FaithWorks

If God’s people would take their
Bibles, turn back once again to James Chapter 2. James Chapter 2, where James
has once again issued forth a point of examination in the believer’s
life, a way that a believer can read and assess, allowing the
Holy Spirit to search his life, to verify or convict. In this particular case, it is
the sin of partiality, the sin that we have begun to call facial
recognition because that literally is the translation of the word,
to lift the face. It was the tendency to receive
someone or to grant someone favor purely based on their physical
appearance or what they might bring or do for the individual. In this particular case, it was
based on money, but it’s not just money. It’s not just wealth
that promotes this sinful tendency. It’s a self-centeredness that
looks only to gain at the hands of someone else. The rich and
the poor, they were part of the Jerusalem church. James had already
addressed it in chapter 1 verses 9 through 11. He spoke of the
brother of humble circumstances as well as the rich man. They
were to live together in peaceful harmony. And what James is urging
here in this particular section is a very clear warning about
discrimination based on these social grounds. We find ourselves
in chapter two. I’ll take the first 13 verses
if you would just read along silently. James says in chapter
two, verse one, my brethren, do not hold your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your
assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and
there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay
special attention to the one who is wearing fine clothes and
say you sit here in a good place. And if you say to the poor man,
you stand over there or sit down by my footstool, have you not
made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren,
did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love
him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich
who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they
not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If,
however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the scripture,
you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well. But if you show partiality, you
are committing sin. and are convicted by the law
as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. For
he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not commit murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery,
but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the
law. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will
be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over
judgment. We began several weeks ago to
consider this section that I’ve referred to as facial recognition. James has a particular offense
in view. He introduced it in those first
four verses that of the tendency to make distinctions based purely
on physical appearance. He’s building a case against
these prejudicial dealings that we so often engage in, even as
believers. And the first thing that he does
is give a warning against biased living. We saw that in chapter
2 verse 1. Do not hold your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude, with a heart of
personal favoritism. This is that preferential treatment.
This is that decision making that goes on in the mind and
in the heart where we make distinctions about people based on physical characteristics. James
is once again addressing the believers in his purview, those
who had come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, the manifestation of God’s glory. But these Christians who should
have had Christ in his glory in full view, that should have
been their complete and sole focus. But some in the church
were caught up in the practice of facial recognition, recognition
of other people based on other things other than Christ. We
saw that word which translated personal favoritism meant to
lift the face. that of a judge that reaches
down to a penitent sinner, but not for just causes. He lifts the face and forgives
them. He shows some partiality in that dealing. And so it’s
an unfair partiality here. But with God, we saw there is
no partiality. God doesn’t operate that way,
and he expects no less of his people. We looked at many passages
that talked about the sin of partiality. And as I said, it
isn’t just wealth. Wealth is the illustration in
this passage. But partiality for any reason
is sin, wealth, racial differences, gender differences. physical
appearance, good looks, popularity, political strength, all of those
become avenues for sin for the believer. To treat somebody differently
just because of some of those things is sin, James says. He gives the example in verses
two through four, this example of biased living. The man that
comes in, he’s dressed in a fancy way. He’s wearing, obviously,
gold and jewels, and he’s treated in a particular way while the
poor man is shuffled to the side. James, because of that, issues
an indictment. Look at verse four. Have you
not made distinctions among yourselves? and become judges with evil motives. To do that is sin, James says. To divide your mind from your
heart, and that literally is what takes place, it’s a division
of judgment here. You know that it’s wrong. You
know that it’s wrong to treat somebody differently based purely
on these factors, but you do so anyway. I cite again Thomas
Manton, who said to give more or less to anyone than is appropriate. Because of something in his person. Out of a consideration of some
external glory that we find in them to respond to anyone for
any reason, simply because of something that they can render
back to you. That is, James says, sin. And
to a degree, we’ve all engaged in it from time to time. We’ve all fallen into this. And
so not just this characterization, not just this warning about this
particular sin, and not just a very clear example, which we
have probably seen in our lifetime, that of catering to a rich man
while we shuffle away a poor man. But James not only wants
to give a warning and an example and even an indictment. In a
sense, he has the reader exactly where he wants them. But what
James wants to do and where we began last week was to look at
these three particulars that James provides toward eradicating
this sin. We talked several weeks ago with
some folks regarding the mortification of sin. And it wasn’t surprising
to me that the young person that I spoke to about this idea of
mortifying sin didn’t know what it meant. In our culture, when
we speak of being mortified, you know, we’re ashamed of it.
It’s so ugly that we don’t want anything to do with it. But mortification
to the Puritans meant death. It is the process of putting
to death sin. And that’s what we need to be
about. We need to be about examining our hearts and putting this particular
manifestation of sin to death. Eradicate it completely. The
first thing that we looked at last Lord’s Day was, first of
all, we have to note the absurdities of facial recognition, that it
is a dishonoring of God himself. We tend to think of it as just
a dishonoring of the individual, the poor man, the less powerful
man, the female, the African-American. We tend to think of it in those
terms. But to do so is a dishonoring of God himself. Look at verse five. The absurdities of facial recognition. First of all, the special place
that the poor have with God. Listen, my beloved brethren,
did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith
and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who
love them? It’s part of God’s sovereign election that he set
his love upon the poor. Paul essentially said the same
thing in chapter one, verse 27 of First Corinthians. God has
chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things
which are strong. And you can read there, God has
chosen the poor, just like James says here. That doesn’t mean
that all poor people are going to be saved. It doesn’t mean
that. It doesn’t mean that being poor is meritorious, that if
you would only shed yourself of all your wealth, you will
be saved. It doesn’t mean that. What it
does point to is that poverty is no obstacle to your salvation. To be poor doesn’t make you unimportant
in God’s eyes. You are not immune to the gospel
because you are poor. But James says, even though this
is true and that the poor are a special object in God’s eyes,
you have dishonored him in your treatment. As he walked into
your fellowship, a brother in Christ, you preferred someone
who wasn’t even a believer simply because of what he had. what
he owned. Look at verse six. You have dishonored
the poor man. He cites that particular instance
that he had already dealt with in verses two and three, that
contemptuous, sad treatment of the poor man where you deprived
him of his honor. You dishonored him in front of
everyone. And in doing so, they proved themselves
to be completely unlike God on this point. completely contrary
to what God would have done in the same situation. Far from
modeling Christ-like behavior, they found themselves at odds,
even with God himself. But beyond that, beyond the fact
that the first absurdity of facial recognition is that there is
a special place with God of the poor, The second part of it is
that the harsh tendencies of the rich. These were the very
people that used to haul the first century Christians into
the courts, the Jewish courts. These rich Sadducees would come
into the midst of their fellowship and they would trouble everybody
around. This was the persecution of the
early church. They would oppress them, they
would trouble them, they would drag them into the courts. Not
a monetary lawsuit, mind you, although many times there were
monetary implications. They would take away widows houses. Jesus himself had warned about
this, and here it is playing out. And so out of cowardice,
you have the church pandering to these very people. James says
this cannot go on. Can’t be. So James, as I said, he’s providing
us with these particulars towards eradicating this sinful tendency. Not only the absurdities of facial
recognition, dishonoring the very one that God favors, but
secondly, clarity on facial recognition. What is it exactly? What does
it look like? What isn’t it? What is it? We have to know this in order
to eradicate it. We’ve got to know what it is
exactly in order to get rid of it. And that’s what James does
in verse eight. If you would look there briefly
this morning. Where James says, if, however,
you are fulfilling the royal law, according to the scripture,
you shall not love your you shall love. Pardon me. You shall love
your neighbor as yourself. You’re doing well. Do you see what James does here? What a gracious man. No wonder
he was called James the Just. Because he even comes right up
to the doorstep and he pauses. And he says, look, I saw what
took place. I saw what you did with the rich
man and the poor man. Maybe, just maybe, it was because
of your big heart. that you invited him to sit in
a special… Maybe you were the greeter that
morning. Maybe you were just being kind. Maybe this is really and truly
the way that you treat every person who comes into your midst. Maybe. He at least offers that
as a plausible explanation to what took place. And really,
as I told you from the very beginning, only your heart in conjunction
with the Holy Spirit, can really lay conviction on this matter
to you. But he basically offers up here
another dichotomy, another comparison, that there are two ways, two
possibilities, and only two. This person is essentially a
model citizen of the kingdom. They welcome in everybody, they’re
warm, they’re friendly, they’re accommodating. Whether you’re
rich or poor, And James says it could, this
idea of welcoming in this wealthy man very easily could have proceeded
from a good motive. You saw a newcomer, you approached
him, the chair was empty, you ushered him forth, you sat him
and accommodated him. It’s possible. James says if you’re fulfilling
the royal law, what he meant by that is exactly what he tells
us exactly what the royal law is. He says it’s in scripture,
it’s in the Bible. If you’re fulfilling the royal
law according to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
That’s the royal law. It could mean, and there were
many commentators that went in many different directions on
this, the law that is of supreme excellence. That’s the way I
would go with it. One suggested that it was a law that was given
by the king of kings. Jesus himself gave the law. Well,
I mean, if you want to go that way, it means exactly the same
thing. It’s the supreme law. It’s God’s
ultimate standard. Another said that it was the
law of kings. Well, that doesn’t do us very
good because he’s asking us to fulfill it. It’s royal. It’s kingly. It’s
the law that has been given to humanity as as the ultimate way
of expressing our faith on this earth. Jesus says, if you’re
fulfilling the royal law, according to the scripture, you shall love
your neighbor as yourself. You’re doing well. You’re doing
what you’re supposed to be doing as a Christian. The ultimate source of this quotation
from James is from Leviticus chapter 19. And the particular
quote shows what a lack of love is. Leviticus 19 verse 17, you
shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You may surely
reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.
You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the
sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus echoed that same principle
from scripture. The Pharisees were in a skirmish
with the Sadducees. They’d gathered together. Suddenly
a lawyer stood up in the midst and asked Jesus a question. Matthew
chapter 22. Teacher, which is the great commandment
of the law? Can you boil it down? Can you
narrow it down for us? so that we don’t have these skirmishes
among us as brothers, Jewish brothers. Jesus said to him,
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and
foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. Paul echoed this great royal
commandment in Romans chapter 13. Oh, nothing to anyone except
to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled
the law. It’s the royal commandment. Galatians,
chapter five, verse 13, you were called to freedom. Brethren,
do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love, serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled
in one word in the statement, you shall love your neighbor
as yourself. We are called and commanded to
love, practically love, not just a warm, fuzzy feeling for one
another, not just a warm, fuzzy feeling even for the lost, we’re
called to practically love other people, doing something. That’s the royal law. As one
Puritan said, we are to love our fellow men in the same degree
as we love ourselves. You know, that would fix it all,
wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t that fix it all? And we are to love them
in the same way. Our love for them is to have
the same characteristics, sincerity, activity, constancy, which belong
to that we entertain for ourselves. In other words, take care of
others the same way that you take care of yourself. How do we love ourselves? We
take care of our health. We take care of our things. We
take care of our honor, our reputation. We shy away from things that
cause personal injury. All of those things go into. The love the natural love that
we have for our own bodies, our own selves. Now, whether this
kind of love had vanished in the churches or waned in the
churches. We don’t know to what degree,
but we know that it wasn’t always the case. Early in the Book of
Acts is recorded those magnanimous, incredible sections where they’re
selling property and giving to anyone as anyone might have need. That loving concern and care
for one another had once characterized James’s church. And now James
is writing to them saying, what happened? We need to fulfill
the royal law. We need to love one another as
we love ourselves. Not only had the Jerusalem church
modeled this love, they experienced it, especially from the Macedonian
church. They had churches throughout
the region, throughout the world, sending them gifts in the course
of their poverty. Well, James moves on. And he says there is a possibility
that your greeting of the wealthy man, your seating of the wealthy
man was just possibly a fulfillment of the royal law. Maybe you were
doing what you thought you ought to be doing. But. There is another possibility,
and that’s what led to this whole discussion in the first place.
Look at verse nine. This is the sin of partiality,
and James once again says, check yourselves. You need to examine
your heart. But if you show partiality, if
you receive the face, if you practice facial recognition based
on gender, based on race, based on wealth, based on power, if
you practice these things. You’re committing sin. and you’re
convicted by the law as transgressors. Now it’s possible, I would even
suggest to you that it’s likely, that there were those in the
midst reading James’ words who were so steeped in Judaism that
they just brushed off this indictment. Yeah, it’s a sin, but it’s not
the biggest sin. And it’s not that big of a deal. I gave somebody a chair, okay?
So sue me, right? That was kind of their heart. But James, James wants them to
know how serious this is. Look at verse 10. Whoever keeps
the whole law and yet stumbles in one point. This is what the
unbeliever gnashes their teeth at God, right? He’s so strict,
he’s so rigid. That’s what made that lawyer
that approached Christ so foolish to think that he had actually
fulfilled and lived up to the law. I’ve loved God perfectly
with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I’ve loved my neighbor
as myself. But let me equivocate for a moment,
who is my neighbor? In this the case of these first
century believers, they’re doing the same thing. They’re saying that this isn’t
that big of a deal. James says it’s a it’s a massive
deal. You just broke the law. What James declares is that this
crass Partiality is a sin against God himself. There’s always, with men, with
people, with religious people, there’s always this tendency
to rank sins, right? Even in the Roman Catholic Church,
they have the cardinal sins and the ordinal sins. The ordinal
sins, you know, you say a couple of prayers and you’re out from
underneath it. But the cardinal sins, those
are the doozies. Well, James says you break one
law. You just transgressed the entire
law. You violate one moral precept. You just went against God himself. One pastor said it will not do
for you to plead that you are scrupulous in other duties. The law is a whole and the revelation
of God’s will disregard to a single point is disregard to the lawgiver. Disobedience breaks the law as
a whole. And so he uses this idea of adultery
and murder. He isn’t importing new ideas.
He’s just saying there were probably people in that culture that used
this very argument. I didn’t commit adultery, but I did kill this guy. James
says one is the same as the other, and to break the law at one point
is to break the whole moral code of God. I mean, you could use
the same argument, right, with Adam and Eve. I took one bite
of an apple and broke the whole law. Men, young men, we know this,
right? When your mom or your wife says,
do not eat the cake, and then later discovers a very slender
slice, or even a fork bite missing, she can very appropriately ask,
Who ate the cake? She doesn’t have to mean the
whole cake. She doesn’t mean that someone
ate the whole cake. But to take a bit of the cake
was to eat the cake. To break a bit of God’s law is
to break the law. To break any part of God’s law
is to become a lawbreaker in his eyes. And as the Jews saw it, the whole
moral code was a system of checks and balances, a system of merit
and demerit. Where if you held up this part
and you lived according to this particular standard, you gained
merit. And if you did this sin or you
transgressed the law on this point, you lost some points.
And so it was just a matter of keeping ahead of the game because
ultimately God would grade on a curve, right? So they would add it up and tally
it up and hope for the best. That’s no different than the
way people live in this day and age when they tell you that I’m
basically a good person, right? So this good person, maybe he
was upright in his morals. He didn’t cuss. In his attendance at church,
he was precise and meticulous, never missed a day. But he had
this thing that he did. He was harsh in the marketplace
and unkind to people and rude in that regard. And in that sense,
he broke God’s law. Robert Johnstone My hero in this
study said it this way, a man who has broken one commandment
cannot shelter himself under the idea that he has merely violated
a precept, isolated from the general law of God, but is guilty
of a breach of the law, which includes all the commandments,
and thus has, as really though not so glaringly, placed himself
in opposition to God. As if he had broken all the commandments. James says. If you’ve done this,
you’re in a heap of trouble. You’re in a desperate situation,
you stand at war with a holy God, if this is how you want
to live, you’re sinning actively, intentionally, knowingly. It’s a good thing that James
wants to provide us with three particulars because we’re still
not there. We see the absurdities of this facial recognition. We
see the clarity. We see what it is and what it
isn’t. But it’s this third help. This third particular that is
so helpful toward eradicating this sin. It’s the corrective. for facial recognition, not only
the absurdity and the clarity, but the corrective for facial
recognition. Look at it again this time in
verse 12. This provides James is admonition
really to Christian living. You said, Well, that that’s awfully
simple. You’re gonna come all the way
through this big passage and tell us just go live like a Christian.
Yes, Because that’s what James says, look at verse 12 and 13.
So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law
of liberty. For judgment will be merciless
to the one who is shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. When James says here in verse
12, so speak. And so act. He’s expressing it
positively, but the sins of the tongue and the proper use of
the mouth is a recurring theme throughout this epistle. It’s
throughout the New Testament. It’s throughout the entire totality
of scripture, isn’t it? He says, our speaking and our
doing, the way that we talk and the way that we live ought to
be different. It ought to be influenced. It
ought to be reformed, transformed by the grace of God in all that
we do. One pastor said, we commonly
think of little words, we think That’s how we think of them.
We think of them as just little words because we know little
about their power and importance. There is perhaps no class of
sins against which our Lord and his apostles give more frequent
and earnest warning than the sins of the tongue. And so James issues an imperative
here. And he basically says, talk like
a Christian. And he spells this out, not as
a, not as a, that’d be a good thing to practice, maybe I’ll
try that this week. He issues it as an absolute imperative. It’s not an option. You don’t
have the option to maybe speak to a rich man the way that you
did, and maybe speak to your poor brother the way that you
did. You don’t have that option anymore. You don’t have the option
to act the way that you did. If a man comes into your assembly
wearing a gold ring and you treat him one way and treat the poor
man, you don’t have that option anymore. You’re a Christian.
You profess as such. And so this whole idea of facial
recognition, pandering to the rich or the powerful or the beautiful
or the racially preferable. while neglecting those who are
the opposite is a sin, and it’s a complete lack of mercy. When James says, so speak, so
act, he’s zeroing in, not on the particulars of what he’s
saying, but on the motivating factor behind it. Where did this
come from? And he says, your words need
to come from the heart of a Christian, your acts, your activity, your
behavior needs to come from the heart of a Christian. Speak or
act as a Christian. Our whole way of life. Should be affected and reformed
by our Christianity, shouldn’t it? But look again at verse 12. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged by the law of liberty. Here’s the law again.
But I want you to note that this divine accountability, first
and foremost, is not a mere possibility. That’s how people really approach
the whole idea of judgment. I don’t know. I might have to
answer for this one day. Not what James says. Look, look
at the passage. So speak and so act as those
who are to be judged. It’s a certainty. One pastor
said in that day, all disguises shall be removed. The secrets of all hearts and
lives made known. The solemn sentence, which will
have eternal issues, shall be pronounced from the throne and
responded to by each heart as divinely righteous. When God. Assesses your life, you will
say yay and amen. You’ll know that it’s true. You
know that he was spot on. And in this particular case,
I want to make sure that you know, when he’s talking about
judgment here, he’s not talking about judgment for eternal condemnations
sake. He’s talking about judgment of
believers as a review, if you will, and an assessment of their
life by God about their life as a Christian.
Judgment of believers is for the matter of rewards and not
for determining salvation that is long since determined You
will answer for your life you will stand before God and give
an account We have a moment if you would
take your Bible and turn to first Corinthians chapter 3 and First Corinthians chapter three,
I want to zero in on verse 10. First Corinthians three, verse
10. Look at the passage. According to the grace of God,
which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation. Paul’s telling a story, he’s
talking about the ministry, but he’s using this imagery of construction. And he says that first and foremost,
it was the grace of God at work within him. But like a wise master
builder, he laid a foundation and now another is building on
it. And Paul isn’t angry about that. That’s ministry. That’s
the church. That’s the variety of giftedness. Everybody pooling their efforts
in the building of this great edifice. Another is building
upon it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it. And what he basically says is,
you don’t want a careless laborer in your midst working on this
beautiful project called the church. You don’t want half-hearted
effort. Look at verse 11. For no man
can lay a foundation other than the one which was laid, which
is Christ Jesus. Now, if any man builds on the
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
He says that when you come into the church, when you begin to
exercise your giftedness, you’re going to be doing one of these
things. You just plead and pray that
it isn’t wood and hay and straw. You want your efforts to mean
something, you want to do something for God and his glory. But all
of those things, all of our efforts, Paul says, are going to be tested.
Look at verse 13, each man’s work. And do you notice this
feature throughout this passage? Each man, no man, any man, and
again in verse 13, each man’s work will become evident, everyone
will be judged, every act will be evaluated. Each man’s work
will become evident for the day will show it because it is to
be revealed with fire. And that’s when suddenly you’re
standing face to face with the Savior and you realize you built
an edifice made entirely of wood, hay and straw. Each man’s work will become evident
for the day will show up because it is to be revealed with fire
and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.
If any man’s work which he has built remains, he will receive
a reward. If any man’s work is burned up,
he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as through
fire. While you’re at it, turn to 2
Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and zero
in on verse 9 there. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse
9. Therefore, we also have as our
ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him.
That’s our heart’s desire, to honor God. For we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ so that one may be recompensed
for his deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether
good or bad. One more, turn to Romans chapter
14. Romans chapter 14, Paul, likewise,
speaking of this evaluation that every believer will face one
day if we are in Christ, we are those who will be judged. Romans 14, verse 10, but you,
why do you judge your brother? You know what you should be busy
about? You should be busy judging yourself. You should be busy
about evaluating, observing your own heart and life and dealing
with him. Why do you judge your brother
or again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,
as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every
tongue shall give praise to God. So then each one of us shall
give account of himself to God. And so James just basically says
we ought to live as those who are to be judged. As those who
one day will give an account of our lives, reviewing all before
God himself. And he tells us on what will
be judged on what standard by God’s standard. It’s the law
of liberty. James here distinguishing between
the entirety of the mosaic law. It’s those who have received
the word implanted able to save their heart and soul so that
the two dovetail into one. It’s liberty in Christ. It’s
the freedom to do as God would have us to do. John Adams. Commentator said
this, the only true liberty for man is that which is given in
Christ. The freedom which flows from
our being made partakers of the blessings of redemption, this
glorious liberty, Christ makes his people free through the truth. Believing the truth, we are justified
by faith, the same faith which delivers from liability to punishment
breaks also the fetters of depravity. He says you don’t have to live
that way any longer. You don’t have to practice the
sin of partiality. You don’t have to do it. So speak
and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment. We’ll be merciless
to those who have shown no mercy. You know what this starts to
sound like? It starts to sound like, boy, I better get out there
and practice my mercy because I really would like to be in
heaven forever. Heaven, that has a nice ring
to it. I’m gonna go be merciful today. I’m gonna turn over a
new leaf. I’m gonna become the most merciful
guy on my block, maybe further, two blocks. Because if salvation
depends on this, if that’s all I’ve got to do to earn God’s
mercy, then I’m going to go be the most merciful guy this city’s
ever seen. That’s not what James is saying.
James isn’t saying that if he just simply goes out and shows
mercy to our others, that he thereby garners, earns God’s
favor. What he’s saying is the showing
of mercy towards others is a sure indication. Of our spiritual
condition. It’s a reflection of our character.
James isn’t saying that if we will only show mercy, we will
receive the same treatment from a holy God. Thereby securing
our own salvation, he’s not saying that. Rather, what he’s saying
here is the showing of mercy towards others is a trustworthy
indication of our standing in Christ. We have been transformed
by the grace of God, and we see the rich man coming into our
midst. We can be kind to him, but we’re not going to belittle
our brother in the process. From time to time, I review,
and I’m going to have to review it much more quickly today, the
$10 million sin, right? You know, the $10 million sin,
even if you don’t know it by that title, it’s the unmerciful
slave. It’s the man that owed the king 10, the equivalent of
$10 million. And he went in and he pleaded
this big, long sob story. And the king forgave him. He
didn’t set up a payment plan. He didn’t say, you know, let’s
put this on interest and it’ll take you 100 lifetimes to pay
it. He forgave the entire $10 million
debt. You remember what the slave did?
He went out and he found his buddy, his fellow sinner, his
fellow slave that owed him 16 pennies, and he started wringing
his neck for 16 cents. And the king heard about it.
Do you remember what he said? He said the same thing James
said. When his fellow slaves saw what
had happened, they were deeply grieved. Some came and reported
to their lord all that had happened. Then summoning him, his lord
said to him, you wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because
you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had
mercy on your fellow slave in the same way that I had mercy
on you?” See, God puts a premium on mercy
because his mercy is what saves us, isn’t it? Such a man who does not show
mercy has not been touched by the grace of God. He has not
experienced the mercy of God and to cut himself off of God’s
mercy is just to continue to live his dishonoring life, abusing
everyone in his path. We’re called to emulate God. We’re called to live lives of
mercy. We’re called to be merciful.
And kind and caring. To the church, absolutely. To
those who do not know Christ. Absolutely. James issues here a call to mercy. Active pity. He says we ought
to be looking for opportunities. To show this kind of practical
love to our neighbors. One of my favorites commentators
of an earlier day said love to our neighbor has been the illumination
of the world. It is kindled the scholars lamp
and nerved the reformers courage. It is supported the statesman’s
strength and enabled the truth seeker to live on in the oppression
of a perpetual sitting. among corrupt churches in an
evil world. It is love to our neighbor, which
is over and over again purged the slum and built the orphanage
and gathered little children into schools. It is had compassion
on the poor. It is given bread to the hungry
and covered the naked with a garment. It has held forth the Bible to
the nations, launched the lifeboat, taken the prodigal by the right
hand, opened the door of repentance to the harlot and to the thief.
It is love to our neighbor, which sent missionaries to the heathen
and freed the slaves. God says. That is a test of a
Christian. Be merciful. As God is merciful. Let’s examine our hearts. Lord God, you know. Because you
saw fit that James, this pastor of this. Growing church. He saw this activity even even
in such a day when Christianity was so fresh, so real and vibrant. Lord, if it can happen there,
it can happen anywhere and it does and it has. We’ve made distinctions,
wrong distinctions between people for wrong reasons. Lord, you
know our hearts. You are merciful and you can
grant us mercy even for these sins, but we must acknowledge
them. We must repent of them. We must
plead with you for the grace to live differently and be different. Lord, if this describes the course
of our life, then we likely are not saved. And you offer hope and help for
that, too. You sent your own son out of
your abundant mercy. To pay for the sin of sinners
while we were yet such. Lord God, if there are any here
who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, who do not manifest his
merciful heart in their lives. Not just not perfectly. But not
consistently at all. Lord, we pray that you would
draw them to faith in the Lord Jesus. Bring them to repentance
for this. And really all of their sin. Jesus paid for it. On the cross. It’s in Jesus name
that we pray. Amen.