James (part 5)

James and the Outworking of Faith

What did I do to my adjuncts this year?

Stu Penthouse. Stu Penthouse?

That answer comes from a point in time in my professional career where I was basically demoted and about to be fired. For a reason to this day I don't know. I was a manager, my boss was on assignment.

I was in his place, things were going phenomenal. And the number one guy in the plant called me and said, John, you're off the job, you'll never be a manager again in the General Electric Company. Go.

The secretary heard it and she said, are you okay? And for some reason God just spoke to me at that moment in time. And I realized that the question is not, how is the manager at General Electric doing?

The question is, how is John Lasker doing? And to be able to separate the two is, I think, a major thing. I said, I'm doing tremendous. So whenever people ask me how I'm doing, I put a superlative on top of it to remind me I don't care what the circumstances are between me and God, I'm cool.

I'm cool. So, hi. Hi. Rich, I want you to get Titus 3 .5. And Bob, I want you to get Romans 4, verses 4 and 5. And Kimberly, I want you to get Ephesians 2 .10. Last week here we, working through in James, we did touch on the reality that James is a book that emphasizes the outworking of our faith.

And that is an incredible topic. Last Sunday, it just so happened that the Pastor Jeff's message really emphasized the need for faith without works. It was great, the way we had the two of them almost one on top of each other.

I just wanted to touch this for a minute before we go in, because as we go into the book of James, Kimberly has reminded us, and I'm going to continually remind Kimberly that she has reminded us, that the context of who this is written to helps us understand the message that's there.

But the other thing we need to always remember is where James fits into the overall context of the architecture of the New Testament. You have the Gospels, the account of Jesus. You have Acts, the account of the Church and the spread of his bride.

Paul's writings, predominantly faith. Not entirely, but predominantly faith. John's writings, predominantly love. Not entirely, but predominantly. Peter's, predominantly perseverance. Jude, predominantly purity.

Purity of Scripture, of doctrine. And James, predominantly the result of faith, which is outworking. Now, there's crossover between all of them. So as we read James, we read things like, show me your faith, I'll show you my works, faith without works, scratching your head.

A very close friend, a very amazing believer, amazing person of prayer, of Scripture, with a Catholic background, has a certain expectation that James is not as important a book as the rest, because it emphasizes work.

It's almost too Catholic. It's not. It's not. But I do want us, just for a moment at the beginning of this class, just to keep ourselves focused at where James fits into the overall picture, because we're going to read words today that become very, they can almost become legalistic.

But they're not. But they're not. So go ahead, give me yours, Rich.

James, Titus 3 .5. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

It's all by him. By works which we have done, by his mercy he saved us, washing and regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. How about yours?

Romans 4 and 5.

Yes, please.

Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

Danger is taking passages out of context. And it's not just the context of the chapter. It's not just the context of the letter. It's the context of the entire doctrine, the entire scripture. So you take things like Romans 4, 4, and 5, and you go, I can throw James out.

But you can't. Give me Ephesians 2 .10. By the way, Ephesians 2 .8 and 9. Anybody know that off the top of your head? Everybody does.

Not even saved by faith. By grace. Through faith. Not of works.

Does that answer your question?

Does that answer your question?

And then 2 .10.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

That has to be part of it. If you only know Ephesians 2 .8 and 9, there's a hole in what you understand. We've been protesting unto good works which God has foreordained that we should walk in them. There's absolutely no indication that those works have anything to do with the appropriation of salvation.

But there is a definite declaration that coming out of it, we're appointed to do good works. I heard this phrase. On one side, you have works as the way. It's boasting. It's our ability. On the other side, you have works on the way.

And it's responding. And it's obedience. That's really truly understanding the book of James. It's works on the way. Not as the way. James never claims that works is the way. It's on the way. It's our response.

It's our obedience. Who we are. We can't help but do the good works. Because we're on the way. Because we're on the way. John, I'm going to ask if you would read a couple of verses in James 1. They're on the paper.

Verse 21 and then verse 27. Romans 2. Ryan. Ephesians 6. Ralph. Or Judy. Colossians 3.

Ephesians.

There's two of them in Ephesians 2. Who had Ephesians 2? Ryan, you did?

Romans 2.

I'm sorry. You're right. Ephesians 2. Rich. And Galatians 3. Please, Bob. So, before we do that, we do need to open with a word of prayer. Ralph, would you?

Dear Father, thank you for this opportunity. We pray that you'll open our hearts and minds to your word. Let us hear it through your holy name.

Kimberly, you're going to get James 2. You're going to end up doing verses 1 -9 when we get there. But give me verse 21, please, in chapter 1. New King James.

Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

And then verse 27.

Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James is going to tell us to put away what?

Filthiness and wickedness.

Filthiness and wickedness and to remain unstained, pure. It's all in there. There is a necessity for participation on our behalf. There is an obligation for us to just accept the gift. We don't earn the gift, but we are participants in this.

There are things in our lives that don't belong there. We're supposed to eschew them. We're supposed to go away from them. Put them aside and remain unstained. What he's going to do now is he's going to start to pursue that question of what does it mean to be unstained.

I'm going to probably refer to this a couple of times. I just finished a weekend down in Lynchburg. It was at Liberty University. It was their men's retreat. Impact is what they call it. Powerful stuff, guys.

Ladies, too. Powerful stuff. But I say guys because that's where I was. Men don't know necessarily what it is to be a man. The world has advice for us. Part of the advice has got to be eschew filthiness, remain unstained.

The question is how do we do that? And James is going to take an approach, and it's kind of an interesting approach. Give me verses 1 through 9. Please, Kimberly.

Partiality, Favoritism, and the Royal Law

As for you, oh, I'm sorry.

James 2, 1 through 9.

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.

If 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, have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with people's thoughts?

Listen, 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 to those who love Him? But 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? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of Him to whom you belong? If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right.

But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.

Leviticus, I need somebody to pull out Leviticus. Rich, do me a favor. Rick, do me a favor. Get the Leviticus 19. Okay, we're reading a book that was written to the Jews. We're reading a book that was written to Jewish believers.

We're reading a book that was written to Jewish believers who most likely are scattered. And at this point in time, he's going to take this concept of being pure, and he's going to start to put some explanation to it.

And he chooses the topic of what? Partiality. Partiality. Rick, give me, start out with verse 1. The whole context of what he would read, if you want to write it down, is going to be Leviticus 1 through 19.

We're just going to read verses 1 and 15. Go ahead.

1 and 15?

1 and then 15.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying.

Now, what he's going to do in this section, by the way, he's going to deal on how he commands we deal with others. There are other passages within Leviticus. But this section, verses 1 through 19, it deals a lot with how we should be holy in dealing with others.

One of those is verse 15.

You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great. But in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.

So there he goes. He is actually taking them right back to their Levitical law. A little piece of it. But he's taking them right back to their Levitical law. Kimberly, give me verse 1 again, and then the beginning of verse 9.

My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism. In the beginning of 9. But if you show favoritism, you set up our convicted by the law.

There you go. This is a bookend. This little section of verses 1 through 9, it's bookended by those two. It's a very common methodology that the writers would use. The content, the meat of what he has to say is going to be compacted inside of it.

What is partiality? And scripturally, what does it mean?

Favoritism, showing preference.

Okay.

I mean, they don't have to be rich, whatever divine thing you're focused on. They might have distinguished between Jew and Gentile. They might have distinguished between politician and common person, person of status rather than person of wealth.

So it's showing arbitrary favoritism.

Yes.

There you go. There you go. It's showing arbitrary favoritism. And in reality, this arbitrary favoritism is established. How?

By whatever the person who's doing the partiality, whatever they value as preferable.

Yes.

They become the arbiter.

They become the arbiter, and it's based on the person who's showing the partiality, what they can see and what they can observe.

How about the inheritance for the first son and the second son? The first son gets double portion?

Well, that's in the law.

That's in the word.

Primogeniture. The firstborn gets a double portion. That's part of the law. That's not favoritism.

By the way, we can go down a rabbit trail, which we're not going to spend a lot of time on. Is that still applicable in the New Covenant? To be sure, though, in the Old Testament, yes, there was that.

But let's look at some of the realities in the New Testament about what God has to say about it, Romans 2.

Well, actually, just really quick on what Rich was saying. You're right, it's there, but, you know, it's funny.

Esau, I hated.

Jacob, I loved. Jacob was the second one. And with David, he had his seven brothers pulled out before him, and then Samuel said, no, it's not any of these guys. Who's that other one? And Jesse, Dave's own father, says, oh, it's just the worthless one in the fields.

And it was David, the eighth. Right, so even though it is there written, it doesn't mean that there is not an opportunity for those others to even receive it. I think that's a really cool thing. Okay, so Romans 2.

I'm actually going to start at 9 to 11. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

For God shows no partiality.

It's pretty clear. God shows no partiality. Keep emphasizing that with Ephesians 6, verse 9.

And masters treat their slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

There's no favoritism with him. Continue the theme with Colossians 3.

Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

The New Testament is very, very clear. There is no favoritism. So let's bring that down into ourselves with Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2, that's 15 to 18. Ephesians 2, 15 to 18. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing hostility.

And he came and preached peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who are near.

The message about the Good Samaritan last week is so powerful, because who are the Samaritans? Half-breeds.

They were Jews who intermarried to get out of their nations, and they came unclean.

Unclean. And the way Jeff handled the concept of the Samaritan and everything else, for God, Ephesians 2, by the way, phenomenal chapter. Christ died, the curtain is torn down, we are all one, we are one body in Christ.

There is no longer a differentiation.

Let me throw another idea out. God favors those who humble themselves.

Yes.

He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So he does show favoritism in that respect.

But in that case, he's showing favoritism to the heart, not to the status.

Sure.

And that's a very true statement. God is a judger of the heart. Very true. Galatians 3.

Galatians 3. I'm going to actually start 26. So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female.

For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

So that's who we are. So now let's get back to James. The book ends, making us consider the idea of partiality. Don't be partial. If you're showing partiality, you're sinning. So in the middle of this, he packs a few observations about the concept of partiality.

Kimberly, give me verse 2 again, please.

Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.

So what we're looking at is a scenario where value is identified based on what? Will. Yes. Outward appearance. Outward appearance, which leads the person to conclude wealth. There is no indication in there about the heart.

There's no indication there about understanding the person's heart, which that's not our job anyway. But clearly, partiality is going to start when we determine a person's value based on their outward appearance or something about them, their nationality, whatever it might be.

I heard in a sermon one time somebody said, I don't know if this really happened, I think it did, but a gentleman who was like a homeless person, long hair, scraggly, dirty, scruffy, came into a church and then walked down the aisle and sat right in front of the pastor in the aisle all by himself.

Have you ever thought, what would happen? What would you do if that happened here? If somebody like that walked in, sat down? So there was one old man in the congregation, he said, who got up, went over and sat down next to him, right on the floor, and just sat there next to him as a brother.

And that was kind of the same idea, I think, to make it more, I think, alive for us. Just think about that. What would we do if somebody walked in? In that condition, and they smell, and so on and so forth, would we turn away and kind of keep our distance or would we approach and befriend and love that person as Christ would?

I want to hold that comment because I want to come back to it. We're going to look at the other observations and we're going to come back to that because you're going in a very important way. Kimberly, give me verse 6, please.

But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? And are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

Perception isn't based on reality. What he's saying here is the people that you are honoring are really the ones that are doing you most harm. Often our preferential treatment isn't based on reality. It's based on, again, we can't see the heart, we can't see the reality.

It's based on what we see on the outside. Give me verse 3, please.

If 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.

Partiality motivates us to bestow what? Honor. You can put a whole lot of words in there. By the way, it's things that we feel we're entitled to give away. We're setting ourselves up as a benefactor to bestow something, an honor, whatever, to somebody else.

We're setting ourselves up for that.

That's the definition of arrogance, claiming rights or position that we really don't have.

Isn't arrogance pretty much one of the roots of preferential treatment?

It comes from a love of pride.

It really does. It really does. Verse 4, please.

Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

When we are showing partiality, the actions are revealing our heart. We're showing something inside of us that's just not right in line with God. We're showing our heart. And then verse 5.

Listen, 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 to those who love him?

Amen.

Thank you, Jesus.

I'm in that category.

Partiality indicates that we're losing sight of God's love for everyone. Partiality is an indication that we have lost sight of God's love for everyone. So taking this back to context of the day, what would partiality have looked like for the Jews?

Preferring Jews. They would prefer Jews. And that's the passage I read in Ephesians 2, 15 to 18, was breaking the wall down between Jew and Gentile.

For the Jews, the world was binary. You were Jewish or you weren't. They don't really go into Buddhism or atheism. You're Jewish or you're not.

That's for them.

It was.

Even in the synagogue, there was a dividing barrier between the two. There were signs, they said, too. There were signs in several places. No Gentiles allowed in here. So that's the way they were brought up.

That's the way God wanted them. He had to create a people that were separate, and they were people that he would educate as to who he was, and then those people would kind of show the world what a godly people would look like.

And even though there wasn't Buddhism or Hinduism, it was the difference between monotheism and polytheism.

Absolutely. But what's going on here in this passage is not the question of monotheism, polytheism, it's a matter of somebody looking like they're somebody important.

Rich and poor.

Rich and poor. So they had a couple of things going on. One, yes, they had those that they felt were unclean. There needed to be teaching on that. But let's go back to Leviticus. They were showing partiality, and they weren't supposed to be showing partiality.

So what does that look like for us? Bob, you had a cool example. It's the idea of the homeless person. Yes.

Or if they sat, I was just thinking about this too. If they came and sat in the pew or in the chair next to me, you know, what would I tend to do? You smell bad, you look awful.

Have you ever heard of IHN? Yeah, I've heard of them.

You might ask them.

Right, right.

Have them come to service.

If we're sitting here this morning thinking, I got no problem with moseying up to a homeless person, that won't be a problem for me. If we're sitting there thinking that, I could try to draw scenarios, and eventually I'm going to find one.

I'm going to find one. If somebody came walking in, a gentlemanly-looking person with clothes clearly cleaned, saying, you know, hey, I saw your sign. We're going to have people shake their hands. One of the common testimonies about our church is that we're known as a friendly church that loves people.

That's one of the commentaries over the years. What if I came into the church the first time in woman's clothes?

Take the sin of the sinner.

Would there be as much of a willingness to sidle up next to that person? We're all going to have that spot where we're going to be at risk for showing partiality.

I think it would be harder to love you, because sometimes I walk in the spirit, and sometimes I walk in the flesh. I think I'd be welcome more in the flesh then. Maybe if I get a hold of myself, I would do it.

But I think my life's sincerity would be short-lived and temporary, not long-term and friendly.

Using Bob's example, if the homeless man sat next to me, I'd like to think that I would invite him home for food and for a shower. You know, do the thing James says to do. To do the work, to do a good work for that man.

It's interesting that James chooses this as his stepping-off point from chapter 1. Again, to put things back in context, Kimberly, give me verses 9 -11. I don't know who's next to read. So John, I'm going to call on you to get Galatians 5.

It's 5 -9. I don't remember if I fixed that. 1 Corinthians 5, Ryan, if you would get that. Give me 9 -11 again. Partiality is equated with what? Law-breaking sin. Partiality is equated with sin, which is breaking the law.

How serious of a sin really is showing partiality? I mean, it's not one of the biggies. It's not assassinating the president. It's not selling drugs on school property. It's not sex slave trading. It's not that.

How big of a deal is partiality?

There we're evaluating man's crimes in accordance with man's viewpoint, but God sees it all differently. Like it says in verse 10, if we break one part of it, we break it all. So nothing's small to God.

Sin's a sin. I mean, sins are greater or smaller, but to God, it's still sin.

That's why we're not to judge someone else, because we're all sinners.

I find it interesting that James chose a very small verse tucked in the middle of chapter 19. They didn't have verses in chapters. Don't show partiality. And if you go in that chapter in Leviticus where they would have been reading the scroll, there's a list of all of these things that people are exhorted to do in relation to one another.

This is how we're to behave. And he takes this little tiny one in the middle of it and he says, don't show partiality. And that's where he chooses to go.

I think it's interesting that he begins this section as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. So holding up our glorious Lord as our example kind of sets favoritism and puts it in its proper place.

So not only are we sinning against our glorious Lord, but we also are falling drastically short of his example who gave up everything to become a person.

He was perfect. He was glorious in the sense that he was perfect. No sin at all. We can't meet that sinner, but we're to strive for it.

There are examples throughout the Gospels where Jesus tore down the perception and met the person. Whether it's the woman washing his feet, whether it's eating with tax collectors at one end, or taking the holy scriptural and cutting right into their heart at the other end.

He was not a respecter of persons for what they were. He was a respecter of persons for who they were.

And he was criticized because he ate with sinners and don't you know who this lady is that's pouring perfume all over you? Why would you even associate with her? And on and on and on there's examples of him going against the norm for the Jewish people and showing them that I don't have any favoritism.

He is a great example, you're right.

I heard it kind of described once. The Israelites, they had the law in order that they would be pure. And if a person touched anything that was impure, anything that was defiled, they became defiled. But Christ comes and he flips that completely on the other end where he is pure.

And if anyone's defiled comes to him, touches him, spends time with him, they become purified. And it's just a complete 180 from what the law was doing when Christ comes and fulfills it.

Galatians 5.

You said chapter 5, which verses?

5 through 9.

Can I just say I was looking for a quote. I'm talking about either a transgender or a corrupt dresser walking in the door. I was looking for a quote by Martin Luther King, which as much of a challenge that is, I think even a lesser challenge.

The quote was, and I couldn't find it, but he said that, and I'm paraphrasing trying to remember it, but it was something that 11 o 'clock in the morning on Sunday, our churches are the most segregated places in the entire country.

And why is that? So you talk about showing favoritism towards others. It's a very powerful quote. Why is that after all this time?

Why is that? Well, there's an easy answer. That's sin. How does Satan convince us that that's acceptable behavior? There's an easy answer. It's a terrible answer.

I faced that exact example last night. It's very uncomfortable. Yeah, even to me it was uncomfortable. Slid up the side and heavily made up with a wig. You cannot help react to in some way, shape, or form in your humanity, and everybody's heads are spinning off.

You know, the guy next to me, I thought his head was going to go flying. You know, my daughter is sitting next to me, and we just look at each other and don't say anything. But you could tell everyone there reacted to it.

I mean, there was a reaction. Visually, you cannot help but recognize that there is a difference in something. Then you have to get hold of yourself and say, well, you know, that's their choice. That's, you know, not for me to judge.

Somebody said, love the sinner, but hate the sin.

There's also compassion for the brokenness that that individual is experiencing. You know, some sins are more obvious than others, so you don't see somebody walking into a room and say, oh, there's an arrogant person.

You know, like, you don't see, oh, there's somebody who steals time from their employer. So some sins are obvious and are manifested more outwardly, but they're still, and I think that's where the gospel, one of the ways in which the gospel shines so clearly and so powerfully is that for a person who's enslaved by sin and who's experiencing that brokenness and the weight of shame and guilt of sin, that's where the light of the gospel can break forth and, you know, they can find hope and healing.

Even if they're liking their sin, you know, that's, of course, sinful people like sin. That's the only nature that they have. But as a Christian, seeing a person who's living that way, we have true hope that we can send to someone like that.

So, yes, there is that initial shock of, wow, this is a little bit out of the norm of what we're used to seeing, but kind of the flip side of that is we're all broken in our own different ways. So some sins just manifest in the gospel.

I mean, before he arrived, but then he started to think, but, you know, one of the, you know, one of the whispers that here, man, was that why would that person, I mean, obviously, they obviously drew attention to themselves.

Now, you start to wrestle with that, you know, in context. Now, what is that point and how do we react to that?

A person seeking affirmation.

That reminds me of the gay pride marches you see on TV. Now, what's there to be proud about? They're proud about their homosexuality. I love them. I pray for them that they repent of their sin. It's evil, but I still love them.

So we need to go, not let this go too far. There's phenomenal discussions. So I was with 6 ,000 men. Liberty's basketball arena is called The Vine, and it was set up for the main meetings of this retreat, Ignite.

6 ,000 men singing praises and giving glory to God. It's one of those things. I only hope that if a cross-dressing man had come in and sat down, that he would have been loved on. I only hope that would have been the case.