Showing Partiality Is Sin

Transcript

GRM 1646
07/01/2012
Showing Partiality Is Sin
James 2:1-13
Gil Rugh

We are studying the book of James together on Sunday night. The book of James, and we’ve been looking into Proverbs, and our study in the morning, looking into particular matters of God’s wisdom and James has much in common.

Remember James the half - brother of our Lord, not a believer during Christ’s earthly ministry but was blessed with an appearance of Christ after his resurrection and became a believer, leader in the church at Jerusalem. He came out of this strong Jewish background and leads the church in Jerusalem which was naturally comprised of Jews headed to counsel at Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. He’s writing to the 12 tribes of the diaspora as he opens the letter to believing Jews who are scattered outside the land of Israel.

It is a concern that reflects the concern that’s come from the Old Testament, the situation that overtook Israel and that is, the behavior of the people was not consistent with their profession. Prophets addressed this often as God used them as His spokesmen, those James is concerned that they be hearers of the Word but also doers. He is aware of the tragedy in Israel, his own situation as an unbelieving Jew, even raised in the home with the One who was the Messiah of Israel. He addresses the concerns, the inconsistency and that comes in Chapter 2.

One of the things that characterizes the unbeliever is a respect and honor of people according to their status in life. Their position, they might have power and influence, the money they might have, it’s a natural thing in the world. They give respect, they get special treatments, they come to expect special treatment. James is concerned that not be carried over into the church.

He has already talked about this in Chapter 1. Just turn back to verse 9, “But the brother of humble circumstances, is to glory in his highest position.” Remember we talked about this person who is a believer, a brother, but has nothing to speak of, of earthly possessions. His focus is on the exalted position he has in Jesus Christ, whereas the rich man is the glory in his humiliation and James elaborates on his condition, like the flower in the field he’ll pass away, the sun rises, scorching wind, withering the grass, the flower falls off, the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. The rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away, so reminder to the poor that they have been blessed with the spiritual riches of God in Christ. To the rich, it’s not what you have materially in this world.

Humbling to think, God has brought you to Himself and blessed you with His salvation. Down to the end of Chapter 1, Paul reminded them that, verse 27, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and keep to oneself unstained by the world.” The reminder of the significance again, of these who are not counted as important in the world’s eyes, the widows, the orphans they don’t have much to offer humanly speaking perhaps. Materially speaking, but believers are to see that they are cared for and provided for, this is consistent with the Old Testament, God’s instruction to His people Israel, their responsibility to care for the orphans and widows as we have looked at.

To come into Chapter 2, he is going to elaborate on this. The sins that James is concerned about is what is going amongst some of these believers in other places, believing Jews, not consistent with what it ought to be in Christ, because he’s going to come back to this later in Chapter 5. He has some firm things to say. Chapter 2, begins, “My brethren,” again there is warmth here, he identifies with them as fellow believers, but he has some strong things to say, “Do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.” You have that emphasis on the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. A reminder, where true honor, glory, splendor is. It’s in Christ, it’s not the things of this world and you ought not to hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. That word translates personal favoritism denotes partiality based on external circumstances. Might be race, wealth, might be social standing, it’s not taking into consideration the value of that person, in the sight of God. Not taking into consideration, what God has done in our life, so don’t hold your faith with personal favoritism.

Here we are, claim to be believers in Jesus Christ, but we distinguish among ourselves. Not on the basis of what really matters in the sight of God, but what really matters in the sight of the world. Is this an important person? A person of influence? Is this a person who has money?

I remembered I clipped out of a book on church growth and they had the picture of a man that their church focused on to reach. He was not a real individual but this was the person, middle aged, around 40. He is successful, recognized for his accomplishments in his jobs and they are going on like this. Sounds like the very thing James condemns. The church growth movement part in the concept of homogenous units that, you know we want to be with like ourselves, and so to really be effective as a church, you try to be one kind of people, so you can have a church for the rich and a church for the poor.

Many years ago I was candidating in a church from the Southeast, and when I got there, they were honest. They were a group of families that were extremely well to do, lived in exceptionally large homes and had maids come and take care of things, and they sat down to explain to me. There are many churches for the average people and the poor people, but we feel called to have a church for the rich. Where do you go with that? I mean you talk about the gospel with them, make sure you’re even talking to good believers, but somewhere they are lost in their thinking.

So James, is concerned, you don’t hold your faith in our glorious Lord. Our eyes are to be on Him. You get on what people have, or don’t let your view get skewed. Giving an example to them, how they manifested, and his first reaction might be, well no, everyone is welcomed. For if a man comes in your assembly, your synagogue, and many of these believers would be meeting in the synagogue still as Jews you are to become believers, and maybe the synagogue got converted as a whole. Becomes their meeting place in Chapter 5 he will refer to them, the name of the church. They are meeting in their assembly, a man comes in your assembly with a gold ring, dressed in fine clothes. So here is a man who has money, obviously. He’s dressed like he has money. His clothes, his jewelry, you know he’s somebody that has been successful and in the same service, here comes a man, a poor man in dirty clothes. He’s poor, he doesn’t have much, so he wears the same clothes again and again. In those days, particularly, even in my life, when I grew up they still sewed holes in socks, still sewed holes in your pants, those kinds of things, I mean you just don’t throw something away because it’s worn out. I was fortunate, I was the oldest and I had a younger one, and a brother younger than him and then I had a spoiled sister. She is sitting here today, you know she couldn’t get the hand-me-downs but my brothers got what I handed down, and that’s the way it went.

Well here’s the poor man, he doesn’t have much, so his clothes have been patched, and they are dirty, because he doesn’t have extra sets of clothes to change off. So he is wearing what he has, we might refer to him as a homeless person. What happens when he comes into the assembly, you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and you say, “You sit here in a good place.” You say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my foot stool.” That’s terrible to think about. You have two people come in and one, obviously has wealth, well to do, someone else comes into our service and he is obviously a street person, and the street person coming in is going to take the best seat, and we are going to say to the man who is wealthy, “Well there is no more room, maybe you can sit in one of the rooms down here. We are not as concerned with him.” What are we doing? We like to say,” Well we wouldn’t do that.” But we get affected by these things, because we think it’s not as important, this rich man will expect better treatment. I mean he lives in a world where he gets exceptional treatment, and he won’t come back to our church if he doesn’t. We have all kinds of ways we rationalize it.

James says this is unacceptable. You can’t hold your faith in Jesus Christ with partiality, based on external things like what a person has materially or does not have. You know we are not consistent with the character of God when we do, even Jesus was known by His enemies to be an impartial person even when they were opposing Him.

Come back to Matthew Chapter 22, and we’ll look at verse 16, for the context, verse 15, “Then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap him in what He said.” Verse 16, “And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, ‘Teacher, we know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for you are not partial to any.’” Now, they are not genuine and sincere, but they do acknowledge something that they recognize. That He is not partial to any, they are not going to accuse Him of that, they are going to try and box Him in with being truthful and so on.

But the recognition is not partial. Come back to Leviticus, chapter 19. Here God makes clear partiality is not to be directed in either way toward the rich or toward the poor. Verse 15, “You shall do no injustice in judgement; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” In Israel, God’s people of the Old Testament, they were what? To manifest God’s character and when they come to judging, dealing with people, you don’t give the poor special treatment, you don’t give the rich special treatment. You are fair, there is impartiality in this situation.

Come back to James. What James is saying is not something new here. What you are going to desire, is that God’s people manifest God’s character which is produced in those who truly have a relationship with Him. The problem is giving special attention to these kinds of people. There are two people here, doesn’t matter whether one has the appearance of wealth and one has the appearance of poverty. They come here, they are what? Two people. Created in the image of God, who need the salvation of God and when that salvation comes to them the poor will be infinitely rich and the rich will be infinitely humble, as they recognized their wealth has brought them nothing, but the grace of God brings them everything.

Look at verse 2, James asked the question, If you do this, the rich man comes you want to be sure he gets a good seat, the poor man, he can sit anywhere, sit on the floor, that’s alright it won’t matter he’s not used to nice things anyway. You aren’t going to ask the man with expensive suit, expensive clothes and jewelry to sit on the floor, but the poor man he’s probably used to sitting on the floor, kind of thing. Verse 4, “have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?” So now we are dividing, and we are dividing the congregation, because it doesn’t change whether we have a poor believer or rich believer. Now we are going to deal with them differently, and we are making judgments with evil motives, evil reasonings, why are we doing it this way? Well, you know if we have people of influence in our city, that come to our church, if we have people with money who come to our church, that will say something about the church in the community. I as a pastor can even talk about it, “So and so comes to our church.” You know that’s a way of saying what? We are important, because people who are important in the world come, we all know churches like this.

My background was in a denominational church that was not believing these things were important. That’s sort of a status symbol, with evil motives here. Evil reasoning, these kind of distinguishes are evil, they are sin, and they are totally inconsistent for believers.

Chapter 2, Verse 5, “Listen, my beloved brethren:” and James uses this kind of expression when he wants to express his love for them and it’s a genuine concern. He’s just not wanting to rebuke them. This comes out a love and loving concern for them. Look back in Chapter 1 verse 16, when he said, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” Brethren that I love. That’s why I am saying this and I don’t want you to be deceived. Down in verse 19 of Chapter 1, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;” and so on. So now when you come to Chapter to 2 verse 5, and he says, “Listen my beloved brethren:” what he said is a rebuke. The example he has given is to make them realize if this is what you are doing and the indication is he does think this is going on. Like I said, it came up in Chapter 1, the rich and the poor and the attitudes there, it comes up extensively in Chapter 2.

Come back to verse 5. This is a concern that this was going on. “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?” The sovereignty of God here. Did God not choose? We sometimes talk about the doctrine of election, the word choose, we get the word election from it. It basically just transliterates over into English, connect, to choose. Did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith, you see the context. They are poor in this world, but they are rich in the faith they have in Christ. They are heirs of the kingdom, which he promised to those who love Him. The kingdom that will be established on this earth, with the Messiah ruling. They are heirs of that.

Romans 8 says, the believer in Christ is a coheir with Christ. If I am an heir of all that God has provided for his children, a coheir with Christ of all the rich blessings, God has promised in him. I am a man of immeasurable wealth. I have riches the world cannot appreciate, They do a magazine listing the richest people in the world. They do a magazine featuring the billionaires, they’ve never come to do a magazine cover on me. They are blind, they’ve never done a magazine cover on you, and they don’t know true riches. In a hundred years what will they have? What will you have as a believer in Jesus Christ? That’s the measure of wealth isn’t it? I mean they leave it behind, I go to it. I go to the wealth that is not affected by inflation or deflation. It is secure, it’s reserved in Heaven for those of us who are believers in Jesus Christ.

So, “my beloved brethren listen, did God not choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love Him?” and loving Him is the mark of a believer, but you have dishonored the poor man. Why? Well if you have poor come in, and he may be rich in Christ, but you treat him like he’s unimportant. Then you have a rich man knowing nothing of Christ, but you want to cater to him. So he’s going to say some things about the rich. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you in to court? Do they not blasphemy the fair name which you have been called? The bible never says rich is the wrong, but the bible always warns about the dangers of riches and its corrupting influence.

God has blessed this country, all of this with a wealth that others could envy. We have traveled in other parts of the world. In seeing the United States, what it has and its prosperity, and the way that prosperity is shared, even those who have less material here, compared to other places have much. Here God talks about the rich, they become those who oppress believers who dishonor God, and they blaspheme the fair name, by which you have been called.

Through the book of Acts we see where the opposition to the church comes from. Came from Jews, came from Jewish leadership, Pharisees, Sadducees, those who were in position of power and wealth and influence. It’s God’s sovereignty that brings salvation. Doesn’t mean He never chooses any rich. God’s grace is great. The rich, by and large, are not those who are the focus of God’s salvation work.

Come over to 1 Corinthians Chapter 1. Be careful, there are rich that are saved, praise God for that, but they are not the normal. The normal thing is salvation occurs among the average or below average if you will. Many years ago, I shared with you when I was studying in school out west. They did studies on churches, round the world, missions work and so on. I’ve shared with you before, a chart with you. Christianity comes into a new area and it spreads among the poor and then the poor maybe over time rise in the social scale, and believers rise. The passion of the Christianity goes on down, but where it does, it’s infiltrated. It infiltrates often off the poor. That’s part of God’s sovereign work, because the poor soul less valuable is the sovereign work of God.

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26, “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak thing of the world to shame the things of which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.” Hard for us to accept this, we often think boy if so and so would get saved what an impact that would make. Oh, if so and so or a person in this position would get saved, think of that. I mean, think of it, if a few of the leading billionaires in the world got saved, and their testimony, what an impact that would make! Then would one of them want to come and join our church.

We have got a remodeling project going on. Let’s be sure they get a good seat. You know what happens then, sort of like, Abraham after delivering Lot, what did he tell the King? I won’t take anything from you, unless you say you have made Abraham rich, important, that it be clear that this is God’s work. Isn’t it amazing? Look around, you can look around in the other rooms too. You are in a room full of nobody’s and God has worked marvelously hasn’t He? I mean, why are we saved? Testimony to His grace. No man may boast before God, all saved in the same way and by the grace of God. Even the wealthiest of us, the poorest of us, we are all one in Christ, and testify to what? The amazing grace of God. Poorest of us, rejoice in the riches we have in Christ and the richest are amazed at God’s grace reached down. It is humbling to think He saved us and there is that leveling, the reality.

We need to be careful to keep a biblical perspective. That does not mean we don’t show honor to whom honor is due. Peter in his letter said, “Honor the King.” We do respect those in authority, not for the wrong motives, but because God placed them in that position, so we respect the governor, senator, President and that, because there is no one in position of authority, but who has been placed there by God for His purpose. That’s different than giving honor among God’s people based on external things. God has sovereignly chosen to do much of His work among the nobody’s of the world.

Turn over to Luke chapter 12, one of the times Jesus addresses the subject and shows true riches. This came up when a man wanted Jesus to intervene over family inheritance. Verse 15, “And He said to them, ‘Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not when when one has abundance does his life consist of his possessions.’ And He told them a parable, saying, ‘The land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ‘And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.” “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

This is the foundation of faith. Whether I have much, or little materially. The real issue in our life is, are we rich toward God? Do we have the richest of God, the inheritance that He has provided for those who love Him?

That’s why in our congregation we want to recognize fellow believers. That’s why since I came, we have chosen not to use titles, well this is doctor so and so, this is Joe, well no. Doctor so and so is just Joe too. There is honor, don’t want to show disrespect, but here in the family of God, we are the family of God. They are not ordinary, they are elders with responsibility to lead. There are teachers that are responsible to teach, there are those serving in this area and this, but we are all what we are by the grace of God not sorted out on the basis of externals.

Come back to James. Verse 8, “If, however you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF,” you are doing well.” James is showing the importance of what he has been saying here. Continuing this same theme, the consistence in our relationships with one another. He goes to the heart of the matter. Commanded to love one another and we are not showing genuine love and not treating this person as unimportant, because of what he doesn’t have, and this person is more important because of what he does have. That is not manifesting God’s love. If you are fulfilling the the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF, you are doing well” (vs8.)

James focuses on loving your neighbor as yourself. That’s good, I mean these Jews could understand that, in a royal law, it comes from God and it has special importance. We know because all the laws fulfilled in the two commands, you love God and you love your neighbor. James is picking up here on this command, (vs9) “But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” You are a law breaker. God’s people are those who were not under the Mosaic Law but we are under the Law of Christ as we have seen in Chapter 1, the law of liberty as we will see in a moment. But if you don’t love your neighbor as yourself, you are a transgressor of the law.

See the connection here of what a believer is to be and not to be. The Jews pride themselves; Jewish believers now but there is inconsistency in a subtle way in their thinking and their practice. This command comes out of the Old Testament, we won’t go back there now. Leviticus 19 and other passages as well. This command is given, repeated by Christ, it’s repeated in the apostles. Paul said the command to “Love your neighbor fulfills the whole law.” So that we treat others how they should be treated. Treat others with respect, with honor doing what is good for them. So, if you show partiality you are committing sin, you are convicted by the law as transgressors. (vs.10) “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.”

Important that you are to see the context of the Law. Particularly the Mosaic Law here, the background, these Jews would have. The Law is a unit we sometimes divide into different sections. But the Jews did not and the Bible does not. It is ONE law. When you break one aspect of the law you broken the Law. You are a law breaker.

So verse 11, “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.” You become one who violated the Law. Well I never killed anyone, but I committed adultery, I never committed adultery but I killed someone. James takes, like we often like at big sins, little sins. He uses major sins as we might categorize it. Immorality and murder, you do one and not the other. That’s the point. Well you break the law, you break the law. If you are not showing love to a fellow believer, you what? You broke the law. That means you are a law breaker and that, inconsistent is one who claims to be a believer and obedient. (vs 12.) “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.” Now we talked about this, law of liberty. Back in Chapter 1 verse 25, “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty…” That’s not the Mosaic Law, that’s not the moral aspect of the Mosaic Law, because the moral, the ceremonial, the civil aspects of the Mosaic Law as we often divide them up are part of the law. You can’t say we have to keep the Moral law but not the civil part of the law. But wait a minute, the law is the law we talk about the Mosaic Law, that’s why it is part to completion in Christ.

Now, there are aspects of it that continue over. We are not antinomian. We don’t believe we are without law, we just say we don’t live under the Mosaic law. There are certain things in the Mosaic law that have been repeated, they are bound by them. We have talked about all the commands in the book of James. This is God commanding us, telling us we must do something. God commands all everywhere to repent. Those are things we must do. So we don’t get confused, we say we are not under the law, we are talking about we are not under the Mosaic law. There are things in the Mosaic law that are repeated and carried over.

We have a law of liberty, our obedience to Christ brings freedom. Remember when we went back to John chapter 8, verse 36, Jesus said “If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed.” Doesn’t mean now we are freed from any restraint, we are freed from any requirements, any commandments, no. We are free from the slavery to sin, to Satan, we are set free.

We are no longer under the Mosaic Law, which was a law of death, because we couldn’t keep it. This is why we died in Christ, Romans 6, the impact of that in Romans 7. How we have been set free, but we have a Law of Liberty among sounds like a contradiction instead of an oxymoron. It’s a law, but a Law of Liberty, because now we have been set free and are free to obey Him. So we pick up this law of Liberty.

Over in James Chapter 2, verse 12. “So speak and so act as those who are to be judged, by the Law of Liberty.” We will be judged, we have been judged in Christ, and sin has been judged. Penalty has been paid, we sang about that wonderful reality. We will be called to account. All of us will stand before Christ and been given account of our lives. James is going to come back to this theme of being judged and knowing that the judge is at the door being prepared for that. So for the believers, my destiny has been settled when I came to trust Christ, but I will be given account of my stewardship as His servant, His slave and we will be judged by the Law of Liberty and if I function as God set me free to function.

In Chapter 7, the comparison of marriage and when a person dies, spouse dies. The surviving spouse is free from the obligation of that. Comparison to the Law. We died to the Mosaic Law, the Jews who were under the Mosaic Law become believers, have been set free. So come to Romans, Chapter 8, verse 1, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” The law referred to what God has done in Christ. Now how are we to live in the liberty He has given to us, as those who have been set free. What the Law could not because it was weak in the flesh, because what God commanded was not wrong, we had no power to do it. None of us could live under the Law, the Law was in operation, the Mosaic Law, and we would still have the same problem. (VS4.) “So that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Back up to Romans 6 for foundation for all of this. Talking about being set free that this Law of Liberty, the Law we have in Christ. We died. In Romans 6. Verse 6, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. (VS7.) For he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him.” So verse 11, ‘Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (VS12), Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,” (VS15), “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! We are not under the Mosaic Law, we have been set free, but we have not been free to live as we please. We have been set from free, from Liberty of Christ to serve Him! (VS18) and having been from sin, became slaves of righteousness.” Down towards the end of verse 19, “present your members as slaves to righteousness, (VS20), for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (VS22) But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

That is what we are talking about when we come back to James and we talk about the Law of Liberty, we have been set free, but don’t misunderstand. People think well that means there are no commands, there are no requirement, I can do what I want. No, we don’t want to misunderstand that that is turning grace into licentiousness. James talks about those we have infiltrated, among believers who turned the grace of God into licentiousness who fail to understand the glorious Liberty we have in Christ. We are truly free, when we can function as God intended us to function in a right relationship with Him.

So, back in James 2, verse 12, “so speak and act as those who are to be judged by the Law of Liberty” now as one who has been set free and knows true freedom by being a slave of righteousness, a slave of the God who created me, to function in right relationship with Himself. For judgment will be merciless to the one who has shown no mercy, triumphs over judgement. Our conduct manifests our character and so if you’re kind of distinguishing decisions on the bases of external, something’s wrong. You’re not manifesting the character of God, you’re not demonstrating the kind of action that would characterize one who lives by the Law of Liberty. You’re not demonstrating love and you’re not showing the mercy of God.

Someone comes in who is nothing. One of the greatest times I had, as I trained for the ministry, was the privilege of going on the street of Philadelphia and sharing the gospel to the homeless. They had nothing to give in return, so to remind here, those who have nothing can have everything and you want to bring the grace and mercy of God to them.

Come back to Matthew Chapter 18, Christ addresses this as characteristics of James. He draws from the Old Testament. In Matthew 18, verse 21, “Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? (vs22) Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Then He talks about the King that had accounts to settle and the forgiveness given, but that person didn’t forgive when he had opportunity. Then he comes down to be judged. Come to down to verse 35, “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.” That recognition of having received mercy from God, if you truly do that, you are what? Ready to show that same mercy. Here in the context of forgiveness. The character of God being manifest and so that’s where you come back to James. He says judgement will be merciless to the one that has shown no mercy.

Same thing Christ showed and that account He gave and the illustration He gave with it. For you to be forgiven so much by God. What is it that you would show mercy to someone else? Give forgiveness to someone else. So in this context we see people in this light. Rich, poor. We see them as God sees them and we recognize what we have to bring to them will make all the difference. If you could sit down with the wealthiest man in the world would you be intimidated? You say boy He’s so rich, He’s so powerful, influential. I don’t know that I can talk to Him. What? He needs what you have. We sit down with the poorest beggar. Would we be comfortable with sharing with Him how you can be reaching Christ? You have to tell the rich man it will be hard for you. You must humble yourself before the living God and acknowledge that you have nothing. And you who were in need of the salvation that He provided in His Son Jesus Christ. And you’re letting go the trust you have in everything to place your full trust in Him.

We have the same message to share. We don’t look at them in their external, trust has to be true of us as a church. Or as one time many years ago we were involved in something. We had a large sum of money. Borrowed from some people that were part of the church in those days. And I preached a sermon, they were offended. They came in and said, if you ever preach something like that again, we will call for all our money. Hmm. Well I guess you better call for your money. Sad thing. I think the passing of time indicated those dear people never did come to know the Lord as far as I know. They left the church over it. They weren’t lost because they left the church, but the fact that their money they thought is what could control things, was a large amount of money. Put a little bit of pressure on us, but by God’s grace people step forward and at the need.

We want to be careful. We’ve had opportunity, we have outreach now. The people who have very little. And it was an initially a shock to some of our congregation when some of these young people pour in and say you know they’re upsetting our church. Don’t know that they fit here. Maybe we ought to start a church for them in their part of town. It’s good for us that they come here right? Good for us? They say well you know we don’t think they fit here. We’re not comfortable with them and you know they are just not like us. They are not quite on our level. It’s good for us to have to adjust isn’t it? You say well, we have to learn.

Thank you, Lord for them. How important they are. Welcome. If they have to be fed, let’s feed them. If they don’t get breakfast before they come here we can serve them breakfast in the morning. Then people have to be inconvenienced. Not only am I going to serve my own kid’s breakfast, now I got to get to church early enough to serve breakfast and then we have to work on how they are going to learn how to behave so they fit. All of this has been good for us.

I thought when we got our initial reactions, I thought well, we really need this Lord. We need them to come in. Flood our church with them. Teach us a good lesson. None not going to bring any money. They are not going to bring any prestige, but what? They’re the people that you have called to come and hear the truth and perhaps experience the grace of God. What more would we want? What are we here for? So I’m glad you’re here if you’re rich, I’m glad you’re here if you’re poor, and I’m glad we all share in the same grace of God.

Let’s pray. Thank You, Lord for the riches of Your grace. Thank You for the wealth we have in Christ. And Lord it is easy for us to get distracted by the world around us and the things of the world and begin to count what the world counts as important, and valuable, and significant. As important, even as your people. Thank You, Lord for the letter that moved James as You spoke through Him and continue to speak today. Thank You, Lord that we can appreciate one another for what You’ve done for us in Christ and the poorest of us are infinitely rich and the richest of us are greatly humbled to have experienced Your grace. Give us boldness with the gospel as we go forth and to be used by us in various places in the days and week before us. May our light shine bright, may the gospel be clear. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.