Good morning. It's good to be back after a week away. We had a refreshing time in Tennessee and got to be there for our nephew's first birthday and it was a good time. But we are grateful to be back with our dear church family and to worship with you and to minister God's word to you. Well, we're opening our Bibles once again to James chapter two, James chapter two. And for this morning, we're picking up with the verses that we left off with last time, namely verses 1 through 7. James chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. A passage that I've entitled, Faith and Favoritism. Faith and Favoritism. As you know, the book of James lays out for us a series of tests. Tests of living faith. Tests of saving faith. That is, tests by which we can examine ourselves to determine if our faith is genuine or not, if our religion is real or unreal, if we are saved or unsaved. So far, we have considered three of those tests, all in the first chapter. The test of trials and temptations, the test of responding to the word, and the test of true religion. Well, now we come to the next test in this challenging letter, And that is the test of impartial love. The test of impartial love. Let's read the text together. James 2, starting in verse 1. My brethren, 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 fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, And you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, you sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? but you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?" As I pointed out last time, the key word in this text is found at the end of verse 1, and that is the term favoritism. Favoritism. A related form of the word is found in verse 9, translated there as partiality. In fact, I told you last time that verses 8 and 9 are really the key to understanding this entire section, all the way from verse 1 down to verse 13. That's one major section, and verses 8 and 9 are the key to understanding it all. Verse 8, if, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. In other words, love and partiality are polar opposites. They are mutually exclusive. If you're loving your neighbor, you're doing well. You're not showing favoritism. But if, on the other hand, you show partiality, then you are not loving your neighbor. You cannot do both simultaneously. So having mentioned in chapter 1 that one mark of true religion is love, James now calls us to show impartial love equally to all by avoiding personal favoritism. The lesson that he teaches us here is really this. Favoritism is inconsistent with the Christian faith. Favoritism is inconsistent with the Christian faith. So we can know that our faith is genuine. We can know our religion is real. We can know that we are truly saved by our impartial love. And James teaches us that in verses 1-7 by presenting an exhortation, an illustration, and a justification. We looked at the exhortation last time, look at verse 1. In other words, you claim to have faith in Jesus Christ, the glory Our glorious God, the manifestation of the very glory of God, you claim to believe in Him, well do not hold that faith with an attitude of favoritism. That word favoritism means an acceptor of a face, an acceptor of a face. It denotes accepting someone over another because of their outward external appearance, the way they look, the way they're dressed, maybe their financial status, how much money they have, whatever. It's to show preference to someone over another on the basis of mere externals. Mere externals. As I said last time, how could we, whose Savior was from Nazareth, who had no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, whose genealogy includes Ruth and Rahab, how could we of all people show favoritism to others? That is a contradiction of our very faith, of our very religion. The very glorious God you claim to believe in doesn't show favoritism to lowly men. He doesn't treat one person better than another on the basis of externals, and neither should you. Neither should you. So that's the exhortation then. Do not show favoritism. But secondly, last time, we also considered The illustration. The illustration. Having given an exhortation to avoid favoritism, James now provides an illustration of a kind of favoritism that he has in mind. We see that in verses 2 through 4. Look there with me. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, You sit here in a good place, and you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Stop there. The point is obvious. Two men come into the meeting, one rich, one poor. And if you treat the rich person better, you say to him, look, you take the nice seat of honor, the noble seat, and you say to the poor man, look, just find somewhere to sit. In fact, sit down by my footstool. If you do that, That is favoritism. That is partiality. That is respect of person. And if you do that, verse 4 adds, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? That's a rhetorical question with an obvious answer of yes. Yes, you have. You have made a distinction between the rich and the poor. You have judged that the rich man is better than the poor man because of mere externals. That is to usurp God's role as the judge. It is to reason in a manner that is evil, that is favoritism, and that has no place in the life of the church. So that's what we considered last time. But now, having seen the exhortation and the illustration, this morning we come to the justification. The justification. In verses 5 through 7, James provides a justification for his command to avoid favoritism. And that justification consists of three reasons. Three reasons that you and I should not show favoritism specifically regarding the rich and the poor. Let's look at those reasons one by one. First of all, because God has chosen the poor. God has chosen the poor. Verse 5. Listen, my beloved brethren. Stop there for a minute. It's as if he has something important to say. So he says, listen, listen. Akuo, that's the word. It means to comprehend by hearing. He's saying, listen, so you understand what I'm about to say. This is important. And again, he uses that term of endearment, my beloved brethren, my brothers and sisters in Christ whom I love. James is writing with a pastoral tone, with a shepherd's heart, with a loving affection for his readers. And out of his love for them, he says, listen, listen. So take note here. The pastors who love their people, teach their people, right? If a pastor loves his flock, he's not going to entertain them with stories. He's not going to entertain them. He's not going to try and give them over-the-top theatrics. He's going to give them the Word of God. Out of his love for them, he instructs them in important truth. So James does the same thing here. Now what is so important that James has to say? Here it is. Did not God choose the poor of this world? to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" And the answer, of course, is yes. God has chosen the poor. This, of course, underscores the doctrine of unconditional election. Unconditional election. We've already heard that this morning, haven't we? Our brother Jim did a good job of sharing the truth of that doctrine from the Scripture. It's not surprising that, in fact I was kind of surprised that only 51% of the people in that survey disagreed. I figured the number would be a lot higher. So I'm encouraged for once by the Ligonier study. But this underscores the doctrine of election. According to Ephesians 1.4, God has chosen a people before the foundation of the world. It is eternal election. According to Matthew 22, 14, only a few are chosen. So it's a limited election. According to 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, he chose them for salvation. So it is a salvific, a soteriological election. And then according to Romans 9, 16, it's not based on man's will or effort, but God's sovereign choice of mercy. So it is unconditional election. And specifically, it is said here that God has chosen the poor. The poor of this world, He says. That is, those who are poor economically, in terms of worldly possessions, worldly money. Those who are insignificant in the eyes of the world. God has chosen the poor. Now what does that mean? Does that mean that God has only chosen the poor? No. Does that mean He has chosen to save all of the poor? No. Is it inherently noble to be poor? Does that automatically put you into the kingdom? Of course not. There will be many poor people in hell. People who suffer in this life and who suffer forever in the next life. There are many of us in this room who would not fall into the category of poor. Sometimes we feel like it, but I don't think we really fall into that category. But we believe God has saved us, don't we? That God has chosen us. We believe we're counted among the redeemed, we're numbered among the elect. So clearly God chooses to save people who aren't poor. So what does James mean here? He means that in general, throughout the history of the church, the people whom God has chosen to save are, relatively speaking, poor. Poor. And church history, by the way, proves that. And of course, that was especially true in the first century. Many of those who have trusted in Christ throughout history and who have been chosen by God have been insignificant by the world's standards. That's what the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians. Do you remember that? 1 Corinthians 1, verses 26-29, Paul says this, For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. and the base things of the world and the despise God has chosen, the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that, here's the key, no man may boast before God. God, in general, chooses to save those who are nobody, a bunch of nobodies, so that he gets all the glory. If all he saved were rich, wealthy, powerful people, one might erroneously conclude that these people contribute to their salvation. So God chooses to save poor, vile, wretched sinners so that he alone gets the glory. Think about it. Not many of us were mighty or noble, right? For the most part, the rich politicians of the world are wicked, ungodly unbelievers, aren't they? That's why voting is so hard, isn't it? We don't even know what to do when it comes to election time because we just have wicked people running for office. God has chosen the poor. So contrary then to viewing the poor with contempt, God has chosen to save many of those who are poor. Not all of them, but some of them. And He's chosen the poor, James says, to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him. He chose them to be rich in faith. That is to say, He chose to give them the gift of faith. He didn't choose them because they had faith. He chose them to have faith. See the difference? It's not that God looked into the future and saw who would believe and therefore chose them. No, God chose us and therefore we believe. John Gill commenting on this says this, Men are chosen not because they do believe or shall believe, but that they might believe in which faith they have in consequence of election. In other words, you and I believe because God chose us and enabled us to believe. It's not that our faith is the basis of God's election, it's that God's election is the basis of our faith. And the scripture unequivocally teaches that over and over and over again. And specifically, James says, it is the poor of this world who have been chosen to be rich in faith. And what could make a man more truly rich than saving faith? Dear friends, that's where true riches are found, not in this world, but in Christ, in faith in Christ. That's what makes a man truly rich. So though these people are poor financially, yet they are rich spiritually. Though they are broke in the world, yet they are wealthy in the kingdom. Though they have nothing on earth, they have everything in Christ. Though they experience temporal poverty, yet they have the hope of eternal glory. That's why back in chapter 1 verse 9, maybe you remember that, months ago when we were in chapter 1, We talked about the paradoxical reversal. James says, let the lowly brother glory in his high position. Because though you may have nothing here in this world, yet you have great riches to come in the world to come. We have been given the gift of saving faith and all of the spiritual riches that come with it. That's sufficient for me. Is it sufficient for you? What can the world now offer? What can the world give compared to what we have in Him? So all the riches that come with faith, including the kingdom, the kingdom. The poor have been chosen by God to be heirs of the kingdom, which He promised to those who love Him. We are heirs of the kingdom. We're going to receive a kingdom. The kingdom here is primarily a reference to the eternal kingdom. the eternal expression of God's kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth, in the eternal state. You can read about that, by the way, in Revelation 21 and 22. No more curse, no more crying, no more sin, no more sickness, no more pain, no more death. A glorious kingdom. Does that sound good to you? That's what we long for, isn't it? An eternal kingdom of glory. And this kingdom is promised by God to those who love Him. To those who love Him. We talked about that. If you want a simple definition of a true Christian, it is one who loves God. Romans 8.28 says that God works all things together for good to those who what? Love God. James 1.12 says that God promises the crown of life to those who love Him. In 1 Corinthians 2.9, Paul speaks of what no eye has seen nor ear has heard, the wonderful things that God has prepared for those who love Him. Oh brother and sister, what are you living for? Are you living for the things of this world? They fade away. Live for that glorious kingdom to come that is promised to those who love Him. So God, out of His love for us, enables us to love Him, and out of His love chooses us and chooses to give us the kingdom. And He chooses specifically to give the kingdom to the poor. Now, in light of all of that, James adds in verse 6, But you have dishonored the poor man. God chooses to save the poor, and you have dishonored the poor. Whose side are you on here? How could you act so contrary to God and yet think that you belong to Him? That is contrary to the way that God works. John MacArthur says, if we disdain the poor, we disdain God Himself. We disdain God Himself. R.C. Sproul says, Inheritance in the kingdom is based on God's sovereign election. He chooses not according to merit or worldly status. Sproul adds, the standards of this world have no influence on God's gracious election. And dear friends, they should have no influence on how you and I treat one person as opposed to another. We're to treat all people equally as image bearers of God. God chooses to save poor people, why do you dishonor them? So though verses 2 through 4 presented a hypothetical illustration, yet it seems as if this was really a problem among some of James' readers. Apparently, some of them had been tempted to honor the rich and to dishonor the poor. James says, don't do that. Don't do that, because God has chosen the poor. But there is a second reason to avoid favoritism. Not only because God has chosen the poor, but secondly, because the rich persecute the faithful. The rich persecute the faithful. Verse 6 again. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Again, the answer is yes. Yes. This is another rhetorical question with the obvious answer of yes. The rich are the ones who throughout history in general are the ones who persecute the faithful. Persecute you, he says. They oppress you, that is Christians, the faithful, believers. They're the ones who oppress the poor in general and persecute the church in particular. And that was especially true in the first century. Now that word oppress means to hold someone down, to tyrannize, to dominate, to treat harshly. If you show special honor to the rich, you are favoring a group of people who, in general, treat you harshly. Why would you do that? That makes no sense. It is absurd. And not only do the rich oppress you, but he says they also personally drag you into court. And again, that was especially true in the first century. Just read the book of Acts. Over and over again, we see God's people being persecuted by the rich Sadducees, the rich leaders of the Roman Empire. You read Acts chapter 4, and we see Peter and John were persecuted by the Sadducees. Come to chapter 5, and all the apostles were flogged by them in order to no longer preach and teach in the name of Jesus. You come to the latter half of Acts and Paul stands before Felix and Festus and Agrippa. Eventually he stands before Caesar himself, and in the end he would be martyred by him. In fact, it was rumored that Nero started a fire in Rome and blamed it on the Christians, resulting in a severe persecution. This is just what the rich have always done. They persecute the people of God. And by the way, it's not that the rich are the only ones who do that, but they are the ones who normally have the power and the position and therefore the ability to do that. They abuse their authority to persecute the church. James knew that. So he addresses that issue and he does it again in chapter 5, if you go to chapter 5 for a minute, verse 1. It says, James just has a negative view of the rich, doesn't he? Come now, you rich. Weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up treasure for yourself. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you cries out against you. And the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death a righteous man. He does not resist you." So clearly, this was a problem in the first century. The rich were oppressing the poor and they were persecuting the saints. Putting to death the righteous, he said. And God, dear friends, will surely bring them to justice. There will be, for wicked, oppressive, rich people who persecute God's people, there will be a day of slaughter for them. A day of slaughter. Now, do you think this is still a problem today? Wicked, rich people? Of course. We've lived under the last four years under one of them, haven't we? Let me ask you this. Who are the most poor, helpless people on the planet today? Surely it's a baby in the womb of its mother. No power, no money, no authority, not even a voice to speak up for himself. And yet wicked rich politicians continue to allow them to be murdered and even support such nonsense under the guise of women's rights and healthcare. They support it to advance their own political campaign. They don't care about the babies. They don't care about women's rights. They care about themselves. They're in it for number one. This is what the rich do, friends. They treat the poor with contempt. They persecute the people of God. They abuse their money, their power, and their riches. This is just a general characteristic of the rich. It's not true of all the rich. There are rich Christians in the world. There were in the first century, and there are in the 21st century. But this is just the way it normally works. So James is saying here, why in the world would you show special favor to a category of people who in general persecute you? That is nonsense. That is nonsense. All while disdaining the kinds of people that God has chosen for salvation. That is inconsistent with the way God works. That is contrary. to the Christian faith. So that's the second reason for us to avoid favoritism. Because the rich persecute the faithful. But there is a third reason. Because the rich blaspheme God. The rich blaspheme God. Verse 7, Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? You get it by now. The answer is yes. Yes, they do. Another rhetorical question that assumes an affirmative response. The rich not only persecute the redeemed, but they blaspheme the redeemer. They not only slander the creature, but they blaspheme the creator. The word blasphemy here, blasphemeo in the Greek, means to slander, to revile, to speak evil of. It's a compound word made up of two words, blacks, which means slow or sluggish, and the word famay, which means reputation or honor. The idea is being slow to recognize someone's worthy reputation. It's the sin of defamation, defamation. And by the way, this sin can be committed against both God and man. Against man, it is the social sin of slander. Against God, it is the religious sin of blasphemy. Blasphemy. And often, these two sins go together. To slander those made in the image of God is to blaspheme the God in whose image they are made. And that may be the point James is making here. The rich are described as blasphemous persecutors. They blaspheme God by persecuting His people. If you go over just a page or so to chapter 3, you'll see that James makes a connection between these two sins there. James 3 starting in verse 8. But no one contained the tongue, It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way." So James speaks there of the hypocrisy of using your mouth to bless God while cursing those made in His image. That is tantamount to blasphemy. Blasphemy. To slander his people is ultimately to blaspheme the God whose image they bear. This same truth is taught elsewhere in scripture. Namely, that the way you think about people is the way you think about God. The way you treat people is how you treat God. You remember in Acts chapter 9, Saul was on the road to Damascus to continue his persecuting rampage among the Christians there? You remember that? And then on the way there, we know what happened. He encountered the risen Lord. His plans did not come to fruition, did they? The light of Christ's glory shone around him. He fell off the horse. And then, what did Jesus say to him? Verse 4, it says, Saul heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting? You ready? Me. Why are you persecuting me?" And he said, who are you Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. By persecuting Jesus' followers, Saul was guilty of persecuting Jesus himself. By persecuting the body of Christ, he had persecuted Christ who is the very head of the body. So James would tell us then that To slander God's people and to persecute God's people is to blaspheme God. That is why in 1 John chapter 4 verse 20, John says, how can you love the God whom you haven't seen if you don't love your brother whom you do see? The way you treat his visible image bearers reflects how you think about the invisible God. How you treat a saint is how you ultimately treat him. Jesus said that, right? In the story, Matthew 25, the text about the sheep and the goats being separated, the distinction between them is, hey, you guys saw me hungry and thirsty and prisoned and you didn't visit me, you didn't feed me, you didn't clothe me. They said, when, Lord? And he said, when you didn't do it to the least of these, right? How you treat the people of God reflects what you think about God. So to slanderous people, is to blaspheme Him. And not only is this true in terms of how you treat the people of God, it's even true in terms of how you treat the poor. Proverbs 14.31 says, He who oppresses the poor taunts his maker. That is to say, if you oppress the poor, you insult God, their very creator. And so by exploiting the poor in general, And by persecuting the church, in particular, the rich often blaspheme God. Of course, they blaspheme Him in many other ways as well. Many of them blaspheme God by professing to be Christians and living lives that contradict their profession, don't they? Romans 2, Paul says to the Jews, the visible people of God in the first century, is not God's name blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you? And yet how many wealthy, professing Christians whose lives are marked by ungodliness have called the name of Christ to be blasphemed among the nation. They blaspheme Him by rejecting the gospel. They blaspheme Him by cursing His name. They blaspheme Him by mocking Christians and their worship. The list could go on and on. And in doing all of this, they blaspheme the fair name. The fair name. That is the fair name of our God. The fair name of Christ, the very Lord of glory. Matthew Poole says, they blaspheme what they should adore. They blaspheme what they should adore. That is the fair name. Fair translates kolos, kolos, which means beautiful, good, noble, honorable, praiseworthy, And the word name is often used in scripture to refer to what is true about a person, a person's character, or even a person's reputation. We often say things like, you're giving me a bad name. We know what that means, don't we? We tell our children that, we go to the grocery store and they act out, and we say, you're giving me a bad name. It means you're giving me a bad reputation in the community, right? So God's name, then, is synonymous really with His glory. It's all that's true about Him intrinsically, and it's also His reputation in the world. And God's name is said to be fair, good, honorable, praiseworthy. God is all of that in Himself, and that is the way He should be viewed among men. That should be His reputation in the world. And yet the rich blaspheme that very name. They seek to rob him of his glory. Do you really show special favor to a group of people who blaspheme the name by which you have been called, he says? This is the name by which we have been called. That's the effectual call, by the way. The effectual call. At the moment of salvation, God, through the gospel, issues an effectual call by which he summons the elect sinner to come to Christ. Right? We talked about that. James 1.18, the gift of regeneration. God sovereignly, monergistically regenerates the heart, thus drawing us to Christ. That's why in John 6.37, Jesus says, all whom the Father gives to me will come to me. It is effectual. In Romans 8, Paul says, these whom he called, he justified. It is a saving call. Paul told the Corinthians, that to us who are the called, Christ is the power and wisdom of God. So it is a sovereign, irresistible call. And we have been called by this fair name. This is the wonderful name that we call upon, isn't it, as Christians? We have called upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the name by which we've been called to salvation. This is the name that we are called by as Christians, followers of Christ. Peter said, if you suffer for the name Christian, don't be ashamed of that. Instead, glorify God in that name. This is the name by which we are called. This very God has, by His glorious power and grace, called you to salvation in Christ, that you might praise His name and live for His glory. And yet, will you show favor to people who seek to dishonor that glory? That's the point. That's the point. That is utter inconsistency, utter blasphemy, utter hypocrisy. To side with blasphemers is to share in their blasphemy. Their blasphemy. So don't do that, he says. Do not show favoritism to the rich as opposed to the poor. Because God has chosen the poor. Because the rich persecute the faithful. And because the rich blaspheme God. Well, there you have it, three good reasons for you and I to avoid favoritism. Now, if you're not convinced that that isn't enough for you, well, next week, when we come to verses 8 through 13, we're gonna consider a couple additional reasons to avoid partiality, but we'll save those for next time. But for now, brothers and sisters, may we examine our hearts. May we examine our hearts. Do you treat one person better than another because of the way they look? The color of their skin? The way they're dressed? Because of how much money they have? Because you think they can help advance your agenda? Because you think they're important? Or do you love people equally and treat them the same? That's the question. Again, as I asked you last time, so I ask you again now. Is your life marked by faith or favoritism? By love or partiality? Those two things. are incompatible. They cannot dwell together. If your life is marked by prejudice and partiality, that is evidence that you do not belong to Christ. And if that's you, then today dear friend, repent. Turn from your partiality to the impartial Savior. who gave Himself impartially for all of His people, regardless of if they're Jew or Gentile, white or black, rich or poor. He gave Himself for all of His people without distinction. So turn from the sin of partiality to the impartial Savior and find life in Him. And if you do that, having experienced His impartial love in your heart, you will then be motivated to show impartial love to all people. More on that next week. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for its challenging rebukes. I pray that each of us would examine our hearts in light of this text this morning. How easy it is, Lord, to unknowingly, without even realizing it, treat one person better than another because they look better, well-dressed. and then treat someone else worse because of the way they smell, the way they look, the way they're dressed. Lord, it's so easy to fall into that. We are such sinful people that it is just our nature to show favoritism. But we're thankful that that's not your nature. We're thankful that you love poor, vile, helpless people like us, and that in your love you gave your Son to redeem us. Now may we, who have experienced that impartial love from our Savior, express that same love to all. As an evidence that our faith is real, as a manifestation of the love of God to the world, all for the glory of Jesus. Help us to do these things, we pray. Amen.