Alright, James for Beginners, Practical Christianity. This is lesson number five in the series.
This lesson is entitled, Michael Jackson and James. And we will be covering
James Chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, so you can open your Bibles there if you'd like.
In Michael Jackson's 1991 - that's a long time ago -
1991 album, Dangerous,
He does a song entitled, Black or White. Remember that? Black or White.
In this song he repeats the words, "It doesn't matter if you're black or white."
In it he's promoting the idea that he didn't want a judge or be judged
based on his skin color. Didn't want to judge you on your skin color, didn't want you to judge him on his skin color.
These lyrics, they capture the spirit of what James - that's why I've copied these -
they capture the spirit of what James is saying in the section of his epistle which we're going to be studying tonight.
The idea being, in the church, it doesn't matter if you're black or white.
It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor; man or woman; Jew or gentile.
We treat everyone in exactly the same way.
Good example of how people tend to judge other people by external things
appeared on another old TV show. How many remember this?
Candid camera. The old Candid Camera. Allen Funt.
This candid camera show, as you can see, black and white.
It was in the 60s and 70s. It was created and hosted by this fella called, named,
Allen Funt. And this was the first program to use a hidden camera to record people
who were involved in humorous situations set up by the producers of the show. This is the granddaddy of
them all.
Because I remember seeing this segment - in one segment they dressed up one of the show's producers to look like a homeless
panhandler who was simply trying to get a match to light his cigarette. He had a cigarette in his hand,
and he was trying to get a light.
And this was in New York, and they put him somewhere in downtown
New York. And so they just filmed. So here's the guy with the cigarette in his hand and he's going, excuse me, I did
people just walking around him, just no eye contact, nothing.
They just zoom by. And all he wanted was, just he wanted a light. It wasn't even asking for any money.
Of course, this is back in the 60s, obviously.
The idea about smoking in those days, everybody smoked in those days. Doctors used to smoke in those days, in the hospital.
So this was not unusual.
Interesting thing.
They take this fella.
They bring him in.
Same guy. They clean him up. They put a suit on him.
Shirt and tie, white tie. They bring them back outside, and they bring them back exactly on the same spot and they start filming. Wow.
First person, sure, absolutely. And they kept filming. People would say, well here, take the whole book of matches.
And then the money shot was at the end. A guy,
this time he tries just to get a cigarette.
He goes, excuse me, have you got a cigarette? Guy draws out - sure. He pulls out a cigarette, gives him a cigarette,
and then said, take the pack.
Take the whole package. Same guy.
Same guy. Of course, attitudes as I say, about smoking, different today,
but the point made was that society usually judges by appearance and
treats people accordingly.
So in the second chapter of his book, James says that Christians living the Christian way of life are different.
They're different because they treat everyone in exactly the same way.
The point is that in Christ we can acknowledge our differences, black or white.
You're black? I'm white. We can acknowledge that difference.
We don't have to pretend that it doesn't exist. You're rich,
I'm poor. You went to the university, and I didn't. You're a doctor and I'm a plumber.
We can acknowledge those things. We are different.
And the reason we can easily acknowledge those differences is because we respond to everybody in the same way.
I treat the guy who doesn't have a job, to the guy who owns his own company -
I need to be treating those two people in exactly the same way, as a Christian.
So let's go to chapter two. Take a look at how he develops this idea. Chapter 2, verse 1.
He says, "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal
favoritism." So he begins. It's a command, right?
Imperative sentence. Do not, he said, do not regard some as more important than others.
Then he gives an example, verse 2 and 3.
He says, "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 the fine clothes and say, 'You sit here in a good place.'
And you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or you sit down by my footstool."
So here he gives the example, ones attitude towards rich and poor in church.
And of course, the example can refer to all differences such as gender or color or handicapped or whatever.
So he compares, excuse me, he compares and judges attitude not differences.
Verse 4, "Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?"
The idea is, if you have a different attitude for different people than this type of behavior,
he says, is evil. Why? Well, because it's driven by an evil motive, which is pride or selfishness.
Verse 5, "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?"
God's not partial.
He loves everybody and He proves it in the way He has offered salvation and blessings even to the poorest of people.
Even to those who seem to deserve it least of all.
He offers the same blessings. The guy who has lived a
life of debauchery, for years and years and wasted his potential and spent all his money,
and has got nothing left to give to the Lord, but then comes to the Lord,
comes to the Lord and finally acknowledges his faith, is baptizing,
and he receives the blessings of forgiveness and all the blessings of Heaven, and then you've got this other fella
who's been serving, baptized at nine years old, and been faithful all of his life,
and these two here, they're getting the same reward.
Remember when I talked about Haiti?
I said the people in Haiti, so poor, so miserable. You wouldn't want their life.
And yet, they're expecting the same reward as we're expecting.
But look at the life we have here. We have this and we're going to heaven.
Imagine how good God is.
So he goes on for six and seven he says, "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?"
He says, you're guilty of sin if you give honor to someone who dishonors God and
refuse to honor someone who does honor God. He's talking about this rich and poor. The poor guy, he honors
God, but the rich guy, maybe doesn't honor God, but him you will honor. Why? Because he's rich.
Here's a good example of that, Christians today who spend money, big money,
on concerts or other entertainment or sports
figures, and these people live godless lives. They revel in public sin.
But they refuse, these same Christians who pour out their money to go observe these people and pay
adulation to these people,
these same people won't give a dime to help support the church's effort to assist the poor.
What's wrong with that?
Or Christians who love to be with other successful Christians,
but they shy away from contact with brethren who are poor or who have handicaps or other kinds of
limitations. Are we not making distinctions here?
Verse 8, "If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself,'
You are doing well."
So James reminds his readers of God's primary commands when referring to human
relationships. A right and loving attitude towards everybody. That's the right way to go, he says.
This guides our attitude in every situation.
In verses 9 to 13 he continues, "But if you show partiality,
you're committing sin and are convicted by the law transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet
stumbles in one point, he 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." Kind of a long passage here.
Basically he's saying, God will not show mercy to those who are not, themselves, merciful.
And he compares two law principles to make his point.
First, the ten commandments, that's the judicial system.
And then he talks about the law of liberty. That's the mercy system. These are two systems that he's
comparing here. And he says, under the ten commandments system, if you
failed in any one point of the commands, you were guilty of all.
And sometimes we have trouble understanding. How does that work?
I break the command not to steal,
I'm guilty of adultery? I didn't do adultery. How does that work? Well the point
he's making here is that being under this type of system, if you broke one commandment, you might as well have
broken all of them, as far as the consequences are concerned.
That's what he's saying.
Now under the law of liberty,
and what is the law of liberty? Well, that's Jesus. That's the gospel -
salvation because of grace based on faith. Not salvation based on performance.
Under this law, he says, God forgives our failures because Jesus paid the price for them on the cross.
You want to be under that system, he says.
Now the requirement, however, is that to remain under the law of liberty we also must be merciful towards others.
This is an important part of the system. I've used this example before, I just haven't found a better one yet.
It's as if mercy is this shower pouring down on you.
Mercy is pouring down on you. And the idea is that if you don't shower down mercy
to the person below you, if you say, that person doesn't
deserve to live. That person offended me. I don't like that person.
Well, I'm just going to shut off the valve that sends the mercy down to that person.
Well, I tell you, as you were shutting off
the valve for mercy for that person, God is up there shutting off the valve for the mercy that comes down on you.
Always remember that. The day that you refuse to give mercy to someone else, is the day that God begins to
refuse to give you mercy as well. Because that's how the system works.
Okay.
Summary one, he says, to consider one brother more worthy of our love than another who is poor or different,
that action, he says, that's unmerciful.
This attitude removes us from the law of freedom and mercy for ourselves and
puts us back under the law of judgment.
If that's the way we judge, based on wealth and performance, then this is how God will judge us,
based on our performance.
So we should only have one attitude, he says, for all. And in the next couple of verses James
explains what this attitude should be. So let's keep going, he says, verse 14,
"What use is it my brethren if someone says he has faith,
but he has no works. Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace,
be warmed and filled.' And yet, you do not give them what is necessary for their body,
what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works is dead,
being, by itself." So here he repeats the idea expressed in the last chapter - that true religion
consists of mercy to the less-privileged.
Sincere faith, he says, the kind that's acceptable before God and thus the kind that saves us, he says, this kind of faith
manifests itself in good deeds. If the faith we have produces no good deeds, he says,
then this is a sign that our faith is dead.
And a dead faith has no power to save.
For example, it's like a dead battery in a car. You see it's there. It's solid if you pick it up, it's got heft, it's got weight.
It's got matter, it takes up space, but if it's dead it has no power to start the car.
Same idea with faith.
Verse 18 he continues, "But someone may well say, you have faith
and I have works, show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works."
So James answers an imaginary argument here from a brother who might say, well look, I've got faith and
this brother tells him all the knowledge that he has about Christianity. He's read all the history books,
all of the memory verses that he has,
he sees himself as a pretty religious person. And James responds to this person: well, you show me your faith,
you're showing it to me by explaining everything you know about Christ and
if you do this, then I will show you my faith, not by telling you everything
I know, I will show you my faith by the good deeds that my faith provokes me to do in the name of Christ.
Verse 19, "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder."
The point here is that mere knowledge of God, things like, well I remember when we were back in Canada
we had people who didn't have a lot of background in the church, didn't know the Bible very well
and they would think that they were very religious because their wives were religious.
They thought, somehow, they got some sort of cosmic dust off of her religion.
That it sprinkled on to them somehow. Or I hear some people say who,
let's just say they're not all into their Christianity, to be kind.
Oh, my grandfather was an elder, and I say, yeah, that ain't going to get you to heaven.
This idea that if somebody else in our family is religious somehow that
speaks well of us or that makes up for our lack of religion.
The mere knowledge of God doesn't save us. And what he's saying here, the devil he believes and
he believes in God.
But he trembles because this knowledge does not produce repentance in him or good works.
Therefore this knowledge doesn't save him. He's condemned.
It's not just the knowledge of Christ that saves, its faith in Christ that saves; and faith working itself out in
good works. But let's keep up with our passage, verse 20,
he says, "But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
Faith as in mere understanding of the truth of Christianity without obedience to that faith is no good.
It won't accomplish what faith is supposed to do. What is faith supposed to do?
It's supposed to save you. That's what it's supposed to do.
Yes, we're saved by faith, but if it is dead, meaning without works well, it's dead. It won't save us.
Verse 21 to 25 he continues and he says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when
he offered up Isaac his son at the altar?
You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected."
So he gives examples here. First example is Abraham. God promised him that the country that he was living in
one day would belong to him.
I mean, he was a nomad, but God promised the country would belong to him. Promised him great descendants.
Abraham believed God's promises and because of this
the Bible says, James says, God considered him to be acceptable in His sight. So this original faith was
manifested throughout his life in many ways, but most especially when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son.
He didn't have perfect obedience.
Only Jesus had perfect obedience.
But he had a willingness to obey and a desire to obey. He had a pattern of obedience.
I like what Marty says, he really nails it when he says, when he gives the example of him,
he says, I'm not a perfect husband, but I'm a faithful husband. Yeah, that's it.
That's the idea. Abraham wasn't perfect.
He didn't obey perfectly. His attitude was not perfect. He even made the same mistakes over and over again.
He lied about his relationship to his wife to get himself out of trouble or out of danger.
Okay, you do it once, he did it twice.
Abraham wasn't the perfect man, but he was the faithful man.
It was true, his faith, because it produced good works. A pattern of good works in his life.
So good works perfect, meaning, they bring to fruition faith.
The only way faith becomes visible or tangible is through good works.
We know that faith is perfected when sin is being abandoned, when good works are being done.
This is how good works makes faith complete. It renders our faith visible and useful to God.
When he says complete faith,
perfect faith, what he's talking about is, how faithful do you have to be?
Well, faithful enough so that other people can see that you're faithful.
If the only person around who thinks you're faithful is you,
you have a ways to go.
You know what I'm saying? There's still work to do here. It's like when we select elders,
we say elders, they've got to be - do this, they got to, they have to be hospitable,
let's just say, elders are hospitable. Well, just how hospitable do they have to be?
I mean, well, how do you measure a thing like that? Well, hospitable enough that
it's obvious that he's hospitable.
Hospitable to the point where other people know that he's gracious and welcoming and they know that about him.
And then that he's in control of himself. No outbursts of anger.
No self will. Well, just how much control is he - Dr. Spock control?
I mean, how much control does he need to have to qualify?
Well, he needs to have enough self-control that other people notice that he has self control.
That other people notice he's not the type of man that just flies off the handle and goes off half-cocked on
some crazy - you know. Enough that it shows. Well, the same thing, faith is perfected,
how? Look to the point where other people begin recognizing, hey, you're a woman of faith.
You're a man of Faith.
Don't be shy and false modesty if someone pays you a compliment,
a spiritual compliment like that. Say thank you. Be happy.
Be happy that they recognize that there is something of spiritual worth that they see in you.
It means that the spirit of God is
succeeding in building things inside of you. That's a good thing.
I would even go so far as to say that God sent that person to help you realize that you - that's an atta boy.
That's an atta girl.
So he goes on, hang on a second, one other thing, he says, not the kind of faith that just talks about religion
or is interested in religious things, but the kind of faith that responds in love. And here's the thing, love does not make any
distinctions, if we're going to stay within the context of what we're studying here, alright.
Then he gives a second example of this, faith and works, he says, "In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot
also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way."
So Rahab, the prostitute who had faith. God does not make distinctions.
God does not make distinctions.
She lived in Jericho. She risked her life in order to hide Joshua's men, who spied out the city before Joshua's
capture of it. Her faith manifested itself how? In courage.
Both Rahab and Abraham were found to be acceptable before God because of their faith. And their
faith was acceptable before the Lord because why? Because it was fruitful and,
because it was fruitful and real, they received the promises.
Verse 26, he says, "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works
is dead." So he describes a final image to underline his point.
A body without breath, by the way, the same word here for spirit, in the greek, that word breath, a
body without breath is a sign that the body is dead.
In the same way, a faith without good works is a sign that that faith is dead, useless.
Remember, what's the point of faith? Well the point of faith is to save us.
So lots of people in this world, church buildings are full of them, lots of people in this world have faith,
but their faith is useless because it doesn't produce anything. There's nothing that comes of it.
You got to have fruit. But what does Jesus say? Those vines that don't grow any fruit, He prunes them back,
gets rid of them.
So the second summary, it doesn't matter if you're black or white, a
Christian does not distinguish between brothers or sisters. He treats everyone in the same way,
Because God treats every brother in the same way.
I imitate Christ in this way.
Secondly he says, if his faith is alive,
he will be active in good works, especially in kindness and mercy towards his brethren. Again,
I keep going back to John, was it 13:35?
Jesus says, "And this is the way that all men will know that you are my disciples,
in the way that you love one another." Isn't that interesting?
Because we have so many, I've heard so many sermons that, so many books to prove who the true disciples
are. And yet, Jesus, in one verse, He says who are the true disciples?
They're the ones who love one another.
And I figure, if I'm able to love you the way Christ loves me,
I've gone a long way towards demonstrating
the sincerity of my faith, because if I'm able to do that with you, it means I'm able to do that with other people as well.
So if his faith is alive, he'll be active in good works, especially in kindness and mercy towards his brother.
He treats them the way God treats him.
Think about this, think of how bad we look before God.
And if we get that picture in our mind, we'll never make any distinctions of other people ever again.
Because let's face it, you know you, I know me.
You know the good parts,
but you also know all those ugly dirty nasty things you wouldnt want anybody to know about you, but God knows that.
And yet, He sends you those spiritual atta-boys.
He answers your prayers. He gives you life. He promises eternal life.
If our faith doesn't produce
obedience towards God, or mercy towards our brethren and others, or a witness concerning the Lord and the gospel to other people,
James says, it's a dead faith. It won't save us in the end.
Thirdly, he says, the best way to tell your, test your faith, rather,
whether it's alive or dead, is to take the "say and do" test. Does what you say match what you do?
There's seven of them.
So the first one is, if we say we love God, but do we obey and trust Him?
Second, when we say we believe the gospel, but do we share it with other people?
If we have a good recipe for raisin bread, we're ready to share that.
Or if we like our hairdresser or doctor or dental - you got to see my dentist. He's the best, no pain.
How about the person who is going to give us eternal life? How about sharing Him?
We say we love the church,
but when was the last time we called or visited or helped or fed or prayed for the brother or sister
sitting right next to us or behind us?
Or are we distinguishing between those who are the same or different than we are?
Sometimes it's not just different, like male, female, or black, white. Sometimes they have a different opinion.
They have a different character. They're a different generation. Sometimes that's the difference.
We say we want the church to grow,
but what have we sacrificed for it? And will we sacrifice to establish, maybe, a new one?
Jesus gave His blood.
What are we willing to give? These are the questions.
We say that we want to grow in Christ, but are we faithful to the assembly and personal study in prayer?
You just measure how much time spent observing mostly - I don't want to generalize -
observing mostly unbelieving, sinful entertainers do their thing,
versus how much time we spent reading God's word,
reading or thinking or listening to material that built us up spiritually.
I mean, all this adulation to some of the female singers, and yet,
I see it in the paper sometimes, they just have a picture in the paper about
one of the leading female artists and they're dressed like prostitutes, worse than prostitutes of
a hundred years ago. It wouldn't have been permitted in public. It would have been scandalous.
Now, nothing there.
Nothing there. People spent three hundred dollars, two hundred dollars to go drink in two hours of this stuff.
And yet, you can't get them to come to Bible study. No, no, that's too painful.
We say we want our children to become
Christians, but do we bring them to Sunday school? Do we encourage them to have Christian friends?
Do we insist that they go to camp?
Say and do, say and do.
We say we want to go to heaven, but have we obeyed the gospel?
Are we living in sin? Are we putting off till tomorrow
giving up sinful habits, friends, whatever.
Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die and nobody wants to change. That's the problem.
So the question is, is our faith alive or dead? Because, as our faith is, so are we.
As our faith is, so are we. Remember I said James,
he gets to the point. He gets to the point. No mincing of words.
Please don't say, wow, Mazzalongo - he was - what did he have for supper?
No.
You just follow the verses down.
It's an easy book to teach, because the the theology is not complicated.
You don't have to have a big long explanation of how it works.
He's so direct. Boom. I mean, I could almost just read the passage.
So for us, of course, the important thing, always - remember I said to you a while back,
it's always about faith.
I keep repeating, it's always about faith. Everything is always about faith.
James confirms it here.
It's always about faith. And the tests that we go through, and the trials that we go through many times are simply to examine,
how's your faith? Is it alive here? You want to stimulate religious discussion among the brethren?
You want to be a little more evangelistic, but you don't know how to start.
You don't want to sound like -
Do you believe in Jesus?
People say, so how are you doing? What's up?
How about, how's your faith?
How's your faith doing?
You ever say to a brother or sister, good morning. Nice weather, brrr.
Yeah, you're here. So, how's your spiritual life coming along?
You'd be surprised the answer you would get if you ask that question. It's almost as if the person is saying,
thank God somebody finally asked me.
Try it.
Give it a shot. And we're not going to ask for hands and we're gonna. It's not a -
It won't be on the report card. Just try it for your own edification. Just try that, see what happens.
That's our lesson about Michael Jackson and James. Next time going to do Teaching Teachers Tongues.
We're going to go to tongues. And if you think he's brutal here,
oh boy, wait till you get to the next section. Thank you very much for your attention.