SPEAKER_00: Well, if you do not own a Bible, feel free to take home that copy in front of you as a gift from us to you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're new to the Bible, the big numbers are the chapters and the little ones are the verses.
SPEAKER_00: If you would like to follow along, as Christian just read to us, will be in James chapter 2, verses 1 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: If you're visiting with us here at Redeemer, our normal diet is we like to move through books of the Bible verse by verse to try to grasp what is God's will for us in this book of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And as we've been moving through the book of James, we have been learning how James is very similar to the book of Proverbs, almost like a pocket-sized armchair version of Proverbs.
SPEAKER_00: But in our text this morning, James, I'm sorry, turns from, you know, an emphasis on being hearers and doers of the word to now living out the word of God we profess to believe.
SPEAKER_00: He now exposes a sin that quietly thrives in churches at times, and that is the sin of partiality.
SPEAKER_00: Partiality in the literal Greek in this verse can mean to receive someone according to their face, which means to treat someone according to their physical appearance, to show preference or prejudice based on outward appearance.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in this context of James, he's addressing the wealthy and the poor, but we all know when we read this text that this is not some rare sin struggle just for this church that James is writing to.
SPEAKER_00: This is something that is even a sneaky sin in the life of modern evangelical churches today.
SPEAKER_00: And James shows us that favoritism contradicts everything about the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: It contradicts the glory of Christ, it contradicts the grace of God, and it contradicts the law of love.
SPEAKER_00: So what I want us to look at this morning from verses 1 through 13 is this when you forget grace, you start grading people.
SPEAKER_00: When you forget the grace of Jesus Christ in the gospel, you start to grade the people around you.
SPEAKER_00: What I want to do with these verses this morning is highlight three dangers that are inherent in partiality and give one warning.
SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the first danger in verses one through four.
SPEAKER_00: The first danger of the sin of partiality is that you dishonor Christ when you show favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: You dishonor Christ when you show favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: James, as he has in the first chapter, he he gets right to it, like the Gospel of Mark.
SPEAKER_00: He he doesn't waste any time, he dives right in.
SPEAKER_00: But I love his pastoral tone.
SPEAKER_00: He starts out, my brothers and sisters, you'll see that phrase all throughout this letter.
SPEAKER_00: He's just being a good pastor.
SPEAKER_00: He's being a he's saying, brothers, I'm your brother in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk to you as family.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, do not show favoritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in, if you look with favor on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, sit here in a good place, and yet you say to the poor person, stand over there, or sit here on the floor by my footstool, haven't you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
SPEAKER_00: James immediately links favoritism with theology.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You can't cling to the faith of the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, and at the same time favor people based on earthly wealth.
SPEAKER_00: When you play favorites, you trade the radiant glory of Christ for the fading glory of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Favoritism, to some extent, is practical atheism.
SPEAKER_00: It's acting as though Jesus' glory isn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the song we just sang, right?
SPEAKER_00: Everything we have comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We have nothing.
SPEAKER_00: He is the offering.
SPEAKER_00: But when we give in to this sinful partiality and favoritism, James is warning against, we are by default saying Christ and his glory is not enough.
SPEAKER_00: Favoritism is essentially practical atheism.
SPEAKER_00: Let me illustrate what James is getting at here in more modern language.
SPEAKER_00: If someone pulled up to a Redeemer service in a Tesla model S, and someone else, like your pastor, pulled up in a 2003 Honda Accord, and you laugh too hard at that, and you treat one person a little a little more favorably, like, oh, Brother Joe, let me walk you over to the coffee bar, and you treat the other person like, yeah, there's coffee over there.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying we can be in danger of showing favoritism for worldly glory rather than Christ's glory, which is a grave sin, as we're going to see.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we per when we prefer the quote unquote successful over those who might be struggling, or the influential over the less influential, well then you have essentially forgotten who saved you.
SPEAKER_00: The one who, according to Isaiah 53, had no form or majesty, the one who was not all that special to look at, our Savior, we are misrepresenting him.
SPEAKER_00: This is no unique uh issue to the book of James.
SPEAKER_00: I can think of a situation where I went to visit a church in uh South Carolina, and I'll never forget it was a church plant that had received a property from a dying church that gave their building over.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember coming to the service, and on the back wall, there was like a metal book, a gigantic metal book built into the wall.
SPEAKER_00: And I was staring at it out of curiosity, and I realized, oh, this thing opens.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just a metal book.
SPEAKER_00: And I opened it up, and then inside the metal book were metal pages.
SPEAKER_00: And on the pages were names of members who had financially gave to the church to have the windows put in.
SPEAKER_00: Or this member gave for the pews, this member gave for the curtains, and so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not saying that's inherently wicked or evil, but what does that say to all the people who maybe didn't get their names in that book?
SPEAKER_00: That is a sign of modern partiality where we want to treat these group of people in a little more special way than we would everybody else.
SPEAKER_00: Or think of, you know, if a church is having a building campaign and maybe there's some, you know, wealthy members who give generously to support that, and the pastors decide, let's have a banquet to thank those generous givers because they gave out of their wealth, but we don't say anything to all the other faithful members who gave out according to their means.
SPEAKER_00: That's a sign of partiality.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're just showing honor to those who were being generous, but according to James chapter two, that is a sign of favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: Or I could give some historical examples.
SPEAKER_00: Or uh we're actually let me look at a few that um we have seen.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pick on our own camp.
SPEAKER_00: So there could be social favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: This is when people naturally gravitate towards those like them.
SPEAKER_00: So don't think of partiality just in this uh, you know, the wealthy and the poor sense.
SPEAKER_00: James is addressing a context that was taking place in the group of Christians he was ministering to, but partiality is a root foundational sin that can manifest in various ways.
SPEAKER_00: So in this situation, it's the church treating the wealthy and the poor differently.
SPEAKER_00: But partiality could even be gravitating towards those who are most like you, saying, I'm partial to people who are in the same season of life as me, who come from the same background, who are the same age, who have a similar education or interests.
SPEAKER_00: However, in the life of a church, when small groups or ministry teams or friendship circles become exclusive by default, even if that's not the intention, the church begins to mirror a social club instead of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: A church should try to strive with God's help to have a gospel-revealing community.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, if people who don't believe in Jesus walk through these church doors or they got to observe how you do life and who you invite into your home, they might scratch their heads a little bit and think, why is that black dude from the inner city hanging out with that 50-year-old white guy from the suburbs?
SPEAKER_00: Or why does that pastor hang out with Pastor Zane who ran around the sticks of West Virginia, and you would say, Well, an empty tomb over 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: That's why.
SPEAKER_00: However, if we primarily only hang out with people who are just like us, that says nothing to the world.
SPEAKER_00: The world will look at a bunch of young moms who always hang out with each other and say, Yeah, that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It creates a gospel-revealing community.
SPEAKER_00: Gospel community is not built primarily on chemistry, it's built on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I love our church.
SPEAKER_00: You know, as I look out at all these faces, I'm like, man, this is a preview of the glories of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: We have people in here from all various walks of life, different age groups, backgrounds, and cultures, which demonstrates the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Another form of favoritism and partiality is cultural or racial favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: I think some churches can center their ministry around maybe one ethnic group or one cultural experience, and therefore unintentionally sending the message that others must fit in or assimilate in order to belong to this church.
SPEAKER_00: The church of Christ should look less like one culture and more like the multitudes of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: When the church reflects one given culture more than Christ's kingdom, then I think it's time for us to start considering what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: That same sinful partiality shows up today in churches that maybe cater to the affluent or the influential while overlooking the poor, the less influential, or those who, quote unquote, don't fit in a certain image.
SPEAKER_00: But just listen to what the Bible has to say about partiality.
SPEAKER_00: Leviticus 19 15 is a direct command: do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 117, do not show partiality in judgment, hear the small and the great alike.
SPEAKER_00: Or Romans 2.11, there is no favoritism with God.
SPEAKER_00: That should be the most convicting.
SPEAKER_00: If God shows no partiality and favoritism, and we do, we are not being imitators of God, we're being imitators of man.
SPEAKER_00: And praise be to God that He doesn't show favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine if before the foundations of the earth God said, I will save those who I think have the best to offer, or I will save those who I think will have the most intellect, or the most gifted, or the least amount of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Would that be a just God?
SPEAKER_00: That is partiality.
SPEAKER_00: But according to the Bible, there is no partiality or favoritism with God.
SPEAKER_00: I love 1 Samuel 16 7, which reminds us that man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the what?
SPEAKER_00: The heart.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord looks at the heart.
SPEAKER_00: So when you show partiality, you don't just dishonor Christ, but you also are denying God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: Which brings me to the second danger of partiality, which is you deny God's grace when you favor the powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Verses five through seven.
SPEAKER_00: James goes on, listen, my dear brothers and sisters, didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
SPEAKER_00: Yet you have dishonored the poor.
SPEAKER_00: Don't the rich oppress you and drag you into court?
SPEAKER_00: Don't they blaspheme the good name that was invoked over you?
SPEAKER_00: God's grace flips worldly logic on its head, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: God often chooses the ones that the world ignores to display his power.
SPEAKER_00: From shepherd boys like David to fishermen like Peter, who constantly put his foot in his mouth, God demonstrates in the Bible that he delights in lifting the humble and humbling the proud.
SPEAKER_00: So when you show favoritism as a church, you are opposing the very pattern of grace that God saved you by.
SPEAKER_00: You are siding with the world's system of status and prestige and forgetting that everything you have as a believer is a gift from your father from above.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Job 34, 19 says, God is not partial to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of his hands.
SPEAKER_00: That's humbling, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: According to the word of God, whether you are less fortunate financially or more for fortunate, you are the work of God's hands.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you have is the Lord's, anyways.
SPEAKER_00: You're simply a steward of what God has entrusted to you to promote his kingdom, to do good to others, and to lift up the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is why this is directly opposed to God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: And I just love how God's kingdom is like topsy-turvy.
SPEAKER_00: Like it makes no earthly sense.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why does God do the opposite of everything?
SPEAKER_00: So in our culture, we think, and even in some Jewish culture, they believed if you were wealthy, that was an inherent sign that you had God's favor.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible's like, no, that's just a sign that God was generous and allowed them to have wealth.
SPEAKER_00: But even they have a biblical mandate to recognize their wealth is not their own, it belongs to God.
SPEAKER_00: He can take it whenever he pleases.
SPEAKER_00: So steward it to the glory of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the danger.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what James is trying to help his audience to see, even when we consider what he said in the previous verses.
SPEAKER_00: You can be theologically sound but relationally sinful.
SPEAKER_00: You can have all the right theology in your head, friends, but if it's not practically lived out in your habitual lifestyle, then it's meaningless.
SPEAKER_00: Even the demons have sound theology, but it hasn't affected their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It's possible to preach grace while practicing favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just pick on our own camp here as evangelical Christians.
SPEAKER_00: In the early 1900s, it was many Christian evangelical institutions and seminaries and mission boards who excluded, for example, black Christians from leadership or training in their seminaries due to racism, racial prejudice, favoritism.
SPEAKER_00: They believed in salvation by grace alone theologically.
SPEAKER_00: They preached it from their pulpits, yet refused to fellowship with those who they believed God had not deemed as those who should receive his grace.
SPEAKER_00: That is theological hypocrisy and partiality at its best.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a case study.
SPEAKER_00: I know many tend to struggle with Martin Luther King Jr.
SPEAKER_00: as an example because early in his younger years he wrote some things in seminary that uh contradict key tenets of the faith, like the virgin birth and a few other things.
SPEAKER_00: But I like to use him as a case study to say we need to be a little nuanced here.
SPEAKER_00: Even though he did write those things, I wouldn't defend that.
SPEAKER_00: But keep this in mind.
SPEAKER_00: I'll pick on my own seminary.
SPEAKER_00: I had the privilege of going to Southern Seminary in Kentucky.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther King was invited to preach at Southern Seminary.
SPEAKER_00: And the trustees of the seminary, as well as many other churches, were very vocal about their displeasure with the invitation and demanded that the invitation be rescinded.
SPEAKER_00: Many churches even started forfeiting their financial giving to Southern Seminary as a protest for Dr.
SPEAKER_00: King coming to speak.
SPEAKER_00: Well, why didn't they want him to come to speak?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because they viewed Dr.
SPEAKER_00: King's stance on race and activism as too radical, and they thought it wasn't right for churches and Christians to pursue racial integration because it wasn't a gospel issue.
SPEAKER_00: So when we look at Amartin Luther King, who wrote some things that are concerning, keep in mind if he wanted to go to a quote unquote solid Orthodox seminary, he would not have been allowed to because of the color of his skin.
SPEAKER_00: Even today, churches can subtly show signs of partiality.
SPEAKER_00: I want to camp out since I already dropped the bomb on the racism thing.
SPEAKER_00: So sociologists typically will define racism as prejudice plus power.
SPEAKER_00: So they would say things like someone like myself, who's a black man, I can't be racist because I don't have power, because I'm a part of a minority group in America and not the majority.
SPEAKER_00: If you have heard that, I would just say to you, as a Christian, you must reject that definition.
SPEAKER_00: That is not a biblical definition of racism.
SPEAKER_00: I would say partiality is a great place to start.
SPEAKER_00: It is to be partial to any ethnic group or people group for whatever reason that where you show more love for your group as opposed to another simply by whatever we fill that box with.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, I as a black man can be a racist.
SPEAKER_00: If I show partiality to my own people group over every other people group, that is sinful and wicked.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I digress.
SPEAKER_00: But it's good to keep these things in mind.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be shaped by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you can't claim to love God's grace while breaking God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Favoritism is not just poor judgment, it's direct disobedience to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus steps down from heaven to save broken sinners who were his enemies, who deserve absolutely nothing from him, and yet he blesses them with every spiritual blessing you can fathom in the heavens, and yet we receive such grace, and then we start treating people differently based on whatever we can think of.
SPEAKER_00: How on earth does that mirror the grace that we were shown in the gospel of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_00: It says the exact opposite.
SPEAKER_00: The third danger of partiality is you break God's royal law when you treat people unequally.
SPEAKER_00: You break God's royal law when you treat people unequally.
SPEAKER_00: We're all good Christians in the room.
SPEAKER_00: What is the greatest commandment?
SPEAKER_00: To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, your soul, and your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: When James is talking about the royal law, that is what he is referring to.
SPEAKER_00: So when you look down at verse 8 there, I'm sorry, let me back up.
SPEAKER_00: So in when he's talking about in verse 5, he says, Listen, my dear brothers and sisters, didn't God choose the poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
SPEAKER_00: Let's be careful because some will misinterpret this as like some reverse prosperity gospel.
SPEAKER_00: God loves the rich and the poor alike.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is clear, the poor will always be with us.
SPEAKER_00: By the grace of God, the institution of the local church is to care for those who are less fortunate financially.
SPEAKER_00: However, on the other side, the Bible does not say just because someone is wealthy that they are inherently wicked and we should not like wealthy people.
SPEAKER_00: By God's grace, wealthy Christians are the ones who help start universities and hospitals and orphanages and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: But the Bible is also not saying that if you are poor financially, then you will inherit the kingdom of God just because you're broke.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what the Bible is saying as well.
SPEAKER_00: However, those who are less fortunate financially, we should not, as Christians, overcorrect to the other side and say, we hate wealthy people.
SPEAKER_00: That is not what Scripture is saying.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe James is definitely addressing those who are poor monetarily, but when you look at the whole data of Scripture, the Bible often uses that language of poor spiritually as well.
SPEAKER_00: And that was all of us at once, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_00: We were all spiritually poor and bankrupt in need of the riches of Christ in salvation.
SPEAKER_00: But and we don't know the context as far as what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: Some debate, well, maybe there were some wealthy people outside of the church who were like leasing land to some of these Christians and abusing that relationship.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
SPEAKER_00: James doesn't give us the data, but what is clear is that there were wealthy people outside the church who were causing havoc in these Christians' lives.
SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, Why on earth would you show favoritism to a group of people who are treating you poorly?
SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense.
SPEAKER_00: You look like fools.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't say I'm saying that, but but look down at verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: James goes on, he says, Indeed, if you fulfill the royal law prescribed in the scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well.
SPEAKER_00: If, however, you show favoritism, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever keeps the entire law and yet stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking it all.
SPEAKER_00: For he who said, Do not commit adultery also said, Do not murder.
SPEAKER_00: So if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you are a lawbreaker.
SPEAKER_00: The royal law is the command, the king's command, the law of love.
SPEAKER_00: It's royal because it reflects the heart of King Jesus, who perfectly loved even his enemies.
SPEAKER_00: So when you and I show favoritism, we shatter the royal law.
SPEAKER_00: If the main law for all of us The greatest commandment is to love our God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: You are not loving your neighbor or your God if you show favoritism to other people based on worldly standards.
SPEAKER_00: That is what James is trying to highlight for them.
SPEAKER_00: You shatter the royal law because you cannot love your neighbor while ranking your neighbor.
SPEAKER_00: How can you love your neighbor when you are creating distinctions, as James says, among the people in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: He says that is sinfully wicked.
SPEAKER_00: To favor one is to fail all else.
SPEAKER_00: James drives the point home.
SPEAKER_00: Break one part of God's law, you've broken the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: Now I wonder, I don't know, but I wonder if what James is getting at here is maybe some of them he knew would defend themselves and say, well, I mean, we're just trying to show honor to the wealthy people because, you know, they have more influence.
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, at least we haven't murdered anyone or committed adultery.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if that was what was going on and he's addressing that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I could see how people would, you know, be quick to turn on their inner defense attorney and try to nuance their sin a little bit and make it an acceptable sin.
SPEAKER_00: But he makes it clear: listen, you don't understand the holiness of God.
SPEAKER_00: God is king, you must obey his law.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter which aspect of the law you break.
SPEAKER_00: If you break the king's law, you are a transgressor of the law.
SPEAKER_00: If you fail in one point, you failed in the whole thing.
SPEAKER_00: And just a quick sidebar for the gospels: this is why, friends, Jesus, as we saying, this is why Jesus had to be born and to come and to live a perfectly righteous life, because he adhered to the king's law without ever giving in.
SPEAKER_00: And when you trust in Jesus, you receive that perfect righteous life as if you lived it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Because we could not keep the king's law.
SPEAKER_00: Here's, let me illustrate this.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, we got some large windows in here, right?
SPEAKER_00: Imagine cracking a window.
SPEAKER_00: Typically, what happens is that crack has a line that shatters almost throughout the whole window, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's like breaking God's law.
SPEAKER_00: We go to the scriptures and we can see all of God's law for his children to follow.
SPEAKER_00: You fell in just one aspect of it, you have transgressed the entire law.
SPEAKER_00: You are now a transgressor, according to James.
SPEAKER_00: So when we show favoritism and partiality, we have become lawbreakers.
SPEAKER_00: And partiality isn't a personality quirk, it's a moral failure.
SPEAKER_00: It is a sinful choice, a disposition of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's not merely bad church manners, it's rebellion against the love command that defines Christian community.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just step on some toes this morning because I like doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I want to modernize this for us, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, if we as Christ followers allow certain things to creep into our hearts that shape how we live our lives, such as, well, I don't know, I don't want to shop at Walmart, because there's a certain type of people there that make me uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Or if Redeemer met in another neighborhood, which y'all might consider the hood.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, some of y'all sometimes say the hood, and I'm like, that's not the hood, but would you say, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I think I need to find another church.
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm not comfortable with where Redeemer meets at now.
SPEAKER_00: These are ways, friends, where we could show partiality.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying we know we're ignorant, we don't care about safety and all that stuff, but I think that does reflect something sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: If someone walked in here and they looked a little off, they don't dress like us.
SPEAKER_00: They we we had this happen once.
SPEAKER_00: Brother fresh out of prison came to our service.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when that happens, do we say, that's someone I need to introduce to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Introduce him to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want them to sit right next to me and introduce myself.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we talk about safety, wisdom, and all that stuff, but when I read my Bible, Jesus hung out with people like me before I came to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: I used to sell drugs.
SPEAKER_00: I used to rob people and live a life of crime.
SPEAKER_00: I was the type of person no church would want in their building.
SPEAKER_00: But when I read my gospels, those are the type of people Jesus said, listen, those who aren't sick don't need a physician.
SPEAKER_00: They do.
SPEAKER_00: And if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be standing here today.
SPEAKER_00: It's the grace of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm getting at is, friends, is we, when we read Ephesians 5, 1, be imitators of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it looks like.
SPEAKER_00: I will say this on the positive side, one thing I absolutely love about our church is just the culture of hospitality that the Lord has blessed us with.
SPEAKER_00: That we are, I mean, we hear all kinds of stories of how you guys open up your homes and just show radical acts of generosity and hospitality.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, because we have a hospitable God.
SPEAKER_00: One of the main criticisms sometimes people have of churches is they go worship at a church and they say, not one person said hi to me or introduce themselves.
SPEAKER_00: And that's gonna happen, right?
SPEAKER_00: As churches grow, that that's a possibility.
SPEAKER_00: But I would encourage you, whether you're introverted or extroverted, this is a way to guard against partiality.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm not gonna just go introduce myself to people who look like me and are from the same walk of life.
SPEAKER_00: No, if I see a face I don't recognize, I want to show them the hospitality of Jesus, the same hospitality I was shown in the gospel, so that they feel loved and welcomed.
SPEAKER_00: There's a great way to guard our hearts from subtle, uh subtle like creeping in of sinful partiality.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're introverted, it's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Come with the energy you have, expel it on Sunday morning, and when you're drained, go home.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
SPEAKER_00: I do it every week, so you can do it.
SPEAKER_00: And for you extroverts, help us introverts out.
SPEAKER_00: So talk to two more people than we would, so we capture everyone.
SPEAKER_00: But on this topic of partiality, I want to go a little bit deeper here.
SPEAKER_00: I want to encourage us to guard our identity in Christ and not our culture.
SPEAKER_00: So, this is what the audience James is writing to was guilty of.
SPEAKER_00: They they were losing their identity in a sense, forgetting, wait a minute, I like my identity is in the fact that I'm an adopted child of God, and therefore I should treat others as if they're the same as me.
SPEAKER_00: The ground is equal at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: They're no special more special than I am or my brothers and sisters worshiping in this church.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, friends, in every generation, Christians have been tempted to find their deepest sense of belonging in something other than Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This has happened throughout church history.
SPEAKER_00: Their ethnicity, their nationality, their family heritage, or their cultural background.
SPEAKER_00: But as a follower of Christ, those things may describe you, but they never define you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, praise God, and God's sovereignty, He put us in our context, uh historically, ethnically, nationally, whatever that may be.
SPEAKER_00: That was God's divine providence.
SPEAKER_00: But your ethnicity, your nationality, your family heritage, or your cultural background never, if you're in Christ, define you.
SPEAKER_00: They describe you.
SPEAKER_00: Your truest identity isn't found in where you were born, the color of your skin, or the nationality you're a part of.
SPEAKER_00: Your identity is rooted in the fact that Jesus Christ hung on the cross and spilt his righteous blood to purchase you to himself.
SPEAKER_00: That is where your identity is found.
SPEAKER_00: It's rooted in Christ, which means you belong to him, and that means you belong to a new family and a new kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: When you, this is why we're always going to be big on meaningful church membership.
SPEAKER_00: When you are saved, you are saved into something.
SPEAKER_00: You're not saved into the ether, you're saved into the household of God.
SPEAKER_00: You are saved into a family.
SPEAKER_00: You inherit uh brothers and sisters, siblings in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is now your new family, and God is your father.
SPEAKER_00: Philippians 3.20 says, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells you, if you're in Christ, you are an elect exile.
SPEAKER_00: This earth is not your home.
SPEAKER_00: You are loved by God, living in the world that is not your home.
SPEAKER_00: So therefore, your ultimate allegiance uh allegiance should be to King Jesus and his divine kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Your ultimate allegiance is to Jesus and his family, not to your earthly tribe or culture.
SPEAKER_00: So, I'm bringing this up because this connects to partiality, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a foundational sin that can manifest in various ways.
SPEAKER_00: So if your ethnicity or culture ever conflicts with your heavenly citizenship, something is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: You are to be more faithful to the kingdom of God, not whatever earthly tribe you come from.
SPEAKER_00: So if your background or family heritage demands from you more loyalty than your Bible, then something has become a ruling desire and an idol.
SPEAKER_00: And that is dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, I am a proud black man, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying we ignore, like, you know, we're colorblind.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, don't be colorblind.
SPEAKER_00: See color, it's good.
SPEAKER_00: God made color, okay?
SPEAKER_00: However, I am a Christian who happens to be black.
SPEAKER_00: My identity is primarily in Jesus, which shapes the worldview of everything else in my life.
SPEAKER_00: So we should be thankful for our heritage, but we never let it dictate our actions.
SPEAKER_00: Let me illustrate that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people might say things like, Well, you know, we black or we Latina.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we get loud, we shout, we fight, and we sweep it under the rug and move on.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, then repent and pursue the fruits of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We can't run around saying, well, that's just my personality because of my ethnicity.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't, I don't see that in the Bible where it's determinative for how you live your life.
SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, in my culture, you know, we just we do things this way.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Bible says that's sinful.
SPEAKER_00: So you might want to stop and obey the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We can celebrate our culture, but we don't cling to it tighter than we do Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that one day, according to Revelation 7, every tribe and tongue will be on the new heaven and the new earth, worshiping the Savior of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
SPEAKER_00: When we're singing praises to the Lord and exalting his glory, there's not gonna be like in high school, like at lunchtime, where it's like the athletes sit over here, the black people sit over here, and we're all gonna have our banners, like the black Christians, y'all sing these songs.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, we're all together as brothers and sisters are gonna be showing no partiality or favoritism whatsoever.
SPEAKER_00: We're all in unison gonna be worshiping the king of kings who is our savior, which is why on this side of heaven, showing any kind of favoritism and partiality is antithetical to the gospel of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: This is why James took this as a serious issue.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me be clear: the cross does not erase your ethnicity, your cultural heritage, or anything like that, but it certainly dethrones it.
SPEAKER_00: That is what James wanted his audience to understand.
SPEAKER_00: How can you lay claim to the grace of Jesus Christ in the gospel and then esteem someone greater than others simply because they have more zeros in their bank account than others?
SPEAKER_00: That is not the gospel of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: So your joy, your security, your allegiance belong to the king who united, divided people into a new humanity, according to Ephesians chapter 2, which is why I'm not a huge fan of all the racial reconciliation books and conferences that are constantly being spewed out there.
SPEAKER_00: It's a whole industry now.
SPEAKER_00: It's an important conversation.
SPEAKER_00: But according to my Bible, Jesus already reconciled all his people on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Our job as Christians is to live out the unity he already purchased, and that's where we're struggling.
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm not getting on that sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But Galatians 5.14, Paul makes it clear the whole law is fulfilled in one statement.
SPEAKER_00: Love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_00: We quote that a lot, but pause and reflect, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: So when James is admonishing these group of Christians, he could have told them, the way you treated those wealthy people who came through the church doors, would you want church members to treat you that way?
SPEAKER_00: Is that loving your neighbor as yourself?
SPEAKER_00: Turning your Bibles real quick to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to see this for yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just all be humbled real quick by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at God's wisdom in who he saves and who he chooses to save into his kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 26 through 29.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the Apostle Paul humble the church in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, consider your calling.
SPEAKER_00: Not many were wise from a human perspective, not many were powerful, not many of noble birth.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
SPEAKER_00: And God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
SPEAKER_00: God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, what is viewed as nothing, to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one may boast in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, Ain't none of y'all special.
SPEAKER_00: Even according to the world, y'all weren't all that.
SPEAKER_00: You weren't the smartest, you were actually the dumbest.
SPEAKER_00: You weren't the strongest, you were the weakest.
SPEAKER_00: You were foolish.
SPEAKER_00: You were shameful to the world.
SPEAKER_00: You were insignificant and even despised.
SPEAKER_00: And God said, and that's who I want.
SPEAKER_00: That's who I want.
SPEAKER_00: Because the world will look at that and say, Why would your God have any interest in you?
SPEAKER_00: And then we all say, I know, that's what makes it great.
SPEAKER_00: I have no clue.
SPEAKER_00: All I know is I was a sinner and he offered salvation, and here I stand.
SPEAKER_00: You want to know about him?
SPEAKER_00: That's why I love in John 9 when Jesus heals the blind man.
SPEAKER_00: There's that interaction with the Pharisees, where like, who sinned this guy or his or his family?
SPEAKER_00: And they ask him, Well, who healed you, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they have this interaction where he's like, You do you want to know him?
SPEAKER_00: Do you know who he is?
SPEAKER_00: Like, I, anyways, that's another sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul makes it clear according to the gospel, that is the beauty of it.
SPEAKER_00: That is what it means that God shows no partiality.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we need to be careful, Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Let's not get too excited when we show favoritism when we think, you know, some celebrity becomes a Christ follower.
SPEAKER_00: You know how many of us were guilty when Kanye professed faith, right?
SPEAKER_00: And we think, oh my gosh, God saved that celebrity.
SPEAKER_00: Now God can do all these things through that person.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, God don't need them.
SPEAKER_00: God's been saving people for centuries.
SPEAKER_00: Influential, non-influential.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, the people who use the most to advance the gospel and the kingdom of God and to plan churches all over the world were lowlifes who didn't have an education.
SPEAKER_00: They were fishermen and they all died for the faith.
SPEAKER_00: So we gotta be careful with these things.
SPEAKER_00: But the the last, not a danger, but more of a warning is this.
SPEAKER_00: You reveal your grasp of the gospel by how you show mercy to others.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at verses 12 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: Speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom.
SPEAKER_00: For judgment is without mercy to the one who has not shown mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy triumphs over judgment.
SPEAKER_00: I love that sentence.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy triumphs over judgment.
SPEAKER_00: This chapter ends where the gospel begins.
SPEAKER_00: The law of freedom is the gospel that frees you, Christian, to love others without fear or calculation.
SPEAKER_00: If you've been shown mercy by God, you should be becoming merciful.
SPEAKER_00: That is a marker of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: If you have received mercy from God, you should be merciful yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But when you refuse to extend mercy, when you look down on others, when you show favoritism to impartiality to others, you show that maybe you have never truly understood grace.
SPEAKER_00: That is a dangerous place to be spiritually, friends.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same with the topic of forgiveness.
SPEAKER_00: If a Christian professes faith in Jesus Christ and lays claim to the benefits of Jesus has forgiven me on the cross, but I refuse to forgive people who have sinned against me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying you're not a Christian, but I'm just really confused about your understanding of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: How can you be forgiven of an infinite sin debt you could never repay, and someone commits a lesser infraction against you, and you have no room in your heart to extend mercy and forgiveness?
SPEAKER_00: Forgiven children of God, forgive.
SPEAKER_00: Children of God who have been shown mercy, extend mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the unforgiving servant in Jesus' parable in Matthew chapter 18.
SPEAKER_00: He was forgiven of a mountain of debt, but choked a man over a few bucks.
SPEAKER_00: That's what favoritism looks like to God.
SPEAKER_00: Forgiving sinners, refusing to extend grace and mercy to others is a sign that maybe you have not truly understood and tasted God's forgiveness in the cross.
SPEAKER_00: So you reveal what you believe about the gospel by how you treat people who you can't, who can't do, I'm sorry, you reveal what you believe about the gospel by how you treat people who can't do anything for you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you?
SPEAKER_00: If I love and serve this person who has nothing to offer me, that shows it's from a heart posture of genuine love and hospitality, as I'm trying to be an imitator of God.
SPEAKER_00: What if, you know, I'm trying to serve and love this person because I know they possibly could maybe give me a job opportunity or do this or do that, or it makes me look a certain way in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Well then, Frank, you're doing that for you, not for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just make an appeal, an evangelistic appeal here.
SPEAKER_00: When we look at the cross, we see four things.
SPEAKER_00: Mercy triumphed over judgment for you and me on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus became poor so you could be rich in grace.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that one.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus became poor so you and I could be rich in grace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was rejected so you could be received.
SPEAKER_00: He bore the world's shame so you could bear God's name.
SPEAKER_00: Sit on that one, friends.
SPEAKER_00: Every sin you've committed, you know, the ones that you're just maybe even to this day uncomfortable sharing with other people.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus hung on the cross and took the shame for those very deeds.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't just take on the shame of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll take your shame, but I give you the name of my Father.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take your shame, even though I don't deserve it.
SPEAKER_00: I've never committed a sin in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And you will get the very glory of the name of the Father of lights in exchange for my death.
SPEAKER_00: How could you, a recipient of such mercy, ever look down on anyone else?
SPEAKER_00: The gospel says we were all we listen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christ follower this morning, I already know the worst thing about you.
SPEAKER_00: You killed Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We're all equals.
SPEAKER_00: We murdered Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Let this gospel shape our church culture.
SPEAKER_00: I beg and plead with the Lord, let Redeemer Church be a place where the poor feel honored, the outsider feels welcomed, and every person senses that Christ's mercy is greater than human ranking in this fellowship.
SPEAKER_00: Because we all know the truth that all that I have is a gift from the Lord's, anyways.
SPEAKER_00: And the greatest gift I have, the greatest wealth I have is Jesus knows my name.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows my name and loves me.
SPEAKER_00: So in closing, favoritism contradicts, friends, the gospel you profess.
SPEAKER_00: It denies Christ's glory, it opposes God's grace, it breaks his royal law, and it betrays his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Let me leave you with 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich for your sake, he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: That is the great exchange.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read that one more time.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just emphasize three words.
SPEAKER_00: For you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich for your sake, for your sake, not his own, he didn't need us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't need to die on the cross to be fulfilled, but for your sake, he became poor so that by his poverty you might become rich.
SPEAKER_00: That is the heart of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: At the cross, Jesus became poor, so you can become rich in his grace.
SPEAKER_00: He was treated as the least so you could be loved as God's own child.
SPEAKER_00: That is an aspect of the gospel that will never get old for me.
SPEAKER_00: I can vividly remember my life before Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: All the sins I've committed, the sins I've committed post-Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And to think, wait a minute, you were with the Father and the Spirit before eternity in perfect harmony and love.
SPEAKER_00: No rebellion, no infighting, nothing, just pure glory and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And us sinful, rebellious humans came about, and Jesus, you voluntarily said you would come, strip yourself of glory, be born as a baby.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was a baby.
SPEAKER_00: God put on flesh and needed to be cared for.
SPEAKER_00: Why, when we have nothing to offer but the sin that makes our salvation necessary.
SPEAKER_00: But that is the glory of the cross of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And for those of you this morning who might not be Christians, I hope you receive what I'm describing.
SPEAKER_00: Every other world religion essentially says, you have broken the law of whatever deity you worship, and he's angry, and you must appease that anger through your good deeds, and hopefully you do a good job and you amount enough good deeds so that when you stand before that deity, you have enough good deeds that outweigh the bad, and then you're into that paradise of whatever you believe in.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, Christianity is the one message that I believe is the most honest and says, God's holiness is beyond our comprehension.
SPEAKER_00: We are all transgressors of the entire law.
SPEAKER_00: We can't even come remotely close to appeasing his wrath, but in his grace, he took care of that by sending his own son and pouring his wrath out on him in place of us.
SPEAKER_00: And the only work we're required to require to do is to repent of our sins, to trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and we get everything.
SPEAKER_00: We get the greatest wealth you can ever imagine, which is a reconciled relationship with God the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Praise be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.