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James 2:1-13 - Partiality in The Church · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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  Good morning, Calvary Chapel. How could you not think about
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  coming after you heard that glorious invitation, huh?
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  If you're a woman, I'm sure you're thinking about going to
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  the retreat. Please turn in your Bibles this
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  morning to the book of James. We are now in Chapter 2.
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  And while you're doing that, I too would like to echo like to
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  echo our thoughts about those who are visiting here for the
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  first time. Thank you so much for coming.
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  And if you are those who have come before and you've come
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  back, we thank you that you've decided to come back and worship
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  with us this morning. We also want to thank those who
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  are listening on all the various platforms, including those who
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  are listening behind prison walls.
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  We thank you all for taking the time to be with us this morning
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  as we go into God's Word. Amen.
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  So what we're going to do, we're going to go ahead and actually
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  I'm going to do it this way this morning.
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  I'm going to read the Scriptures first, and then we're going to
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  go back and pray and look at them.
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  Would that be OK? OK, OK, so we're going into
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  James chapter 2 and I just want to read it first.
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  It says this, my brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord
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  Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with partiality.
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  For if there come into your assembly a man with gold rings
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  and fine apparel, and there also come in a poor man in filthy
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  clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine
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  clothes, and say to him, you sit here in a good place, and say to
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  the poor man, you stand there, or sit here by my footstool, In
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  other words, sit on the floor. Have you not shown partiality
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  among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
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  Listen, my brother, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the
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  poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom
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  which He promised to those who love Him?
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  But you have dishonored the poor man.
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  Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?
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  Do they not blasphemy that noble name by which you are called?
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  If you really fulfill the royal law, according to the Scripture,
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  you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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  You do well, but if you show partiality, you commit sin and
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  are convicted by the law as transgressors.
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  For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one
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  point, he is guilty of all. For he who said do not commit
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  adultery also said Do not murder.
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  Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you
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  have become a transgressor of the law.
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  So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of
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  liberty. For judgment is without mercy to
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  those, to the one who has shown no mercy, mercy triumphs over
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  judgment. Let's pray.
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  Father, we thank You for Your faithfulness that You would give
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  us this word that we may know Your heart and Your mind
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  concerning all things. We thank you, Lord, that we
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  serve a God that we can know because You show yourself to us.
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  You said if we search you, we will find You when we search for
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  You with all of our hearts. So Father, this morning we're
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  searching for You. We're looking for Your
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  understanding concerning this word.
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  Father, we need Your Holy Spirit to come and reveal this truth to
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  us, that we may rightly divide it and that we may live by it.
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  Father calls us this morning to be changed by what we hear as we
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  walk out of this place. Let us have a new sense of
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  awareness of You and a deeper love for our brothers and
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  sisters and have a deeper urge to be able to to be able to show
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  that love one to another, to be more loving, to be more
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  merciful. We ask you these things, Lord,
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  in the name of our Savior and our Lord.
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  Lord, be with us. Speak to us.
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  Lord, if you don't speak, we have gathered in vain.
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  In Jesus name I pray, Amen. You know, James is the kind of
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  book that it should come with a with an advisory.
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  I mean, this is a real practical book and I love the book of
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  James, but he he hits hard. James hits hard.
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  He's a very direct. So it's almost like it should
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  come with a with a viewer discretion note with it, you
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  know, viewer discretion advise, you know, please be aware the
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  contents of this book contains hard truth, but yet it's what we
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  need to hear and how good it is of the God that we serve that he
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  would prune us this way, cause us to hear things that can
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  sometimes be rough and hard to hear.
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  But yet it could be easy for our hearts to receive if we just
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  open them and allow him to plant that seed in our heart.
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  And he promises us that if that seed is planted, if it's
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  received with soft and and infertile ground, if it's
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  received willingly, if it's received with meekness, he tells
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  us over in chapter 1, if we receive it with meekness, that
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  means if we receive it with humility and with a teachable
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  spirit, then we will bring forth fruit and it's fruit that will
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  remain. So I wanted to be, as we go into
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  this, I do want to just remind you of the way that we started
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  last last week and we looked at the chapter back in Exodus.
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  And I want to go to that again because what James is doing in
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  this book is that he is giving us a glimpse of the character of
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  God when he talks about partiality.
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  And if you remember back in Exodus chapter 34 and today,
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  I'm, I'm just going to start here at verse 6, he says this.
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  And I just want you to listen to and pay attention as he
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  proclaims himself, as he shows Moses his glory.
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  He proclaims these words. Verse 6, chapter 34.
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  And the Lord passed by him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord
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  God merciful. Remember that He is merciful and
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  gracious. That means He is full of grace
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  for all of us. He's long-suffering.
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  That means he's patient with us. Oh God, thank you for being
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  patient with me. Sometime it takes some of us
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  more spankings than others to get it.
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  I don't know if that's you, but that was me.
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  But I thank God that he was patient.
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  He never gave up on me. Every time I reached up, he
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  reached down and grabbed hold of me.
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  He never left me in the muck, in the mire of life.
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  He pulled me out every time I turned to him.
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  That's the kind of God we serve to maybe a lot of people who
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  will give up on you. Look, I, I, I, I, I'm, I'm
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  sorry. I, I can't deal with you
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  anymore. I can't, I can't rock with you
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  anymore. I think it's a term.
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  Is that the term young people use now?
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  Is, is that right? I can't rock with you anymore.
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  Is is that right? Will.
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  I can't rock with you no more. You know, I'm we've been around
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  this corner too many times. You've disappointed me too many
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  times. But God's not like that.
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  He forgives and forgives and forgives.
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  He's also abounding in goodness and truth.
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  That's mercy that that that's grace.
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  It's kindness and truth. Last week we talked about how
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  good God is and even in giving us this instruction on
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  partiality is a another extension of his goodness to us
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  that we would know him. And then he says keeping mercy
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  for thousands forgiving. Yes, He's a forgiving God.
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  He's forgiving. He forgives our iniquity, He
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  forgives our transgression, and he forgives our sin.
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  And when God Forgives, he throws it into the sea of forgetfulness
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  that will never have to come up again.
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  You'll never be judged by that again.
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  You'll never have to hear that again.
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  I know sometimes with each other we may say we forgive you, but
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  every now and then I got to throw it up to remind you, you
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  know, some things that you did to me.
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  But God is not like that. When he forgives, he forgives
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  it. The problem is sometimes we
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  don't forgive ourselves. So it keeps coming up and the
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  enemy keeps throwing it at us. So this is how good God is.
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  So we go back over here to James now remembering those things
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  about those qualities about our God.
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  You know, it was interesting that Moses had asked to see his
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  glory and he told Moses, I can't show you my glory because you
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  wouldn't be able to look into my face and live.
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  But as he walked by Moses, he did show his glory as he
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  proclaimed those things that we just talked about.
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  That is the glory of God. That is the glory of God.
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  He is merciful. He is long-suffering.
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  He is he's a bounding with goodness and truth.
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  That is the glory of God, and that's the glory that we have to
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  look forward to one day of being with Him in eternity.
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  What a blessing. So we go back here now to
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  chapter 2 in the book of James and he says, my brother, do not
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  hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with
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  partiality. He says don't hold it.
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  And that word whole really means it means to maintain, don't
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  maintain or don't practice. Don't practice your faith from
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  the Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.
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  Don't maintain that you know the whole means to maintain a belief
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  or a practice. And James is saying, I don't
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  want we, we can't practice the true faith in Jesus Christ if
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  we're holding on to or if we are maintaining or as we are
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  practicing partiality and favoritism.
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  We had said before that when we get saved, we put on Christ,
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  we're clothed in Jesus Christ, but being clothed in Jesus
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  Christ, and then we practice something like favoritism and
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  partiality, then we have to look on ourselves and say what
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  doesn't go with this outfit? Partiality doesn't go with our
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  outfit of that we're clothed in in Jesus Christ because that's
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  not who Jesus is. Now partiality, you know, like
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  we said, it is favoritism, it's bias, it's giving, it's giving
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  preference to one over another based on a number of factors,
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  based on social status, based on wealth.
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  Some people who are partial or give favoritism based on
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  someone's color or their ethnicity, based on their
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  clothing or appearance. That's a number of things that
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  we may choose to give one person favor over another.
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  But, but, but even when it comes to like racism or, or, or
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  discrimination, any kind of favoritism or partiality in God
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  is wrong because it's not consistent with God's character
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  in Romans 211, Paul said. For there is no partiality with
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  God. He doesn't choose one over
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  another for any reason. We're all special in the eyes of
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  God. There's none of us that's more
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  important than the other. It has nothing to do with title.
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  It has nothing to do with position and God.
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  We're all one in Christ. There was also a comment that
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  was made about God's partiality in the book of Acts when our
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  brother Peter was called out to talk to to Cornelius's home.
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  And it was a room full of Gentiles, which a Jew would have
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  never went and socialized with a room full of Gentiles.
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  So going there and hearing their heart, he said this, He said, in
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  truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every
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  nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted
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  by him. That's the only thing that God
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  distinguishes between. It's good and evil, it's
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  faithfulness and wickedness, or godliness and ungodliness, true
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  and lies. That's the only thing that He
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  discriminates. But as far as the people are
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  concerned, we are all one in Christ Jesus.
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  Now here James is talking about partiality in the church with
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  the treatment of the rich versus the poor.
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  And James says now to treat someone who is rich and well,
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  better dressed or someone who maybe, you know, maybe someone
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  who has more money. And we can tell that by the
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  rings. You know, back in those days,
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  you know, people could tell the status of other people by the
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  way they were dressed and by the jury that they had on.
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  And sometimes when he talks about these gold rings, there
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  are people who used to go and actually there are places they
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  could go and actually rent gold rings to wear at certain events
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  so that they can establish their status among the other people,
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  separates them, if you will, from other people.
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  And then of course, to choose them over a poor person who may
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  be wearing filthy clothes is wrong.
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  So in verses 2 and three, he gives that example, the example
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  of a poor man and a rich man. And he says here, have you not
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  in verse 4, have you not shown partiality among yourselves and
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  become judges with evil things if you show the rich man more
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  attention or more favor than the poor man?
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  So in other words, he says, because someone comes in and
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  they look like they have money and they're wearing very nice
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  clothes and they're wearing a jewelry, and you can tell that
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  this may be a person of wealth. You put them in a very good
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  seat, you give them the the, the good seat and then someone comes
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  in behind them and they may smell, they may have, they may
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  be wearing filthy clothes because they don't have the
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  money to buy the clothes that that this rich person has.
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  And you just disrespect them. Just totally disrespect them.
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  I don't go stand over there somewhere.
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  Stand over there or, or, or just sit by my foot here.
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  This is my seat here and this is my foot stool.
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  Sit on the floor by my foot stool.
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  Just totally dishonor the poor. That is not the heart of the
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  Lord. He didn't do it to us.
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  He didn't do it to us. So, so even in Leviticus, back
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  in Leviticus 1915, he teaches us, he says do not pervert
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  justice. Do not show partiality to the
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  poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
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  Exodus 23 and three says do not show favoritism to a poor man in
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  his lawsuit. Justice should be blind and both
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  rich and poor should be treated equally before the law.
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  Hence we see the Lady of Justice with a blindfold on.
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  It's supposed to mean that she is blind and doesn't see who it
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  is that's coming to court, what color they are, how much money
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  they have. They're going to be judged
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  fairly. That's the way it's supposed to
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  be. But we also know that we're
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  human and that the justice system is run by human beings.
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  And sometimes there are favoritism shown, impartiality
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  and things of that nature, unfortunately, but that is not
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  of the Lord. That is not of the Lord, and it
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  definitely should not be here in the church.
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  The fact that James was addressing this issue obviously
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  meant that it was something that the early church was
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  experiencing. And unfortunately, we
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  experienced it today in the church.
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  Every time I read this section, the Bible, I have to repent.
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  And the reason why is because I've experienced in a church
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  before, a church that practiced partiality.
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  People were treated different by who they were based on their
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  popularity. Maybe they were well known
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  gospel singers or well known preachers, nationally known
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  preachers, or even family. Family was treated different.
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  We experienced those kind of things.
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  And when I read this, when I read this, even then I got
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  convicted by the fact that he participated in it.
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  But you know what? I have a mentor who taught me
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  that when you know better, you do better.
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  And that's true of all of us. When we know better, we do
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  better. So there may be things that we
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  have done before, but then once we get into the Word of God and
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  He teaches us the right from the wrong, the evil from the good,
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  the righteous from the unrighteous, the godly
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  behavioral versus ungodly, we behave behavior we know, and we
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  can do better with the power of the Holy Spirit to help to
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  change our hearts. Amen.
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  We've all done things before that we did and we didn't think
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  much about it. And then we get into the Word of
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  God and bam, it comes to our hearts and it lets us know that
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  this is something that does not please the Lord but thank Him
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  for His grace. He doesn't hold it against us
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  when we come and we repent. His arms are still open.
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  Just like our kids, right? Just like our kids.
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  So here in verse four he says here he says that have you not
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  shown partiality among yourselves and become judges
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  with evil thoughts? You see Jesus show no partiality
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  at all in his ministry. He didn't have to He he loved
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  and he died for the whole world. Part of the reason why people
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  show partiality is because they want to try to get an advantage.
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  Often times they think that a person comes in with a lot of
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  money or person with position. They think in some kind of way
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  this could be an advantage and that's why they would show
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  partiality. They think they can get
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  something from the person with money that they cannot get from
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  someone who doesn't have the money or the status.
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  Even if it's just hanging around with them.
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  Oh boy, maybe people see me in a different light if I just hang
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  around this person that everybody knows and everybody
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  likes. I don't want to hang around that
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  person. They don't have any status.
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  Nobody knows them. But yet we come into church
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  where we're all one and we worship together.
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  I think I mentioned, I think I mentioned the church out in New
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  York where there is you walk in that you walk in that church and
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  there's no certain section for those who have wealth and those
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  who were or popular or those who have public fame.
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  There was no special section for them.
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  Everybody worshipped together. You had a, you may have a woman
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  who's wearing a mink coat with gold rings beside a man who was
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  homeless and they're worshipping next to each other.
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  And see in the old church, it could probably be that way.
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  Actually in the old church, when that when, when, when the
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  Christians, when the believers will go to church, it could be
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  the slave who was the actual pastor of the church, the actual
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  one that's doing the teaching could be a slave, but they are
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  worshipped together if they're truly about Jesus Christ.
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  So he says, you know, have you not shown partiality among
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  yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts, judges with evil
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  thoughts. And that's exactly what
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  motivates, it's the evil motives that motivates us to be partial
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  and to get favoritism because we're not trusting God to give
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  us what we need. We're thinking that if we can
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  get it from this person that has a lot of money, then then you
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  know, if we can, if we can buddy up with them, then that will
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  take care of a financial need that we have.
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  But then that would be not trusting God.
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  That would be not trusting the Lord who provides all things for
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  us. Jesus showed no partiality in
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  his ministry. In fact, He said He died for
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  everybody. And the oldest, you know the
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  most publicized Scripture that we have, John 316 said to God,
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  For God so loved the world. He loved everybody that He gave
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  His only begotten Son. And whoever believed on him
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  shall not pass, not whoever had money, not whoever was this
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  color, whoever was that color, but whoever believed on him
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  shall not perish, but have ever a lasting life.
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  When Jesus walked the earth, He didn't.
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  He didn't show favoritism to one group or another.
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  In fact, He broke down all those barriers.
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  He ate with the sinners, He talked to women.
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  He broke down all those barriers that they had in those
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  particular times. Jesus saw the heart.
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  He didn't judge by the outward. So then we go to verse 5 and it
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  says, listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the
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  poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom?
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  Has he not chosen, chosen the, the, the, the, the, the, the,
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  the, the, the poor of this world?
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  Now we know that in the culture, the current culture, sometimes
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  they do have their hierarchy of things.
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  You know, these people should not associate with those people.
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  These people should not associate with these people.
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  And if you're a lawyer or if you're a doctor or if you're a
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  judge or if you're of a, a person of high status, then
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  that's pretty much who your, your, your, your peer group is.
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  And, and they're not saying anything wrong with hanging out
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  with people that you know well or people who you have in common
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  things in common with. But the question here is how do
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  you treat those who are not? It's not who you associate with,
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  but how do you treat those who are not, is the question, Do I
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  treat someone badly because they're not in my group?
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  Do I neglect them? Do I abandoned, do I abuse them
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  because they're not a part of my group?
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  That goes to be the question. We know that, you know, we know
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  like you said and and you know, God came and preached to the
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  poor. He didn't neglect the poor.
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  He came and preached to the poor.
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  In biblical times, those who were rich were privileged, the
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  poor were despised. But Jesus preached to the poor.
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  In fact, not only did Jesus preach to the poor, he was born
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  to 2 poor parents. He was born and very humble and
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  a very humble environment in a through and the first time he
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  was announced by the angels, he was announced to a bunch of poor
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  shepherds in a field. Jesus never put himself above
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  anybody. The poor believers in third
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  world countries, you know, we, you know, when they talked about
• 26:58
  the fact that, you know, the, that there's the poor, this
• 27:01
  world that is rich in faith. I think about the, the, the,
• 27:05
  the, the, the people in third world countries who we send
• 27:08
  missionaries to those countries and we preach Christ to them.
• 27:11
  And I'll never forget some of the, I've never gone on
• 27:16
  missionary trips or anything, but I remember hearing from
• 27:20
  missionaries that I've had a relationship with or spoke with.
• 27:24
  And they would always share with me how the people would respond
• 27:29
  when they would get a Bible, how they would hold that Bible.
• 27:35
  They would hold it and hug it and embrace it because they knew
• 27:39
  they had the word of God. And they would just, some of
• 27:43
  them would just cry because they were holding the word of God.
• 27:50
  They didn't have anything else. They didn't have decent homes.
• 27:54
  They, most of them probably didn't even have running water
• 27:58
  poor, but they were rich and faithful because they knew that
• 28:05
  this life was going to be temporary.
• 28:08
  But they have an inheritance that's waiting for them, an
• 28:12
  inheritance that's incorruptible, an inheritance
• 28:15
  that does not fade away. They have their riches.
• 28:20
  It's waiting for they got, they laid up riches in heaven that
• 28:25
  cannot be corrupted, and they held on to that faith of being
• 28:32
  with Jesus one day and it helped him get through it.
• 28:35
  Think about some of the martyrs, the martyrs that would be badly
• 28:42
  persecuted because of their belief in Jesus Christ, but yet
• 28:49
  they would hold on and they would smile and they will
• 28:51
  continue to sing praises unto God because they knew that this
• 28:55
  was not the end. Brothers and sisters, we need to
• 28:58
  realize that. I don't know what situation you
• 29:01
  may be in, but this is not the end.
• 29:04
  This is not the end. There's something that we look
• 29:09
  forward to. Just as they did.
• 29:13
  So those who were rich or poor financially or in status, but
• 29:19
  yet they were rich in faith. And then you look at the the
• 29:26
  verse verse, the end of verse 5 when it says that, yeah, they're
• 29:30
  rich in faith and also heirs of the Kingdom, which he promised
• 29:33
  to those who love him. So everyone who loves and
• 29:38
  believes in the Lord Jesus Christ have this promise of the
• 29:42
  Kingdom rather rich or poor. See, James here is not making
• 29:48
  some kind of a complaint against people who have money.
• 29:50
  That's not what he's doing. What he's doing here is saying
• 29:55
  that because you have money or even because you're poor, that
• 30:00
  doesn't give anybody a right in the church to show favoritism
• 30:04
  one way or the other. This is all James is saying,
• 30:08
  because even because the rich also, if they're, if they're
• 30:14
  rich in faith as well as financially, they have an
• 30:18
  inheritance in heaven common because they understand that I
• 30:23
  don't put my trust in the riches that I have.
• 30:26
  My trust is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 30:32
  So it's promised to them who love him, those who choose him,
• 30:35
  those who, who, who, who obey him.
• 30:39
  Those are the ones who have this promise of the Kingdom of
• 30:43
  heaven, those who are rich in faith, those who obey Jesus
• 30:46
  Christ and those who and those who endure the testing of their
• 30:50
  faith. According to James chapter 1 and
• 30:52
  verse 12, when it says blessed is the man who endures
• 30:55
  temptation for he had for when he is approved, he will receive
• 31:00
  the crown of life. We all have that to look forward
• 31:04
  to. So we hold on.
• 31:07
  Verse 6 says, but you have dishonored the poor man.
• 31:12
  Do not the ritual, do not the rich oppress you and drag you
• 31:15
  into courts? Do they not blasphemy the noble
• 31:19
  name by what you're called? What James is talking about here
• 31:22
  is the fact that, you know, like I said, the rich were
• 31:24
  privileged, they had money and they had influence.
• 31:28
  The poor did not. So often times the rich in that
• 31:32
  community or in that time, they would take advantage of those
• 31:35
  who are poor and take their land and drag them into court because
• 31:40
  of their influence. Things would be persuaded their
• 31:44
  way. They could persuade things their
• 31:46
  way and they would take the land of those who were poor or or
• 31:52
  those who were poor may owe them something.
• 31:55
  So because they owed them, they would take their land, they
• 31:58
  would get them in debt and take their land.
• 32:00
  So the, the what he's talking about are those who were rich
• 32:04
  who did abuse and oppress those who were poor.
• 32:10
  That's not all of them, but there are some who did in the
• 32:13
  church and he said they drag you in the court.
• 32:17
  That means they'll force you to go to court so that they can get
• 32:20
  a ruling to be able to take your land or your property or
• 32:24
  whatever. Taking advantage was a tough
• 32:29
  thing they said. Do they not blasphemy that noble
• 32:33
  name by which you were called. See the word, the name
• 32:36
  Christian, although we love being called Christians, but
• 32:42
  back at that particular time when it first, when the first
• 32:45
  believers were called Christians, it was a way of
• 32:47
  mocking them. It was a way of mocking them.
• 32:51
  They were mocked. By that I mean, you know, they
• 32:52
  it was a way that they could distinguish them from other
• 32:55
  people. They felt they thought they were
• 32:56
  procure your people. They were they were strange
• 32:58
  people. These Christians, you followers
• 33:00
  of Jesus Christ, you followers of that guy.
• 33:04
  I mean, you know, they, they mocked them and they also
• 33:07
  identified them as ones to be persecuted.
• 33:12
  Paul even did that. Saul even did that.
• 33:15
  He went out looking for Christians to persecute before
• 33:19
  God got a hold of his heart. So he said, if that's the case,
• 33:24
  then why if they if they're if they're abusing you the way that
• 33:27
  they do and they drag you in the court and they blast in your
• 33:31
  noble name, why do you give them preference over someone else?
• 33:37
  You're giving preference to someone who dishonors those who
• 33:41
  God honors. Why would you do that?
• 33:47
  Then verse 8 says, but if you really fulfill the royal law
• 33:51
  according to the Scripture, you shall love you shall love your
• 33:55
  neighbor as yourself. You do.
• 33:57
  Well, isn't it amazing how the Bible always comes back to the
• 34:03
  foundation of love? It always comes back to the
• 34:07
  foundation of love, no matter what.
• 34:11
  He's saying here that the favoritism and partiality is
• 34:15
  wrong. How can we avoid being partial?
• 34:20
  How can we avoid showing favoritism to love our neighbor
• 34:24
  the way we love ourselves? That's how.
• 34:30
  That's how, how can we stop slandering our neighbor?
• 34:35
  How can we stop gossiping about our neighbor?
• 34:37
  How can we stop, you know, assassinating their character by
• 34:43
  loving them as we love ourselves?
• 34:49
  That's how how can we stop committing adultery and wanting
• 34:54
  to kill, you know, people that we that we get upset with by
• 34:58
  loving one another, loving our neighbors.
• 35:05
  We love ourselves when the amazing thing that the Bible
• 35:10
  always comes back to love. And that's why Jesus says that
• 35:13
  the greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as you love
• 35:19
  yourself. It's the greatest commandment,
• 35:23
  the only commandment, true commandment that he gave the
• 35:26
  apostles was in James, I'm sorry, was in Matthew 13, John
• 35:30
  13. Rather when he says that you
• 35:34
  love one another as I have loved you, that's where it starts.
• 35:39
  That's the foundation of everything that we are in Christ
• 35:43
  Jesus is love. He said by this, wait a minute,
• 35:47
  you mean not by how well I can sing?
• 35:48
  No. You mean that not by how well I
• 35:51
  can preach or or or or teach? No.
• 35:54
  You mean not by how well I can I can come in and and and worship?
• 35:58
  No, not by how well I can quote Scripture.
• 36:03
  No. The way that people know that
• 36:07
  you are my disciples is that you have love one for another.
• 36:14
  That's how that's how important it is.
• 36:18
  So he's saying here, that's how we can avoid being partial or
• 36:22
  showing favoritism if we just obey that commandment and to
• 36:26
  love one another as we love ourselves.
• 36:29
  Verse 9 says, But if you show partiality, you commit sin and
• 36:34
  are convicted by the law as transgressors came flat out and
• 36:39
  said it here that showing favoritism and showing
• 36:43
  partiality is a sin. Verse 10 says For whoever shall
• 36:49
  keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is
• 36:54
  guilty of all. For he who said do not commit
• 36:58
  adultery also said do not murder.
• 37:01
  Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, then
• 37:06
  you have become a transgressor of the law.
• 37:08
  So what is he saying here? What he's saying here is that,
• 37:13
  listen, it doesn't matter how well we do and all these other
• 37:16
  things and all these other areas of God's commandments, but if we
• 37:23
  break one, we would be guilty of them all.
• 37:27
  We're guilty of them all. So when someone comes in and
• 37:32
  they say, well, you know what? I, I, I, I'm living, I'm living,
• 37:35
  right? I'm doing this and I'm doing
• 37:37
  that and, and I'm keeping this on.
• 37:39
  I'm keeping that law. However, I show favoritism
• 37:43
  within. What James is saying here is
• 37:45
  that that favoritism is, is also a sin that needs to be repented
• 37:51
  of. It's no different.
• 37:55
  He is not saying, I'm going to tell you what he's not saying.
• 37:58
  He's not saying that we are to keep the law.
• 38:01
  That's not what he is saying, but what he is saying He's given
• 38:03
  us the significance of even of even a a, a, a sin that some
• 38:11
  will consider to be mild or less severe than others.
• 38:16
  He said you need to repent for that as well.
• 38:19
  When God puts his finger on that, you need to repent for
• 38:21
  that as well. It's a sin and all
• 38:28
  unrighteousness is sin according to the Scriptures.
• 38:34
  All unrighteousness is sin. So if I decided with brother
• 38:39
  Jerry, Brother Cliff and myself, we decide we going to lose our
• 38:45
  minds one weekend and we going to go rob a bank.
• 38:54
  So Cliff goes in first. Cliff comes out with 15,000,000.
• 39:05
  Jerry goes in after Cliff. Jerry comes out with 10 million.
• 39:11
  I go in and I come out with 1,000,000.
• 39:16
  We all get caught. We all get caught Now.
• 39:20
  Do you think that the 15,000,000 or the 10 million is any more of
• 39:27
  a sin than my 1,000,000? We're all getting caught and
• 39:32
  we're all going to be sentenced. The wait doesn't matter.
• 39:38
  All unrighteousness is sin. All unrighteousness is sin.
• 39:45
  He's not going to say, well, you know what?
• 39:47
  You know you, you only took, you only took a million, so we're
• 39:50
  going to let you go. No, no, I need to repent for
• 39:53
  that million, just like they need to repent for the 15 and
• 39:56
  the and the and the and the 10. If we keep 98% of the laws, what
• 40:01
  he's saying here, if we keep 98% of the law, but we fail in one
• 40:05
  point of the law, then we are guilty of it all.
• 40:09
  That's why it was so important that Jesus came, y'all?
• 40:13
  That's why it's so important that Jesus Christ came, because
• 40:16
  as Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, we don't have to be
• 40:19
  judged in, in, in, in righteousness by how or what we
• 40:23
  do. We keep all them.
• 40:26
  No, we don't have to keep all the law.
• 40:28
  We don't have to. We don't have to be in bondage
• 40:30
  to all of the law because Jesus Christ came and fulfilled all of
• 40:39
  the law. But what we have, we can repent
• 40:44
  for the sins that we commit, and we're given grace.
• 40:49
  Bible says we can come boldly before the throne of grace that
• 40:53
  we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of
• 40:57
  need. Verse 12 says, and we're coming
• 41:04
  in for a landing. Verse 12 says so speak and so do
• 41:14
  as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.
• 41:20
  So speak and so do as those who are going to be judged by the
• 41:24
  law of liberty. Now we already established the
• 41:26
  fact that there is no favoritism with God.
• 41:33
  There's no favoritism with Him. There's no partiality with God,
• 41:39
  and it should not be with us. You see, Jesus died, and when he
• 41:48
  died, he broke. He broke down all those walls
• 41:51
  that separated the people. He broke down the walls that
• 41:56
  separated the Jews from the Gentiles.
• 42:00
  He broke all those walls down that separated the differences.
• 42:04
  And it should be in the church today.
• 42:07
  There should be no walls that separate us with each other.
• 42:14
  We should love everybody. We should treat everybody with
• 42:16
  love and respect and dignity the same way Jesus did.
• 42:23
  But even more important, we need to remember that we are
• 42:27
  recipients of his mercy. And because we were recipients
• 42:33
  of His mercy, then we need to be mindful to be merciful to
• 42:38
  others. You see, we are both we, we are
• 42:44
  the recipients of both His love and His mercy.
• 42:49
  But we should also understand that we are also the channels
• 42:54
  through which His love and mercy flows to others.
• 43:01
  We have to get that. We have to get that.
• 43:05
  I pray that the Lord really puts that in my heart so that I
• 43:08
  realize that under all circumstances, I need to be a
• 43:14
  channel of God's love and mercy to others, to others, and not
• 43:22
  treat people the way I think they deserve to be treated, but
• 43:26
  to treat people the way the Word of God tells me to treat them.
• 43:32
  That's where we got to get to. So it says, so speak.
• 43:36
  That means the language that we use, the words that we speak and
• 43:41
  so do that means our actions, our behavior toward each other.
• 43:46
  We should, we should speak and do those things as though of
• 43:51
  those of us who will be judged by the law of liberty or the law
• 43:55
  of freedom. And I thank God that we can be
• 44:00
  that we're going to be judged by the law of freedom.
• 44:02
  This not talking again, it's not talking about salvation, but all
• 44:05
  of us will stand before the judge.
• 44:07
  All of us will stand before God and we'll have to give an
• 44:10
  account on what we do in these bodies.
• 44:13
  May not be for salvation, but maybe it's for rewards with us
• 44:15
  who are relievers. But we'll have to stand before
• 44:18
  God one day and have to and have to account for the things that
• 44:22
  we've done. So we should do that knowing
• 44:25
  that the God who showed me mercy, so I should speak to
• 44:31
  others with a merciful tongue and I should treat others with
• 44:36
  mercy because it's the God of mercy who will one day judge me.
• 44:44
  And also he goes on in verse 13, praise and worship team, you can
• 44:47
  come forward. And in verse 413, he says for
• 44:52
  judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy,
• 45:00
  mercy triumphs over judgement. Matthew 5 and seven tells he
• 45:06
  said blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
• 45:13
  They're merciful. This is not saying it's always
• 45:18
  important to be able to identify what the verse is not saying.
• 45:23
  This is not saying that because I show mercy to somebody that I
• 45:29
  earn my salvation because I show mercy.
• 45:32
  That's not what James is saying. We can't earn our salvation no
• 45:37
  matter how much mercy we show. We can.
• 45:41
  And thank God we don't have to because Jesus Christ already
• 45:43
  took care of that on the cross. But what he is saying that if we
• 45:48
  are saved, if we are truly saved, and if we truly have this
• 45:53
  relationship in this heart for Jesus Christ, we will show
• 45:57
  mercy. We will show mercy, and it's
• 46:02
  only those who show no mercy that would indicate that there's
• 46:06
  no relationship with Jesus Christ.
• 46:08
  Now, none of us show mercy all the time.
• 46:11
  None of us do. And this word is not to go out
• 46:16
  and say you should feel guilty because you don't show mercy.
• 46:19
  You're going to hell. That's not what this word is.
• 46:21
  That's not what this is about. This is God's loving way through
• 46:25
  His Word to show us His heart, and His heart is that we don't
• 46:32
  show favoritism or partiality. That is not the heart of God,
• 46:38
  but to treat everyone with love, respect, and dignity.
• 46:46
  Everyone. That's the heart of God because
• 46:50
  that's what Jesus did when He came.
• 46:53
  That's what He did. That's the way he walked with
• 46:57
  love, respect and dignity and and merciful.
• 47:02
  Now with Jesus, you always use the word compassion.
• 47:05
  We too should use the word compassion because it tells us
• 47:12
  over in first Peter. I love this verse, by the way,
• 47:19
  First Peter chapter 3. I'm going to go and turn to it.
• 47:26
  You don't have to turn to it if you don't want to, but I want to
• 47:28
  read this because I think it's just really important.
• 47:31
  First, Peter, chapter 3, he says this in closing verse 8.
• 47:42
  Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one
• 47:47
  another, love his brothers, be tender hearted, be courteous,
• 47:53
  not returning evil for evil. I can't treat you the way I
• 47:58
  think you deserve to be treated by returning that evil that
• 48:01
  you've treated me with, with more evil, he says.
• 48:04
  Don't do that. Or reviling for reviling.
• 48:07
  I can't revile you because you reviled me.
• 48:12
  But On the contrary, blessing, I'm commanded to treat you with
• 48:17
  blessing, knowing that you were called to this.
• 48:21
  That's what we're called to. We're called to treat people
• 48:27
  with courtesy. We're called to treat each other
• 48:31
  with loving kindness. We're called to treat each other
• 48:35
  with a tender, with tender heartedness and compassion for
• 48:38
  one another. We're called to that.
• 48:41
  We are not called to be evil to one another.
• 48:47
  We're not called as I always use the example with David, when
• 48:52
  Saul threw the spear at David, David didn't throw the spear
• 48:58
  back. And because of that, Saul was
• 49:04
  afraid of David because he said David behaves himself wisely.
• 49:12
  So I pray that in this message, we, we heard the Lord's heart
• 49:19
  concerning favoritism. And there's a lot of ways that
• 49:22
  we can do it. You know, sometimes we can grow
• 49:24
  up in families and in our culture, we can grow up with a,
• 49:28
  with, with, with an environment that basic that basically
• 49:33
  teaches us to show favoritism, favoritism or teaches us to show
• 49:38
  discrimination just by nature of the culture that we grew up in.
• 49:43
  But being in Jesus Christ, we're freed from all that.
• 49:46
  We're free from the expectation of showing favoritism towards
• 49:50
  someone because they're different from me.
• 49:53
  We're free from the expectation of not hanging out with somebody
• 49:56
  because they don't live in a house as nice as mine.
• 50:00
  We're free from those expectations being in Christ
• 50:03
  Jesus. And instead we're called to be
• 50:09
  to be courteous. We're called to love his
• 50:12
  brothers. We're called to have compassion.
• 50:15
  Amen.