This Week's Sunday School Lesson, "Favored By God",2/9/14

FAVORED BY THE LORD

 

James 2:1-13

 

MY ATTITUDE

V:1. "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism."

 A. We have been favored by the Lord to have faith in Jesus Christ.

      1. We are saved by the grace of God.

      2. It is the glorious work of our Lord and Savior that He died on the cross for us.

      3. Jesus freed us from the gates of hell with His blood shed on the cross.

      4. He continues to cover our daily sins whether intentional or unintentional.

 B. The grace of God does not give us liberty to show favoritism to anyone for

      any reason.

     1. In God's sight, we are all equal.

     2. None of us are more important than others.

     2. All fall short of the glory of God.

 C. We must strive to maintain a humble attitude.

     1. We must strive to see others as God's sees them.

     2. We must strive to keep the pride of our heart from our evaluation of others.

     3. We must strive to keep our personal preferences from the evaluation of

         someone's worth. 

  D. Sometimes we prefer one person over another person because of what they have,

      who they know or what position they hold.

      1. Problem is, we value the material things they have but do not value them.

      2. There is a weakness in us.

          a. The weakness is our lust for material things.

          b. If you strip away the material things then our evaluation will be the same

              for all people.

      3. Seek first the kingdom of God and all his righteousness and all these things will

        be  given to you.

 
OUR EVALUATION

V:2. " For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes."

 A. Notice in the text, God identifies two men. One is rich and one is poor.

      1. The noun in the verse is "man".

          a. The most important thing is that they are men created by God.

      2. The adjectives in the verse describes the men.

 B. The adjectives attributed to the rich man is his stuff.

      1. His stuff is his money and that which money can buy.

      2. He can afford to buy gold rings and the best clothes.

      3. God does not tell us how he obtained his wealth.

      4. His wealth could have been obtained by hard work, by theft, or by inheritance.

      5. His wealth does not describe his character.

 

C. The adjectives attributed to the poor man is his lack of stuff.

     1. Because he does not have money, he cannot afford fancy stuff.

     2. Because he lacks money, he does not have gold rings or fine clothes.

     3. The poor man cannot afford to have his clothes cleaned.

 
D. The "assembly" represents us ,the church.

     1. Both men came to the church.

     2. Since they came to the church, we have to assume that they came to be with us.

     3. Since they came to the church, the Word is available to both men through us.

     4. By observation, based on what we see, one man is rich and one man is poor.

     5. Our evaluation of each man is based on the lust of the eye, fleshly desires, and

        the worlds standards.

     6. From birth, we have been taught that more stuff is better than no stuff.

     7. From birth, we have been taught that we should pursue the obtainment of stuff.

     8. Because of our training, we put a value on stuff.

     9. Being godly men and women, we have identified a weakness in us; our desire

         for  stuff.

 

OUR ERROR

V:3. " And you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool"

 A. According to the text, both men, the rich and the poor are strangers to us.

     1. According to the text, by observation, we cannot determine the character of either

         man.

     2. According to the text, by divine guidance, both men are in the church.

 B. Because of our training, our fleshy desires or our understanding of the worlds

      standard's, we treat one man different than the other.

    1. Because we live in this world, our thinking is corrupt and messed up.

    2. We place a high value on "stuff".

        a. Because of the rich man's stuff, we place him in the good place.

        b. Because of the poor man's lack of stuff, we place no value on him

            and put him under us.

       c. Because of the rich man's stuff, we honor him.

       d. Because of the poor man's lack of stuff, we dishonor him.

       e. The flesh has determined that rich is good and poor is bad.

  3. If we face up to the truth, we would rather be around someone who, looks

      good, dress good and smells good.

    a. We tend to put some distance between us and someone who dress in dirty clothes

         and smells bad.

    b. Because we are messed up, our compassion does not show in the right

        places at the right times.

 

LACK OF COMPASSION

V:4. " Have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?"

A. Lord says check yourself, look in the mirror and see whose side you are on.

   1. The Lord says, check yourself, you might be living according to the flesh and not

       according to the spirit.

   2. If you judge folk by what they got, the devil in you has taken charge.

   3. If you judge folk by what they got, the devil in you has made your religion

       null and void.

 B. We are commanded not to judge, unless we want to be judged by the same standards.

     1. If our judgment is messed up, then we will be judged by the same messed up

         standards.

    2. If we judge another person according to the flesh, chances are it will be by evil

        standards.

 

GOD'S CHOICE

 V:5. " Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?"

 A. God has another standard.

     1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.   Matt 5:3

     2. The poor who love the Lord and are designed to be rich in the spirit.

     3. The poor have a better chance of getting into heaven than the rich.

     4. The poor are favored by God over the rich.

B. When we neglect to have compassion for the poor, we are going against God.

    1. We don't gain anything by helping the rich when we do it out of favoritism.

    2. We store up treasures in heaven when we extend a hand to the poor.  Matt 6:20-21

C. God is not interested in your stuff, He is interested in how you treat people.

    1. The rich man had a lot of stuff, but his spirit was messed up.

    2. The poor man lacked stuff, but he had a rich spirit.

 D. The poor man and the rich man should be seated side by side and next to you.

    1. We all are messed up and need the salvation of the Lord.

    2. The poor man should be seated on your right side and the rich on your left side.

    3. Since you are the Church, you should be prepared to preach the good news about

        Jesus Christ to the rich and the poor alike.

    4. We are all equal in the eyes of the Lord.

        a. We are all dirty by birth in need of washing by the blood of Jesus Christ.

        b. We all need the love of Jesus.

        c. We show our love for Jesus with our love for our brothers.

 

V:6. " But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?"

 A. The rich man values his stuff and will do anything to get more stuff and protect the

       stuff he has.

      1. The rich man will drag you into court to take your stuff and eliminate you.

      2. You have to be careful dealing with rich because they may not see any need for

          you.

      3. The rich will put their trust in their money before they trust God.

 B. The poor is dishonored, when you favor the rich.

     1. God is no respecter of person.

     2. We have to change our attitude to treat the poor with compassion and respect.

     3. God is pleased when we reach out to the poor.

 

A HATRED FOR GOD

V:7.  " Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? "

  A. The rich are guilty of not believing in Jesus.

      1. They can't trust God because they rely on their richness.

      2. They give credit to themselves for what God has done.

      3. By failing to recognize Jesus as Lord and Savior, they

          blaspheme His name.

 B. During the time of the early Church, the Chief Priest, Scribes and the Pharisees

      opposed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     1. They found fault in His good work and made it their business to crucify Him.

     2. They lied about Jesus, paid false witnesses and blaspheme His name.

 C. They were rich in the Word, position and status.

     1. They were charged with the responsibility of teaching the Word of God,

          maintaining the temple and offering up sacrifices to God.

     2. Yet they would not recognize Jesus as the Son of God, Lord of lord's and king

          of kings.

     3. The rich displease God in every way, yet we honor them with the best seat

         in the Church.

     4. Since we are the Church, when we give favor to the rich, we honor them with

         the best place in our hearts.

 

GOD'S COMMAND

V:8. " If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, "YOU

 SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF," you are doing well."

 A. Every poor, disregarded, rejected and homeless person is our neighbor.

    1. When we fail to treat the poor as equal to us and others we break God's command.

    2. When we fail to welcome, encourage, or lend a helping hand to the poor, we fail

        in our love for God and our brothers.

 B.  God places the poor and the rich before us to see how we handle ourselves.

     1. Preferential treatment of one person over another points to a weakness in us.

     2. The love and compassion we have for those in need is an indication of our

         devotion to the righteousness of God.   

 

 V:9. " But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors."

 A. We are sinners by birth, saved by grace through faith.   Eph 2:5

      1. We sin daily, either by omission or co-mission.

      2. It is by the study and meditation of the Word that we are aware of our sins.

 B. It is natural for us to show favoritism to those we love.

     1. It is a sin to show partiality to strangers because of what they possess.

     2. Our love should be non preferential.

     3. God loves us because of who He is, not because of what we have or what we

         have done.

     4. Everything we have and everything we have accomplished is because of God.  

 

THE LAW CONDEMNS

V:10. " For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all."

 A. The law was given not to save, but to show the righteousness of God.

      1. No one can keep the law.

      2. There are 613 commands in the Bible.

 B. The law shows us how far short we come to the glory of God.

      1. The law condemns.

      2. Those who hold to the law will be condemned by the law. Rom 3:20, Gal 2:16

 C. Jesus gave us two new commandments which fulfill the law. Matt 22:37-40

     1. Love the Lord God with all you heart, mind and soul.

     2. Love your neighbor as yourself.

 D. Everybody has the ability to love.

     1. Every Christian must make an effort to love his neighbor.

     2. We can keep the law of love.

  V:11. " For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law"

 A. If we fail to keep any of God's commands in the law, we are guilty of them all.

     1. In God's eyes, there are no big sins or small sins.

     2. All sins carry the penalty of death.

         a. The wages of sin is death.

         b. God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for our sins.

 B. We were once poor in the spirit.

     1. With Jesus, we are now rich in the spirit.

     2. It is our duty to encourage the poor.

 

LOVE SAVES

V:12. " So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty."

 A. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

     1. Grace freed us from the law. Luke 22:44

     2. We no longer have to worry about keeping the 613 commands under the Law.

     3. God sent Jesus as a final blood sacrifice fulfilling all requirements of the Law

         forever.

 B. Because of God's grace, we are free to pursue the righteousness of God

    1. It is God's love that has liberated us.

    2. We are now judged by the  love we show to our neighbors.

    3. Love freed us to love others.  

 

 V:13. " For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment."

 A. God has been merciful to us.

      1. God expects us to show mercy to others.

      2. We must involve ourselves in works of charity and mercy.

 B. Every believer has been called out of the world to do the works of the Father.

     1. There is no better work than serving those in need.

     2. Every believer has the mission of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

     3. God gives us the opportunity to show mercy and spread the Gospel, when he

        places men and women in our lives.

     4. When we neglect the poor, we neglect our duty.

 C. What goes around, comes around.

     1. When we show mercy to others, mercy will be shown to us.

     2. God's grace sets us free from his judgment.