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Proverbs
1:10-19 My son, if sinners entice you,
Do not consent. 11
If they say, "Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause;(WOW,
does this sound like gang activities or what? In Chicago innocent people are being
killed in their vehicles.) 12 Let us
swallow them alive like Sheol, And whole, like those who go down to the
Pit; 13
We shall find all kinds of
precious possessions, We shall fill our houses with spoil; 14 Cast in
your lot among us, Let us all have one purse"— 15
My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path; 16 For their
feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood. 17 Surely, in
vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird; 18 But they
lie in wait for their own
blood, They lurk secretly for their own
lives. 19
So are the ways of everyone who
is greedy for gain; It takes away the life of its owners.
Father God, through the workings of your
Holy Spirit reveal to us our shortcomings pertaining to our Faith. Help us to become
more Holy like You! In Jesus name
we pray, Amen!
Book of James 2:10-17 NKJV
This lesson has two points but both
are base on the object of our Faith. Verses 11-13 address keeping the law,
judgment, and liberty within the law. Verses 14-17 is about faith and works and
how they go hand in hand. If our Faith is not in the Cross of Christ then our
existence in eternity will not be a pleasant existence.
10 For
whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
As
I present this verse think about this. You are hanging over the Grand Canyon by
a chain. You are shackled to it so your strength of grip has nothing to do with
you falling to your death. The many links in the chain represent a law of God
(The Law of Moses or any law of God for that matter.). It only takes one link
to be broken (Breaking of one law.) and you plunge to your death.
This
paragraph and the next one pertain to the unsaved individual. You see one law
is as much binding as another, and if a man violates any one plain commandment,
he disregards the authority of God. He is then guilty of violating the law of
God and shows that he does not have the true spirit of obedience. Therefore he
has exposed himself to the penalty of the law, and made it impossible now to be
saved by it. His acts of obedience in other respects, no matter how many, will
not screen him from the charge of being a violator of the law, or from its
penalty. He must be held and treated as a transgressor for that offence,
however upright he may be in other respects, he must meet the penalty for the
law he broke. NOTE: Many people live their life with the idea that as long as they
try to obey the laws, as did the Jews, they are okay in Gods eyes. It only took
one sin of disobedience by Adam and Eve to be thrown out of the Garden.
As
an example let’s say a person steals a vehicle and is caught. This person will
have to go to court and on trial for this act of theft. During the trial this
person pleads with the judge that he is a good person and has never broken any
other laws. The judge makes this statement; I don’t care about your past, you
were caught stealing a vehicle and that is what you are on trial for. It
doesn’t matter how upright a person is in general, the law holds them as a
transgressor, and condemns the person. God can only accept perfection. That
means we cannot break any law whatsoever. His Righteousness and His Holiness
will allow no less. So what do we do?
Consequently,
our faith in Him, gives us all of His great victories. In other words, faith in
Christ and what He did on the Cross, guarantees us every single victory won by
our Lord, and because we are the reason that He came. Fully placing our trust
in Him, and what He did for us at the Cross, grants us His perfection in
totality. In other words, whereas we were once lawbreakers, we are now
law-keepers.
As
believers, as long as we keep looking to Christ, trusting in His great
Sacrifice, we need not worry about the law, because it’s already been handled by
Jesus; however, if we willfully take our faith away from the Cross and put it
in other things, then we fall back under law, which poses a tragedy for us!
So you see it is by Faith
that a person is Saved! There are many laws out there besides the Ten Commandments
that humans try to abide by for salvation, or should I say place their faith in
for salvation, not that these things are bad, but salvation is not possible by
them like; going to church on Sunday or a Holiday; infant baptism; once saved
always saved; communion, fasting at certain times of the year, etc. Some people
believe it is a grave sin not to do these things because they are living with
their faith in the dogma of a denomination; they are living under the confines of
keeping law. Here is an example of living by law and placing faith in law to be
saved. Acts 15:1 And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless
you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be
saved." By placing our
faith in religious dogma, salvation cannot be obtained.
We are saved by Faith in
Jesus Christ in what He did on the Cross for us. Ephesians 2:8 For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Romans 5:8-11 But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more
then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath
through Him. 10
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His
Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not
only that, but we also rejoice
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the
reconciliation.
11 For He
who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT
MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have
become a transgressor of the law.
James
goes on with this verse to clarify verse 10. It is pretty plain and easy to
understand and with what has been said for the previous verse, a non-believer
should take this to heart pertaining to achieving eternal life in Heaven. They
should evaluate their lifestyle and what object they have their faith in for
salvation. Without Faith in the life saving blood of Jesus, a person is a
transgressor in God’s eyes, the Judge!
Some
Christians use these verses to justify sinning, because they say I can't keep
every demand of God, so why even try? So they justify their actions and
lifestyles comparing themselves to other people and say I’m better than he or
she because I don’t do those things. We can't decide to keep part of God's law
and ignore the rest. An unsaved person can't break the law a little bit and
expect mercy from God come judgment day. God is Holy and Righteous and that is
why we need the blood of Jesus Christ to cover us and blot out our sinfulness
in God’s eyes. Measure yourself, against God's standards, not someone else’s. Confess
your sinfulness, ask for forgiveness, and then ask Jesus to send His Spirit to
you to take up residence in your heart to help you stay faithful to Him. Admit you
need Him!
Some
people don’t understand what the covering of Jesus blood does to a person. When
we look in a mirror our image is reflected back to us where we see all of our
physical imperfections. The other thing we see is flesh; sinful flesh; walking,
talking, breathing living flesh that is tainted with the sin nature; a human
being that cannot keep every law like Jesus Christ did. It is Jesus pure
spotless blood that covers us when we accept Him as our Saviour, and then when God
looks at us through the mirror from the back side, the only thing visible to
God is a holy created being that He created; there is no reflection of sinful
flesh. So every morning when you start your day and you are looking in the
mirror, ask yourself this, do I want God to be looking at me from the back side
of the mirror or the reflecting side of the mirror as I go about my daily activities?
12 So speak
and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
Rephrasing
this verse it would read like this; So whatever you say or whatever you do,
remember that you will be judged by the law that sets you free.
So
speak and so do as those who will be judged; This judgment spoken of here is the Judgment Seat of
Christ that all Born Again Christians will face. It is a judgment of rewards in
how we conducted ourselves here on earth; our speech, actions, works, etc. Are
we living according to the Word of God? 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 For no
other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus
Christ. 12
Now if anyone builds on this foundation with
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one's
work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be
revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it
is. 14
If anyone's work which he has built on it
endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss;
but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Born
Again Christians will not answer for sin at the Judgment Seat of Christ because
when they repented and asked Jesus into their life, they were redeemed by the
blood of Jesus at the Cross. They were justified in God’s eyes and God sees His
Son Jesus when He looks at them.
If
what a Christian claims in the Lord doesn’t change their tongue, their
demeanor, their nature, and their actions, then a claim is all they have, and
not reality. The major imprint of the Gospel is that it changes people. So if
there is no change, there is no Gospel in that person, and they are fooling
themselves.
By the law of liberty; What is this law of liberty? These two
words “law” and “liberty” don’t seem to go together, but they do. God created
this world and rules it, through a system of laws, laws that He has devised and
perfected. His plan of Salvation for humanity is based on laws. What confuses
us is that when we think law we are thinking of the Law of Moses. Have you ever
thought of God’s plan of Salvation as laws?
For
instance, Paul speaks of “the law of Faith” (Romans 3:27). And then we have “the Law of the
Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2). There is also “the law of sin and
death” (Romans 8:2).
Then we have “the Law of God” (Romans 7:25). And then the “Law of Christ” (Galatians
6:2). In fact, every
single thing that God does is according to a Law which He has devised. If men
break those Laws, men suffer the consequences.
As
it regards “liberty,” God has a Law, or means by which liberty can be enjoyed.
If we abide by that particular law, which incidentally is “the law of Faith,”
we will reap the benefits of that which is promised. In fact, every single Law
of God must be approached from the position of Faith. If we approach these Laws
in any other manner, we have in fact, broken the Law.
For
instance, if we try to gain Christ, or liberty, or the Spirit of Life, by
“works,” we have in effect, established a new law, which God can never
recognize. He recognizes only the Laws which He has perfected. However,
when we say “Faith,” always and without exception, the Scripture is referring
to Faith in Christ, and what Christ did at the Cross on our behalf (Romans
4:25; 5:1–2).
When
it comes to the “Law of Liberty,” which James mentions here, it is exactly as
he says, “a Law.” But it’s not a law that we have to perform, as the Law of
Moses, because Jesus has already performed this Law perfectly, and our Faith in
Him, gives us the benefits of what He has done on our behalf. That’s the reason
that Faith is the one requirement by God.
While
we do “obey” these Laws, we do so in a different manner than we think of
obeying laws. We do so by simply having Faith in Christ, and what He did for us
at the Cross. Jesus, as stated, has already performed everything that the Law
demands, and that refers to every Law.
God's
grace does not cancel our duty to obey him; it gives our obedience a new beginning.
The law is no longer an external set of rules, but it is a "law that sets
you free", one we joyfully and willingly carry out, because we love God
and have the power of his Holy Spirit within our heart Galatians
5:22–23.
13 For
judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs
over judgment.
For judgment is without mercy to the
one who has shown no mercy; Only
God in his mercy can forgive our sins. We can't earn forgiveness by forgiving
others. But when we withhold forgiveness from others after having received it
ourselves, we show that we don't understand or appreciate God's mercy toward us
Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew 18:21;
Ephesians 4:31-32.
Mercy triumphs over judgment; If we show mercy here on earth then we
will have nothing to fear when we stand before Jesus.
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if
someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
When someone claims to
have faith, what he or she may have is scholarly knowledge (agreement with a
set of Christian teachings) which is an incomplete faith, meaning they believe
with their mind and not their heart. This type of faith is insufficient for
salvation because it doesn’t produce works. True faith transforms our conduct
as well as our thoughts. If our life remains unchanged, we don't truly believe
the truths we claim to believe. Proper faith in Christ produces works through
love for Jesus because of what He did on the Cross, in our place.
15 If a
brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16 and one
of you says to them, "Depart in peace, be warmed and filled," but you
do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
These two verses tell us
something about our faith and what our faith is in. As stated if a proclaiming
Christian sends away someone in need of daily essentials without providing
anything, then their faith is in something other than Jesus Christ. The love a
Christian has for Jesus will prompt a person to provide clothing and food.
17 Thus also
faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
We
can have faith and truly believe we are one of God’s Children, but if we have
no works as a result of being Born Again, then we need to ask ourselves what is
our faith in? When we have that Spiritual Birth we become a new person that
seeks God’s truth all the more and our life focus changes to pleasing God out
of love for Him, His Son, and His Holy Spirit, out of this love, good works is
produced.
Colossians
1:16 For
by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,
visible
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created through Him and for Him.
Romans
3:23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Romans
6:23 For
the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say
to you,
unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
The
Lighthouse Full Gospel Church
Sinners Prayer; Pray this, and if you
believe it with your heart, Jesus will save you!
“Lord
Jesus I know I am a sinner. I confess my
sins to you; I am sorry for my sins; I repent (Meaning, desiring to turn from a
sinful lifestyle.) of all my sins, and I am asking for your forgiveness. I believe that only you can forgive sin. I commit my life to you and ask you to come
into my heart, direct, and take charge of my life. I believe that you died to set me free from
my sinful lifestyle and you rose from the dead to give me eternal life, and
right now you are seated at the Right Hand of God Almighty. I believe you are
the Son of God; the only Way, the only Truth, the only Life, and my
Savior.” I believe this and have faith
you will make a new person out of me, by sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in my
heart and lead me in a new life. In Jesus name I pray Amen.” (John 3:16,17;
Romans 3:23; 6:23; 5:8; 10:9-13; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1
John 5:11-14; 1:6-10) (Sin: Rom.
1:22-32; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:3-7)
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