The Sin of Prejudice

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If everyone would, take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 2nd chapter of James, and go to verse 1.
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It's where we'll be when we read the text tonight.
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We have been examining the book of James beginning last year.
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The title of this series is Wisdom for our Walk.
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We've addressed the fact that James is a book of practical wisdom literature for the believer.
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It gives us practical insight into how we are to live the Christian life.
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If you look at your worksheet that I handed you, it's two-sided.
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The side that has the blanks is actually for later.
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If you want to have it on the side that doesn't have the blanks, but has the actual outline of the text itself, you'll notice that it has the text a little differently than we had it in the past.
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Used to I had the English standard and the Greek beside one another.
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What I did now is I've made it almost like an interlinear.
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I've put the Greek underneath it, and I'll be making reference to some of those words, and be able to point out to you why I did it that way, hopefully helping to be able to follow along in some of the original language issues, helping to understand what it is that James has to tell us.
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We've learned a lot so far in our study of James.
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We've seen, again, that this book is steeped in practical application for the believer.
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He begins by calling us to joy in our trials, reminding us that trials have purpose, because they bring us to Christian maturity.
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He tells us if we lack wisdom in our trials, then we're to ask God, because God is the one who gives us the wisdom to overcome those trials, and to see us through.
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He tells the poor person to exalt in his poorness, because Christ has exalted him.
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He tells the rich person to be humble, because Christ has humbled him to show that he is not trusting in his riches, but rather is trusting in Christ.
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He reminds us that when we face temptation, that we should never blame God, because God does not tempt us to sin.
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He encourages us to remember that every good gift comes from God, and the greatest gift is the gift of regeneration, which comes from hearing the Word of God.
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We're told that we're to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to get angry, and that's in reference to the Word of God.
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And finally, we're reminded that our religion should dictate how we speak to and about others, and how we treat those in need.
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So again, the whole first chapter is what I just went over.
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It's all about a living faith.
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James is concerned that our faith not just be spoken.
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James wants us to have a faith that is living, that is active, that is showing itself for real.
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It does no good if all we do is talk about Christ.
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We have to live for Him, because to simply talk about Christ to other people and not live for Him, is the height of hypocrisy.
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In fact, the person who James will see, and we'll see this in the weeks to come, the person who says, I have faith, but does not have works, his faith is dead.
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So as we enter into chapter 2, James is maintaining the trajectory of practicality that he's already begun in chapter 1.
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And he begins the second chapter by dealing with an issue that is as old as time.
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The issue of prejudice and discrimination.
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He shows us in this first few verses of chapter 2, that discrimination in the externals, favoring people in regard to their wealth, or their status, or for any other reason that is an external reason, is unbecoming of a person who claims the name of Jesus Christ.
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In fact, such behavior, he will use the word poneros, which is the Greek word for evil.
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Such behavior is evil.
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Now, before we read the text, I want to make mention of something.
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The issue of favoritism, discrimination, prejudice, is one that wasn't limited to the early church.
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It was dealt with in the early church, and that's why James is writing about it, but it wasn't limited to then.
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It is something that the church has not gotten over in 2,000 years.
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I remembered while I was writing this lesson, I remembered a situation that happened a few years ago, when I was talking to a person, this person is no longer at the church, so don't come to me afterwards and say, hey, who are you talking about? But there was a person here at the church that I was having a discussion with about visitors and new people.
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And we were talking about new people coming into the church, and reaching out, and trying to get people to know Jesus Christ and be saved, and trying to talk about ways in which we could grow the ministry.
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And this man said to me, he said, I wish we had a few doctors and a few lawyers, and maybe a few businessmen of notoriety that would join the church.
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He said, because such people would increase our reputation, because they're people of import, and it would be so much better to have them than a flock of poor, young, educated people, uneducated people.
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Now, I will never forget that conversation, because I had never, ever heard such an exact statement of what James is here decrying.
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I'd never heard it.
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And it was so clear, I was like, boy, I've got to write this down.
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So perfectly wrong.
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Isn't that an oxymoron, perfectly wrong? That's what it was, it was so perfectly wrong.
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How long after? Oh, it's been a long, this was ten years ago.
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This was back when I first became the pastor.
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Now, I want to say something about this situation.
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As easy it is to condemn such language, and I am condemning that language.
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It's obviously fraught with error.
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As easy as it is to condemn that language, is it not the case that all of us have at some point experienced at least a small sense of a discriminating heart when dealing with new people, and new people in the church? If a man comes in who is dirty, and he smells bad, and he's obviously drunk, do you think he would be treated differently than a man who came in clean-shaven, nicely dressed, and attentive to the message? Do you think he would be? We would hope not, but do you think he would be? I'm being, this is real deal stuff.
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This is straight up, I want to be real.
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If a man came in needing to receive a donation of money, would he be treated differently than if he came in to give a donation of money? I've seen preference given to a man with children and a wife over a man who was single.
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I've seen that.
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That's what James is dealing with.
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And how easy it is to condemn that man who made that obviously erroneous statement.
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But what I'm trying to get us to do tonight is be honest with the fact that these things do happen, and they're things that we need to address, they're things that we need to recognize, and they're things for which we need to repent.
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Right? That's what James is calling us to.
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This whole book is practical, but this part is straight up in your face practical.
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Okay? And that's why I've titled the lesson tonight, The Sin of Prejudice.
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Now often we think of prejudice as being just racially related, racial prejudice.
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But that's not the only place where prejudice exists.
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It certainly does exist there, don't get me wrong.
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Racial prejudice is a huge problem, and we're going to talk about that some too.
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But it's also, in so many, social prejudice is a big deal.
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Physical prejudice, and I'm not trying to make myself a victim, please, I'm no victim.
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But as a man who has a large stature, people make fun of you, call you name, call you fat, have no fear of hurting your feelings, they don't care.
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You sit down and you're uncomfortable, well it's because you're fat.
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Chair doesn't fit you right, you get on a roller coaster and the thing doesn't close.
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Everybody laughs, nobody cares.
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Again, I'm not a victim, I don't care.
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But my point is, we've all experienced prejudice, but we have all exercised prejudice.
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And James is calling us to repentance.
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Okay? So that's what we're going to do, we're going to read what he wrote, we're going to look at verses 1 through 7 tonight.
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So opening to chapter 2, verse 1, it says, beginning verse 1, My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.
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For a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.
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And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man.
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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.
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Now, verses 8-13, He continues the thought, but I knew I wasn't going to get to it tonight, so we're going to stop at verse 7, and next week we'll pick up where we left off.
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I have enough, I'm certain, to get us through that bit that we've read.
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So let's stop there at verse 7.
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Going back up to verse 1, just looking at it.
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My brothers, show no partiality.
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And the Greek word there, prosop...
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It's a long word.
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Prosopalampesis.
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It's a long Greek word, and basically what it is is a conjunction of two words, and that's why I'm sharing that with you, because prosopon is the word for face.
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If I talk about the prosopon, I'm talking about the thing that's connected to the front of your skull.
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Alright? It's your face.
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Lombano means to receive something.
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And when I combine prosopon and lombano, what it is is an idiom in the Greek that means that I'm receiving you based on what you look like.
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Does that make sense? That I'm receiving you based upon your face.
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But not just the look of your face.
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But I'm receiving you based at a snap judgment.
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I'm making an opinion based on your appearance.
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And that's what that long word there in the Greek means.
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It means to accept a person based on their appearance.
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In essence, it means to make an unjust distinction between people by treating one person better than another person simply because they look like you think they should look.
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Or that you want them to look.
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The King James uses the word respecter of persons.
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Now this word is in the Scripture four times.
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Three times it is used of God not doing this to us.
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God doesn't choose us based upon anything in us.
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He doesn't choose us based upon our societal position.
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He doesn't choose us based upon our social or economic status.
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He doesn't choose me because I'm a preacher or you because you're a good faithful church member, whatever you want to say.
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He doesn't choose you based upon the fact that you're middle class or upper class or lower class.
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I don't know what class you are.
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Whatever.
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Socially.
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God doesn't choose a king because he's a king.
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God doesn't choose anyone because of any of those social, economic, or even physical reasons.
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So three times in Scripture this term is used of God.
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But here James takes the term that's used of God not doing that to us.
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And he says since God didn't do that to you, you shouldn't do that to one another.
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Since God didn't choose you based upon what you look like, based upon where you came from, based upon what you had or how you were dressed or what job you had, He chose you because He loved you.
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We are to choose to love other people.
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Simple as that.
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The word I think in the NIV and I don't have the NIV.
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Jack, I think you do.
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Does it say prejudice in the NIV? Didn't have that one.
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Don't have that.
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Does anybody have an NIV? Okay.
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Well, I believe the NIV says prejudice.
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And I actually think that that's a good translation of the term respecter of persons.
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Huh? It says favoritism in NIV? Okay.
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Well, I thought it was.
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I was wrong.
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But the word in the NET is prejudice.
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The New English translation, which is one that I use and study because it has the Greek textual notes.
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The NET uses the word prejudice.
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And that's why I call tonight's lesson The Sin of Prejudice because I do think that that is the heart of what James is talking about.
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And there was a historical quote by a man by the name of Winfield.
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Winfield said this about prejudice.
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He said the word prejudice was originally neutral.
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It meant to judge beforehand.
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And think about prejudice.
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That's what it means.
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You have the root word, the Judas word, coming from the same word that we get the word judicial or to make a judgment.
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Right? And to pre meaning before.
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So a prejudice means to make a judgment beforehand.
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Right? And this is something that by itself isn't necessarily good or bad.
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But it has become negative in its connotation.
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Why? Because we have a tendency to judge badly.
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You know, if I make a good judgment beforehand, if I look at somebody and say, you know what? I'm going to make an attempt to reach out to that person and love that person.
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And I feel like I want to get to know that person.
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That's a good judgment.
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Right? That's a positive prejudice.
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I prejudicially, I made a judgment beforehand to do good.
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But why has prejudice become a bad word? Because we're so bad at judging.
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We're so good at judging badly.
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That the word prejudice has become injurious.
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That if you talk to somebody about being prejudiced, you're always talking about something negative.
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Right? Because we have a tendency always to think the worst.
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We have always...
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You have somebody comes in, never seen him before.
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They look a little poor.
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He must be lazy.
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He must not have a good work ethic.
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Right? Because he's poor.
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Only poor people have bad work.
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Only people with poor have bad work ethics.
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Right? That's the prejudice.
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Right? See a woman come in and she's pregnant and she's not married.
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Oh, she must be cheap or loose.
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Oh, now I'm hitting it hard, aren't I? Right? She couldn't have made a mistake.
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She must be a horrible person.
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She couldn't have been attacked.
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She couldn't have been raped.
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She's a bad person.
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Right? That's the way we do.
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And that's the sin that James is attacking.
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He's warning us against evil prejudicial behavior in the church.
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He says this, My brothers, show no partiality, show no prejudice, as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory.
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So he's attaching this to something very precious.
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He's attaching this command of non-prejudicial behavior to something that he is saying.
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First of all, he calls him a Delphoi.
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That's brother.
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So he's not saying you're not a Christian.
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But he is saying this.
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He's saying if you are a Christian, we all have something in common.
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We have the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory.
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That's our unifying thing.
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And if we have that as a unifying thing, then the one thing that should unify us is that we should love like Christ loved us, and that was an impartial love.
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It was a love that was done as a choice.
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As I told a few weeks ago in the sermon, God chose to love me.
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He didn't have to.
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And He chose to love me in spite of me, no matter what I was.
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No matter how unlovable I am, God chooses to love me.
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And so this reference here to the faith of our Lord, it says in the ESV, it says faith in our Lord.
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In the NAS and a few others, it says faith of our Lord.
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It really is kind of an odd construction in the Greek.
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But ultimately, what it's talking about is simply the unified faith of believers.
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I could go into the construction, and I had it in my notes.
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I think I'm not even going to get into too much of this because it really is.
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I don't want to bog us down in the minutia of it.
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But ultimately, it's in the genitive case, and it could be rendered Jesus' faith or the Lord's faith, but that doesn't make sense.
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It's the faith that we have in Him.
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It's the faith that belongs to Him.
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All faith has an object.
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Right? Faith without an object is blind faith.
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We're not called to blind faith.
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We're called to have faith in a person.
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The person is Jesus Christ.
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So when it talks about the faith of Jesus Christ, it's talking about His faith.
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It's talking about the faith that's in Him.
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And that's why the translation in the ESV uses the in preposition, saying that it's the faith in Jesus Christ.
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That's what it is.
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Properly understood, that's what unifies us.
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He is the Lord of glory.
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And He is our Lord.
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He is our unifying Lord.
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And faith in Him is what brings us together.
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And we are to hold that faith, that special faith, without prejudice.
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Now, from this, James gives us an illustration.
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From this, verse 2, he gives us a picture.
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He says in verse 2, For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, let's just stop right there.
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In this particular time in history, wearing a gold ring would have been a much bigger deal than it is today.
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Most men, well, I don't wear one, so let me just back up.
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A lot of men wear a gold ring to represent their being married.
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My wife gets really mad that I don't wear a ring.
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I don't like to wear anything on my hands.
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I don't even like to wear a watch.
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I just don't care for it.
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My wife gets really upset.
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Well, people aren't going to know you're married.
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I'm like, nobody cares if I'm married.
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But that's a whole other story.
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The whole idea of wearing a ring, I just don't feel comfortable with having a piece of jewelry on.
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Some guys do though.
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It's no big deal.
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To us, a guy coming in a gold ring would not even get our attention.
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But in the first century, someone who had the extra income, the extra money to be able to adorn their body with gold was to speak of their very high position economically in society.
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Today it's not so much.
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But maybe today you could say something like this.
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If a man rolled into the church parking lot driving a Lamborghini, would that be a better analogy for today? Because you might not be impressed if a guy came in with a gold ring, but you might be impressed if you saw a guy come in in a Lamborghini or a Ferrari or something.
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Maybe one of them big old Hummers when it's all decked out and his tires are this tall and he steps out to the music playing.
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I don't know.
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He's got this entourage.
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Well, that's what this gold ring in this text is representing.
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It's representing someone that has money, someone who has status, someone who bears their economic superiority on their person.
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They're wearing an Armani suit.
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They're wearing a Rolex watch.
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They're wearing an outfit.
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What did he say? He said Johnson Murphy shoes.
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Johnson Murphy shoes.
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I don't even know what that is.
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Wearing a silk tie.
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And he comes in and everything is as it's supposed to be.
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Everything looks perfect.
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And he comes into your assembly.
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Now, I want to make a historical note.
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The word assembly, if you look in the Greek, it's the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5th word in the Greek.
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It's synagogue.
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Synagogue.
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What's that word? Synagogue.
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That's where we get the word synagogue.
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Now, why would James refer to the church as a synagogue? Well, it's because he's Jewish.
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And it's because he is writing this to a primarily Jewish audience.
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If you go back to chapter 1, verse 1, he says to the dispersion, that's Jewish Christians who had been dispersed as a result of the persecution that had happened in the 1st century.
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But also this.
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The word synagogue simply is a word which means to assemble together.
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So, James is not separating the idea of the church from the synagogue.
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He's simply saying when you synagogue or when you come together, and somebody comes in from the outside, and they're dressed to the nines, and that's as far as we've gone, but that's the picture.
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This tells me something historically which is very interesting.
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At whatever point in history this is, and I believe James to have been written somewhere in the late 40s.
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By the way, I don't know if I mentioned this in our study in the opening, but I believe James, based on the use of language, based on external and internal evidence, I believe James was one of the first epistles written.
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And if that's true, it makes this.
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By the 40s, the church was meeting in assemblies.
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That's a big deal because I've been told, oh man, it was house churches forever.
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It wasn't house churches forever.
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Assemblies started gathering together very early.
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James, this is a different James.
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Yeah, he still died pretty early, but the James, the brother of John, died very early.
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So it's a different James.
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And I'd have to look up when this James.
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I don't remember for certain.
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But yeah, it's kind of confusing at times.
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My point though being, could it be that the assembly is in a home? Yes, but the idea though that I see here is that they're early on, the church is meeting together.
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Now I'm not saying they have church buildings with crosses and crucifixes and all that stuff.
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What I'm saying though is it's more than a few people.
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There's an assembly happening.
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And it's happening very early in church history that the church is assembling together to the point that visitors are coming.
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That's a big deal historically.
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That there are visitors who are coming into the church very early on.
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And this is severe persecution, and yet it's still happening.
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I just think that's a powerful historical reality.
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That the church is thriving and visitors are coming and they're assembling, they're synagoguing even this early in church history.
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And so this is happening, and you've got rich and poor coming.
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Because he goes on to say, and a poor man in shabby clothing comes in.
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And the word shabby here, simply it means what you think it means.
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It means he is not dressed in the Armani.
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He's not dressed in the Johnson & Johnson shoes or whatever they were called.
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He's not dressed in the silk tie.
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This guy is wearing what he wore to work the day before.
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And probably what he wore the day before that, and the day before that, and the day before that.
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He might have washed it.
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Yeah, filthy clothes.
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That's the idea.
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These clothes are not.
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He does not look like a man of import.
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He does not look like a man of social notoriety.
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In fact, he's not even clean.
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So you've got two guys to choose from.
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What are you going to do? Well, it is the nature of man to exalt the man who has already exalted himself.
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He's already lifted himself up in his clothing.
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It is the nature of man to continue that exaltation.
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And the man who is dirty and low, he's already low.
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We put him even lower.
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See what the text says? It says, And if you pay attention to the one who wears fine clothing, you say, sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, stand over there or sit at my feet.
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Can you imagine? Imagine saying to somebody, come here and sit at my feet.
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I'm going to sit in the chair, but you sit on the ground.
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That's the picture.
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I'm going to sit in comfort while you can sit on the rocks or the hard ground.
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What position does that put you in the mind? It puts you in a position of higher than that person.
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Jesus talked about this.
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If you want to make a mark in your notes, Mark 12, 38-40, He was talking about the Pharisees.
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And what did He say about the Pharisees? They love to have the highest seat in the assembly.
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They love to have the best seat in the house.
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And they expect it.
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These guys come in expecting this.
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So verse 4, He asked the question.
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If you've done this, if you've exalted the rich man, you've given him the best seat in the house, if you've told the poor man, sit on the floor or stand in the corner, have you not then made distinctions? And that word distinctions means makes a judgment.
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Have you not made a judgment among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? The word here, diacrino, means to judge something to be better than something else and hence to prefer or to regard as having more value than something else.
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So essentially what is being said is, have you not said that this man is by nature more important than this man? He is more valuable than that man.
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And He says, by doing so, you've demonstrated that you have ponyrone thoughts.
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Ponyrone in Greek is evil.
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One of the things that we're told in Scripture is to not judge, right? Judge not lest ye be judged.
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I mean, that's there.
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But at the same time, the Scripture also tells us that there are times when we have to make judgments.
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In fact, in 1 Corinthians it tells us that there was a man who was sleeping with his father's wife and that the church had done nothing about that sinful behavior and Paul condemned them for not making a judgment, for not calling that man to repentance, for not calling that man to change and for not putting him out of the church if he didn't change.
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Paul condemns them for not making a judgment.
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So you say, well how do you rectify the two things? How can you have one verse say judge not and another passage which says we have to make judgments? By the way, every one of you make judgments.
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You have to, to survive.
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Every one of us makes judgments.
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Here's the answer and I want to show you a verse.
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Hold your place in James.
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Turn to John 7.24.
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If you want to know what Jesus says about judgment, this is it.
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Jesus is the one who says judge not lest ye be judged.
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But John 7.24 gives the context for understanding what Jesus meant.
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John 7.24 says this.
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Do not judge by what? Appearances, but judge with righteous judgment.
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By the way, if you go to Matthew 7 where it says judge not lest ye be judged, Jesus goes on to say that if you see a man who has a speck in his eye and you try to remove it, but you don't take the plank out of your own eye first, then you can't.
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He doesn't say that we're not to reach out and try to help that person, but He says first make sure that you don't have a two by four sticking out of your eye before you try to take that piece of sawdust out of your brother's eye, right? So even in that context, Jesus isn't demanding that we never say anything to anyone about anything, but He is telling us to do it right.
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That we don't just go around with a judgmental, condemning spirit, but that when we seek to bring anything to a person, we do so with righteousness and with a right heart.
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What does a right heart always want? You want the person to repent.
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You want the person to be restored.
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This is how I always know if somebody has a wrong spirit.
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They seek someone's condemnation.
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If you're not seeking someone's restoration, then you're not in any position to bring them anything.
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If you're not seeking their restoration, you're not in any position to seek anything on their behalf because you're also in the wrong.
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Even if they're in the wrong, so are you.
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That's simple.
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Jesus said if you go to a person who's in sin and you tell them of their sin and they repent, you have restored or won your brother.
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That's the goal.
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That's the goal.
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So, one thing that we know, going back to James 2.4, one thing that is clear in this passage is that the judgment that James is condemning is unrighteous judgment.
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You have judged a man and you have judged the value of his soul based upon his external goods.
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You have judged his heart by his appearance.
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Now, in verse 5, he reminds us of an important truth.
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He says, listen.
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Akuo is the Greek.
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Akuo, where we get the word acoustic, it means listen.
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It's just what it means.
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It just means listen.
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Open your ears.
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My beloved brethren, 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? Isn't that an interesting thought James just kind of throws in there? He says, look, you are choosing by virtue of externals only the rich man over the poor man.
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You are choosing this guy over this guy because of something on the external, because of his economic status or whatever.
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And yet God, when He chooses, He so often and more often chooses the poor.
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What did He tell Israel? Have I chosen you because you are the largest nation? No, I chose you because you were the smallest.
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You didn't have anything.
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What's that? Yeah, blessed are the poor.
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Absolutely.
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He does not choose someone according to their status.
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God is not impressed or moved by someone's wealth or their position in life.
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He chooses according to His sovereign will.
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And He has chosen to extend His grace to the poor.
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Knowing this, we should be all the more willing to open our hearts to the poor.
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Instead, we show deference to the rich man.
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And in doing so, we dishonor the one that God has chosen.
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And He says in verse 6, But you have dishonored the poor man.
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Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and drag you into court? Now, I want to say something about that passage very quickly because it goes on to say in verse 7, And are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? This is not intended to be a hard and fast rule.
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Not all rich people blaspheme God.
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No, I'm just saying.
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And you all know that.
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I see you shaking your head.
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That's right.
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Not all rich people blaspheme God.
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Not all rich people drag believers into court.
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James is not making a hard and fast rule here.
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But the principle he is using is the same that Jesus used when He said that it's harder for the camel to pass through the eye of the needle than the rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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What's the principle? The one who is rich tends to trust in his riches.
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And the one who has nothing tends to be the one who will look up for that which he needs because he can look nowhere else.
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Because of the rich man's adherence and commitment to his own riches, he tends to be the one who is more likely to go at war with the church.
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Think about people who are typically atheists.
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Now, I'm not talking about practical atheists.
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Most Americans today are practical atheists.
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They live as if God doesn't exist.
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But you go to talk to poor people, they almost all, in general, will say, Yes, I believe in God.
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Who are the ones who are the opposition? Who are the ones who are going to the American Atheist Association and these different places? These are the people of high education, high social status, high finances.
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Why? Because they have their God.
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And it ain't Yahweh.
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They have their God and He is themselves.
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He is their finances.
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And so they're, without even realizing it at times, they're waging war against the one true God because their God, the God of their belly, the scripture says, they worship their self, is at war with that God, and so they must make that war.
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And James is simply saying this.
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Why would you automatically show favoritism to a group which has produced so many people who hate you? Think about that question again.
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Why would you automatically show preference to a group of people that have produced so many people who automatically hate you? I mean, that's really his argument.
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I hope that makes sense.
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I'm trying to word it properly.
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Why do you automatically prefer this guy when most of the people that are like him hate you? Because you still want...
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You know, we know what he can bring.
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Man, if this guy comes to the church, maybe we can get a new steeple.
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This guy comes to the church, maybe we can add that new baptistry we've been wanting, right? He's got something he can bring.
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But this guy comes, he's just going to be taken and taken and taken.
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It's how we think.
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It really is.
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It's a shame.
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That's a shame on us.
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I'm not saying it's a good thing.
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I'm saying it is a thing.
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So based on all that, we've seen the text, we've read through the text, I want to turn over your pages and do the application with you.
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We're getting close to the end now.
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Number one.
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Prejudice begins when we make judgment based merely on external observation.
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Prejudice begins when we make judgments based merely on external observation.
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It can be a negative or a positive judgment.
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Remember I told earlier that the word prejudice really can go either ways? See the rich guy come in with the rich clothes and the nice stuff? You automatically have a good opinion.
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That's prejudice.
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But it's a good prejudice, right? Because you think, well, I have a good opinion.
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Guy comes in, ain't got nothing.
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Can't do nothing.
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Smells funny, looks bad.
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Negative opinion.
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Bad opinion.
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It's prejudice.
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Both are prejudice.
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Both are making a judgment before you know anything about the person.
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Both are making a judgment before you have any real knowledge.
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They're both making a judgment based merely on appearance or what we call a snap judgment.
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Now, what, in this opinion question, you feel free to be open, just know you're on recording.
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No, I'm just kidding.
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What are some things other than riches, because, of course, we've talked riches to death tonight because that's what the text deals with, but I think that this is principal.
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I think this can be applied on several layers.
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What other than riches can cause a person to make a snap judgment? Age.
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Man, that wasn't even on my list.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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You've seen that happen, haven't you? People come in.
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Either they're very old or very young or whatever.
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They don't fit the demographic, and so they're immediately shut off.
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Yes.
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Beauty.
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Wow.
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Not on my list either.
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I have five things on my list.
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I wanted to see how many.
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That's good.
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Beauty, age.
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Yes.
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Education.
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Absolutely.
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Cody.
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Personality.
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Yeah.
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Yes.
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Are we talking about safe people or unsafe people or just people in general? I'm talking about in the church, somebody new comes in.
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What would be something that could cause people to make a snap judgment? Sexual orientation.
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Sexual orientation.
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Okay.
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Somebody comes in, and they may appear to have a...
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Or they're with a partner.
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Yeah, sure.
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Okay.
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We automatically judge them, and we know all about them because of whatever it is, right? Ear piercings and tattoos.
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Ear piercings.
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I had tattoos and facial hair.
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Ear piercings also.
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Anything that would...
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You know, right? Okay.
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All this.
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All this.
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Yes.
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Nationality or ethnicity.
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Race.
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That's one of the ones I had.
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Race.
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People come in, and it's a situation where it may be a predominantly white, predominantly black situation, predominantly Hispanic, whatever, can often cause division on that level.
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Attitude.
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Somebody just doesn't look very nice.
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That's right.
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Somebody looks like...
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You know, they just look like they're sucking sour lemons.
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That's right.
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I have two ones that nobody has said yet.
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Anybody got any guesses? You said body odor.
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The way they dress.
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Yeah.
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And that can be...
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It doesn't have to necessarily be rich or poor.
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It can just be odd.
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Right? An odd dress certainly can happen.
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Accent.
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Yeah.
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You automatically make an opinion about people's education.
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You know, it is funny, though, because Jeff Foxworthy did get it right when he said no one would want to hear their brain surgeon say, now what we're going to do is saw the top of your head off.
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Now, I am from the South, so I can make that joke.
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Oh, man.
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Yes.
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People that have disabilities receive severe prejudice.
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Sometimes it can be, whether it's a physical...
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You know, I've seen children in wheelchairs.
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People don't even want to look at them.
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I've seen children who walk on crutches or can't speak.
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People just...
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Terribly.
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Absolutely.
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Oh, crutches.
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I forgot.
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Sorry.
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Autism.
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Yeah.
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The two that I had, and just for time, I'll go ahead and give the last two, because I had race, cleanliness, which kind of goes with the clothes and everything, tattoos, facial hair, and you added earrings to that, size of a family.
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You might think, well, nobody would be prejudiced against that.
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Let me tell you something.
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When you see somebody come out with eight, ten kids, people can be very negative.
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And don't they know what causes that? It happens, and people say it.
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Or if you have no children, wonder what's wrong with them.
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Right? Single people.
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The last one I had on my list was single people.
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Single people tend to be relegated because you ask the question, well, what's wrong with them? Well, there's nothing wrong with them.
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They're single.
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They're not married, huh? Yeah.
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Are they divorced? What happened? All these things flood our minds with judgments before we ever have a reason to have any opinion at all.
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We already know all about them and what motivated them and what caused them to be the way they are.
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Why? Because we know the heart of men.
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We don't know our own heart.
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The Bible says, the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.
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Who can know it? And that's talking about your own heart.
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If I don't know my own heart, how can I even attempt to think that I know yours? And that's why the Bible says in 1 Samuel 16, 7, the Lord sees not as man sees.
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For man looks upon the external, but God looks at the heart.
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And that's number two.
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It's impossible to know the heart of a man based merely on his appearance or solely on his appearance.
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I've heard people say, I have the gift of discernment.
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Now first of all, if you think you have the gift of discernment, I'm not challenging you tonight.
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I don't see it as a biblical gift, but if you want to help me understand what you mean by it, when I see lists of gifts, I've never seen it as a gift.
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We're called to be discerning, but as far as a special gift, I've never seen that in Scripture.
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But I've heard people say they have the gift of discernment.
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But the few people that have told me that, of those people, one or two of them, what they meant was I'm really good at making snap judgments and half the time I'm right.
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That's what they meant.
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I've made judgments about people and you know what? I turned out to be right.
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Sometimes.
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So God's given me a gift.
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Anyone can make a guess based on an outward appearance.
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But when we set ourselves up as a judge, basing our judgment on nothing more than what is appearance to us, we're sinning.
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We are sinning when we do that.
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Thirdly and finally, if the poor and needy are to be welcomed anywhere, it should be the church.
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If the poor and needy are welcomed anywhere, it should be the church.
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The church, I'm going to say this, the church will never remedy all of the poverty in the world.
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We're not going to do it.
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Jesus told us, the poor you will always have with you.
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But that does not mean that we do not welcome the poor into our assembly.
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How we treat those who can do nothing for us says more about our faith than how we treat those who can bring with them something to offer.
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Just down the street is a men's ministry called the Circle of Love.
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Years ago, they did not have a worship center.
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Their men, several of those men, would come here on Sunday morning and worship with us.
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Some of them did not have very much at all.
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Some of them did not have much other than what they were wearing.
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Some of them had come off the streets.
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Many of them were poor, very poor.
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And I was thankful.
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I was thankful as a church that I felt like we did embrace their coming and we tried to support that ministry.
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We still support them at times, giving them things that are needed, take up offerings of clothing and things for them.
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But I felt positive to have them among us and with us, sitting with us because it would have been very easy for people to become negative and uncomfortable and push them out.
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I was thankful that that did not happen.
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But at the same time, as much as I want to commend us, I do.
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I say that as a commendation.
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Praise the Lord.
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I have personally failed, and I say this by way of personal explanation, personal confession.
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I have personally failed to be equitable in the treatment of people who come with different appearances that are very unappealing at times, and I know that I have.
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And so when I read this text, I have to repent.
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And I hope that we all do.
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I know that I have not always treated everybody the same.
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And I know that's a sin.
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Can you confess tonight, and I'm not asking you to shake your head up or down, raise your hand or anything.
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Can you confess tonight that you haven't always given everyone equity? And don't we all need to learn something tonight? This lesson is important for us to remember because when the door of the church opens and a new person walks in, I want us to begin to see in that person the image of God rather than whatever external attribute might turn us on or turn us off.
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Can't we see every person who comes to the door as an image bearer of our God rather than someone who's carrying with them something we like or something we don't? May it be that we all see that as an area of repentance.
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Let us pray.
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Father, I thank You.
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I thank You for the time to study tonight.
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I pray it's been fruitful for Your people.
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And ultimately that we would all seek to make righteous judgments.
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Not judging based on appearance only.
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Not judging based only on the externals.
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But seeking to reach out and love people even if they may appear to us to be unlovable.
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For we, Lord, were unlovable and yet You loved us and gave Your Son to die for us.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.