Alright, now there in that passage
that Brother Aaron just read, James Chapter 2, and a few verses before that, and really you could say the
whole book of James as it began in Chapter 1, we have what I've
entitled this message, The Royal Law in Action. The Royal Law
in Action. As you recall, James had written
of believers going through trials, trials of faith. This life and
this earth is one trial after another. Saving faith will be
tried, tested by the Lord. You remember these trials of
faith, these tests of faith, they do not produce faith. They
strengthen faith. They reveal faith. But they are
from God, our Heavenly Father. and therefore our good and for
his glory. And it's important that we endure
these trials in the faith, which means basically and mainly looking
unto Christ and clinging to him as our whole salvation, as our
confidence, our assurance, even our glory, for we have no glory
in and of ourselves. Our glory is Christ, and that
during these trials we hear, listen, and do his word. His word is the instrument of
our new birth. He said in James chapter 1 verse
18, of his own will, begat he us with the word of truth, that's
the gospel, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his
creatures. The first generation of believers
in the New Testament were Jewish believers. And his word was so
powerful and instrumental in our new birth by the power of
the Holy Spirit. And therefore we're to be swift
to hear, quick to hear it, ready to listen, slow to speak, slow
to answer, and certainly slow to wrath, slow to anger. Because
so many times as we know that the gospel of God's grace is
basically an offensive message to the unbeliever because it
exposes the unbeliever for what he is, for what she is. You think
about it, a person who is banking on their salvation based upon
their works, their experiences, their pedigrees, whatever. Anything but Christ and Him crucified. If you're depending upon looking
to salvation in any form, in any fashion, to any degree, at
any time, anywhere but in Christ and His finished work on the
cross, His blood, for my forgiveness, his righteousness for my right
standing before God, anything but him, then the gospel of God's
grace will be an offensive message to you because it takes all those
things that you highly esteem and it puts them in the dust
where they belong. That's why I think it's in Luke
16, I think verse 15, you can check me out on that, but it
says that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
God. what's highly esteemed among
men, religion, their own way of looking at morality, but not
Christ. The Bible says when Christ came
on the scene that the most religious, the most dedicated, the most
respected of His day stumbled over Him because He spoke of
them of their sinfulness and not their piety. He spoke to
them of their need of mercy. and not the fact that they had
thought they deserved it because they were Abraham's children,
physically. He spoke of their need of a righteousness
that they didn't have, even though they thought they had been working
at one from their birth, many of them. Paul the Apostle, before
he was converted, he saw the Tarsus. He said, I was a Hebrew
of Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin, as touching the law of Pharisee,
blameless to men, that is to the eyes of men. The Lord came
along and he set things straight, and that's an offensive message,
but now you who believe the gospel, we who believe the gospel, we
who know Christ and know our sinfulness, there are many times
that the word of God crosses our desires and our wills. And
let's be slow to anger, he says. He says, receive, in verse 21
of chapter one, he said, receive with meekness the engrafted word. That is with submission. That's
what that meekness is. Submit to God's Word. Willingly. Lovingly. Because God knows best. His way is always the right way.
The only way. And that's the engrafted Word.
That's the Word that's been implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit
in the new birth. And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit within us that springs from the work that Christ has
accomplished for us. He says in chapter one, he says
it's important that we be doers of the word and not hearers only.
Do the word. Doing the word. How does that
jive with salvation by grace? Well, grace doesn't cancel out
obedience. Grace inspires obedience. Now
we know the world's message is do and live. Do first and therefore
you'll earn your living. Eternal life, spiritual life.
But the message of the gospel is live in Christ and do as the
fruit. Quoted last week in Ephesians
2, where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
not because of, but unto. And this doing here is the word,
is believing and living the word. It's obedience, it's not salvation
by works, by doing, but the life that we live because of salvation. by grace in Christ. And this
is not given so that you can look at it and say, well, as
I talked to the Sunday school class this morning, say, have
I done enough? Have I done enough? And I ought to feel bad because
I haven't done enough. You haven't done enough. We ought to feel
bad because we haven't done enough. But that's not our salvation.
Our salvation is God's grace in Christ. And he says it here,
verse 25 of chapter one, but whoso looketh into the perfect
law of liberty, that's the gospel. We're liberated in Christ. Set
free. Not set free to sin, but set
free to serve God. Acceptably. Bringing forth fruit
unto God. Listen. I've said this before. Believers are not fruit producers. That's the way some people talk,
you know, when you buy their fruits. You shall know them,
and that's not what that passage is talking about, the fruits
of believing. It's talking about something else. It's talking
about the difference between false preachers and true preachers there. But believers
are not fruit producers. We're fruit bearers. There's
a difference. You see what I'm saying? You
see, we're fruit bearers. The life is in the root. That's
Christ. The life is in the vine. He's
the vine. We're the branches, John chapter 15. And the life
that Christ lives out through his people, by his spirit and
his word, will have fruit. Some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold,
some a hundredfold. That's what we learned in the
parable of the seed and the sower. That it's the perfect law of
liberty. It's the liberty to serve God, not for what we can
get out of him, but because of what he's given us freely in
Christ, that we didn't earn and deserve. Now, that involves the
warfare of the flesh and the spirit, seeking to be conformed
to Christ. Now, James, what he does here
in the last two verses of chapter 1 and then in chapter 2 and on
through the rest of the book, what he does, he gives us examples
of what this involves, this royal law in action. Now, what is the
royal law? That's the law of love. But look
at verse 26 of chapter 1. He says, if any man among you
seem to be religious, and what he's talking about there is Somebody
who outwardly appears to be religious, to be pious. Outwardly appears
righteous unto men. It's the kind of person you would
look at and they'd say, well, just by looking outwardly, if
anybody's a Christian, he or she is. That kind of thing. It's like the rich young man
who came to our Lord in Matthew chapter 19. And the Lord exposed
him as a self-righteous, unbelieving legalist. That's what he did.
And the disciples looked at the Lord and they were amazed. They marveled. They said, if
he's not saved, who can be? If that fellow is not saved,
who can be? And our Lord said, well, that
which is impossible with men is only possible with God. God
saves sinners. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. But now, if anybody seems to
be religious, they look like what you might think of or what
the world even thinks of as a Christian. And bridle, if not his tongue,
sins of the tongue. You know what that is. What are
the sins of the tongue? James has a lot to say about
that. In James chapter 3, that's where he talks about the tongue
being a little member, but you can't control it. I mean, a guy
can take a horse and put a bridle in his mouth and make it stop,
make it go, make it go right, make it go left, but you can't
control this little thing, this little member, he calls it. He
said it's like a fire of hell, set on fire of hell, the tongue. Talk. What's he talking about? Well, he's certainly talking
about false doctrine, isn't he? False doctrine? How did Satan
bring down the fall of man? By telling a lie. By speaking
peace when there is no peace. There was no peace. That's how
he murdered the human race spiritually. John 8.44 talks about it. He's
a murderer from the beginning. He abode not in the truth. You see, if we don't preach the
gospel, the true gospel of God's grace in Christ, that's a sin
of the tongue. That's deadly. He's certainly
talking about boasting. Certainly men and women who boast
of their own works, their own experience. We don't... Listen,
I'm not here this morning to boast about you or me. I'm here
to brag on Christ. We glory in Him. Our confidence
is in Him and what He accomplished on Calvary. I'm not here to uplift
you and to recognize you or to memorialize you upon what you've
done or what you're planning to do or what you're giving.
I'm here to talk about what Christ has accomplished on Calvary to
save us from our sins. Just about any time I preach
a funeral anymore, if it's somebody I know, especially a believer. I'll make mention of that person's
life, maybe some of their accomplishments, but I always say this, that if
they could stand before you today, they would tell you that none
of what their life compiled of, or what they accomplished, is
their hope of entering heaven. None of it makes up their righteousness
before God, and they would want me to preach Christ to you, and
I know that's so. I know that's so. They want me
to tell you about His precious blood shed for the payment of
all my sins, His righteousness imputed, charged, accounted to
His people, by which we can stand before God eternally and unchangeably
righteous forever and ever. And if we tell anything less,
we're lying with a tongue. He's talking about gossip here.
Gossip is of the devil. Certainly he's talking about
cursing, angry words, any sin of the tongue. Any use of the
tongue that doesn't glorify God and edify people. You say, well, where does that
leave me? I'll tell you exactly where it
leaves me and you. It leaves us as sinners who are
in need of mercy, doesn't it? Sinners who are in need of grace. Sinners who are in need of Christ.
And yet he says the tongue has to be bridled. And it's a war. Talk about that horse, they put
a bridle in his mouth, he might be a wild horse. That's what
the tongue is. It's a wild horse. It can't be
tamed. That's why it's such a battle. And aren't you glad, and I'm
glad, that we have a Savior who can save us from our sins. It's
amazing. So we're to fight all these sins
of the tongue and use our tongues for the glory of God and the
edification of brethren. He says, any man who has no who
appears righteous outwardly, but has no thoughts, no struggle
here now. That's what he's talking about
here. You say, well, if that's so, then I'm lost. Now listen
to me. If you have no struggle in this area, you deceive your
own heart. This man's religion is vain.
It's worthless. What he's talking about here
is outward piety is no replacement for the heart of grace and love. And then he says in verse 27,
pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to
visit the fatherless, that's orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep himself unspotted from the world. That was a major,
major problem back then. We have widows here in our congregation. May have some orphans. Back then,
they didn't have social security and insurance and things that
would take care put in place to take care of such people,
they were left destitute, out in the cold, to die. And what
he's saying here is that those in the church, believing widows,
Paul calls them widows indeed, that's widows who have been left
destitute, they have no home, they have no family to take care
of, they have no income, he says it's the church's responsibility
to take that widow under their wing and care for her, and orphans
too. Now, that ought not be a problem
for us, as we see, if we had anybody like that, because, you
know, spiritually speaking, we're all widows and orphans. The scripture
calls us that. You can look at it in Lamentations,
Chapter 5. That's what we all are by nature, spiritually speaking.
Think about Ezekiel's cast-out infant, lying polluted, dying
in his own blood. That's what we were by nature.
And God came along. Christ came along and found us
and picked us up. gave us his robe, cleaned us
off and gave us his robe. So these things are just, well
turn to 1 John, turn to 1 John chapter 4. This is the summation
of what James is saying here. In 1 John chapter 3 rather, 1
John 3 verse 14. He says, We know that we have
passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.
And that is a loyalty that is in Christ and in the truth. And
he that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth
his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath
eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of
God, because he laid down his life for us, and we also laid
down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good,
and seeth his brother have need, and that is the key word. He's
not talking about a welfare system here. He's not talking about
promoting laziness and those who are able to work but who
won't. He's talking about they have need. And shutteth up his
bowels of compassion. That was the King James way of
saying compassion and mercy. And he says, bowels of compassion
from him. How dwelleth the love of God
in him? He says, my little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. So love in deed, love
in action. That's what we're talking about.
The royal law in action. That's what James is saying.
Don't just tell them somebody's destitute. They're hungry. They've
lost their job. They're looking for a job, maybe.
And they're hungry. And they need some food. Don't
just say, well, I love you. Go on your way. That's hypocrisy. That's what James is saying.
You help that person who's in need. Now look back at chapter
2 of James. Now he goes on to something else. He says, my brethren,
verse 1, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory, with respect to persons. Now, this is another issue that
hits us all. First of all, he says, my brethren.
Who's he talking to? Believers. The chosen of God,
redeemed by the blood of Christ. Regenerated by the Spirit. Have
not de-faith. That definite article, de-faith,
it means don't have a profession of belief in Christ. Belief of
the gospel. That's de-faith. The body of
truth that we claim to believe. I'm saved by the grace of God.
Saved by the blood. We sing that song. Saved by the
blood of the crucified one. We talk about the love of God.
Herein is love. Not that we love God. Now, we
do love God, not like we should, not perfectly, but we do love
Him. We don't have anything to brag
about when it comes to God. Listen, you find somebody who
brags on how much they love Christ and love the brethren, stay away
from them. We don't have anything to brag about or boast about
in that. Now, we can brag about His love to us, because not that
we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation. What does that word mean? that
the sin-bearing sacrifice who brings satisfaction to God, His
holiness, His law, His justice, and enables Him to be merciful.
He must be both a righteous judge as well as a loving father. God
must be just when He declares a sinner righteous. How can He
do that and be just? Only through the substitute,
only through Christ bearing our sins. How can God be just and
justify the ungodly? That's the issue of the gospel
there, that's the heart of it. How can he do that? He must be.
God can't show me or you mercy at the expense of his justice.
He can't show love at the expense of his truth. He can't just throw
up his hands and say forget about it, you're weak and I feel sorry
for you. No, he must be just, he must
be holy. How does he do that? Through
Christ, bearing the sins of his people on the cross. paying the
debt in full, satisfying justice in our stead. And therefore,
he's both a righteous judge and a loving father. That's the faith.
Christ and Him crucified, buried, risen again because of our justification
and we hold Him in high esteem. We rest in Him and His finished
work as our whole salvation. Now, he says, don't have just
a profession of that. without going through the struggle
and the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And here's the
goal in one area here. He says, have not the faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ, resting in Him, believing in Him, following
Him. He's the Lord of glory. He's
the one who gets all the glory. When the Bible says, let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father in heaven. Remember, the light is not our
good works. The light is Christ. who shines on those works which
are covered in his blood and presented before the Father.
And he gets the glory and he says, have not that faith with
respect of persons. No respect of persons. Now, here's
the problem. We all, if we're honest, we all
have a natural, sinful craving to show respect to certain people
and no respect to others. We all have that. And if you
say you don't, I'm telling you, you're lying to yourself. Now, it's the nature of God's
love not to show respect to persons. Let me just read you some passages
here. Deuteronomy chapter 10 and verse 17. I'm going to read
these to you. It says, For the Lord your God
is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and a terrible. which regardeth not persons,
nor taketh reward." God's never indebted to us. We're indebted
to Him. But He regardeth not persons. Acts chapter 10 and
verse 34, you know the context of that. Peter had a hard time
with not having respect of persons. Well, we all do. But you know,
Peter had a hard time with this issue of Gentiles and their salvation. And most of the Jews in the early
church did. Because they've been taught salvation
is of the Jews. Well, what that means, salvation
is of the Jews, means that the Lord of Glory, the Savior, would
come through that nation. That's what that means. It didn't
mean that you had to become a Jew in order to be saved. But some
of them had that prejudice in their minds, and they always
looked at Gentiles as dogs. That's what they called Gentiles. Not a purebred dog, but an old
cur dog out there at the garbage can, you want to shoo it away.
That's the way they looked at it. And so when the gospel began
to spread out, and Gentiles were brought to faith in Christ, some
of them had a hard time with this prejudice. Respective persons,
you know. You know, maybe thinking, you
know, I'm more saved than you because I'm a natural child of
Abraham. And of course, you know, the
scripture teaches that means nothing as far as salvation,
whether you're a natural child of Abraham. That's why Paul in
Philippians chapter three, when he was relating his own conversion
and how he was brought to repentance from dead works to faith in Christ,
he said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was born of the tribe of Benjamin.
I was circumcised the eighth day, all that that a good Jew
would have done and he said that he thought those things recommended
him unto God but he said when I saw my sinfulness and the glory
of Christ and salvation by God's grace he said I counted all but
dumb that I may win Christ all that which he at first by nature
in unbelief highly regarded now he says he esteemed it not in
fact he even counted it as dumb You know what dung is. And so
this issue was a problem with Peter. Paul had to withstand
him to the face one time in Antioch over it. But God showed Peter
in a vision that he was to go preach to a Gentile named Cornelius. Peter reluctantly complied. And
when he went down and preached to the house of Cornelius and
Cornelius and Some of his family was brought to faith in Christ.
Here's what Peter said in Acts 10 in verse 34. He says, Then
Peter opened his mouth and said, All the truth I perceive that
God is no respecter of persons. Doesn't matter whether you're
Jew or Gentile. Are you a sinner in need of grace? That's the
issue. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save Jews? No. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save Gentiles? No. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save white Americans, no. Christ Jesus came into the
world to save black people, no. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. You say, well, everybody's sinners,
does that mean everybody's saved? No, he's talking about those
who see themselves as sinners because they're enlightened by
the Spirit. But doesn't the Bible say that
God had respect unto Abel? Turn over to Genesis chapter
4. This thing of respect of persons now, it's not an easy thing to
consider, is it? It's a problem we all have, just
like sins of the tongue. It's a problem we all have. Turn to Genesis chapter 4. The
story of Cain and Abel. Doesn't the Bible say that God
had respect unto Abel? And the answer is no. You see, if I said that, you're
going to read where it says, God had respect under Abel. But
if I just left it at that and not read on, I'd be telling you
a half-truth. And you know what a half-truth
is? A half-truth is a lie. It's just like I told, when I
was teaching English one time down at Russell, I told my students,
I'd come in and I was trying to teach them that concept, you
know. And I walked into the classroom, and I said, you know what I just
saw? I said, I saw a fellow walking down the hall, and I said, on
his left side, he was all white. Now, what were they thinking?
Well, he must have been some other color. I said, no, he was
white on the right side, too. It's the only told part of the
truth. And it left the imagination in
their mind, so what kind of guy is that? It must be weird. So don't tell us half-truths.
Tell the whole truth, I'm going to preach tonight on the whole
truth and nothing but the truth. The whole truth and nothing but
the truth. Look here, it says in verse 3
of Genesis 4, in the process of time it came to pass that
Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the
Lord. Now how did God command Adam and Cain and Abel, how did
he command them to approach him? to come to him seeking acceptance,
seeking salvation, seeking blessing. How was God's command? What was
God's command? What was His way of a sinner
coming to Him for acceptance? Through the blood of the Lamb. That's how you were to come.
That was established back in Genesis chapter 3. And that animal
blood in and of itself didn't do anything, but it pictured
and typified and foreshadowed the blood of the Lamb of God,
Christ, who was to come, the promise. And they were to look
forward to His coming. And they were to bring that blood
of that animal, and by that they were confessing, Lord, I'm a
sinner. and I have nothing to offer you of myself. My best
works and efforts are an abomination. I lay my whole salvation in the
hands of the Lamb of God whom you promised, Christ the Messiah."
But here's Cain coming, he brought of the fruit of the ground. He
was a farmer, he worked hard, had some good crops. That's good
enough, Cain said, I'll bring them to God. What's wrong with
Cain's offering? It was the fruit of his own work. It's like a sinner coming before
God seeking salvation and acceptance by his works. And then it says
in verse 4, And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of
his flock. And of the fact thereof, that's
the blood of the Lamb. Abel came by the blood. He came
by faith, looking forward to the promise of God to send the
Messiah. And it says, And the Lord had respect unto Abel. Now does it stop there? No. The Lord had respect unto Abel
and to his offering, the blood. You see, God didn't respect Abel
in and of himself. If he had and accepted Abel,
Abel wouldn't have needed the blood. You see, here's the thing
about it. If God will accept me or you, Based on anything
we are or anything we do, we don't need salvation, we don't
need grace, we don't need Christ. If that's you today, it's not
you, but if you think that's you today, you're like a healthy
person in here amongst a bunch of sick people. You don't really
need to be here. But you see, I'm like Abel. I
need the blood. I need Christ. And that's what
God has respect to unto Abel. God does have respect to his
people in Christ, and it's because of Christ, he said. So go back
to James 2. Now see, God is no respecter
of men's persons. The only respect we can have
from God is in Christ. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him. God's law is no respecter
of persons. Man's law is. If you get convicted
of a crime and you go up before the judge and he's your daddy
or he's your brother-in-law or he's your good buddy, fishing
buddy or whatever, chances are you're going to get a lighter
sentence or get off altogether. But that's injustice. That's
being a respecter of persons. If you get convicted and you
come up before the judge and he's your worst enemy, maybe
a neighbor and you've done something to his house or something like
that, you're going to get it. Respecter of persons. And God's
love is no respecter of persons. The Bible says in Romans chapter
9, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Why? We don't know. The Lord answered it in Matthew
chapter 11. He said, For so, Father, it seemed good in thy
sight. I know there was nothing in Jacob to earn or deserve God's
love. Men and women look at that and
they just wrestle over this subject. Why did God hate Esau? Well,
Esau deserved God's hate. So do we. But here's what we
ought to wrestle over. Why did God love Jacob? And here's
an even greater problem in our mind. Why does God love me? We didn't earn it. We didn't
deserve it. If God were a respecter of persons,
none of us would be saved. Do you realize that? Now, we're
respecters of persons. That's fallen human nature. And
we have to fight our natural tendency to treat certain people,
even brethren, better than others. And that's why he says, have
not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with
respect to persons. Don't profess to know and believe
in and love Christ and his truth and have respect to persons.
As if to give glory to that person because of whatever it is, material
wealth. This is why he uses the analogy.
Look at verse 2 of James 2. For if there come under your
assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and there
come in also a poor man in vile raiment, that you have respect,
and you have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and
saying, sit thou in a good place, in a prominent place. We want
everybody to see you. Sit here where everybody can see you.
We want you to be the poster child for our church now. And
say to the poor guy, stand back there, sit here under my footstool
where nobody can see you. We don't want people to think,
well, that kind of person can get in here. He says, Are you
not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil
thoughts? What he's talking about, judges
of evil thoughts, is you're judging with evil thoughts. You're being
a respecter of persons. So he says in verse 5, Hearken,
my beloved, listen, child of God, brethren, hath not God chosen
the poor of this world rich in faith? That's where we need riches,
in faith. in believing God, in trusting
Christ, in resting in Him. Rich in faith. How can we be
rich? It's the gift of God. Rich in faith, and heirs of the
kingdom, the kingdom of God, which He hath promised to them
that love Him. For all love is of God. What he's saying here, if our
understanding of Christ and God's grace motivates us to cater to
the rich and powerful and show contempt for the poor and needy,
then we don't understand the faith. We don't understand that
God saves sinners. And in the church, we're to despise
any inclination within us to honor and cater to the flesh
in any way. Cultivate a spirit of love and
oneness. Highly regard all believers,
rich and poor, black and white, male and female, white, for Christ's
sake. Our Lord expressed this. He had
no respect for persons. One time he was witnessing, preaching
the gospel in a particular house, and some of them came to him
and said, Hey, your mother and your brothers are outside, and
they want to talk to you. You know what he said? He said,
Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? They that
do the will of my Father. That's not to say that he didn't
love his mother. He did. But he had no respect of persons.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The Lord's choice of his people
is not based upon merit, personal merit. It's not based on intelligence,
whether you're highly intelligent. It's not based on morals as men
and women see it now. It's not based on the wealth
of men or position, family, but it's according to one thing,
His mercy, His grace, period. Look at verse 26 of 1 Corinthians
1. For you see your calling, brethren,
our calling, called by the Spirit into His kingdom. How that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." Somebody,
I can't remember, one of the queens of England or somebody
said, I'm thankful for the letter M, where it says not many noble. It doesn't say not any noble.
But he says in verse 27, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. Think about it. When our
Lord arrived on the scene and began his public ministry, who
did he call as his disciples? Fishermen. He even called a publican,
one of the most hated individuals in the Jewish culture. Matthew
was a publican. Who did he associate with? Publicans
and harlots. He went to places that you and
me, we wouldn't even want to be seen. If we'd be seen there,
we'd turn red-faced. That's where our Lord went. Why did he do that? To confound
the wise, it says. To confound the worldly wise
who think that this is the right way. I heard somebody say, well,
you know, we're supposed to avoid the very appearance of evil.
Do you know what most people do? They use that to feed pharisaism
and legalism. Yes, we're supposed to avoid
the very appearance of evil, but that doesn't mean we're supposed
to avoid the appearance of what every self-righteous religionist
calls evil. We're to avoid the appearance
of what God says is evil. And if it stumps the wise and
causes the pious and self-righteous to trip over it, then so be it.
Maybe the Lord will bring them to hear the gospel of Christ. And it says, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. I can't remember this fellow's
name. He called himself an evangelist back in the 80s, I think. And
he used to come on the Phil Donahue show. He used to call himself
the chaplain of Bourbon Street. I don't know if you all remember
that or not. But anyway, he had what he called his 10 most wanted
list. And on that list, he had the
names of prominent celebrities. One of them was Muhammad Ali.
One of them was Phil Donahue. I guess that's how he kept getting
on the show. But one of them was there. And he said, these
are ten men that I want to convert to the Lord. Because he said,
if I could convert these guys, then I could convert the world.
Now, you know what that is? That's respect of persons. That's
sin. That's a false gospel. That's
not the way God does things. He's chosen the foolish things
of the world. People you wouldn't dream could
be used mightily in the kingdom of God. Think about Saul of Tarsus. You know, after God converted
him and he went out to preach and he'd preach in the synagogues,
he had to spend a lot of time convincing those people that
he was formerly Saul of Tarsus. They didn't believe that that
was possible, that God could take a fellow like that and make
him one of the greatest evangelists that ever came along. Look at verse 28, "...the base
things of the world, and the things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things
that are." God's chosen things that haven't even happened and
materialized yet to bring to nothing the things that do exist.
Wow! That's confounding the wise,
isn't it? Now why does God do it? Now here's the answer, verse
29, "...that no flesh should glory in his presence." That's
why. But of Him, of God, are you in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. He's my wisdom.
Righteousness. He's my righteousness. Sanctification. That's setting apart. He's my
sanctification. And redemption. You see, what
sets you apart from the rest of the world? Well, I'm a smart
fellow, they say. No. What sets you apart? Well, I know how to dress. Or
I have this position. No. What sets God's people apart
from Christ sets us apart. We're in Him. He's my only hope. My only place. And redemption. He's my redemption. I have no
other redemption. There's nothing in me, of me,
or by me that paid one penny of the redemption price. Christ
paid it all. And he says that according as
it is written, he that gloryeth, let him glory in the Lord. That's
quoted from Jeremiah chapter 9, I believe, where he says,
let not the mighty man glory in his mind, let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom, let not the rich man glory in his
riches, but let he who gloryeth, gloryeth his, that he knoweth
and understandeth me, that I am the Lord. That's the issue. Go back to James 2 now. He says,
he says in verse 6, But you've despised the poor? This must
have been a real problem back then. Do not rich men oppress
you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme
that worthy name by which you are called? Generally speaking,
it was the rich and powerful who despised the gospel and had
believers drawn up on charges. It's not that God never saved
a rich person. Abraham was rich. Job was rich.
But they didn't glory in their riches. That wasn't their salvation,
but it was generally rich people who brought them up before the
judgment seats and tried them for believing and trusting in
Christ and spreading their message. So he says in verse 8, if you
fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well. But if you have
respect to persons, you commit sin and are convinced of the
law as transgressors. That royal law, that's the king's
law. Love God perfectly, love your neighbor as yourself. Our
Lord dealt with that in Matthew 22. And this is not some emotional
or physical attraction, not even affection based on common interest.
James is talking about brethren who have one common interest
and that's the glory of the Lord and to love Him. It's not based
on feelings, this love. Feelings come, feelings go, feelings
are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
not else's worth believing. It's love in fulfilling a need.
And no, we don't fulfill it perfectly. We'll never fulfill it perfectly
in this life. Not that any of us fulfill that
law of love perfectly, for we're sinners. We have to battle within
ourselves to fight partiality, respect of person. But if we
seek to meet the needs, spiritual and physical, of our neighbors,
especially our brethren in Christ, We're seeking to fulfill that
royal law, to love God and love our neighbor, and love our brethren.
Not to be saved, but because we already are. But if we show
partiality, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that we have anything
to brag about. We're sinners. What does that
mean? It means we need Christ. We need mercy. We need grace.
That's what we needed. Well, I hope that's been helpful
to you. All right.