Let's pray, shall we? Our God in heaven, we're deeply grateful to be in your presence this morning. We thank you that you have revealed your truth to us through Moses, through the prophets, through your servant David. We ask now that as we look into this epistle from your servant James, that you would wonderfully work in each of our hearts, that you would instruct us as to our duty, that you would instruct us and enliven our faith, dear Lord, and we pray your blessing and presence with us now. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. It was back on July 28th that we last looked at James chapter 2, looking at verses 1 through 4. And as we did, we saw that James is dealing with a whole matter of favoritism. There's the one in the shabby clothes. There's one who has the gold rings on his fingers, and there is a distinction that is made among them. And I think it's helpful for us to have a little bit of historical awareness as he makes reference to their gathering as the synagogue. This is something of that rectangular synagogue that they all would have been familiar with. You notice that there are those benches of rows of solid stone. surrounding the outside. But in many of these synagogues, there was actually something like a throne that was a seat of honor. And you notice that footstool down in front of it. So a couple more pictures that just show us of something of that reality. And now this morning, we want to look at verses 5 through 7, where having laid out the issue, having confronted them and told them that they're not to do this, it's in that context that we read verses 5 through 7. James 5, verse 5. James 2, verse 5. 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? Well, come with me if you care to, to Roman numeral one on the handout sheet. Roman numeral one, God's tendency to prefer the poor man. And here we begin by looking at A, the emphatic appeal to the church. Verse 5 begins with, listen, my beloved brothers. So notice there is this heightened affectionate relationship, my brothers. This is something that James, as the main preacher teacher there at the church at Jerusalem, it's something that he does over and over again in this epistle. He comes in at the level of my brother, my brothers, and then at times, as here in verse 5, as in verse 16 of chapter 1, as in verse 19 of chapter 1, my beloved brothers. So there's the heightened affectionate relationship. But notice also how verse 5 begins. It's a command. It's this command to listen. Listen. Now usually, when we're talking to someone with an affectionate appeal, my beloved brothers, we wouldn't expect this kind of plain imperative to come along with it. Listen. But what James does here is to find this wonderful balance between a love of God's truth and a love of those that he is speaking to. Blanchard writes, it's one of the most difficult things in the Christian life to hold this balance between hatred for sin and love for the person committing it. the balance is perfectly exemplified in the Lord Jesus who was full of grace and truth. He goes on to say that it's quite possible to have one side of the balance to so much love the truth that we're willing to speak it and speak it poignantly. Or to have the other side of the balance of where our affection for an individual makes us want to pull back from really saying that thing that they could regard as negative. Pastor James is our example. My beloved brethren, and because I love you, listen. I need to say a little bit more to you. Now, what is your bent? Is your bent the ability to see the fault and to know the corresponding truth that goes to address that fault? Or is your bent to be so loving and so gracious that you pull back to doing what James needed to do here. Well, there is the emphatic appeal. And now come with me, secondly, to be the doctrine mentioned. The doctrine mentioned. And time and again, we have seen how James is very practical. He is very practical. Some would like us to think that James, as an apostle, he's full of exhortation, and he is, but going along with that exhortation, we need to see that he has a great grasp of the Christian life, and at least in these couple of verses, he is assuming that his hearers do as well. Notice the doctrine that is mentioned here in verse 5 and verse 7 in really kind of an offhanded, casual sort of way. What's the first doctrine, the first teaching of the faith that we find here in verse 5? Well, let me pass to the middle of the verse, to be rich in faith. And what is faith? Faith is saying yes and amen to the promises of God. Faith is not just optimism. Faith is not just believing any old thing with a smile on your face. Faith is hearing what God has said and saying, yes, yes, that is what I believe, God, because you have said it. And one of the key things that God says to us is that if you and I will own our sin at the foot of the cross, if we will do so with sorrow, And if we will believe in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ, then we will be saved. We will be justified and we will be taken to heaven. So when we hear a gospel promise like that, we need to have faith. We need to say, yes. I believe what God has said. Now, think of Hebrews 11 and verse 6. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and he rewards those who seek him. So when we are saying yes to God, when we are believing, we know that God exists, we know that he has spoken, and we know that what he has spoken is true. Secondly, what is the doctrine that Pastor James mentions? Well, he mentions there in verse 5, not only rich in faith, but of being heirs of the kingdom. So little number 2 is the child of God's inheritance, that he is an heir with Christ. Romans 8 and verse 17. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. So just this little word, heirs of the kingdom. There's a tremendous amount of truth that is wrapped up in that. Because I have faith, because I have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, I am justified and I am on my way to heaven. I am an heir of heaven. I am a fellow heir with Jesus Christ. In God's family, Jesus is the firstborn, Jesus is the elder brother, and yet he shares his inheritance with all of us. So the believer, in order to be an heir, is adopted into God's family. and shares in that inheritance. You see what James is doing. You're telling that poor man to sit down here at your footstool and you're going to give the wealthy man a place of honor. Now, if someone is a believer, if they're poor, that really doesn't, they need to look beyond their poverty and see what they've got in heaven to come. They are heirs of the kingdom and everything of the universe that Jesus gets because of his victory on the cross. is what you and I get to share in. I can still remember years ago seeing in Revelation, I believe it's one place is Revelation 1, where the believer is said to be on the throne with Jesus. So Jesus rules the universe and he's got this wide throne and he invites all of his brothers and sisters onto that throne to share with them. You remember how the Lord Jesus taught the story, the parable of a rich man and of a poor man named Lazarus. And in that story he says, but Abraham said, child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things. And Lazarus and like men are bad things. But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish. Poor believer, do not feel sorry for yourself. You're an heir of the kingdom. with Jesus Christ. Thirdly, the third truth that James just kind of mentions and assumes that we're going to get, it's the mention of your heirs of the kingdom. That is number three, God's kingdom that comes in two stages. And James's half-brother of the Lord Jesus, taught in Matthew 12, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. And he said in Luke 17 and verse 21, behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. And Paul taught the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The first stage of Christ's rule is when he sets up his throne in my life and in your life. Jesus' kingdom comes in this world as he rules by you living your life according to his gracious principles. But then there is the second stage of the kingdom, the future, God's eternal kingdom when Christ returns. And I choose for my passage Matthew 25 and verse 31. You need not turn there. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. There's a throne in your heart, And there's a throne that rules over all of the universe in the future glory. Dropping down in Matthew 25 to verse 34, then the king. The King, King Jesus, sitting on his glorious throne, will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Now, fourthly, Notice another truth, another doctrine that is packed away in these verses. Number four, God's gospel promise, that there is this promise This promise of the gospel and to just select one, John 6 in verse 40, Jesus speaks, for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day. Number five. A further doctrine that is taught here in James' words. Number five, the child of God's love for God. His love for God. Think of the wording that is in our text. Listen, my beloved brothers, is 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? Now love does not justify. Faith is that which justifies. But wherever there is true faith, there will be love for God. If I believe like that woman in the first century, that my mountain of sins have been forgiven, my mountain has been forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ, then as one who is forgiven much, I will love much, right? 1 Corinthians 16, 22, Paul says, if anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Philemon 1 in verse 5, because I hear of your love and faith that you have towards the Lord Jesus Christ. John 16, 27, for the Father himself loves you. Why? Because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. Young person, do you love God? Do you have affection for him? Do you have a sense of, yes, my many sins have been taken away, and though by rights, I should have before me an eternal destruction, but instead of that, I am an heir of the kingdom with Jesus Christ. Peter puts it this way. Though you have not seen him, You love him. And aren't you glad that verse is there? So that all of us believing in Christ after his first coming and his going to the cross, and we don't have that opportunity to see him there, we see him in the scriptures. But though we do not physically see him, yet we know what he's done for us and we love him. Sixthly, what's another doctrine found in these verses? Well, it's God's call of the sinner to himself. See it now in verse seven. These are the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called. Just a little word. And yet it is a little word that is just full of significance. Listen to how it's used in a couple places by Paul. 1 Corinthians 1 9, by whom you were called into the fellowship with his son. 2nd Timothy 1 and verse 9, who's called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began. Romans 8 and verse 28, all things work together for good, for who? for those who are called according to God's purpose. As you sit here this morning, are you confident that God has called you into the fellowship with his son? Yes, I know there are two kinds of call. One is a broad invitation One that I would hope anyone hearing my voice this morning has already heard a couple or three times, that invitation to come with your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus. That's the general call. That goes out to everyone. But this is a call, this is a divine summons where the Word of God goes out and among all those who are invited, there are some that are gripped by the Spirit of God and they are brought into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you confident? Are you confident? that you have been called by the Father out of darkness into light, and you've been called into fellowship with Jesus Christ, and you have been called into holiness. Number seven, God's election. God's election to eternal salvation. God's choosing is a common theme in God being God, isn't it? He wouldn't be God if he did not choose. King Saul, sometimes people say, well, and I remember hearing this, I remember where I was when I heard this, probably as a 12, 13 year old kid. Well, God's voting for you, and the devil's voting against you, and it's you who has to decide. You have to cast the deciding vote. Oh, is that what election is? Is that what God's choosing means? Think of how it says in 1 Samuel 10, 24, where Samuel announces to the people their king that God has chosen. Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen? There was none like him among all the people and all the people said, long live the king. Is that a situation where God was voting for Saul and the devil was voting against him and Saul had to cast the deciding vote? No. How do we know that? Because he was hiding in the baggage. He was not voting for it, but God, and here's a passage that shows just in the government of the universe and not necessarily in the conversion of the soul, God chooses what he's going to do, chooses Saul to be his king. Think of Jesus in John 15 and verse 16. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. Jesus speaks to the disciples. He's not saying to them, you did not exercise faith. but he is saying in the grand scheme of choosing, God chose you first, and that's the more fundamental and the more foundational issue. Yes, in faith, you needed to choose the Lord Jesus Christ, but compared to God's choosing, Your choice really isn't that significant. Listen to Ephesians 1, and as I read this, turn with me to Romans chapter 9. If there are two passages in the Bible that speak of God choosing, one is Ephesians 1 and the other is Romans 9. So Ephesians 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Hopefully you're there now in Romans 9. Romans 9, we've got the situation of Rebekah and Isaac, and Rebekah is pregnant with twins. Romans 9, now verse 10. And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told, the older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. A man came to his pastor and he said, I have a problem with this verse in Romans 9. This verse, Romans 9 and verse 13, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated. And the pastor said to the man, which part of the verse do you have a problem with? I said, oh, the second part. And Esau I have hated. And the minister responded after some further discussion, you know, for years, I've had a problem with the first part of the verse. Jacob, I have loved. Jacob, who repeatedly lied to his own father about hugely important issues. He was a deceiving scoundrel. How is it that God can love him? And the answer is that God loves sinners in His grace. Notice the message of Romans 9, now verse 16. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose, I've raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whoever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. And there's more to be found in those verses. But in the interest of time, know with me that God as the potter, as he looks at this sinful pile of his clay, he has the right, he says, from that pile of sinful clay to make one highly refined vessel that is going to be on the dining room table And he's also got the right and the authority to make some big pot that is suitable for the bathroom. One for honor and one for dishonor. It's God's illustration. It's God's point. And if we understand that we're all sinners and we all deserve to be just forgotten by God in eternal destruction, Please know that God's choosing is not a roadblock that keeps some from coming to heaven, but rather it is the paving of a road by which those of his sovereign choice may come to heaven and are brought to heaven. Is this concept of election new to you? choosing appears 120 times in the New Testament. So the starting point has to be, well, this is biblical terminology, so help me to understand what it means. And it means that God is God, exercises his right as God, And the only way that some make it to heaven is because God has chosen them and then called them to himself. So some say that James is all about exhortation. What do you think? James is able to write to this group of Christians, early Hebrew Christians, pretty much with the assumption that as I talk about election, as I talk about calling, as I talk about the kingdom, as I talk about being an heir of the kingdom, as I talk about being rich in faith, they're going to know what I'm saying. What about you? Yeah, the Bible is not some short little book that's 27 and a half pages long. God's revelation to us as he is revealing what we are to think about God, how we're to believe God, and how we're to worship God, it takes up all of the space that you find in that book before you. Please don't be overwhelmed. There's so much to learn. Well, in a sense, there is a lot to learn. But get the basics. You're a sinner. Jesus is righteous, and he's willing to swap his righteousness for your sin. You can get that, and that'll get you to heaven. And all this other will help you to get more glory to God here and now. So we have the emphatic appeal, that was A. B, we've got the doctrine mentioned. C, we've got God's tendency to prefer the poor man. Coming back, just having seen all of the doctrine, let's move quickly over it. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world? Who does the choosing? God does. Who did God choose? Those who are poor in this world. What did God choose for the poor in this world? That they would be rich in faith and that they would be heirs of the eternal kingdom. And did God choose this for everyone who is poor? Look back at our text, verse five. Which he promised to those who love him. They believed in him, they were justified, they were transformed, they were made into lovers of God. And so this is a promise that comes to those who believe in the Lord Jesus and love the Lord Jesus Christ. So bring all of this back. James is saying you're forgetting that God has a tendency to prefer the poor man. And because all of this truth, you need to understand God does not show favoritism towards the rich, actually the opposite. He has something of a preference towards the poor. Turn with me. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, page 1131 in the Pew Bible if you want that. But here is Paul's commentary on this. This is Paul's explanation of God's tendency to prefer the poor. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. 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 weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. Paul doesn't just say they're poor, he gives his four categories of descending ability in humanity. God chose what is foolish, God chose what is weak, God chose what is low and despised, and God chose the things that are not. Can't get much lower than that, can you? And this is how God thinks in his saving of humanity, and you and I will do well to think like God. And may God grant that we as a church will be those who are rich, rich in faith, and rich because we are heirs of the coming kingdom. Well, so much then for God's tendency to prefer the poor man. Notice with me now, Roman numeral two, the church's tendency to prefer the rich man. Verse six, but you have dishonored the poor man. Here we want to see A, the plain statement of the church's wrong preference. You've dishonored the poor man. You've gone against God. You are shamefully treating. You are dishonoring the poor man. The poor man in every place of society is always despised, and now he walks into your assembly, and he sees the gold-ringed man, and you tell him to have a seat of honor, and you tell him to sit here at your footstool, or if you don't want to do that, stand over there in the foyer in the overflow area. God doesn't want that, does he? God wants that within his church that people are not valued by some external, but they are valued as an image bearer of the God of heaven. And as image bearers, we share in a created dignity, we share in a fallen depravity, and we share in a redemptive privilege there in heaven. That makes us equal in the realm of the church. However, you are telling that poor man that he is worth less than the wealthy man. And so the application of James to us is if there is a remaining worldliness in us, that you embrace a class system of the right skin color, or the right old money birth lineage, or the right caste system, or the right amount of investments make someone more valuable than the little guy, there's something wrong. Or there could be just a man-centered grasping selfishness that hangs over from your days in the world. And how does that work? What's in it for me? What's in it for me? We get this wealthy guy in the church that gets more, that helps my club, that helps my church, that helps me. But what is going to be best for the wealthy man? Jesus tells us that it is difficult for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God. So it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. So you're not showing them any kindness by saying, all right, I'm gonna treat you special because you are special. And I will devalue this other one in your sight. What's Jesus' point? Well, it may be that the miracle of conversion is as miraculous as a camel going through the eye of a needle. Or it may be a cultural reference that at night when the gates of a city were closed and you wanna get into the city, they're not gonna open up the gates and you and your camel are gonna just walk in. No, there's a small little gate, they'll open that one. So you get everything off of your camel, and then you get your camel to kneel down on his knees and kind of drag himself in through this little door, but he can't do it with all that luggage and all that baggage on him. Clear it off. And that may well be what Jesus is talking about. For the rich to be converted, it's like they need all of their baggage, all of their luggage of the things of the world to be set down, and then the camel by itself comes in. A, the church's wrong preference. B, the question that reveals the rich man's tendency to oppression. Now the latter part of verse six, you see their oppression? Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? And now he's not talking so much about the right or the wrong of honoring the rich man, but he's talking about the foolishness of this. It doesn't really make sense, he says. Why are you going to look on favor of that class that has been so much involved in your oppression? The rich generally is a class. They're the ones who are doing the oppressing and you, two times in the latter part of verse six, you are the common people of God as the poor class, you're likely to be the ones who are oppressed. The word for oppressed used one other time, Acts 10 verse 38, all who were oppressed by the devil. It's a word from which we get the term dynasty. Somebody is ruling over somebody else. We are dominated by the devil. We are dominated by these oppressors. The wealthy can afford to take us to court. The wealthy will take advantage of their employees. Turn with me to James 5, James 5. What did I tell you, James 2 is page 1200 in the Pew Bible, that'll get you close. James 5, and now verse 1. Come now you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Eternal destruction. Now verse four. Behold the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. Verse five. You have lived on earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You're giving abundant reason for God to judge you. Verse 6, you have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you. James is likely speaking of that Jewish ruling class, the Sanhedrin and all those connected with them. James 1 and verse 9, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation. The lowly brother is expecting the footstool down there where your stinky feet are. But instead of that, he gets lifted up to be counted as rich in faith and rich as an heir of the kingdom that is to come. Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 110, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass, he will pass away. In Hebrews 10, the list of the sufferings of the people of God. We have the Jewish people, In Hebrews 10 and verse 33, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and abiding one. You see, this whole thing of being an heir of the kingdom, It buoys someone up. It enables them to have that hope that is going to enable them to persevere. Now again, how many times have you heard me use the word tendency today? And that's probably a fault of mine. but the fault can be used to underscore, it's not an all or none thing. It's not that God has saved no rich. We've got Joseph of Arimathea, we've got Nicodemus, but they are exceptions to their class, aren't they? Now thirdly, C, the question that reveals the rich man's tendency to mock God. Now verse seven. Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? How do they oppress in verse 7? They take God's name and they mock it, they ridicule it, and their whole point is to pull it down and get it in the mud. Christian, do you like the name of the Lord Jesus to be dragged down and dragged around in the mud? Well, no. Do you see how it's a little foolish of you that this person that's coming, you don't even know what's in their heart. You don't know if they're a true convert. You don't know if they're gonna get mad and walk out. You don't know if they're gonna give up their Christianity after two weeks in the house of God. So don't be putting an honor on these who are used to being honored. And we don't know precisely what the slanders were, but very likely the Christians were slandered because they worshiped Jesus as the God-man. Can you get that? Mocked for their worship of Christ. Pretending that there's some value to his shed blood, and they celebrate that in a communion service. Well, the wealthy are typically proud. Not always. It's just a tendency. And that comes when they look at what they've got, and they look at what you've got, and they say, like Nebuchadnezzar, look at all this that I have accomplished myself. And they fail to take into account that it was only due to the kindness of God that they have any of that wealth. But being arrogant they are freer in the mocking of God. So Roman numeral one, God's tendency to prefer the poor man. Roman numeral two, the church's tendency to prefer the rich man. And let's round things out with D, practical lessons. The first is this. God wants his believing children to honor the poor. Now these words are written before the American welfare system was established. And yes, I know that the Bible, particularly the book of Proverbs, even the way that Joseph handled the funds during the time of the famine, the Bible underscores this principle. If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. However, there are many factors that go into poverty. Medical issues, educational opportunity, lack of educational or business backing, providential calamities, everything you have gets wiped away. But God has a regard for the poor man and the poor woman and so ought we. Proverbs 17 five, whoever mocks the poor insults his maker. He was glad a calamity will not go unpunished. Ecclesiastes 9 verse 15. But there was found in this city a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered his city, yet no one remembered that poor man. Perhaps a rich man would have insisted on getting his honor. The poor man, well, you can just pass over them. Luke 4, one of the marks of Isaiah's prophecy that was fulfilled in Jesus, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. We have to welcome that as our mission. It is our privilege to honor the poor to honor the rich as those who are both made in the image of God. So God wants his believing children to honor the poor. Secondly, little number two, God wants his believing children to honor his name. Here are these wealthy, here are these who are tearing down the name of God and we know that we are not to take the name of our Lord God in vain. It ought to be our desire, like that woman forgiven of many sins, loving Christ, wanting the name of Christ to be lifted up and exalted. And there are many, many times where the Bible writers say, let me remind you, I will remind you of it. You already know this, but I need to remind you Peter says, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them. Peter and the other gospel writers understood that you and I forget so easily. Or we forget something of the significance of what God has done. As we close, why is it that we should honor and lift up and exalt the name of God? Well, listen to 1 Peter 2, verse 9. You are a people for his own possession. that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. There's fuel for praise. There is fuel for lifting God's name up. Spurgeon. The effectual call of grace is a call from darkness to light, from death to life, from slavery to liberty, from sin to holiness, from Satan's kingdom to the kingdom of God. When God calls, he does not merely invite. He works upon the will, he changes the heart, he renews the nature, and so makes men willing in the day of his power. If you are a believer already this morning, you have abundant praise to bring to God, abundant reason to lift up the name of God. If you're not a Christian, then please take the claims of God on your life seriously. What claims of God? I'm my own independent person. God's not got any claim on me. Jesus Christ claims to be your creator. And as such, he owns you. As such, you belong to him. Jesus Christ claims to be your only hope of getting a clear conscience. He claims, he tells you plainly, you come with all of your sin, with all of your guilt, and his blood will not only forgive, it'll actually cleanse your conscience. and put a smile on your face instead of tears over your sin. Jesus claims to be your only hope of getting to heaven. You believe in Jesus as the only source of your righteousness. And you believe in him, having repented of your sins and with the desire of holiness. And this true Christianity is the kind of thing that Pastor James will then say, that one, that one is rich in faith and rich as an heir of the kingdom to come. Let's pray. Father, as we close our worship, send your spirit to work in each of our hearts. Help us to see something of the big picture of what's going on in these verses. Pastor James needs to bring the word of God to bear on their consciences. He tells them that he loves them. my beloved brothers and sisters. But then he tells them they need to sit up, listen. Father, he helped each one of us to be glad in that kind of situation where someone or someone's who love us Love us enough to tell us to sit up and listen. Here is the Word of God. And here is hope that is found in true repentance. And here is hope that is found in the Lord Jesus. And Father, work in us. Take away any remaining favoritism based on things in the flesh. and grant that we will love one another and value one another as image bearers of the God of heaven. Do this, please, Spirit of God, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.