Please turn with me in your Bibles to James chapter 2 James 2 will be looking at verses 1 through 7 for this morning if you're using the pew Bible that's on page 950 James chapter 2 verses one through seven. Let's hear God's word together. 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 yourselves 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? And so we will stop there for this morning. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks for this time we have again to look into your word as we consider this important issue of partiality in the church and we know that this is not a foreign concept in our day as well. And so we ask Lord that you would put your truth into our hearts, help us to apply it this morning. We pray that you would grant us your Holy Spirit and that you'd meet with us in the proclamation of your word and be gracious to us. We ask in Christ's name, amen. Having addressed matters that relate to the handling of difficult trials, James now moves on to address a second major topic, namely the sin of showing partiality, and in this case, especially treating individuals differently based upon their financial status. That said, the broader principle of dividing individuals in the family of God into distinctive ranks or cliques, for any reason, would fall into the main theme of what James is addressing here. So the theme is broader than just finances, although that is the emphasis in the context. And so for this morning, then, we will consider the sin of partiality, which has no place in the Church of the Living God. Look with me at verse 1, as we consider this sin of partiality. Notice, James says, And so right from the outset, we find James calling his readers again, brothers. And I believe that's intentional here again because the very implication of being from the same family in Christ in itself adds weight to the overall charge that he's about to give. For how could those who are brothers from the same household, from the same family, show partiality in any sense or treat anyone within that family differently? And so he commands, my brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. Now I want to break this command down into parts before we continue on and look at the illustration that James provides to further explain what he means by it. Let's look at the immediate command itself and break it up real quickly into a few parts before we get to his explanation. First, he says, show no partiality. And so the question is, well, what is partiality? Partiality involves treating some people in a different way than you treat others. That's the very basic understanding of it. You're treating some people in a different way than you are treating other people. It is to show favoritism and to esteem one particular group of individuals who fit a particular classification in a higher way than you esteem others who don't meet the standards of that particular classification. So some people in some way meet an outward classification and others don't meet it, and so you treat them differently because of that. That is to show partiality. And there can be a host of reasons for showing partiality, but again, especially within the context of the same family, as siblings from the same father, the brotherly classification should take precedence over any and all other differences in classifications. So that brother classification, when James calls us brothers, should be the classification that overrules every other classification that we might have because of our various positions Secondly, though, we move on to consider this command. He says, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, because we share a common faith, as Paul says in Ephesians, one faith, and we depend on the same Lord, one Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, because we all serve the same Master who has redeemed all of us in the same way and with the same high price of his shed blood, we have no warrant ever to treat fellow slaves redeemed by the same Lord in a different way. We have no warrant to do that. We're all classified the same as children of God and as brothers and sisters in Christ. And so every classification that is formed in the world and based upon the outward position that we hold in life that would separate individuals into various categories of respect and honor is laid aside in the church. No worldly status carries over into the church, especially since worldly statuses are generally based on material or on outward factors, while the church is based on an inward and spiritual relationship that is formed with Jesus Christ, to whom we are all equally united by grace. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians 3, a text that would apply to this, verses 27 to 29, in the church. Our worldly value is worthless in the eyes of God and our true value and identity are only found in the singular perfect Christ whose righteousness alone is held up as meeting the standard which earns God's favor. And so if God sees all of us only in the perfection of Christ, then he sees none of us based on any of our outward achievements. I'm not saying outward achievements are not commendable at all, but in the sight of God, those things are minimal. Those things are not ultimately important because God is looking at us based on the perfection of Christ and his righteousness and not based on our outward achievements. To this end, we view one another in the church as God sees us all. In Christ, sharing the same singular identity that brings us all up to the same level of estimation given to children of the living God, that is the highest honor that could be given to a human being or any living being for that matter. And the moment that we seek to esteem ourselves or others based on any man-centered estimation, we inevitably step down from the highest position that is already freely given to us in Christ. It's a step down once we try to esteem each other based on anything else than the equal esteem that we have in Christ. We're actually stepping down because that's the highest place we can be. And so we're charged to show no partiality as you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And then finally, thirdly, he says, my brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, he adds to that. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. It's worth highlighting for a moment that the simple fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom we are all united and joined by faith, is the Lord of glory. In other words, there is no higher classification or position given to a human being or to a celestial being, for that matter, than that which has been given to Christ. And so the moment we show partiality for any reason, the moment we form cliques that would separate the people of God into any types of individual groups, The moment we show preference to anyone in the body for any reason over anyone else for any reason whatsoever is the moment we actually devalue the glory and worth of Christ who has brought us up to an equal footing with himself as his brothers by joining us to himself in his death and resurrection as pictured and portrayed by our water baptism, but actually realized in our spiritual baptism. As we consistently hold the faith that is the entirety of our confession and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of glory, we ought never to show partiality in his church among the brotherhood. Well, moving on then, James then narrows down the scope of his exhortation to a specific type of partiality. We're addressing partiality in a very general sense. That should take care of all partiality. But then he narrows it down to a specific type of partiality that was predominant in the church of his time, to get his point across in a very relevant way. Now, this is something that hits home in our time as well, don't get me wrong, but especially in that time, he's dealing with a specific issue that he now hones in on by way of illustration. That said, again, while this application still suits us very well today, we ought to apply this agitation in the broadest of senses, addressing any and all forms of partiality in the church. But notice in verses two to four what he says here now. He says four, so he's going to give now an illustration. He's going to hone it in on a specific application that he's intending to get to here. 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 at 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 yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? And so here we find James, very particularly now, addressing partiality within the sphere of material or financial advantage. In a general sense, we know that in the world, those who are more affluent than others tend to be esteemed higher than those who are poor or less affluent. That's a general principle of the world. We see that in our day. That's not something foreign to the 21st century. Nice cars, expensive clothing, fine jewelry, yachts, and all manner of material wealth tend to grab the attention of those in the world, and those who are well-off inevitably become a friend magnet. People are drawn to them for the wrong reasons, but they're drawn to them. And as such, they're often treated as first-class citizens, being given all kinds of advantages and honor over others, ultimately as a means of gaining their favor so that they might share what they have with others. The general motive for esteeming the wealthy is to be brought into their inner circle, so that you can perhaps benefit from what they have, or you can somehow achieve what they have. There is no natural advantage, is there, of investing time and energy into the poor. There's no natural advantage to doing that, because they have nothing to give you in return. They can't give you anything. So there's no natural advantage to doing that. And so they tend to take a back seat to those who have something to offer. But that is not the mindset that ought to be found in the church, where Christ is our true riches, and heaven is our inheritance, and not this world. Indeed, Christ's love for us, in fact, compels us to lay down our very lives and invest all that we are, especially in, but not limited to, the spiritual edification and benefits of others. Recognizing that Christ's sheep are most precious to Him. His sheep of all classes, of all kinds. They ought to become most precious to us because we are able to express our love to Christ in the greatest way by loving His sheep of any and all classes and positions in life. Right? Jesus says, you love me? Well, Lord, of course I love you. Look what you've done for me. Well then, feed my sheep. Care for my sheep. Take care of my lambs. Right? Of all classes, of all kinds, of all positions, of all races. Whatever we want to categorize people as, if they're Christ's sheep, we're to love them all. And so James speaks here of a very real to life illustration when he speaks of a man who enters the assembly of God's people wearing a gold ring and fine clothing. Again, you got to bring yourself back to that day and age today. It's not as something that would stand out, perhaps just one single gold ring, but But it can, depending on what's on in that ring. But we think of the fine clothing. And the idea here is this individual comes into the assemble bearing outward signs that indicate that he is well off. Right? We might see this somebody who pulls up in a really nice car and they come in, right? Dressed to the nines with some real expensive clothing and they have jewelry, all kinds of jewelry on and maybe the newest technologies and devices and things that would show that they're wealthy. But then another man. he speaks of, comes in shabby, and that term shabby there is meant to mean like cheap or tattered clothing. Clothing that's just not impressive at all, used in a way that maybe was handed down to him. Maybe it's torn or maybe it's faded. It bears outward signs, in other words, of having very little from a material standpoint. That person, it indicates that they have very little from a material standpoint by the way they dress. And so James is saying when they come in, they ought not to be treated differently because of how they are dressed. He knows that from the standpoint of the world, the natural inclination would be to run up to the wealthy, the clean-cut man, and to offer him a fine greeting and to give him the best seat in the house while completely brushing aside or neglecting the poor man who comes in with the shabby or tattered clothing. Now I don't believe, brethren, that anyone in our congregation would ever do that. However, it can be easy, especially in a small church context like ours, where the budget is not quite being met, to strive to woo the wealthy man, seeing how he might be a potential remedy for our financial challenges. That could be a temptation for us. Oh, this guy's got money. He can help out in ways that we need for our church to continue on. And it can be easy to think, well, who really cares if the poor man even comes back? Because after all, other than filling a seat, how can he really prove to be an asset to our church? This man comes in, he clearly doesn't have much, maybe he came on a bicycle or a beat-up old car, and he walks in the door, and you might be tempted to think, well, if you're thinking in terms of finances and where we are, well, okay, that's great, let's greet this person, but if he doesn't come back, it's not gonna really affect us in any way, because he had nothing to give. But you could begin to think in that way. In fact, we can take it a bit further. It could be very easy, and this is something that's not uncommon in churches today. It could be very easy to avoid confronting the wealthy man when he sins. This guy supplies a good portion of the budget. And even though he's sinning, if we touch, if we come after him or even try to approach him or to bring him under church discipline, when he gives so much to the church, there might be the temptation to pull back and say, well, let's think this through. Let's not do this. We're afraid we might offend him, right? And so we become partial to that person because they have something that we're depending upon for the financial continuation of our church. Well, continuing with the illustration, James speaks of the sin of esteeming the wealthy individual and giving him the best seat in the house, as it were, while shoving the poor man over to the side, out of the way, or better yet, sit at my feet as a servant. with little or no regard for his spiritual well-being or physical well-being for that matter. No regard for that. Treating him differently than the one who has something to offer us in some way. And so to do this, James pulls back the curtain now and he exposes the heart. So now he's going to do something to get to the heart, because we may miss that. We're in the habit of deceiving ourselves and not knowing always why we do things. We have the ability to do that, to kind of cloud our consciences. But he wants us to see what's going on in the heart when you show partiality to anyone in the church. He says to make distinctions among yourselves, he says, and become judges, you become judges with evil thoughts, right? When you do that, when you show partiality, you make distinctions among yourselves and you become judges with evil thoughts. When we show partiality, it can be so natural to us again, that we fail to see what is really going on in our hearts. But here James pulls back the curtain of the flesh and says, as it were, take a look inside. I want you to see what's really going on. When we esteem one group of people over and above another group of people in the church, especially considering any advantage one group might be able to offer us over the other. When we make such distinctions among the people of God, all who have been redeemed, again, by the same Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, he says we have become judges with evil thoughts. Now he's gonna get us into the moral law next week, we're gonna see. He's gonna bring this into violating the moral law. That is to say that we have allowed ourselves, here's what he's saying here, to deem others as more important or more worthy of respect because of matters that have nothing whatsoever to do with the heart or the inner man, which God looks at, and we base it on what they look like or how they present themselves on the outward man, or some outward classification. And on the other side of the coin, We come to deem others or judge others as less important and less worthy respect because of matters that have nothing to do with the heart or the inner man. Right? We're not looking at things from the way God looks at it, but we're looking simply by an outward appearance of some sort, and we're developing classifications, and we're judging based on those things. It's the way the world judges. This form of judgment is wicked and never acceptable for Christians, who of all people ought to know that the true measure of a man is defined by what he is on the inside, and not on the outside. And furthermore, such a judge removes himself from the position of unworthy servant of Christ, which we're called to be. And you make yourself or put yourself in the position of a master where you look down on others, seeing them as lower and subservient to yourself and to others who stand in a more advantageous position or earthly position. You begin to look at them in a way as becoming master rather than servant, which we're called to be. It is to spurn, in fact, the very example of Christ who girded himself with a towel and got down on his knees and washed the feet of his disciples, charging them to love and serve one another in the same way. We're gonna get into that again next week as well when we talk about loving others as Christ loves us. We're gonna talk about the moral law and the law of Christ, the law of liberty. We're gonna talk about the royal law and the law of liberty next week. Everything about such thinking is evil and it reveals a heart, and that's what James wants to do. He wants to expose the heart. It reveals a heart that lacks faith in God's providential care, making use of earthly means of seeking to build the kingdom of God rather than the means offered by the Holy Spirit. who builds and advances the church in just the right way, factoring in the sanctifying benefit of the church throughout the whole process of our advancement. God builds His church in His way and in His own time. And we don't use earthly means to build the church. And there are many people building churches by earthly means right now who have thousands and thousands of people and million-dollar buildings, but they're not building a church. They're building a club. they're not building a true church. And so everything about that kind of thinking is evil. Well, adding further weight to his rebuke against such wicked judgment, James moves on to reveal how those who show partiality to the wealthy actually contradict the very heart of God himself. These are some real Difficult words, honestly, to grasp, but he reveals how those who show partiality to the wealthy actually contradict the very heart of God, who often sets his eyes toward aiding the poor, preferring them over the rich. We see that pattern throughout Scripture. In other words, while we ought to be concerned for all souls, Gravitating toward and favoring the rich is completely opposite to the heart of God who often gravitates toward and favors the poor. It's the very opposite of the way God sees things and does things. Notice God's choice of the poor in verses 5 through 6, the first part of verse 6. He says, listen, and when James says this, you can see that he knows this is happening amongst the people he's writing to him. He gets very personal in the way that he directs this. He knows that this is something that's common. He's angry about this. 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? Notice, James here states in no uncertain terms that in a general sense, God has chosen the poor in the world to be those who would be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. Is that what it's saying? I can't make that say anything different. There is no greater gift or blessing to be received in the entire world than faith. A genuine faith is that which alone receives all of the eternal blessings that come in, by, and through Christ. The riches of this world combined are but heaps of dust that will trek no further than the grave. They're temporal, unfulfilling, rotting, decaying, and soon to pass away altogether. But heavenly riches are eternal. They are enjoyed in the glorious presence of God our Creator forever. And we're told here that by and large, God chooses the poor in the world to be rich in what? In faith, unto the receiving of those heavenly eternal riches. God's love and heart are directed most toward the Lazaruses in the world, who lack in this world only to be eternally rich in glory. He desires that they would be forever in His presence. He gravitates, in other words, toward them, and in a general sense favors them. I'm not saying that every poor person is saved. or because you're poor, that means you have salvation. By far, that's not the truth. We're only saved by Christ. But I am saying that there's something that shows that God's inclination, at least, to a great extent, is toward those who are poor. And if that's the case, all the more, here's James' point, We ought not to show partiality to the wealthy, esteeming them higher than the poor. That's his point here. It's not to say, well, the heck with the wealthy. The point is we shouldn't be putting an emphasis on the wealthy, right, and neglecting the poor when we see God's tendency toward the poor is to make them rich in faith. So God, it's not to say that God doesn't save wealthy people or that we should ignore the wealthy who come into the church. But we certainly ought not to differentiate them from anyone else simply because they have an abundance of this world's goods. Right? We shouldn't be infatuated with Hollywood and people who are famous stars when, by and large, they're going to be in darkness for the rest of their lives. Right? It's not funny, but that's the reality. We see that very clearly. For God has promised to make all who love Him heirs of His glorious kingdom. But those who love Him are those who are given faith and sight to see His love for them. And here we're told that He has chosen the poor of this world in particular to be rich in faith in a general sense. And then he says, but you, this being the case, rather than seeing the way God sees and saying, I ought to give attention to the poor, as opposed to neglecting them and shooing them away, you have dishonored the poor man, he says. The one who God tends to honor, the ones who God makes rich in faith, we have, by nature, we tend to turn away from them and dishonor them. Right? We're backwards. It's typical of Scripture. Right? We tend to look at the outward man. And God says, don't look at the outward man. I look at the inward man. Don't look at David's brothers who are all tall and broad-shouldered and big and muscular. Even the prophet Samuel couldn't get one. This has got to be the one. No, this has got to be the king. And God says, don't judge by the outward appearance. If I rejected him and he picked the shepherd boy as the one who God chose to be rich in faith, Furthermore, James moves on to remind the brethren that oftentimes the very rich whom we would seek to favor and show great honor are the same ones who by their idolatrous greed often oppress and sue the people of God, revealing how little esteem they reciprocate toward those who overestimate them. Right? He goes down to the other way and says, not only does God tend to give the poor, make them rich in faith, but then he goes on to show how the rich generally treat the people of God. Right? They're not generally favorable toward them in many ways. In verses six and seven, the second part of six, he says, 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? In a general sense, again, James here shows how putting confidence in the rich and making them the primary targets of your outreach over and above the poor, who have very little to offer financially or materially, often leads not only to failing to gain from them what you would hope to gain, but furthermore, to piercing yourself through with many problems when they turn against you in their greedy pursuits. for the very reasons that you have esteemed them so highly, will not only fail to draw out their kindness and generosity, but much to the opposite, it will bring their oppression and angst against you. Sometimes as Christians, and I'm not saying we shouldn't be hopeful to this end, we see somebody in Hollywood who makes a profession of faith, right? These different individuals who make a profession, with, oh, this is wonderful, God is, and I'm not saying that that's not a good thing, but we gotta be slow about that and say, God doesn't need someone in that position to accomplish anything. And most often than not, 90 some percent of the time, those individuals wind up falling away, right? We see it all the time. Most recently is Kanye West. He came in, he made this profession of faith, he was meeting with a Reformed Baptist guy, and I'm not saying we didn't pray for that, we weren't hopeful for that, but now he's an absolute disaster and a train wreck. And he's making pornography and all kinds of other craziness. He was even using the things of God with his album to draw in money to sell his merchandise. Don't put confidence in the rich. God doesn't need them. Pray for them, but he doesn't need them. Don't get all woozy inside when a rich person or somebody who's wealthy shows a profession of faith. Say, oh, praise God, I hope it's true. But don't be like, oh, this is the most wonderful thing in the world. As if God needs anyone. Oftentimes, you open yourself up to becoming another one of their many victims whom they have taken advantage of in the past to get where they have gotten in life. Jesus says, or said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. Easy for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to be saved. Those were the Lord's words to his disciples as they watched the rich young ruler, who really had at least a sincere interest in Christ. They watched him walk away from Christ because of his refusal to part with his idolatry to gain heavenly riches in Christ. And he was a nice guy. He was somebody who sought to keep the laws as a good Jewish man. Thankfully, not in all cases, but far more often than not, wealth does something to a man, doesn't it? It makes him an idolater, blind to the things of God, indeed having no genuine desire to pursue God because his God is his riches. And they often blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called. James is saying, look, the one whom you seek to give a higher honor, in fact, a higher honor, dishonors the honorable name of Christ by whose name you are called. Would you esteem so highly those who hold no esteem for and, in fact, blaspheme the name of Christ? That's what they do. Back in 2001, just after September 11th, when terrorists had destroyed the Twin Towers. and a portion of the Pentagon with planes. A group of us back in New York from the church in New York, we spent a few weeks going out to the train stations and the bus terminals seeking to give the gospel to the lost in light of all that had happened. I was an intern at the time in the church and preparing, going toward ministry. And I asked the pastors, because I was working for the church, if I could take some time and just go out and canvas the areas with the gospel in light of what had just happened. And it was amazing to see how those stops, train and bus and so on, that were in poorer towns gave us much more of a welcoming than those stops that were in wealthier towns. Your inventory of tracts will tend to last a lot longer when you are canvassing upper class areas. They don't even want to take the tracts. And we know very well. I mean, I grew up in Long Island my whole life. So we know, yeah, this town here, this stop's going to come from an area that's somewhat upper class, and this is a lower class. And you could just see the different responses to the gospel as we preached and as we gave out tracts. If you have everything you want materially, You have no need for God. But when you have nothing, and find yourself simply living paycheck to paycheck, you tend to give a second look. Again, it's only grace that saves, but the principle of God making the poor rich in faith can even be seen from a common grace standpoint. You see it in the culture, in the society. And so James' point, again, is not to say to us, the heck with the rich, let them die in their sins. That would contradict the Apostle Paul's command to pray for all people as God desires to save a people from all classes and positions and life. However, it ought never to be the case that any outward advantages, here's his point, or factors should cause the people of God to show partiality. That's the point. It's not the extreme, we'll forget the rich and I'll just tell them to leave. No, we should be gracious toward all, but we don't want to show partiality or to see that as something that takes that as an advantage for us because we're looking at them to help us rather than the Holy Spirit. As a general principle, every soul is created in the image of God and worthy of the utmost love and service from the people of God. Whatever walks through that door, whoever walks through that door. Indeed, wherever we go outside of that door, we ought to carry a deep hunger and desire to conduct ourselves in such a way that all would know that we are here to love and serve them with the utmost sincerity of heart in Christ. Every person, irrespective of outward appearance, or position, or gender, or race, or whatever it might be, And there ought to be nothing that we wouldn't give of the resources that God has given us to reach into the lives of others so they can see Christ in us, whatever their background might be. From the wealthiest man on the planet, Elon Musk, maybe, to the filthiest, tattered, homeless person on the streets. We ought to desire to see all saved, pleading with them to come to feast on the eternal blessings that we have come to taste and enjoy ourselves. Jesus ate with tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners of all kinds, not leaving them in their sins, calling them to repentance, but so should we. And to be honest, the strongest rebukes and words of condemnation from our Lord's lips weren't spoken against the lawbreakers of society. They were spoken against religious self-righteous hypocrites. Jesus' most biting words. Now brethren, I want to just conclude here. Thankfully, I don't believe any of us have shown partiality to the rich in this room. I don't know that we've ever had the rich in it, but I'm just saying, I don't think that that's something we, in particular, and as I'm reading this text, I'm saying, man, this is perfect for Sovereign Grace Church. It can happen, right? It can happen one day. And we should be cautioned in advance. But let me ask you this. Might any of us have shown partiality in other ways? in the church. Have we tended to favor any particular groups of people to the neglect of others in the body? Let us be a people who diligently strive to ensure that we love everyone in this body, regardless of outward differences, outward circumstances that may distinguish us. We may have different things going on in life. Maybe we have different kinds of jobs. We have different kinds of familial situations. Whatever it is, different color skin, different gender, all these different things, we are brothers and sisters in Christ of the same family. Let there be no barrier that prevents us from serving and ministering to every single person in this body. And especially at our small size, we really have no excuse. Like I can see that becoming more of a challenge if we had 300 people, right? You can see how that could be a challenge. But in our size, we shouldn't be seeing that in our congregation. We have no excuse. But we have to understand that this kind of thing won't just happen, serving one another in this way. We have to consciously and intentionally direct our efforts in this way or it simply will not happen. Our minds and our bodies will gravitate in the same directions week after week. It's just going to happen unless we can make the conscious effort to ensure that we are loving and serving all who are in the body of Christ. We have to consciously and intentionally direct our efforts in this way or it will not happen. Once you fall asleep on it, it's back to the old drawing board and to the regular routine. And so let's be a people who are going out of our way to be a body that is not partial for any reason. Nothing outwardly, no classification outwardly that would keep us from communing with one another as we ought to. What we see in the communion, when we take communion together, it should be saying there should be a commitment to everyone in this body as we take together and not just to individual portions of the body. Finally, if you're not a Christian, if you're unsaved, if you're not truly in Christ today, whoever you are, whatever your experience has been in life, Jesus is here and ready, willing, and able to bring you to God. That's the glorious nature of the gospel. Jesus is willing to save all kinds of people. God delights in saving all kinds of people. And the people that He saves are those who recognize that we are sinful, that we are lost in ourselves, that we have nothing to offer God, that we are condemned by nature because of our sin. that we have a track record of ways in which we have violated God's laws throughout our lives and that we desperately need Christ to save us. We desperately need a righteousness outside of ourselves to be given to us and that can only come through Jesus Christ. If you're not in Christ, if Christ is not your hope and your Lord and your Savior in truth, I would plead with you to seek Him today, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in truth, to repent, confess that you are a sinner in need of His grace, and to throw yourself, as it were, completely at the mercy of God in Christ, and He will receive you. God will receive all those who come to Him with a sincere heart to be saved through Christ. He is a worthy Savior who can save any and all who come to Him by faith. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this teaching of James. We can see the passion that he has in exhorting those who he's writing to here. And we pray, Father, that we would be a people that are not partial. toward others, especially for outward reasons, Lord, that we would not be partial, but that we would love all people, that we would desire to see all saved, that we would care for, Lord, and seek to minister to and serve all people within this body. And on the outside, we would reach out. with the gospel to all people. And we ask that you would bless our church, Lord, that we would be a true family in Christ, Lord, that would commune with one another in your grace. Please, Lord, bless these words to our hearts, change us by them, and help us to grow this day by what we've heard. We pray in Christ's name, amen.