Rev. David Holwick ZA Book of James #7
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey (this sermon duplicates the one of 5/22/97)
August 26, 2007
James 2:10-13
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I. How much slack should we get?
A. "Three strikes and you're out" law.
1) Repeat offenders will get automatic life sentences.
2) Fulfills our sense of justice.
3) May also fill the prisons.
There are now 2 million people in jail, double what
it was ten years ago.
One California man got 25 years for stealing a bottle
of vitamins.
B. The Law is not just for other people.
Our flight home from Colorado had an interesting twist.
A man in the front of the plane had a tantrum.
He bickered with the flight attendant and kicked the seat
in front of him.
The woman who sat in front began crying and they moved her back
to where we were.
When we landed, the pilot made this announcement: "Please do
not unbuckle your seatbelts when we reach the terminal.
Our plane will be boarded by the police and an individual will
be removed first."
That got everyone's attention! Not a single person stood up
when the plane stopped.
Sure enough, a Newark policeman walked on the plane and took
the man away.
His young son had to follow him.
That's when it struck me - he wasn't much different than me.
Have you ever been in a situation like that?
I vividly remember an incident from a childhood vacation.
Our station wagon was packed with sleeping bags and kids, and
we were making our way through some nameless city.
Eventually we came to a particularly complicated intersection,
which was cluttered with traffic lights and route signs.
My father had pulled up too far to see his signal, so he waited
for the one ahead to change, then he went across.
What I remember is my Dad's reaction when he saw the police
car's flashing lights in the rearview mirror.
He slammed his fist on the steering wheel, said some words I
didn't understand and pulled the car over to the curb.
The officer apologized for the confusing intersection, then he
wrote my father a ticket.
Everyone who drove past us stared at us...
I quickly learned something about the law - you never give it
much thought until you get caught breaking it.
#2451
C. God is tougher than a Newark cop, yet more merciful.
1) His requirements are great.
2) But his love for us is greater.
II. Stumble on one, break all. 2:10
A. Most of God's laws are not a problem for us.
1) Few people break the sixth commandment: do not murder.
a) Some have been tempted, but you stopped yourself.
b) It is a good law because we can easily obey it.
2) We want people to focus on what we do right.
a) Areas where it is easy for us to be obedient.
b) Things that don't tempt us.
3) Our problem is that we don't always do right.
a) We give in to temptation in some areas.
b) In the context in James 2, Christians were favoring rich
people over poor people.
1> They probably thought it was not that big an issue.
2> James disagrees.
B. What James is NOT saying.
1) Break one law, you've broken all of them.
a) This would make a rapist also a murderer, thief, etc.
b) If you've broken one, you might as well break the rest.
2) This would make all sin the same.
a) Big ones are same in God's eyes as little ones.
1> This is great for rationalizing sin.
b) Reality - some sins are bigger than others.
1> Shown by Jesus' teaching on differing punishments.
c) Where sins are the same - they each separate us from God.
1> But they separate us to differing degrees.
3) James is setting up a hypothetical situation.
a) There is no one who stumbles at just one point. 2:10
b) The reality is that "we all stumble in many ways." 3:2
III. Real issue: commit one crime, you become a criminal.
Radio commercial - girl calls her father.
She is in jail and needs to post a bond.
She had shoplifted a small object and got caught.
"Daddy, they're treating me like a criminal!"
Why is little Susie being treated like a criminal?
Because she IS one.
She's not a hardened murderer, but she violated the
law and must face the consequences.
A. God's law is a unity.
1) When commit a sin, even a minor one, we violate God's
system.
2) It is to violate the will of God and to contradict the
character of God.
3) The same God who said, "Do not commit adultery," also
said, "Do not murder." (and don't covet, don't show
favoritism, etc.)
4) We cannot pick and choose.
B. God doesn't want broad obedience. He wants TOTAL obedience.
1) Don't excuse even "small sins."
IV. The details matter.
A. Our typical attitude.
1) Rationalize.
a) Everyone else is doing it.
b) It hurts no one but me.
c) It is only a small part of my life.
d) My heart is right, I just can't control my actions.
2) Reduce.
a) "Love your neighbor" does not justify having an affair
with them.
b) The Bible is very clear on the content of love.
c) The particulars of Bible are just as important as the
broad principles.
3) Rectify. (Make right)
a) If I do one bad sin, I can balance it with 3 good deeds.
b) Good behavior doesn't get us into heaven.
1> Widespread attitude.
(A believer I knew in Ohio once told me, "I lost
a child so I must be good so I'll see them
in heaven.")
2> Our good behavior is never good enough.
A> God demands perfection.
B> He doesn't grade on a curve.
c) Only Jesus was good enough.
1> He paid the price for us all.
2> His is the only name to be saved by. Acts 4:12
B. "Little" sins can make a big difference.
The mighty Ben Hogan, one of golf's greatest, lost the tenth
annual Masters Championship at Augusta on April 7, 1949,
when he blew a single putt of a mere 30 inches.
This enabled an unknown from Akron who hasn't been heard from
since, Herman Keiser, to win that prestigious tournament.
How often we hear, "I have just one weakness," or, "I have
just one besetting sin."
As Mel Trotter, a man mightily used by God in mission work on
our nation's skid rows, put it:
"In the last analysis, there is always just one sin that keeps
a man from getting right with God."
And it only takes one sin to damn that man or woman in Hell
forever.
#170
V. Act as those who will give an account. 2:12
A. Judgment Day is real.
1) There is no condemnation for Christians. Rom 8:1
2) But our works will be assessed, and we will be rewarded
(or punished) accordingly. (Judgment Seat of Christ)
B. We will answer for our conduct.
1) In this life.
a) We reap fruit of our sin.
b) Repentance and forgiveness may not take away
consequences.
2) In the next life.
VI. Mercy triumphs over judgment. 2:13
A. Moralism is a dead end.
1) "Be good" is not the focus of James, though many think so.
a) James writes to saved people.
b) He knows that salvation is a free gift.
2) Yet salvation always bears fruit.
a) Focus is not on moralism, but morality - clean living.
b) "Law" describes what God expects of us, not the entrance
ticket for heaven.
3) If we are saved by grace, is sin that important?
a) Our attitude toward sin reveals our attitude toward God.
1> Show no mercy, receive no mercy. 2:13
2> Jesus taught the exact same thing.
b) Mercy doesn't save us, but shows we are reflecting
God's love.
B. God is not a legalistic bully. He is a softy.
1) His requirement of perfection cannot be met by us.
2) So he met them himself, by having Jesus die on the cross.
3) He wants to forgive us. (even when people won't)
Lillie Baltrip is a good bus driver.
In fact, in 1988 the Houston school district nominated her for
a safe-driving award.
Her colleagues even trusted her to drive a busload of them to
an awards ceremony for safe drivers.
Unfortunately, on the way to the ceremony, Lillie turned a
corner too sharply and flipped the bus over.
She and sixteen others were sent to the hospital for minor
emergency treatment.
Did Lillie, accident free for a whole year, get her award anyway?
No.
Award committees rarely operate on the principle of grace.
How fortunate we are that even when we don't maintain a spotless
life-record, our final reward depends on God's grace, not on
our performance!
#1897
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#170 "One Weakness Is All It Takes," by Dr. Robert Sumner, Biblical
Evangelist newspaper, August 1987, p. 4.
#1897 "No Grace For Bus Drivers," by Grant Lovejoy, Forth Worth, Texas,
Leadership, Winter 1990, p. 51.
#2451 "Dad Runs a Stop Sign," personal experience of Rev. David Holwick.
These and 30,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be
downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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