Sermon Notes:
(Please hear the audio as my notes are not well written)
v26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.
James tells us what it means to be following a good God and being religious is. He tells us what a false religion is. See, you and the orphan have a same Father- if God s your both father- then how are you not visiting the needy?
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 2 vs 1 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
Deuteronomy 10:17
17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. 18 He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. 19 And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.
2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” 4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Brothers we sin because we desire to be accepted liked and at places where we have influence. This is why we respect rich and influential people yet not have company with the poor. This is sin my brothers. We have shown partiality. How can you say that you are children of the same God and do this? How can you do this to your own brother.
5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?
7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well.
If you break one law, you break it all.
9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.
There is no hyper sinner
There is no hyper saint
We are all sinners
We all needed Grace
Ephesians 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Leviticus:19:17,18
13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Brothers let us learn to show mercy.
Comments