This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. Thanks for joining us for today's program. At Connect with Skip, we're all about helping you connect with God's Word in a deeper way. That's why we make messages like Todays available to you and others across the globe. And right now, when you sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails, you'll receive a free download of Chapter 1 from Skip's book, The Biography of God.
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Now let's dive into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Let's turn in our Bibles to James chapter 2, please. We're doing a series called Adulting. Based on the theme of the book of James, which is Christian maturity.
So we are Now we've made it all the way to chapter two of this short little book, and that's quite a feat given the fact that I can spend a long time in books of the Bible. Uh but um we've already made it to chapter two and it's a very timely topic.
So I'm going to begin this way. There's childish ways to handle other people. And there are mature ways to handle other people.
So for instance If somebody yells at you, And your response is to yell louder at them. Is that childish or mature? Yeah, that's childish because the Bible says a soft answer. is what turns away wrath. If somebody sulks Or they throw a tantrum.
Because they didn't get their way. Is that childish or is that mature? That's childish. That's what kids do. If someone slanders you, And you calmly Correct that slander with truth.
Is that childish or mature? That's mature. If you're driving home from church, on Osuna Road. And somebody pulls in front of you in your lane. And your response is to lay on the horn.
For a long time. And then follow them all through town because they did that. Yeah. Childish or mature? Childish.
Please don't say mature. If somebody bullies you. And you decide to stand up to the bully. Childish or mature? It's mature.
You're overcoming fear. You're setting boundaries. If somebody is beautifully dressed and really good looking, and they enter the room and you fawn all over them. Childish or mature. Childish.
And that brings us to the very heart of what James. is talking about in the next paragraph in James chapter two.
Now James Is writing this letter, this little book, to a group of people. And he is speaking about maturity, Christian growth, and tests How can you tell if a person is grown up in the faith? And he gives several tests in this book.
So far, he has given us the test of. How we handle trials. That's the first test. How do we handle trials? Second test: how do we handle temptation?
Third test, how do we handle the Word of God? And fourth test, How do we handle other people? When you think of The attributes of God, and you think of words that describe God's inherent. Character. There's a lot of words that you could use to describe God.
You could use the word power because he is all-powerful. You could certainly use the word love. because the Bible tells us God is love. Words like compassionate. Words like holiness.
Immutability is another word, means God never changes. Eternality, God has always There from beginning to end. He never he always was, always will be. He is faithful. Gracious.
Omniscient. Etc., etc., etc.
So many words describe the character of God, but there's another word. There's another attribute. That people don't speak of that much, but it is also true that it describes God. And it is the term impartial. God is impartial.
God is unphased by human status. He is never impressed. God never looks at a person and goes, Wow, like That guy, that gal has something that others don't. He's not impressed by someone's education. Or income.
Or outward beauty, though he gave that to them. or their wardrobe or skin color. Those things mean nothing to God. In Deuteronomy chapter 10, verse 17, it says, The Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords. He is the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality.
nor takes bribes. 2 Chronicles 19. We're told, there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect. of persons. That's partiality or favoritism.
In Acts chapter 10, You may remember the story when Peter was reluctant to go into the house of a Gentile named Cornelius. Peter was Jewish. Jews don't hang out with Gentiles. And so he goes into the house a little reluctantly, and he says, This: In truth, I perceive That God shows no partiality. It's like, dude, God loves even you.
That's what he's saying in sort of a nice way. In truth, I perceive God shows no partiality, but in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness. is accepted by him. Peter finally figured that out. This is an attribute that the people who saw Jesus.
recognized in him. He is impartial. On one occasion, a group called the Herodians approached Jesus. And They said to him, We know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth, nor do you care about anyone. That means you're not swayed by them.
For you do not regard the person of men.
So the Bible tells us that God the Father is impartial. The people that saw Jesus recognized he also was impartial. If you ever visit Washington, D.C., one of the Main buildings in that city is the Supreme Court building. And one of the most recognizable statues. On one side of the Supreme Court building is Lady Justice, and she's holding the scales, she's going to weigh things.
Fairly And She's blindfolded. And the blindfold around lady justice is to speak of impartiality in judgments. That's how courts should function. They don't always actually function that way, but the idea is that we will not regard your person. We are going to treat this case in an impartial manner.
Parents should be impartial. and shouldn't have favorite children.
Sometimes they do. Um Even in the Bible they do. Remember Isaac and Rebekah in the Old Testament? They had two boys, Esau and Jacob. If you study that little passage of scripture, you discover that.
Isaac seemed to favor his oldest son Esau, but clearly Rebekah, his wife, favored the youngest son, Jacob, and that caused problems in the family. Then Jacob himself had 12 sons, and everybody knew who his favorite son was. It was Joseph. He's the kid that got the coat of many colors. And that brought a jealousy into the family that caused Joseph by his brothers to be sold to human trafficked down to Egypt.
That's why I've always said there is a blessing in having only one child. And that is, I can say, unashamedly, he is my favorite son.
So, favoritism in your house is bad. Favoritism in God's house is even worse. And that takes us to James chapter 2. We're going to look at 13 verses, at least, as an overview.
Now, we discover, as we go through this passage, we discover a few Truths About favoritism. And the first truth, the most obvious truth, is that people are prejudiced naturally. And when I say people, I mean all people. Let's just go through our text and notice a few things. My brethren, he's writing to believers.
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 apparel, There should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and you say to him, You sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand there, or Sit here at my footstool. In other words, here, sit on the floor. Nice seat reserved for you over here.
Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved Brethren. Has not God 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 dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?
Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law, According to the Scriptures, you shall 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 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 don't commit adultery but you do murder, you've 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. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzk. Before we return to today's message, what does real spiritual maturity actually look like and how can you achieve it? In his new series, Adulting, A Study Through the Book of James, Pastor Skip gives straight talk from scripture on how to grow up in your faith through trials, temptations, and daily life.
This eye-opening 21 message series is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip. Request your CD package or digital download of adulting when you give at connectwithskip.com/slash offer or call 800-922-1888.
Now, let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor Skip. Let me begin by just saying that this must have been a common problem in the congregations to which James is addressing because otherwise he would not have addressed it. He wouldn't have spent so much time dealing with it, but it was a problem. That's why he. is writing about it.
All of that to say this, people are partial. We put others into stratified categories, higher or lower. than other people. And When we do that, it is usually based on superficial things like their looks or their clothes or what they drive or the house they live in or are they male or female or what age they are or what skin color they have. All external criteria.
We all do this. I know you like to say, I don't. We all do this. Nobody likes to admit they're prejudice. Nobody likes to admit they have a bias or they're partial, but.
I think you'll all agree we are fallen humanity. And because of the fall, we are tainted with sin, and part of the sin nature. is partiality. Or to sum it up in a biblical way in 1 Samuel chapter 16. God tells the prophet Man looks at the outward appearance.
But finish the verse. God looks at the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.
Now, that statement. Tells us as much about human nature as about God's nature. Usually, we focus only on the second part of that verse. God looks at the heart, and we neglect the first truth in that verse, which is. Also true Man looks at the outward appearance.
That's a general statement given by God about human nature. We are appearance oriented. According to the American Bar Association, they put out a little journal called A Business Law Today. They state, and I quote, we all have biases that affect all aspects of our lives and the lives of others with whom we interact. Close quote.
Scientists tell us That we, as human beings, have deeply ingrained tendencies to form groups. And We perceive people who look like us in a more positive way. When we see somebody who resembles more closely ourselves, we gravitate toward those people. Caitlin Millett. A PhD in neuroscience.
Stated, the human brain is wired for prejudice. She says this, and I quote, social motivations, such as the desire to be a member of a group or compete with others, are among the most basic human drives. In fact, our brains are able to assess In group us. And outgroup Them. membership within a fraction of a second.
What that means in layman's terms so you and I can grasp it. It's simply this. As soon as you meet somebody, you size them up immediately. And so, what they are all saying is, there's a basis. For our bias So, I need to quickly say this: that's not an excuse.
to be sinful. Just because it's part of our fallen nature, just because it's deeply ingrained to be partial to one group or to another group, it is not an excuse for sinful behavior. We should never give into any natural proclivity. People always like to say, well, this is the way I was born to have this tendency.
So you were born that way. Don't act on the impulse. Second, you should also know that prejudice is not the same thing as discernment. Discernment is a positive characteristic. It is necessary in the Christian community.
And to make a healthy set of distinctions between. Of different people, different ideologies, different values. Discernment and prejudice are two different value systems altogether. And then the third thing I want to say is that The Bible's stance on prejudice. and equality, impartiality.
Is completely different from a modern movement in our culture known as the DEI movement. DEI, some of you know. Uh is um You should know because 61% of adults have to go through some kind of DEI training in the corporate structure, in the world in which you live. It happens to be a $9.4 billion industry. Yes, people are making money off of this type of indoctrination.
DEI simply means diversity, equity, and inclusion. Let me just explain to you in a brief moment what that is. It is a forced inclusion. imposed upon you Based on Race. Ethnicity and sexual orientation.
So in the workplace or in the educational space, People are selected not based on their skill. Not based on their competence, but based on The most superficial of all factors. Like skin color or ethnicity or sexual orientation. What that produces is.
Something known as tokenism. Where you get a token number of people that fit that category rather than the best possible people who can do the job. Yeah. It sounds like it's supposed to be at least.
some noble effort. to overturn racism And sexual discrimination, what it ends up doing is it produces racists. And prejudice people. Here's a quote from Ibram Kendi. Ibram Kendi is an educator.
He's an activist. He believes that all aspects of society are racist, and if you deny that, it just proves that you are. Even more so are racist. He went so far as to say this, and I'm quoting him. The only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination.
Do you hear what he's saying? What he's saying is two wrongs. Make a right. Because you've been discriminated against. Even if you deny that that's true, we need to discriminate against you.
What does that mean in practical terms? It means that you and I are about to be in a very dangerous society. Why is that? Because it means that, for example, medical schools who need to hire an oncology researcher. Won't look for somebody who's the best in their field.
But somebody who is gender fluid or a certain race or ethnicity. Because you gotta fill that quota. It means that Airline pilots. May or may not be the best pilots. Let me ask you a question.
Would you rather have Your pilot, somebody who fits the DEI paradigm, or would you rather just have the best possible pilot? Who can do the job? That's the difficulty.
Now why is all this happening in our culture? And it is more of a recent trend. It is based on the belief that certain groups are guilty and certain other groups are not guilty.
Some are guilty, some are innocent. The guilty ones, that's the oppressor class. The innocent ones, that's the victim class. You are judged, you are seen, you are valued, you are treated not individually. but corporately as a group.
Because you happen to have a certain background, a certain ethnicity, a certain skin color, you are either oppressor or victim. If you happen to be the victim class, because of skin color or sexual preference, schools, jobs, corporate, Structure placements are open to you that wouldn't be open to others. That's the society in which we live.
Now let's get back to the Bible. Because after all, this is a Bible study. What does the Bible have to say about all this inclusion?
Well Inclusion is a biblical concept. It's called the church. It's called the church. There is a fundamental redemptive quality about the church because the church was designed by God to get rid of the class structure, get rid of the differences that are between us, and have our identity in Christ alone. This is why Paul writes in Galatians 3, verse 28: there is neither Jew nor Greek.
slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. See what he did? All the distinctions, all the little classifications are done away with because now you and I are part of this thing called. the church, the body of Christ.
So cultural differences, race, gender. All included in the church, our identity is not from those subgroups, but from the group. The body of Christ. In Ephesians chapter 2. There was animosity between two groups.
Two ethnic groups, by the way. One was Jew, one was Gentile. And Paul writes this, his purpose, God's purpose. was to make peace. by creating in himself One new person from the two groups.
Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.
So it's not your brown, white, black, male, female. This, that. You're a child of God. You're a son or daughter of the living God in the church. That's where this diversity and inclusion reaches its pinnacle.
And without the church, diversity becomes an idol we worship. rather than a byproduct of the one we worship.
So, diversity, that kind of diversity that I just described. from the world will turn people into very self-centered divisive groups of people. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skiff Heitzig. Before you go, don't forget to request this month's featured resource, Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip's 21 Message series that gives you straight talk from Scripture about how to grow in spiritual maturity and live out your faith in the real world. Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people.
Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skip's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skip's The Biography of God. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection! Make a connection, never foot.
Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
