 Good morning and welcome. Thank you for connecting everyone. Let's pray and we will continue with our study of the book of James. I may be Zellie. Zellie, could you please lead us in a word of prayer? Let's pray. Father God, we come before Your presence in Jesus' name. As we begin our class today, Holy Spirit, You help us, each one of us Lord. Prepare our hearts so that we receive whatever our pastor has for us this morning. Thank you, bless you Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you Zellie. Yesterday we started with an introduction to the book of James. We said that it's possibly one of the earliest books that was written by the Apostle James. And we know that James was the half-brother of our Lord Jesus. Initially, he, very similar to the rest of the family, did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God. But later on, especially we saw the scripture that said that after his resurrection, he put his trust in the Lord Jesus. And we see how he became the leader of the church. And he is giving a set of instructions to the church in this book of James. At the time when James wrote this, the early church was going through challenges, difficulties, especially of the rich Jews overbearing, being overbearing on the Christian Jews. And so he is encouraging them. He is speaking about different things that will help them. And also instructing them regarding the right attitude that they need to maintain regarding various matters. So we began with his introduction of himself, where he calls himself as a born servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So then we said how his life had been transformed and his understanding of the relationship that he had with Jesus had been transformed. He looked at Jesus as the Christ. He calls Jesus the Christ. So that is very beautiful. We went on to seeing that he calls the believers to be joyful. So count it all joy when you fall into various trials. So under different challenges to be strong, joyful, because the result of that is that patience will be developed in us. And when the work of patience is completed, we will be lacking nothing. We also saw a parallel scripture from Romans 5 that teaches us about going through tribulations in a manner that we trust God and we persevere. Perseverance then would lead to character and character to hope. And this is necessary in the life of believers because it's the sign of maturing. It's the sign of becoming those well able believers. We saw that analogy of the diamond, how under pressure it becomes, carbon becomes something so beautiful. The same way we as believers also when we go through our difficulties with the right attitude, God's character will be formed in us. And then we saw how he invites the believers to have asked for wisdom because that is what we need in our time of difficulty. We need God's wisdom and we need his solutions. So we can seek God for it and we've seen how God gives abundant wisdom when we ask with faith. We also saw that when we ask doubting, we cannot really receive from God. There is always that danger of being a person who is double-minded. And when we are double-minded, it makes us unfruitful. We looked at that as well. And then later, talking about the rich and the poor, he said that early riches are but temporary, that we must not really count on it. It's there today and it may be gone tomorrow. And therefore, that should not become what our identity is based on. And another part was regarding temptation. So where he spoke that temptation is not from God. God is not the author of temptation and God also isn't tempted. God cannot be tempted by evil is what he states. So where does temptation originate? It originates from the evil one, the enemy. And we also saw, while that is an external influence, we through our own fleshly desires can also fall into temptation. So it's both external and internal because of our flesh. So we have to overcome that and not let a progression happen. We saw desire, then when the desire is conceived, meaning we've come to a place where we really want that evil thing, then we step in and try to do those things. So then sin is birthed out of that. And when sin is full-grown, we saw that death becomes the consequence. And therefore, we should not go down that path of desiring what is evil, and giving birth to sin and then that sin actually leading to death. Instead, we said that we must depend on God. And from God, instead of temptation, good things come. So verse 17, it states that every good and perfect gift is from above. So temptation is not from God, good things are from God. And he's also the father of lights revealing to us a little bit about his character and how he dwells. And he's not a God who will change his mind. So we can truly depend on him. That is as much as we had seen yesterday. Now we will continue. We can start from verse 18. We've already read that section. So I'll just try and explain it to us. So we are told here that we've been brought forth by the word of truth. That we might be the kind of first fruits of his creatures. So when he's saying we, he's referring to that early set of believers. And he is letting them know that the new life that they have, they were born again by the word. We understand that there is a work of the word and the work of the spirit in someone being born again. So that's the emphasis now. He's letting the believers know we were born again because of the word, the word of truth which was preached to them. And he calls that set of believers as the first fruits. Why? Because obviously they are the early church. Now after the early church, we know many different churches were planted and through the passage of history, lots of believers have inhabited the earth and they have lived for God and it's continuing now. But it began with who? It began with those apostles and the believers who were part of the church of Jerusalem and that early set or the early congregation. That's why he's terming them as first fruits of his creatures. Then he goes on to talk about the importance of being swift to hear. Or in other words, he is calling the believer to be mindful of the instructions of God, to be mindful and eager to learn instead of just being very rushed and doing whatever they want. In the section that follows, he is talking about hearing the word and also doing the word. So let me just read it out for us. I'm going to read from verse 22 where it says, But be doers of the word and not hear us only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself. This verse 24 goes away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. So the point he is making here is we said earlier that the theme of faith is part of the book of James. So here while faith is necessary and word is important, James is telling us that obedience is equally important. Being a doer of the word that we hear. So he began by saying be slow to speak but be quick to listen. So the point is listen to the word, understand the word, be obedient to the word. So when we are hearing the word and doing, then there is the balance, the right kind of a balance. But if that is not the case, he says something like we are deceiving ourselves. Verse 22, end of that verse, he says anyone who is just listening to the word and not applying it is doing what? Deceiving ourselves. So there can be a false sense of satisfaction by just listening to the word. But then life can be so different or so far away from actually what the word says. And that is the place of deception and the believers ought to be careful about that. And in what he has stated here, we also recognize that when we engage in the word and the word speaks to us and tells us. He says right, like when you look into the mirror and you notice something, what do we usually do? If we see a strand of hair that is off, we immediately correct it. And that's similar when it comes to the word. When we engage in the word, the word begins to speak to our hearts and the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes to us in areas where we need to change. And if we don't take action, that again falls in the category of deception and one should not do that. Be hearers of the word, but be doers also. And don't be forgetful hearers is what he is encouraging the believers about. Now moving on the next section here, he's talking about true religion. What is what is the right kind of religion? So there are a few thoughts presented here in verse 26 and 27. Firstly, he says, if anyone thinks that they are religious, then one thing that they should be able to do is to bridle their tongue. Or in other words, control their tongue. If one is not able to manage their speech or have self-control in the words that they speak, he's saying that they have now become, they've gone into deception and their religion is useless. So if we recall, you know, Galatians 5, we talk about the fruit of the Spirit. If truly we are walking with the Lord and the Holy Spirit is helping us develop his fruit, there will be self-control. So that's the point here. A believer who's growing in the Lord sincerely, there will be a manifestation of this element of self-control in their lives. And what better thing to control, self-control can be part of many things. But especially the words, especially the words, right? We all understand that it's not easy. Our words can sometimes get us into trouble because we may speak faster than we think. Again, someone once said that the tongue is the smallest muscle, like, you know, voluntary muscle. But it controls life, isn't it? It can move and it can control life and James is going to talk so much more about the tongue. Now, sometimes I wonder why James is talking so much about the tongue? Were there things that were going on in the church where, you know, people were speaking unbelief and people were speaking against the word of God possibly and he wanted to instruct them to use their words righteously and use the words wisely, okay? So if one cannot do that, if the tongue cannot be controlled, if the words cannot be controlled, he's even saying that their religion is useless. So can you imagine that's quite a strong statement that he's making? Then apart from that, he is stating two more aspects. He says this is pure and undefiled religion. What? Two things. One is visit orphans and widows in their trouble. And that just shows us that having a heart of compassion for those who are in need and widows and orphans come in that category. Like we understand in the society, technically there is no one to take care of the, especially the then Jewish society. It was like that if somebody is a widow or somebody is an orphan, they were helpless. And James is saying, we call ourselves religious but we don't demonstrate any compassion. How can that be true religion? How can that be true devotion to God? How can that be a devoted life? We have to take care of the helpless and the needy. That's where he brings in true devotion towards God is speaking right words in a self-controlled way. Second, taking care of the helpless. Here he's categorizing orphans and widows in that helpless category. And then he says, keep oneself unspotted from the world. So what is the third one? True religion is to live an overcoming life. Overcome sin, overcome the attacks of the devil. We know that the world is a place that will try to attract us and it will try to cool on our desires. And it will move us towards sinning. But then a real devoted believer is one who will keep themselves. And they will overcome the works of the evil one. So one John chapter five verse 18 talks about this. One that we who are truly believing the Lord, journey with the Lord is such a one he keeps himself and the evil one cannot touch him. And so these are the indicators of true religion. Just give me a moment. Yeah, one John five 18, that's the correct reference. So you could look it up if you want to. Yes, we've understood. So religion being religious or piety is another word that is used. Being pious, true piety is not assuming piety, but it is demonstrated by our life and actions. So on the basis of what we do, how we speak, know how we conduct ourselves. We can affirm that we are pious towards God. And that's what James is calling us to. Now in the chapter so far, we came across James warning us regarding deception, right? Don't deceive yourselves. Don't deceive yourselves. So a little bit about deception. If we quickly go back, we'll look at a couple of scriptures. I'll read the talk for us from here. Okay. Yeah, verse 16. He says do not be deceived. My beloved brethren, every good and perfect gift is from above. So here what he's saying is do not be deceived is like self deception, right? Self deception. And he says every good and perfect gift comes from God. Now he was speaking about this in the context of temptation and he said the temptation doesn't come from God. So what is self deception? Self deception can be, you know, us blaming God or blaming others for the challenges that we are going through. So that's one category of being self deceived, where actually the problem may lie with us, but then we are attributing it to someone else because we cannot bear the thought of taking on responsibility. So don't be self deceived. So one form of self deception is where for the problems that we are responsible for, we state that either God is responsible or people around us are responsible. So that is self deception. Now let's look at verse 22 here where again he says but we doers of the word and not hear us only deceiving yourselves. So another manner of deception that a believer could fall into is by feeling satisfied with one part or feeling satisfied by just engaging in the word. For example, we could do lots and lots of Bible studies. We can have a lot of Bible knowledge, which is awesome, which is wonderful. And we are supposed to be, you know, very consciously engaging in these things. But as James stated, be doers of the word, not hear us only. So this first part of hearing the word must lead to the second part of doing the word. Now if a believer is not doing the word, then he says deception, second self deception, where we are convincing ourselves that because we are hearing the word so much that, hey, you know, I'm good. I'm already pious. I'm already having this walk with the Lord. But then obedience to the word is lacking. That's quite problematic where one has convinced themselves that my walk with the Lord is right. Yes, Lyndon. Lyndon, did you have a question? I can see your hand raised. Okay, not able to hear. This is a question you could please unmute. Not sure if Lyndon can hear us. I'll keep moving on. And if there's anything, please do stop me. Let's continue. So that's the second form of self deception, isn't it? Where we are saying that we are satisfied only by listening to the word. Now the third one. Third one, let's look at verse 26 here where scripture says, if anyone among you thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. So deception can also be like, you know, thinking that one is spiritual but actually lacking the ability to self-govern or manage oneself and which obviously involves, as James said, taming the tongue. So it involves that and also the whole body by engaging in things which are pleasing to God and resisting the things which are not pleasing to God. So these are all forms of self deception where one can go into a place of thinking more highly of themselves as compared to the reality of what is going on. And we know self-deception is very dangerous because tell me, give me one example of someone who is self-deceived or who is self-deceived. Pharisees, okay. Jefina is saying, Pharisees, anyone else that you can think of, deception? How about Satan? You know, I will become like this and I will go higher than God. I will be seated on the throne. Deception, reality is far from what they are believing and that is why it's so very dangerous. We're done with chapter 1. We could now move on to chapter 2. So let's go ahead and read the entire chapter and I'll go ahead and explain it section by section. Let's do one thing. Let's read half maybe because I don't know if you'll have the time to complete. Just give me a moment. Tell you to tell where to read. Till verse 13, we can read till 13. Verse 1 to 13. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine April and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, you sit here in a good place and say to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my foot still. Have you not shown partiality among yourself and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him, but you have dishonored the poor man. Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts. Don't they, do they not bless firm that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you should love your neighbor as yourself. You do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point is guilty of all. For he who said do not commit adultery also said not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Lubeka. Okay, there are hands raised. So let's pick up with the questions. I just want to ask before we jump into the next chapter. I think in James chapter one at last, it says about the law of liberty, trying to understand it in the context of the Old Testament law. Even though why it's known as laws, the liberty would still be a question. And we see it again in chapter two and as well, like it's already in chapter one, as well as we see it repeating. Thank you, Jeffina for that question. So the law of liberty, our understanding would be the grace of God, the grace of Jesus. That's the law of liberty because that is what has set us free, isn't it? In the New Covenant, that's what has happened whereas we have a comparable law of Moses which we cannot term as the law of liberty because it brought in instructions that people could not keep. But now we have instructions that we are empowered to keep. So that is the law of liberty. It's the grace that has come through our Lord Jesus Christ. So yeah, if we say it's the grace, the law of liberty, and James chapter two verse 12, let's say, so speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. So it just says that we are judged by grace. Should I term it in that way? Should I understand it in that way? Yeah, yeah. So judged by the law of liberty means whether you have completely come accepted that salvation or not. And if you're living out that life of salvation or not. Sure. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for that question. Did anyone else have something to ask? Alright, let's move on then. We'll start with chapter two. As I stated, the theme is changing. We spoke about do the word and now we've come to the place where we're talking about preferential treatment between or among the congregation who are both rich and poor. So James is clearly telling us that there should be no such preferential treatment or in other words, partiality. So in verse one chapter two, he says, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. So partiality should not be a part of our ministry. The example that he gives here is that of a rich person walking into our gathering, excuse me. And how do we know they are rich? Because he's describing a man with cold rings, fine apparel and they should obviously it's somebody who's rich who can afford that kind of dressing. And in those days, you know, maybe that's how they dress and they came into the the gathering. And he's also describing a poor man and how would a poor man dress filthy clothes. So when people come in like this, he says you pay attention to the one wearing fine clothes or the rich person. And you give him a good place to sit. Whereas the poor person, we treat them badly. And over here, he's saying you make them stand. Or you know, you make them sit at my footstool or give them a like a bad place to sit at because we don't care where they sit. But is that a godly thing to do when we do things like that? He's asking us the question, have you not shown partiality? And that is not acceptable by God. So this is a question that we have to ask ourselves. Maybe in the time that James was ministering, there was there were these demarcations in the society where part of the same believing community, you had rich people and poor people. And as leaders of that congregation, when the poor are treated badly and the rich are given more honor, it does not bring glory to the name of our God. And James is trying to correct that. So now think about this. Is it wrong to give honor to some people? Maybe a rich person comes in and they are truly someone who has served the Lord. And they have those credentials for us to honor them. That's not what we are talking about. And also let's understand there's a difference between partiality and honor. So honoring is fine. We can honor God's people, Godly people. But partiality is different where we are treating one set of people in a special way as compared to another set of people. So partiality is not acceptable. Favoritism is unfair. Especially when it comes to the church setting. When it comes to the gathering of God's people and we need to be careful about that. And then along the same lines, he further explains the matter. He says, when you treat the poor person badly, you've dishonored that poor person. And then he's just helping the people understand that you know, haven't there been incidents where even if somebody is rich, they have been unrighteous. So he says something like in verse 6, do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts. So he's just explaining some incidents that have taken place. Now does this mean that when somebody is rich, they are always evil or they do bad things? No, we wouldn't interpret it like that. He's just trying to make us understand that, you know, we must not exercise prejudice. That's all. Obviously, we know anyone who is born again, whether we are rich or whether we are poor, we're all partakers of the divine call of God. We have the same inheritance. And having or not having earthly resources doesn't give us any particular standing in the kingdom of God. And so we have to settle that in our minds over here. He's just trying to make a point and say, in this context, when there is partiality, don't you think we are being unfair? Haven't you heard of incidents where even if people are rich, they have oppressed the poor people? And you know, so just be careful. Don't practice partiality. And he says, in verse 8, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, what is the royal law? He's stating that royal law here. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You do well. So we know the laws that Moses gave. But among those laws, the Lord Jesus highlighted a couple and he said, look, you need to love the Lord your God, all your heart. And then he followed that up by saying, you need to love your neighbor as yourself. And here James is calling those special laws as the royal law. And he says, we must not show partiality. And verse 9 is very strong actually. It's as if it begins like a suggestion where he's saying, don't do this. It's not good. And you must consider the poor. But in verse 9, he categorically states that if one shows partiality, you commit sin. So partiality is not... Hey, I prefer this set of people over that set of people. It's my preference. It's not a preference any longer. Partiality is now being classified as what? Sin. If you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. So quite strongly. He's rebuking. He is clarifying to the people and he's stating that partiality is not good. And don't practice partiality. We move on to the next set of scriptures where he's talking about keeping the whole law. And we understand here that when the law of Moses was given, what did God want? Did God want man to keep a couple of them and leave the rest out? No. God wanted man to keep all the laws that were given. But we know that under the law of Moses, the old covenant, we did not have the empowering Holy Spirit. We know that in the new covenant, the word of God is written in our hearts. So that empowerment was lacking. The law was there but the empowerment was lacking. And he's kind of referring to that. And earlier, let's say somebody kept all the nine laws and they missed one. Even if you miss one, you become a transgressor. But now we are part of the law or we are part of grace. So that is the law of liberty. And verse 13 for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. He's making a point about the grace that we have received now. Though the law is, how do I say? The validity of the law. It was there when Moses brought it out. One has to keep the law. But now we have something greater, something better. Where he's talking about mercy triumphs over judgment. That's what Jesus did for us, isn't it? He brought us God's mercy. And that's what we live with now. So if there are any questions, please feel free to ask. We can move to the next section otherwise. Alright, so then let's move on. We can read just one section and maybe I'll just stop with that today. This is from verse 14 to verse 19. Could someone read it please? Verse 14, what does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food 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? Does also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead? Should I continue on? Till which verse? Yes, Rosalind, till 19. But someone will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well even the demons believe and tremble. Amen, thank you Rosalind. So again he's coming back to the subject of faith here. And he lets us know that faith and the expression of faith through genuine good works is connected. They're not separate. So he's asking two questions quite startling questions. He says what does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? So can you imagine a person like that? Only faith, no works. That's quite difficult for us to even think about. Because when we are saying there is faith there's got to be corresponding works. And he asks another question. He says can faith save him? While there are no works at all. Can one keep saying that yeah it's only on the basis of what I'm believing. But I won't have any associated works with it. Can that alone save him? So he starts with these two questions. But ultimately the essence of what we just read here is when we say we have faith, we need to have works that come out as an expression of that genuine faith. So he's giving an example of helping someone who is in need. It would be really sad to see that one can address a problem. And we are seeing that people are in difficulty or they are in need. But then we are not doing anything about it. Isn't it? So that way if we are saying okay I'm just gonna pray and I will not do what I have the power to do in that situation. That is not real faith. And we are not showing it by the good works that we can do. So he comes in with a strong statement verse 17. He says look also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead, very strong. He says we cannot keep saying that we have faith and have no works associated with it. That kind of faith is even dead or it doesn't count. Such faith doesn't count. So ultimately we need to have faith and also works. And he gives the example of demons and he says even demons believe so that there is a God. So isn't that faith because they are believing but what about the works that they do? They don't do any good works or they don't engage in living out that faith. Isn't it? So then what's the difference? Even the demons believe that there is a God. So it's a strong reminder for us to have a life of faith with the genuine expression of that faith through good works. So whatever we say we have faith for there's got to be good works associated with that. So with that we'll just stop for today and we can pick up from where we stopped in the next class. Is there anything to discuss? We can do that. If not we can pray and close. Alright, so let's pray then and one of you unmute and pray. Heavenly Father I come to you under the name of Jesus. Thank you for this day. Thank you for the class that we have. And God I thank you for your praise upon us Jesus. We thank you for the work of the cross today and God I pray that Jesus will be doer of the words God. And God every single thing that we learn today we will practice it in our life Jesus because there's nothing if we just hear the word but not do it. But so God you develop us, equip us in that way. Help us to be people who ponder on your words day and night. Just look at you and just stand in awe of you and just please you be obedient to you Jesus. Not just have faith but also to obey your voice to be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Build us in such a way Jesus so that we can be a blessing. We can be the salt and the light things that transforms this world. Things that people who bring people to your kingdom equip us in such a way Jesus. I thank you for Pastor Nancy. I thank you for everyone in my class in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone. God bless you and have a great week ahead.