and I'm declared righteous by the work of Christ Jesus, sanctification starts.
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They're not the same, but they're connected. I think it's Calvin who said, you're justified by faith alone, but that faith is never what?
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Alone. So if you figure that out, the evidence and fruit at the very beginning, that will help.
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And here's another thing that will help you. Well, let's just, let's go through the passage and I'll bring it out then.
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Verse 14. Verse 14. What good is it, my brothers?
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Actually, the original would phrase it, it's no good at all. It's not worth anything. It's useless.
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It's no good. My brothers, if someone says he has faith, I say it over and over. I'm a Christian, I'm a
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Christian, I'm a Christian, but does not have works. Can that faith save him?
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The Greek has a nuance. That faith can't save him. I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe, but I have no works.
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There's no evidence. There's no fruit. I'm not saying how much fruit you have to have and you've got to have a bunch of fruit or anything.
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I'm just saying there's no fruit. You look at the garden, it's just soil. Nothing's coming out. This is very important for people because there's something worse than thinking, when
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I die, I'm going to go to hell. And that is thinking, when
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I die, I'm going to go to heaven, but really having a faith that's counterfeit and then you end up in hell.
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He doesn't want that. No pastor would want that. No dad or mom with their kids, when they say, Daddy, I believe, would want that.
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And so, while it's tough, while it's punchy, while it's direct,
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James wants to make sure everybody should know because Jesus, his half -brother taught him, there's a faith that doesn't save.
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Counterfeits exist. In the Bible, there are false gods, false prophets, false Christs, another
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Jesus, another gospel, false brethren, false teachers, false apostles, and there is what is called a false faith.
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So, everyone here needs to make sure that you're really trusting in who Jesus is so you don't have this kind of false faith because if you say, do you know what?
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I keep on saying I have works, but my works are like, well, I was baptized,
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I was catechized, I went to church, I give to the church, I've been a member, I helped build the church, I'm a charter member, my parents believe.
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It's not that I believe in Buddha, it's only Jesus. This is a good section for your soul.
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Before I read any more, if the God of the universe changes you, do you think there'll be any change in your life?
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He changes your status, son, daughter by adoption, justification. Then He's made you alive,
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He's regenerated you, He's given you His Holy Spirit, and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and peace.
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There's going to be a difference. My friend used to say, if there's no change, there's no change. If there's no change in your life, there's no change in your status.
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I'm not the best surfer, but I remember learning how to surf 30 years ago in a place, San Onofre, California, and it's called what,
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Kim? Old Man's. I don't know why I surfed there when
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I was younger, but it'd be perfect for me to surf there now. And the funny thing is, there's two nuclear reactors right there.
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And I kept thinking, well, it's kind of fun to surf there because the water is just warmer, you know what I mean? And like those little gill things that I started developing, they serve their purpose when you're held under by a big wave.
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What if those things broke open and all the nuclear waste comes flooding onto us?
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And you think I'd be the same? I mean, when the God of the universe saves you, you're different.
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Baby steps, yes. And maybe that difference is even, you know what, I still sin, and I'm short with my wife and my kids or my husband, but after I do,
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I know it's wrong, I confess. That's fruit. We're not trying to say, you've got to have
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X amount of fruit before you call it. No, there will be fruit, there will be evidence. I used to believe Jesus was a good teacher, now
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I believe he's the sovereign king of the universe. If you keep on saying that you have faith and there are no works, no works,
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I didn't say little works, baby works, immature works, no works, that faith can't save you.
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So what does the text go on to say? Verse 15, he gives a little illustration of some evidence.
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This is in light of the dispersion of the tribes, in light of trials and temptations, needs of brothers and sisters, loving your neighbor as yourself.
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If another Christian, a brother or sister, is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed, be filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is it?
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And the answer is, it's not good at all. Now, there's two ways you can translate, go in peace, be warmed and filled.
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First way you could translate it, kind of reflexively, I wish you well as you take care of yourself. You should probably take care of yourself a little bit better.
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Probably need to get warm. I think you should probably eat a little bit. I kind of see some of the bones coming out there. Or the other way you could translate it is, may
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God feed and clothe you, because I'm not going to. Yeah, but I can't do everything for the guy.
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But I could do something. I mean, if the greatest commandment is love God, and the second great commandment is love neighbor, shouldn't there be a smidgen, shouldn't there be a little bit of direction?
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While it's not perfection, shouldn't it be something in my life to say, oh, yes, God's changed me.
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He gives a summary, so faith by itself, verse 17, if it does not have works, it's dead.
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It's not alive, it's worthless. Workless faith is a worthless faith. But someone will say...
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Now, here's the other thing I wanted to tell you about interpreting this passage. Before I read it, how do you know that I'm a
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Christian? I think most of you here today, if you're a member especially, think I'm a Christian, because if you attend a church and you're a member of a church where the pastor is unregenerate, we have more problems than we think.
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But my guess is you think I'm a Christian. Can you see my soul? Do you know in the counsels of God, I've been justified and the blood of Christ has been applied to my account and His law keeping has been given to my account and I'm a new creature in Christ Jesus, do you think
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I'm a Christian? How would you know I'm a Christian? God whispered a still small voice and you know
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I'm a Christian? The only way you know I'm a Christian is what? By the root, you can't see it, it's underground.
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How about the fruit? Do you know what? He's not perfect, but when he sins, he confesses it. He does what
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Christians do. He loves God's word, he loves to preach God's word, he has a desire for evangelism, he doesn't measure up to everything he preaches, but he repents so he's not going to try to be the hypocrite of all hypocrites.
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And you would say things like that. So here when you see the language, show me verse 18, and you see a little bit later, and you see a little bit later, verse 22, verse 24, what
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James is not doing is you're justified by works, he's saying you're vindicated by works and other people can see those works.
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So let's go through and see if that's true, because I think you'll find that it is. And I hope it is because if it's wrong, the way to get to heaven is to be perpetually, perfectly, entirely, exactly obedient all the time, because God won't settle for anything less.
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Think root, fruit, think ground and evidence. Someone will say, you have faith,
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I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.
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See, I can show you my faith by my works, I can't give you that invisible thing that only
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God knows, but I can show you. Because you can't show me, you can't show me your faith apart from your works.
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God knows, but you can't show me. And by the way, don't just say, I'm orthodox and monotheistic and I can do the
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Shema, the Lord our God of Israel is one, because even demons do that, verse 19. You believe that God is one, you do well.
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Even the demons believe in shudder. If I was teaching young people this and I wanted to try to get their attention, you believe
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God's one, way to go. Yeah, nice. That's not enough though.
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Demons believe it. Do you know demons could and probably do ascribe to our statement of faith?
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The London Baptist Confession of not 1644 or 1646, but of 1689. They could ascribe to the
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Bible, they know it's true. Matter of fact, they knew Jesus was true. You're the Holy One of God, don't torment me before the time.
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Just because you know something doesn't mean it's saving. Right? Because real saving faith is knowledge.
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You have to have that. Ascent, I agree. I agree with that and affirm that.
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And trust. Demons, they know.
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And they even do something that some Christians, so -called Christians don't do. They shudder. The Latin word, horreo, they're horrified.
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At least you get some kind of an emotional response out of demons. But of course, that's not saving. They're not going to heaven.
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Faith without works is like demon faith. In other words, we don't want that. Demon faith says,
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I believe in God. He's monotheistic. Jesus is the only way. Trinitarianism, virgin birth. It's emotional, it's intellectual, and it's still not saving.
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So what's he say in verse 20? Do you want to be shown?
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See, there's that visible thing again. You foolish person that faith apart from works is useless.
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And so now he gives two people, two examples, Abraham and Rahab. Now, before I get into Abraham and Rahab, we have to wrap this up pretty soon.
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You say, Paul taught you're justified by faith alone. And Paul in Romans, particularly, and in Galatians, he's got his sword out, the word of God, and he's fighting against people who say, no, no, it's not faith alone.
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It's faith plus circumcision, faith plus baptism, faith plus feast, faith plus the
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Passover, faith plus good works. And Paul says, listen, to stand before God, you just have to take him in his word.
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It's God, the one that saves. And Paul fights that enemy. Back to back with Paul is
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James. And James has a sword out, but he's not fighting that enemy. He's fighting this enemy. I say
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I'm a Christian, and I've lived with my girlfriend for 10 years. I say I'm a Christian, and I don't care about serving the local body.
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I say I'm a Christian, and it goes on and on and on and on. And James is saying, I'm fighting this battle here, which is different than that battle here.
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Even if I were to say to you, Galatians chapter 2, as Paul's fighting this section, three times he says in one verse, listen,
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Galatians 2, yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus.
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So we also have believed in Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified.
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It is simple saving faith in Jesus, knowledge, assent, and trust. Yes, but then can
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I live any way I want? I can just be an antinomian against the law. And now that I'm in, you know, free from the law, and I don't have to do anything.
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No, that faith is a vibrant faith, that faith that saves you, changes you. And you should be able to see at least immature or baby steps are some type of fruit.
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It just shouldn't be dirt. And now he gives two examples, Abraham and Rahab.
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Could there be two more different examples? Man, woman, patriarch, prostitute.
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Verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son
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Isaac on the altar? Oh, what am I going to do with that? What do we do with that?
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Well, we just think clearly and logically. When did Abraham offer
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Isaac on the altar? Genesis what? 22. When was
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Abraham declared righteous by faith? You even can see it here in your Bibles because he goes on to quote that just right after this.
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It's Genesis chapter 15. Look what your text says in James.
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It says in verse 23, and the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, that's
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Genesis 15, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. So what in the world does it mean in verse 21?
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He's justified by works. Answer, when was
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Abraham a believer? Genesis 15, he took God as his word.
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When did we really know Abraham was a believer? When was his faith vindicated?
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Where you thought, you know what? No matter what, we know he believes. When was the faith of Abraham vindicated?
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Not Genesis 22, but when he raised the knife up in Genesis 15. So the argument here is not, you get to heaven by works, because again, we'd all be smoked.
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By the way, there'd be no reason for Jesus to even come and obey the law or die for our transgressions.
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How do I know Abraham was a Christian? I'm not omniscient, I'm not omnipresent, but I can see when he raised up that knife and he knew
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God was gonna raise him from the dead, Abraham, Abraham, his faith was vindicated. And you could easily translate the
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Greek word there, justified, I understand, vindicated will help you. He was vindicated then.
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We knew that at that moment, what he had said he believed was true. Verse 22, you see that faith was active along with his works and faith was matured or completed by his works.
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James is not trying to say he got saved when he decided to kill his son, that is works righteousness, but he was vindicated.
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His faith was, verse 22, perfected. And if there's no verse to follow,
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I'd still believe it, but now it is crystal clear and the scripture was fulfilled. Genesis 15, Abraham, seven chapters earlier, believed
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God and it was counted to him as righteous. How do I know that's true? Because I can't see Abraham's faith because God said it and he was called a friend of God.
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You see, you see that in verse 24? You see, I can't see the root. I can see the fruit.
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You see that a person, I see Abraham's faith. No, I see his justification by works.
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And then I back up and go, he had to have believed and not by faith alone. A faith that has no sanctification, a faith that has no law keeping our desire to do it.
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And then lastly, we have a lady named Rahab. We've got a man, we've got a woman, we've got a patron saint, as it were.
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And now we have a prostitute, Gentile. And the same way was not also
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Rahab the prostitute justified by works. What do you mean in the same way? What vindicated her faith?
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When she received the messengers, by the way, at her own cost, her own danger, her own peril, and sent them out by another way.
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There's no way Rahab had to say, you know what? I'm gonna do a bunch of good things in order to get to heaven.
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Because how do I erase all the bad things I've been doing with these men? You know, even if she said, from now on,
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I'm gonna stop all my sexual sin. And from now on, I'm gonna obey Torah. How she pay for all those?
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The text has nothing to do with that. The text is, how can I see a vindicated faith as a human?
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Well, the answer is because they have works. I love Joshua too. Doesn't it sound like faith to you?
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Before the men lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know that the Lord has given you the land and the fear of you has fallen upon us.
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And that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the
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Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt. As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the
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Lord, your God, He is the God of heavens above and on earth beneath. That sounds like faith to me.
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Free faith, justifying faith. A faith alone that saves, but that faith is never alone.
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And James ends it in verse 26. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, there are nails and then there are clenching nails.
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So also faith apart from works is what? Dead. If you say to yourself,
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I don't think I live up to God's word and therefore I wonder if my faith is dead.
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Could you really ever live up to God's word? By the way, who gave you that desire to even want to live up to God's word?
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Did you want to live up to God's word before you were a Christian? Who gave you the desire to live up to God's word? Satan?
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Who gave you the desire to say, you know what? I've fallen short this week and I've got to ask for forgiveness, not only to the
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Lord, but my spouse. And I just wish I wouldn't live that way. Who tells you to do that? The world?
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I mean, this passage, I don't want to deflect from its punch of, if you call yourself a
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Christian and there's no works, pick a different name for yourself. I don't want to take away from that.
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But James is not trying to crush people's assurance thinking, you know what? I just never do enough and I never measure up and I don't do this and I don't do that.
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God the Father accepts your measly works, my measly works, because he accepts me.
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And I've said to you many times before that when you've got a cook and they're a professional cook and somebody gives them some kind of easy bake oven cake and that judge is going to take a bite of it maybe and spit it out.
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You ever watch those shows where the chefs take a bite of the food in a competition and they spit it out. But God's not our judge and you don't have to make perfect cakes for him to give you a 10.
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He's our Father. And when the four -year -old makes a cake with too much salt and not enough cream of tartar or whatever you put in a cake, why am
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I thinking of snickerdoodles at a point like this? He accepts the cake because he accepts you.
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Fruit and evidence is quick confession, guilt of sin, a trust in the
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Lord Jesus. In spite of all this, I'm still trusting in him. This is not meant to rob Christians.
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I don't know if I could ever do enough to be saved because the focus has to be on Jesus. This is for people that say, you know what?
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I'm a Christian and my life doesn't show it and I couldn't vindicate it at all with any kind of fruit.
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How do I live in light of the cross? How do I live in light of the cross? Well, I certainly look at everyone through the glory of the
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Lord Jesus. And by the grace of God, there's fruit of the Spirit in my life like love, joy, and peace, right?
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Let's pray. Father, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. He was never partial.
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And of course, his faith, although different than ours, because we're trusting because we're sinful.
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He was trusting because he was the beloved one and the beloved son and trusted his father. Yet we think of the works in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and how he came to serve and not to be served and to give his life a ransom for many.
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Father, I don't think there's a problem with discrimination in our church at some awful level, but we all struggle with receiving people just by the way they look.
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So help us to see them through the glory of the Lord Jesus. And if there are people here today that call themselves
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Christians, but really aren't, I pray that you would do a work on them and convict them. For the
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Christians here that have just a little bit of works and a little bit of evidence and a little bit of fruit, but want a lot more, would you come alongside and encourage them?
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And may your spirit be pleased to give them their heart's desire, and that is more good works.