Today we are back into the book of James, the half-brother of Jesus, who is writing to Jews who have placed their faith and trust in Jesus, the Messiah, for salvation. These Christian Jews are scattered among the nations but the message is for us as well. We are gentiles, redeemed by the blood of Jesus! PTL!!
But, before we get into the Scripture for today we must declare the Glory of God. Without the realization that we are in the presence of God this would all just be a dry study. Dry study informs the intellect but not the heart! We want our hearts to be informed and matured as well as our minds. Amen?
Let’s read together these excerpts from Psalm 95
“The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
“Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth.
“The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all peoples see His glory. For You, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods. Rejoice in the Lord, you who are righteous, and praise His holy name.”
We serve a glorious God, in fact, the only True God. He alone is God and only in Him do we find true life!
Pride is a great source of sin. When we exalt ourselves it leaves us open to all sorts of assault from the devil. But today’s scripture is about exalting some and dishonoring others!
James 2:1-7 HCSB
“My brothers, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
“For example, a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor man dressed in dirty clothes also comes in. If you look with favor on the man wearing the fine clothes and say,
“‘Sit here in a good place,’ and yet you say to the poor man, ‘Stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit here on the floor by my footstool,’ haven’t you discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
“Listen, my dear brothers: Didn’t God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that He has promised to those who love Him?
“Yet you dishonored that poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Don’t they blaspheme the noble name by which you are called?”
Who are these men coming into church (or the synagogue of that day)?
Suppose an extremely handsome man with an excellent suit comes pulling into the parking lot in his top of the line Mercedes. He is greeted and handed a bulletin by someone in the foyer and he promptly tips the kind greeter with a $50 bill. He asks where he should sit and is told, “Where ever you want!”
At almost the same time a man with a scruffy beard, a terribly scarred face and torn smelly clothing comes in. He has hitch-hiked a ride to church because he doesn’t even have a bike to ride. Someone else hands him a bulletin and he says he doesn’t know how to read and hands it back. He needs to use the restroom and when he comes out he asks where he should sit and is told, “Sit down front where no one else wants to sit.”
We don’t know if these men are born again or not. We actually don’t know anything about them except for their outward appearance.
But take a look at James 2:3a,4b NIV
“If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes … have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
And then look at verse James 2:5 NIV
“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 those who love Him?”
John Wesley
John Wesley was used to gatherings where there was no casual conversation in the sanctuary and the order of the service was strictly outlined and followed with no deviation. Those sitting in the pews were the well dressed, well fed, wealthy and educated subjects of England. The wretched poor were not welcome and if they dared to come at all would stand and listen through the open doors and windows.
OK. So, now we’ve got that image in our minds.
John Wesley - converted to “Field Preaching”
In response to fellow preacher George Whitefield's invitation, John Wesley had arrived in Bristol, England. Whitefield was an open-air preacher of great eloquence, who had built up a large following in the area but he wanted to return to America and was anxious for Wesley to continue the style of work he had begun.
The next day, Wesley observed Whitefield preaching to the Kingswood tin miners. He became convinced that "field preaching" was the most likely way to reach the great mass of people who had become virtual outcasts from the elitism of much of the established church - untouched and seemingly untouchable.
It was not a conviction reached without some struggle, however. And Wesley's own words, written in his journal, reveal the inner dilemma with which he was confronted.
"I could scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields which I had witnessed on Sunday. All my life - until this very time - I had been so tenacious regarding every point relating to decency and order. I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a church," he wrote.
Later that same evening Wesley preached to a small indoor congregation from the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, which Wesley describes in his journal as "one pretty remarkable precedent of field preaching." Less than 24 hours later, Wesley was to let himself go and embark upon this great new venture.
"At four in the afternoon," he wrote, "I submitted to be more vile, and proclaimed in the highways the glad tidings of salvation, speaking from a little rise in the ground near the city, to about 3,000 people."
You, see, Wesley did not consider the poor of that day to be more vile. It was in his heart to reach them but the church of that day was running in complete opposition to the second chapter of James and the poor were not welcome within the wall of the Church of England.
The founders of the Church of The Nazarene also felt the compulsion to reach the poor for Jesus.
The Church of the Nazarene. In October 1895, Phineas F. Bresee, and Joseph Widney, with about 100 others, organized the Church of the Nazarene at Los Angeles. At the outset they saw this church as the first of a denomination that preached the reality of entire sanctification received through faith in Christ. They held that Christians sanctified by faith should follow Christ’s example and preach the Gospel to the poor. They felt called especially to this work.
The poor. The destitute. They were not only the target for Jesus’ ministry, He was right there with them in their poverty!
Yes, Jesus preached in the Temple and in the synagogues but he also preached almost everywhere the people of that day would find Him and gather around Him.
Look at these descriptions of Jesus from the Bible.
Description of Jesus’ appearance …
Isaiah 53:2b AMP
“He had no stately form or majestic splendor that we would look at Him, nor [handsome] appearance that we would be attracted to Him.”
Jesus - Matthew 8:20 NIV
“Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’”
Why is it in human nature to show favoritism to the rich?
Is it because we think they have something we want or need?
Isn’t the Lord the source of everything we need?
OK. So, James is now going to put an exclamation point on this thought!
James 2:8-13 HCSB
“If you indeed keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
“For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder.
“So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker. Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom.
“For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn’t shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
James 2:8-9 HCSB
“If you indeed keep the royal law prescribed in the Scripture, Love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”
Of course we know from our memory Scriptures the greatest and second greatest commandments from the very lips of Jesus Himself and these verses confirm that by calling the second greatest commandment as the “Royal Law”.
So, if you commit the sin of favoritism what law are you breaking? The royal law, the law of love for one another.
Now James goes on to show just how serious this is.
So, he’s going to compare the sin of favoritism with two of the most heinous sins in the Ten Commandments.
James 2:10-11 HCSB
“For whoever keeps the entire law, yet fails in one point, is guilty of breaking it all. For He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. So if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you are a lawbreaker.”
But how can favoring a rich person possibly be compared with adultery and murder?
Going back to the illustration used earlier of the rich, handsome, well dressed man in the Mercedes and the poor, tattered, bad smelling man coming into church at the same time.
Favoritism toward the rich man could be murder to them both.
Suppose the rich man was steeped in sin, I mean, he was as vile a sinner as one could get and he was coming to church as a last hope, knowing nothing about Jesus and His great salvation.
To treat the man as some sort of celebrity could actually reinforce the thought that he really was OK spiritually.
And, the poor sinful man, who has been dishonored by his treatment may never walk into a church again.
Spiritual murder is worse than physical murder.
So, the question is not, which commandment did you break but are you a lawbreaker or not?
James 2:12-13 HCSB
“Speak and act as those who will be judged by the law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to the one who hasn’t shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
The law of freedom is much more broad than the laws specified in the Law of Moses but it is also much easier to follow as it all flows out of proper godly relationships with God Himself and others.
The Royal Law also naturally includes mercy.
Mercy doesn’t mean acceptance of sin. Mercy is the unfathomable act demonstrated by Jesus while He was hanging, dying on the cross of Calvary when He said to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Mercy was completely available to the unrepentant thief on the other cross.
God’s mercy and grace washes over this earth like an ocean. Confession, repentance and faith in Jesus for salvation opens the sinner to God’s mercy.
Judgment is the default position for those who are unsaved. Mercy should be default position for those redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
James 2:13 ISV
“For the one who has shown no mercy will be judged without mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Psalm 85:10 NKJV
“Mercy and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed.”
Concluding remarks ...
