Ep 45-Marks of a Mature Christian Pt 5

Hi there Tom Mahairas again with it’s all greek to me with Vicki, my wife and we are so excited and thrilled that we get a chance to be able to unpack and communicate what is in chapter two of the book of or the little epistle of James, incredible. This epistle helps us to understand how to have spiritual maturity. And uh we covered four uh programs in the first chapter. We’re gonna do four in the second chapter. Come and join this journey with us and we hope you enjoy it as we have. Hi there, this is tom and Vicky again and we’re just so excited to be in the Word of God in the book of James. We’re looking at the epistle of James, the key theme, spiritual maturity and of course the key verses James 14 and we need to now go in and uh unpack everything we have been studying and Vicki uh this morning, we’re just excited to get into the word of God. Uh you want to go through maybe some of the passages here, the chapter divisions for our audience. So chapter one, we learned that where as Christians are to be patient and testing Chapter two, We Practice The Truth. Chapter three, we have power over our own tongues. Chapter four, where peacemakers not troublemakers In Chapter five, We’re Prayerful in Trouble. Yeah. And uh that outline and a lot of what we use is from our mentor, good friend Dr. Warren were to be uh heard this book way back when remember a word of life when we were just new believers in our uh, 1819 years old so this uh passage, he practices the truth in chapter two deals with two things Faith and love and faith and works. We’re gonna look at faith and love in this program, but we’re gonna go back a little bit in the first chapter as we summarize. So, you wanted to talk a little bit about the spiritual immaturity Vicky. Right? Um, the word perfect. You know, the marks of a mature christian is the word perfect chelios. And it’s used five times in the book of James in chapter one, verse four and 17 and 25. And now in chapter two that we’re studying in 22 32. So we understood that the word perfect is not sinless but mature. Complete Ready to serve were full of God’s spirit. Were in the word of God. We’re ready. We’re grown up. We’re not babies anymore drinking milk. And here are some of the signs of babies. You know, spiritual immaturity. The person is impatient in difficulties. Chapter one and talking but not living the truth. Chapter two, No control of the tongue. Chapter three, I’m sure we don’t have any problems with that. You know what the old saying was. Talk is cheap. Yeah. Show up. You know, do it. Just do it. All right. And then fighting and not coveting Rather fighting and coveting is a sign of immaturity and collecting material toys. You know, uh you see people just collecting all kinds of toys Christian? That’s Chapter five. So each one of these in each chapter gives us an identity of what an immature christian looks like. Go over them again one more time very quickly, Vicki Impatient and difficulties. Chapter one Talking but not living the truth. Chapter two No control of the tongue. Chapter three, fighting and coveting and collecting material toys in chapter five. And then we want to get into how to be transformed to maturity by the Perfect Law of the Law of Liberty. It mentioned that In Chapter one and we want to look at that James 125 but one who looks intently but I keep to its further looking into. So it’s not just a casual reading of the scriptures are listening to the scripture, really getting in and studying the scriptures, looking deeply in it. Uh at the Perfect Law Chelios, The Law of Liberty. Eleftheros. So the Perfect Law will free us if we do what it says and he abides bottom n no buy it. Not having become a forgetful hearer. A gratis is here a cool from a cool and but an effectual doer. This man will be blessed Makarios and what he does. Uh and of course Makarios means it comes from uh to become long or large in what he does. And uh so and then we’ll just go to these three things very important things as we look intently at the, at the word of God Vicki continue. Do you want me to read the scriptures also? Just just the what’s there? Okay, listen carefully to God’s word for directions. James 122-24 and James 125 it reminds us. But the one who looks intently at the Perfect law, the law of liberty and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hero but an effectual doer. This person will be blessed in what he does. And the second thing says, look intently in God’s word for instruction and clarification. James 1 25 And the third thing live obediently to God’s word for maturity and transformation. So everything Uh that we’re hearing now from Chapter one is about how although we’re sinful and although we’ve got all kinds of problems when we go into God’s word and listen carefully for God’s word for to direct us and we look intently at God’s word to give us instruction and clarification. And then we live obediently to what he tells us. This is how we become what transformed and that’s so important. Vicky. The blessing is a transformed life into christ this man will be blessed Makarios and what he does, he’ll be blessed in three areas. Go ahead and identify them. The first one is in his speech. If anyone thinks himself to be religious yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart. This man’s religion is worthless. You know, it’s so important that we don’t just say things but that we say things at the right time and say the right things that bring glory to God. The second thing is in our service, pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and father, is this to visit the orphans and the widows in their distress. So when you become transformed, it will affect your lips, your speech, I will affect your service. You’re not going to be just self centered and living for yourself all the time. You’re gonna be living for God, totally giving yourself to the things of God in service and finally in sanctification and to keep oneself unstained by the world. That’s so very important. And I want to make this point here Vicky that we can’t just talk about, we know God and it’s all in the in the by and by, but we have to be real down here and also live a life that is exemplary in purity and in virtue, that’s what that’s talking about, think, you know what happens and we we lower our standard or we really don’t live in our homes many times as a true christian. You know, people see the worst side of us many times because we go in public and we’re like presenting an image that we’re really not practicing and a real christian, he practices the truth no matter where he is in front of save people unsafe people in his private life, even in his own sanctification, like I’m gonna guard my heart so that the things that I know in me that our temptations and I know that I’m gonna face trials. I’m going to be an example to the people around me of somebody who’s a who’s not only just a survivor, but a victorious christian life. So this has to be done not only publicly, but more importantly privately that we are that way at home because then we really lose respect for one another. If it’s just out there, it’s not in here. You and I we have code words. We do have code words. Yeah, we have code words. Now we’ve developed in communication when somebody assumes that you’re not just asking a question, but you’re you’re like arguing and we don’t want to argue in our home, we want to communicate in a way that would please christ And sometimes the code word is not for our partners for ourselves. Like I have a code word when I’m getting upset, I say Vicki my love and I realized she is the most important person in my life. I can’t trash her. I can’t speak down at her or not treat her in the right way, Vicky, my love, that’s my uh code word and another code word is you and I we’re a team. So you know it’s it’s it’s a wonderful thing for you to develop code words to to remind yourself of who you’re talking to of how valuable they are on how you respect them and love them and treat them. Chapter two of the book of James begins with practicing the truth, faith and love and you know, you can’t really practice the truth and have that come out of your life Vicki unless the word of God is changing you and transforming you on the inside. And you know, I think of a guy like Michael Francis who used to be a captain or a capo in the joe Colombo crime family, a good friend of mine and he has spoken at our drug rehab, we’ve been able to hang out together. I’ve gone to neighborhoods where he was in Brooklyn and other parts of the city and he shared with me on how God has so transformed his life. Here’s a guy who was, who made over $400 million for the, for the mob basically the joe Colombo crime family and they allowed him to walk away from the whole syndicate because he was so transformed and changed. He never, he never informed on anyone or ratted out anyone. But he was able then after he came to christ to use all of the things that he knew to share the gospel with people that were gambling people in colleges, people in the proteins churches all over America and he wrote this beautiful book on the blood covenant and it’s kind of a takeoff on what the mob does and of course what the master, the Lord jesus christ did with his blood covenant. Only a person who has been transformed from the inside out can be able to change that way in his life and in his actions. So we’re gonna read to you the passage that deals with this and we’re going to introduce the first word, the greek word in the second chapter, which is pro sopa limp CIA is so important and valuable. And then we’ll talk about another word, the acid because nomo’s which is the royal law. So Vicky, why don’t you begin to read? And then I’ll catch up my brethren. Do not hold your faith in our glorious lord jesus christ with an attitude of personal favoritism and that’s pro so paul lim CIA. Uh it’s a respecter of persons and its also translated partiality in the scriptures for from man comes into your assembly latino gov with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes and they’re also comes in a poor man and dirty clothes and you pay special attention of Aleppo to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say you sit over here in a good place and you say to the poor man that is the word to horse. And there are two different greek words for poor one is pennies, the other one is the hospital horse means you’re not able to earn a living for yourself. So you have to depend on others to give you the money or the help. Matthew 53 you stand over there or sit down by my footstool podium. You have, have you not made distinctions the Acree? No among yourselves and become judges. Criticize, criticize which is a judge, uh, with evil Bonnie rose motives. The alloy is most confused self directing reasoning. So in other words, when we have these uh, respecter of person attitudes, we become judges and we said, well that one yeah, is good, that one I’m not sure about. And we become the judge and we and God hates this. God does not like this. This is not from God. So we continue on the scriptures and jesus himself. We’re gonna see he lives without partiality. And even the Pharisees and the old testament records do not be a judge of person. The Pharisees testified about him that he didn’t have this attitude. Exactly. There was no way that he would sit with the poor and the and a woman who was an adulteress or somebody he loved us or other people like that that everyone rejected. He went to everybody’s house. So 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. This is a very important phrase that we’re going to go to those who love them is in the old testament and in the new testament. I don’t know how many times. Okay. But you have dishonored the poor man is not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into the court. Do they not blaspheme from blocks Sluggish or slow or fi me with a reputation and fame? The fair, the fair name, the Carlos. The good name by which you have been called the name of jesus and it’s the rich that are dragging you into court and there are putting you down because they think they’re better. But God, God says we’re you know, we’re all equal in our value to God. If however you are fulfilling the royal law, this is so important. Right here. The Royal law. According to the scriptures. According to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That’s the Royal law. Vicky Isn’t that a beautiful And why is this called Vasily? Cause normally over cecilia’s, the king was King jesus and King jesus rules with the basilica Normal with this one Law that is referred to as the Royal law. It also referred to it before as the Perfect law. It referred to it as the law of Liberty. Now here in chapter two, it’s the varsity cost almost the royal law. And this is the one law that can help us know how to behave with all people to love our neighbor as ourself. It’s a beautiful thought, right? But if you show partiality. It says Brosseau Palencia right? The respect of persons or partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as a transgressor. Listen, this is not a small little thing when we don’t have this principle, this royal law guiding our emotions, our thoughts, our actions. Then Vicki it says that we are committing sin when we treat people in some other way and then it continues uh for whoever keeps or guards to rose uh Tito sorry, a guard. The whole law, all of it. And you know, we have become in one point he has become guilty of all for he who said do not commit adultery. Also said do not commit murder. Now if you commit adultery but do not commit murder, you still are a transgressor of the law. The law is one law. We were we were thinking of it as the big chain when you break one link and the chain is broken. You’ve broken that law. How many laws did the did the uh Pharisees have? How many laws are given in the low vehicle. Right. There were there were 613 mosaic laws and jesus summed them up in one verse. You shall love the Lord, your God with all your heart. All your soul and all your mind or strength is added in some of them and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. He just takes the greatest commandment of all is the love of God should have brought in us in such a way that we love everybody. We really we treat people like we want to be treated. And it’s so easy when you’re angry at somebody or you’re offended at somebody to think evil thoughts in our minds. Eventually they come out of our mouth and our behavior. What’s interesting to me is that God edits everything down into this one. Royal Law, even the first commandment, which is to love God, you know, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your, you know, your strength in your mind. Uh that is summed up in the second one because in first john says that if how can you love God, that you cannot see if you don’t love your neighbor, that you can see. So this is really, really very important. And the law of moses the law of the Lord. The law is holy, the law is righteous. The law is good. The law is spiritual. The law of God. These are these are all referred to the law. And then uh the law of the spirit of life in christ, jesus. The law of righteousness. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to christ so that we may be justified by faith for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in Galatians 5 14 in the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole thing is edited down into that. And then the law of christ in Galatians 62 again, it’s referred to as the Perfect Law. It’s referred to as the Law of liberty and it’s referred to as the Royal law. If however you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well transformation, an incredible life of transformation when you open up the gospel of luke and you read in chapter eight about mary Magdalene who was called Magdalene, it says in verse two from whom seven demons had gone out, he was a woman who was demon possessed and many people think she was immoral, although it doesn’t say that in the text and God used her in an incredible way, transformed her. She was constantly with jesus serving the Lord, serving the disciples. Uh and then she was the first one at the tomb, I was able to preach the gospel to the disciples themselves that she saw Jesus rise from the dead transformed life in the same chapter. You find the demo Niac is cured in verse 26 and uh what an incredible story of transformation with him. We went over the and we’re gonna look at that, we went over the blood covenant in our first program and Michael Francis and how God took a capable in the joe Colombo crime family who was doing all kinds of evil things, criminal things And God changed his life. Uh and he spent 10 years in prison and through this whole experience, God brought him to his savior, the Lord Jesus Christ and uh now is writing books, preaching and teaching and churches and schools and universities. His life is totally transformed. You have another book here by d marcellus barriers who uh you know called himself the ST uh Lord ST God in the name of the book is and on the back of this it says his street name was daylight, but he was a nightmare. This guy was on the streets of new york. Darkness and violence. Rain dimas daylight, salis bears began selling drugs when he was 11 years old and by 16 he had served his first stint at the notorious Rikers Island Prison. Demons saw only one way to survive by reigning over the streets. He would be the richest most powerful rule ruler in the hood or die trying and it goes on and on. How did God take this guy uh you know, running around the sex drugs and rock and roll, being chased by police in prison. God is using him as a mighty man of God. My friend dimas went with me to the Angola prison. We got a chance to preach together two lifers in prison. He was the uh executive director of concerts of prayer and uh is an evangelist is producing movies and films communicating the power of the gospel all over the world and I thank God for people like this. Uh we also see that in this story, the demo Niac, if I could uh you know, just, just give you some insights about his life, reminds me of myself so much. This uh, the five fold changes that took place in this guy’s life are incredible. The demonic literally came to jesus. He was spiritually changed. He was physically changed. He was mentally changed, emotionally changed and socially changed. I want you to pick up the story with me In verse 26 and they said to the country of the gathering’s, these are, these are people who were gentiles on the other side. And when he had come out onto the land, he had been met by a certain man from the city who had possessed. He was possessed with demons who had not put on any clothing for a long time and was not living in the house, but in the tombs and seeing jesus, he cried out and fell before him and said in a loud voice, what do I have to do with you, jesus, son of the most high God? And I beg you do not torment me. And then it goes on to say that uh Jesus had called the demons out of him. In fact, the demons responded and said their name was legion. Now, augustus caesar Was the emperor and there were 6,826 uh soldiers during the reign in the first century of Augustus Caesar 726 Horsemen, which makes up 7552 men in a legion, As many as 10,000 sometimes, but at least 7,552 men in Augusta Caesar’s legions. This man had thousands of demons in him that went into thousands of pigs and the pigs. Uh the swine went over the cliff and died. But you notice in verse 35, the people went out to see what happened and they came to Jesus, found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting down at the feet of jesus. This is so important. The man was sitting down at the feet of jesus. He was spiritually changed because Jesus is now speaking to him, he was demon possessed before. But now Jesus is speaking to him the word of jesus, the word of God will come into you and begin to transform you. And then it says that uh that when the demons had gone out, he was sitting at the feet of jesus, he was clothed and in his right mind and they became frightened. So he was not only spiritually and physically changed, he was clothed, but he was mentally changed. He was in his right mind and then he was emotionally changed and he went back To his home, Jesus sent him back to his home, returned to your home and described what great things God has done for you. And he went back and finally he was socially changed. The Bible says about him that he went to the Coppola’s which is the 10 cities where he lived and he went and began to preach notice what it says. And he went away and began to proclaim and the Coppola’s, what great things jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed, this is what the complex looks like all around. If you notice the various cities there uh you know, you have Damascus and tire and caesarea, philippi and Cap Ernie um and Nazareth and job and all of these uh cities all around. But look at the capitalist, Kanata and Dion and hips and rafa and Vadodara and paella and Garza, philadelphia. Now we can’t go to some places but God can change people with his word and they can go to places we can’t go to. So we have to trust God and we have to ask jesus christ to guide us. When we are changed and transformed. I myself was like a damo Nya, you see this little picture here, if you can see it right here that I was totally transformed. I had been on drugs for three years every day, Sex drugs, rock n roll. But jesus christ when he saved me when I heard the gospel that he died for me was buried and rose again and I cried out and said, oh God forgive me a sinner, come in, my life changed me, I believe you died for me, Jesus, and you rose again from the dead, please come in my life and changed me. He not only changed me. Then I began to study God’s work and then I was transformed day by day as I was reading his word and I have been for the past 50 years, communicating to many people the great things that God has done for me, You too can be that way. God bless you. Until next time. It’s all greek to me.