Open your Bibles now, please, to James, Chapter 2. James, Chapter 2. A monumental event. We've left James, Chapter 1. James, Chapter 2. Our text for today is verses 1 through 4. We'll read that and then we'll pray. James writes, my brothers, Do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in bright clothes and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes and say, you sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Heavenly Father, this morning, We come before your word now, that word which reveals the very thoughts and intentions of our hearts. And like that sharp sword of Hebrews chapter four, cuts into us and takes and exposes that which does not conform to the glory of Christ. and lays it bare for us to see that we might confess it and forsake it and repent of it so that we can be conformed to that glorious image of Christ. Help us, Father, for we surely need it. In Jesus' name, amen. If I were to ask you for a list of the top sins, or top tier sins anyway, that are most abhorrent in the eyes of God, you might say, and rightly so, first of all, number one, pride, because that is the unceasing fountain from which all other sins flow. You don't want to be drinking from that stream. But some others that follow right behind it that we would put up there in high priority would be things like homosexuality, murder, adultery, abortion, idolatry, prostitution, pornography. And we could keep going on with the list. Then there are, those are the ones that usually get the spotlight. Those are the most prevalent in our time. Then you have what you might look at and say, well, there's the second tier of sins in importance, at least from a human standpoint, things like lying or theft. And the list goes on and on. I think very few of us would probably, at least before today, put the sin of partiality at the top of that list. I doubt it would even make our 10 most egregious sins to God. James disagrees with you. I think God does too. It's one of those sins that's not always on our radar because unlike the others that we just mentioned, which seem to need that extra special measure of depravity, at least depravity on display, involved in them. We wouldn't put this one in that category because anybody can do this. None of us wants to think of ourselves in this way. I mean, it's 2025 after all, isn't it? We're enlightened. We don't commit the sin of partiality. That's a first century sin committed by people who are just not as aware as we are today, not as enlightened as we are today. But to say that, that perspective forgets that the depravity of the human heart has not changed. And the partiality is just as very much possible as it is for us today as it was 2,000 years ago. But let me tell you this morning, beloved, that's a sin that has no place in the church. There is nothing there but pain, and it will rip a church apart. You'll see that this morning as we go through this text. Well, so far, as we've been looking at the book of James, he has addressed our response to trials in chapter one, verses one to 12, our response to temptations in chapter one, verses 13 to 17, our response to the word of God itself in chapter one, verses 18 to 27. Now he turns his attention to our response to the sin of partiality or of personal favoritism, to say it the way the text says it. So this is our fourth test of faith in the book of James. And I think that you're going to see this morning the central idea is the sin of partiality is not compatible with a life lived for God and His gospel and is lethal, lethal to the unity of the church. Let me repeat that because it's important. The sin of partiality is not compatible with a life lived for God and His gospel and is lethal to the unity of the church. I wanna show you this this morning in three headings. The first we're gonna call this simply the imperative. There's three headings, they're all I words. The imperative, the illustration, and the indictment. I'll repeat those as we get to each one. So number one, the imperative. Look at verse one. My brothers do not This is the command that James gives us, but I want you, before we even get to the command, to first notice who James is talking to, because it would be really easy for us to just jump over this to go straight to the command. It is singularly believers. He says, it is assumed that he is speaking with Christians here. Now, what I'm about to mention is a bit of a secondary issue in the text, but I think it's worthy of noting because of the world we live in and because of the spirit of the age in which we live in. James is not afraid to confront other Christians or the body of Christ, in general, when he sees a pattern of sin that needs to be addressed. And he does this in love for people who are dear to his heart. The churches to whom he's writing needed confrontation. Now in our day it's widely assumed in the culture that if you confront somebody, if you tell somebody that they're doing something wrong that they particularly love or like to do, whether it's right or not is not the issue. That's considered an act of hate. Have you ever heard that? That is absolutely categorically not true. Biblically, it is required of us. When we see another brother or sister in Christ who is in sin, we are to confront them. We have the responsibility before the Lord to do so. And when it's done right, that is a loving thing. Now we do have to stress when it's done right. In fact, Jesus commands this in Matthew chapter 18, verse 15. He says, now, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault. Between you and him alone, if he listens to you, you have won your brother. That is, as the vast majority of you know, that is the first step of church discipline. The first step of church discipline is one believer who witnesses another believer in sin and goes and sits down and talks with them out of a heart of love. It's required. This, in fact, is the pattern that the Apostle Paul followed with the Apostle Peter. In Galatians 2, verse 11, Paul writes, Later on in this very book in James, James will tell us in James chapter 5 verse 16, therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. And the goal in this is not so that you can condemn someone else. The goal is that in love, they will repent when they've been confronted. That's the idea. The goal is so that their fellowship with the Lord and with other believers can be restored. And so you need to have within the church a culture within the church family and relationships within the church body. You need to have those who can speak into your life in that way. And others in which you have the freedom to speak into their life in that way. And if you don't have that kind of relationship within the body of Christ, you need to have that kind of relationship within the body of Christ. If you don't have it, you don't know each other well enough. That's what needs to exist with us. Otherwise, how can we fulfill these commands? You need to have those who can confront you, and those to whom you are willing to listen when they do. You need that, and you also need to be that for others. And when you do this in love, it is not wrong, and it certainly is not hate. In fact, it's the most loving thing that you can do. And so pastorally, as a fellow believer, James is calling them to recognize an issue that is going on within the churches that absolutely, positively must be addressed, or it will be the death of every one of the churches to which he's writing. So this is important, this is not good, and it is dangerous. And the issue is favoritism. James commands them not to hold their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism, he tells us. Faith in Christ and favoritism are in conflict with one another. Your faith, what you're trusting in for salvation is our glorious Lord. That is the person who your faith is in, right? He is the Lord of Glory. And what James is saying is that favoritism, personal favoritism, you holding one person above another, is not compatible with the one in whom you trust for your salvation. So God's glory and favoritism are mutually exclusive realities. So therefore, if you belong to Christ, if he is your Lord, to show favoritism is contradictory to him, to his character, and to his glory. And since that's the case, if you're engaging in favoritism and claiming Christ is Lord, you are living in hypocrisy. The life we live is to be compatible, it is to be obedient to the one that we call our Lord. And the Bible clearly bears this out. The Old Testament law is the codified representation of God's character and the codified representation of God's glory as well. And what do we find when we look into the law? Well, several texts. The first I'll point out is Leviticus 19.15. Listen to this. It says, you shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial. to the poor, nor defer to the great. You shall not judge your neighbor, or rather you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness." It's Leviticus 19.15. Deuteronomy 1.17 says, you shall not show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the judgment is God's. Deuteronomy 16 verse 19, you shall not distort judgment, justice rather, you shall not be partial and you shall not take a bribe for the bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous. 2 Chronicles chapter 19 verse 7 says, so now then let the dread of Yahweh be upon you. Be careful what you do because with Yahweh our God, there is no unrighteousness, or partiality, or the taking of a bribe. And then finally Proverbs 28 verse 21, to show partiality is not good. Even for a piece of bread, a man will transgress. So it should be clear to us that God despises partiality in his people. At its base level showing partiality is to pervert justice. That's at its base level. And there is a reason that for centuries, for millennia in fact, that justice has been personified, has been shown, has been even made into statues as a woman who is blindfolded and holding a pair of scales in her hand. Why is she blindfolded? She's blindfolded so she only sees the facts of the case. not who the individuals are. So she cannot be partial. So the idea is that partiality has no part in justice if it is going to be administered fairly and righteously. So for God's judgment to be just, for our God to be just himself at the core of who he is within his character, the standards must be applied to all in perfect fairness. In fact, partiality is so excluded from the character of God that when Jesus was upon this earth, even his own enemies understood that he was partial to no one. Listen to this, Matthew 22, verse 16, it says, and they sent their disciples to him. That's speaking about the religious leadership of the day. They send their disciples to Jesus. What's their message? They sent their disciples to Jesus along with the Herodians saying, teacher, We know that you are truthful and teach the way of God in truth and you defer to no one for you are not partial to any. How did they know that? Well, because if the Lord Jesus Christ had been someone who did show partiality, someone who did show favoritism, if he did favor anyone, it would have clearly been the people who were in power. And trust me, they knew that he did not favor them. Clearly, he showed no favoritism to those in power. Jesus' treatment of all people, in fact, was the same. It did not matter what your social status was or the size of your bank account. He did not care. If you repented and trusted in him, Jesus embraced you. If you did not, then he equally called you to do the same, and that call was to everyone equally all over the place. That was all that mattered. He was and is gracious, kind, loving, and impartial to all. And it's so clear that God is impartial that when Christ went to the cross, the Father did not show Jesus any partiality. I mean, we just celebrated that a few moments ago when we were in front of the communion table. He laid all of our sins upon the person of Christ, and there Jesus, upon the cross, paid the full penalty for all of it. Our Heavenly Father did not withhold any wrath as a show of partiality to His Son. He fully satisfied the Father's wrath. God pulled no punches even when it came to Jesus and his suffering. And the scripture tells us this clearly. 1 John 4, verse 10, John writes, in this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. That means the satisfaction. In other words, Jesus is the one who bore all of the wrath and was the father's full satisfaction for all that we owed him. He skipped none of the wrath upon the person of Christ. So Jesus had to pay the full penalty, or there would still be wrath for us to bear, still be wrath for us to pay. And if that's not the case, then God would not be just. His justice requires it. His justice demands a complete lack of partiality. And for Him to give us the righteousness of Christ demanded that Christ bear all of the penalty for our sin. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, there Paul writes, He, the Father, made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. So since Jesus bore the Father's full wrath, that means there is nothing remaining now but peace between us and our God. And by his death upon the cross, he united Jews and Gentiles to God by taking away the wrath that we all deserved. Ephesians 2, verses 15 and 16. Paul writes, so that in himself, this is talking about within the person of Jesus, he might create the two, meaning Jews and Gentiles, into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God. That means he brought us, he took us both by paying for our full debt upon the cross. He took Jews and he took Gentiles. He brought them together and united them into one body, which is the church, and then made peace between that body and the Father also. might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in himself put to death the enmity. So the very character of salvation itself, your salvation requires that God be impartial. And so that's why partiality is not compatible with either God's character or with your salvation. Do you see how deep this goes? How hard-baked this is into both the character of who God is and the salvation that He's provided for all those who trust in Christ. And finally, then this carries through to the Apostles' teaching as you would expect it would. Ephesians chapter 6, several passages here. Ephesians chapter 6 verse 9, Paul writes, He's talking about slave owners in that day or In our day, employers, masters do the same things to them, meaning treating your employees well, giving up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him. In other words, Paul is saying, employers, you better not show partiality against your employees because you have one master who's in heaven, who's master of you both, and he will be your judge. 1 Timothy 5, verse 21, Paul writes to Timothy, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of his elect angels to observe these instructions, he's talking about actually instructions here regarding church discipline, to observe these instructions without bias, doing nothing impartiality. 1 Peter 1 verse 17, Peter writes, And if you address his father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourself in fear during the time of your sojourn. And then finally Jude verse 16, speaking about false teachers, he writes, These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts, and their mouth speaks arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of their own benefit. That's partiality. And there's a motive behind that. We'll get back to that in just a minute. So Paul can emphatically state this in Romans 2, verse 11. Paul says, for there is no partiality with God. So understand this morning, church, that partiality is not part of the character of God, and it is not what He wants in His people. To state it specifically and pointedly, it is not what He wants in you. And so when we understand all that James and these people knew about God, what they understood about Him, even as we read earlier from all of the Old Testament, Understanding what they knew about God with regard to partiality, it is crystal clear that favoritism is not compatible with the character or the glory of God. And it's equally clear that favoritism is to have no part, or rather has no part in our salvation, or is it to have a part in the Christian life? Which is to say it has no part in how you treat each other. This command then is driven home like a nail because of the position it occupies in the Greek text. It's what we call in the emphatic position. James puts a spotlight on it so that you can see it even brighter. So he is unwaveringly dogmatic about this. There's one other thing I think you should see before we leave verse one. there is a very simple principle that really helps us to deal then with the sin of favoritism. And this gives even more God's perspective to us on this matter. Keep your finger here in James chapter two, and then turn all the way back in your Bible to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27. Oh, it's good to hear the pages turning. Genesis 1, verses 26 and 27. It says, then God said. You know what's going on in Genesis 1, don't you? It's creation, right? God is creating. He is forming and then He is filling. And then He creates the animals. and then he creates man. Verse 26, then God said, let us, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, let us make man in, what's it say? Our image. According to, what's it say? Our likeness. so that they will have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. And God created man in His own image. In the image of God, He created him. Are you getting the point? Male and female, He created them. Listen to me and hear me carefully. Every single human being upon this planet is created in the image of God. Social status does not matter. The size of your bank account does not matter. The color of your skin does not matter. Nationality and ethnicity do not matter. Every single human being is created in the image of God. I don't care where you're from, what you look like, or what the size of your bank account is. Therefore, because of that, all people, because we are all created in the image of God, therefore all people have equal dignity before God and all are deserving of the same respect. Does that make sense? And if you simply understand that one principle alone and honor that, then you will have no problem with favoritism. None. Why? Because you understand that God created. And in that creation, He placed His image upon every single human being. That is why it is below the glory of God to show favoritism. It is not in his character. It is not reflected in his creation. It is below the glory of God to show favoritism or to respect one person over another with regard to this. So you don't do that. It is a great offense to the holiness and the created purpose and the created order of God to show favoritism. So this all goes back to the character of God. It all goes back to his creation and his salvation. The saving purposes of God from before creation even existed. That's the imperative. That's the command. Do not hold your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. Second of all, I want you to see the illustration. Look at verses two and three. Four, it's explanatory. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in bright clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the bright clothes and say, you sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man, Yeah, you can stand over there. Or sit down by my footstool. James gives us a tremendous illustration here of what he's talking about in verse one as he starts to unpack that. And to help us with understanding this illustration, you need to know two things that James readers already knew and understood and simply took for granted. Number one, first of all, the vast majority of believers, especially early on, were poor. They were poor. When we started James, we saw that many of them were poor because of the persecution that they endured as they were having to flee from the city of Jerusalem. They were driven from their homes. They lost their jobs. Their assets were seized. Families hated them and cut them out of inheritances. All of this because of their faith in Christ. So number one is they were, the majority of them were poor. Second, they were Jewish. They were Jewish, which meant that first, as we said a moment ago, they were hated by their families. In fact, many parents even held funerals for their children when they came to faith in Christ. Talk about a pointed way to say, you are dead to me. So they lost their inheritance, they lost relationships in order to come to faith in Christ. To get saved was extremely costly. And that did not prevent them from coming to faith in Christ, nor making a public testimony of that faith in baptism. The other problem that Jews had was that hard-baked into their culture, what they had seen demonstrated and displayed and modeled before them all of their lives, was a great propensity to show favoritism. It was hard-baked into the culture. And so if someone did walk into the church with status, even though they knew it was wrong, There was a great temptation within the hearts of people to show them favoritism. As we saw earlier, I read it earlier, that was even the case for Peter who was an apostle. We read that a bit ago in Galatians 2, how Paul had to confront Peter over that sin of partiality that he was showing some of the Jews. And so if Peter is prone to this kind of temptation, if an apostle is prone to this kind of temptation, how much more so would that be true for other people within the body of Christ? So this was an issue. This wasn't just a peripheral thing. It's not a secondary thing. We're gonna see that in a minute, how important it is to the life of the church. This was an issue because most Christians were poor, and there were some also who were not. And so this was not just a hypothetical scenario. It's a hypothetical as James presents it here, but it's very likely to happen. And we have examples in scripture. Nicodemus, who was a believer, would have been very wealthy. Joseph of Arimathea would have been very wealthy. The Ethiopian eunuch, he was a government treasurer. He would have been very wealthy. Cornelius, who was a centurion from the book of Acts. He would have been very wealthy. Lydia, who sold purple fabrics. You couldn't sell purple without being wealthy. Book of Acts also talks about some leading women from Thessalonica. That meant that they were wealthy and from wealthy families. So all of these people and others that are mentioned in scripture are wealthy. And so this was an issue. And the point of all of this is to show that even though partiality is opposed to the very fabric of what it is to be a Christian, that's the temptation. And come on, let's be honest. If you're around somebody who's very well-to-do, it's a whole lot easier to be around them than somebody who's poor and is so poor that their clothing stinks. Right? you're more likely to show partiality to the person who's dressed well. It's appealing to the flesh, isn't it? And whether it's for reasons like wealth, such as James cites here, or other reasons because of someone has a position of power or whatever, it did happen in the early church. James isn't writing about this because it's not a real thing. It is a real thing. In fact, the first occurrence of favoritism that happened on a church-wide scale we find in Acts chapter 6 and it ultimately gave rise to the position of deacon in the church. You remember in Acts chapter 6 you have a certain segment of the Hellenistic Jews who are overlooked in favor of other more native Jews who were viewed as more authentically Jewish. And so what happened in Acts chapter 6 was ethnic favoritism. It was prejudice. And had the apostles not acted, it could have destroyed the Jerusalem church. So they had to make a choice. And the contrast could not be stronger. Were they going to live a life consistent with their glorious Lord, or were they going to follow after the glory of men marked by their bright and glorious clothing and gold jewelry? Were they going to show favoritism based on someone's clothing and appearance, the appearance of their face, their wealth, their position, or are they going to respect each other as created in the image of God and having equal dignity before him? What were they going to do? And so James brings this issue to the forefront so they could deal with it, and so it could be dealt with among us also. So James gives them a hypothetical situation with real consequences for them all. And what you have here is two people arriving at church on a Sunday morning. The one is rich, the other is poor. One is wearing a gold ring. Literally, the way this is written in the original, the way the Greek reads it is gold fingered. The idea is gold covering all of their fingers. Social status then was often determined by the number and quality of rings that a person wore. This person also has bright clothing. That word literally meant to radiate light. In other words, this would have been clothing that has a sheen to it. Something like, perhaps, woven silk. The other man who's described in the text has no ring of any kind, gold or otherwise. Their clothing is dirty, which literally means filthy, and they would have looked terrible and possibly smelled even worse, and that's because wealth was often measured then by the number of changes of clothes that a person had. Often they got their clothing, or often the poor people rather, would only have one change of clothing, and they couldn't wash it because to take it off, to wash it, they didn't have anything else to put on. So to wash it, you've got to be naked, right? It doesn't look great. Poor people didn't have homes in which they could, you know, stroll around naked. And they certainly weren't going to do that in public. Often, poor people were so poor that they got their clothing from the garments that others threw out, so they would have gone picking through other people's trash to get the clothes that they had to wear, because they simply had no other way to acquire clothing. And I'm willing to guess that back in the first century, people probably wore their clothing to a point where it was far more threadbare than we do today, before they throw it out. And then you highlight that difference by paying special attention, direct attention, or to look on these people, the rich, with favor that you don't give to others. And then when the rich person comes in, you have them sit in the good seats. And you make the poor stand in the back. be the furthest away, the position that's the least comfortable. Or worse, James says, you tell them to sit at your footstool, that means, oh, you sit here on the ground. It's the attitude that says you look like dirt, so you might as well sit in it. Paul fought vehemently to keep this kind of thinking out of the churches. We know from the book of Acts that Paul and his associates gathered an offering from the Macedonian churches that were, by the way, very poor to begin with. And the purpose of that was to help with famine relief in the church in Jerusalem. And while the churches of Macedonia were not exactly well off financially, they were in a better position than the church in Jerusalem. And there were far more Gentile converts in the Macedonian churches. than there ever were in the church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem was considered far more prominent. They were considered larger in number than the Macedonian churches, but we don't see any prejudice on the part of the Macedonians, do we? No, in fact, the exact opposite. They gave generously. Their attitude was not, oh, those Jews over in Jerusalem, they're not doing so good. But historically, we Jews and Gentiles haven't gotten along, so sure, we'll take an offering. Here, here's a quarter. That's not what we find. No. 2 Corinthians 8, verses 3, 4, and 5. Listen, this is Paul speaking, and he says, for I testify. He's speaking about the offering that the Macedonian churches gathered to send to Jerusalem. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave. And then you might expect him to say, as we ordered them to. Oh, no. They gave. of their own accord, watch this, begging us. I'm not adding words to the text. This is what Paul writes. Begging us with much urging for the grace of sharing in the ministry to the saints. And this, not as we had expected. But they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. You don't give yourself that way and the stuff that you have, your own possessions, your own financial resources, you don't give that way to people that you're partial against, do you? So showing partiality robs you of the ability to minister to others as you should. It robs you of the opportunity to glorify God as you should. It robs you of the joy of being able to bless others. Do you see how partiality destroys opportunity for ministry to others? How damaging this is? And how could this ever be the heart of God for somebody else, especially for another believer? If you have a heart of partiality against someone else, how are you able to be a source of blessing, a source of love to them? How could you ever reflect God's heart toward them? The answer is you can't. 1 John 3, verses 17, 18, and 19. Listen, this is not just for the people that are like you. It's not just for the people that you like within the church. It's not just for the people of the same social status or stratus or whatever qualification you wanna put in front of it. 1 John 3, verses 17, 18, and 19, John writes, but whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him. Listen, how does the love of God abide in him? What kind of answer do you think he was expecting to get back? Well, John, it doesn't. And then he finishes with this. Little children, let us not love with word or tongue, but indeed in truth. And by this we will know that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before him. Where does our assurance of our salvation come from? by our obedience and love for the brethren, doesn't it? Do you see that? Partiality is sub-Christian. It is sub-Christian. It must be beneath you. Don't let this kind of ungodliness rule your heart. And by the way, throw this in for good measure because the scripture does, What's usually the motive for partiality? Think about that for a minute. Usually somebody shows partiality to others who are well off so they can be treated better by the rich, don't they? That is nothing but selfishness and pride in trying to advance yourself at somebody else's expense. Again, we read this earlier, but it's really important and worth repeating here. Jude, verse 16. These are grumblers finding fault, following after their own lusts and their mouth speaks arrogantly. Listen, flattering people for the sake of their own benefit. Showing partiality so you'll get benefit from it. Surely you already know this cannot be the heart of God. because you know what the heart of Christ is for others, don't you? Philippians chapter two, verses three and four, Paul writes, do nothing from selfish ambition or vain glory, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves, not merely looking out for your own personal interests, but also for the interest of others. Paul says, oh, wait a minute, hang on a second. There is a kind of partiality that's good. And it's the kind of partiality that says, I prefer you before me. That's the partiality that's good. Because that's the partiality that was in the heart of Christ. One other thought here, and it's evangelistic in nature. We don't know if the hypothetical people, the two people strolling into the church here, one rich and the other poor, we don't know if the hypothetical couple refers to other believers entering the church or if it speaks of unbelievers entering the church. The text doesn't specify, does it? If it's two unbelievers, one rich and the other poor, we need to consider the consequences for evangelism to treating one with partiality and looking down upon the other. You are a minister, if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are a minister of the gospel. Period. You are a minister of the gospel, all of us. If we as a church demonstrate favoritism, that has a profound impact on our evangelism. First, for the rich person. If you favor them because of their wealth and because of their status, don't you think they know that? I mean, they're not stupid. They know that. And doesn't that just feed their pride? They know that they're being treated differently because of their wealth. Now, ask yourself, what have I just communicated to that person? Even though we have a God who is not partial and needs no resources, We don't really trust him. We don't really trust that. In fact, it communicates to them that we are so desperate for your money because we don't trust our God to really provide. And when we favor the rich, it screams out that we really trust in man and wealth and materialism. We have replaced God at that point with money. Oh, that's idolatry. That's a terrible testimony, isn't it? And why would they ever be convicted of their sin in that kind of an environment? And why in that kind of an environment would they ever be convicted in their sin and trust in a God for salvation, when we don't even trust in Him for our daily provision? Why in that environment would they be convicted of their sin and trust in a God for salvation, who is a God who has to trust in the rich for His provision? You see the problem with this? So you're not doing the rich any favors to show them favoritism. In fact, you're hurting them and putting roadblocks before them into coming into the kingdom. Second, think of how this impacts the poor. If we treat others better than them, it communicates that God does not care about them. It communicates to them that he is partial, that he looks on them with contempt. Dear friend, that is not your God at all. And even if you have the right gospel, why would that person ever believe in a gospel that demonstrates that they have less value than somebody else? Why would they trust in a God who views them as second class? I mean, how much of a God is God if he's dependent upon the wealth of men? That's just all disgusting, isn't it? And it does not reflect who our God truly is. It certainly does not reflect who the God of the Bible is. So being partial, discriminating is not good for anyone. And not what happens when we just genuinely show the love of God to everybody. What happens then? Well, then each person knows that they are genuinely loved by God. Each person knows from the start of the gospel that they are created in the image of God. Each person sees the love that we have for one another. That's when the gospel is most effectively proclaimed. When you preach the gospel from the motive of love for that person and care for their eternal soul, that speaks volumes. That brings us to the last point. Number three, the indictment. The indictment. Look at verse four. When you do this, James says, verse four, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? The title of the sermon is how to become an evil judge. You want to be an evil judge? Fine, show partiality. It's simple. But see, to make distinctions between ourselves as believers is not for us to all be one, is it? To make distinctions among ourselves as believers is not for us to be undivided. It is to look at some with contempt as if we are somehow better than them. This word literally means to separate or to distinguish or to discriminate. It's awful. What's the truth? The truth is that we are all sinners who have been saved by the grace of God. Any other distinction or consideration in this regard is irrelevant. And to be a church that favors one person over another in this way is utterly abhorrent. Over the years of pastoral ministry, I have literally heard someone refer to a certain segment of a certain congregation as, quote, these are the people who matter. You think that's not discrimination? And they literally said, we view the rest as irrelevant. They're unimportant. They're just the unimportant masses. That is disgusting. Everyone matters to God. and they should matter to you also. 1 John 3, verse 16 says, By this we have known love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. It doesn't say we lay down our lives for the brothers that matter. Partiality is an absolute lack of love for others in the body of Christ. That's an evidence that someone is not saved. 1 John 3, verses 10 and 11, John writes, or by this, the children of God and the children of the devil are manifested. It means to be made obvious. Everyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, as well as the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. What's the impact of this kind of sin upon the church? I mean, think about that. If we're treating some with special regard and others like they're dirt so they can go sit in the dirt, what do you think kind of impact that's going to have on the church? Well, eventually you're not going to have a church, are you? You're just not. It's going to tear that church apart. Favoritism is pain. because it is sin. And it says that some of those for whom Christ died are worthless, or at least they have less value than I do. That's just disgusting. Two thoughts about this phrase that James has here, that we become judges with evil thoughts. First, by doing this, you assume that you have the ability to determine the inherent worth of another human being and that your judgment is correct. And you have ignored that this other person has been created in the image of God. And you've set yourself in the position of God because you believe that you are qualified to judge their worth. This is egregious in the eyes of God. Second, what this does is it points out that all judgment that you and I can make about someone is through external observations. The person that James is talking about here is making judgments about clothing or how much bling somebody wears. They must be important because they have money. Let me ask you, Church, did Christ die for people because they were rich? No, that's not what the Scripture says. The Scripture says that he died for those whom the Father chose. That's what it says. And if they're saved, that Christ died for them. And even if they're not saved, all people deserve the same respect, because again, they're created in the image of God, aren't they? So, we don't treat anybody with partiality, saved or unsaved. Finally, James concludes that this kind of discrimination is an evil thought. It's an evil thought. That demonstrates the condition of the mind and the condition of the heart of the person who has that thought. It's the heart that says, this person is better because they have wealth, or they dress better, or they look like me. Ouch. You see, when you're the evil judge, you always favor people who you perceive to be like you. Don't you? And your motives and your thoughts are evil when you think this way. So the sin of partiality is not compatible with a life lived for God. It's not compatible with his gospel. And it is lethal to the unity of the church. Do you see that now? That should be obvious to us. You can't let that kind of hypocrisy in the door. See, this is something that leadership of our church can be vigilant about. But it's up to every single person who's a part of this church to be vigilant about this, to keep this out of their heart, to not let it gain a foothold in them. And if it is there, and you see it, and I've been talking to you, and you're like, yeah, this is in my heart, and maybe to certain different people to different degrees than others. you need to deal with that before God. You can't let it in the door. We must guard against it because we are one in Christ. We are one in Christ. May the unity we have now always be the heart of this church. Heavenly Father, we don't want this kind of, any kind of evil thought. Father, don't let the sin of partiality have any part within this body. The sword of your word has plunged deep within us. It is cut cleanly and effectively. and it lays the sin of partiality on the table in front of us for all to see. Father, to whatever degree each and every one of us has this, we need to confess it and to repent of it. It's the only way we can honor the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only way we can reflect who you are. It's the only way we can be a testimony for your gospel. It's the only way that we in any way, shape, or form can be a fulfillment of his prayer in the high priestly prayer of John 17, that we be one. Partiality strikes at the heart of the church because it's opposed to your character and because it seeks to divide that which Christ died to unite. Help us, Father. May it never be part of us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.