{"id":18689,"date":"2020-11-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/james-008-the-sin-of-favoritism\/"},"modified":"2020-11-11T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T06:00:00","slug":"james-008-the-sin-of-favoritism","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/james-008-the-sin-of-favoritism\/","title":{"rendered":"James 008 – The Sin of Favoritism"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[104],"series_event":[514],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18689","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-james","series_event-james","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"James 008 - The Sin of Favoritism","sermon_date":"20201111","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2020","sermon_notes":8565,"sermon_slides":8567,"sermon_mp3":8566,"sermon_id":"1111202322156276","series_or_event":514,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":104,"chapter_and_verse":"2:1-5","sermon_transcript":"James 08 \u2014 The Sin of Favoritism\n\nBook of James 2:1 \u2014 James is the pastor of the pastor of the Jerusalem Church, half-brother of Christ.\u00a0 He is writing to the Hebrew Christians who are in the Diaspora, or the dispersion, outside the land of Israel having been pushed out by Saul of Tarsus. \u00a0He is basically writing to them not so much on to how to become a Christian, but how to actually live for God, particularly in the age of the Church.\u00a0 Hebrew Christians have a tendency to focus on practical righteousness.\u00a0 They understood that their disobedience in their history is what brought them into the captivity in Babylon; it is what pushed the northern tribes out of their land in 722 BC, so given that history, a Hebrew Christian wants to know how to please God in daily life.\u00a0 They are already pleasing to God in terms of their position, but how is their practice going to catch up with their position is what the book of James is about.\n\nThe first half of the book is about faith, not about saving faith but serving faith, in other words, how to keep trusting God through the emergencies of life.\u00a0 The first way that you demonstrate a practical righteousness that\u2019s pleasing to God, and you exercise faith in the sense that you're continuing to trust Him through the emergencies of life is to adopt God's perspective on trials and suffering.\u00a0 These people needed to hear something about God's perspective on suffering because, you can imagine how you would feel being kicked out of your own house, city, country into some far-flung region.\n\nJames 1:2-18<\/u><\/strong> explains to them how to adopt the mindset of God on the issue of suffering or trials, and he explains in James 1:2-12<\/u><\/strong> how to rejoice during trials.\u00a0 He explains why, and then he reminds them not to charge God foolishly in the midst of trials in James 1:13-18<\/u><\/strong>, thinking that somehow if you have suffering in your life that God is setting you up for destruction, or that God is trying to pull the carpet out from under you, when in reality, trials are not there to make us bitter but to make us better.\u00a0 So that is what James 1:2-18<\/u><\/strong> is about.\n\nThen, from there, we moved into a second area \u2014 obedience to God's Word, James 1:19-27<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 That involves a need for three things:\n\nNumber 1 was a slowness for speaking and anger in 1:19-20<\/u><\/strong>, and I find that my propensity as a sinful person is the opposite of that.\u00a0 I am the first to speak and the first to get under, and the Bible says that if you want to manifest a practical righteousness that pleases God, to be slow to both of those things.\n\nNumber 2, you need to take in God's Word, receive it, and obey it in 1:21-25, and Number 3, a need to practice true religion or piety 1:26-27<\/u><\/strong>, which involves bridling our tongue and helping widows and orphans in their distress.\n\nSo, we are finished with James 1<\/u><\/strong>, and I hate to say that we are finished with it because I don't know if you ever finish with James 1<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 You could spend your entire life studying that because these are things we need to hear, but we are doing a study on the entire book of James, so at some point we need to move into James 2<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 Tonight we are moving into James 2:1-13<\/u><\/strong>, and I was happy to see that Judy put some booklets out there; those are there to prep you, not for tonight, but for James 2:14-26<\/u><\/strong>, faith manifesting itself in good works.\u00a0 The reason that we put that booklet out there for you by Pastor Dennis Rokser at Duluth Bible Church is because if you don't understand that paragraph correctly, you will get confused, and he does a good job explaining that paragraph in a readable way, accurately, but more on that when we get there.\u00a0 Tonight, we are in James 2:1-13<\/u><\/strong> which is all about the need not<\/u><\/strong> to show favoritism in the assembly or the church.\n\nSo this paragraph in James 2:1-13 <\/u><\/strong>involves three things:\n
    \n \t
  1. A command in James 2:1<\/u><\/strong> \u2014 don't show favoritism<\/li>\n \t
  2. A situation that was happening in their midst in James 2:2-3<\/u><\/strong><\/li>\n \t
  3. A reasoning \u2014 why is it wrong to show favoritism?\u00a0 The reason is that favoritism is contrary to God's character and His purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nLet's go ahead start with the command.\u00a0 Notice James 2:1<\/u><\/strong>, and the first part of this is no<\/u><\/strong>t showing favoritism.\u00a0 The first thing we have here is a command, James 2:1<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cMy brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Very important here is the expression \u201cmy brethren<\/em>,\u201d and I need to keep hammering that home because he is obviously talking to Christians, and if you don't understand that he is talking to Christians, then you'll misunderstand 2:14-26<\/u><\/strong>, and you're also going to misunderstand 2:12-13<\/u><\/strong>, which talk about a judgment for Christians \u2014 that is why I keep emphasizing this.\n\nHe says in James 2:1<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cMy brethren, do not hold your faith\u201d\u2026<\/em> [notice \u2018your faith<\/em>\u2019 \u2014 that implies that they already have faith, so they're in faith. These aren\u2019t people who need the gospel, they're justified before God, what they need is to learn how to live for God as Christians.\u00a0 If you look back, eg, in James 1:3<\/u><\/strong>, it talks about the testing of your faith. You can't test someone\u2019s faith unless they have faith. You see the same and exact idea here in James 2:1<\/u><\/strong>]\u2026 \u201cin our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 When he says \u2018do not hold,\u2019<\/em> it is the Greek verb, \u2018echo<\/em>\u2019 which means to have or to hold, like a marriage ceremony.\u00a0 The faith is theirs, but he says that as you walk out that faith in service, don't do it with an attitude of personal favoritism.\u00a0 This is in the imperative mode, \u2018echo<\/em>\u2019 meaning it isn\u2019t a suggestion; not a try this and see if it fits, it is \u2018do this<\/em>,\u2019 and James does this all the way through his book, giving countless commands.\u00a0 These commands are such that you don't give these to an unbeliever because they don't have the Holy Spirit in them yet. The command for the unbeliever is for them to \u2018believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved<\/em>.\u2019 That is one command for an unbeliever, however, once you get saved, then there are multiple commands for us to follow because we now have the means to carry out these commands because we now have the resources of God inside of us via the Holy Spirit and the new nature.\n\nSo, this is, and it doesn\u2019t show up in English but in Greek, it is in the imperative mode, when he says, \u201cdo not hold<\/em>\u201d \u2014 that\u2019s a command, \u201cMy brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious the Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism<\/em>.\u201d We know what personal favoritism is; it is favoring one person over another for no real biblical reason, and we will give an example of what they were doing inside the assembly there (in verses 2:2,3<\/u><\/strong>) as we get this situation described to us. Before we leave James 2:1<\/u><\/strong>, you will notice that he says, \u201c\u2026do not hold your faith in our glorious the Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of [personal] favoritism,\u201d <\/em>he highlights \u2018our glorious the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Because, if Jesus wasn\u2019t anything, He wasn\u2019t, when on this earth, a type of individual who showed personal favoritism as man shows it.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because he was criticized, Mark 2:15-17<\/u><\/strong> for eating with the tax gatherers and the sinners, and the Pharisees basically condemned him for it. Why is that?\u00a0 Because they<\/em><\/strong> were showing favoritism \u2014 one person over another.\u00a0 Jesus knew no such thing that He transcended man\u2019s boundaries of favoritism to such a degree that He was criticized for it by none other than the religious leaders.\u00a0 He does the same thing in John 4<\/u><\/strong> when He ministers to the woman at the well who had had five husbands, and her current partner, she wasn\u2019t married to.\u00a0 She had every black mark against her that you can think of:\n
      \n \t
    1. She was immoral<\/li>\n \t
    2. She was the wrong race; a Samaritan, a half-breed race within the land of Israel. If you study the Jewish Samaritan conflict, you will see racial hatred between those groups going back 700 years.\u00a0 We think we have racial tension in our country, you haven\u2019t seen anything compared to what was happening back in the land of Israel in biblical times.<\/li>\n \t
    3. She was the wrong gender; a woman, and in that culture, women were dirt. The rabbis would even say, \u2018Lord, thank You that You didn\u2019t make me a woman<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 Those are actually recorded prayers of the rabbis.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSo, Jesus in John 4<\/u><\/strong>, and it\u2019s interesting that when you study this in John 4<\/u><\/strong>, he goes way out of His way to Samaria to meet her; she was totally out of the trajectory of where His little group was headed.\u00a0 He starts ministering to this woman, and in John 4:27<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cAt this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman\u2026\u201d\u00a0 A \u2018what are You ministering to her for?\u2019 <\/em>kind of thing.\n\nThis is basically the nature of Jesus; He is such that He doesn\u2019t show personal favoritism.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I think that James, the half-brother of Christ, as he is giving us this command not to show favoritism, is basically saying this not to do this in the attitude of our \u201cglorious the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 How could we as Christians who claim the name of Christ, show personal favoritism when Jesus died for the whole world in 1 John 2:2<\/u><\/strong>?\u00a0 Jesus even died for the people who didn\u2019t vote exactly as we did in the last election cycle.\u00a0 That one hurts!\u00a0 1 John 2:2<\/u><\/strong> says, \u201c\u2026and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.\u201d <\/em>The gospel is for everybody so if I am walking with the same attitude and spirit of our the Lord Jesus Christ, then I can't show favoritism of one person over another.\n\nWhen you look at God the Father, He doesn\u2019t show personal favoritism either.\u00a0 Matthew 5:45<\/u><\/strong> says, \u201c\u2026so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 So one farmer hates God and one farmer loves God, and they both get equal sunlight and rain, and if God was showing favoritism, He would only give sun and rain to one and misery to the other, but God doesn\u2019t do that.\n\nSo, when we start showing favoritism, we step out of the character of God; we really aren\u2019t acting like sons of God as Matthew 5:45<\/u><\/strong> says that sons of God are those who imitate His character.\u00a0 \u2018My brethren, hold fast to your<\/em> faith\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s the command and that\u2019s why he mentions Jesus here in 2:1<\/u><\/strong>.\n\nThe next question is what were they doing here in the assembly that was so bad; what were they doing that was creating a situation where they were showing favoritism? There is a description of that in James 2:2,3.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Notice what 2:2<\/u><\/strong> says, \u201cFor if any man comes into your assembly<\/strong> [<\/em>I am reading out of the NASB where it says assembly, but the Greek word is synag\u014dg\u0113, and that\u2019s a major hint as to how to interpret this book. <\/em>He isn\u2019t writing here to Gentile Christians, he is writing to Hebrew Christians that are still in a very Hebraic primitive form of worship in their synag\u014dg\u0113; it is just that they're worshiping Jesus, or who they would call Yeshuah, in their synag\u014dg\u0113.\u00a0 That has to be true, because going back to James 1:1<\/u><\/strong>, you see this book is written to the twelve tribes, so this is very Jewish.\u00a0 It is also a major hint that this is a very early letter.\u00a0 When we were going through the introduction to the book at the beginning of the quarter, I gave you all of the reasons that I believe this is the first New Testament book ever written.\u00a0 That helps to explain why he quotes the law later.\u00a0 He quotes the Law because there is nothing else to quote.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have Paul, Ephesians<\/u><\/strong>, Philippians<\/u><\/strong>, anything on the record, so what you literally have is Malachi<\/u><\/strong>, then the 400 years of silence and then the ministry of Christ.\u00a0 Before anything is written down, boom, you have James half-brother of Christ writing this book, and one of the evidences of that is that they're meeting in a s synag\u014dg\u0113, not the Methodist church of whatever; it is a Hebraic form of worship.\n\nSo, what was going on in this synagogue that was so bad?\u00a0 Continuing on with James 2:2,3,<\/u><\/strong> \u201cFor 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, 3<\/sup>and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, \u201cYou sit here in a good place,\u201d and you say to the poor man, \u201cYou stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,\u201d 4<\/sup> have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So, in 2:2,3<\/u><\/strong> it is basically a description of what they were doing.\u00a0 People who were rich were treated one way (I'm glad this never happens in the 21st<\/sup> century, by the way), people without means were treated a different way.\u00a0 I think it is a very nice transition from James 1:27<\/u><\/strong> because remember what he exhorted us to do there \u2014 to help widows and orphans in their distress.\u00a0 Who cares about widows and orphans?\u00a0 God cares, but they're not very high on the social status list, and how will they ever become donors to our church if we invest too much money in them<\/em><\/strong>?\u00a0 God cares about them, that\u2019s why, and if we don't care about widows and orphans and all of our so-called ministries are targeted at the wealthy, and not that it\u2019s wrong to do that, but if we neglect widows and orphans in the process, then we are showing favoritism.\u00a0 So, that is why James 1:27<\/u><\/strong> leads nicely into James 2:13<\/u><\/strong> where he gives us this whole discussion of favoritism.\n\nDo we have modern day examples in the church of churches who favor one group over another?\u00a0 We don't have to look far to see that.\u00a0 How do we as a church minister to homosexuals, AIDS patients, murderers of unborn children, liars, adulterers, thieves, gossips, gluttons, people who have different political views than ours or how about this one:\u00a0 people who I don't really see eye to eye on theologically?\u00a0 They have views and a lot of them have come through here over the years with all of these strange ideas; it is easy to marginalize them and push them off to the back somewhere and spend our time on the orthodox people.\u00a0 So, it isn\u2019t hard given our fallen nature, to see, in most modern day churches in Christianity, favoritism is shown constantly.\u00a0 That is why we need this paragraph because we need to be corrected on this so we can manifest a practical righteousness that is pleasing to God.\n\nWe move away from the command of no favoritism to the assembly where favoritism was being shown, and that should be James 2:2,3<\/u><\/strong> there under FAVORITISM \u00a0II.\u00a0 Situation<\/strong>:\u00a0 favoritism in the assembly.\n\nNow James moves into the reasoning. Why is it that favoritism is contrary to God's character and His purposes? \u00a0James lays out for us five reasons:\n
        \n \t
      1. In James 2:4<\/u><\/strong>, we show favoritism, we make a judgment or a division where God has not made a judgment or a division.\u00a0 If I say that the rich people deserve special treatment as compared to those without means, we have just created a barrier in the church that God never put there.\u00a0 If I put a barrier in the church that God never put there, then suddenly, who is the judge?\u00a0 I've made myself a judge because God hasn\u2019t spoken on that issue, and He doesn\u2019t deal with people that way. \u00a0So, you see this argument developed in 2:4<\/u><\/strong>, \u201c\u2026have you not\u201d\u2026 [<\/em>he is giving his first reason why what they were doing there in the assembly was wrong]\u2026 \u201cmade distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So, you have divided where God has not divided.\u00a0 When you look at what God says about the church, the church of course being anybody, regardless of who they are that has trusted in the Messiah for salvation, the moment that they believe in Christ and trust in Him, is the moment that they are, per 1 Corinthians 12:13<\/u><\/strong>, \u2018baptized into the Body of Christ<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 In 1 Corinthians 12:13<\/u><\/strong>, baptism is not speaking of water baptism; it's speaking of spiritual baptism and spiritual identification. That is something that automatically happened to a person the moment that they trusted in Christ as their Savior. \u00a0They are now identified with Christ's\u00a0 body; they may not even know where they\u2019ll go to church, what denomination they are; whether they're \u2018methodcatodebapterian or a baptocostal fundamatic,\u2019 or whatever.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter because the universal church transcends denominational barriers.\u00a0 They are taken, at their point of faith, and are attached to Christ's body, which is a metaphor for the universal church. When Paul explains that, he says that has happened to all of us.\u00a0 It has happened to me when I was poor, it could happen to me when I'm rich, republican or democrat, because I have white skin or black skin; it doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 It is something that has automatically transpired the moment we trust Christ, and consequently, Paul says, concerning the Church, \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man<\/em>,\u2026\u201d[the slaves were the dregs of society, yet if they trusted Christ, then they're attached to Christ\u2019s body as well]\u2026 \u201cthere is neither male nor female<\/em>;\u2026\u201d [that\u2019s a very radical statement when you consider how women were treated in this culture]\u2026 \u201cfor you are all<\/strong><\/em> [if you don't get anything out of this, just get the word, \u2018all<\/strong>\u2019 out of it] \u201c\u2026one in Christ Jesus<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Consequently, Paul writes in Ephesians 2:14<\/u><\/strong> concerning the hatred between the Jews and the Gentiles \u2014 we realize that they hated each other.\u00a0 The Jews, as the chosen people, looked at the Gentiles as dogs, and the Gentiles resented it and they viewed the Jews as arrogant.\u00a0 There were not a lot of kumbaya moments between those groups, but what do you do when you have a Gentile who has trusted in Christ for salvation and a Jew who has trusted in Christ for salvation?\u00a0 The racial divide is over in the Body of Christ.\u00a0 Everyone is so amped up today about race and racial issues; we have the greatest Book<\/u><\/strong> on racial reconciliation in human history.\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cFor He Himself is our peace, who made both groups\u2026\u201d<\/em> [the warring Jews and Gentiles]\u2026\u201d into one\u2026\u201d <\/em>[and what did God do with the barrier between the two \u2014 He broke it down, so now if I show favoritism in the Church, then what did I just do with that barrier?\u00a0 I put it back up, and I have divided where God has not made a division, and when I divide where God hasn\u2019t made a division, then he says it very clearly in James 2:4<\/u><\/strong>, then I or we have become judges, <\/em>deciding something that God hasn\u2019t decided.\u00a0 God says no barrier, and I put it right back up because I'm showing personal favoritism.\u00a0 Then there is this part here: \u201cyou have done it with evil motives<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 You mean that God has the ability to look into my motives?\u00a0 That makes me very uncomfortable because I know my heart; I know what the book of Jeremiah says about how my heart is deceitfully wicked above all things; it is sick; incurable, who can understand it?\u00a0 My heart is so wicked that I don't even know how wicked it is so many times. My heart is so wicked that I could actually step out to serve God with the wrong motives; I could do the right thing with the wrong motives.\u00a0 \u2018Well gee, Andy, on November 11, 2021, you taught a Bible study.\u00a0 Why were you teaching it?<\/em>\u2019\u00a0 \u2018Well, because I love Jesus, that\u2019s why<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 Then God says, \u2018Well, let Me show you why you really taught it. You were interested in people hearing how smart you are.\u2019\u00a0 \u2018Oh, is that my motive, Lord?\u2019\u00a0 \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s your motive, so your heart needs to change.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0 This is the ministry that only God can do, because He only, as an omniscient God, has the ability to look into our hearts.\u00a0 I can fool a lot of people, but I can't fool God, because He sees into my heart.\u00a0 In fact, the day is coming at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ in 1 Corinthians 4:5<\/u><\/strong>, where He will disclose the motives of men\u2019s hearts.\u00a0 I don't know if I'm really looking forward to that given the condition of my heart in Adam.\u00a0 But Jesus does this \u2014 He looks into the hearts of people, and He did this all the time in His earthly ministry.\u00a0 Matthew 9:4<\/u><\/strong>, And Jesus perceiving their thoughts said, \u201cWhy are you thinking evil in your hearts?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>Wow!\u00a0 John 2:23-25<\/u><\/strong> says, \u201cNow when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing<\/em>.\u201d [Now I am of the persuasion, and I think Zane Hodges has written a very good couple of bibliotecasacra articles in the late 1970s grammatically proving that these people were saved because it says they believed on Him.\u00a0 But then John 2:24<\/u><\/strong> says, \u201cBut Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them.\u00a0 [<\/em>What does that mean?\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t taking in them in as friends; He gives the criteria for friendship later in John's gospel in John 15<\/u><\/strong> around verse 16<\/u><\/strong>, where a friend of God who does what God says \u2014 that is friendship.\u00a0 Becoming a believer is trusting in Christ for salvation but moving on and becoming a friend of God is not justification but sanctification; it isn\u2019t first tense salvation but middle tense salvation.\u00a0 So, these are a bunch of people who were saved, they had their fire insurance paid up, but Jesus would not take them on as friends.\u00a0 It is the friend of God that gets the insight of God per John 15<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 Remember Him saying, \u2018If I called you servants, you wouldn\u2019t know what your Master is doing, but because I've called you friends, you know what your Master is doing.\u2019\u00a0 <\/em>So these are people who were saved, on their way to heaven, fire insurance paid up, but Jesus would not take them further into the middle tense of their salvation, and that\u2019s what it means when it says in John 2:23-25, \u201cBut Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them because He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.\u201d <\/em>He saw their hearts and He saw they weren\u2019t ready for friendship because they had very little interest in obedience; baby Christians are like that; I was like that, probably\u00a0 from age 16, when I got saved to about age 22.\u00a0 There was a 6-year period there when I was like, \u2018Yeah I am a Christian and going to heaven, but my life is really all about what I want to do<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 It really wasn\u2019t until around age 22, maybe a little earlier, that I decided I was interested in friendship.\u00a0 Not just first tense salvation, but middle tense salvation. \u00a0But you will notice that Jesus, and I didn\u2019t mean to get off into all of that, but Jesus makes that determination here.\u00a0 He knew what was in their hearts; what was in man, and that\u2019s what James was speaking of here when he is talking about preferential treatment.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>You show preferential treatment, and you set up a border or a barrier in the church that God has not set up, and you do it with evil motives.\u00a0 Now what is evil about James 21:2,3<\/u><\/strong>?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nGiving the wealthy privileges in the Church that the poor don't have.\u00a0 You are showing preferential treatment to someone based upon what you think they can do for the church.\u00a0 See that? Rather than what the Church can do for them.\u00a0 if Donald Trump walked into this room, we would all treat him differently than just an average person who comes here because we would be like, \u2018Wow, the President came to our church, let's get a photo, put this on Facebook, because everyone will want to come here because the President of the US came here\u2026\u2019<\/em> so we would be looking at him for what we could get out of him rather than how we could serve him.\u00a0 That is what I think James calls evil motives.\u00a0 What's behind favoritism?\u00a0 It is\u00a0 basically, a self-serving motive.\n\nQuite frankly, this is one of the things that I love about Sugarland Bible Church and its accounting system.\u00a0 There are two things, and I didn\u2019t set this up when I got here, someone else set this up:\u00a0 First<\/strong>, the offering plate is never passed here.\u00a0 I'm not against churches that pass offering plates, but I think it is awesome that we don't make a big deal about money.\u00a0\u00a0 There are boxes in the back; we don't put flashing lights on them.\u00a0 As the Lord leads, give, but there is no big pressure; no salesman speech, etc.\u00a0 The second<\/strong> and other thing I like about Sugarland Bible Church is the accounting system which was already in existence before I got here in such a way that the senior pastor, myself, has no idea who gives what.\u00a0 Now, I do see the totals, you see them, too as they're in the bulletin month-by-month; and sometimes a month is high and satan will whisper in my ear that I did a good job that month. Then my wife will straighten me out.\u00a0 By the way, she caught me downstairs once when I first came here when I was looking at all of the totals week to week, month to month, and she asked me what I was doing.\u00a0 I said that all the elders gave me all of this accounting info and I can see what comes in one week versus another week, one month versus another month, and she said, \u201cOh, do you think Moses would do that?\u00a0 Do you think the Apostle Paul would do that?\u00a0 Would he sit in front of a bunch of accounting and say that this month is high and this month is low?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>And this is where it helps being married to the right person who speaks her mind.\u00a0 I said, \u201cWell, you're right<\/em>,\u201dso now I hardly look at anything, and now the elders are mad at me for not reading my email, but I can't win.\u00a0 The other thing is that I do see totals, but I have no knowledge of who gives what. You could give nothing to the church, or you could give a million dollars, I would never know the difference.\u00a0 That\u2019s so liberating; ignorance is bliss, so now I don't have to suck up to whoever, because I don't know what they give.\u00a0 In fact, I can be an \u2018equal opportunity offender\u2019<\/em> as I don't know who gives what, so any pastors listening, may consider organizing things in a way where you don't have that information because it relieves you from the temptation of showing favoritism to people on the basis of finances.\u00a0 But apparently in James 2:2,3<\/u><\/strong>, that\u2019s what was going on in the assembly, and James said in 2:4<\/u><\/strong>, \u2018you have created a barrier that God has not created and you\u2019ve done it with evil motives<\/em>.\u2019\n
          \n \t
        1. The second point in the reasoning process<\/strong> why showing favoritism is wrong is because God chooses from all walks of life. I don't mean to get into a big spiel here about election versus free will \u2014 we will do that some other time.\u00a0 I just know that God chooses, and when He chooses, He doesn\u2019t choose just Republicans, the rich, the social movers and shakers.\u00a0 He elects people across the spectrum; He doesn\u2019t even just choose Americans; but people all over the world.\u00a0 In James 2:5<\/u><\/strong>, he says, \u201cListen, my<\/em> beloved brethren<\/em>;\u201d\u2026[he doesn\u2019t just call them brethren here, he calls them \u2018beloved brethren<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 There is no doubt when looking at that combination of words that he is speaking to Christians.\u00a0 The word, \u2018brethren<\/em>\u2019 by itself, you could argue that it is the race of Israel, but he doesn\u2019t just call them \u2018brethren<\/em>\u2019 he calls them \u201cbeloved brethren\u201d<\/em>and that\u2019s a big deal for interpreting 2:14-26<\/u><\/strong> and the Bema Seat Judgment in 2:12,13<\/u><\/strong> \u2014 this is why I keep bringing this up.\u00a0 James 2:5<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cListen 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?\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>So, you will notice here that it specifically says that God chooses all across the board of people who will come to know Him, and that choice includes the poor because God is a God who does not show partiality.\u00a0 The Bible says this four times that I can find in:\n
            \n \t
          1. Acts 10:34<\/u><\/strong>, Opening his mouth, Peter said,<\/em> \u201cI most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n \t
          2. Romans 2:11<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cFor there is no partiality with God.\u201d <\/em><\/li>\n \t
          3. Ephesians 6:9<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cAnd masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with Him.\u201d <\/em><\/li>\n \t
          4. Colossians 3:24,25<\/u><\/strong>, \u201c\u2026knowing that from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance.\u00a0 It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.\u00a0 For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality<\/em>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSo, I don't have any more, and this is the funny thing when it comes to praying at a meal, when I go out with some of you after church, and the meal is served, and there is all of this pressure for someone to pray, and everyone looks at me as though I'm the one who is supposed to pray as if I have some kind of vantage point with God that you don't have.\u00a0 There is no partiality with God<\/strong>.\u00a0 He hears your prayers just like He hears my prayers.\u00a0 I don't go before the Lord and say, \u2018Lord, I am pre-tribulational, pre-millennial, and I have written a bunch of books to prove it, and I graduated from Dallas Seminary; I'm the pastor of Sugarland Bible Church<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 God doesn\u2019t care; there is no partiality with God.\u00a0 If you are going to God through prayer in Jesus, then your prayers have as much influence as mine have.\u00a0 So, when I go out to lunch with you, you can pay, first of all, and then you can pray.\n\nSo, when God elects, He elects or chooses people across the spectrum, which is what Jesus did based on the scriptures I gave you earlier with the tax gatherers and the sinners and the prostitutes.\u00a0 In His interaction with Mary Magdalene, weren\u2019t the Pharisees saying, \u2018Does He know what kind of woman that is\u2019<\/em> and there is Jesus ministering to the dregs of society.\u00a0 By the way, that is the big deal about the conversion of Matthew in Matthew 9<\/u><\/strong>, and the conversion of Zacchaeus in the tree in Luke\u00a0 19<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 Why was Zacchaeus in a tree?\u00a0 First of all he was short, secondly, he was pushed back of everythingbecause everyone hated the tax gatherers because if you were a Jewish tax gatherer, you went to work for Rome, which made you a patriotic traitor, and you were a thief because under Roman law, once you \u00a0extracted resources for Rome, you could take whatever you wanted from the people for personal gain. To be a tax gatherer, is like being an abortionist in our day, a pornographer, or someone who sells drug \u2014 you can't get any lower than a tax gatherer, and that\u2019s why they're always mentioned next to the prostitutes.\u00a0 Yet Christ comes to that booth of Matthew, and he gets saved, and then Jesus uses Matthew to write the first book of the New Testament, featuring the royal kingship of Christ after 400 years of silence.\u00a0 If that is not an example of not showing favoritism, I don't know what is.\u00a0 Then He says to Zacchaeus, \u2018I'm coming to your house for dinner<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 So, when God elects, those are the kind of people He elects and chooses.\u00a0 So, we are going to create a church where tax gatherers can't come?\u00a0 That is completely contrary to the character and purposes of God.\u00a0 In fact, I might even put it this way:\u00a0 when God elects, He chooses more poor people than rich people.\u00a0 \u2018Do you have verses on that?\u00a0 A few:\n\n1 Corinthians 1:26<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cFor consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many no<\/em>ble;\u2026\u201d. Look around you here at Corinth and you don't see the beautiful people, do you? You don't see the great money managers of the world; people who look like they\u2019ve just stepped out of a fashion catalog; you just see ordinary people.\u00a0 It seems to me that when God elects, there are probably\u00a0 more ordinary and poor people than there are the super rich.\u00a0 In fact, if the Bible teaches anything, it teaches that the rich have a problem with all of this because they're used to being on top and used to buying their way out of their problems.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have the means to buy your way out of your problems, then you don't have too much of an incentive to trust the Lord.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I like the prayer of Agger in Proverbs 30, where Agger prays to the Lord, \u2018Lord don't make me so poor that I have to steal, but at the same time, don't make me so rich that I forget You.\u00a0 I want to be right there in the middle<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 That\u2019s a great prayer when you think about it.\u00a0 We pray, \u2018God, bless me financially<\/em>,\u2019 and God says, \u2018Are you sure you want that?\u00a0 Because if I gave that to you, you may not give Me the time of day for the next 15-20 years because you will be lulled into the delusion of self-sufficiency.<\/em>\u2019 That\u2019s why the rich have a difficult time with this. That is why I think that heaven will be populated with pretty simple, ordinary working class type of people. \u00a0By the way, isn\u2019t that what Jesus exemplified?\u00a0 What was His trade?\u00a0 A Wall Street banker, a CEO?\u00a0 He was just a carpenter; He just worked with His hands.\u00a0 That is God in human flesh.\n\nLuke 1:52,53<\/u><\/strong>, \u201cHe has brought down the rulers from their thrones and has exalted those were humble.\u201d\u00a0 So, he dethrones one and enthrones another. 53<\/sup> He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty handed<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 That is who Christ is, so when you walk into Christ's church and the rich are promoted and elevated, and the poor are marginalized?\u00a0 That is about as far away from the thinking of God as you can possibly get because when God elects, He does it across the spectrum, including the poor.\u00a0 In fact, at the end of the day, there are probably more poor people than rich people.\n\nHe does say something very interesting in James 2:5<\/u><\/strong>, and I can't let this slip by, particularly since we did an 80+series on the Kingdom.\u00a0 \u201cListen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom<\/strong>\u201d\u2026<\/em>[why does it say that they, as God's people, are heirs of the kingdom<\/strong>? What is an heir? A right that is yours; it is coming your way; you just aren\u2019t in enjoyment of it yet; you don't \u00a0currently possess it, but your citizenship is there, your identity is there, it is legally yours, but you just haven\u2019t received it yet.\u00a0 So obviously when He calls us heirs of the kingdom<\/strong>, it is quite obvious that we aren\u2019t in the Kingdom, Amen?\u00a0 Do you think all of this with vote fraud that is going on would be going on in the kingdom?\u00a0 That is insanity that anyone thinks we are in the kingdom.\n\nThe kingdom is, very clearly, not something that will be established on planet earth until subsequent to the Second Coming of Christ (see slide on Prophecy Panorama).\u00a0 \u00a0So, since that\u2019s the blueprint of God, why would I think that I'm in the kingdom now, since Jesus hasn\u2019t come back yet?\u00a0 So, we are pre-millennial, meaning the millennium is coming, but Christ comes back pre-; first, pre-, then the millennium.\u00a0 So, when James uses words like \u2018heirs of the kingdom<\/em>,\u2019 James was a pre-millennialist.\u00a0 He probably didn\u2019t call himself that because that\u2019s a Latin term that came into existence in the fourth century.\u00a0 He would call himself a \u2018ch\u00edliast,\u2019 \u2018ch\u00edlia\u2019 being the Greek word for a thousand.\u00a0 This is what the church believed for two centuries.\u00a0 They were \u2018ch\u00edliasts,\u2019 meaning they believed that Jesus was going to come back one day, rule from Jerusalem, and rebuild a Temple, ruling this world for a thousand years because John described that time period as a thousand-year time period.\u00a0 It is the Greek word, \u2018ch\u00edlia\u2019, \u2018heirs of the kingdom<\/em>.\u2019\n\nWow, you want some good reading? \u00a0I am tempted about whether to recommend this to you because it is a three-volume set, and I'm talking multi-hundred pages per volume front and back, single spaced, called, The Theocratic Kingdom<\/u><\/strong> by G N H Peters.\u00a0 I have the three volumes on my shelf, and I haven\u2019t read them all myself because of my eye problem.\u00a0 Who was GNH Peters?\u00a0\u00a0 He was a poverty stricken, Lutheran itinerant minister (who wrote this in the late 1800s), so poor he couldn\u2019t even afford the paper he was writing on, and he was the one who produced (before internet, read the preface by Wilbur Smith, who in 1947 says, \u2018we have no idea how Peters accumulated this data; it is kind of a mystery\u2019<\/em>).\u00a0 He went through all of the church fathers; it is the most well documented source on the subject you will ever see; he produced the greatest work that has ever been produced in church history defending what I just called pre-millennialism.\u00a0 His denomination appreciated it so much that they kicked him out of his denomination.\u00a0 He died in obscurity as a very poor person, no one even knowing who he was until his writings were discovered by a subsequent generation.\u00a0 So, they were brought from the dust bin and put together, and this is this three-volume set, The Theocratic Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 See, you might be working on some little project for the Lord, no one knows anything about it; no one cares, kind of like Peters.\u00a0 But God cares and God honored this man, and now we have this tremendous resource today, The Theocratic Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>.\u00a0 In The Theocratic Kingdom<\/u><\/strong>, by GNH Peters, Volume 1 Kings page 600, that shows you the size of this thing, and as you read it, it is like point 1, then proposition 1, underneath that proposition is observation 1,2,3; he goes on like this for three volumes, defending a doctrine that we take for granted, pre-millennialism, yet it is amazing how God used this person.\u00a0 Wilbur Smith, in the preface says, \u2018I have no idea how this man got ahold of all of this data.\u00a0 It is one of the great mysteries of church history, quite frankly<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 I think the Holy Spirit helped him.\n\nGNH Peters says concerning James, in James 2:5<\/u><\/strong>, Volume 1 page 600, says, \u201cIf the church is the Kingdom and believers are now in it, why designate them \u2018heirs,\u2019 etc., of a Kingdom.<\/em>\u201d So, he is defending the idea the kingdom is future, and is going directly against his denomination when he does it.\u00a0 And they threw him out.\u00a0 It is just amazing to me how God works \u2014 He got no earthly kudos, and they threw him out of the denomination.\u00a0 Unless he had resolute faith, he probably went to his grave thinking he had wasted his life.\u00a0 Could you imagine the criticism from his own family and the church for investing in this stupid thing?\u00a0 Yet history has vindicated GNH Peters.\u00a0 I get choked up just thinking about it.\u00a0 So that is the value of me not just saying \u2018Well, GNH Peters says blah blah blah<\/em>.\u2019\u00a0 I want you to understand who Peters was.\u00a0 Then you read what he says, and it is wow!\n\nSo why should we not show favoritism?\u00a0 Because we are dividing where God has not divided; we are narrowing a choice that God has not made.\u00a0 Next time, we will learn, beginning at James 2: 6,7<\/u><\/strong> making friends with your enemies, and making enemies of your friends; honoring the rich because the rich, at least when James wrote these words, were actually the oppressors.\u00a0 Why are you sucking up to the oppressors and blasphemers?\n\nFather, we are grateful for the book of James, for the things that communicates to us.\u00a0 Make us good stewards of this material as we walk through it.\u00a0 Help this not to be just another thing in another Bible study, but we pray that the book of James would go through us, and we would be different; we would think differently because of it.\u00a0 We will be careful to give You all the praise and the glory and we ask these things in Jesus' Name.\u00a0 Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t