A Daily Walk

John Randall: Living out our faith in our daily walk. Next, may God help us to live out our faith. May our faith be active. And this is a tremendous opportunity that we have as the church to live out our faith. There's many people who are living in fear. They're afraid of many things. But we have a chance to live out our faith, to trust in God.

Guest (Male): Are you the type of person that sizes people up pretty quickly or makes judgments without really knowing who the person is? If that's where you're at, we'd like to encourage you to go in a different direction. We'll give you the cure for partiality today on A Daily Walk, as we get back into James chapter two. Here is Pastor John Randall with part two of his message, No Favorites.

John Randall: James says, if you're really going to fulfill the law, you can fulfill the law in one word: love. Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. You want to sum that up? Love. Period. That's fulfilling the royal law.

Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you." This is it right here, loving God and loving people. That's the bottom line. And so James is saying here, the remedy for partiality, the cure for this carnal sizing of people up, prejudging them, figuring it out in your mind based upon what you think or what you've seen before, but you have no idea.

Here's what James says: love. Love the soul of that person the way that God loves that person. Treat them like you want to be treated. Do you like people sizing you up? Do you like people prejudging you, coming up with an idea of who you are, and then they don't know who you are? You ever had somebody misjudge you, say things about you, and they don't even know who you are? What are they talking about? It happens.

So if you're not into somebody doing that to you, why would we do that to somebody else? If we're going to love them like we want to be loved, we're going to treat them like we want to be treated. The bottom line is that if we walk in partiality, then we can't at the same time fulfill the law of liberty because we wouldn't be loving our neighbor as ourself. And therefore, if we're breaking one of God's commands in partiality, it isn't simply a character flaw. We're actually sinning.

That's what he says. If you're showing partiality, it's not just your predisposition to show partiality to people that you don't really know. You're sinning, is what he says. When I do that, I'm not walking in the royal law. I'm not loving them. I'm not treating them like I want to be treated. I'm not fulfilling that. And so I repent of that. Lord, forgive me for misreading that. Forgive me for misjudging them. I don't even know their story.

It's amazing when you take just a little bit of time and you hear somebody's story, how differently you observe them. I didn't even know that. And who knows? We don't know. God does. And so it's important that we don't show partiality. Verse ten, he says, "For whoever shall keep the whole law, yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." He who said, "Do not commit adultery," He also said, "Do not murder." Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you've become a transgressor of the law.

James is saying, if you're going to live by this law, if you're going to sin, then you've broken the whole law. There are people today who feel like they live by the Ten Commandments. Have you ever heard someone say that? "I live by the Ten Commandments. That's how I live. I have no problem with them. I love the Ten Commandments. I live by them." What's the first one? "I don't know." Where are they found in the Bible? "They're in the Bible?" Yes.

You live by the Ten Commandments? Do you really? Do you realize that if you've broken one, you've broken them all? It's like a garment that's woven together. You can't take a piece of it out without ruining the whole thing. If you're going to live by the law, you better keep it 100 percent perfectly all the time so you can really be righteous. You can't do it. There's only one person that's ever done it. His name is Jesus. He's the only one who could do it. He's the only one that did it.

And so he's saying here, listen, if you fail in this point, if you show partiality, you've broken God's law. Perhaps there were those that thought, well, the sin of partiality can't be that serious compared to other commands in Scripture. James says, again, the law is like a seamless garment which, when it's ripped in one place, tears the whole garment. And so he says, walk in love, fulfill that law. Don't show partiality.

In verse 12, "So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. Because judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, for mercy triumphs over judgment." James says, when we commit the sin of showing partiality towards someone, we've taken the place of judge, that is not our place to take. And so by taking the place of judge, I'm not using, I'm not judging them with the law of liberty or the royal law.

And James is saying, speak and act like those who want to be judged by the law of liberty. Do you want to be judged by the law of liberty, or do you want people to size you up and prejudge you? No, I want someone to show me the royal law. Therefore, I want to show that to them. So speak and so do like you want that to be done back to you. That's the answer. It's a biblical answer. Recognize it as sin, repent of it as sin, ask God to change your heart.

And the reason is, I need this same law of liberty. I need this same kind of mercy for me. I need to show people mercy because I'm in great need of mercy, not getting what I deserve. God's mercy. His mercies are new every morning. We're not consumed because of His mercies, the Bible says. So if I want mercy for myself, then I need to be merciful. Because it says here that judgment is without mercy to the one that shows no mercy.

So if you're not showing mercy in your judgment, the Bible says that's what you're going to be on the receiving end of. On the other hand, it says mercy triumphs over judgment. It triumphs over judgment. Do you know where mercy triumphed over judgment? At the cross. We deserved absolute judgment and wrath of God, not mercy. We didn't deserve mercy. At the cross, mercy triumphed over judgment.

James goes on now to continue on this subject of faith. And he says, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?" Interesting question. Can faith save him? The Scriptures have much to say about the subject of faith. The Bible says in Hebrews, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen." The Bible tells us in Second Corinthians five seven, "We walk by faith and not by sight."

And Ephesians in chapter two and verse eight, it says, "For by grace you've been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." James begins to write on the subject of faith and he gives us insights that perhaps we haven't read before. In fact, in this portion of the book of James, some have felt that it's rather controversial. Some feel that James is actually contradicting the Apostle Paul, that somehow they are combating with one another.

And the controversy stems from the words of the Apostle Paul when compared to James. Some feel that there is an apparent contradiction between the two writers. The Apostle Paul, in writing in Romans, and writing in Ephesians, and writing in Galatians, he emphasized the truth that we are saved by faith, it's a finished work of Christ on the cross. And we say yes and amen to that. It is. We're saved by grace through faith. That is true.

We're justified. We're made righteous in the sight of God, also by faith. We're not justified because of anything we've done. We're justified trusting in what Jesus has done. Just as if I never sinned. I have, but he was punished on my behalf. I by faith, I trust in the finished work. I am now justified by faith. I'm trusting in him. The keeping of the works of the law as a means of securing one's salvation, we've already said it's impossible. Our works couldn't be good enough to merit salvation. Therefore, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. Amen.

Now, even Martin Luther, if you go back to some of his writings, although he did not disregard the canonicity or the inclusion of James in the canon of Scripture, he didn't necessarily like it because he felt, he called it a "right strawy epistle." He placed the book of James for himself in an appendix in the Bible and he questioned the usefulness of James because it said so little about justification by faith, but instead emphasized works as it dealt with the more practical aspects of the Christian life.

And that's why he didn't like it. He thought they were contradicting one another. However, when you look at James and his writing, you'll find there isn't a contradiction to Paul's writing at all, but rather a different emphasis on the same subject. A different emphasis on the same subject. In fact, any time, let me just say this to you, any time that you suppose that there is an apparent contradiction in the inerrant, inspired Word of God, we can know for a fact there isn't a contradiction, but your interpretation is incorrect, inaccurate.

We don't judge the Scriptures, the Scriptures judge us. There's nothing wrong with this. There's something wrong with this. That's where the problem is. So in clearing up the misconception, when the Apostle Paul speaks about faith and works, he does so by looking at it before we are saved. Before we are saved. Prior to our conversion. And James, on the other hand, looks at faith and works after we are saved and converted. That's the difference.

If you understand that, you'll have no problem. Paul emphasized not trusting in your righteousness and good works as a means of salvation. James emphasized not trusting in your intellectual ascent to a truth that meant you were saved. Paul dealt with those who were trusting in works for salvation. James is dealing with those who were trusting in a mere profession without a change of life. Both are necessary to understand.

James is addressing those who were in the congregation who felt that by a mere acknowledgment of God's existence would save them. "I believe God exists. I'm on my way." Even the demons believe that God exists, as James will point out in this chapter later on. James is writing to those who are under the false assumption that you just go through some motion and you're fine. What James is saying here, if you were to put what Paul said and James said together, and they don't contradict, Paul and James believe this: faith alone saves.

But they also believed that the faith that saves is never alone. There are works that follow naturally. Works are a byproduct of your faith. It's the natural byproduct. Some people try to work to earn salvation. You'll never be able, you can't work hard enough. You can't do enough. You can't give enough. You can't serve enough. You can't, you can't do it. It's impossible. Salvation is outside of our ability. God made it so. That's why Jesus came.

However, the fact that I've placed my faith in Jesus Christ, it does change the way that I live. It impacts how I live my life. And if it doesn't, you wonder, is there any fruit of my faith? Is there any evidence of my salvation? Now, that takes time. Fruit doesn't appear overnight. You abide, you're planted, you're watered, you begin to grow, but at some point, you'll know them by their fruit, whether it's rotten or whether it's good.

Listen to the person that just clocks in, comes to church, does their thing and goes out and lives like they don't know Jesus every single day. I wonder, I would question, do they know the Lord? Because to know the Lord is to have a different lifestyle, different life. I lived a different way before I knew Jesus. I don't live that way anymore. Why? Because something's changed in me. I've been born again. I'm not the same person.

So if I'm the same person I've always been, doing the same old things I always used to do, something's wrong with my walk with the Lord. You can debate whether they're backslidden or maybe they're... I don't really know. Here's what I know for sure, they're not in a good place and I wouldn't want to be in that place when Jesus came. And this is where the church needs to wake up. Too many people just hearing sermons and thinking, yeah, I really identify with that, that was cool. But it doesn't do anything in your life, it doesn't change anything, you're the same.

Something's not right. Something's not right. This isn't a cultural thing. Cultural Christianity. No, this is a way of life. This is following after Jesus. Faith alone saves. That faith that saves is never alone. There is fruit that follows. There is a change. Real saving faith is always followed by evidence of that faith that is seen and demonstrated in the way that I live, the works that follow.

And I like it that the works follow. You may recall in previous chapter that James said, "Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself." Jesus said in Matthew chapter seven, "Everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand." One of the things that James will emphasize, and we'll pick up on this probably next time we are together, is he will emphasize that it is possible to say you have saving faith and not be saved.

That's pretty heavy, what James writes, actually. Just because a person says that they are a Christian, it doesn't mean that they're a Christian. I could tell you tonight that I'm a black belt in karate. And I could even show you a belt and a gi that I got online. But that does not mean I'm a black belt in karate. I have the outfit. Actually, I don't, I just want to go on record, I don't have the outfit. Not that I would be opposed to wearing it, too.

But it doesn't mean anything. A person can be raised in complete orthodoxy, have knowledge intellectually of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but a mental ascent to Christian doctrine doesn't save you. Jesus said something rather powerful and sobering in Matthew chapter seven and verse 21: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Not everybody who says, "I have faith," but those who actually do the will of my Father.

That's where their faith is demonstrated. Those are the words of Jesus. Perhaps one of the reasons why sometimes it appears that the church of Jesus Christ in our country seems to lack a genuine dynamic, authentic power is because often there are more professors of faith that is never lived out. It's a profession, but it's not a way of life. I think God is using this season to shake that out of us. I really do. And I'm seeing it. I'm seeing God stir things up in my own heart, just root some things out that need to be uprooted, even in my heart. Thank you, Jesus.

And it's reviving me. And I'm seeing it happening in the body of Christ as a whole. People coming out of places, coming out of things that are just to shake us up, to bring us back to foundation. James speaks about this faith. A few more verses. Look at verse 15. "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and be filled,' but you don't give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead."

Someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. James says, let me give you an example. Someone's in need, and you have faith and you say, "Hey, be warmed and be filled, I'll see you later. Take care. Bye now." Somebody in the body of Christ, somebody's in need, somebody's hurting, and you just kind of pass over it. There's no demonstration of faith there.

On the other hand, someone says, "I have faith." James says, try to show me your faith without your works. And James says, I'll actually show you my faith by my works. It just demonstrates my faith. I'm not working to earn my salvation. I'm saved, and thus I serve the Lord as a byproduct of that. It just, it naturally follows. Good works follow. I want to do these things. There was a time in my life, I don't want to do those things. I have no desire to do those things. My natural tendency is to be served, not serve other people.

But when Jesus changes your heart, when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of your life and you're born again, things are just different. I don't see things the way I used to see them. My perspective has changed. I could tell you I have faith, but how could you see it? I could just tell you, but you'd say, "Well, I don't... if you didn't know me, I say I have faith." I don't know that you have faith. But as I'm serving the Lord and living my life for the Lord, that's how people notice. They see something different about you.

I think one of the greatest things that someone can say, if they see you just living your life for Jesus, they say, "You know, there's something different about you. There's something different about you. What is that?" It's Jesus. It's Jesus. And so James mentions here, faith is not meant to be useless, it's meant to be active. It's to be vibrant. And you can't help being active when you've truly come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Saving faith proves its genuine character by works of love. It's demonstrated.

May God help us to live out our faith. May our faith be active. And this is a tremendous opportunity that we have as the church to live out our faith. There's many people who are living in fear. They're afraid of many things. But we have a chance to live out our faith, to trust in God. And may God help us to do that. You say, how do I grow in my faith? Remember what James said? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

This is how our faith grows right here. This is it. You want to grow in your walk with the Lord? Do you want to know who Jesus is? Do you want to see the natural byproduct of abiding in Christ? Then abide in the Word of God and you'll see it. It just happens. Your faith will be demonstrated. People will see a difference. And the world needs to see faithful people, loving Jesus, fulfilling the royal law of love. Not sizing them up based upon what we think. Oh man, I can't believe it's one of those people. Jesus died for those people, whoever they are. You and me, we used to be one of those people. But look at us. Foolish things of the world, confounding the wise. I mean, the grace of God, the mercy of God has triumphed over judgment that we deserved.

Guest (Male): Pastor John Randall on A Daily Walk. What you heard today is a message called No Favorites. John will be right back with more. Would you like to hear the message again? Just go to adailywalk.org, or look for us wherever you get your podcasts. Another convenient way to listen to Pastor John is through our mobile app. Be among the thousands that are being encouraged in their daily walk by downloading that today. Find our app by searching for Calvary South OC.

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John Randall: Heavenly Father, we come to you tonight and Lord, we do confess that there have been those moments, Lord, when we have shown partiality. Maybe not intentionally, or maybe intentionally. Either way, we recognize tonight from your Word that it's something that is inconsistent with true godly character and genuine faith in Christ. So Lord, would you give us your eyes? Would you give us your heart tonight to see people the way you see them?

Beyond the externals, beyond the verbal anger, to look beyond the hate-filled glare or the indifferent mentality to all of it. Father, please help us to see people like you see them. Lord, thank you for the way you see us through eyes of love and mercy. Lord, this week, allow our faith to be demonstrated through the life that we live by abiding in you. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): Tomorrow on A Daily Walk, we'll learn more about a faith that works, when Pastor John Randall digs deeper into James chapter two. This program is brought to you by Calvary South OC and made possible through your generous support.