Faith Over Favoritism | Sermon 04/03/2022

Apologia Utah

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So, we're done with chapter 1 of the book of James. We're on to chapter 2.

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Please turn there with me and your Bibles, James chapter 2. We had about 12 sermons in chapter 1 because James, just like the

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Proverbs, seemed to be changing topic all over the place.

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But chapter 2, you're going to find, is a little bit different. There's going to be some larger discourses here, and I think there's going to be about 4 sermons in chapter 2, opposed to the 12 that was in chapter 1.

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So, we're going to be looking at James chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. So, you guys were good.

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You turned there in your Bibles. I didn't. Let me get there. James chapter 2, the title of this sermon is,

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Faith Over Favoritism. Faith Over Favoritism. Brethren, hear now the words of the living and one true

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God, starting in verse 1 of chapter 2. And there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes.

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And you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes. And you say, sit here in a good place.

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And you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

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Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose 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. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

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Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? Thus ending the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray real quick.

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Father, please speak through me today. Please bless the message. Teach your people today,

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Lord. Illuminate the scriptures. Help us to be solely focused on you and your word and your praise.

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God, help us to learn ever more so deeply why you detest partiality.

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Lord, help me to speak in a way that is clear today. Let it be helpful. Let it always be true. In Christ's name.

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Amen. For centuries now, the sin of favoritism has plagued the church.

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Especially where biblical principles are ignored, favoritism abounds.

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We see from our text that it was a problem from the very first century. Martin Luther saw this in his day.

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The common people didn't know Latin. They didn't have Bibles for themselves. They could never fully participate in the worship of God.

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The working peasant class didn't get to enjoy the full benefits of Christian assembly as the way the wealthy did of that day.

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Then you have men like John Wesley, who I don't agree with all his theology, but he spotted the problem too.

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The Church of England became extremely elitist and unwelcoming to the common man.

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It is said in 1739 that Wesley left the churches and went to graveyards and fields to preach the gospel.

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After doing that, some accounts recall up to 30 ,000 minors listening to his preaching in the fields.

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Finally, after hearing the truth of God's word covered in dust and coal, these men would experience for the first time the saving power of the gospel.

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Some consider John Wesley a schismatic, while others believe he was simply trying to reform the

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Church of England. But after it was clear common folk were not welcome to worship

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Christ in their congregations, he founded what is called the Methodist Church, Methodism.

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Well, Wesley died, and not even a hundred years later, what he had accomplished out of reform was undone in the

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Methodist Church. In the 19th century, you could walk into churches that had shop owners, politicians, and all types of aristocrats and important people who would be sitting in the front pews facing the pulpit, facing the pastor, pews that had cushions and back supports and all those nice things that we take for granted.

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But there was a separate door to be used for the common man. Separate door, the working man, the peasant families, they would be forced to sit in the very back of the church, not on pews, but on basic hard wooden benches, without backs, without cushions.

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Sometimes churches would even have partitions. I mean, we're talking full -on partitions between the commoners and the higher class of society.

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So we're saying that there could have been a divider right here, and the people in the back wouldn't even be able to see the pulpit.

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They would close it off so they couldn't even see it. And that's what they would do for the common man.

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And unfortunately, this pattern continued into the 20th century, with such separation, eventually with our black brothers and sisters in Christ.

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And it even happens today, more than you would even know. I decided to watch that three -part

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Hillsong megachurch exposed documentary, which

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I don't... it's not for children, by the way. There's some pretty intense scandals that have occurred in there.

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But I thought I could maybe learn from what had occurred there.

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And you might know this name. There's a pastor by the name of Carl Lentz, who was the

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Hillsong pastor in New York City. And they became huge,

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Hillsong, especially there in New York. They would meet at, like, a nightclub, and there'd be a line out the door for people to get in.

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Well, eventually, in the first pews, there would be special ropes and things, keeping the regular person coming in separated.

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And Justin Biebers and, you know, all these celebrity types and governors and people who are well -known, they had reserve seating in the front.

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This is just within the past few years. This is still happening today. And it is wicked.

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It is wicked. You see, Christ didn't tear the temple veil in two for us to wickedly put a veil back up.

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Right? For our brothers and sisters. I find it truly indicative of the impartiality of God that even

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Jesus Christ, in his earthly ministry, picked the oddest group of men to be his apostles.

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You have unlearned fishermen, the unliked Roman -employed tax collector.

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You have even a thief with Judas. They were men, let's be honest, that most church -going people wouldn't choose.

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But that shows our problem of favoritism. Harold L. Fickett Jr.

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gives a story from his James Commentary about a woman of low status who lived across the tracks in the worst part of town.

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And she came across the tracks, and she wanted to join a more, what he called, a more fashionable church.

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And so she came to this church, she talked to the pastor, and he said, you know what? Maybe this isn't for you.

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Why don't you go home, why don't you think about it carefully for a week if you want to join our church?

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So at the end of the week, this woman came back, and he said, now let's not be hasty.

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Go home and read your Bible for an hour every day this week, then come back and tell me if you think you should join our church.

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So she wasn't very happy about this. She didn't understand why he was saying this, but she agreed to do it.

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But the next week she was back, assuring the pastor she wanted to become a member of his church.

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He, though, was hoping she wouldn't return. In exasperation, he said,

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I have one more suggestion. Hear me out, hear me out. You pray every day this week, and you ask the

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Lord if you should be a part of our church. And so she left. The woman left the congregation, and six months had gone by and he had not seen her.

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And it says, he said that on the streets one day, six months later, the pastor saw this woman and they passed each other.

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And he said, hey, so what did you end up doing? What did you end up doing?

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And she said, I did what you asked me to do. I went home and I prayed. One day while I was praying, it was as if the

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Lord had said to me, don't worry about not getting into that church. I've been trying to get into it myself for the last 20 years.

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James, however, gives us a scenario to contemplate as well. Two types of men enter their

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Christian assembly, and we are shown the wrong response. Let's consider now in our text how true faith in Christ does not participate in personal favoritism.

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Starting in verse 1. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

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James is not addressing a general audience or a hypothetical person here now. Once again, he draws the reader back in as he addresses

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Christian brethren. Brethren, listen up. Listen up. He is going to apply some of his main ideas from chapter 1 to this specific situation of discrimination and elevation.

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Remember, he taught us to observe the perfect law of liberty. He showed us true religion entails caring for the least of these.

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That's what we saw last week, right? So James makes an imperative, a command.

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Have not your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.

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To think someone could have a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, something that is given in no way based on self -merit, reputation, or how we look, that's how we're given it, without any of those things in mind, could then be used as a righteous criteria for someone else.

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It's irony in the most evil way. We were saved by grace apart from anything that we have done or we look like or our status, and yet we would then use status and appearance to disregard other people or to elevate someone else.

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Completely antithetical to what Christ has done. But I'm afraid we do this sort of thing more than we'd like.

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Think of the secondary command, love your neighbor as yourself. One of the things we know infinitely is how we want to be loved, right?

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We probably think about ourselves and that too much. We know how we want to be loved.

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That's a problem if we go too far with it. We're so focused on how we would like to be loved that we ignore the fact that we are to take that knowledge and love people the way that we want to be loved.

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Look at yourself briefly and how you want to be loved and get away from yourself so then you can extend it to your neighbor.

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If we love God properly, the way we want to be loved is the way God has prescribed it in His Word and the way

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He gives us love. With blessing, grace, patience, provision, care, nurture, and much more.

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We are supposed to take those items, those qualities, and share them with others.

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He says, Our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. This could also be read in the

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Greek, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

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Paul calls Him the same thing. Paul calls Him the Lord of glory in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 8.

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Not only is this a hint at Christ's divinity, but it's possible glory is also brought up as a way to say,

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Will you put the glory of the Lord first and His desires first?

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Or the so -called glory of man? Do you put the glory of man first or do you put the glory of God first?

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Will you elevate man when you ought to elevate God? Because personal favoritism isn't simply a sin merely against a brother or sister.

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It insults God. He detests it. This word personal favoritism is made up of a

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Greek word, which is combined of two individual words put into one. Prosopon and lambano.

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Prosopon and lambano. Lambano is receive, while prosopon is face.

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So it means receiving the face. Now what am I trying to say? To receive the face is to make judgments based off of people's physical appearance.

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You receive the face. You receive them based off of how they look. And also the word is plural.

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So besides James' example, it seems there can be a multitude of ways you can practice personal favoritism.

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But partiality towards others and a faith in Jesus Christ are not compatible. Partiality and a faith in Christ are not compatible.

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They do not go together. Like in the courtroom, the jurors are scrutinized to see if they will be fair and impartial.

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Unbiased. I am that kind of guy that the local court system loves to call for jury duty like every other month,

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I feel like. Especially when I was living in Phoenix. So far it's only been once here, and I've only been here eight months.

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But I remember one time I made it all the way to... We were in a courtroom. The judge was there.

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And all these selected jurors, including myself, were there. And the lawyers were allowed to ask each and every one of us questions.

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And the question, of course, was, would you be fair and impartial? Would you be fair and impartial as a juror?

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And I remember it was about something awful. A man there, and I saw him, a criminal who had murdered a police officer.

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And at the time, I had two uncles who were police officers, and I was unsaved at the time.

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I made an excuse, but I tried to act like I wasn't going to be fair and impartial.

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Like, no, I have uncles who are police officers, but really I had a full -time job and full -time school, and I didn't want to participate in that, which was wicked, of course, to lie like that.

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But of course, they look and they see that, and they're like, okay, he's got uncles who are police officers, this man murdered a police officer, so that criminal's lawyer is like,

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I don't know if we want this guy. And so I walk out of there like a dum -dum, not doing the right thing again.

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But again, the question is, would you be fair and impartial? To not grant favor based on a sinful precondition, but judge fairly based off of truth and fact.

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And so we follow God's example. Romans chapter 2 says,

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For there is no partiality with God. The context of this verse speaks about how

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God will judge Jews and Gentiles. It doesn't matter whether you were born under the law or without the law,

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He will judge both. Ephesians 6 .9, And masters do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with God.

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This verse speaks about how with Christ, whether one is slave or free, that they are free in Christ, and Christ is their master.

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Colossians 3 .25, For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.

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Punishment or judgment, it doesn't matter who you are.

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It doesn't discriminate. Judgment will come. If you are in Christ, though, that punishment has been paid for by the

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Lord Jesus, but your loving Father can sometimes chastise in love.

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No matter who you are, if you do wrong, you will answer, or Christ will answer.

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Proverbs 18 .5, To show partiality to the wicked is not good, nor to thrust aside the righteous in judgment.

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So favoring the wicked in a decision or judgment is itself wicked, is what it's saying here.

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The King James Version has a great title for all the times it says partiality. The King James Version says,

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God is not a respecter of persons. I don't know if you've ever heard that before. God is not a respecter of persons.

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That phrase means, God will not make one single decision based off status or characteristics of a person.

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He will not. Also, He respects His own nature and character above another.

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He respects or regards His righteous law, His righteous nature, before anyone else has done anything.

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He makes decisions based off of Himself. He will not compromise His standards depending on the person.

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This is also why I believe this is very important in regards to Arminianism, which

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I think fails when we consider the impartiality of God. God's choice for the elect is based not on persons, but on His own sovereign will and desire.

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In Arminianism, if His foreknowledge was not an intimate knowledge of you and love for you long before He created you, but was a looking through the corridors of time to see if you would choose

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Him, then He would be doing something based off of you. If God had to see what you would do,

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He'd be then a respecter of persons. He'd be a respecter of Wade.

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Oh, Wade, okay, Wade chose me. Okay, I'm going to save him. God doesn't do that.

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He's no respecter of persons. He considers Himself and His will alone in His sovereign decree.

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He would be practicing personal favoritism at that point, which is funny.

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Again, that's what we get accused of, right? Oh, you're the elect.

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That's personal favoritism. No, God has decided sovereignly based off of no man, based off of only

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His will and His desire who are the elect. Acts 10 .34

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-35, opening his mouth, Peter said, I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears

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Him and does what is right is welcome to Him. That's when Cornelius had been baptized, the centurion.

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He was a Gentile. And at that point, Peter understood, wow,

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God shows no partiality. He saves the Jew and the Gentile. The gospel, the salvation is for both.

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Galatians 3 .28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.

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This verse could easily have added to it, there is neither rich nor poor in Christ, right?

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There's neither rich nor poor. You come to Christ as you are, as He saves you.

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So the point in all this, with all those passages I was quoting you, is that the Lord gives us

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His own example. He is impartial. He is equitable. He doesn't practice personal favoritism.

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He does everything according to His own desires. Not what you've done. Now on to verses 2 -4.

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Verse 1 declared the thesis. Now verses 2 -4 will provide a scenario to emphasize

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His point in verse 1. It says, For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring, and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, you sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over here, or sit down by my footstool, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?

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So it appears to be a hypothetical scenario. But just because it's hypothetical doesn't mean it is not likely.

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In fact, based off of what James says, especially later in verses 6 and 7, I suspect that this is something that possibly

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James has seen in the church. Or something he is concerned may happen. As the church was very much made up of poor brothers and sisters, but as the gospel went out, rich men and women were being saved as well, and coming into their own congregation.

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So it's a scenario, but I think it's likely. Because James is a pastor.

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Pastors use life examples in their points. So that's what he's doing here.

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One man is wearing a gold ring on his finger. The Greek literally says gold -fingered.

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He's a gold -fingered man. That's how the Greek puts it.

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The Romans loved to show off status with jewelry. They loved it. The philosopher

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Seneca wrote, We adorn our fingers with rings. At every joint is fitted a gem, he says.

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A gem. In addition to the ring, he is wearing fine clothes.

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The word fine can be used for the word shining or bright. His clothes aren't faded or dirty, but bright with likely bright colors or pure white, rather than some sort of plain linen.

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And these two words are the words used to describe the gorgeous robe that the soldiers placed on Jesus to mock

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Him when He was scourged and crucified, when they mocked His kingship. Gorgeous robe and fine clothes, the same exact words being used here.

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But this man is clean, with high -quality clothes and a gold ring on his finger.

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He possibly has high status. And then another man comes into the assembly.

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They walk into the doors almost together. Rich man and poor man, they walk through the doors. And this man has no jewelry.

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His hands are likely worn. They're likely dirty and dry. His nails are probably worn down.

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He is wearing dirty clothes. The same word used for the word filth.

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He is covered in filth. These are likely the only clothes he owns.

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He's wearing the only clothes he owns right then. It makes one think of the typical homeless person of our day with dirty or faded, ripped clothes, mismatched, stained, possibly odorous.

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This man is without. He's greatly without. So the two different men walk into the assembly.

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They approach the rich man first to tell him, Come! Come sit up here.

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Sit at a high place. Sit at a high place of prominence. Come. Come here. Come. And the word in Greek for pay special attention, that's all one word, is actually in the plural.

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It's in the plural, demonstrating that multiple Christians in the assembly were fawning over this guy.

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Oh, come on. Come on. Yeah. Let's get to know you. Come here. Come. Come sit up here. While the poor man walks in and he's just, he's not greeted the same way.

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He's not treated the same way. So with that, these two men, they walk in.

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The poor man, he doesn't get a seat. He either gets to stand in the back or sit on the ground by a footstool.

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By feet. He gets to sit by feet. And it says,

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Sit down, hupo. Hupo, my footstool. Hupo, my footstool. That comes, we get the word hypo from that, which is under.

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Like hypoglycemia. Not proper blood sugar. Under. Right? So it's as if he's, it's saying, sit under my footstool.

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That's how low that they think of this man. Because footstools back then were already so low to the ground.

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They were already so low. But James might be using some form of hyperbole here to demonstrate they are making the poor man so low, it's as if he's under the footstool.

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The poor man is only good enough to have feet sitting on top of him. Get underneath me and put a foot up.

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That's the image we see here. The fact that they were ushered somewhere to sit and didn't do it on their own could possibly indicate they were visitors.

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More than likely, I think in the first century, due to scare of persecution and threat of death, they were probably new converts in this scenario.

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New converts. Places of seating demonstrated often the influence one had over others.

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It is inferred that the rich man has influence that the poor man has none of.

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We see in the Gospels that scribes and Pharisees typically sat in the most important seats.

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Jesus said in Matthew 23, of the Pharisees, He says, they love the places of honor at banquets.

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They love it. They love the chief seats in the synagogue, Jesus says. They love it.

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In fact, Christ gives us the example that at a wedding feast, we should be taking the lowest seat rather than the highest.

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Show humility. It is likely you will be brought up in front of all, Jesus says.

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He says the humble shall be exalted and the exalted shall be humbled in that regard.

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Excuse me. Isn't it interesting how seating has changed now though?

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So I mentioned that Karl Lentz guy, but I feel like in all the Baptist churches I've ever been to, the seating in a church is like the splash zones at SeaWorld.

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So up here is like, the people who are up here are just above the precipices of hell.

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In the middle, you have people who are kind of getting fire and brimstone. It's kind of hitting them in the side of the head.

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Then the people in the back, it's like opening a warm oven and pulling a casserole out. And that's kind of like a series of heat, you know, splash zone sort of thing.

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That's a bad joke. Alright. So James leaves the scenario and now brings on the admonishment.

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Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

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It's an if -then statement. If they were to do what the potential situation detailed, then they would be making evil distinctions.

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If -then. They are making, differentiating evaluations on these men.

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One commentator points out the translations, have you not made distinctions among yourselves or have you not discriminated among yourselves.

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These have been the most popular translations of this text for this section of Scripture. But diachrono, diachrono is typically used to say doubt or waiver.

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In fact, James used it in chapter 1 verse 6 to show how one can doubt

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God. So the distinctions then, why is James using the word doubt or waiver?

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A principle in this letter is to not have a doubtful or divided heart towards God. So you could say then with that word, they are not to have divided judgments or divided hearts towards another person in the congregation.

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A division of persons has been made. Essentially, with that doubt.

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Instead of looking at the incomparable glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, they look at the faux glory of a rich man.

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Brothers and sisters, we are to accept people based on the basis of their faith, not on status or appearance.

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Do you want to build relationships here with some people and not others based off of what you see with your eyes?

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I can tell you confidently then you would be dead wrong to want to make relationships only based off of what you see.

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Each individual here is unique. And God has done something tremendous in each person here.

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And it is worth figuring out. In the process, you will glorify your

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Lord. And hearing stories here, it will give you cause to glorify your

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Lord. We would miss out if we used appearance to make decisions on who we would associate with here.

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In the process of making inequitable judgments, they would then become judges with evil motives or thoughts.

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When you've got an evil judge in a town, nothing is done right.

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The whole town is corrupt. If we were wicked judges here with evil motives, this would not be a good church.

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This church would die out and it should. It should at that point. This means they are no longer unbiased.

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They're no longer fair. They're no longer impartial. They have something to gain by making a prejudiced judgment so that evil motivates them.

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They don't know these men. What if the man dressed in fine clothes is a false brother?

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What if the poor man is a false brother? What if the poor man is a righteous brother, a real brother, or the rich man is?

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You just don't know. You can't make judgments based off of appearance.

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John 7 verse 24 says, do not judge. I'm just kidding.

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It says, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Right? You're like, wait.

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This is apologia. Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgments.

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Yes, we make judgments every day of our lives. We make judgments. We have to. There was someone here late one night and everyone was leaving, but there was children playing out here and there was a person in a hood with a black hood with a mask on and our children were out there and I had to make a judgment to go out there and investigate and just see who they were.

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They could have been someone fine. They could have been someone, though evil, seeking to hurt the children.

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I had to make a judgment. And we went out there and it was a young lady who had just gotten out of the

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Salt Lake City prison and was trying to get home. And we helped her out. And that's what was the case.

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But we made the judgment and we didn't just lock the doors and hope that they would just go away, right?

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We don't do that as Christians. But again, I had to make these judgment calls. We do that every day.

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Judge not with appearance. I had to judge with righteous judgment there. You get what

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I'm saying? And I'm not trying to, you know, don't tell me thanks about that. It's just an example of what had happened a couple weeks ago.

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Kiss to Maker states regarding this, since time immemorial, justice has been depicted as a blindfolded lady who holds scales on her hands.

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The blindfold prevents her from seeing anyone so that she is able to serve impartially the cause of justice.

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Within the context of the Christian faith, practicing discrimination is the exact opposite of loving one's neighbor as oneself, he says.

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Even the Proverbs say a rich man has many friends. A rich man has many friends, it says.

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Many seek to gain something by such a relationship. And I'll tell you, this is one of the biggest sins for pastors in America, and it makes me sick.

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This is one of the biggest sins of what they will do. The big givers come to the church and they can sway the pastor.

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They can sway the leadership. It is alive and well today. The pastor ends up fearing man over fearing

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God and His Word and doesn't speak to certain sins because the big giver has those sins.

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They won't speak from the pulpit about certain sins that the big donor is going through.

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They'll avoid certain texts. They will fear man over fearing God. The big giver has become higher than God for this type of pastor.

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The big giver has become bigger than God for this kind of pastor. All his decisions are based and revolved around the big donors of the church.

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Oh, I can't do this. I may get them mad and we really need them. Oh, we can't talk about this because we'll lose them.

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That's wicked. That is desperately wicked. He is now a slave to the rich man rather than God's freed man.

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He's a slave to the rich man rather than God's freed man. The Bible says Christ is the righteous judge.

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He will return. It says He will judge the living and the dead. So we follow

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Christ's example. Now on to verse 5. Verse 5. Listen, my beloved brethren.

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Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which

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He promised to those who love Him? Hear me, James says. Did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith?

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It confounds all our reason in a way, or at least worldly reason. God demonstrates no man is more worthy for salvation than any other based on social or financial status.

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No man is more worthy for salvation based off of those things. In His question about God choosing the poor, it shows to give favoritism to a rich man contradicts

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God's own heart. Did not God choose the poor of this world?

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They're going against God's heart. They're striving against God and His wishes in this way.

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It's God's choice, not ours. The Lord has shown from the beginning His choices are not based off of us.

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He's not a respecter of persons. Deuteronomy 7 says, The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any peoples.

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For you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which

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He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

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So even there with Israel, He said I do nothing based off of you. You're not big.

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You're not large. You're not mighty. You're not strong. You're not better looking. You're not like this. I do things,

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He says, out of My love. I set My love on you and that's what determines that you are

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My people. The Lord has confounded everyone with this.

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He has chosen the poor. He has chosen prostitutes. He has chosen wealthy and rejected tax collectors.

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He has chosen unclean and diseased lepers. He has chosen the lame and the blind.

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He has chosen some of the most rotten sinners. He has chosen men who were possessed with a multitude of demons.

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My friends, if you are a sinner, you are the kind of people the Savior wants to save.

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Praise God for that. Christ is perfect. He doesn't save perfect people.

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He saves sinners. He saves sinners. Us. Wretches.

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Some may think, when they look at this passage, does

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He not save rich people then? You know, you could look at that and go, does He not save rich people? But remember my sermon on fading riches in chapter 1.

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The rich man was humbled and saved just as the man of poor status was. Okay?

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No one can boast in their riches or status. All we can boast in is our weakness.

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Our weakness. God has chosen the base or foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

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God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the strong. It confounds everyone.

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Right? So we boast in our weakness because of Christ's strength to save wretched people.

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Again, just going back to the fact that this is not saying being poor makes someone good enough to be saved.

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Oh, so what? Poor people get saved? Are all poor people chosen? So we would be accusing

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God of the partiality we were just exhorted not to have. God doesn't choose people just because they are poor.

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He chooses out of His sovereign election and love outside of any external influence to Himself.

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And Christ became poor so we would become rich in faith. Faith starts in the inner man, in the regenerate heart that God swapped in as He removed the heart of stone.

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The new heart is worth more than all the gold, all the silver, all the status and flattering friends than we could ever have.

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It's worth so much more. And so we are saying, God, we seek spiritual treasure from You.

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We seek a treasure where moth and rust don't destroy. That is what we seek,

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God. We seek an inheritance undefiled, uncorrupted, unfading, waiting for us, reserved for us in Heaven.

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That is what we seek, God. Amen? Our God is the supreme treasure as He will never fade away.

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How many people know about the idols of the Moabites? Well, you might because you read about it.

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How many people in this world know about all the idols and all the false gods of this world? They're forgotten.

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They're not remembered. But the name above all names, the Lord Jesus Christ is remembered and it is known today.

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And every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

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Everyone will know His name whether in this life or in the life to come. His status will never decrease.

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His glory will always shine brilliantly. As followers of Christ, no matter how poor in material possessions we are now or poor in spirit, as Jesus says in the

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Beatitudes, no matter all that, we can expect and anticipate infinitely greater blessings and riches to come.

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Maybe not here. Maybe in eternity. Maybe in the future. Not always material.

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Paul tells Titus, we have been made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. In Romans it says, now being children we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

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Brothers and sisters, you may not have an inheritance in this life. You may not have a home in this life, but you have one in eternity.

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You have one that Christ purchased for you, one that is far better than this.

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We tell that to LDS people. They have a lot to lose. We tell them that.

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But no one who has left mother, father, sister, brother, who has left home, no one has left those things for the sake of Christ without being promised to receive 100 fold in the kingdom of heaven.

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If you lose, you will gain. That's what we tell them. They may lose their father's business, they may lose the inheritance, but they will gain the heavenly inheritance, which is far more worthy.

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Far more worthy. You may not have an inheritance in this life, but the one coming is far more supreme.

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It couldn't be adequately articulated by mere words. In fact, our inheritance after this life was hellfire.

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What we were to inherit was hellfire, but now it is resting at the feet of our

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Savior. It is serving and worshiping and loving and enjoying. And we don't even know.

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It's going to be amazing. God will give the crown of life to those who love Him. That's what it said in chapter 1, verse 12.

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It's much like this. Promise to those who love Him, He will give the crown of life to those who love Him. So let's exhort ourselves.

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We then don't make judgments in our hearts the way the world does. The standard of the world is corrupted, and it continues to corrupt people, but we make decisions and righteous judgments based off of God's standard.

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And now finally on to our last verses, verses 6 and 7. They state,

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But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?

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Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? James takes the admonishment further and reminds them of some things.

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In demonstrating personal favoritism by elevating the rich man over the poor man, they dishonor, they shamefully treat the poor man.

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This was a big deal in the Jewish culture especially. Shaming someone is a grievous offense in Jewish culture.

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So the implication here is, Do not dishonor someone whom

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God has honored. Do not dishonor someone whom God has honored with salvation.

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God has honored the poor man with salvation and they have dishonored Him. That's huge.

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That's huge. They have gone against the very will of God. You could then say to show personal favoritism is to oppose

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God and side with evil in that moment. He reminds them of the fact of persecution with three things.

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That the wicked rich have oppressed them, dragged them away, and have blasphemed the great name by which they have been called.

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Three things. He reminds them of what they've done. Because the rich have taken advantage of them sometimes.

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They don't pay them for their work they've done sometimes according to James chapter 5.

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They turn it around on them. Personally drag them off to court. James is not saying

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Christians should not be kind to the rich. That's not what he's saying here. He is saying don't treat them more favorably at the expense of the poor brother.

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If something flattering the rich will help them gain, then remember that has not been the case.

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That's what he's saying. Oh, you're going to fawn over that guy who comes into the assembly? Remember what they've been doing to you?

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Remember what they've done to us? And you know he's not trying to call out that man in particular.

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He's just saying he's calling out their inconsistency. Oh, you're going to kiss this guy's feet?

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But you don't remember how we've been treated? This isn't a call to now act impartially towards rich people in the congregation by thinking of them to all be wicked people, okay?

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It's a reminder that just because someone is rich, we shouldn't elevate them nor disparage them.

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Don't elevate them, don't disparage them. It's possible some of the wicked rich were landowners.

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Greedily wanted the land of their neighbor. How did they get it? Well, their neighbor now belongs to a sect of Judaism called the

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Way, and they follow one who they've heard has been crucified, whose name is

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Jesus, and he calls himself the Messiah. They've heard that about their neighbor, so what do they do?

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They take him in. This one follows that guy Jesus. Jail, they take their land.

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That happened often, okay? Dragged into court,

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Christians lost their land to follow Jesus. If you lose your home, or if you don't ever get a home today, you are in good company with your first century brothers and sisters in Christ, okay?

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They had no homes either. Christians were dragged, being dragged to court.

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The apostles were being imprisoned and forced to stand before the Sanhedrin in Acts 5. Saul used to drag men and women off, it says in Acts 8.

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Paul and Silas, it says, were dragged before the authorities in chapter 16. Acts 17 says

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Jason and the brethren were dragged away by the city authorities. The Jews grabbed

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Paul and brought him before the judgment seat in Acts 18. And since then, and to this very day, brothers and sisters in Christ are being dragged away.

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From then till now, men and women are being dragged for their faith in Christ in front of the prison, to the executioner, before the judge.

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They have been dragged away, but they can never drag us out of the hands of the Almighty. They can't take us away.

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No one will snatch us out of His hands, He says. All whom the Father has given Me, I will lose none of them, but raise them up on the last day.

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That's the promise. Do they not revile, blaspheme, slander, malign, defame the name by which you have been called?

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In Acts 11 it says everyone started to call them Christians. Christians.

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The noble name by which they are called is Jesus Christ. There is ownership here.

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Christ owns you and your master has been insulted. The good or noble name,

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He says, who is good? The Lord God. Who is good? The Son of God.

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Who is good? The Holy Spirit. They are good. The Lord is good.

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Jesus' name is noble. By showing deference to the rich, knowing the rich have slandered

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Christ's name, they in a way approve of the blasphemy. So they treat the rich guy better.

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In a sense they approve of the blasphemy being made by the rich people against Christ. But the

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Word defines what will happen. It says, so all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the

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Lord and they will be afraid of you. That's what it says. The name above all names is the name we ascribe to.

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The name we identify with. Don't stain the name of Christ with partiality.

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Do not be like them. According to our text here in James 2, there's five things that the wicked do and five things that God does for us.

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First, we've been chosen. We've been called. We've been promised. We've been given.

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And we've inherited, according to this text. And then the wicked, they judge impartially.

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They dishonor. They oppress. They drag and they blaspheme. Do not be like them.

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So let's wrap this up, church. To have a faith in Christ with personal favoritism attached to it is to be poor in faith.

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It's to be poor in faith, not rich in faith. To be impartial and loving towards all types of believers, regardless of any appearance, financial status, or even race, is to display a faith that is rich in Christ.

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This church should not have any cliques. Now, I know some will undoubtedly grow closer together here than others, and I'm not talking about that.

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I think that's a righteous thing. But no one group or no one person here is allowed to be unapproachable.

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We're Christians. Our common bond is the Lord Jesus Christ. That unites us.

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That allows us to come together. It mustn't ever be true of us.

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We ought to embrace every single person in here who has been called by the glorious name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Okay? That doesn't mean to say that we will allow sin or allow anything that we see as unrighteous to persist.

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We will call that out. But I'm talking about people who have called on the name of the

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Lord Jesus. They are one. They are one. We are family. We ought to consider if all who walk in those doors here at Apologia Church feel welcome.

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Do some people receive warm welcomes while others get a cold greeting or no greeting at all?

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I think about that a lot. I want to make sure I'm better at that. No one is to be excluded nor exalted.

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No one is to be excluded or exalted. One Lord, one baptism, one faith.

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And there's no way to not sound kind of just like a... I was thinking this application is kind of dorky, but it could work.

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You guys could essentially get to know someone here that you don't know. And the question is, why don't you know them yet?

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I think that could be a good application here. Get to know someone who you've always seen them, but you've never truly gotten to know them.

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I want to challenge myself as well there. Christ truly spent His time with many of the unpopular crowd.

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How easy is it for us to categorize people into a different and unfavorable camp?

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How easily could you see someone walk in here who doesn't seem like your kind of people?

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They're just not like me. They're not my kind of people. Well, we're not allowed to do that.

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We're not allowed to maintain our comfort in that. We might even do it subconsciously, but that is wrong.

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That is wrong. The gospel and the benefits of the church, along with the service, are for every type of believer.

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People of the world do such things as what's been warned about here, separating the rich from the poor, creating a

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VIP section here and making commoners in the back. People in the world do that. God's people don't do that.

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Because we aren't in the world anymore. We aren't of the world anymore, I should say. So if you have looked down upon other brothers or sisters for any of these reasons, it is appropriate to repent for us to humble ourselves and treat the heirs of the kingdom the way that God treats them.

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Love your neighbors as yourself. We are to repent from ever looking down upon another believer.

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Treat each person the same way Christ did, as better than yourselves, and you will never stray into this error.

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That's what he says in Philippians 2. Treat everyone as better than yourselves, as Christ did.

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So let's do that here, church. Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father, please bless the message that went out.

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Lord, help us to be Christian people who are impartial.

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Lord, that we don't look upon appearance, we don't judge based off of appearance.

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We judge with righteous judgment. Lord, everyone who has been called by your name, every person who is a

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Christian has value and worth, Lord, and is worth getting to know, is worth associating with, as Christ did.

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And Lord, I know so many people use this passage for the Marxist agenda. So many use this people, this passage,

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Lord, to propagate a false intersectionality,

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Lord. But we look at this biblically. Lord, we see that separation for any reason is wrong.

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Other than that, believers are meant to be here. This isn't a festival for unbelievers,

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Lord. We worship you here, Lord, in our assembly. So God, please help us to utilize what we've learned here today.

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Thank you, God, for your word and how very true and cutting it always is and needs to be in our lives.

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Sanctify us in this area, Lord. We pray this all in the mighty name of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.