Rev. David Holwick R First Baptist Church Ledgewood, New Jersey May 22, 1994 James 2:10-13 ONE STRIKE AND YOU'RE OUT! ========================== 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. B. The Law and my family. One of the vivid memories I have of childhood goes back to a vacation our family was on. 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 rear view 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. I quickly learned something about the law - you never give it a thought until you break it, and get caught. #2451 C. God is tougher than New Jersey, yet more merciful than a cop. 1) His requirements are great. 2) But his love 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 broke 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- 2) We want people to focus on what we do right. a) Areas of obedience. b) Things that don't tempt us. 3) Our problem is that we don't always do right. a) We give in to temptation. b) We reject God's way. 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. 2) If you've broken one, you might as well break the rest. 3) All sin is the same. a) Big ones are same in God's eyes as little ones. 1> Great for rationalizing sin. b) Reality - some sins are bigger than others. 1> Shown by differing punishments. c) Where sins are the same - they each separate us from God. 1> Though to differing degrees. 4) It's possible to be almost totally good. a) James is setting up a hypothetical situation. b) The reality is that "we all stumble in many ways." 3:2 C. Real issue: commit one crime, you become a criminal. Radio commercial - girl calls her father. She is in jail and needs bond. She had shoplifted small object, 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 system. -3- 1) God's law is a unity. a) When commit a sin, even a minor one, we violate God's system. b) It is to violate the will of God and to contradict the character of God. c) The same God who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." d) We cannot pick and choose. 2) God doesn't want broad obedience. He wants total obedience. a) Don't excuse even "small sins." III. The key is in the details. 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. (Barb Turner - lost child, I must be good so I'll see them in heaven." -4- 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> Paid price for us all. 2> Only name to be saved by. Acts 4:12 B. "Little" sins can make a big difference. The mighty Ben Hogan, one of golfdom'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. Years ago, 30 year old George C. Shafer was fishing from a rowboat with two friends at Great Egg Harbor near Somers Point, New Jersey. He caught a small black bass and laughingly whirled it around his head to show his companions. But the tiny fish slipped from the hook and landed in Shafer's open mouth, lodging in his throat. While one of his friends rowed desperately for shore, the other unsuccessfully tried to dislodge the fish. But Shafer was pronounced dead, from strangulation, on arrival at the Shore Memorial Hospital in Gloucester City. One tiny fish was all it took. In like manner, it only takes one sin to damn a soul in Hell forever. #170 IV. Act as those who will be judged. 2:12 A. Judgment Day is real. 1) No condemnation for Christians. Rom 8:1 2) But our works will be assessed, and we will be rewarded (or punished) accordingly. -5- 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. C. Since fringes affect us most, put most energy there. 1) Habit affects us, drop it. 2) Sinful relationship, cut it off. a) Even innocent aspects, since they give you an excuse to hang on. V. Mercy triumphs over judgment. 2:13 A. Moralism is a dead end. 1) "Be good" is not focus of book, though many think so. a) James writes to saved people. b) Salvation is a free gift. 2) Yet salvation always bears fruit. a) Not 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 b) Mercy doesn't save us, but shows we are reflecting God's love. B. God is not a legalistic. 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) -6- 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 principal 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