James

[0:00] all right so we have been going through the book of james and there's a lot of james that seems just to not really fit especially with some of the things that paul said and so we've been talking through that it's good for us when we're studying the book of james and like we've said in the past james is different has a different audience he says he's writing to the 12 tribes scattered abroad and so this is a jewish audience we could call james a hebrew epistle it was written to hebrews i've also heard some call it a circumcision epistle as you have paul said he is the apostle of the uncircumcision and he said peter and the other 12 were apostles to the circumcision and so he talks about that in galatians i believe and so james the brother of jesus who his actual name is jacob but it got translated james at some point in the translation process hundreds of years ago so it kind of stuck but james is the name jacob just like the patriarch jacob and um james is writing to jewish believers this is really early on in fact most scholars if you will believe that the book of james was the first epistle written and uh this was after the dispersion there was a persecution a lot of the jews especially the ones who trusted in christ as their messiah they got dispersed to the other nations and even today that name dispersion it's called diaspora diaspora is used to describe jews who live in other countries in the world if you have jews that live in new york or chicago or here in ohio they might be called the diaspora or diaspora they are the dispersed jews they're not living in their in their homeland so that's the context and so with some of the things that seem curious that james james that james brings up has to do is is because of that context james is following up on the heels of jesus and his ministry and what was the primary message of jesus when he was on in his earthly ministry repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and so you'll see a lot of kingdom language uh talking about the kingdom and this is an earthly kingdom so let me see if i can find where we are i think we're we didn't quite finish james chapter one but i think we're at verse 21 therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls well what's he talking about what is the implanted word that he's talking about one of the things that makes me think of again this is james the lord's brother is matthew 13 the parable of the sower and what is the seed that's being sown in that parable it's the word of god and so and he talks about the importance of holding on to that word and that word is the message of the kingdom and the word can be never received he says if it lands on the wayside it's just never received the devil takes away before the devil takes away the seed before it's ever really implanted in the heart and then the two other warnings were that it's choked out by the weeds and thorns and that represents the cares of this world riches just regular life really that can distract you from this message of the kingdom and the importance of entering into the kingdom and then the last one actually i think it was the second one is uh trials or temptations depending on what translation you read he calls it trials or temptations and temptations really is trials and so trials and that's a big theme in in the book of james can cause people to say forget about it this is too hard and that was a big message of jesus and a big message from james doesn't matter how hard it is even if they take your life continue to believe and to hold fast to that word that i've given you and during this time especially that was what was on the table it's intense persecution and so i believe that's the context for the book of or what james is writing here as well so again therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of witness wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls and then he talks about this word in verse 22 he says but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves again a lot of reference or allusion if you will back to what some of the things that jesus taught in fact one of the things that jesus said what's that where would paul's grace message be in this time frame i wondered if that verse 21 was a reference to the grace message verse 21 no i don't think so i think so as far as i can tell it seems to me that james most likely wrote his letter to these jewish believers before paul ever even came on the scene as as you know he might have had his conversion experience but he had not started his ministry and i doubt except for maybe one of the early meetings remember paul says that he went to jerusalem and who did he say that he met i think he just met peter didn't he say he just met peter briefly i can't remember exactly but i don't even know that he met james and so i think at this point probably when james is writing he had never even met paul and so he probably and this is a big controversy with james is some people think that james knows about paul's message of grace only through faith alone and he's kind of correcting right paul when he talks about faith and works said he can't just be faith alone you gotta you gotta have your works that follow along with it so a lot of people think that he is correcting paul and we'll get into that probably not this week but in future weeks because that's in chapter two but i think that james is really ignorant of of the message that paul brought when is as far as his apostle apostleship to the gentiles and his message to the gentiles which was intended by the way and we said this last week why did god go to the gentiles with grace only no works you don't have to endure to the end like the jews did you don't have to keep the law like the jews did but it's just grace only and he says in romans 11 it was to make the jews jealous because they rejected the chief cornerstone they rejected their messiah and so he wanted to he says i'm cutting off israel and i'm going to graft in the gentiles and the reason that he gave was to make the jews jealous and so in a way our the the grace that we have the mercy that we've received the great deal that we have is because of the jews rejection of of their messiah and of course in there again he says that he will not cut them off forever that he'll graft them back in again as a people and if you're a jew today you come to god you become a child of god not through the law because that whole system has been cut off it's the really the system that's been cut off and i think that confuses a lot of people some people think in fact i was listening to a message from somebody who's holds to the covenant theology system which is a different kind of way way of approaching the bible and his view was that the whole nation of israel anybody who's an israelite is just cut off so they don't have any access to god and that's not true at all jews today if they want to become the people of god they basically have to become a gentile and it's not through the law but it's through grace alone and that's how they come to christ that's how they become a child of god but be ye doers of the word so again james he's speaking to jews they're under the law but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves here's a reference in deuteronomy 30 verse 12 it is not in heaven that you should say who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear and do it nor is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear and do it but the word is very near you in your mouth and in your heart that you may hear it no that you may do it that is the teaching of the law the law of moses does the law of moses say here's the law of great things that you might try and i just want you to listen and make sure that you get lots of good knowledge and that you understand it and then you're good is that what the law is that the purpose of the law no the law was meant to be done to be accomplished to do it in ezekiel 33 verse 30 it says this as for you son of man the children of your people are talking about you beside the walls and in the doors of the houses and they speak to one another and everyone saying to his brother please come and hear what the word is that comes from the lord so they come to you as people do they sit before you as my people and they hear your words but they do not do them for with their mouth they show much love but their hearts pursue their own game indeed you are to them a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they hear your words but they don't do them that was the prophet ezekiel is a warning to the people of israel oh the law it's like a beautiful instrument don't you love to hear it it's beautiful and people today right can read the bible and they read the proverbs maybe or the psalms and they're beautiful words especially the king james right king james bible is like this masterpiece of the english language and there's so much beauty to it but if you're a jew living under the law is it meant for you to hear a beautiful message a poem beautiful poetry no it's meant to be obeyed and accomplished that's the purpose of the law in romans chapter 2 paul talks about how both jew and gentile are under sin both jew and gentile are condemned and he talks about the jew and he says the jewish people tend to think that because god gave them the law that makes them good that makes them righteous because god gave them the law but paul reminds any of his jewish hearers in romans 2 verse 13 he says this for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of god but the doers of the law will be justified not those who hear it but those who do it when you're under the law then it's those who do the law that are justified and so having talked about all that and this is what james is teaching his hearers these jewish people who are under the law for us under grace in this what we call the age of grace in which we live we ought to be doers of righteousness as well shouldn't we is it wrong to be righteous is it kind of one of those things where it's like ah maybe i'll be righteous next week as christians is that how we ought to live our lives maybe i should do good things and love my neighbor next week no we should live lives that are good and practicing righteousness and loving our neighbor and all of these things each and every day but we our salvation and our state our standing of righteousness does not depend on us accomplishing the law upon us keeping the law our righteousness is in christ and as long as we are in him if you've trusted in christ and in his blood shed for you you are in christ and you are righteous just as he is righteous so as a jew you can accomplish a certain amount of righteousness right by keeping the law but it will never be a perfect righteousness will it for us we have this opportunity to stand in the perfect righteousness of christ all right let's move on verse 23 for if any if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror for he observes himself goes away and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does and so he gives this illustration of a man looking in a mirror it's a little bit odd what is he talking about why would somebody look in a mirror and they forget what they look like does anybody have that experience i i don't have that experience when i look in the mirror and i walk away i i still remember in general what i look like so what is what is he referring to here i think the analogy is you look into a mirror and you've got like bed head have anybody ever looked in the mirror in the morning and you've got like your hair sticking out to the side right or maybe you got this big juicy pimple on your nose has anybody ever done that uh or i don't know you need to shave you see blemishes in your face right when you wake up in the morning and so you can look in the mirror and see well i really need to comb my hair or i really need to shave i really need to take care of that little pimple you can observe and then walk away and forget what you saw that there's these things here that need to be taken care of that's like the law the law is a mirror it shows us the problems in our life the imperfections the ways in which we've failed to live up to god's standard that is the law it's like a mirror and so when you look at the law and you just read it you just hear it but you don't do anything about it it's like looking in the mirror your hair your hair is a total disaster you walk away and you don't do anything about it that's i think what james is getting at here so when you're under the law it's not enough to just hear the law to know that you're a sinner what did jesus teach repent change your mind don't just say well i'm a sinner you need to turn away from those sins and turn towards righteousness we of course ought to do the same thing the big difference is that we are righteous in our standing and our identity already but we still ought to now as christian believers under grace we can look to the law and it shows us that we have blemishes but it doesn't condemn us it doesn't have the power anymore to condemn us we are still children of god regardless of our success or failure to keep those standards but we still we ought to as christians live lives that are honoring to him and so we also when we look into the mirror of the law should make adjustments if we need to right but again for us our our salvation our righteousness itself is not dependent on that so let's see one of the things he says is sorry in deuteronomy 28 there is the cursings and the blessings of the law anybody remember reading that in in the old testament law there was pronounced blessings if you keep the law and cursings if you don't keep the law he says here where is it but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and is not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this one will be blessed in what he does and that was the law if you keep the law you'll be blessed if you don't keep it you'll be cursed and that's the thing that paul warns about right he says if you try to keep the law if you put yourself under it you think i'm going to get blessing but you know what happens in actuality you fail and then you get the curses so why don't you do why don't you just take christ instead it's a better deal because it comes with blessings only he talks about the perfect law of liberty in that phrase there's an allusion back to the old testament you'll see lots of references back to the old testament in psalm 19 7 it says this the law of the lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the lord is sure making wise the simple so again this is what the old testament says the law of the lord is perfect now some have said as they read james well the law of liberty that's not the law of moses that's something else that's like i don't trusting in christ or something and i think we can know for sure that that's not the case because what's the next verse say or let's see no where are we at oh maybe i'm looking at the wrong oh i think i'm thinking of chapter two we'll get there in a second but in romans let's look at romans four well actually three and four we'll just read one of these verses there's this is in romans three and four but in romans 3 10 it says this for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse paul teaches this for it is written cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things which are written in the book of the law to hear them to say them to do them he says cursed is the one who fails to do them that's what the law teaches that you must do them but that no one is justified by the law in the sight of god is evident for the just shall live by faith yet the law is not a faith but the man who does them shall live by them or maybe said a better way the one who does them shall have life by them okay we'll move on to verse 26 i really want to get into chapter 2 here if anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless one of the things to bring up here if any one of you thinks he is religious in evangelical christianity we have a tendency to say that christianity is not a religion but it's a what a relationship and is that true that is that is true that christianity is a relationship but i think we go a little bit too far when we say it's not a religion is christianity a religion it sure is because a religion is any set of beliefs about god really right and we have beliefs about god and so christianity is a religion and a relationship it's not just a religion that might be a better way to say it and james uses that language here if anyone among you thinks he is religious so think about faithful to your faith whatever that might be and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this one's religion is useless so he's saying if you say you have faith you're a religious person but your tongue commits all kinds of sin then your faith is in vain it's it's useless pure and undefiled religion before god and the father is this to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world psalm 119 verse 1 says this blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the lord is it those who hear the law of the lord it's those who walk in the law of the lord that is what the law is all about it's about walking it's about doing and so pure and undefiled religion before god and the father is to visit orphans and widows to do good things and to keep so it's one doing positive things so going at this is an outreach right visiting orphans and widows but also keeping yourself unspotted from from sin all right we're going to go to chapter two my brethren do not hold the faith of our lord jesus christ the lord of glory with partiality it's not a word that we use a lot today but we're going to focus on that word for if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes and you would pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him you sit here in a good place and say to the poor man you stand over there or sit here at my feet at my footstool have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts so there's this whole thing with seating in church being an opportunity for partiality is that something that only happened two thousand years ago what's up with this seating in church thing right it's like it seems to have persisted for thousands of years and i think it's maybe become i i haven't seen a lot of this in my christian experience but i've i heard about a one of these mega churches in new york city and in new york city some of these churches have like celebrities like hollywood actors or musicians or whatever that will come to the church and there was i was listening to something i can't remember but they said this was a really big problem they'd save all these special seats for like the celebrities and they would they would be able to sit up front right now grace bible church all of the celebrities here they sit in the back right because those are the those are the real good seats but in other churches it's up at the front nobody in our church sits up in the front do they but uh yeah adam's back there he's he's our cele here's our local celebrity but there have been you know i i think it's one of the ways in any church you even though you don't sit in the front or the back or the special seats we kind of have a tendency to like this is our row or our section right and it's just convenient right it doesn't necessarily mean you have hardness of your heart or anything but you know if somebody comes in let's say it's a visitor and they sit in your spot and they have no idea and it's like that's where i usually sit but uh so there can be a tendency to to to like our seating but um but this was an issue and he he talks about it here i don't think this is just a what if this happens because he talks about later on he's saying you are doing these things so this is something that actually happened one of the things that i want to bring out in verse 2 james 2 for if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings that word assembly does anybody ever does anybody have another translation that has another word beside assembly me yeah there i think one translation i saw said a meeting place congregation there are some translations that actually translate it correctly or more accurately i should say because the actual word is synagogue so if if you take notes in your bible put an underline under that word and write synagogue that is the word if you read a literal translation like uh what's the um i can't remember the name of the literal translation young's young's literal translation he actually translates it synagogue and why would that be important yeah okay what is that zephyr it's like um translation taken from the greek and the hebrew english language so it puts in some hebrew words and greek words okay okay okay so it takes more care it sounds like for like hebrew references and things like that which is the case here so it's the word synagogue now that's interesting because you don't see the word synagogue used of churches in any of paul's writings and so that's just another bit of evidence for those who maybe struggle with this idea that the james is speaking to a jewish audience some people say well when james says that he's writing to the 12 tribes of israel he's just referencing the whole church that's jew and gentile as the 12 tribes that never happens anywhere else he's speaking to jews who are worshiping in synagogues just like they did 50 years earlier so the christians the jewish christians those who believed in the messiah those who were jews they continued to go to synagogue and that's they had synagogues were they just in israel were they just in judea no they actually built synagogues out into different countries in which they lived and so he's talking about not a church like we have today but he's talking about a jewish synagogue if there should come into your synagogue a man with gold rings fine apparel etc etc so the big picture here is he's talking about this sin of partiality and really what is the sin of partiality it's this temptation to give preference to other people based on not people's character or whether they're really truly do some level of honor and doesn't the bible say in some places that there are some to whom honor is due it talks about kings right we should give kings and those in authority do honor right it talks about in churches the the leaders in churches you should give them honor in fact those who teach the word it says are worthy of double honor but does having a lot of wealth by itself is that one of those things that by itself give you a privilege of having honor no it's not so that's being partial you're being partial for undue reasons this kind of thing happens in businesses all the time this kind of partiality so it's a this idea of you have somebody it's like i scratch your back and you scratch mine if you're especially if you're in sales you're a salesman what do you do you you have a really nice dinner a really nice steakhouse and you invite your client to come have dinner with you right and you show him a lot of honor and the next time he's looking to buy some widgets whatever it might be he's going to remember that you bought him a really nice dinner and well we're good friends and he's really nice so i'm going to send him my business this kind of thing should never happen in the church of christ that's not how that's not how church works is it church doesn't work like a sales business and so there can be opportunities in a church where you have somebody who is a who is a bigger giver right and sometimes there are expectations well you know i gave a lot of money to this you know cause or whatever so i i think you should preach about this or preach about that or i think that we should do things this way or that way we had the amy carmichael play that the kids did and there was a character in there i think she was kind of an uppity she was probably wealthy and she was talking to the pastor and you know suggesting all kinds of things that he should do and she was what speaking ill of those poor people over there one of the things that pastor marv i really appreciate that he's talked about in the past is he has he doesn't have any inkling about who gives what at church he doesn't see the offerings they don't come in people put them in that box back there we don't we don't pass a plate here and somebody else handles the money and you know if they put them in envelopes with their name on it we'll send them a tax receipt or whatever but he never sees those things and i think that's wise because even if there is no nothing said sometimes there are just expectations has anybody has anybody ever experienced this where somebody gives you a really nice gift especially maybe when you're younger and you don't have a lot and there are strings attached sometimes they're unspoken but you just know if you receive that gift it's gonna maybe come up later well i did this for you anybody ever experienced that it's just me i see some nodding of the heads and so that can be a risk even in a church right somebody gives a gift and so i think it's it's wise to maybe separate the knowledge of who's giving what because even if the intention isn't there sometimes the temptation can come even if that's not the intention of the giving all right then he says he says this at the end you have uh verse four have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts what is he talking about you've become judges because you're partial you judges makes you think of a courtroom and i think he's making that kind of a an illusion to a courtroom but you can think about when you have people come into a courtroom you have somebody who's guilty and somebody who's innocent and you might just give special favor even though they're guilty you give special person favor to somebody because well your friends or maybe there's somebody who's well known maybe they have a lot of power that you might scratch your back in the future is that a good judge who does that that's really like a bribe right and so in the same way you shouldn't do the same thing in a church setting where you judge people and whether they should be honored or privileged based on how much money they have in deuteronomy 117 it says this you shall not show partiality in judgment you shall hear the small as well as the great you shall not be afraid in any man's presence for the judgment is god's so whether somebody has a lot of money or a lot of power don't fear them don't fear their power don't fear their wealth and don't be tempted by it either but judge accurately based on each person's character or testimony or the reality of their really their character and then the in romans uh paul talks about the lord is the lord partial some people i think tend to see the lord as partial especially with the jews it seems like he was partial to the jewish people right one of the things that happened in acts 10 is with the house of cornelius peter went to the house of cornelius and the holy spirit came on them when he preached the gospel of the messiah to cornelius about who jesus was and they believed in the holy spirit came on them and peter was kind of shocked like these aren't jewish people these are gentiles but he said this and in his testimony when he went back home peter opened his mouth and he said in truth i perceive that god shows no partiality that was his testimony of that event you were gentile and even during the time of the jews under the law if you were a gentile and you wanted to become a child of god could you do that you could you didn't have to be born a jew in fact there are many famous people who became jews even though they weren't born jews ruth right and there are other examples in the bible of those who submitted themselves to the law some of them married in right but they submitted themselves to the law and they become they became the people of god verse 5 listen my beloved brethren has not god chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him he's giving this reason it's easy to think well god doesn't really care about the poor i mean they don't have a lot for some people who kind of have a more deterministic view of how everything works might think well the reason they're poor is because god doesn't love them some people would think that that's the reason why you're poor because god doesn't love you as much as he loves people who are rich and powerful this whole idea of the poor he says this this is so interesting as god has not has not god chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom he's talking about the kingdom of god that was at hand that he promised to those who love him and we talked about this in past verses in james but let's i'm just gonna i've got a few verses here but let me just pick out one in luke chapter 6 verse 20 jesus is giving the beatitudes and he says this he said blessed are you poor for yours is the kingdom of god that's exactly what luke said luke 7 22 john john the baptist he was kind of unsure is this jesus guy that i baptize is he really the one i mean i think he is but i'm not sure so he sent some disciples to go ask and they asked him and jesus said go back and tell john this go tell john the thing luke 7 22 go and tell john the things you have seen and heard that the blind see the lame walk the lepers are cleansed the deaf hear the dead are raised and the poor have the gospel preached to them and one of the things that jesus one of the first things where jesus kind of really announced his ministry going back to luke chapter 4 remember he went into the synagogue and they he opened up the torah and then he read from it and he said this the spirit he read from isaiah the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor and then he continued that that was about jesus coming his gospel was to the poor and then jesus taught the rich to sell the things that they had and to become poor basically didn't he remember the rich man well he says this in luke 12 32 he says do not fear little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom the father wants to give you the kingdom then he says this sell what you have and give ons provide yourselves money bags which do not grow old so get rid of your other money bags your physical money and then take these spiritual money bags a treasure in heaven that does not fail where no thief approaches nor moth destroys for where your treasure is there your heart will be also and to the rich man remember who the rich man came what shall i do to inherit eternal life he says sell everything that you have well he said keep the commandments first he says i've done all that he says all right one thing you lack go sell everything you have and come follow me because the kingdom is at hand and i need as many laborers as i can so i want you to sell everything and follow me become poor and you'll receive riches in heaven under grace totally different message in galatians 3 28 in fact if you let's turn there we've got five more minutes galatians 3 28 it's good to make distinctions here especially when it comes to the book of james because it's as important as believers that we walk by grace not walk according to the law because if we do then we lose out on all the benefits that is meant for us as in walking by grace we kind of we come under condemnation and guilt and we come under condemnation and guilt of not fulfilling the law as we ought to then what happens that causes us to to be separated from god even if it's just in our minds right we're guilty just like adam and eve we want to run away from god but when we know that regardless of our ability to obey what is good right and true even the moral aspects of the law that continue to remain things that we ought to do that we are under grace that we are righteous in him and we can come to him anytime that we want we won't be separated from him but in galatians 3 28 paul says this we'll first start with the verse 27 for as many of you as were baptized into christ not into water but into christ have put on christ there is need there is neither jew nor greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female for you are all one in christ jesus we could add additional things there couldn't we there's neither slave nor free there's neither rich nor poor in christ it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor we're all the same in christ so whether you have a lot of money which is fine it's fine to have a lot of money where you have very little which is also fine we're all the same in christ whereas in the time of this kingdom when persecution was coming and jesus was saying i need you to sell everything you have there was actually a bit of virtue there was some virtue in being poor get rid of all your stuff come follow me we'll preach the kingdom because it's at hand but in the age of grace there is no virtue in being poor there's no virtue in being rich there's virtue in being like christ that's all the only place where there is virtue verse 6 in james james 2 6 but you have dishonored the poor man do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called now this is a little bit i think uh hyperbolic if you will because do all do all rich people drag people into court are all rich people just just jerks no there's plenty of examples of that being true right to where it might seem that way but that's not the case at all so and it's easy to read verses like this and for people who are especially interested in creating divisions in a culture to try to pit the rich against the poor and does that happen in our day at all yeah we call it class warfare and that's the agenda of the socialists and the marxists they want to create divisions between those who have more and those who have less so you have that one percent that we gotta soak it we gotta we gotta soak them we gotta go after those people and we we shouldn't fall prey to that kind of thinking verse eight but if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture you shall love your neighbor as yourself you do well but if you show partiality you commit sin and are convicted by the law as trans transgressors he says if you really fulfill the royal law that word royal what's a what's another what does that make you think of what is royal kingdom right and it's actually the same word if you fulfill the kingdom law he's talking about the kingdom the kingdom is coming and the king is coming and here is this law and you shall love your neighbor as yourself some people think oh jesus said that and so that must be something that jesus said well jesus said it but what was he quoting the law of moses you shall love your neighbor as yourself if you show partiality you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors the verse that he was quoting that jesus quoted well that james is quoting and that jesus quote is in leviticus 19 18 he says this you shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the children of your people but you shall love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord he says this in verse 9 but if you show partiality you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors so this whole concept of partiality is something that's really important james is saying don't show partiality you'll be convicted by the law as believers under grace we aren't convicted by the law because we're not under it that doesn't mean we should be partial but we don't have this conviction this condemnation that was for the that that those who were were under the law had in leviticus 19 15 it teaches this you shall do no injustice in judgment you shall not be partial to the poor nor honor the person of the mighty in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor and we'll finish with this because we just have a minute left in this verse there is a concern about being partial to both the rich and the poor and you would typically think and this is typically the case right that you're typical to somebody who can scratch your back right you're partial to somebody who can do you a favor so usually it's the rich right that can do that but when you live in a democracy where people vote for you then you can do favors for the majority downtrodden and actually if you try to make as many people poor as you can turn the voting masses make them as poor as you can or as many as you can't poor and then you can show them favors then you can get them to vote for you right and so we have that today we have both in fact we have politicians who will usually in secret give favors to the rich and then in public they'll like slam the rich and say these people are evil and we need to tax them you know through the ears and you don't want to do with all that tax money i'm going to give it to all the poor people and that includes you you you and you and so we create all these classes of people and so we're showing partiality and both are wrong that's what it teaches there in leviticus it's wrong to show partiality to the rich and it's wrong to show partiality to the poor and so we should show no partiality at all but today in our culture especially and even in some christian circles it's taught that you should be partial to the poor to those who are downtrodden and that's not true we shouldn't show partiality at all all right i'm going to uh i'm going to end there and give just a few minutes for any thoughts or comments or questions okay yeah yeah so i've chatted a bit and watched some videos online about that topic and i think that many of the jews would be more willing to accept christ if they didn't think they had to become a gentile or be as a gentile um so they want to keep the law because that's the jewish tradition uh i just think they have to understand that their salvation after they accepted messiah isn't keeping the law it's in the messiah but i think they can still be jewish i guess is what i'm saying and maybe not be christian like we are but they believe in their messiah for their salvation yeah i think that's a good point so steve is saying it might be counterproductive to tell a jewish person that they need to become a gentile in order to become a christian and when i said that phrase you know maybe it could be communicated better become a gentile in that you're the the object of your faith is no longer the law because that is the object of faith for the jew under the law it was god gave a law and he expects you to obey it so that's where your faith is that's where james is speaking when he talks about faith and works you can't have faith only you have to do the law too but become a gentile in that god is doing a work among the gentiles he's offered grace to the gentiles and so if you try to become a child of god through the law like like a jewish person would then that's that that's not effective at least in the age in which we're living now so you have to come to god through grace alone and really that is talking about grace is in what it's through the blood of christ so your faith is no longer the law but your faith is in the blood of christ so that's what we need to tell our jewish friends is that they need to put their trust in the blood of christ the law doesn't have any power to bring them to make them a child of god so but if they want to continue to keep their traditions and all that kind of thing there isn't a problem there as long as they're not putting their faith as a child of god in those things right in fact some of us like there are people who love to do some of the jewish traditions and i think it's fine as long as you're not putting your faith in that there's no there's nothing providing you salvation or god's you're not you're not a better christian or anything like that if you do those things so thanks for bringing that yeah so the question was would we say today that faith without works is dead so i'm going to say and we'll we'll get to this in a week or two i'm going to say emphatically no we would never ever we should never ever say that as christians and some people think i'm a heretic for saying that and that's fine but the truth is faith without works is the exact kind of faith that god wants us to have he wants us to have faith alone without any works that doesn't mean we shouldn't do works but our faith faith is alone it's by itself it's in christ and the blood of his blood only yes susan saved unto good works we ought to do good works because we're grateful for what god did in us but we don't put any trust in our works and so faith without works is the kind of faith that makes us a child of god and then we can live for him as a child of god not to become a child of god but as a child of god and gratitude and love for him we can live a life of good works so john the jews in the old testament even i mean they were under the law but god showed him grace because they had animal sacrifices yes faith in an innocent dying for their sin and guilty yeah abraham believed god so they were they didn't keep the law to get saved tired of to be a child of god they kept it for blessing or cursing well they had they had to they had to keep the law they couldn't just ignore it right they had to trust and the animal sacrifices were basically a way to show them well god says i know you're gonna fail right so that's why you have to sacrifice every single year it wasn't like well i did pretty good this year so i'll have to do sacrifices and that didn't happen every single year you gave the sacrifices and that was kind of built into the law as a way to show well you're not gonna you're not gonna keep this perfectly but you can't just ignore it and say well i'm going to be a jew but i'm not going to keep the law because that's thumbing your nose at god and god says nope yes yes yeah yeah we're all members of one body right the body of christ yeah regardless of our heritage past religions you know our heritage our skin color any of those things we're all members of the body of christ members of his body sarah what was your first two references in did romy because i wrote them down was that in chapter one no well yes okay yeah your first your very first two references one of did romy and one of did you feel was uh deuteronomy 30 12 through 14 and ezekiel 33 yes sir deuteronomy 30 12 through 14 and then he's ezekiel 33 30 through 32 oh yeah sure okay all right we're over time thanks everybody