James Session 3 (Chapter 2:1-13) - With Chuck Missler

[Music] well we're in a study of the book of jacob jacob's letter to the twelve tribes uh jacob is jacobus in the greek jacques in french thiago in italian diego in spanish yakov and hebrew and james in english there seems to be quite a bridge between james and jacob most people are thrown by that we believe the letter is there's a poor james is the new testament we for lots of reasons i won't bother going through again a tribute the letter to the half-brother of the lord jesus christ mary and joseph did have other children after jesus they're listed in the scripture several times and one of those was the the one who did not believe in his brother as the son of god until after the resurrection where he did and he became one of the major leaders in the early church there are some very strange heresies brewing around his identity and some other things that will defer to a special evening when it's more appropriate but just so you're aware that there are some books being published and so forth that have some very bizarre theories that we'll talk about in a subsequent time if you just be aware of that it was written certainly prior to 62 a.d um there's two really two scholastic views both defendable some that it wasn't written after that because that's when um following the reign of festus there was a lull and roman authority before the new roman governor took control in this short period there was a conspiracy led by anus the younger the son of the high priest on us who illegally arranged for the execution of james and we'll talk a little bit about that tonight a little later this execution of james at that 62 id may have been triggered a whole series of events that led to the rebellion that led to rome being destroyed in 70 a.d that eight year turbulent period but we'll take that up a little bit later in our series on this book written to the 12 tribes it says in the opening verse 10 are not missing our 12 tribes we dealt with all that earlier uh the same 12 tribes that peter talks about in his first letter and the same one that paul the same group of 12 tribes that paul addressed in his speech before agrippa in acts 26 and so forth there are about 60 imperatives in 108 verses and more than any other new testament book but we shouldn't just carry away from the book of james the do's and don'ts the most precious thing that we want to get out of the book is perspective and we want to be sensitive to the real lessons here whenever we feel sorrow or pain we're tempted to ask people to pray and people ask us what you pray for you probably have to pray for my illness or pray for my financial needs to be met or pray for that people what people are doing to me might stop or whatever james is actually insisting on a radical change in our thinking where are the real dangers in our life and they're not from medical financial or or social or other problems the most serious danger is not what's being done to me but what's being done by me and uh that's one of the things he he james is dealing with is that we should just like jesus said taught us lead us not into temptation we should worry about these trials that we encounter we should pray for our behavior our response to them more than the trials themselves that's where the real danger is don't pray lord keep me safe lord keep me pure that's one of the main themes through the book of james he uh asserts behind these imperatives he searched if you watch carefully he's building our representation of our belief about the nature of god because our behavior demonstrates what we really believe where our faith really is many people imagine a conflict between uh teaching of james and the teachings of paul and that's only uh one of a misguided perception they're really addressing uh uh slightly different issues and we'll we we dealt with that as we go and and uh we'll talk uh more about that james of course emphasize that we need to be a doer not just to hear only and we talk about how does one become a hearer only by being relativistic subjective all things are relative is one way that you are not a doer by being superstitious that is relying on magic or mysticism the israel israelites relied on the ark if you recall to utter disaster they lost war so they put the ark in front they lost even they lost the ark we have a tendency to do that would you do that with the bible you do that with the church now you got to keep focused on the person of jesus christ another way you can be a hearer not a doer is by emotion rather than real understanding by being theoretical instead of being obedient how do we become a doer as james talked about this little by review of last time by looking intently at the scriptures digging deeply not just devotional reading but really digging in and and getting grounded and by being continual not just occasional and not forgetting that is learning the scripture really learning memorizing make it part of your life and all and the way you become a doer is by doing applying the scripture act of obedience and that's really what james is going to be focusing on as we go let me ask you a question just as again by way of review of some of the loose ends from last time it happens to be one of my most concerned topics what is the most painful sin what sin has caused more pain probably than any other we can think of a lot of them i think i'm going to suggest gossip gossip its most formal form of course is a violation of as exodus 20 verse 6 bearing false witness but in its more subtle forms gossip is probably accountable for more personal pain and suffering than most of us have any appreciation of gossip is a form of betrayal i mention this because we closed last time we're talking about where james talks about bridling uh the tongue and silver in verse 26 if any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but to see with his own heart this man's religion is vain gayo is the is the greek which means to bridle or hold and check to restrain keep a tight rein on the tongue is the most unruly of all our members it's interesting that gossip is one of the forms where we do more damage than we probably have any idea very quietly behind the flurry of our daily priorities the venom of gossip does its silent work it undermines confidences betrays relationships spreads unseen justices and james of course focuses this in the last session and i mention this i guess because it's a very um sensitive subject because i think most of you know our background man and i we had our personal troubles at the turn of the decade from about 1988 through 91 we went through quite a deep valley bankruptcy earthquakes relocating from our family roots but it's interesting as we look back on that to this day still the pain endures not from the physical trauma not from the financial trauma not from a lot of other things you might list the the deepest pain we have had from those difficult years is from the libel the slander that was promoted or tolerated by uh i'd say i'm gonna say a few actually most all all but a few of our so-called christian friends most of us in here can probably relate to similar experiences and it's amazing to discover how many people have been injured deeply by gossip and by those who accept without checking uh negative or derogatory innuendos that are whispered behind their backs one of the things that bothers me because it comes up frequently when i converse with other people in the ministry people often ask me gee i spent 30 years as an executive in number of different companies the auto industry the semiconductor industry computer industry whatever i've made this transition the last uh seven years say uh to christian professional christianity if you will we've experienced more lies more slander more liable since we entered the ministry than we did in the secular world and i think part of that's poor training part of that's just a lack of awareness and it's but it's it when you stand back it's it's disturbing and what an opportunity we have as christians to display loyalty love by assuming the most charitable construction in advance to demonstrate a foundation of a relationship when you hear about something about your friend you have to check just presume the best not the worst we go through a lot of text i'll go through a few leviticus 19 16 the scripture says thou shalt not go up and down as a tale bearer among my people neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor i am the lord he said in proverbs 11 13 a tale bearer revealeth secrets but he that is a faithful spirit concealeth the matter proverbs 18 8 the words of a tailbearer are as wounds they go down into the innermost parts of the belly and i don't think that's just figure of language i think there's physiological damage from these anxieties i think any md will verify that proverbs 20 19 you go with about as a tailbearer reveal the secrets therefore metal not with him who flattereth with his lips how interesting it is as you get experienced in human relationships that you can spot them proverbs 26 20 where no wood is there the fire goeth out and so where there is no tail bearer the stripe sees it it's interesting how in some organizations when one person leaves how much peace there is everywhere and we laugh about it but it's interesting how that little ingredient can destroy organizations in general and especially those organizations which have no explicit objective function if you're in a sales organization or if you're in combat in an infantry unit and so forth it's not political because you know whether you're winning or losing if you're on a football team and it's halftime you know you know where you stand you look at the scoreboard you can look at the yardage those are objective functions but if you're in a school a hospital or a church or some of these organizations they have no clear explicit function and what takes the place are substitute measures and call that politics given other labels that's where these things are especially damaging proverbs 26 21 as colds are to burning coals and would defier so is a contentious man to kindle strife it doesn't say woman but i suspect we could you know not go uh proverbs 26 22 the words of a tailbearer are as wounds they go down into the innermost parts of the belly and on it goes now you say gee christians don't let me you know the christian form of this is i don't want to talk about so and so but in order that you can pray for them more specifically let me tell you the latest you know now i know none of you do that but i i thought i'd mention this that you could minister to those friends of yours that do this sort of thing what is true friendship you say that's a glibly it's a common word we talk about it i'm going to suggest that true friendship is one that doesn't require explanations one who gives the benefit of the doubt in advance without asking one who is loyal and shuns any form betrayal there's a poem i don't normally do this in a bible study but there's a poem that's dear to my heart and i'm just gonna if just indulge me let me read this poem it was i hear it said bye barbara young last night my friend he says he is my friend came in and questioned me i had said that you've done this and that i come to ask are these things true a glute was in his eye of small distrust his words were crisp and hot he measured me with anger and flung down a little heap of facts which had come to him i hear it said that you've done this and that suppose i have are you not my friend are you not my friend enough to say if it were true there would be reason in it and if i cannot know the how or why still i can trust you waiting for a word or if no word or no word if no word ever come is friendship just a thing of afternoons of pleasuring one's friend and one's dear self greed for sedate approval of his pace suspicion if you take one little turn upon the road one flight into the air and has not sought you for a year or day no friendship is not cell i am my own and however near my friend may draw onto my soul there is a legend hung above a certain straight and narrow way that says dear friend you may not enter here i would that the time has come and it has not when men shall rise and say he is my friend he has done this and what is that to me thank you i have a check up on his head or cast a guiding rain across his neck i am his friend and for that cause i walk not over close to him not over close beside him leaving still space for his silences and space for mine anyway well let's tie off of last time let's go to chapter two of jacob's letter to the twelve tribes and jacob or james is going to hammer continually on the importance of reality in our attitude towards god into his word let me say that again james is going to hammer away at the importance of reality in our attitude towards god in his word we have all these do's and don'ts it sounds like but be more careful get this perspective verse one my brethren have not the faith in fact the word is actually not how it's hold in the greek but anyway my brethren hold not the faith of the lord jesus christ the lord of glory with respect to persons now it's kind of interesting that the half brother of lord jesus uses here his full title he says half brother but he does he calls him our lord jesus christ the lord of glory and i like this because i hold the view that he knows having lived with him a lot more about jesus's deity then some arrogant theologians and musty libraries who like to take votes on what jesus really said i always get amused by the so-called jesus seminar it's as if they if they cast enough votes maybe he'd resign see but anyway eusebius account of james is martyrdom the guy that wrote this letter was martyred he himself left us a vivid example of impartiality he was held in so high regard as one who does not is not a respecter of persons that when the jewish authorities in jerusalem were alarmed by the numbers of uh uh who were believing in jesus christ they appealed to james to make a speech to calm the crowd apparently took things seriously in those days when he presented james to the crowd the speech he gave was hardly what they wanted for he declared jesus to be the christ in such strong terms that many more became believers from the result of speech and according to the account in eusebius this was the incident that led to james's death the authorities were so angered by his speech that they cast him to the ground and stoned him to death while he was praying for god to forgive them interesting example the the chapter division by the way between verse 27 and chapter two is unfortunate because these chapter divisions often disguise what really should be a linkage there's a linkage between not being not showing favoritism that he's now starting to deal with and this idea of not being polluted by the world which was the last verse of the previous chapter we studied last time and you see what the way we behave toward people reveals what we really believe about god the way you act towards other people manifests what your real belief structure is also nothing reveals the selfishness of the human heart more than the way we're inclined to be inclined to honor the wealthy and influential while neglecting the poor and uh ignorant we tend to you know to tend to to make those distinctions and it's just we have pyramid climbers in churches as well as in politics industry and our society and james will deal with that in chapter three also there's a lot of examples of this we visited churches where in a strange area we just dropped into church and so forth and totally ignored by the crowd until the pastor's wife recognizes man and then suddenly you know the whole mood change if we're just strangers walking in you know welcome until you get how often it is that we're ignored you know until they for some reason perceive that oh gee we gotta you know you get the picture very very interesting james is gonna talk a lot talk a lot about the rich too before we're through later on chapter five but proverbs 30 verse 8 says lord give me neither poverty nor riches rudyard kipling was right i don't know if you probably all have seen his poem if and he says regarding a success and failure he says treat both of those imposters the same [Music] success is a phony and so is failure and uh reggie kipling expressed it so well it's interesting that uh god is no respecter of persons peter learned that in acts 10 remember at cornelius's house and the jews were very upset because from that sheet that came down and all that peter in acts chapter 10 verse 30 it says that god is not a respecter of persons that was opening the door to the gentiles and in james the writer to this epistle also you may recall in acts 15 when there's the big debate can do gentiles have to become jews to become christians the big it was a big issue in those days and james goes to bed after hearing all the discussion and so forth and uh points out that i love the way peter said it he is closing speech too he says if we play our cards right we jews can be saved as they are he turns it around get very clever very funny passage in there but it was james of course that decree you know that formalizes the sense of the counsel by saying that you know that god is receiving the gentiles without requiring of them jewishness in terms of circumcision all that that's not required if they would just do a certain few things basic things for decency in other words they're not under the mosaic laws anyway verse two james contains more if they're come into your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel and they're coming also a poor man in vile arraignment and by when he says the word assembly here is by the word there's actually the word for synagogue so it's still a jewish context james of course was very jewish and you'll notice that all the way in the style and expressions but also it was very still very or that's the other reason this is probably very very early but anyway going on a verse 3 and you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing and saying to him sit thou here in a good place and say to the poor stand thou there or sit here under my footstool and he goes on see you can't profess faith in jesus christ and be a spiritual snob that's really the thrust of what is being set up here and we need to all watch out for clicks in our churches as well as anywhere else tendency for that and this kind of thing affects our personal relationships within a fellowship i think there's also an interesting danger i'm very sensitive to in the doctrine there's a lot of people around that are very prominent and love the lord and the lord's blessing the ministry with whom we don't agree on doctrine there's some biblical view that they're really in our view at least not right on and i think it's important for us to pursue sound doctrine don't misunderstand me but it's really disturbing how in the christian community we seem to make mountains out of mole hills and how we seem to always organize firing squads in circles you know mahatma gandhi of india they asked him why does he what did he see the biggest barrier to having christianity make better inroads in india and his answer is very provocative biggest barrier are christians their conduct their behavior it's a turn off because i'm in that community professionally daily publicly and i have to tell you one of my biggest disturbances in my my personal psyche my life is trying to deal with the realities that i find within the people who proclaim christ they profess christ and some of their conduct their character their integrity is not at a level that i'm used to ex presuming in the secular world that wasn't any peaches and cream either don't i'm not painting pollyanna here i'm not trying to but we need to look that in the eye and prayerfully deal with that we gotta watch out for all especially in the church all kinds of stratification the rich the poor the common the high the low the bondage the free the the jew the gentile the greek the barbarian male female and yes millennial a millennial pre-trib post trip this is one of the things that really bothered walter martin we were very close and he loved to stir up trouble by pro you know being a proponent of post-tribulationism he was a very unusual one because he was pre-millennial and that created some other interesting questions but the point is we used to kid a lot about that but the point is what bothered him wasn't the eschatology he regarded eschatology as peripheral theology not a basis to break fellowship and he discovered that he traveled that there were platforms that when they discovered he wasn't pre-trib he wasn't welcome anymore and that bothered him not that he expected for them to be post-trib or that he should become preacher but it bothered him that that was a a division of fellowship so it's interesting jesus broke down the wall that separated the jews and the gentiles in ephesians chapter 2 verse 11 and 12. we'll keep moving in the interest of time but friendship and fellowship are supposed to be the legal tender of the christian community not dollars or balance sheets or what kind of car you drive or or how many inches your desk overhangs at work or whatever so it might turn to first corinthians 1 first corinthians 1. i've got a lot of verses i won't chase them all down but there's a few here that we really should take the time to to actually extract rather than just have me quote it to you first corinthians chapter 1 and we pick it up about verse 26 paul says for ye see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called and i've forgotten whether it's queen victoria or which one of the british queens i forgot to look it up in my notes way back but one of the queen i think it was queen victoria said she felt she was saved by an m because in this verse it says not many mighty not many noble doesn't say not any says not many and she was saved and she felt she snuck in because it says many not any see so kind of interesting but anyway not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called but god has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and god's chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that you're mighty and the base things of the world and things which you're despised have got chosen the and the things which are not to bring to naught the things that are that no flesh should glory in this presence it's been one of our speculations as we watch the approaching millennium changeover on the one hand and on the other hand we look at america which is going out of its way to insult god everything he's expressed they're not only violating their manifesting their violation of it and in isaiah chapter five it speaks the sinners that haul their iniquities on carts pulled by rope in other words not only sinning they make parades out of it that sound familiar america is would seem to us as to be right for judgment so it's interesting that god may have chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the mighty and are the wise and so forth it's uh it's interesting this is a comment towards stratification what the james is talking about is that we shouldn't have favoritism we shouldn't be partitioning you know the good guys the bad guys when somebody wealthy walks into the to the uh service on sunday morning we oh let's make sure he gets the front pew no no no that's that's and it's not that it's so bad itself that's not the point it manifests what we really believe about god because our life should be a testimony of our real belief of the character of god would god do that in verse 4 are ye not then partial in yourselves and have become judges of evil thoughts and leviticus 19 15 says ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment thou shalt not respect the person of the poor nor honor the person of the mighty but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor now we live in society where even the decisions of our courts and our governmental bodies are measured out in terms of social pressures and power rather than real justice and we'll talk a little bit about in a moment verse 5 hearken my beloved brethren hath not god chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him you can't read anywhere in the bible without discovering that god is on the side of the poor he was born in a borrowed stable he had to borrow loaves and fishes from a little boy to feed the crowd the foxes have holes the birds of the air have nests the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head in matthew 8 verse 20. he had to borrow a coin to illustrate a truth remember the coin official he borrowed a donkey to present himself to jerusalem he borrowed a room to celebrate passover he died on a borrowed cross it belonged to barabbas not to him they put him in a borrowed tomb it belonged to joseph of arimathea always interesting when israel left egypt they removed joseph from his tomb to take him to the land and on the anniversary of that later a they took him out of joseph's tomb again this interesting parallel but anyway move on and we could go through a whole series of verses i'll spare you that this evening and and james is going to hit hard on the rich in chapter five so i'll leave that on but let's move verse six but ye have despised the poor do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats isaiah in chapter 5 lists a series of woes one of these is the one i want to focus on but it might be useful just bear with me let's pop over to isaiah 5. people ask me i often get a question where i have a q a when we travel where is the united states in prophecy and i don't happen to be one of these that buy into some of these conjectures that that are prominent around the united states of prophecy isaiah 5 oh really they quickly turn here sure yeah there is i think so um let's start maybe about verse 11 woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may follow a strong drink and continue until the night until wine and flame them and goes on and that i won't get into alcohol statistics i'll spare you all that right now verse 18 woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart rope interesting verse because it doesn't just talk about being sinners it's parading your sin i can't help but visualize as i read that the these the you know the homosexual parades and what have you that are encouraged by our administration and all the rest and restraint what one of them that call evil good and good evil and put darkness for light and light for darkness that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter how interesting it is the one characteristic of our present educational system and it's been more true for more than a generator a generation is this whole idea that there is no real truth your truth is fine for you relativism they don't even know what's right and wrong they don't even know what's good and bad they deny their existence verse 21 woe to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own side the elitists that know best for what what's best for you a federal government that feels they can run your family better than you can and one of them that verse 22 that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle wrong drink which justify the wicked for reward and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him in other words injustice injustice it's interesting how we look at this stand back and look at our country we pluck our candidates from the flies of the political marketplace we allow a corrupt press to manufacture political correctness to replace truth and fabricating views of convenience in order to match their hidden agendas our politicians review the polls every day to determine what they believe and of course we have anger replacing patriotism frustration is tearing away at every fabric of our divisive society all the professionals have plotted to separate we no longer have americans we have black and white rich and poor men and women you name it but they divide there's no longer a sense of national shared national values we are growing massive parasites without leadership we have lawyers without justice stewards without accountability elected representatives who ignore their commitment to our constitution we have legislators that vote on proposals they haven't even read and of course our security forces also as a result have become the mercenaries of the globalists prostituted to the egos of our politicians our media presents a perspective that masks the deterioration of national security and the inevitable financial upheaval that's on our horizon i have mentioned this before i have a dear friend by the name of larry abrams larry abraham writes a letter called the insiders report a number of very respected books on america on patriotism and so forth he was asked by some students few years ago what is the biggest problem in the united states he started to answer but then he he ended up giving a very considerate answer that he put in a letter there's a lot of problems in the united states but the one that really hit him between the eyes that caused him to move his entire operation outside the united states ultimately that's the lack of justice how interesting of all the things all the complaints all the ill you could list that's most provocative he left the united states a few years ago he he was the ninth newsletter writer to leave out leave our shores money magazine indicated about 250 000 americans left the states in that year but his reasons are interesting he's a he's an interesting guy he's my people gloria's speaking quoting him my people came to america to live as free men and i had to leave it for the same reason the greatest single us problem is the increasing loss of the concept of justice within the hearts and minds of the american people and once lost that concept is hardly ever recovered justice is no longer the base on which america conducts its affairs and clinton and rodham did not cause this condition they are the sad consequences of it as are the legions of bureaucrats at the fdc irs scc hhs and the jurors at the rodney king reginald denney and menendez trials as are the killing of mrs weaver and the baby by the fbi the torching of waco by the batf and the drive-by shootings the intellectual insanity of political correctness the institutionalizing of perverts as the core constituency of the democratic party the politics of envy which sponsors an entire body of law that amounts to what the french philosopher frederick bestiard called legal plunder the maze of law that guards this plunder has grown so vast it's now impossible to determine what's legal and what's not he says my commitment has always been as your should be not to a plot of ground but to a moral philosophy as long as the usa was the finest example of that philosophy as long as it struggled justly to live by its high ideals i would fight to preserve and protect it and i did so but when my country becomes as it has the primary purveyor and financier of all that i abhor and without any reasonable sign of reversing itself then i must choose a different venue from which to carry on the war begun by burke and madison and jefferson john adams hamilton and jay now this of course was written prior to he did not have the benefit of the o.j simpson verdict or the oklahoma city bombing or the murder of vince foster or the twa 800 cover-up the nazis in germany when they knocked the door down the middle night took the head of the household to prison were not doing anything illegally they always operate under the color of law well let's move on back to verse seven do they james do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called so if you're mistreating the poor or if you're tolerating injustice you know what you're doing you're blaspheming the name of christ i think far more effective than apologetics our lives and ministries are the best defense of the inspiration and authority of the word of god do you believe in the word of god it's inspirational authority then your most strongest defense of the word of god is not by apologize or clever arguments or quoting things it's your life it's your life that's what james is trying to get across and by the way you and i should realize if we're christians we're going to be increasingly politically incorrect and there may be some among us that will have the unspeakable privilege of giving our very lives in testimony to that worthy name by which we are called verse 8 if we fulfill the royal law interesting term according to the scripture thou shalt love thy neighbor itself ye do well it's something james drew in the old testament he's very jewish leviticus 19 18 with you and i called the golden rule and he calls it the royal law to love your neighbor as yourself and if you have any doubt about who your neighbor is luke 10 gives you the fame story of the good samaritan we all remember the story of the good samaritan we should remember what the real point of the story was was to demonstrate to us who our neighbor is it's not the guy next door could be a guy laying in the street near death that needs help and uh james used an interesting expression here he says the royal law why does he call it the royal law well i don't know but there's three reasons i can suggest one is it was given by our king second commandment actually it's the royal law the one given by our king another reason you might call it the royal law is because it rules over the other laws if you do that you've got a handful done the other way look at it is obeying it makes you a king hatred makes you a slave loving your neighbor makes you a king and love of course is not we get confused because we use that num that that label so frequently i love my wife i also love peanut butter there's no connection say the word love we use so casually love is not an emotion it's an act of will love is a commitment now christian love means treating others as god has treated me a little different twist there but critical verse nine james continues but if you have respect to person she commits sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors of course what he's talking about here is partiality what he's talking about here is descri he's using the word you and i may call discrimination i have to confess i'm partial there's some of people here in the room that i'm much more partial to than others okay and i don't think that's really what he's talking about but he's been talking what you in our vocabulary would probably call discrimination that's a whole other thing verse 10 for whosoever shall keep the whole law yet offend in one point is guilty of all that's a verse that a lot of people memorize very key point for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he's guilty of all and let me give you a very simple lesson in grammar here sort of suspend the man over the edge of a prep a precipice by a chain of ten links how many of these need to snap and break in order to plunge him into the abyss see that's the model okay that get across the idea that's okay the other nine are doing fine it's like the guy that jumped off the empire state building 110 floors up there i was just passing the 50th floor someone says how's it going says fine so far [Music] you and i stand before god as law breakers we don't have to count how many of those links we broke you only have to break one of them and you are in need of jesus christ verse 11 because james continues for he that said do not commit adultery also said do not kill now if thou commit no adultery yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the law and i might add and vice versa there's i don't know that there's any murderers in this audience but without meaning offense to anyone i'd be not surprised at all and i'm not asking for a show of hands that uh adultery is probably a little more common in our community than murder i think if james is writing to us personally he might switch those two around but that's okay and i guess his whole point of course is how hopeless you and i are if we are attempting to be justified on the grounds of our own obedience well all i want is justice not me i don't want justice trust me i don't want justice there's very few mistakes i've missed i've made most of them no no i want mercy i want more i'll take mercy over justice any show of hands huh okay all right good okay verse 12 so speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty jesus says another way in john 14 verse 15. if you love me how many love jesus christ can i see your show of hands praise god he says if you love me what do you want to do keep my commandments we we just don't hear that enough i don't think in our evangelical community we take the decision for christ every every eye closed every head bowed you know make a decision come down the sawdust trail and i'm not knocking that but we treat that as a climax you know five ten people twenty whatever the number is they come down in front and they get a little bible and some prayer and that's great and the audience applause and isn't that great we pray for them that's wonderful as if oh boy now that's done wrong that's the beginning i want to ask for a show of hands i usually do i say how many of you been saved i get the hands and then my question is okay what have you done with it what's happened since as a minimum there needs to be a life change there's not a life change something still needs to happen it's interesting that ev in the bible in the new testament every orthodox statement of faith ends with the statement about the return of jesus christ in the final judgment check it out every orthodox statement of faith made your statement faith has following it an allusion at least to the return of christ and the final judgment now a lot of christians obviously differ on the details of his return but i know of no competent christians that have any doubt about the certainty of his return and the judgment you and i have an appointment and it's interesting that both jesus and paul jesus in 5 john 5 24 and paul in romans 8 1 assure us that christians will never be judged for their sins but that our works will be judged and rewarded in romans 14 verses 10-13 second corinthians 5 9-10 and i'll just let you jot those down if you're going to be diligent and look them up jesus in john 5 24 and paul in romans 8 1 give us that assurance it won't be judged for our sins but we will be uh judged and rewarded uh for our works and uh romans 14 verses 10 through 13 and second corinthians 5 verses 9-10 our words will be judged james told us in verse 3 and also in matthew 12 36 jesus said i say unto you that every idle work that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment our words will be judged boy that's going to be embarrassing for me boy i shot my mouth off in some stupid situations and not just when i'm tired and so forth that too it disturbs me to realize i'm accountable for those there's a bunch i talk a lot our deeds will be judged colossians chapter 3 verses 22-25 and the scripture does say that god remembers our sins no more he says that in jeremiah 31 24 as recorded in hebrews 10 17 we've all heard that god remembers our sins no more but they still affect our character and our works i was told of a father that every time a son did something wrong he'd drive a nail into the dining room table and when the son apologized asked forgiveness the father would pull that nail out of the dining room table it's done but the marks were still there god may forgive us of our sins and he may remember them no more that still can leave venereal disease on the part of the violator it can be you know you can fill in the blanks the judicial aspect can be taken care of that's the important one doesn't mean that we don't have physical or emotional or whatever scar tissue from whatever the history is in verse 13 james goes on he says he shall have judgment without mercy that has showed no mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment for he shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment see our attitudes are also we talk about words we talk about deeds our attitudes are going to be judged see mercy and compassion are not competitors uh they both come from god matthew 18 deals with that and the real thing that james is going to hammer away in a variety of different ways is to ask the question is our walk consistent with our profession of faith that's his key point throughout this whole epistle it's not the desire of god to deal harshly with anyone he is always ready to forgive when sin is acknowledged recognized owned but then confessed now see as objects of mercy ourselves it's our uh it's we're called upon of course to show mercy and compassion in others no matter how lowly their condition might be in doing some background here i came across a story i'd like to share with you a story took place in london or a very great preacher very fine young man by the name of cesar milan it was invited one even to a very large and prominent home where a musical was to be presented on the program was a young lady who thrilled the audience with her singing and her playing and when she finished this young preacher threaded his way through the crowd and and was gathered around her and he finally came here and said young lady when you were singing i sat there and thought how tremendously the cause of christ would be benefit benefited if you would dedicate yourself and your talents to the lord but he added you are just as much a sinner as the worst drunkard in the street or any harlot on scarlet street but i'm glad to tell you that the blood of jesus christ god's son can cleanse you from all sin if you will come to him i'm not sure that's the best approach but anyway in a very haughty manner she turned her head aside and said him you are very insulting sir as you start to walk away and then he said lady i did not mean any offense but i pray that the spirit of god will convict you well they all went home and that night this young woman could not sleep so he may not have been tactful he might have been more skillful but gee my word shall not return void i guess is the world is part of it at two o'clock in the morning she got up at by the side of her bed and she took christ as her savior and then she her name was uh charlotte elliott sat down and wrote the words of a hymn just as i am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bitched me come to thee o lamb of god i come just as i am and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blood to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot o lamb of god i come and the last verse as just as i am thou wilt receive and will welcome pardon cleanse relief because thy promise i believe a lamb of god i come hallelujah is right this is of course the basis that we all have to come to jesus christ you know i'm touched by some of these old hymns you know there's there's a trend in in our churches today to go to the modern music and i'm not knocking it except i think was dave hunt that first called my attention to this and since then it never bothered me until he pointed out now it bothers me every time i'm in a group very often have you ever noticed that some of the new songs are absolutely devoid of any theology you know i love god i love god i love god 37 times and you know whatever and i'm being a little unfair in contrast to some of the great hymns my heart is warm because as i travel in the calvary's and others where there's a history you know a style of more the newer music they are introducing here and there some of the old hymns sometimes a little modernized that's fine but the point is you know you can't prove on this i really wonder how many people made their decision for christ from the draw of the holy spirit through hymns like this one the main point tonight is our behavior reflects what we really believe and we could talk a lot about statements of faith and quote scripture we can split hairs on doctrine and that's fine but what people really see and what the lord is watching for are changed lives that's what james is all talking about and many people misunderstand the thrust of his epistle he's not saying that you're saved by works but you're saved by a faith that it demonstrates works if you say you have faith and don't have fruits of that in your life there's something still missing some there's there's some bridge still across there's something still that needs to be dealt with so the question is is god really gracious is god really gracious is he really true does he have integrity does he keep his word is god really really going to judge us our conduct our conduct before the world will reveal our real convictions about this if we really believe god is gracious we have an obligation to manifest that graciousness and if we if god really is one of integrity and truth then why do we conduct ourselves in such compromised ways and if he's really going to judge us why isn't that the most compelling priority or yardstick in our lives let's stand for closing word of prayer well father we just thank you that you are gracious that you are merciful we also thank you father for your initiatives because we're all here right now by your initiative it's your caring it's your diligence not ours that has brought us together and it's your spirit that has put this desire in our hearts this desire to seek you father and this desire to reflect you father we thank you father for your word we thank you particularly for this epistle of james we pray father that your holy spirit would just use it in our lives not that we might earn anything other than maybe a smile on your face father that we might just be more responsive to your will in our lives that we might be more faithful witnesses to your character oh father we just do pray that you would take us and use us as we come to you just as we are without one plea except that your son jesus christ shed his blood that we might have this access to you that we might be in your forever family we pray father that you would also illuminate for each of us those things in our lives each of us that need attention that need prayer that need resolve help us father to grow in our effectiveness as a witness for you and of jesus christ because we do indeed commit ourselves into your hands indeed in his name yeshua our lord and savior amen [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

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Keywords: jesus, christ, chuck, missler, koinonia, house, khouse, institute

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Length: 52min 1sec (3121 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021