Fork of The Broad/Sermons from Carlton Baptist Church

Our spiritual lives, the Christian life, is a life of waiting, specifically, waiting on the return of our King, Jesus, so that He can right all the wrongs in this world, and in the words of JRR Tolkein, “make everything sad come untrue”.  Now, waiting in the Biblical sense isn’t a sit on your hands and do nothing sort of thing, though – it’s a very pro-active approach to life, striving toward knowing God, while at the same time, getting our own agendas and ideas out of the way and watching Him move toward His ultimate purpose for our lives, and for His glory.  In this text, James teaches us that we should wait for the Lord, wait like a farmer, wait like a prophet, wait like Job, and to be confident that in the end, we’ll experience something worth waiting for. Jesus is coming back to bring those He loves to Himself.  His gift to us is more than health and wealth and temporary happiness.  God’s greatest gift to us is God Himself. 

Today’s text challenges us on a lot of different levels, but ultimately, it’s a call to examine ourselves to see if we’re relating to others in a way that brings glory to God. There’s a particular sin discussed here that we don’t think about very often – partiality. The Greek word that James uses here for partiality means to lean toward one person in favor of another – to play favorites based on some external circumstances that you believe make an individual more desirable or acceptable than someone else who has maybe less desirable characteristics. It’s favoritism, and James defines this as sin.  The bad news - If you break just one part of God's law, James says you've broken it all. The good news - We have a Saviour in Jesus who redeems us and spares us from the punishment we deserve for our sins, saves us from the curse of the law, and sets us free to be guided in love by God's Word.  If we are in Christ, the law no longer condemns us, but instead, it protects, guides, and nurtures us.

Elie Wiesel once wrote, “If an angel appears to you and says, ‘do not be afraid’, then it is most definitely time to be afraid.” Angels are often messengers, so if you meet an angel, he’s probably about to give you some extraordinary news or assignment that will likely throw your life completely off balance, and possibly turn the whole world upside down. Mary responds to the angel’s announcement, the news that she is going to be the mother of the Messiah, in an unusual way…in the midst of her fear, she begins to sing...and she sings a remarkable, beautiful song that has been known for 2000 years as “The Magnificat”…the word magnificat simply means to magnify, or to praise. So Mary’s response to the angel’s message was to worship.

Isaiah defines the Messiah that is coming as "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace".  Bearing these majestic titles, Jesus is leading us toward a future pregnant and bursting with hope. But it all began with a baby – “To us a child is born…” I Corinthians 1:27 says that “God chose what is weak in the world to put to shame the strong” – God chose a baby with a mother who was a teenage mom and an earthly father who was a carpenter with calloused hands from a middle eastern ghetto called Nazareth to change history and alter the eternities of those who might believe in Him. Sally Lloyd-Jones described Him this way – “There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle–the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture. And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child upon whom everything would depend…This baby would be everybody’s dream come true.”

In today’s text, James identifies three signs of pure religion – three indicators that an individual is a true follower of Christ -

How you speak

How you serve

Your stance toward sin

John MacArthur wrote, “It’s not our perfection that proves our salvation; it’s the reaction to our imperfection…Is the normal pattern of your life as you look at your own heart a tongue that speaks good things, pure things, upright things, honorable things, honest things, clean things? But every once in while the flesh comes through, too. But…do you (desire to honor God with your tongue, with how you speak)? That rises out of a transformed heart. And what about people in need. Do you have a desire to meet that need? Does it burden your heart that there are folks that are deprived? Does that burden your heart to the point where when you find out about that you rush to meet those needs? There are times when you don’t, but when you don’t do you feel guilty about that? That’s the indication of a transformed life. And do you want not to conform to the world more than anything else? And every time you get too close and you realize you’re conforming (to sin), do you want to run from that? Do you want repent of your sins, and follow Christ? That’s the mark of a transformed life.

In today's episode, we hear an exposition of John 3:16 for the second Sunday of Advent, the Sunday we celebrate the love of God.  The Good News of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ gave Himself fully, as a free gift, to bear the punishment for our sins on the cross, so that we don’t have to fear God’s judgment, but instead we can enjoy the forever love of God for all eternity. It’s an incredible gift that costs us absolutely nothing, and cost Christ absolutely everything. Fix your eyes on Jesus – Trust in His love. It never runs out, never gives up, never leaves, and never lets go.

James defines people who claim Christianity as their system of faith in two categories - "Hearers of the Word" and "Doers of the Word".  A hearer does hear what the Word says; a doer actually takes the Word to heart, and impacts the way they think about life, sin, holiness, and eternity.  For the doer, the Word changes how they think, act, and feel about every aspect of life, and their primary goal becomes pleasing the God who has saved them through faith.  The doer listens to the Word of God, and lives out the truths they hear.

In today's text, James commands us to be "quick to hear, slow to speak, (and) slow to anger".  We achieve this change of our actions through a change of the heart, a change that can only be brought about by the Gospel.  God saves us by faith, keeps us in faith, and strengthens us in faith through the power of His implanted Word, renewing our minds, transforming our desires, and building us up as followers of Christ.

The playwright Oscar Wilde wrote, “I can resist anything except temptation.”  Every one of us, at some point in life, has had the desire to do something that we either know is wrong or we know isn’t wise. Now, these choices we make to give in to temptation aren’t always earth-shattering sins – Sometimes it’s simple things like repeating some gossip you’ve heard about someone, or coming up with a half-truth to justify talking a day off of work, or even making a choice to say something, to speak your mind, when you should really keep quiet-when you know speaking your mind is going to create conflict or hurt someone’s feelings. We all do are tempted to do things that are wrong or unwise all the time.   In today’s text, James breaks shows us how temptation to sin works, frame by frame, step by step, and reminds us to never blame God for our problems, because God is good, all the time, even when we are trouble, even when we are tempted.

We have a tendency to categorize people  according to money and material possessions – There are haves and have nots. There are the rich and then there are the poor. The people who are poor resent the people who are rich because they wish they had what the rich people have. The people who are rich look down on the poor because obviously, they’re lazy or they just don’t want to get ahead.  Both poverty and prosperity present their own unique problems. And that’s the context James is writing in here – If we view our poverty and our riches the wrong way, and shape our identity through those things instead of recognizing ourselves as belonging to Christ, then being poor and being rich becomes a trial that we have to work through – a spiritual dilemma for us to navigate.  James’ message to Christians, rich or poor, is don’t define yourselves by looking through the lens of your bank account or the world’s measures of success – find your identity in Christ.  Our greatest treasure is found in Him.