James. We are in a series entitled, Putting Faith to Work, because James is a very, very practical book about how to take the truths of the Gospel and apply them to our lives. James is concerned for the church because He wants them to see them putting their faith into action. So if you're new or you're just joining us in this series, we're in chapter 2 of James, which is towards the end of the New Testament after Hebrews. If you've gone to the very end of Revelation, you need to flip back a little bit. James is one of the earliest New Testament letters written by the brother of Jesus to the church that had been scattered after persecution arose, probably under what's later called the Apostle Paul. The church in Jerusalem began to move up north into Syria. And James is writing this letter to this fledgling church who is struggling under persecution, struggling to maintain their faith, struggling to apply their faith to their life. So as we look at our text today on partiality, I want you to keep this question in mind. Why is showing partiality inconsistent with the gospel? You see, we're all partial. Right, we're partial that we like cookies and cream over mint chip ice cream. We're partial to white bread over wheat bread. We're partial to Ford over Chevy. We're all partial in some ways. Being partial means you're biased in favor of one thing over another. Now, those that I listed are harmless, but really just personal preferences, but there are types of partiality that are very harmful. For example, to be partial of white over African American is to lead to that kind of racial animosity that we are experiencing today. To be partial over rich over the poor leads to oppression and the degradation of our poor. To be partial of men over women leads to misogyny and the abuse of women. Showing partiality is inconsistent with the gospel. we must be impartial then in our treatment of others. And we're going to find that that's exactly what James is teaching. And we'll see in two parts that because partiality divides the church and because it dishonors the poor. Now, please stand with me as we read our text today from James 2, verses 1 through 7. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet, Have you not then made distinctions among yourself and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this, your word. We ask, Father, that you would open our eyes, that we may behold wonders therein. For we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. James teaches us that partiality is inconsistent with the Gospel first because it divides the Church. Now look with me at this statement in verse 1. He says, "...show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory." Now that word hold there is basically to confess, to believe, to ascribe to, to trust. You who have put your trust in Christ. How can you show partiality? You see, partiality is inconsistent with holding, ascribing, or trusting in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And James, as he does, as wisdom literature often does, which James is most like in many of his proverb-like statements, he piles on superlatives describing Jesus. He's our Lord. But not only that, He's the Christ. Now Jesus Christ, that's not His first name and His last name. Jesus is His name. Christ is His office. That is the Anointed One, the Messiah. The One who has come to free His people from their sins. James says he is our Lord. Lord is that title of master. He is our Lord and he requires our submission. So we are learning so many things about this faith that we hold and the object of that faith. That is, who do we have faith in? Everyone has faith. Everyone believes in something. But who do you believe in? Where do you put your trust? James is saying, those who hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. This is not This is not some rabbi that he's offering this particular rabbi's teaching. This is the Lord of glory, the glorious Lord, in Greek actually, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. If you have put your faith in this person, this Lord and Messiah who has come to free his people from their sins, then it's impossible for you to show partiality, partiality divides the church. Partiality, the word literally means receive the face. That is, you look at the appearance of somebody and you receive them based on what you see. One thinks of 1 Samuel 16.7. Samuel is commissioned by the Lord to go and anoint a new king for Israel. Samuel was the greatest, one of the greatest of the Old Testament judges, the last of the Old Testament judges. And he is commissioned to go and anoint a new heir to the throne of Israel, and he goes to the house of Jesse. And you'll remember the story, he brings all of the sons of Jesse before him, and one after another he rejects them, and he thinks, surely it's this one, he's tall and handsome. Surely it's this one, he's good looking. But then the very youngest comes, who's ruddy, and not as handsome or tall as the other ones. And God said this to Samuel, do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance, partiality, but the Lord looks on the heart. See, partiality is receiving the face. That is judging something by its appearance. But we are, as Christians, called not to judge by appearance, not to look at the face and then render a judgment, make a distinction, show partiality. James continues in verses 2-4 to give an illustration for why partiality, showing partiality, that is showing favoritism to one person over another, is inconsistent with the gospel. So in verse 2 he gives us an illustration by showing us two people and they come into this assembly. And we're not exactly sure if this is a church worship setting or if, like in 1 Corinthians 6, he's describing maybe a church court, a place where believers would come to have their cases heard, to be adjudicated by their elders, the session, the Christians in their community. Paul condemns them for going before unbelievers in 1 Corinthians 6 and having their cases tried. So it may be because of the judicial language that we find in this illustration, James is talking about a church court. Either way, I think that he's left the situation that he's painted for us ambiguous enough for us to apply it to many different situations. But let's imagine a worship service. James says, a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing. So he gives us two characters to work with. They both come in. One has gold rings and fine clothing, and literally, it's a ring on every knuckle. And it's not just fine clothing. It's not like his best blue jeans. The word is bright or splendid or glamorous, even ostentatious. You know exactly when that man comes into your assembly and he's decked out like that. You know his status. You know how wealthy he is by his clothing. It's the Gucci, right? He's pulled up in his Lamborghini. He's got his Italian leather slippers on. And it's very clear that he's opulent in his wealth. And then another man comes in at the same time. And he's a poor man. And he's dressed in filthy clothes. And this word is like soiled, disgusting. It smells. He's been working, sleeping, eating, drinking, walking, doing everything in this one set of clothes. They're worn out. They're patched. They're sewn everywhere. There's dirt and oil stains all over them. He smells. And he comes in right alongside the Gucci guy with his Italian slippers. And the ushers immediately size him up. Oh, here, come here and sit here in the finest seat, they say to the wealthy man. And they bring him right up front and they give him a place of honor. And they seat him very gently, I imagine with a bow. Can I get you a glass of water? And meanwhile, they're shooing the poor man away. They're pushing him aside. Just stand over here in the back or sit down here at my feet. They've shown partiality. They distinguish between these two people based on the appearance, based on what they look like. And they pay great attention to that man of wealth and to the poor man. They say, just sit over here. But look at verse four. James is giving us his conclusion for why this kind of showing partiality is so inconsistent with the gospel. He says, have you not then made distinctions among yourself and become judges with evil thoughts? And that word making distinctions, it's the kind of word that means make a division by discriminating. Right? You're literally cutting. You're cutting one person off from the community in fellowship and promoting another to a position of honor. And he says, when you do this, when you show partiality to the rich, are you not making distinctions among yourself? Now that we're going to return to, that phrase, distinctions among yourself. But then he says, become judges with evil thoughts. And that word thoughts there is intentions. Do you not have evil intentions and motives when you say to that rich man, you sit here, and to the poor man, you be quiet and sit in the back? Do you not have evil motives? So do you see how inconsistent showing partiality is with the gospel? How can you hold to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and treat the poor brother in that way? Now this word among yourselves probably means that these are believers. Believers are treating each other this way. Among yourselves. To understand why this is inconsistent with the gospel, you have to understand the gospel. You have to understand what God in Christ has done for you. Let's look at Galatians chapter 3. Let's look at a few verses from Paul to just kind of understand why this would be inconsistent with the gospel. You see, some things in James he takes as so foundational he doesn't even explain them. It's just a given. You should know this. And one of those is the gospel. It remains unstated because it's so fundamental to everything he does. And it's based on the teachings of Jesus. But listen to this from Galatians chapter 3. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither slave nor free, there's no male and no female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And again, in 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26 through 31, Paul says this to the church in Corinth. For consider your calling, brothers. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So that as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. You see, the Gospel, the simple fact that you, when you place your faith in Jesus Christ, that faith that the Spirit works in you through His effectual calling and unites you to His Son, Jesus, so that you share by faith in His death, dying to sin, and in His resurrection, living to righteousness, If you have been united to Him by faith, then you have been united to His body, the church. Romans 12.5 says, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. You cannot, you cannot hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Lord, and show partiality. It's inconsistent with the gospel, because the gospel is a leveling gospel. The saying, the ground is level at the cross. That means none of you contributed anything to earn your salvation. God did not choose you because He saw something good in you. God did not choose you because you're morally good. God did not choose you because you're highly educated. God did not choose you because of the color of your skin. God did not choose you because you are an American. God chose you for His own glory, to manifest His glory. And especially He chose those who were weak and powerless and not wise. Making distinctions divides where Christ has made one. We have been united together. When you separate that poor brother and you say, sit over here, you are denying the faith. You're denying the gospel that what God has joined together as one. You are tearing apart. Do you see? Do you see how inconsistent it is to show partiality? And yet we do it every day. It's so easy to fall into those biases. Whether we adopt them from the culture around us, it doesn't matter. It creeps and seeps into the church. We were a part of a church at one point where the women were very, very passionate, very passionate about how they fed their families, a good thing. They were very concerned about organic and grass-fed food, nourishing their families, great and wonderful thing. But it became a source of division as women looked down at other women who did not feed their family in that way or did not seem to care about the types of food that they fed their family. It was unspoken, never said, but always assumed. It was the standard. It was this distinction that marked others in the church from those other women. Oh, you feed that to your children. I would never. That kind of partiality. It's so easy. We do it over millions of different things. Oh, you read the ESV? I'm an NIV only. I'm a KJV only. We will divide and make distinctions over the silliest of things. That is why we have 45,000 different Protestant denominations. Because we have hair split over doctrine. And don't hear what I'm not saying. Doctrine is vital. It's very important. And I am confessional, and I hold to the Westminster Standards, and I think that they are a fair and good representation of what Scripture teaches. But we have divided to the point of absurdity over doctrine. Within the church, we are all one. Now that's clear in the gospel. That's clear that God has done away with all of the distinctions that we arbitrarily put on one another. But he has accepted us in Christ as his body as one people. But beyond that, you're asking, well, how can we have unity beyond the church? How can we have unity, how can we not show partiality beyond the church? Well, beyond the church, we're all created in the image of God. We are all made in His image and bear that. And that means that even unbelievers, even those who deny God, even those who are flat-out atheists, who hate God, are still though marred in the image of God and worthy of dignity and respect. You see, how can a husband abuse his wife? How can a father abuse his child? How can a police officer abuse somebody he's supposed to protect? Because we don't give dignity and honor to other people as made in the image of God. We have a responsibility to honor that. That is why God requires the blood of those people who commit murder. because it is precious, the life is precious to him, which is what makes abortion so evil, that we so casually can take another life. Our goal, what we are all working towards is that picture in Revelation. of a myriad of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation gathered around the throne of God and singing His praise. And that only comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. How are we to act now? Much of our sanctification is a realignment You are already a part of the family of God. You are called the son of God. You are called sons of God. And you are to act in that manner. You are to act consistent with the family. When you don't, you're not acting consistent. You're failing to live up to the family standard. That's what obedience means, right? That's what the obedience of faith is. And we're gonna talk a lot about that in this chapter. Our faith is not just a sedentary faith that rests. It's a faith that moves out in action. And part of that action is becoming the kind of people that are ministers of reconciliation. That is, we're working everywhere for unity. Paul says, live at peace with all man, so much as is impossible. We are to work for reconciliation. but also we're to be discerning. We need wisdom to be able to spot the areas in our life where we're showing partiality, where we're creating distinctions and dividing Christ's church for nothing, for no reason, or at least not any scriptural reason. Now, to be clear, James is not teaching egalitarianism. James is not getting rid of all hierarchies. God has given an order and a structure to the created world. And headship is built into that. God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of his wife. Those are things that God has built into the creation. And those help in our society to cause it to run and function smoothly. We need those hierarchies. We need respect to those who God has placed in authority over us. James is not erasing those things and calling for an egalitarian society. It will not work. But what James is saying is that with respect to your salvation, to your being included in the people of God, your hierarchies, your wealth, your skin color, your attitudes mean nothing. They contribute nothing. You brought your sin and Christ took it and gave you his righteousness. That's level, that's level. Everyone who by faith trusts in Christ receives that same gift. Well, if you received it, then why do you boast? That's what Paul says. You see, since partiality is inconsistent with the gospel, we must be impartial in our treatment of others because it divides the church. And we want to see the body of Christ built up together in unity. but it doesn't just divide the church, it also dishonors the poor. Look at verses five through seven. He continues his argument and he says, listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor men. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?" You see, all these rhetorical questions have an implied answer of yes. Yes! They're the ones that dishonor us. They're the ones that dishonor the poor. The rich are. So why are we currying their favor? What are the poor that James is speaking about? As you well know, the first century context that James is writing to is much different than our American Western context. The poor that James is talking about and the New Testament so highly favors are those that are destitute of basic security of their daily substance. They lack all of the daily, they don't know where their next meal is coming from. That's poor. Sometimes we think of poor in America, and we think somebody who, you know, they don't quite make enough, so they're on welfare. We live in a very, very prosperous society, such that even the poorest among us have many of what the two-thirds world do not. Why is it that Scripture, particularly Jesus and here James, seems to favor the poor over the rich? And then if that's the case, if it's in fact better to be poor than it is to be rich, shouldn't we all seek to be poor? Is that what James is calling us to do? Should we just give up everything we have and live hand to mouth, not knowing where our next meal is coming from? Well, that's that's not what James is teaching. What James and Jesus is teaching when Jesus said from Matthew 5 verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit for they will inherit the kingdom of God. What does he mean by poor? Well, the poor, they have a particular relationship with God, right? Because they do not know where their next meal is coming from, they live with great dependence and humility on God. They have to trust in Him. They have no choice because they cannot provide for themselves. They cannot just say, well, I'll go down to the state office and I'll see if they'll help me. They don't have any other recourse. And there's a certain humility that comes with that kind of dependence, that kind of brokenness, that kind of lack of self-sufficiency, which is what the rich have. The rich, they fall into this attitude of thinking, I've got it. I've got it all. And I don't need anything, I don't need anything from God. And they forget God. Wealth causes apathy and it causes us to turn away and forget the Lord. Forget that we daily exist because of His good pleasure. At any moment He could withdraw our breath and we would cease to be. In our materialistic Western society, we don't think that way. We live like practical atheists. We go about our business every day, not thanking God for every breath that we draw. Because we think, ah, today will be like yesterday. It will continue on, it always has. But we owe everything to God and his preservation, his good providence. James is saying that the poor, counter to what the world says, are rich in faith. Because they have that dependence that the rich don't have. You see the reversal? Do you see the cultural upside-down? Do you see how counter-cultural this is? That James is exemplifying what the church is to be as the kingdom of God. It's not to look like the world with its hierarchies of wealth and economic status. The greatest among us is the least and the one who is a servant of all. Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his great book, The Cost of Discipleship, has this phrase that is just burned in my memory. When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die. He bids him come and die. You cannot live unless you die. You cannot have eternal life unless you are already dead to your self-righteousness. Which is so, so hard for the rich. That's what James is talking about being poor. That's what Jesus is talking about when he calls us to be poor in spirit. a emptying of our self and a reliance, a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment dependence on Christ. The poor are rich in faith and heirs of the promised kingdom, that kingdom where its ideals are reversed to that of the world. To be wealthy in the kingdom of God is to be poor in spirit. And then you have great wealth. And then he says, don't you know? Don't you know that the rich, the ones that you're showing partiality to, the ones that you're currying their favor, they're the ones that are dishonoring you. They're the ones dragging you off to court. They're the ones blaspheming the name by which you were called. Don't you know that when you're trying to seek the favor of those who are rich, because we do that when we think we got something to gain from it, right? We do that when we think, if I support this wealthy guy, he's gonna contribute ties to our church, and we can get a bigger building. The poor man can't do anything, so, I mean, he's here, so we let him come, let him sit in the back. But this rich guy, if we can develop him, wow! Just think what we can do for the gospel. Do you see how muddled we get so quickly? Good intentions, and then we're showing partiality, and we're dividing the church, and we're dishonoring the poor, and the poor are the very ones that are rich in faith and heirs of the promised kingdom of God. We get it backwards. We get it backwards over and over again when we don't recognize that the ideals of the kingdom of God are not our culture's ideals. Our culture says he who dies with the most toys wins. That's putting velvet on your coffin. It's pointless. Now, God gives us good gifts, and those are great and wonderful. but the acquisition to make it our sole aim in life to acquire, to curry that favor of that rich man so that we can get something out of it. It's empty and meaningless. And it will not profit you in that day of judgment when you will stand naked before God. And if you are not clothed in the righteousness of Christ, then dear brothers and sisters, that's a fearful day. A day of judgment for all the times that we have shown partiality. And it's real. That's a real judgment and it is coming. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of God." Many, many showed partiality to Hitler and his ideals. even though he would have been the first to silence or kill anyone who got in his way. How is it possible for one man and his vision of what a society should be like, how is it possible for him to bring about this mass genocide of over six million Jews? A lot of people showing partiality. That's a stark example of where partiality leads to. Blindness. When you think, I'll just follow this person. Or in many of the cases with Germany in World War II, people just closed their eyes. They just didn't want to see. And we do that when we treat the poor in this way. We do that when we treat our African-American brothers and sisters in a disparaging way. Where our brothers and sisters, our fathers in the faith in the civil rights movement closed their doors to African Americans coming in and worshiping. And they said, no, we will have none of you in here. Where we continue to contribute to the systemic oppression of those who are different than us. Showing partiality is devastating, not only to the church, but our society. The goal that we are aiming for, that we're aspiring to be, is poor. God has called us to be poor, not just economically, but in dependence on God, with that humility that divests itself of all self-righteousness and clings ever tighter to the promises of God. that says, apart from the grace of God, I would be dead in my sins and transgressions. But God has made me alive with Christ. Thanks be to God. And then he turns and he treats his brother in Christ exactly how God has treated him. with grace and mercy. None of us deserves to be standing here today. So how can you show partiality? How can you turn and dishonor the poor by currying favor with the rich? It's absurd. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die. If you don't come and die, you will never find life. Life will be meaningless for you. You will go on from empty to more empty. And meanwhile, you'll follow everything that the world tells you will satisfy, and you'll be hungry and thirsty. But if you come and die, you will inherit the kingdom of God. You will get the greatest prize. Christ Jesus, our glorious Lord, And when you hold that kind of faith, you cannot show partiality that's inconsistent with the gospel. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that in Christ we have been made one, one body with many members, and we We who have worldly honor would divest ourselves of that honor so that we may become poor. Just as Christ, our Lord, emptied himself and took on the form of a man, not counting equality with God, but emptied himself. He left the treasures of heaven, the vast wealth of his kingdom and glory to dwell here on earth. setting an example for all of us. And if we would share in a resurrection like his, we must also share in a death like his. Teach us, Father, to die to ourselves and to live unto Christ. For we have learned that to show partiality is inconsistent with the gospel of our Lord. Break down the walls of division that we erect in our churches that dishonor the poor, that dishonor those whom we have sought to make to differentiate ourselves from. Keep us from this kind of evil and allow us to be a beautiful picture of the reconciliation that happened between God and man in Christ Jesus, our Lord. We pray in his strong name and amen.