Partiality is Forbidden

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Please remain standing for the reading of the word from James and chapter 2

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James 2. This is God's holy and infallible word.

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My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the

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Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you would pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him,

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You sit here in a good place. And say to the poor man,

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You stand there or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

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Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

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But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

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Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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You do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

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Forever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point. He is guilty of all.

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For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

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So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

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Mercy triumphs over judgment. May the Lord be pleased with our continuing study in the book of James.

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Please pray with me now. Oh, Lord, we thank you that the mirror of your word shines upon us and it reflects glorious things that we are your children and it it shows defects and Lord, this is not a discouragement to us, but it's a cause of our

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Thanksgiving that we might turn from wicked ways and walk more fully in your light.

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That we might accurately portray Christ and his salvation to this world and so desperate need of him.

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Oh, Lord, bless your people today, I pray in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated.

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The title of the message today is Partiality is Forbidden. And really, it's a one point message.

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I believe this is about one of the most simple messages that I could be preaching and we need that sometimes a simple message.

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God is no respecter of persons. Christ dined with tax collectors and harlots, sinners.

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The Christian church must not show partiality.

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Since God is no respecter of persons, the church should hold the faith of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory without partiality.

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So if you're taking notes, just write down partiality is forbidden. And there's a couple of ways we're going to look at this.

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I know that sometimes it's distracting to you, and if it is, don't turn your pages in the

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Bible. But I want to look at a couple of sections of Scripture. Please follow along, track along mentally if you're not going to go there and page turning.

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I'm going to go first to the book of Acts in chapter 10. If you turn there with me, please. Acts chapter 10.

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When we think about the character and attributes of God and theology proper, maybe hidden underneath one of those important ones is justice.

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And in that attribute of God, what we'll learn, and just from a few examples, and it's always surprising,

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I don't know if you've ever done a study on something, you're often surprised at just how many instances there are of this teaching.

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I know it's in there, but then it's fourfold what you think it might be when you begin to open it up.

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Our God does not show favoritism, either in a legal sense or in a relational sense.

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We'll be more on that later. God hates injustice.

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He has aligned himself with the widow and the orphan, those who are physically poor.

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He has said, I am going to be a caretaker of them.

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He also has not distinguished between persons, as we learned and talked about a little bit in Sunday school today.

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At the advent of Christ, there is this tremendous influx of the

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Gentile nations coming to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit operating in the apostles.

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So, God's partiality, or I should say lack of partiality, is displayed in including the

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Gentiles in this salvation. We'll begin reading in Acts 10, verse 19.

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Again, follow along mentally, auditorily, if you can't do it, and be distracted.

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Well, Peter thought about the vision, and of course, this is the kill and eat vision. This is the

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Gentiles, Peter, are coming in, and he's the apostle to the

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Jews. It's an interesting mouthpiece for this message, isn't he, if you think about it. He's really tasked with being the preeminent apostle among the

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Jewish people. But he gets this great vision of Gentile inclusion.

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What God has cleansed, you must not call common. And this happens three times.

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Now, we take it up again in verse 19. While Peter thought about the vision, the

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Spirit said to him, Behold, three men are seeking you. Arise, therefore, go down and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have sent them.

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Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius and said, Yes, I am he who you seek.

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For what reason have you come? And they said, Cornelius, the centurion, a just man, one who fears

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God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house and to hear words from you.

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And he invited them in and lodged them. On the next day, Peter went away with them and some brethren from Joppa accompanied him.

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The following day they entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them.

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And he called together his relatives and close friends. As Peter was coming in,

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Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him. But Peter lifted him up, saying,

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Stand up. I myself am also a man. And as he talked with him, he went in and found many who had come together.

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Then he said to them, You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation.

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But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.

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I want you to have that in your mind that I should not call any man common or unclean in consideration of our passage in James.

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Therefore, I came without objection as soon as I was sent for. For I asked then,

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For what reason have you sent for me? So Cornelius said, Four days ago

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I was fasting until this hour. And at the ninth hour I prayed in the house.

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And behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard.

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And your alms are remembered in the sight of God. Send therefore to Joppa and call

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Simon here, whose surname is Peter. He is lodging in the house of Simon a tanner by the sea.

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When he comes, he will speak to you. So I sent you immediately and you have done well to come. Now, therefore, we are all present before God to hear all the things commanded you by God.

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Listen to this wonderful message. So hopeful for the people who seek a deeper knowledge of Christ.

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Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality.

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This is a bit of a stunning thing. The prophets have long anticipated

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Gentile inclusion. But you think about how marked they are as the covenant people of God.

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This is still a shocking message. We can't lose that first century shock that the

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Gentiles are being brought in. But in every nation who fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him.

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The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. He is

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Lord of all. That word, you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism, which

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John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.

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And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the

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Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him, God raised up on the third day and showed him openly.

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Not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God. Even to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

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And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he it is he who was ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

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To him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins.

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While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.

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And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the

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Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify

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God. And Peter answered, and again, this is quite shocking, almost.

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Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the

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Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the

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Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days. The inclusion of the

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Gentiles, and I don't know, are all of our origins. We're probably all Gentiles here, mostly.

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Our inclusion into the covenant promises of God is reflected in God's impartial nature.

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He is not a respecter of persons. He doesn't look upon men and say that man has a lot of skill and talent and he's rich and he comes from the right family.

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He comes from the right nation. He can be part of the family of God. This gospel goes out into the world and God draws all kinds of men to himself.

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This is very exciting that he would do this. I'd like you to turn back over toward James again to the book of Colossians.

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In chapter three, partiality is forbidden because of the character of God, the example of Christ and the commandment to the church.

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We cannot be people who are showing partiality. Colossians 3 9.

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Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds.

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And have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.

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Children, listen carefully where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised.

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Barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

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The sharp lines of demarcation separating people in the nations.

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All of these are transgressed by the grace of God. The Greeks come in and they're save Cornelius.

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Uncircumcised men are brought into the family. The Jewish people who have covenant sign, many of them turn to faith in Christ.

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The barbarians. The Scythians. A slave, a free man, all of them come to Christ because God is not partial.

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He is eager for his good news, his salvation in Christ to go to the very ends of the earth.

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Let's go back to our text in James. James chapter two. This word partiality really means favoritism or respecter of persons.

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One commentator on the Greek text has said the fault of one. This is what it would mean to show favoritism or partiality.

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The fault of one who when called on to requite or give judgment.

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Has respect to the outward circumstances of men and not to their intrinsic merits.

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I should point out to you there's something interesting in the grammatical construction of the word assembly.

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This is usually it's closely tied to synagogue. And it has more to do with the church courts.

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The people of God, if you remember, even in the Sanhedrin days, the

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Romans allowed them to govern themselves a bit. And the church we know we are to settle our disputes.

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If I heard of two brothers in our congregation going to the to the pagan law court and suing each one another,

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I'd be very disappointed. We're commanded not to do that. We are to work out our things together. So there's a legal side to this.

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And in our culture, the rich man gets off more than the poor man. Good lawyers following good more motions and tying things up and dragging things out can make wicked men go free because we have an unjust system that rewards the rich.

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The poor man goes to prison for longer sentences. If you do any analysis of this, the economics of the defendant affect the outcome.

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And we should work to that end to end that kind of thing where justice would be blind, that our courts would be impartial.

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And so the first instance of this is a dispute possibly between brethren.

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That might be the reason why people have gathered in the assembly. But it's also attached to the word ecclesia, which means church.

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So it has a twofold usage. The rich man goes into the law court and he has an advantage under the pagan system.

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That rich man cannot have an advantage over his poor brother in the life of the church.

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Men need to be judged on their intrinsic merits.

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So the preferential treatment, the people that we identify as more worthy, one is rich, high born or powerful to another who is destitute of such gifts.

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You say, well, that's right. I agree with that. But now is the hard part.

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You show partiality regularly. I show partiality regularly.

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We look upon a person. We've been trained to do this since we were very young.

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We make judgments about a man, a woman, a child based on the way that they're dressed, the car they drove up in, the house they live in.

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We decide what kind of person they are merely according to outward circumstances.

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And you can imagine what's so important to the life of the church is our union with Christ and one another.

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How would our union with Christ be perverted optically by us mistreating those who are poor?

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Brethren, we have the treasure of Christ in these earthen vessels. The glory of God has shown all around about you and Christ and his gospel.

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The king of glory, he possesses all that is excellent.

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He has welcomed all sorts of people into the body of Christ. He accepts them.

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They belong. I should point out to you, I think some people know this.

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I've always felt in my life that I was a little different. Like I didn't fit in somehow.

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When I became a Christian, a serious minded Christian, I learned that I belonged.

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I belong to Christ and the family of God. All of you who are in Christ, the world maybe doesn't want to be your friend and that's okay.

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You belong here. You belong with Christ and with his people.

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So if you're a weird person, you're welcome in the church. We got some weird people here. Well, you're welcome here in the church.

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And if a man comes in today wearing shabby clothes and he says,

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I'm a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we should embrace him and we should maybe go over and feed him. Maybe we go clothe him and put some nicer, cleaner clothes on him.

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But I think what would happen if that man came in and he looked like a homeless guy, everyone would turn and go, who is this guy?

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What's he doing here? Is he going to hurt us or our children? That might be our first impulse.

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We are people who show partiality and we've got to overcome this. We've got a strange fellow who walks around the neighborhood.

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He looks very weird. He has he looks like a guy who is a

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Buddhist or trying to be some kind of monk. He wears cloth shoes that he's taken from other garments and wrapped around his feet.

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He wears strange garments. And this week, providentially, unconnected to this, knowing this was not like I'm going to seek this guy out.

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I ran into this guy and I had a conversation with him. This guy is very, very strange.

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But we immediately began to talk about Jesus Christ and he's a believer in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. The weird guy that walks around, you know who he is. He's a believer in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. The strangest guy, and he's got wacky ideas, but he had a sincerity of faith about him.

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And I was completely taken aback by the earnestness of his belief in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought he was some bad homeless guy. He's not homeless, not poor.

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He looks like he is. Lives in an okay house. A follower of Christ.

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He's accepted by Christ. How could I reject him? And we have have done this in many ways.

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We like the people who agree with us theologically. But guess what? Baptists, Pentecostals, whoever they are.

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Anglicans, whoever they are. If they'd be Christians, they're our brethren. We love them.

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We have great fellowship with them. We should be those things that differentiate us are small in comparison to the things that unite us.

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We can't be respecters of persons. Let's turn back to the book of Romans, chapter 2.

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This idea of judgment is going to be a bigger part of the second half of the section, which will be in two weeks.

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But it's very helpful for us here framing our discussion. Romans 2, beginning at verse 1.

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Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge. And whenever you judge another, you condemn yourself.

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For you who judge practice the same things. But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

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And do you think this, O man, you who judge those practicing such things and doing the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

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Of course, it's that terrible list he's referring back to in chapter 1. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

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But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

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Who will render to each one according to his deeds. Children, we're all going to get what we get according to our deeds, not because of what we look like or how much money our family has or the kind of clothes we wear.

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Eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality.

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But to those who are self -seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish.

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On every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the

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Greek. But glory, honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the

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Jew first and also to the Greek. Here it is again. There is no partiality with God.

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He executes perfect justice. He's not like us. We judge by appearances.

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God looks upon the heart. So if we masquerade as a righteous man externally, but we're not righteous men internally, that is all exposed before God.

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That hypocrisy is exposed. You're only fooling yourself and some other people.

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We have to be men, women and children of sincere, earnest, genuine faith that produces obedience and is filled with hope for our

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God does not show partiality. There's a lot of passages,

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Ephesians 6 and don't turn there. And you masters do the same things to them, referring to their relationship to the slaves.

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Giving up threatening and knowing that your own master also is in heaven. And there is no partiality with him.

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Colossians 3 a bit later in that section we quoted, but he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done.

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And there is no partiality. God is fundamentally and comprehensively impartial in his dealings.

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We are judging people and classifying people according to their attractiveness, wealth, status, power, clothing, or any number of external measures.

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This message is for us. We do it. We rate people almost unconsciously.

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What do they look like? What kind of car do they drive? What is their house like? What do they do for a living?

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I don't know, Mark's family and our family, because of our age, in the 1980s, the yuppie generation, the culture began to despise men who work with their hands and get dirty.

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It was looked down upon, I think. White collar jobs were more appreciated. Now, the tide has turned probably in the last several years, ten years, where this has been esteemed again.

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This is right for it to happen. But the people who are in the white collar jobs would say,

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Oh, that guy doesn't have a very good education. Look, he's working in the trades. Very common.

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Honest, hard work is pleasing to God. If we see a man with dirt under his fingernails, we should say,

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That man's probably out working hard for his family to make a living. And not go, Ooh, he's gross.

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I don't want to shake his hand. We have to entirely think about people differently.

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If we're going to love people the way God wants us to love. From the law,

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Deuteronomy 10 says, For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great

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God. This actually amazingly follows that incredible circumcise your heart passage.

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He's mighty and awesome who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.

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He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the stranger.

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I actually think because of James's very strong Judaism and Jewish faith and orientation in the law, he may have even been considering Deuteronomy 10 in this section because the widows and orphans and the partiality are so closely connected.

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He loves the stranger. He gives him food and clothing. Therefore, love the stranger for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

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Deuteronomy 1 says, You shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great.

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You shall not be afraid in any man's presence for the judgment is

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God's. There's a flip side to this that I'd like to apply. If we are have a tendency to be respecters of persons, it also causes us to be sheepish and fearful in the presence of mere men.

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A proper application of the no partiality principle is that we stand before God and are accepted.

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We could stand before a mere man or a king, a rich man with power and influence.

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We may shudder in his presence because we could fear what he may do to us. We are commanded by scripture to be men of stronger backs than that.

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Women who have stronger resolve. John Knox, it was said of he never feared any man.

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That's the kind of people we have to be. It's not arrogant. It's not conceited.

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It's viewing things as God views them. I am a man. He is a man.

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I am not going to bow down to the rich man because he's rich or powerful.

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I'm going to stand firm and stand my ground. And I'm going to speak justly and honorably and righteously.

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My righteousness is not going to be squelched by his power and his status. I'm going to speak the truth and love.

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Deuteronomy 15 says for the poor will never cease from the land. Therefore, I command you saying you shall open your hand wide to your brother.

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To your poor and your needy. And your land.

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These also, the Proverbs say, are the sayings of the wise. It is not good to show partiality in judgment.

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Now let's come back to our text here. James gives us an example.

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For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings. And you may know from that culture that they would wear a lot of their wealth, particularly among the

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Greeks, on their fingers. And if you saw a man wearing gold rings and gemstones and even stacking them on top of each other, he was displaying his wealth.

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He says, look at me, look how much wealth I have. So immediately this man comes in and his gold and his gems are shining and he's got fine linen apparel.

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He's got bright white garments on. And now all the people start treating him with respect and honor.

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What's built into this favoritism is selfish desire.

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Why do we bow in the presence of rich men and famous people? We want to curry favor from them.

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This gets back to the very sinful desires of the heart of chapter one. You're paying honor to people.

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It looks like it's outward, but it's really internal. I want to run with the right crowd.

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I want to be accepted by the cool people, the rich people, the powerful people.

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So this partiality thing is not external so much. It's manifested that way, but it's a matter of the desires of the heart.

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A rich man comes into the church. An unscrupulous pastor says, we're going to get some money for the church.

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It's an improper view. This rich man comes and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, you sit here in a good place.

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Here's a place of honor for you, sir. Let me dust it off. Here, have a seat. You also, there should come into your assembly a poor man in filthy clothes.

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And this word means vile filth. We see somebody, they might have a stain on their shirt.

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The shirt's been laundered. We see a stain. Oh, look at that guy. He's wearing a stained shirt. This is unlaundered laundry.

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The vileness is hanging and stinking off of his garment. We better push this guy to the side.

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You can sit down here at my feet. I don't even want to be able to look at you or smell you. Sit down here at my feet. I'm going to look past you and give my attention to another.

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And you say to the rich man, you sit here in the good place. Say to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my footstool.

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As you know, the foot is the place of dishonor in the ancient Near East. The question is asked by James.

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Have you not shown partiality among yourselves? Become judges with evil thoughts.

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And he appeals here to our reason and the testimony of scripture. Listen, verse five says, my beloved brethren, has

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God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

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Several members of my family have been with me to Myanmar. They are crazy poor and rich in faith.

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They're happier than Americans by a long shot. They are blessed.

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They're heirs of the kingdom. They are content with having a house with boards that are slats, not entirely closed.

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They're happy to have a bowl of rice in the rainy season to sleep under the cover of a shelter.

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Bliss, happy in the Lord. We're an ungrateful people. We're a rich people.

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We are a people who are prone to partiality. And I dare say it's stealing our joy.

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Can you keep up with the celebrities and their lifestyle? Can you ever spend your way to happiness?

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This is the new American way. Buy this and you'll be happy. Wear this dress.

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Carry this purse. It's not going to make you happy. The Lord has chosen.

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This isn't the poor in spirit. This is the economic poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom.

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Verse six, but you have dishonored the poor man. One other side observation. The vast majority of Christians in the first century were extremely poor.

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Many Jewish people who came to Christ, we've already mentioned this in passing, they lost their livelihoods and their fortunes when they came to Christ.

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So for you to come in and say the poor are cursed, the poor have not the blessing of God.

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The vast majority of the people in that day, members of the churches, were of lowly estate.

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Our Lord Jesus in the incarnation came into relative peasantry in his family.

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The offering that was given for him in the temple was the poor man's offering.

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You'll remember that. Talk about it around Christmas time. We cannot dishonor the poor man.

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We can't dishonor the Gentile. We can't dishonor the person of ignoble birth.

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We have to honor all whom Christ has accepted. And he continues. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

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Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? Truly it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

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Why? Because he operates in a world system that honors rich.

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He just writes a check for his problems. He doesn't have to pray. He doesn't have to ask his brethren for help.

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O people of God, we need to be the kind of people who truly love our brethren in the

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Lord. So I'm going to ask you the question. This requires you to make the application.

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In what ways in your life do you show partiality? How do you and your mind discriminate out there in the world?

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Would you accept man wearing tattered clothes into the assembly? Would you accept a brother who has some quirky theological positions into the assembly?

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I believe the scriptural answer, our answer should be yes. And we need to identify everything in us that is contrary to the nature of God and his perfect justice.

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Contrary to the positive example that we have in Christ. And our own minds and eyes know it.

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If we were to show partiality in the church, how destructive would that be to Christian unity, peace and fellowship?

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Huge theme. It's the New Testament. Unity of the body. We're coming to the table in a few moments.

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The bread and the cup signify our union with Christ and with one another.

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How could we look down our nose at the brother down the way from us taking the Lord's Supper?

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If Christ has accepted them, we can accept them. And if they're an unbeliever and they want to hear the message of Christ and be accepted, we accept them.

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May the Lord make us a people who show no favoritism. May the

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Lord make us a people who seek real justice out in the world. Who get in the way of the rich who are dragging the poor into court.

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The Christian church should probably have a campaign to shut down the payday loan business.

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Charging people 20 -something percent, I don't know what it is, for a day or two of borrowing money so they can make it to payday.

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Those are unjust weights and measures. There's a whole world of application for us to consider.

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And also be bold, be courageous, be like John Knox. Fear no man, you have

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Christ. Now, the last thing I'm going to tell you is

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God's partiality is upheld. Or impartiality,

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I should say, is upheld in the person and work of Christ. All who believe in him are saved.

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You say, well, is it unfair for the elect to get in and the non -elect to not get in?

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And the answer is no, because the elect have been united to Christ. And righteous judgment demands that Christ be exalted and that all who are with him be accepted in the beloved.

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God's perfect justice, his impartiality is even displayed in his mercy and grace in our salvation.

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Let's pray together now. Oh Lord, we,

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I pray that we would confess and that we would search our own hearts in the ways in which we show partiality.

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And Lord, I pray that those, the power of your spirit would be purged.

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Oh Lord, we seek the approval and acceptance of unrighteous men. And I pray that you would show us how accepted we are in you and cause us to be accepting of all who put their trust in you.