All right, James 2, my brother, 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, 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, stand over there or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Interesting. 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 are called? So last week we talked a little bit about the partiality, the respect, or what that means about judging, when it's right to judge, or how we should judge, and then we kind of wrapped up with that last week. So why is, you know, a lot of what James is talking about here, that partiality, prejudice, why is prejudice such a problem? Start with that. All right, notoriously hypocritical. All right. Why is prejudice such a problem for us today? Yep, Isaiah. It comes very naturally, the creation of an in-group versus an out-group, and it's so easy to find a reason why someone should be part of an out-group instead of part of the in-group. Alright, alright, good. You're making an assumption or a judgment superficially, just on a look or appearance or something, and not based on any facts. Okay. The root of it is pride. Alright, the root of it is pride. We're being prejudiced in the church that we're bringing reproach upon Christ. Okay, good. Jeremy? It's maybe the most direct violation of the Golden Rule. Okay. All right. Or treat others as you would want to be treated. Yeah, that would be the Golden Rule. I'll tell you a funny story. It's really not that funny of a story. It's funny now. My dad pastored a church in Mitchell, South Dakota, and he invited me to preach. I think I was still in college. Were we married then, Beth, or no? No. So it was before we got married. He invited me to preach. I think it was Anniversary Sunday or something. And I was preaching, and I said, you know, the golden rule to love God with all your heart. And he's sitting on the front row, shaking his head. And you know, me, the stupid college kid, the more he shakes his head, the louder I'm getting, you know, the golden rule of love, God. And so after I finished preaching, he got up and goes, um, just so everybody knows, the golden rule is not to love God. And I felt like that big. I'm so embarrassed. What's that? No, no, we're not. As pastor of the church, I know he felt like it was his duty to call me out for being wrong. But they knew you were his son, right? Oh yeah, they knew. At least he didn't paddle me on the platform or anything. I was expecting that afterwards. Did he say I taught him well? What's that? He said I taught him well. Yeah, no. He said that was the poor Bible college I went to. But anyway, all right. So yes, the goal girls to treat others as you would want to be treated the first and second commander love God and love your neighbor. So yes, we I think I figured that out after that one. Yes, Lauren. Yeah. And we have to, yes, we have to combat that, that we realize that we aren't better than others. You know, why is it that we aren't better than others? What do all humans have in common? Sin. Okay. And all right, we're all made in God's image. You know, we're all image bearers. So, you know, I'm, you know, to some degree, you know, we have to balance that out. You know, in James's context, what were they basing their prejudice on? Okay, the status. Yeah, social status, wealth. And so they were trying to elevate money above God. And, you know, it's interesting because he says, you know, he said, you're elevating the rich, but then he turns right around. He says, they're the ones that are oppressing you. Those are the ones that are dragging you into court. But how do we rationalize that, even today? Or how could, whether it's the church here or the folks that James is writing to, I know it wasn't a church, but those that James is writing to, or even us today, how do we rationalize this idea of showing a prejudice towards someone that's rich or influential even when we know that they aren't necessarily in the right. Yeah, okay, yeah. All right, good. I know some churches have to treat maybe some wealthy members of their church differently because they're big Donors yeah, so it's not that they have to but they choose to yeah, all right James Okay, all right, and we think by showing that partiality to them that you know, they'll be favorable to us You know, I would say that yes the often the the rationale or the what we try to process through in our minds is, well, you know, this person's influential or, you know, they have a bunch of money. So if I treat them this way, then they're more apt to, you know, give to me or to the ministry. Or, you know, if I get in a sticky situation, you know, we all, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And so if I know the right people, I can call in a favor, and I'll do them a favor. If you scratch my back, I'll scratch your back. And we play all of that. And I get that. In an ungodly society and in the political scene, that's what happens all the time. But as believers, we need to be set apart. We need to be different. We don't need to play those same games. You know, we need to be, yes, wise as serpent, harmless as doves, but we don't need to be showing preferential treatment and prejudice just in hopes that we're going to get our way or get a favor in the future. Leah. is going to be someone who maybe appears on the outside to not have it all together. Who appears on the outside, but you've got to pour into them, appears to be the introvert, appears to be the one that, oh, I'm going to have to really work to like this. And I think that at our core, we all struggle with that. And when we kind of get our eyes off ourselves a little bit, you've got to think, Jesus went to the people that it would be hard to, Okay, good. Any other thoughts? You know, so really when we consider, and we talked about this two or three weeks ago, you know, any prejudice that we might have, or many of the, I won't say all, but many of the prejudices that we have are based on things that we don't decide for ourselves. You know, it's things that God chose. You know, we, you know, often, you know, the big prejudices, you know, skin color, wealth, you know, our ethnicity, our intellect, our gender, those types of things, you know, we have to be really careful with those things because, you know, we didn't have a choice in who our parents were going to be, where we were born, what country we were born in, you know, what ethnicity we were, all of that, what gender we are. You know, God just chose all of them for us. So we need to be careful in those, especially in those areas, for sure. Then in verse five, he says, listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor? All right. And when he says poor in the world, in this context, what is he referring to? Yeah, money. All right. So this is entirely a monetarily poor person. They just, they got, they have no money to their name or very little. So he's chosen those who are poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him. So it's, you know, what's, what jumps out at me here is the fact that, you know, he says God chose them. And what did God choose them for? Okay, for poverty, but to be blessed in what? Faith. Yes, they were poor, monetarily poor in this world, but he says they're rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. And so, you know, the commentary that I pulled from says, you know, James is saying the church may potentially be ignoring or worse yet showing prejudice towards one of the very people God has chosen to have faith in the gospel and be an heir to the kingdom of God. You know, so as these, you know, poor looking people come in to their church, you know, they're putting them down, they're belittling them, they're trying to stick them in the back or, you know, on the floor or out in the corner or someplace. And James's point is, you're doing that, but these are folks that Christ died for. And it's very, that the potential exists that they are to be saved. And so by treating them like you are, you're making it more difficult for them to see the church or see believers as those that love God and love their neighbor. Even today, many people use the excuse of why they don't go to church or why they don't like Christians because of their hypocrisy. We hear that very often, frequently. Christians are just a bunch of hypocrites. And unfortunately, there's a lot of truth in that. Now, I guess I would back up and say that, what? Aren't we all? Yes, aren't we all? But then on the flip side of that is how many that are calling themselves Christians really are not. So they are living a duplicit life, saying one thing, living another, and they're not believers, they're not a Christian. So yes, they are being hypocritical, and that is true. And so, as a true believer, you've got to guard that, and that your walk and your talk matches, and that they do go together. Then we see also in verse five, this idea, it says, which he has promised to those who love him. We see this promise word, You know, what's important about the word promise in Scripture? Alright, a covenant, an agreement. Daniel? Typically, when you see a promise, especially from God, a lot of times there's a condition that comes with it. Or a condition that under this condition this promise will be fulfilled. Alright, so we have the conditional promises and unconditional promises. We see both in scripture, but yep, the majority of them are conditional promises. In this case, what is the promise that he is referring to? You can go back and look at verse five again. That he what? All right, that they were chosen, and we talked about that just a second ago, but chosen for what? Right, to be heirs of the kingdom. You know, so being an heir of the kingdom is a promise that's given to those who love him. Yeah. Yeah. And that promise is a fact, you know, we can rest in the promise that yes, we have, um, a position in Christ and with him, um, you know, in eternity. I think pastor wasn't last week. Pastor talked about, you know, in my father's house or many mansions or many rooms or space, you know, and no crisis and up there building, you know, mansions and rooms for us. But the point is that he has promised us a place with him. And in that we can trust in his promise. And, you know, as we go through all throughout scripture, you know, God always fulfills his promises. And so we can have confidence that he will, that he is, and that he will fulfill this as well. That he has promised to make us an heir with Christ because of our position in the family of God, because of our faith and belief in Christ. And then that promise is given to You know, he says, those that are rich in faith, heirs of the promise, and he says, which he's promised to those who love him. So what would our takeaway be with the fact that if someone is rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, then it says that to those who love him. What's the connection we're to make there? Yep, Austin. I think the biggest thing is if you look at love him, It's a relationship. Same relationship and that promise for that relationship. Yeah, perfect. Yeah. You know, we have to realize that, you know, there is action to our faith. You know, when we say I have faith in God or faith in Christ, things are going to be different. You know, and again, James's whole outlook or premise in his letter is that a believer's life is to be different. And we talked about that in the beginning. Martin Luther didn't even, he wanted to cut James out of the canon and didn't, because it's through faith or you're saved. And yes, we are. Yes, it's our faith that saves us, but once we have faith in Christ, then our actions should reflect that. You know, we're not doing the works to be saved, but we're doing the works because we love the one that died for us. We love the one that gave us salvation. You know, we love him and we want to obey him. We want to follow him. We want to do his will. You know, it's a desire that the closer that we get to God, the more we want to please him and do all of that. You know, again, not to earn his favor, but to show our appreciation for all that he has done for us. So it's so important that we grow in our love for him. If you were in the 830 service, I preached this morning at 830, Pastor Michael preached at 1045. But I think we get this idea, and I didn't have time to bring it up at 830, so you get a little extra. So often, what is the accusation about the God of the Old Testament? Yeah, he's angry. Yeah. Right. You know, so, you know, the picture of God in the Old Testament, he's cruel, he's malevolent, he's, you know, all this, he's angry, you know, couldn't wait to throw down lightning bolts and just destroy people, all that. But, you know, the God of the New Testament, he's love and compassion. You know, I would say no. You know, as we go back into the Old Testament, you know, the whole premise there, you know, we could probably go all the way back, but you know, if we go back to Abraham, you know, Abraham was called to follow God and what brought about his righteousness? His faith, all right, we know that. But then through Abraham's life, what do we see? because of his faith. We see the actions, that he was obedient, that he was willing to, you know, and that, you know, no, it doesn't say, you know, Abraham loved God, but I think it's evident that his love for God is what allowed him to do all that God asked of him. You know, and it started with his faith, and then it built upon that. You know, then we get to, you know, Moses and the nation of Israel, You know, and yet, you know, God gives them, you know, it's inter, you know, I went back and really studied that, um, the last couple of weeks, but you know, when, when they get to the Mount Sinai, you know, God says, you know, bring the people out around the mountain and I'm going to speak to them. And then when they all come out, you know, God appears in the cloud and the fire and there's the thundering and all of that. And the people say, what Moses, we're scared. You go talk to God and tell us what he said. Yes, so we don't die. So even at that point, They were, you know, they kind of shied away. Then Moses goes up to the mountain for the 40 days, gets the 10 commandments. We have all that debacle. You know, he gets angry, breaks them. They go into sin, all of that. But then right after that, God kind of sums up the 10 commandments into the two. And he says, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And so we can kind of take the 10 commandments and kind of lump them into those two. categories, and that's the first command or first time we see the command to love God is right there after the giving of the Ten Commandments. So it wasn't that the Ten Commandments were going to save them. The purpose of the Ten Commandments, as I'm kind of working through this, is to show them, you know, well, one, that they can't do it on their own, I get that, but the fact that they need to love God and love their neighbor. How do I love God? Well, I don't have any idol. I don't have any gods before Yahweh. I don't make idols. I keep the Sabbath. I don't take his name in vain. Why? Because I love him. I'm not going to take my wife's name in vain because I love her. I'm not going to take my children's name in vain and curse them. We wouldn't do that to those that we love. Idea. You know, and then, you know, then the honor your parents. I know that's kind of an odd one. But, you know, we do that because of our love for God and because of, you know, the fact that we didn't have a choice in who our parents are, I guess. You know, then the last five are all about our relationships with other people and our love for loving them kind of idea. And so, you know, there's there aren't any safe people who don't love God. you know, is the bottom line. People who are saved love God. 1 John 4, 20 says, if a man say, I love God, hates his brother, he's a liar. For, you know, he that loves his brother whom he has seen, how can he love, or if he doesn't love his brother whom he's seen, how can he love God who he, excuse me, has not seen? So, you know, just a couple thoughts this morning. We'll pick up in verse six next week. And John, would you close us in prayer?