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Real Talk Part 3

Let your faith come alive as we unpack James chapter two, exposing the sin of partiality and calling for active mercy in church and community. You will understand why faith without works is dead and gain fresh insight for serving others—even those outside your tribe. We dig deep into practical obedience, the danger of tribalism, and the biblical truth that mercy triumphs over judgment.

Key Insights

  • The dangers of tribalism and favoritism in community
  • Faith must be accompanied by active works
  • What it means that mercy triumphs over judgment
  • How genuine belief impacts practical service

https://springhousemidweek.captivate.fm/episode/real-talk-part-3

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Transcript
Speaker:

Welcome. Glad you're here on this chilly Thursday

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evening. I want to remind you tomorrow night is

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our annual Fall Fest and hope you're planning to come and be a part

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of that. If you didn't get a chance to sign up to help serve for

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a portion of that, April right over here. We'll be glad to get you plugged

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in to that. And so see her

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not during the message, but maybe right after. Right. Does that sound good? And

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do you need more candy? We need more candy. If you're stashing candy in your

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pockets or at home, she will take it. We can use that

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tomorrow night as well. That starts tomorrow night at 5:30. And

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if you're going to volunteer on that first leg, we're asking you to be here

:

30. And we're going to have a good time. I love that the Lord

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always saves the best for right now. And he saved it. Pastor Justin's

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going to come and share.

:

See, they did it again. Somebody's new up there.

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Whoever's up there, there's like, let's put it on 10. Whoever's. Hey, whoever the new

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guy is, it's not a 10, it's a three and a half for me.

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It's probably the same faithful servants every week. They just forget to

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reset it. How we doing tonight?

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There's a couple people that's all right. My mom's feeling good. Like a million

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in cash. She brought her trophy tonight. Her little chili champ

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bowl out there. She's got it. And pass that around. Y' all put $100

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bills in it, give it back to her. Sacrificing to

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feed you guys tonight. Hey, man, we are in session number

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three of six in our Real Talk series. It's kind

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of odd. We're in session three, chapter two. Okay, so

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tonight we're gonna be looking at chapter two in the book of

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James. So just to give you guys a little bit of a recap, if you

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didn't read chapter one, if you were not with us last week, as I

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yelled at you guys through James yelling at the. The

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early church, Chapter one, highlights in the

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first section, enduring trials as a way

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of maturing in Christ. Enduring those

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trials as a way of maturing in Christ.

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In the middle section of chapter one, James highlighted

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escaping temptation as a way of

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maturing in Christ. You notice a theme here.

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Okay, first we're enduring trials that

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causes maturity in us. Escaping temptation

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that causes maturity in us. And then in the closing section,

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James really focused on three aspects of

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religion. The first aspect was self control.

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Which is kind of a misnomer in

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that you are responsible for it, yet you are powerless to

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accomplish it on your own. Right. That's why

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self control is a fruit of the spirit.

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Right. It's a novel idea. It's in there. And

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specifically, James, portion of self control, he was

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talking about bridling the tongue, that it is not

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just unrestricted, unfettered, allowed to

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run wild, but that it is bridled and

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steered appropriately. The second aspect of religion

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is how we treat the vulnerable and the needy. And

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James specifically highlighted widows and orphans, not

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windows, widows and orphans. And the third aspect of

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religion he closed with was holiness, keeping

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oneself unstained from the

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world. So we're going to be reading in chapter two, and

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we're going to pick up right here in verses one through four,

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James says, my brothers, show no partiality

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as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of

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glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and

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fine clothing comes into your assembly and a poor man

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in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention

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to the one who wears the fine clothing and say,

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you sit here in a good place while you say to the poor man,

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you stand over there or sit down at my feet.

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Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves

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and become judges with evil thoughts?

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What James is referring to here is called, is

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commonly known or mentioned as

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the sin of partiality. The

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sin of partiality. This is an unfair

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bias against people based on their

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appearances. Now remember the context for

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James's letter. These are the Jews that have been dispersed,

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and they are most likely not gathering in synagogues, but

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in home churches and in home gatherings. And so when James

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says, when somebody comes walking in with a nice suit on and a

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gold ring into your home, you say, oh, come here. You can sit in

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Dad's recliner here. And then the poor man, you say, hey, you go

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sit over there in the corner. These are. They're

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in a new country, new people, new customs, and

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they are showing favoritism, Right? One

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way that favoritism shows up in our modern day

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is tribalism. Do you guys know what tribalism is?

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Tribalism is when you only want to be with people that are in your

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tribe. And we make cute little signs and sayings, find

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your tribe and love them hard. Or something like that. My

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wife did one because somebody ordered it. It's not what we you believe. And

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as long as it's not inherently evil, we was down to make a buck back

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in the day. Okay, now if you said, bow

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down and Worship me and all you see will be yours. We're not making that

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sign. Okay. Couple of y' all got. Anyway, you

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were here. You were here, right? That was for you.

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That one was for you. Okay,

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so tribalism. Another way tribalism shows up

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in our day or favoritism is with our

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social media. And Facebook is a great place, right?

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I will unfriend you if you're

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not saying the right things. If you get on my page and go, roll

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Tide, block. You're blocked.

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You're blocked. Blocking you. Right?

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Here's my favorite one. Lately, Facebook has this thing, and it'll say,

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snooze for 30 days. And I'm like, yeah, I don't wanna just unfriend

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them, but I don't wanna see your nonsense for a month. Right?

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And you snooze that person. Why? Because you don't like what they're

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saying, doesn't jive with you or what you're feeling in that moment.

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Right? I'll block people. Or

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those that don't look like me, sound like, act like this is

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not necessarily your friend group. James is not talking about, like,

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you know, how we're all kinda drawn to different people, like

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being a men's pastor and a men's director sometimes. I wouldn't

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say force is the right word, but I am

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coerced by the spirit of God to

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befriend people that are outside of my normal friend box,

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right? As a way of getting outside of

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just people that I want to hang out with or people that have the same

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interests as me. And part of that is so that I can.

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I cannot show partiality and only hang out with people I want to hang

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out with. When I find out they're a Bama fan or a Gators

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fan, it makes it harder on me to

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not show partiality. Right?

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But what you don't need around you is a bunch of yes men. You

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don't need a bunch of people around you that are like, yeah, sure, that's great.

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That's a great idea. That's a great idea, Kevin. You should

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definitely do that thing. Right? And then you do it. He does it, and he's

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like, why didn't y' all tell me this is a bad idea? I

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don't know. Have you ever.

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I've accepted friend requests, and it's come back to bite me.

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And I'm not saying, please don't hear me as, like, a pat on the back,

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like I'm all pious or anything, but I'll get friend requests from

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people that I used to know, that don't know me anymore,

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but knew me, right? And they're still who I knew.

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And I'm like, do I want to take this risk? Because I

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don't know what's going to come up in my feed if I accept this friend

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request, But I'll do it anyways in hopes that

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they'll see something in my feed that might

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encourage them or bless them or challenge them,

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because who they knew is not who they know.

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Does that make sense? Right. But if I'm just

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showing partiality and favoritism, then what I can do is I can tailor

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my feed to the things I want to see. Now,

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that can be wise. In some instances, I would

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recommend tailoring your feed to eliminate some of the

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nonsense. Right? You do have the ability to not have

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to see and hear everything that the world throws at you. Right?

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You don't have to go and watch every show on HBO just so that you

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have commonality with the world. Guys,

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James is saying, hey, man, there's people that are coming in your home, church

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environment, and you're treating them differently than these other people

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here based on their wealth and

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their socioeconomic status. And

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this is what he says in verse five. Oh, I didn't read

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verse five. I got a Bible,

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though. Listen, look. This is what James says in verse

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five, chapter two, verse five. Listen,

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listen. My beloved brothers, has not God

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chosen those who are poor in the world to

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be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he

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has promised to those who love him? Where has he heard

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this information before? Blessed are the poor in

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spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It almost makes

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you wonder, was James there when Jesus said this?

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Was James there when Jesus said this? Whether

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or not he was, I don't know that I can track it down. Or if

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you can track it down, then I haven't done the background research to know if

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James was there or not. But one thing is clear. He understood

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those words from Jesus and directed directly put them in this letter.

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Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Let's see

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if verse five is in there. Nope. Then it says,

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has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in

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faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those

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who love him? James understands the message

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of Christ and he's trying to get the early church to

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understand the message of Christ. Then he goes

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on and says in 6 and 7,

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but you have dishonored the poor, man.

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Are not the rich ones the ones Are not the rich the

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ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into

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court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the

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honorable name by which you were called?

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James is reminding them of the oppression

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they have faced by the rise or wealthy in

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society. James is reminding

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them of the oppression that they face by the wealthy in society.

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The wealthy used to bring the poor into court in

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order to further rob them and get over them using

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the legal system. And James is like, are you gonna kiss up

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to them after the way they treated y'? All? Are you

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gonna go, are we kissing up to our bosses,

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our carnal bosses, when they're the ones that treat their

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employees like dirt most of the time? Not that your boss is

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treating you like dirt, but some of the things in the world that we're kissing

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up to, James, is like, what are we doing, believers? Why are you

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sucking up to the world like this when they're the ones that mistreat

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us and blaspheme the name of Christ

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and you're kissing up to them, putting them on pedestals. James,

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like y' all had a. He called them 2Face earlier in the book.

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His word was double minded. But he says, y' all are two faced.

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Y' all coming here acting like you love Jesus, and then as soon as a

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rich person comes in here, you just put them right in the front of the

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line. When he told us that we're not to forsake the poor.

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Bunch of two faced hypocrites.

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This oppression and exploitation represents

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a social polarization in the first century

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with merchants and landowners taking land and

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possessions from the poor.

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Historically, the wealthy or the rich were the ones who would

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use the court system to steal from the poor. And now they

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are blaspheming the name of Jesus. And James has

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caught word about it and say, you guys have lost your mind

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historically. Amos 4:1 Hear this word, you cows of Bashan,

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who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the

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poor, who crush the needy,

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who say to your husbands, bring that we may drink.

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And in Habakkuk 1:4, so the law is paralyzed, and justice

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never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous,

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so justice goes forth perverted. And in

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Micah, thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets, who lead

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my people astray, who cry peace when they have

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something to eat, but declare war against him who puts nothing

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in their mouths. God is

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against injustices done to the poor.

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God is against injustices done to the poor.

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And this early church was treating them differently

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than they were treating the Rich folks. And that is a warning

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to us to avoid the sin of

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partiality. God is

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against. Injustice is done to the poor. So how are you going to kiss up

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to the rich? How are you going to kiss

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up to the rich? For some reason, we

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think celebrities are like, they know

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stuff. I don't give. I'm not listening to anything

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Ben Stiller tells me about life.

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Here's where I don't want to like an actor or an actress. I don't want

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to like you for a role you played. There are people I don't like in

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real life because of the role I saw them portrayed

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in a show or in a movie. What I don't need you to do is

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start opening your mouth about stuff. And now all of a sudden I'm supposed to

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listen to you because you're affluent, you've got money, or

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you're an entertainer. Like, what makes celebrities an important voice

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in our world, huh?

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What makes them, you know, there's a job now. You can get a job

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and your title can be called influencer.

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I've been influencing people my whole life.

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I influenced a set of twins to bust ammonia capsules on

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hymnals in a chapel service in a private school, right? Got a

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four day suspension for that.

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I influenced a kid to jump off the roof of the

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school building. Got a three day suspension for that,

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right? I influenced my sister. Well, Bradley used the word

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coerced. I coerced my sister not to tell my parents

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a lot of stuff, right?

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I've been influencing people my whole life. And now all of a sudden you can

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get paid for it by making TikTok videos.

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TikTok videos. You know how, you know how

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dumb we gotta be as a society, as a

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culture tech, right, to give a teenager

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$27 million because people watched

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your video about solving Rubik's

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cubes or building a city

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on a computer game. It's not even a real city, but you built it,

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right? And then all of a sudden, because you're an influencer, right? You've

:

got clout, you've got position, you can tell other people. And

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then back during the 20, you had political

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parties that were trying to bribe young people

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to read this script. Here's why I like

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Donald Trump. And you should too. Here's why

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you should vote for Kamala Harris because she's not Donald

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Trump. And then they would get paid for, right? And people like,

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absolutely right. You know why? Because I saw it on YouTube,

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right? What makes these people have any kind of influence

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in society? And yet this is the type of people

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we look up to, somebody would come into a home church gathering. They know

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nothing about the person other than they got money,

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you've got money. And so now all of a sudden, because you've got money,

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you must be wise, because the deduction is you have done

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something smart to generate your wealth or income. You are

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above society, you are better than

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these peasants. That's the mentality

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of the early church. James says,

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if I could get to you, you're glad this letter got to you before I

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could get to you. And he goes on,

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we'll see. I'll show you. I'll point it out. The way he words this is

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a very kind way of calling them stupid and idiots

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and ridiculous. We'll get there.

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So he's saying, how are you going to kiss up to the rich?

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Then he goes on in verse eight, if you really fulfill

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the royal law, according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbor

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as yourself. You're doing well. But if you

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show partiality, you are committing sin.

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It is a sin to show partiality.

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And you are convicted by the law as transgressors. For

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whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become

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guilty of all of it.

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For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not

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murder. If you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you

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have become a transgressor of the law.

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So speak and act as those who are to be judged under

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the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who

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has shown no mercy.

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Showing favoritism, whether it's partiality or

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nepotism or the like, is a sin, according

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to James, when you're favoring someone,

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just on the surface level. And then there's this

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phrase here, this mercy triumphs over judgment is a King James

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phrase. And it's. And it's. It's something that's come up a lot. Grant

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Osborne of the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, he has a PhD at

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the University of Aberdeen, writes this concerning verse 13,

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this proverbial saying sums up the implications of

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verses 1 through 12 and leads into the faith without

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works discussion that follows. So he said this phrase,

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mercy triumphs over judgment, sums up

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1 through 12 in the sin of partiality and moves

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us right into the second part of chapter two about faith without

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works being dead. He said it was the core

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of Roman law, lex talonis, the law of

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retribution. But more importantly, it is central to God's law.

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What you do to others will be done to you in the judgment.

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What you do to others will be done unto you in the judgment.

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Mercy triumphs over judgment. Does not,

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in this context, mean that God's mercy is

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extended to believers at the judgment. Rather,

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believers acts of mercy will mean they are vindicated

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at the judgment. Mercy was an essential Old

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Testament requirement for dealing with the poor. You can see

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Micah 6, 8, Zechariah, 7, 9, 10.

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Mercy is likewise a requirement of the believers in the New

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Testament, or they will experience God's judgment

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rather than his mercy. Don't think you can treat

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people like dirt. You can treat the poor like dirt

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and show up at the judgment seat expecting mercy.

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Because we show up as paupers in the kingdom.

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We don't just stroll in there and we have taken this idea of

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this phrase, come boldly to the throne of grace,

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right? And have created a spiritual arrogance about it,

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to where we can just kick down the throne room doors and waltz in there

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and be like, all right, Father, listen up

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here. I am coming boldly into the throne room

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now. I'm taking a little bit of liberty here, okay? This is not what we

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all do. But we have lost the reverence

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of the Lord, his holiness,

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his awe and wonder. And for some

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reason, we have this idea that in the Old

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Testament, there was this wrathful, vengeful,

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angry God. And it took this hippie guy

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to come and hold back, daddy, God, don't kill him.

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Kill me instead. And now God's

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wrath has been justified. And now he's like, all right, I'll simmer down now. I'm

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not so angry. Somewhere, this has been

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the idea that's been portrayed in

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modern Christianity. If

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Jesus is the same yesterday, today,

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and forever, then doesn't it stand to reason that the Father

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is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

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He is unchanging. He is immutable. And

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most of the time, when we think about God's wrath and vengeance and

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anger, it's justified because the people have lost their

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mind. A man goes up onto the mountain

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to meet with God, and he comes down,

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and the people, they're

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worshiping a cow

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made of gold. Like, do you know how long it

:

would take to make a cow out of gold?

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I could give you guys the rest of this service to make a cow out

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of these pieces of paper and this chicken wire. And y' all couldn't get anything

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that looks close to a cow in 30 minutes.

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And they made a golden calf and said, the guy's gone.

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He's dead. He's probably not coming back. Make us a God.

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And Aaron says, okay. And then when Moses

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gets down there,

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he probably was ready to choke somebody. You

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know, he's mad. He broke the stones, he broke the tablets.

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God had to go make more tablets because he broke those.

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And his brother gave him some lame excuses. What he said,

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I don't know what happened.

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I have no idea. We just threw all this gold. Somebody's

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calling me. Let's. Yes,

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God, we threw all the gold in the fire.

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And, man, you won't believe it. Out comes this

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calf. Just, just.

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Yeah,

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right. And they're like, I can't believe he would wipe

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out all of those in Canaan. Do you know that those were hybridized people

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that were worshiping idols and worshiping false gods?

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And guess what? The maker has the right to do whatever he wants. Why are

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we ascribing human justice and human mercy on an

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all knowing, all seeing, almighty God with

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our reason and logic and trying to rationalize why God would

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do this? You're not God. You remember what he said to Job, Boy, you

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better tighten your boots up coming at me like

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that. And yet I don't learn from his lesson. I just

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come busting in the throne room expecting mercy when

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he says, hey, buddy, have you been showing mercy? Have you been showing. Have

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you been prior. Have you been Justin. Have you

:

prioritized mercy over your judgmental

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spirit?

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And I have to wrestle. No, I have not.

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And it's not. Because what has come out of my mouth has been judgmental.

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Because what's come out of my mouth has usually been thought of and

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refined and worked through. But the intentions and thoughts in my

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heart and my motive. And Jesus said, hey, if you look

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on a woman lustfully, you already did it in

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your heart. Now he's not saying, you might as well go and do it because

:

you already did it. He said, let's take this to the next level. What is

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that snap response inside of you? Are you casting judgment or

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are you bent towards mercy? Because if you're not bent towards mercy, don't

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just show up on judgment day expecting mercy from God.

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You see how James was in his bag early? James was

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like, guys, telling you, y' all

:

better tighten up. And it stings.

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It pricks my heart because I

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have been guilty of being irreverent towards God by

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expecting mercy from my life when it has not been

:

muted out to those that I come in contact with

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or to the world. Now I'm not just letting the world off the hook. I've

:

got something for the world. I started to

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if we didn't fight with guns now I thought about redoing the Crusades. But I

:

was like, nice. It's a bad idea.

:

James continues. He takes his opening

:

remarks about concerning the poor to the next level. So he

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starts off by talking about the poor, and then he says, all right, let me

:

double down and take it to the next level. Look at 14.

:

Does this see it? Yeah, I see it.

:

Mercy triumphs over judgment. What

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good is it? My brothers, if someone says he has

:

faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? This is a

:

rhetorical question. James is expecting a no.

:

He's asking the question expecting you to be like, absolutely not.

:

Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and

:

lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace,

:

be warm and filled, without giving them the things needed for the

:

body, what good is that? So also,

:

faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

:

But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me

:

your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my

:

works. You believe that God is one. Do well. Even the demons believe and

:

shudder.

:

James says, let me go back to this first part.

:

James says, there can be no

:

true faith that fails to produce works.

:

There can be no faith that fails to produce works. A

:

faith that fails to produce works is dead.

:

It is useless. It has no life at all, and it

:

brings no result and cannot lead to salvation. The

:

Hebrew word for this type of faith is immuna. And it is more

:

than an intellectual assent. It implies a

:

deep trust and reliance on God that is

:

reflected in your actions.

:

Reflected in your actions. And here's where I'm going to show you.

:

Works cannot be done in isolation.

:

You cannot go onto a top of a mountain and say,

:

God has taught me patience. You

:

ain't been around anybody that's gonna try your patience.

:

You ain't been taught patience. You have the information

:

concerning patience. You don't have the application. Right.

:

But miss, I got two kids

:

that think they're grown. Davis,

:

you know how patient my mom has had to be? Cause she prayed for it.

:

That's your fault. I am your fault. She prayed

:

for patience. God was like, well, patience is a man

:

named Justin.

:

Faith must have its outworking in community and culture.

:

Faith must have its outworking in community and culture. But

:

I must remind you of the three Rs when it comes to culture.

:

Receive, redeem and reject. Receive,

:

redeem, and reject. The parts of the culture that are not inherently

:

evil. You can receive them as they are the parts that need redemption.

:

And there are parts of the culture that flat out must be rejected

:

either way, faith must have its outworking in the community

:

and in the culture. And then

:

James takes a moment to go ahead and answer their hypothetical

:

responses. And I love that he did this. He

:

asked him these questions, and he says, faith is dead. He's like, but some of

:

you guys are going to say, you like, but what about you got faith and

:

I got works. He's like, listen, I'll show you my faith

:

by my works. He says, you believe that God

:

is one. You do. Well, even the demons

:

believe. Even the demons

:

believe. I'm going to say something that's going to sound crazy, but I just need

:

you to think about it. Don't shout me down.

:

Belief is not enough.

:

Belief is not enough. How do I know?

:

Because even the demons believe. When

:

the Gadarene demoniac encountered Jesus, do you think he

:

believed that was the son of God? He said

:

it, son of man. You coming to torment me before

:

my time and knew there was a time.

:

And you're here early. What are you doing here? How did you get

:

here? How did he know? They believe

:

and they're terrified. Every knee will bow. The

:

difference is, when will your knee bow?

:

Will your knee bow now or will you be forced to

:

bow?

:

Faith must be accompanied with action. I stopped. I had

:

a buddy that I asked, said something about somebody being a believer.

:

I said, well, even the demons believe. He was like, whoa,

:

whoa. I stopped calling myself

:

a believer years ago after I encountered this. James hit

:

me in the head. And I know it might be a silly thing, but I

:

think words matter. And so I stopped calling myself a believer. I started

:

saying I'm a Christ follower. Because if even

:

demons can believe, it's not good enough for me. I don't want to be in

:

the same category as

:

the apostate sons of God. I want to be counted as one who

:

has committed to follow Christ.

:

Faith must be accompanied with actions.

:

But who determines what actions? Who

:

determines what actions? I'll give you an easy answer. You ready for

:

this? The Holy Spirit,

:

right? There's a Bible verse. I don't know the chapter verse

:

right now, but it says to him who knows to do good and

:

does not do it, to him, it is sin.

:

So what is doing good? You know what doing good is? Because the Holy

:

Spirit told you this is good. Do it. I'm

:

embarrassed.

:

I pray that we don't. I pray that we care

:

more about being obedient to the

:

Lord than our reputation in society.

:

In Smyrna, Tennessee, or Atlanta, Georgia, or wherever

:

you Find yourself. If you're on vacation and the Lord tells you to do something

:

crazy, they don't have to see you again,

:

right? I said that to a men's group in

:

Murfreesboro, Saturday, as if they're 2,000 miles

:

away. I'm like, I'm going back to my church in Smyrna. You can't find me.

:

And I was like, aren't we doing events together next year? Yeah, but. But that's

:

not the point right now, right? And I use

:

that as a way to say, well, you can't. It doesn't matter how you feel

:

about this. This is what the Lord wants me to tell you,

:

right? Do you care enough about someone

:

that you would be willing to risk their risk, a relationship

:

on this earth to have one in glory for them to

:

have one in glory?

:

So what are good words? James continues on.

:

Do you want to be. This is why I told you. This is where I

:

think he's calling him an idiot. Okay? Stupid is the word I use because

:

stupid implies, you know, better now. It's not a. It's an

:

uncouth phrase. We don't say it a lot. There's a lot of parents, a lot

:

of moms is probably mad at me. We don't say stupid. Right? And that's true.

:

I get it. I want to follow your rules. But James right here is

:

saying the equivalent of, you guys are. Y' all are being

:

dumb right now. Do you want to be shown,

:

comma, you foolish person, comma, that faith

:

apart from works is useless? Listen, idiots.

:

Faith without words is useless. That's. Justin speak. I don't want

:

y' all going home. Be like, man, the pastor said that the James is calling

:

him stupid. So adjust some things.

:

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his

:

son Isaac on the altar? You see, that faith was active along with his

:

works, and faith was completed by his works and

:

the scripture was fulfilled. That says, Abraham believed God and it

:

was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a

:

friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works

:

and not by faith alone. Did you catch

:

that?

:

Abraham was counted righteous by his faith in

:

Genesis 15, right? When it says, you know the passage where it says,

:

he brought him out and he said, look at the stars. And the

:

stars, these will be the number of your descendants. And it says, abraham

:

believed God and God counted that as righteousness.

:

He had faith to believe the promise God

:

gave him. But watch this. That's not what James is talking about,

:

all right? And that was affirmed by Paul in Romans 4,

:

chapter 4, verse 3. He was justified by his

:

subsequent actions in Genesis 22. So

:

it says he believed God in Genesis 15, when God said, this

:

is the promise I'm going to give you. But it was justified

:

when he brought his son to the top of the mountain. And he's like,

:

where's the sacrifice? He's like, God's going to provide one for

:

us. And Isaac's looking around and he's like, I don't see no

:

sacrifice. Oh, I'm the sacrifice.

:

And Abraham ties him up. I

:

don't know how he tied him, but he was tied up. And he places him

:

on the altar. And he is

:

prepared to kill his son.

:

And that may sound hardcore, but the Father from before the

:

foundations of the world was prepared to kill

:

his son.

:

He was prepared to kill his son. And so Abraham's

:

faith, his belief, his belief in God

:

was locked in when God gave him the promise, but it was justified

:

when he had to put it into action. Do I really believe

:

what he says? Do I really believe it?

:

Because faith without the subsequent works is useless.

:

And James is saying, y' all remember Abraham, right? Our

:

father? You remember these stories we've been told since we was a little

:

child. These had been passed down from generation to

:

generation and how he believed God and it was counted as righteous.

:

But it was not until he was ready to kill his son that he was

:

justified in it and was in obedient worship to

:

Yahweh. And then going from

:

one end of the spectrum, look how James

:

ties this all together. Man, this is absolutely gorgeous.

:

He talks about at the beginning of the chapter,

:

putting those that are like rich and wealthy in high esteem.

:

Do you know how the Jews are looked at

:

Abraham? He is the father of the nations,

:

right? This is God's chosen. The lineage of Jesus

:

has come through Abraham, right? You see it? He's got him here

:

with the wealthy. And then he says, rahab the prostitute.

:

Do you see the contrast? He starts with it and he ends with

:

it. If you think that's unintentional, I don't know how to help you

:

guys. I'm going to help you.

:

He says, and in the same way, also, was not

:

also Rahab the prostitute justified by

:

works when she received the messengers and sent them

:

out by another way. For as the

:

body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from

:

works is dead. Rahab believed the stories

:

of God saving the Hebrews and

:

subsequently hid the spies and lowered them down in a

:

basket. Abraham said, I believe your promises.

:

So if you ask me to sacrifice my son, I'll do it.

:

And his works justified his faith. Rahab said, I've

:

heard the stories about your God, so I will

:

risk my life hiding the spies if

:

when y' all come invade this city, come get me

:

and take me out of here and yeah, where else Rahab

:

shows up. Matthew chapter one. In the lineage of Jesus,

:

there are five names that are distinct. In Matthew chapter one,

:

those are the names of the five women that are in the lineage of

:

Jesus. One thing I'd like to point out as I close

:

here, James is not contradicting Paul because James wrote

:

his first, so he can be like you copycatted me. If anything,

:

Paul's not contradicting James when he would later write that it is

:

faith alone that saves us. You're going to come across this when you

:

go into Romans chapter 3. You may come across

:

this passage where Paul says, it is faith alone

:

that saves us. And you may think back to this teaching and go, well, Pastor

:

Justin said this, that faith in itself can't do anything. It's always

:

accompanied by works. James is arguing that faith

:

is never alone, that genuine faith

:

always produces works.

:

Faith alone can save us, but that

:

faith will always produce works. And if it does not, then

:

that is not a genuine faith. I'm going to read Ephesians 2:10 to

:

close. For we are his

:

workmanship created in Christ Jesus

:

for good works,

:

which God prepared beforehand that we

:

should walk in them. There

:

are good works that flow from your faith in Jesus

:

Christ that have been prepared for you to

:

step into. And a faith that

:

does not produce works, according to James, is a faith that

:

is not life giving, that does not lead to salvation,

:

yours or others. Let's pray.

:

Father, thank you for James. I'm glad he said it,

:

not me, but it needed to be said. I

:

thank you for your word. I thank you for hard truth. I thank you for

:

real talk. God, I thank you that you are showing me

:

and us to pride, prioritize mercy before

:

judgment when it comes to those that

:

that are not in our tribe, that are not in our crew, that are not

:

our favorites. God, help us to learn

:

how to prioritize mercy over judgment and that that would be an

:

outflowing of the works produced from our faith in

:

you. Holy Spirit, quicken our hearts to be aware of

:

the works that you have for us. I pray that you would carry this word

:

and stir it inside of us as we meditate and as we walk through

:

the rest of this week and into this weekend. Lord, God. It's a

:

dark weekend spiritually in this country. Lord God, and

:

let us be light bearers. We are light bearers. And let us shine like a

:

city on a hill. As we encounter the culture tomorrow.

:

Let us transcend it and rise above and show the love of Christ.

:

That they would see that our faith is genuine and that it is

:

real here at Springhouse. Father, we love you and we thank you. I

:

ask this in Christ's name. Amen. And amen. Be

:

blessed. Spring House.

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