Show No Partiality

Well, let's take our Bibles and let's go back to James. We're in James chapter 2 tonight, as the apostle is writing to his church. And this is actually a number of scattered congregations because of the persecution.

They have dealt with significant suffering. And I was just drawn to something that Corey said about the face of Christ being seen. If Christ is going to be seen and glorified on the earth, he's going to be most fully seen in his local church. Certainly Christ is seen in you and I as individuals. He's seen as we live in the world, as the workplace, the school, whatever it may be. And of course that's important.

But there's something about the bride being together. There's a completion, a fullness. And so we want to be all the church that we can be because God's honor, his witness in the world is on the line if we are what we're called to be. James writing to these congregations that are scattered around, he writes to them and he's talking to them now about practical ways they can do better as a local church. It's very similar actually to what we're looking at in First Timothy and lines up with some parallels even this evening's message with what we talked about this morning. But he's already talked to them in the previous chapter about God's process of maturity, that God sovereignly designs, orchestrates, multifaceted trials that come in our lives. And through these trials, we grow to where our first response is God's up to something good. He's up to something for his glory.

And I'm going to trust him in this process, this trial, this testing that I'm in. He's talked about them being doers of the word, a person who practices the truth. And now we come to a very practical issue here in chapter two where James is going to talk about making sure that everyone is viewed equally in the church. There's just no place for division.

There's no place for classes, cliques, any type of prejudice or partiality. I remember many, many years ago, goodness, decades ago as a very young preacher, I was visiting the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. And I remember Dr. Rogers talking about the first African-American person who joined Bellevue Baptist Church. And he brought them before the church. And the church overwhelmingly unanimously voted them in. And then he told the church, he told the church, my tenure here was on the line. If you had rejected these folks because of their ethnicity or because of their race, then I would have resigned as your pastor.

And I'm sure, I don't remember that. I wasn't in church hardly any growing up. I don't remember that sense of prejudice or racism within the church, but I'm sure it exists in individual hearts. And I'm sure it's existed in congregations in the past. And not just racism, rich against poor.

That's going to be the issue here. And by the way, these things cut both ways. As one of the nieces of Martin Luther King said, hate doesn't come in one color. People can learn to hate, be unloving for a thousand and one different reasons. There are those who have been hurt and abused by certain segments of society. Maybe a girl was abused by her father and she's not careful. Satan would like to turn that into a hate and a bitterness toward people that remind her of her father. And on and on and on, we could go with things. We're just fallen human beings in a fallen world.

And we are so prone and it's so very easy. Listen, without even thinking about it, and sometimes without even being aware of it, that we kind of put people in different classifications. And what James is going to write to the church is, is that can not happen. Partiality cannot stand in Christ's church. That means we are always repenters when any of that evil arises in our hearts.

Favoritism, partiality has no place in the church. Sometimes as a staff, we'll be discussing the sheep. And you may not be aware of this, but some sheep are stranger than other sheep. Some sheep are just more difficult than other sheep. Now when I say strange, I don't mean strange wrong, just strange different.

It's hard to figure out, well why is this brother filled this way? Or why does this sister respond that way? And we scratch our heads, how can we minister to them? And I remind them, I said, look fellas, if everybody was just wonderfully, perfectly mature, they wouldn't need shepherds. We all need shepherds, and we need the great shepherd in his book, by the way, so that we can keep being repenters and learners and do better, because again, God's glory is on the line. And whatever else matters, it matters chiefly that God's church is in harmony. Now there's a lot of aspects here that the modern church misses greatly, and one of those is, is the concept of a regenerate membership. I'm thinking about doing our true church conference this next year on a regenerate membership. By the way, that's the only membership there is. I mean, you don't join a football team unless you plan to play football.

You don't join a football team to play baseball. Well, you don't join a church if you're not born of the Spirit, regenerate. And I remember talking to pastor after pastor after pastor as a young minister and them saying to me, well, I know a big part of my congregation don't act like they know Christ. They don't really know Christ, but it's okay. We're just going to try to reach them too with the gospel.

I thought that's not right. Sure, we try to reach all people with the gospel, but we don't knowingly accumulate members who haven't come to faith in Christ. So first of all, that aspect, and by the way, that's a long, difficult journey for a pastor to lead a church to where they have a good, sound, spiritual, scriptural process of counseling and bringing those into the church that God has converted. And as the New Testament says in Acts chapter 2, the Lord added to his church.

Did you get that? We do not build his church. He does not build our church. He builds his church.

We're to discern what the Lord's doing based on the authority of scripture. So there's a lot to say about church unity, and those factors have a lot to do with it. Obviously, if you've got a church that is 40 percent goats and 60 percent sheep, there's going to be disunity problems.

So that's a foundation stone. But within the congregation of the elect and the truly regenerate, we can fall into cultural prejudices. And when I say cultural, they're just so multifaceted, I get really put out with the simplicity, the simplistic argument of modern progressive liberals.

They should be called digressive liberals, as they like to paint this broad generalization. If you're a white European and male, then you're all of these things. If you're an ethnic person from this race, well you're oppressed and you're all these things.

No, there's all kinds of mixed up stuff all in there. There's actually some white male European folks who are good people. There's actually some folks of minority groups who are evil and wicked and mean. And there's some white European descendant folks who are mean and wicked and ought to be called out for it. And there's some some very wonderful and godly and special people who are of non-white European descendants.

So on and on we could go. And my thing is, in Christianity we never just label groups because you miss it. It's just not that simple. But individuals within groups and individuals within the church can fall into certain ruts. Now sometimes many within a church can fall into these kind of prejudices or these kind of partialities toward one group and up to another. And that must stop in Christ's church. So here's the way he words it. James chapter 2, beginning in verse 1, My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus with an attitude of personal favoritism.

Is that not just plain straightforward? Verse 2, For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing fine clothes, and you say, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which you promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man.

Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you've been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, according to scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he's become guilty of all. For he did not say, or rather for he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not commit murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you've become transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty, for judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Now in Roman numeral one, verses one through five, let's just note the partiality problem stated. The partiality problem stated in verse five, he said, listen my beloved brethren. Now just stop right there, that's a powerful statement of equality and unity.

You're all brethren. Some brethren are rich, some brethren are poor, some brethren are rich because they worked harder, they had more initiative, they have more drive, some brethren are poor because they're just not as hard of workers. They don't have the initiative, they don't have the drive. Some brethren are rich because in the providence of God they fell in the right places at the right time, or were born to the right parents. Some folks are poor, they've worked hard, they've tried, they've gone for it, they've provided for their family, but they don't have a lot.

And they did the best they knew how to do. Here's what I'm saying, in God's providence we all find ourselves at different places, but we're all brethren. He says, listen brethren, aren't we all same? As has been said many times, but it's a good expression, the ground is level at the cross.

The ground is level at the cross. Now the Jews of this day, before they're converted to Christianity, and I'm sure a lot of this carried over, you don't get perfect when you get saved, you should become a repenter though, they coveted recognition and they coveted honor, it was just in their culture. Now let's don't let the old great Gentiles off the hook, they were the same way.

They worked feverishly, if you will, to be a person of standing in the society, and of honor one to the other. They sought for men's praise. But notice how he says it here in verse five, listen my beloved brethren, I'm sorry back up in verse one, my brethren do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. Now he's getting at something he says in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. He said, do you not understand culturally speaking the lowliest person who comes into your assembly is marked by the love and righteousness and glories of Jesus Christ? And do you not understand the man of highest esteem and greatest wealth in your assembly is marked by the same righteousness, honor, and glory of Jesus Christ?

There's just no difference. He's saying, see how warped you are in your thinking, see how sub-Christian you are when you show partiality, when you show favoritism in this case of a rich person over a poor person. In our culture there's ladder climbing, there's political savvy, there's social standing, and there's cliques and too often some of this gets over into the church. I've said it too many times, God puts you in a small group that you're in so that you would learn to love people who aren't like you, who don't fit your clique, who are not in your niche so to speak, because we need to learn to walk in this truth that we're all a part of the glories of Jesus Christ. Earthly classifications have no bearing in the church of Jesus Christ. It's quite possible, matter of fact chapter 3 verse 1 would point this out, that some within the church are even jockeying for position and to have a high standing within the church, a duty in the flesh. Someone said some people go to church to close their eyes and others go to church to eye the clothes.

See who's of what standing, who stands out, who is special. Well we're all special in Christ and we are equally so. We are all in the process of sanctification, we're all humbled repenters. I think what Paul is saying here when he points out my brethren don't hold your faith in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ with the attitude of personal favoritism, he's saying here's what you're doing, you're looking at the brethren but you're missing the Christ in the brethren. As Paul said on another occasion to the Corinthian church, he said aren't you thinking like mere men? Isn't that how a person would think who Christ hasn't changed? Isn't that how the fallen natural heart would think?

You can't think that way. Can I charge you on this Sunday night dear friend in Christ? If you have the slightest smidgen of prejudice, partiality, racism, whatever it is, it must be repented of and put to death.

I can promise you any action on it would not be tolerated here, but the attitude of it needs to be slain and dragged before the Lord. Christ is bigger than that and it's just like Jesus to save people from the class and the group that you don't like the best and bring them right into your church and all are welcome. The only qualification here is do you know Christ? Jesus always looked on the heart. Remember the poor widow who gave her might and the the treasury at the temple and by the way culturally speaking she was at the bottom of the bottom of the bottom. She had nothing and yet Jesus praised her that she had done more that honored God than all the rest. Now the Pharisees were in the crowd and they always thought they were special and they had wealth and power and they were so devoted to the Lord they made up new laws to illustrate how spiritual they were, but Jesus said no that little lady who has culturally almost nothing gave more than all the rest. When Jesus looked at people he was prone to see the potential that was in them. You could not have blundered much more than Simon did. You could not have stuck your foot in your mouth more than Simon did. He denied the Lord three times, but during his earthly ministry the Lord looked at Simon and he said you're going to be Peter the rock.

The rock? Which you see in the gospels he's a little more like a tumbleweed. He's just bouncing around blowing up, but Jesus saw what he could make of him. Now listen brothers and sisters when you're in your small group when you're fellowshiping with one another in the Lord yes there are people who don't do right I understand that there's a place for loving correction the church is responsible to do that but you need to look at people in terms of where's God going to take them. Where is God going to take them? God can can take some of the roughest material and make some of the most beautiful clothing. I remember I've told you this before I don't know why these things pop in my mind while I'm preaching but I remember when Billy Graham was on the Johnny Carson show that's back when late night was halfway decent and Johnny Carson was trying to be funny and he told Billy Graham he said Billy you think I could be a preacher and Billy Graham said yeah God's made some of the best preachers out of some of the worst sinners. Well actually that's true it was funny everybody liked but it is true you need to there might be brothers and sisters in your class and you have no concept of where they came from the home they grew up in the marriage and the difficulties they might have endured they may have really been oppressed they may really be now we know we have a culture that makes everybody a victim of something but they're people who really are victims we need to be patient with one another and not show partiality not not just be prone to those who are easiest and more comfortable to get along with they're part of the bride of Christ purpose to learn how to view them like Jesus with potential he looked at Simon who would deny him three times and said you're going to be a rock because I'm going to make you a rock remember the sinful woman at the well of Sychar Jesus told her about the truths of salvation I believe she was converted and she goes out and and she helps convert an entire city to Christ or at least tells her to evangelize the entire city I shouldn't say convert but she evangelized them she'd be the last one on the list to do anything like evangelizing the city. Walls too often are found among professing Christians today dress shouldn't matter color of skin does not matter our fashion does not matter what's important is do they know Christ if they do they're one with us and if they don't know Christ we still love them as a fellow image bearer of God there is a sanctity to human life and we're all in this thing together we must look at all believers though equally as possessing Christ they possess Christ's love like we possess Christ's love they possess Christ's forgiveness like we possess Christ's forgiveness they possess Christ's righteousness because look there's nothing there's nothing that matters in this temporal world but whether or not you have the imputed righteousness of Christ does matter and whoever they are they have that like you have that and the glory of Christ is theirs just like the glories of Christ are ours now look at verse 5 as we get to the end of this section as we talk about the partiality being stated he said listen my beloved brethren did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which you promised to those who love them he said matter of fact if you just want to get practical about it look around you has it not been true that more folks from the lower stratuses of the society seem to come to a genuine faith in Christ and those from the upper classes of society if you're here tonight and sir or ma'am you come from more money than most of us God can use you He just doesn't choose to use people like you often generally God doesn't choose those well pastor why is that true well I've often said this one of the reasons that's true because there's a lot more poor folks than our rich folks another reason is God is sovereign and that's what the bible says and he does what he wants to do so he just says very practical here look around and and do you not understand the folks that show the most faithful faith and love for Christ tend to be not the wealthiest folks in the community that can happen but they don't tend to be notice hey words are here in verse 5 listen my beloved brethren did not God choose the poor of this world now notice to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom in other words the culture views them as lower class but they are the wealthiest people in town they're rich in Jesus Christ rich in faith a person's wealth may buy them the things of the world but they cannot buy them eternal life and wealth never impresses God that shouldn't impress us this word choose here's the same Greek word Paul uses in Ephesians 1, Ephesians chapter 2 when he gives us the doctrines of sovereign grace how God elects or chooses those whom he's going to save and he chooses them and as James says they're poor in the world's eyes but they're rich in faith poor in this life but they have great wealth in Christ now and have great wealth in the future life in other words God makes the saved poor man rich and God makes the rich lost man poor more often than not God does choose the poor this world over those who are in high places of wealth or power or position 1 Timothy 6 17 and 18 let me read that one right quick as a good cross reference here well you guys are spoiled to the screens years ago I'd said let's look at this script turning now you just wait and look for the screen to tell you something I understand that's not your bad it's just different 1 Timothy 6 17 and 18 listen instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy now I happen to know some rich people at least compared to the rest of us and I know some rich people who do this very thing they understand this could be gone tomorrow this is a stewardship from God now they enjoy the nice things they have but they don't make an idol out of them but if you do you need to repent of that you need to understand that whatever gifts you have and whatever worth the ethic you have at the back of all of that is the grace of God you're no more special than anybody else matter of fact James says in the balance of things God doesn't pick many people like you to be in his kingdom verse 18 he says instruct them the rich people to do good to be rich in good works to be generous to be ready to share I'm thankful for those whom God's blessed in this way that they have a heart to be ready to share we have a lot of nice things at Grace Life Church because people that God's blessed have been very generous and we need to acknowledge that but Neil we've got a few folks here that have a lot and they're stingy pastor how do you know that I don't look at the given I just know I watch them over the years I'm not envious about it I'm not upset about it here's the way I feel about it if you can keep it keep it keep it but if you love Jesus it just seems to come on through you now I don't know the proportion I don't know the amount I don't know I've told you before I don't know how much to retire on I feel like I'm behind but I have to leave that in the Lord's hands I don't know how that works I'm not going to decide for you you shouldn't decide for me we're certainly not going to judge each other but the point is in this particular church at this time they had a real hang up on making the wealthy feel welcome and making the poor man feel unwelcome in the church that should not happen that should not happen well spiritual common sense picks in here look at verses six and seven that's my second point spiritual common sense you know I am one who talks about how much I dislike pragmatism and I dislike pragmatism and how to build the church but there's a number of things as to what we're to do that the old Puritans and they were the best expositors that's ever well I know of any generation the old Puritans were the greatest expositors and they came up with a phrase called spiritual common sense so some things the bible don't just speak exactly to but it's just obviously true you don't have to the bible doesn't say a whole lot about it because we have the the principles of the word and the spirit of God to help us in this common sense and this is sort of what James is getting to here in verses six and seven he said but you have dishonored the poor man is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you in the court and do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you've been called he said now think about it of all the persecutions you're enduring by being a christian in this present age don't they most all of them come from rich people and I think the truth would the truth would be yeah most all of them do and so this was a stern rebuke to them he said you're acting just like the lost rich man you're you're you're taking advantage of those whom you can take advantage of you're mistreating those because you could mistreat them and get away with it now the court system in this day was was known to be corrupt and and the wealthy and the powerful could manipulate the judges and get the verdicts they needed to favor themselves and the poor man would be left standing with injustice and he said that's kind of the way you're treating people you're acting just like those kind of folks and those are the kind of folks who are persecuting the most think about our lord he was poor as far as the world was concerned he gave himself over to be lowly and meek and poor in this world he was the victim of injustice that was perpetrated against him by the wealthy of his day so whether it's at the hand of the rich corporate executive or whether it's the hand of the rich labor union boss it seems that the small guy or the poor guys are always getting the bad end of the deal in our culture today as we see a lot of this in the rich politicians who are constantly exploiting the lower class or the poor folks of our culture constantly promising this and promising that this is free that is free this handout that handout and at the end of the day they actually you lose your humanity when everybody does everything for you men use lose their dignity and their self-respect and i don't know there's there's some things here that perhaps our government needs to address but young guys go to school and they rack up a huge debt and now the attitude is i don't have to pay it off wow that's a great way to start adulthood that's a great principle to teach young people just rack up the debt and let somebody else pay it off the government will pay it off has it ever occurred to you the government doesn't have any money they just have other people's money my point is it's the principle and so so you can a lot of times liberals take these verses and talk about we all have these great social welfare programs well i'm going to tell you they're exploiting the poor the exact way this verse is condemning now don't misunderstand me rich capitalist conservatives can be very exploitative and vicious and mean-spirited too again hate and greed and injustice doesn't just come in one political party but i think it's the lowest of the low to fly the banner of helping the minority and the poor when really you're exploiting them for your own power and wealth it's not a small thing look for if a politician is constantly constantly constantly building their position on helping the poor how do they get into office and after they get into office 15 20 25 30 years they've got a hundred million dollars of personal wealth if they really believe that then live it personally bernie sanders gave what one percent of his wealth to charity last year but he's so concerned about the poor i look the scripture would teach bear this out in your own life live the reality of it out and maybe we'll believe you a little bit better there's a lot of exploiting of the poor and i think the point james is making whatever happens in the church that must not happen in god's church absolutely must not happen in god's church in verse 7 again did they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called in other words by the things that these the wealthy of the culture around them was doing to the church they they were blaspheming god by blaspheming god's children they were hurting christ by hurting those who belong to christ well quickly roman number three he says walk in the superior law of liberty walk in the superior law of liberty he uses two phrases for law he talks about a royal law then later on down in verse 12 he talks about the law of liberty look at verse 8 if however you are fulfilling the royal law when you're saved you you function according to a higher law than just the moral law contained in the commandments those are always true but there's a higher law royal law we embrace as the scripture says you shall love your neighbor at yourself he said if that's what you're functioning you're doing well he said if you will walk in that love god put a love in you at conversion you have a capacity to love in a way you did not have before conversion now mature in that grow in that and flesh that out and if you do that you'll find you're treating everybody like they ought to be treated when you mature in the royal law love your neighbor as yourself then you don't need a lot of rules you just naturally do what the law would ask you to do you fulfill the law romans 13 10 says love does no wrong to a neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law so we walk in this new law this royal law because there's a new love the love of god's been set abroad in our hearts the bible says and when you love that that way you overcome the temptation to be prejudiced or show partiality or favoritism based on ed classification the world may put on people someone said hatred makes a person a slave but love sets us free to reign as kings that's why it's the royal law hatred always enslaves prejudice always enslaves you racism always enslaves you but the love of christ sets you free to live as a king love enables us to obey the word of god and treat others as the law of god would intend for us to do verse 9 but if you show partiality you are committing sin and you are convicted by the law as transgressors if you show partiality if you show partiality to someone based on worldly classifications then you've left the royal law you're now functioning down on the base law of of the moral law of god and by the way you're violating it you're falling way way way below the standard of christian conduct if you show partiality this is a serious sin i think probably in the context what we see is that the church that james is writing to was saying well we know this isn't good but you know it's not that big a deal and he said no it is a big deal it's very big deal not only are you violating the moral law of god you're leaving the royal law of love and god's put that capacity in your heart and you're abandoning what you are you're falling below the level you're to be living on verse 10 forever keep whoever keeps the whole law yet stumbles in one point become guilty of all verse 11 for he who for he who said do not commit adultery also said do not commit murder now if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you've come a transgression of the law in other words just because you said we show some partiality we show some favoritism but it's not serious it's it is it's like you've broken all the law verse 11 or verse 12 rather so speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty not fearful but the principle is that we evaluate evaluate rather ourselves as followers of jesus christ we've been accepted in grace therefore we should look at one another in grace when you look at somebody who's visiting your small group class or visiting your congregation and you just kind of meet they say well they're not they're not my type they don't fit me when jesus looked down from heaven at you you definitely were not his type you didn't fit his group but he chose in love beyond comprehension to extend grace to you now he says now you you're my children now you walk in that same love and grace one toward another it doesn't matter what they fit it matters that they're a child of grace it matters that they're a child of grace we've been accepted in grace so we judge in grace we've been placed in this new law this law of liberty in other words we are liberated from any confinement to the drudgery of and the guilt of did i keep this law perfectly today did i keep that law in the next hour or in the last hour was my heart right well that's just bondage we're saved by grace through faith not by the law we're we're liberated from that kind of concept now you see that same kind of generosity and acceptance and grace must flow one to another in god's church verse 13 for judgment will be merciless to the one who shows no mercy and mercy triumphs over judgment i think the simple point is the believer of all people ought to be able to show temperance patience long suffering and kindness and acceptance to that difficult person who may be in church with them if you can't show mercy how can you be one who knows the mercy you've already gotten from god the point is you can't really be saved if the pattern of your life is to hold grudges if the pattern of your life is to be unforgiving if the pattern of your life is to classify people as not being fit for your fellowship and your kindness and your acceptance you can't be a child of mercy if you're like that and if you do act like that and you fall into that if you are god's child you're broken and humbled and repented about it and say oh god don't let me walk in that that's contrary to the truth of what christianity is well that's what james is saying to the church 2 000 years ago and i think it has a lot to say to the church today now as your pastor i'm just being honest i know no of no systemic issues in this church matter of fact i don't know if hardly any systemic issues in the culture oh there's plenty of hate and unkindness and mean spiritedness and oh there's but it goes everywhere now the news media tries to blow things into sensationalism there's way way too much of it out there but it's not simplistic and even in a church that i think by god's grace is a good church and a fairly mature church it's very possible that sitting here this day you have some issues in your own heart that you need to take and drag from their lurking places and slay them before the lord and say father that attitude that viewpoint that disposition is wrong is wrong i don't have to say this but i will say it absolutely anyone and everyone from any segment of the culture who wants to hear about christ is welcome here anyone from any part of any part of our culture that want that knows christ and wants to join this church is welcome here as a fellow heir of mercy that's where james is getting how's your heart tonight does it check out okay with god