The 18th Sunday after Trinity

SERMON - Lord, Have Mercy Upon Us!

INI

Text: James 2:10-17

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 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. 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. 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? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

In Christ Jesus, who would have us serve one another with humility and joy, dear fellow redeemed:

Long ago and far away Moses asked God to show him His glory (cf. Ex. 33:18ff). God responded by informing Moses that no sinful man could see His face—His full glory and holiness—and live! But because God loved Moses, He instructed him to come and to stand in a crevasse of a rock. He then told Moses that He would cover Moses with His hand, pass by him, and then allow him to catch a glimpse of His back—a mere portion of His glory. As God passed by Moses, the Biblical text tells us that “the LORD…proclaimed the name of the LORD” (cf. Ex. 34:5). What was that name? The text goes on: “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation” (Ex. 34:6-7).

God is a just God who punishes sin, but He is also and above all a merciful God who forgives sins for Jesus’ sake. God’s mercy is at the very center of His relationship with us! If we bear that thought in mind, we will avoid the pitfalls of pride, and we will enjoy the distinct blessing of God throughout our lives. Solomon with humility recognized the mercy of God in placing him on Israel’s throne. That recognition of his need for God’s mercy led him to make his request for wisdom. The result was a host of God’s blessings. The rich young ruler failed to understand his need for God’s mercy. In pride he placed his faith in himself and walked away from Jesus condemned by his own idolatry. The first century Christians to whom James addressed his epistle were in danger of forgetting their need for God’s mercy and the importance of applying that mercy to others in their personal lives. That is a twin-danger we all face. Let us, therefore, today take up the ancient, liturgical prayer—LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US! That prayer reminds us, as does James, that God’s mercy removes the just judgment we deserve, and that God’s mercy should move us actively to serve!

I.

James writes in our text: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 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. 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.”

My dear friends, this is such an interesting text! What is the “law of liberty”? That is a phrase that only James uses, and he uses it only twice. “The law of liberty” is actually the gospel. The law of liberty refers to that decision of God to place our sins upon the shoulders of Jesus Christ, so that He might bear the penalty we deserved. God, therefore, justly condemned Jesus in view of our sins. As Paul told the Christians in Corinth: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:21a). That just judgment permitted Him to declare us righteous for Jesus’ sake. Consequently, we who are by nature sinners and who deserve God’s judgment have been freed from the just judgment in view of Christ! God’s mercy, in other words, removes the just judgment we deserve!

When we forget that we are forgiven sinners and act in our personal relationship as if we are offended saints, James tells us, we are like a man who looks at himself in a mirror, but who then after walking away forgets who he is and acts in an entirely different manner than he ought. My dear friends, this text is not only interesting, it is vitally important to each of us! How many times do we not struggle with feelings of anger and resentment? How many times do we not have a hard time forgiving someone when they have sinned against us? The solution is to remember God’s mercy towards us, and its role in removing the just judgment we deserve. This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote the Christians in Colossae: “As the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do” (Col. 3:12-13).

To avoid the sin of pride and the hardness of heart that accompanies it—a hardness of heart over against God and other people—use God’s law to examine your life! This is what Jesus attempted to help the rich, young ruler do. When the man asked Jesus the entirely wrong question, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Jesus responded by directing him to the law (cf. Mk. 10:17ff.) Jesus hoped that an honest evaluation of his life would lead this young man to recognize that there was nothing he could do to gain eternal life, for the demand of the law is absolute perfection, which is an impossibility for every human being. But the young man, in his blind pride, did not understand, but rather boasted regarding the second table of God’s law: “Teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.” Jesus then laid down the law—the first table of the law: “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” Jesus was not implying His agreement with the young man’s personal assessment, nor was He implying that if the young man had sold his possessions he would have been welcomed into heaven. No, Jesus was demonstrating to this young man that he had not even been able to keep the 1^st Commandment, for he loved his wealth more than he loved his God!

Do you or I stand in judgment of others—dealing with them harshly and refusing to grant them mercy? If we do, we are guilty of pride and have fallen from the grace of God! Then God will show us no mercy—a situation, God forbid, should ever happen! No, my dear friends, let us examine ourselves and we will find good reason for humility in our lives. Perhaps, we have never taken someone’s life by accident or with intention, but who among us can say that we have never embittered someone’s life by the words we have spoken or the actions we have undertaken? We are guilty of sinning against the 5^th Commandment! Who among us can claim to have honored our parents and all of our superiors at all times without fail? Who among us has always put the best construction on everything, or has always been content and never coveted, or has always had pure thoughts with regard to the men and women around us? “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all!” LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US! Help us to remember that Your mercy removed the just judgment we deserve!

II.

Help us to remember as well that Your mercy should move us actively to serve! James writes: “What does it profit, my brothers, 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? Thus also faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead.”

It is important to remember God’s mercy, for that mercy instills gratitude, which in turn seeks to serve! James was dealing with first-century Christians in danger of spiritual apathy. Through Christ they had been freed from the demands and the damnation of the law, but they had not been freed by God—God had not paid the ransom price necessary to save their souls…the blood of His own dear Son—for nothing! They had been freed to serve with joy and gratitude within the eternal kingdom of their Savior—to be a blessing to others! Paul, in writing to the Christians in Ephesus, states: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10). The people to whom James was writing were forgetting that God intended them to do good works to help other people. When opportunities arose—people needed food or clothing—they were not helping. Genuine faith does not stand unmoved in the face of pressing need!

God did not create us and gift us with our time of grace and our many personal talents simply to seek to satisfy ourselves. God did not redeem us and make us His very own—declaring us to be by His grace members of His family and heirs of eternal life, so that we might simply serve ourselves. To know Christ, but to serve self, is to know Christ not at all! Such a faith in Christ mirrors the attitude of Satan himself and is not a genuine faith at all! Such a faith does not save, for it is dead!

My dear friends, a living, vibrant faith in Christ is a faith, that seeks to walk before God with humility and to serve Him with gratitude. How do we serve God? Yes, we serve God through our personal, devotional life and by our corporate worship here in God’s house, but “pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this,” James says, “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (Jam. 1:27). God wants us to let our lights shine in the world around us (cf. Mt. 5:16). We are to be the “salt of the earth” (Mt. 5:13), seasoning everyone and everything around us in this world. Why? So that others may learn to know of the mercy of God to be found in the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible assures us that “God our Savior…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3-4). Let us remember God’s mercy, for that mercy should move us actively to serve!

Thursday night at choir we began practicing a John Rutter Christmas piece entitled, “Angel’s Carol.” It speaks of the angelic choir that sang over the fields of Bethlehem announcing the birth of Christ. It states that “He came in peace” and that “He is come in love.” It states that “He will bring new light to a world in darkness” and “new hope to the waiting nations when He comes in purity and love.” As I sang those words, I thought about the wonderful message that we Christians can bring to a world lost in sin, if only we remember God’s mercy and are moved to serve. There is not such a message in Islam, or within Hinduism or Buddhism—the other world religions. No, God in His mercy has redeemed us, and now moves us by His mercy to respond in love to the needs we see around us. LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US! Fill our hearts with humility and gratitude! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting
Soli Gloria Deo!