The Sin of Partiality: Part 1

Redeeming Grace Church

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part series here in the book of James, so please go with me to chapter 2. We're talking about beware of personal favoritism.

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Beware of favoritism. This will be part one of the sin of partiality. The sin of partiality.

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You'd be quite surprised how much the Bible has to say about partiality.

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It's amazing. As I was studying this, it's just incredible how many verses just kept popping up, popping up, and I said

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I definitely got to break this up in a two -part series if I can get it in that. But scripture has a lot to say about personal favoritism.

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We'll be looking at verses 1 through 13 as a whole, but we're gonna break it up.

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We'll be breaking it up this morning, and we're gonna try to get to verse 7, if that, but let me read the first 13 verses so we can get the whole picture of what

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James is speaking about. Beginning at verse 1, reading again to verse 13.

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I'll be reading from the New International, I'm sorry, New American Standard translation this morning.

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Hear the word of the Living God. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

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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 there or sit down by my footstool.

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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 the court?

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Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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

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For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

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

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So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.

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For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy.

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Mercy triumphs over judgment. May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts this morning as it goes from our ears to our hearts.

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I can bring it to the ears but only the Holy Spirit can take it to the hearts and that's what we want to pray this morning.

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Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank you. What a glorious privilege we have to hear your revealed truth in our own language this morning.

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Father, we're so thankful for that. There's so much we do have to be thankful for. And your word is most definitely at the top of the list.

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Without your word we'd be lost. We would not know anyway where to go. For you have the words of eternal life.

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And so Father, our prayer this morning is also give us ears to hear, to be attentive to your truth.

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Give us attentive mind to perceive your truth. Give us a willing heart to obey your truth and to apply it in our everyday living, in our home, in our workplaces.

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Father, here is where we gather together to be encouraged of your truth, to hear the truth and to sanctify our souls that we may know how to live holy, to know how to live right and righteous before you, before your eye.

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We learn this here. We pray together. We sing hymns together. We hear the words together.

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Father, we would ask that your Holy Spirit would now come show us our blind spots, Lord, because we all have blind spots.

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Also, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would shed light to give us the knowledge of the truth so that we would be more holy.

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We can never live up to the full standard of it, Lord, but under the power of the

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Holy Spirit, just as Jesus, that same

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Holy Spirit that was upon him is in us. May we not forget this.

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So, Father, we would pray that your beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the one we look to.

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To this end, we live. In him we live and move and have our being.

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And, Father, the chief endman is to enjoy you forever and to glorify your name. So, Father, teach us to do these things as we ask this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. There's great words years ago that goes like this, and you're very familiar with it.

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Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal.

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These are the words, as you well know, of our 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.

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And, of course, that speech he gave changed the very course of American history.

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And what this nation was undergoing, a lot of wrong was going on, a lot of abuse.

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Thinking of Lincoln, as we've all heard these great words, that all men, all men, all people are created equal.

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Where was he drawing that from? Thinking of when he wrote these words at the address, it was not new words that he came up with.

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He put it in his own language and he confronted the issue of why we were killing one another, the most bloodiest war that has ever happened in this nation that divided us.

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Much, much wrong, much sin. It has a lot to do with people having to respect our persons and show impartiality.

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It divided us. Lincoln was reflecting and hearkening back to the words of our forefathers, wasn't he?

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He took this back and it was given from the Declaration of Independence.

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So let's go back there. We hold these truths to be self -evident. That all men are created equal.

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There it is. All men are created. This is where Lincoln was drawing this from. This is why forefathers came to this nation, for freedom and liberty, not for bondage.

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And then it goes on to say that they are endowed by their creator with certain and inalienable rights, that among these are life and the pursuit of happiness.

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All men are created equal. That's a true statement. And if I'm not mistaken, our forefathers were taking this truth, let's go back a little further, from the word of God.

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What current comes to your mind? There's much, but Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 and 27, keep in mind that all people are created equal in God's image.

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God created man and He created man and woman equal.

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And yet at the same time, according to Romans 3 .23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

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We've got to bring that into light too, that all of us are on that same level, that we're all depraved, that we're all sinners.

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So the Bible teaches us also that all men are depraved and stained and tainted by sin.

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Then comes the gospel, right? That God so loved the world that He gave His one and only

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Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

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The invitation is to all. Aren't you glad? We know that all is not going to come, but the invitation is to all.

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So in that sense, He's the Father of all, but in a different kind of relationship,

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He's the Creator. But in relationship and knowing Him as Father and Family, it's to God's elect, to those who believe.

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That's what Scripture says. The gospel is the greatest truth that has ever been given.

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Speaking of what Lincoln said, those were great words. The whole speech was great and for a good reason.

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The Declaration of Independence is great words, but there's none greater than what the

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Lord Jesus Christ said. He gave liberty as far as it sells the liberty that's been given here.

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It's been a great price that's been paid. Commentator Warren Worsby says this. By the way,

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I went to be with the Lord this past week at the age of 90. Warren Worsby, I've got a lot of his books.

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I've got actually his commentary on the whole New Testament, so right now is a good time to borrow from his work.

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He was a very prolific writer. He says this about James chapter 2, quote, Not only is the mature

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Christian patient and testing in James 1, but he also practices the truth.

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This is the theme of James chapter 2. Immature people talk about their beliefs, but the mature person lives his faith.

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Hearing God's word, according to James chapter 1, verse 22 -25, and talking about God's word can never substitute for doing

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God's word. Every believer has some statement of faith. Now you have vouched for this.

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Listen to what he says here. Every believer has some statement of faith or personal expression of what he or she believes.

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Most churches have such statements and members are asked to subscribe to the statements and practice it.

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Most churches also have a covenant that they read publicly and often when they observe the

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Lord's Supper. Now this is what he says. Worsby, statements of faith and church covenants are good and useful, but they are not substitutes for doing

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God's will. I amen that all the way. As a pastor, and I vouch for this too, this is

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Worsby, and he was much more experienced than I am. He was a pastor for many, many years and he was also a pastor at the

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Moody Church in Chicago for years, but he says, as a pastor I've heard believers read the church covenant, listen to this, and then come to a business meeting and act in ways completely contrary to the covenant.

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That is so true. How true that is and every one of us can amen that.

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And personally as a pastor for over probably 20 years,

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I personally have witnessed myself that very same thing and hear more recently.

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James desires to help us practice God's Word. Aren't you glad the Word of God helps us to see how we can practice the

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Word of God? We need help, don't we? We are a poor bunch of people and we do need, even being redeemed, we need help.

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Why do you think Jesus wanted us to have the Holy Spirit? You think about what you can do and I can do without the

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Holy Spirit. We could not do nothing. We would not even be in the family of God. We would not be regenerated. We could not even have the mind of Christ if it wasn't for the

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Holy Spirit. So we desperately need the Holy Spirit. Even with the Holy Spirit living in us, we need to be filled with the

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Spirit so we know not only how to walk and act, but how to think in everything that we do.

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James desires to help us practice God's Word so we know how to live holy. He gives us a simple test here in chapter 2.

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Now think of this. He sent two visitors to a church service, a rich man and a poor man.

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He gives an example. He watched to see how they were treated. A very simple example, but it says a lot.

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And the way we behave toward people indicates what we really believe about God.

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Really, it does. And the way we should behave in the house of God. Among our family, we cannot and dare not separate human relationships from our divine fellowship with God.

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Chapter and verse, Pastor? You know I got it. I want to just give you a couple. That's so many that I can give.

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But here's 2. Matthew chapter 22, verse 37 through 40.

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Jesus is speaking to the Pharisees. They tried to trip him up. And he, the scripture says,

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Jesus said to him, a lawyer. It had to be a lawyer. Watch out for them lawyers.

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He says this. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

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This is the great and foremost commandment. Now what is he quoting from? He's quoting the first great commandment comes our vertical relationship with God.

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Deuteronomy 6 .5. That's what he said. He brings it from the Old Testament. Most important thing is your relationship with God.

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But out from your relationship with God is your horizontal relationship with each other, with your neighbor, with other people, with the people you come in contact with.

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Where does he get that? Jesus, of course, is a man full of the Holy Ghost, but he was the word, the living word.

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Leviticus 19, verse 18. He takes it from there. He goes to Deuteronomy. He goes to Leviticus.

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Your relationship with God, first and foremost, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, with everything you have.

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Then you love your neighbor as yourself. Now what does he say about that? On these two commandments depends the whole law and the prophets.

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Got more? How about another verse from the New Testament, not only from the

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Gospel where I read from the most important person who ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, but what about the

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Apostle John in 1 John 4 .20? If a man says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar.

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Notice how the word of God gets right to it. Doesn't beat around the bush. You could say you love

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God, but if you don't love your neighbor, your brother, you're a liar. Wow.

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And we know what the scripture says about liars, don't we? For he that loves not his brother who has seen him, how can he love

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God who he has not seen? That's pretty strong language. That gets down to who we really are, how we pass that test.

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Very strong commands from the word of God and from our Lord Jesus Christ and from the Apostle John that brings it right down to the question, whether we keep it or not depends if we really love

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God and love our neighbor. That's what it boils down to. So in this section, in James chapter 2, he really deals with these great truths.

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He deals with the truth here in chapter 2, half of this chapter is taken up with partiality and then we'll see faith without works is dead.

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He's talking about working faith. We're not talking about faith that, saving faith, right?

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Like Paul the Apostle, but he's talking about faith that works. That's what he's talking about.

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So it's very important that we see this. Now, what I'd like to do is three things this morning that's only covering seven verses.

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Lord willing, next Lord's day, I'd like to finish up verses 8 through 13. If we can get to that far,

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I'm going to do my best. First we see, this is what we're going to look at this morning. This is part one, dealing with the sin of partiality.

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First we will see, number one, a clear command, a clear command in verse one.

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Second, we will see a shocking example in verses two through four, a shocking example.

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And third, and this will be the last point, we will see a bracing reminder in verse five.

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And for application, we'll squeeze in what it means, how favoritism dishonors the poor in verses six and seven.

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So let's go. Let's look at verse one, a clear command, a clear command.

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

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Now, right there he starts from the get -go. Now what would qualify as favoritism?

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Now, we got to get this straight, because there's so many people that may have different definitions. But the word means to judge on the basis of outward appearance, as Brother Keith has already mentioned.

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And this is something we all fail at. We have a tendency to judge people on outward appearance.

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According to the Greek text in the emphatic position, it literally means to hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, which gives special force to the imperative admonition that which carries the idea of conviction of not making a practice of favoritism.

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We do not need to make a practice of it, which has no place whatsoever in the life of the faithful Christian. And if you notice a few verses later in verse nine, that James makes it crystal clear that favoritism is not simply discourteous, it is not simply disrespectful, but he simply says it is sin.

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It is a serious sin. And that's sad. I pointed this out to people that has fallen into this, and I always examine my own heart as well.

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But those people that brush this off as not sinful. But I'm telling you, if God calls it sin, then it's sin.

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I want you to think of it. Why? Because being partial is in total conflict with our salvation.

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Total conflict with salvation. Now here's some things I wrote down here, and this is what the

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Scripture teaches. If we are saved and we are children of the living God, and if we are His children, then we should emulate

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Him. We're part of the family of God. We are to look like what Jesus looked like.

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Now we may not perfectly look like Jesus, but He's our example, and Scripture says we are to follow in His steps.

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We are to walk as He walked, right? He is the example. Paul declares categorically that in Romans 2 .11,

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there is no partiality with God, period. No respecters of persons with God.

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Okay, Leviticus 19 .15 says this. Let's go to the Old Testament a little bit. These are good verses if you want to write these down.

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And there's so many others. There's about maybe a hundred verses. I might be over exaggerating a little bit, but there's a lot that says in the

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Word of God about partiality. But I want to give you some that's very highlighted. Leviticus 19 .15

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says, you shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor.

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Now we're going to be looking at that, but you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great. Speaking of the rich.

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But you are to judge your neighbor fairly. Boy, don't you love the

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Word of God? There's justice at the highest mark, and God wants justice for all.

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Proverbs 24 .13, the wise Solomon says this. These also are sayings of the wise, he says.

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To show partiality in judgment is not good. To show partiality in judgment is not good.

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Proverbs 28 .21 says again, Solomon repeats it. To show partiality is not good.

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And then he extends it a little bit, because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.

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Now he gives the reason. For a piece of bread? In other words, Solomon is showing us why one will be partial.

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He gives the reason why people are partial for a piece of bread a man will transgress.

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A piece of bread. What does that mean? Let's look at it. In other words, he would do it for a bribe.

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That's right. He would do it for a bribe. You've seen it. I've seen it. Proverbs 15 .27.

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Let's connect Proverbs 15 .27 to what he says. He who profits illicitly troubles his own household.

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But he who hates bribes will live. Proverbs 18 .5.

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To show partiality to the wicked is not good. Again, he mentions not good.

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Nor to thrust aside the righteous in judgment. And, this

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I mentioned to Brother Keith, in his situation, this is very timely, but in the

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New Testament the Apostle Paul says this in Ephesians 6 .9. And masters.

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You could say there in our day, that day masters was different. It was masters and slaves.

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But in our day, it's basically what he's referring to is bosses, employers, and employees.

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So you can apply it to that. It's the same thing, really. Do the same things to them.

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He's talking about to the employers, the bosses. This is what he says. You do do the same things to them and give up threatening.

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Right there he gets right to it. You don't threaten. You respect people. You do not threaten.

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And then he goes on to say this. Knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven,

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God's the boss. That's what he's saying. He's running it up the ladder. That God is the highest authority.

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And then he says, and there is no partiality with him. So would it be like him in all that we do?

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He's talking about the workplace here. We can bring that down to where we live, can't we? In other words, there should be mutual honor and respect from Christians, employers to their employees based on their common allegiance to the

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Lord. So if the boss is a slave, and he's a spirit -filled Christian, let me say, he should always use his authority and power with justice, with grace, mixed in together.

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Justice, he should be firm, he should be fair, but he should be gracious. That's the way

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Jesus was. Never putting people under threats. Never using his power to abuse people.

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And we see this a little too often, don't we? Brother Keith is right in the situation right now. He has a boss that is very, he takes his authority and his power and he abuses it.

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And I know, Sister Linda, you've seen it at Walmart. And I know Sister Sherry has seen it in the school systems.

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And I know all the rest have seen it. I know definitely Brother Daniel has seen it in the military.

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So I've seen it. I've been in the military. A lot of people that are in authority should not be in authority because they don't know how to handle authority.

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They don't know, they abuse the power that they have. They're inconsiderate.

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Well, why? Why? Because they, there has an authority over all, and God the

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Father is the master who is impartial over all. And he sets the example for us.

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It's the way God, it's the way God is. He's no respecter of a person. Now in context to James 2 .1,

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I want you to think about this. I wrote this down to get the background of what's going on. Jewish people in that day in the early church coveted recognition.

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The Jewish people did this. They coveted recognition and honor and vied with one another with praise.

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Jesus our Lord deals with this in a parable of the ambitious guest. The ambitious guest.

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Go with me real quickly to Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. And I'm just going to read it and comment here and there.

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But we've got a lot of verses we've got to cover. But we're going to let the word of God speak for itself. Amen? It can say much, much more than what this preacher can ever say.

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The word of God speaks. And here Jesus gives a parable. He speaks, actually, he is speaking about an ambitious guest.

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And an ambitious guest. Notice in verse 7 through 14. And he began speaking a parable to the invited guest.

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When he noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table saying to them, when are you invited by someone to a wedding feast?

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Do not take the place of honor for someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him.

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And then he says this in verse 9. And he who invited you both will come and say to you, give your place to this man.

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And then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last place. Notice the difference.

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It's almost like James, I think, is drawn from what Jesus said here. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place.

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Wow. So that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.

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And then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. And then

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Jesus says this, and you see him repeating this time and time again in the parables and what he teaches.

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For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. It's going to happen. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.

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You see James speaking that. You see Peter speaking that. This is where they got it from the Lord. Because James and Peter are using commentators and basically commenting on the gospel.

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And then he goes on to say, and he also went on to say the one who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors.

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Otherwise they may also invite you in return that they will be your repayment. And one will comment about that verse because that verse seems to be tricky.

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But verse 13, when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you.

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Isn't that great? The poor, they can't repay you. And then for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

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Isn't that beautiful? Now, I said I would comment on verse 12, and he went on to say that the one who had invited him, when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors.

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Otherwise they may also invite you in return that will be your repayment. John MacArthur says this.

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To not invite your friends or your brothers in this context here, our Lord was saying that this is not to be taken as absolute prohibition against inviting friends and relatives to a meal.

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Because we've done that haven't we? He's not saying that. What is he saying? Well, MacArthur goes on to say this.

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Christ would speak in hyperboles. A hyperbole is basically a language in a

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Semitic discourse, and he's using it for emphasis. He's using it for emphasis that people would get the point.

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In other words, he didn't blow it out, but the hyperbole was strong language.

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He does it on the Sermon on the Mount when he says, pulling out your eye, plucking out your eye, cutting off your arm.

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Did he mean really literally to do that? No. It's strong language.

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So it's kind of metaphorically, hyperbole, in other words, stop. What he was saying for emphasis, he's saying stop what you're doing.

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Whatever is causing you to sin, stop it. Pull it out.

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Cut it off. So he's using the same language here, the hyperbole, he uses this for emphasis or great importance.

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So his point here on this, and this is MacArthur, is that inviting one's friends and relatives cannot be classified as a spiritual act of true charity.

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That is the point. He may also be, and actually what he's saying, it may also be a rebuke, and I believe this, this is what it is, against those prone to reserve their hospitality for rich neighbors.

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Partiality. That's it. So who they know will feel obligated to return the favor.

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Boy, don't you see this happening today. Wrong motives. Wrong motives.

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So we still have this problem with us, don't we? And we see it in the churches too often. Well, of course, churches are not perfect.

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They're full of sinners. Well, save sinners. And we have to examine our own hearts because we've fallen.

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Even though we're redeemed, we have remaining sin, don't we? And we have to deal with it. Well, almost every church has its cliques.

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Almost every church has its, well, think of it. New Christians find it difficult to get in somewhere when you have people in their groups and their cliques.

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Haven't you seen this? We have to jolt ourself that we don't get in a clique.

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Okay, let me go on a little further. Or should I say, there's abuse of offices to enhance their own images and importance of being important.

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Let us always keep before our eyes that God is no respecter of persons. Jesus did not respect persons.

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Now let's look at Jesus. We know God the Father is not a respected person. How about Jesus? Well, you know, look at the woman at the well.

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She was a mixed breed. She was a Samaritan. People rejected her. That's why she said, you're a

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Jew and you're talking to me. She was amazed. That was just uncalled for, she was thinking.

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But here Jesus was giving her the gospel. I think of the woman at the well, the

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Samaritan woman. Jesus did not respect persons. Hey, get this. Even his enemies admitted that he didn't respect people.

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His enemies. You think of this. No one can find any sin in Jesus' life.

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None. Matthew 22, 16 says this, and they sent their disciples to him.

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Who is he referring to? The Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him, how they might trick him, trip him up.

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They were constantly trying to trip Jesus up. Constantly. So what did they do? They sent out their disciples.

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They had their disciples too, right? Their followers, along with the

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Herodians. Now, I don't want to go into detail of the Herodians, but this is basically a party of Jews who supported the

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Roman -backed Herodian dynasty. That's who they were. Yes, it goes back to King Herod.

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And so what does the scripture say here? It says, Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth.

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Listen to the way they say it. Really giving some flattery here. And defer to no one, for you are not partial to any.

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Now, they meant what they said, even though they were flattering, but that was Jesus' enemies.

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For you are not partial to any. That's what they said about Jesus. So basically, they say it is not a concern to you about anyone, or you do not seek anyone's favor.

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Jesus showed no partiality, period. Our Lord did not look at the outward appearance, in other words.

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He looked at the heart. And that's where He always aimed for. When He preached,

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He didn't preach to just the ears and the mind. He preached to the heart, to the soul, to our being.

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That's why His words are so powerful and so convicting. Don't you know when you read the Sermon on the

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Mount, don't you get pricked or cut to the heart? Think of this. He looked at the heart and He was not impressed with riches.

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He was not impressed with social status. The poor widow who gave her might was greater in the eyes than the rich Pharisee who boastfully gave his large donation.

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That's a good one, isn't it? 1 Samuel 16 says, man looks on the outward appearance, but the

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Lord looks at the heart. And we're all prone to judge by outward appearance, aren't we?

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Rather than by inward attitude or the heart. So let us keep in mind that our

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Lord Jesus was a friend of sinners. Though He disapproved of their sins,

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I'm not saying He liked their sins. He hated sin, of course. There was no compromise, but He was full of compassion and truth and He caused them to welcome them.

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And when they trusted Him, He forgave them. So what James, let's go back to James.

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What James is saying here in verse one is faith in Jesus Christ, our glorious Lord, rises above secondary issues.

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That's what he's saying. If we truly believe in Jesus, then we ought to welcome anyone who shares common faith.

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Just the same. So faith in Christ rises above the things that divide us.

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It matters more than money. It matters more than social class.

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It matters more than language. It matters more than culture. And it matters more than skin color.

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That's the gospel. We have absolutely no right to reject a fellow believer on the basis of those secondary matters

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I just mentioned. Now, I want to say this. This is a personal note from me to you.

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I praise God for this little group of people. Because the believers here live this truth without partiality.

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I can honestly say that. Because we all come from different backgrounds and different culture, and we have different skin color.

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And I'll be honest with you. I pray in God's good time. And I've seen some churches like this. There's all kinds of nationalities mixing in.

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And that's a beautiful thing. When I went to visit Grace Community Church, and I know

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Brother Keith's been there. I know Ben's been there, and Daniel's been there. There's Asians. There's African Americans.

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There's people that's all Hispanics. There's all kinds.

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What would they say? The Heinz 57 all mixed up in one in a melting pot. Motley Crue, right?

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And you know, isn't it a beautiful thing to see this? The redeemed from all different backgrounds and even different languages and parts of the world.

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And from China, from Asia. You see this.

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Isn't heaven going to be filled with people with different tribes and languages and tongues? Worshiping the Lamb? Giving away my thunder.

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That was my application. But anyway, we'll get there, right? But isn't it beautiful? That's the way heaven's going to be.

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Heaven's going to be full of people of different tribes and languages. Well, let's go to point two. Our second, we see a shocking example.

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A shocking example. Look at verses two through four. Back to James. You can quickly read this.

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Two through four says this. For if a man, he gives a shocking example.

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And here's the example. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring dressed in fine clothes and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes.

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Notice the contrast. Rich, poor, dirty clothes, fine clothes. You pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes.

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Usually that's the way the flesh goes, isn't it? Say, well, you sit here in a good place and you say to the poor man, you stand over there.

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You don't sit. Or sit down. Or if you do sit down, you sit at my footstool. Boy, listen to that.

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Isn't that an abuse of authority? And then he says, have you not made a distinction among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

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Boy, what a question. Nails it. He nails all of us, doesn't he?

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Well, to better appreciate Jane's emphasis in this passage, it's necessary to understand that the vast majority,

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I'll pull this off, of early converts to Christianity were Jewish and they were poor in that time period.

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And if they were not already, many suddenly became poor and because of their faith, they were ostracized.

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They were ostracized from their families and society. So, in other words, a husband and a father lost his job and also a wife and a mother was thrown out of her house without anything but the clothes on their back.

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In other words, there was some suffering going on here. And there was a cost to following Jesus.

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We've got to remember this in this time period that James wrote this. So there was an intense hatred of fellow

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Jews who converted to Christianity. So, what's the problem here in the text?

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Well, that's the question. It is that we care so much for the rich man or that we care so little for the poor man.

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You see that? James is not condemning this unbeliever for his distracting dress or clothes, but the church's flattering reaction to it.

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That's what he's getting to. So, he's pinpointing, or should

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I say, he's getting to the heart motive, the attitude here. The attitude of why we do this.

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So, James isn't arguing we should do less for the rich.

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He's simply saying we shouldn't discriminate against the poor. That's what he's saying.

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Why would we favor the rich man over the poor man? Now, we're getting into some questions.

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The answer is obvious because he has money. Here comes the money part.

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We like to say the ground is level at the foot of the cross, don't we? But it sure is at level in the church.

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We tend to favor people with money because we think that money and then people with the money can help us reach our big goals or help us out in the church.

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Oh, man. And when pastors step into this prayer, and I'm speaking to myself,

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I need to be careful and guard my heart. There's some serious problems that's going to hit the fan.

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May God save us from this and trusting our uncertain riches rather than trusting in the living

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God, the Creator, our Father who owns it all. It's not trusting

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God, really. That's what it comes down to, and it's pride. Warren Wiersbe says this, sad to say, we often make the same mistakes when visitors come in our churches.

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Loosen up this time. We tend to judge them on what we see outwardly rather than what they are inwardly.

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Dress, color of skin, fashion, other superficial things carry more weight than the fruit of the

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Spirit. Then this is Wiersbe, that may be manifest in their lives. We cater to the rich because we hope to get something out of them.

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And we avoid the poor because they embarrass us. Jesus did not do this, and He cannot approve of it."

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I thought that was excellent. That is excellent. He nailed it. So how do we practice the deity of Jesus Christ?

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How do we practice the deity of Christ in our human relationships? How do we do this? I wrote this down.

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It is really quite simple, but it's a truth we always need to set before us, and it is concrete in the

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Gospel. We look at everyone, and I truly mean everyone, without distinction, through the eyes of Jesus Christ.

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Now that sounds like a simple thing to do, but we always look at people through the eyes of Jesus Christ. That's what we do.

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If the visitor is a Christian, we can accept him or her because Christ lives in them. If he's not a

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Christian, we can receive him or her because Christ cares for them and loves them. Now we may not approve of what they do, and let's just say we've got a homosexual couple that comes in here, right?

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It may be a little bit uncomfortable, but we need to love them without respect as a person, don't we?

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Does it mean we're going to approve of their sin? And it doesn't mean we're going to make them members,

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God forbid. But if they come to visit, they need to hear the Gospel. They need to see the love of Jesus Christ.

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Not only hear the preached word, but they need to see Jesus in you and me, right?

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That's showing respect without partiality. Now, it is

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Jesus Christ who is the link between us and others, right? He's the key. He's the reason for the link, because outside of Jesus there is none other.

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He is the God. He is what Christianity is all about, and we learn from him.

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This is only in the person and the work of Jesus Christ, and any other basis is not going to work, period.

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My brother Keith says, God save us from religion. Religion's not going to work. Mormonism's not going to work.

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They may pretend that it will work because there's deception, right? Jehovah's Witnesses.

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I've heard people that's left Baptist, Protestant churches to go to be a Jehovah's Witness, and I heard one lady years ago, and Teresa knows what

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I'm talking about. She helped take care of her mom when she had cancer, and she was a precious, she was a sweet lady.

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But here she was, a Jehovah's Witness, and I asked her, I said, what really persuaded you to become a

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Jehovah's Witness? They loved her. That tore me up.

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She said, I left a Protestant Baptist church. In other words, she went from, here in doctrine, without love, and went right into a cult that showed love with false doctrine.

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That made me hurt right here. Poor testimony for Jesus Christ.

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You see, God can even use the most unlikely person, can't he? To his glory.

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You see it all through scripture. Examples of Rahab the harlot. She was unlikely, wasn't she? God used her.

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By the way, used her lineage later on, came the Lord Jesus Christ. Zacchaeus, what about little

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Zacchaeus on the sycamore tree? He was pretty unlikely. He collected money. Everybody hated him.

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But yet, salvation came to his house, and he repented. And by the way, when he repented, how do you know when he repented?

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He made restitution. He proved it. James is talking about this kind of faith.

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He's talking about this kind of repentance. In other words, it works. You can see something outwardly that's something that's done inside.

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See, people have got it all backwards. It's not from the outside in, it's from the inside out. Jesus talked about that.

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It's not reformation, it's regeneration. So God usually chooses the weak things of the world to confound the wise.

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That's the way God works. Well, let's go to the third point. My time is flying. I'm watching this clock, and I I'm in trouble now.

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No, I'm kidding, honey. Third point. We see a bracing reminder.

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Let's look at this. Verse 5. Verse 5. Listen, he says, my beloved brethren.

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Now, it's wonderful to know he's still calling us brethren, isn't he? He's talking to the family of God. Did not

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God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?

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That verse says a lot, doesn't it? Here we see the divine choice of the poor. Here, in this particular verse, let me say this.

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James is not talking about those who are humble, though that is great importance, poor in spirit, which

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Jesus taught on the Sermon on the Mount. He's actually talking in particular to those who are economically poor in this context here, even though poor in spirit is very important in entering into the kingdom of God.

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Actually, there's no other way you can enter into the kingdom of God. But what he's talking about here is that God shows no respect to us as a person, but he does have a special attention to those who are financially in poverty, therefore considered by the world to be inferior.

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That's what he's saying. Throughout redemptive history, God has shown special concern for calling the economically deprived and downtrodden to himself.

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How do we know this? Well, we see this in the Word of God, but let me go to one here.

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Go with me very quickly to Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 7. I tell you what, if you study

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Deuteronomy, you really get a lot of great truth. Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy probably more than any other

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Old Testament book. He's quoted from the Psalms, he quoted from Isaiah, but Deuteronomy more than any of them.

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Chapter 7, verse 7 and 8, notice what the Word of God says. The Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples.

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But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the

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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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And then he says, know therefore the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps his covenant in loving kindness to a thousand generations and to those who love him and keep his commandments.

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You know, it's beautiful. I like that part. God doesn't show, I've chosen you because you were great in size, but you were the fewest of all people.

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You ever wonder why God does that? Because he can be glorified. That is what God is all about, is his glory.

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And there he chooses little tiny Israel for that. A lot, there are a number of notable exceptions, but God, God's elect are typically dominated by the poor of the world.

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Here's a few other verses. In Psalm 41, 1, David declares, how blessed is he who considers the helpless.

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The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble. Psalm 68, 10 and Psalm 113, 7 says, you provided in your goodness for the poor,

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O God. In other words, if you take care of the poor, God will take care of you. Because we reflect the very heart of God when we do that.

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God is concerned for the poor. He really is. Psalm 72, 4 and verse 12,

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Solomon, Solomon here admonished kings to emulate God's concern, to vindicate, listen to this, to vindicate the afflicted of the people, save the children of the needy and to crush the oppressor and to deliver the needy when he cries for help, the afflicted also and him who has no helper.

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Proverbs 17, 5 warns us, he who mocks the poor reproaches his maker.

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Wow. Proverbs 21, 13, Proverbs 28, 27,

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Proverbs 31, 9, basically all says, he who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.

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That's a strong admonition and a strong warning from the word of God. So if we disdain the poor of the world and fail to help meet the needs, we disdain

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God himself. Now, can you see how this is making sense that last week we talked about what?

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Pure religion, undefiled religion. What does he say? To the widows, to the orphans, to those that are fatherless in the sight of our

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God is this. And that's pure and undefiled religion. And then keep one unstained, keeps oneself unstained from the world.

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It ties in to everything he's saying. See, it's in context. Well, he goes on here, so if we disdain the poor of the world and fail to meet their needs, we have disdained

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God himself. Our prayers are not going to be answered. And we do well to take inventory of our own hearts and how we have treated those around us who are in financial straits.

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We always must be attentive to this. So here in James 2, verse 5, he gives us two reasons very quickly.

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I'm heading into close on this. Personal favoritism inside the church is a sin. It's a sin. I'm going to have to pick this up next week because there's so much that could be said here.

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But favoritism, number one, favoritism, why is it a sin? Because favoritism denies kingdom principles.

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Period. How can we reject God and whom God has accepted? Who are we to reject those whom

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God has chosen? That's a strong question. Who are we?

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James is thinking about the poor Christians here of the first century who were rich in faith, even though they had little of the world's goods.

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When God chooses people, He usually starts with the poor so He can show

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His glory, right? So what He can do with people the world considers hopeless and failure.

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See, people of the world sees the poor out there and they don't think much of them, do they? Especially people that have money.

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You ever think about that? I've seen it. I know everybody's seen it.

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Keatsy's seen it. Everybody here has seen it. Rich people a lot of times have passed away from the poor people that's on the streets.

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Now we've got to be wise. We've got to be careful. Of course, that's another sermon all together. But God does take delight in reaching down in the trash heap.

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He does take delight in taking the rejects and the failures and the drug addicts and the prostitutes and the broken hearted and all kinds to redeem them by the blood of Jesus and pick them up because He can make something out of them.

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God does it, usually with the poor. Well, how do we know this? Well, turn with me very quickly to Luke chapter 4.

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Now I'm going to a great text here. You're going to love this. Jesus is in the synagogue.

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He takes a scroll. Now I want you to think of this. This is the beginning of Jesus' ministry.

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This is right after He won the victory from temptation through the desert of being tempted.

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And here, He's already been baptized. He's already been through the temptation.

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Now He's in the synagogue. And notice what Jesus does here in verse 16 in chapter 4.

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He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. And as He was accustomed,

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He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath. And He stood up to read, straight out read the word of God.

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This was the living word, reading the written word. And the book of the prophet

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Isaiah was handed to Him. Now, He handed it to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written.

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Now I want you to pay close attention to what He says. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

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There you have it. The gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim to release the captives and recover the sight of the blind to the blind to set free those who are oppressed.

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And then He says this, to proclaim the favorable years of the Lord. And the scripture says,

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He closed the book, He gave it back to the attendant, and He sat down. Boy, this is interesting.

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And all the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed on Him. They were looking at Him like, what's next?

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And listen to this, and He began to say to them, today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

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He got right down to it. Isn't that a great verse? What is He doing? He's quoting from Isaiah 61 .1.

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Now I want you to pay close attention to this, but our Lord leaves out one small thing of a portion of Isaiah in Isaiah 61 .1

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and Isaiah 61 .2. And what did He leave out? And the day of vengeance of our

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God. Now I like this part. And I'm bringing this up for a reason. Because when Jesus came,

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He came to preach the gospel to the poor. He came as Savior. And that's where His ministry started.

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All the way from there. Hey, think of His life. Three years of ministry.

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He takes it to the cross. He dies. He's buried. He rises again.

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He's ascended to the Father right now on the right hand. Now guess what's going to happen? He's going to come back and He's going to finish

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His sermon. The day of vengeance of our God. He left that out on purpose.

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Because when He was there, it's grace has come. The kingdom has come. That's what

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He said. He said, I've come to give liberty. And I came to give grace without partiality.

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But when He comes back a second time, a second event, He's going to pick up that scroll and it's going to be the day of vengeance of our

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God. You know, I want you to think of this. What is He saying? The favorable year of the

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Lord has come. God's favor has come in Him. He said, this scripture is fulfilled in your ears this day.

01:00:18

In other words, He was saying, I'm the Messiah. The year of the Lord's favor, grace, which speaks of the day of salvation.

01:00:25

That's what He's talking about. The day of salvation is here. That's why Paul says, you call on the name of the Lord now, salvation.

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Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait until judgment day. Don't wait, because when

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Jesus comes back the second time unto salvation, He's going to come as the judge.

01:00:44

He's saying the year of redemption. This is it. This is as far as Jesus went at that time.

01:00:50

But again, He stopped reading in the synagogue. And then one day when

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He comes back, He's going to finish that sermon. Oh my goodness. And it's going to be the day of vengeance of our

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God. I like the way John MacArthur talked about this. It's called the cranking up of the divine war machine.

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It's going to be a day of slaughter, folks. And no one's going to be able to stand. Scripture says it.

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Who can stand on that day? None will. And that's why we have the gospel to do, as we as people of God, we are to warn people to flee from the wrath to come.

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Right? We tell them the negative. Say, look, God's wrath is coming and you abide under God's wrath if you don't believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

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But if you're under His wrath, then you need to fly to the cross and ask for God's mercy.

01:01:50

He's going to pour out His wrath to those who oppose Him. No exceptions. So the rest of the prophecy of Isaiah 61 too, prophesized judgment and the day of God's vengeance.

01:02:00

And it's coming soon, beloved. Look around us. It says that the days of Noah. Violence is filling the earth.

01:02:07

I've never seen such a violence, folks. People killing one another. People getting by injustice, wickedness.

01:02:15

But Jesus is going to come back as the great judge and He's going to straighten it all out. So we need to fly to the cross.

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Jesus saves to the uttermost. And God is no respecter of persons to those who put their trust in Him.

01:02:29

Well, I'm going to stop right there. There's so much more I can say. But as of a very quick application, let me squeeze this in very quickly.

01:02:40

The doctrines of God's grace, if we really believe it, if we really believe in the doctrines of God's grace, which we do, but let's practice this.

01:02:50

It forces us to relate to people on the basis of God's plan and not the basis of human merit or social status.

01:02:59

The church of the redeemed in heaven will consist of all, all types, all tribes, all languages, and you know what the scripture says.

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Maybe I can pick up on that next week, Lord Willie, that in heaven, in Revelation chapter 5, you can read it in your devotional time.

01:03:18

It's glorious. It's glorious. Thousands and thousands upon thousands worshiping the

01:03:24

Lamb. Different tongues, different tribes, different languages. What is it saying? Worthy is the

01:03:29

Lamb that was slain to receive glory, honor, power, and thanksgiving to Him that sits on the throne.

01:03:35

1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 7 and 8, the Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low.

01:03:41

He also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and inherit the seat of honor for the pillars of the earth of the

01:03:53

Lord's and He set the world on them. Praise God. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you for your one and only

01:04:03

Son who broke down the middle wall of partition that separated

01:04:09

Jews and Gentiles. In His birth and in His life, we thank you,

01:04:15

Father, that Jesus broke down all barriers. All barriers. Rich, poor, young, old, educated, uneducated.

01:04:24

It is wrong, Lord, for us to even build up those walls again. God help us.

01:04:30

Save us from such things. We cannot rebuild them if we believe in the sovereign grace of our

01:04:37

God through our Lord Jesus. Father, we do pray and we thank you for the blood, for the precious blood of the cross that has brought down that middle wall of partition so your people can come right into your presence through the blood and to the throne of grace without partiality to the greatest

01:04:55

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Oh, what a glorious privilege this is. So Father, help us by your

01:05:01

Holy Spirit as we go throughout this week to show no partiality to any. Lord, help us not look at people as we see them, but look at them as you see them.

01:05:12

Look at them through the eyes of Jesus. Lord, help us. Forgive us of our many sins that we have done this some time or another.

01:05:21

Save us from such religion, Lord, and help us have the attitude that was in Jesus Christ, a man of no reputation, humble, lowliness of mind and of heart.

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We long to be like him in every way and mind and heart.

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Father, we thank you. We thank you for this. In Jesus' name, all for your glory. Amen and amen.