Please open your Bibles this morning to the letter from James, the letter of James to chapter 2. You'll find that wedged in between Hebrews and 1 Peter on page 1289 in the Pew Bible, 1289, the letter from James. The last time James warned us against worthless religion and impressed upon us that those who practice a worthwhile religion are those who remember the gospel. The gospel of our salvation all the time. And to receive continually the word of God to instruct us and to strengthen us in that life. So that we become doers of the word more and more. That's the Christian life. That is what is worthwhile religion. Holding on to the gospel, taking God at his word, and doing all that we can to put it into practice. In our text this morning, James commands us to get rid of something that's a short circuit to that program. We might think of a small thing. In fact, I know that we do. But it's a really big thing. It's a proverbial plank that we need to get out of our eyes. James introduces it to us using a Hebrew expression that speaks of receiving someone according to the face, receiving someone according to how they look. And we translate that with words like partiality or favoritism. Our government likes the word discrimination, but they're all the same thing. We receive people based on something about their outward appearance, and we make a judgment, and then we act toward them according to that judgment. Favoritism. The command here today is clear. The law here is clear today. Show no partiality. That's in verse 1. That's what James wants us to feel the weight of today because we don't feel the weight of it. And by the end he wants to show us how to move forward as God's people and to start leaving that behind. But we do this all the time, and when we judge people, we justify it. And because we know this is how the world really works, we tell our children, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, so make it count. But when we're on the receiving end of this favoritism, we don't like it. We hate it. And we warn our children, you can't tell a book by its cover. In chapter 2, verses 1 through 13, James shows us that favoritism is present in the church. and that it should not be. The command is clear, show no partiality, which I've entitled this sermon, Forsake Favoritism. Forsake it. Because those who practice favoritism make wicked judgments. They deny God's promise. And they deserve merciless judgment. That's why we need to put it away. Favoritism makes wicked judgments. denies God's promise, and deserves merciless judgment. And so now we hear from James, in chapter 2, this word of God. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, And if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, or sit down at my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my brothers, my beloved brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the one who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? If you really fulfill 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 transgressions. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. And if you do not commit adultery, but you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Here ends the reading of God's Word. James has a lot to say to us today, but almost all that he has to say to us is to back up the point that we are to forsake partiality. He wants us to feel the weight of that sin, and he brings it to bear in three different ways. The first one being, he shows us that those who practice favoritism make wicked judgments. The nature of favoritism is wicked. He begins in verse 1 to remind Christians of who we are in Christ. This is important. Brothers in Christ who hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. In chapter 1, verse 18, James reminded us that we are children of God because God has born us. He has brought us forth. He has given us new birth by the power of the Spirit through His Word. And because we have been joined to Christ, we hold to Him by faith. To our glorious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to know that relationship. We need to hold on to that relationship as we step into this commandment. We are able to hold to Christ in faith because in spite of what we truly deserve, besides not just what's on the face of us, but what's in us, God has come to us in love and mercy and he's given us the gift of faith to believe in Jesus Christ. That's where we stand. We need to bear that in mind. Through faith we are united to Christ and we share in his glory. This is one of two places where Jesus is referred to as the Lord of glory or the glorious Lord of Jesus Christ. And it's for this purpose. James wants us to recognize that in Christ we are related to glory. We share in His glory. And by the Spirit we're being transformed more and more glory by glory, phase by phase, step by step until the day when Christ returns we will see Him in that glory and we will be like Him in that glory. That's where we live and move and have our being. And because we're joined to the glorious Lord, Jesus Christ, we are now able and responsible to consider ourselves, to reckon ourselves, to judge ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. We've heard that over and over and over from Romans, from Reverend Gordon. We need to reckon ourselves. We need to consider ourselves the way God considers us. We're dead to sin. We're alive to God in Christ. And therefore we share in His glory. Not only that, Not only that, we are now able and we are responsible to consider other people in the same way. So Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he says, From now on we regard no one, we judge no one according to the flesh. And the reason he gives is that if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creature. That's not even a category for us anymore. And we need to know, as those who have received that mercy and been given the gift of faith, that every person in this world created in the image of God is destined for one of two destinations. And when we meet anybody on any day in any given situation, they are a person in progress. They're either as sons of Adam bound for destruction, even those that don't look that way, or they are destined to be joined to Christ and they are bound for glory, even if they don't look that way. therefore C.S. Lewis said there are no ordinary people you've never talked to a mere mortal it is immortals whom we joke with work with, marry, snub and exploit immortal horrors or everlasting splendor and we never know which he calls that the weight of glory when we deal with other people we need to feel the weight of glory that either they already have in Christ Jesus as believers in him or that they might one day attain because God shows them mercy we need to feel that weight of glory and reckon people according to that God shows no partiality the scriptures say and so favoritism is contrary to his nature and it's to be contrary to ours as well. Paul warns in 1 Corinthians, he says, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes. There are so many things that we do not know about a person. And to render judgment, to show favoritism based on those few things that we can know is to assume the judgment seat of God and, as James says, to become judges with evil thoughts. That's how wicked favoritism is. It climbs up into the judgment seat of God and takes to itself, when we take to ourselves, determinations about people for which we have no basis. that's the theology packed into that verse, number one. And we need to stand from that bearing when we hear the illustration in verses two to four. James informs us, he gives us this in two to four. It's really simple, it's really clear. We don't need to spend a lot of time trying to figure out if this is an analogy or a metaphor or what the secret meanings are. It's just really clear on the face of it. So listen carefully. It takes place in your assembly. It takes place amongst Christians. And it presents two conditions and one question. The conditions are this. If two men come into your assembly, the first wearing a gold ring and fine clothing, the second in shabby clothing, and if you treat them differently based on what you see, you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and you say, oh, you sit here in a good place. And at the same time, you do not pay attention to the one that you've determined is the poor man, but you simply say, if you have to sit, just sit on the floor. Then he asks the question, have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Of course you have. There's no denying it. And he's presented to us this blatant, But this undeniable, we've just got to be going, I can't believe that happened. That happens in a public place where we are on our best behavior and our Sunday best and very mindful of what people think and see around us. He does that to show us that when we're by ourselves, in the world, at home, at work, in the schoolhouse, man, we are right there. We can't deny it. Paul applies this principle when he writes to the Galatians and the Colossians and he tells them that there are no superficial distinctions in the church. He says there are no barbarians or Scythians. Well, sure, there's some barbarians in the church and there's some Scythians in the church, but in the church we don't look at them as barbarians and Scythians. We don't judge them according to that. Do we show favoritism according to race or ethnicity? Paul says there's no Jew or Greek. Now, we're all Greeks here in that sense, but in the sense that there's no one there that's come into this by birth versus those who came in by conversion. But do we show partiality based on when we or someone else was baptized? Do we show partiality based on how we or someone else educates their children? There's no male or female. Do we show favoritism based on gender or other characteristics, age, appearance, what we wear, how we comb our hair, how we decorate our bodies? There's no slave or free. Do we show partiality based on someone's social standing, someone's economic status, or how it looks to us to be? I could multiply the question. but I hope you feel the point. If you do, if I do, then James asks, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? To which we must answer yes. To show favoritism is a wicked thing. It passes wicked judgment. And no sooner do we get that answer off of our lips that reflects our hearts, James presses on further in verses 5 to 7 with a second reason. A second reason to forsake favoritism, and that's because those who practice it deny God's promise. In his illustration, James assumes that we understand something that his readers did understand. And perhaps you understand because you spend enough time in the Scripture. He assumes that we understand that often in the Scripture, but not always, Those with no earthly wealth, those who are poor, are those who are rich toward God. And at the same time, often but not always, those who have great material wealth are poor toward God. They don't believe. And we need to know that not every poor man will inherit heaven. It's not a virtue to be poor. It doesn't earn you points with God. But the Lord delivers the poor in the world. He shows mercy in the world. He delivers from those who are strong and powerful, those who are weak and helpless. And Jesus calls on us to be merciful, as our Father in heaven is merciful. He wants us to look at that. You see, that's how God would have us see mercy. But he does those things, not only to these individuals, but to paint a picture for us, That when we read the scriptures, we see that in these acts of earthly physical mercy, God is displaying his heavenly mercy to those who are poor in spirit. He shows us physical realities to understand a spiritual and invisible reality. God's heavenly mercy he shows to the poor in spirit and he gives to them the kingdom of heaven. And so we find Paul using this concrete material categories of rich and poor in 2 Corinthians to help us understand the nature of our salvation. He says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know this, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich. Concrete realities that speak to the spiritual reality. And it's the same for the rich man. Not every rich man in the Scripture is going to hell. Having money is not a demerit with God. In fact, any money that we might have comes from God. But the Lord humbled the rich and the mighty in Scripture. He humbled King Nebuchadnezzar, not because he was wealthy and powerful, but because he took pride in his wealth and his power. And Jesus warned us that no one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. That's the spiritual reality. And it's these sort of things that help us understand that we're supposed to see that God is opposed to the proud. To those who are proud in the Spirit, who get their total reward in this life. He tells the parable of the man who was so wealthy he had to take down all his barns and build bigger ones so he could fill all this stuff in. And he tells this story to let us know that this is what happens to those who lay up their treasures on earth and not in heaven. The man, when he sat back and he looked at all of his wealth, said to himself, trusting in his riches, I can retire. Eat, drink, be merry. Relax. And God said to him, You fool. you fool, this night your soul is required of you. All these things you've acquired, what's going to happen to them? And so this biblical understanding of how God works with the poor in the world and the rich in the world are to help us understand how God deals with those who are poor in spirit before him versus those who are proud before him. And we need to have that understanding, which these readers did when we hear James' question. He says, listen, my brothers, in verse 5, listen. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? Of course. That's what the scriptures say. But we need to, if we unpack this question just a little bit, we get a sense of how James is reminding us to remember how God has been working and how God works through his promises to bring to himself the poor in the spirit. let's break it down you'll know the answers has not God chosen people yes he has James says he chose those who love him and Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 that those who love him are those whom he loved before the foundation of the world and he chose to love him and what has God promised to those who love him he's promised to make those who are poor in the world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that's what God has promised to those who are poor in the world as an illustration that he gives to those faith and inheritance and by that he shows us that he gives what they do not have and what they cannot have by nature what none of us can have and what none of us want by nature God gives. He gives faith to trust in Jesus. And he gives eternal life to live with him forever. And both of these gifts he gives by grace alone. By grace you've been saved through faith. This is not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. And he saved us not because of works we've done, but according to his mercy. So that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the promise and the hope of eternal life. And so here's the picture. James has reminded us. Remember now, God often honors the poor man in the Scripture. Not because the man's poor, but to show that God is rich in mercy to those who are humble. But you, James says, you've done the opposite. You've dishonored the poor man because he's poor. You show no mercy. And not only that, because favoritism always cuts both ways. There's always a winner and there's a loser. There's another charge that, left unspoken, gets unpacked in some questions. Remember, God often opposes the rich in the Scripture. Not because he's rich, but because God demonstrates his might and his opposition to the proud. But you, James implies, you have favored the rich man because he's rich. And you show yourselves to be just as wicked as those who persecute you and show favoritism against you and discriminate against you. You have sided with the enemies of the kingdom of God in your favoritism. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you? Of course they are. That's what scripture says. The wicked use their wealth to make things hard for the church and to cause Christians to suffer. Are they not those who drag you into court? They are. The wicked use wealth to buy political and legal leverage to take from you what they want and to muzzle your witness for Christ. And are they not those who blaspheme the honorable name by which you've been called? They do. The wicked revile Jesus Christ. And they despise your faith. And they're willing to spend their money to do it. I've interpreted that for you. James is not after the rich. He's after the proud, the wicked. And that wickedness is showing up in the church because it's making decisions based on what people look like or what people have, which is exactly the opposite of what God does. God shows mercy to the poor in spirit. We neglect the poor in the tyranny. God opposes the proud who has everything he needs in this life. And we chase him. We respect them, we honor them, they're our celebrity. We follow them on Twitter. It was true then that the wicked persecute the church, and it's true today. The faces have changed, the places have changed, but the story remains the same. And it doesn't take long in the newspaper to see it, or on the internet to find it. Where the church is poorest, its people are most oppressed. And to show favoritism is to live in a way that looks like that. Well, finally, in verses 8 to 13, James gives us a third reason to forsake favoritism. Those who practice it deserve unmerciful judgment. In verses 8 and 9, James sets before us a choice. He lays for us a parallel. Either you treat people according to God's standard, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, or you treat them according to your own, showing partiality. And depending on which choices you make, either you will really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, and you'll do well, or you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. It's either or. There is no neutral. That's his point. Every conversation, every meeting, every email, in which you relate to another person, you are making this choice. Am I going to deal with them according to the royal law to love them as myself? Or am I going to deal with them as I prefer according to my own agenda? That's the rub. But it raises the question, why does James call this second commandment the royal law? He's the only one that does. It's a unique expression in all of Scripture. Why is the second commandment the royal law, the second great commandment? Well, in one sense, it's royal because it comes from the king. That's obvious, and I don't think that's James' point. I think James' point here is that it is royal. It's the royal law because it is the commandment. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. It's the commandment that governs our understanding of and our obedience to every commandment that God gives us for how to relate to another person. It's the royal law. If you remember this one, you got them all. And Paul says as much in Romans chapter 13 we heard not long ago. O no man anything except to love each other for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and any other commandment show no partiality are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. It's a royal law. It's the one that governs and oversees and directs all the rest. It's the law of love. Because it's love alone that can govern and can motivate us to obey commandments like this. It's the same love that can control and motivate us to not commit adultery and not commit murder. James wants to press on us. He says, if you break any particular commandment, any commandment, you are committing sin and convicted by the law as a transgressor. You are convicted and deserving of judgment. That's what he's saying. He says that because in verse 10, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point, he's become accountable to it all. Man, that's not fair. Isn't that what you say? That's not fair? That's what I say. We like to grade our sin. Some are worse than others. Adultery, murder, the top ten, you know, those are really bad. With this favoritism thing, where does that register on the Richter scale? Another way we like to slice and dice it is that your sins are serious, mine aren't so bad. But God has always said that cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. If you don't abide by them all, you'll be cursed. The point is, all of his commandments are important. governed by the royal law, but all of his commandments are important so that even if you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you're guilty of the whole. That's what James is saying. There's no place to run and hide here. His point here is that he's bringing to us his commandment. Do not show favoritism. Show no partiality. And he wants us to see it on the same scale as these big ones that we would not argue about. This one we would argue about. He says, you break this one, you break them all. And you're liable to judgment. It deserves unmerciful judgment. It deserves unmerciful judgment because it is an unmerciful judgment of other people. It's a judgment by my standards, not God's. It's unmerciful. And strict justice demands that I get unmerciful judgment. James has pressed us pretty hard today, don't you think? I felt pretty cornered. I hope you did too, because that's what he wants. He has brought to bear some gigantic arguments against one commandment that we break so that we don't miss it. It's so prevalent, it's so automatic, it's so unthinking that we just would read the words, show no partiality, and move on. He wants us to feel it. He wants us to know it. And he wants us to be convinced of how wicked it is and what it deserves so that we find greater motivation, not our only motivation, but greater motivation to live like we understand that. And that's what he does in verses 12 and 13. He takes this out from under his thumb now because that's where he's had it. He says, I want to show you how to respond to this. I want you to show you how to pursue worthwhile religion so that you move away from this nasty sin of favoritism. And you move toward really loving one another. And so he says in verse 12, he says, So speak and so act. That's not therefore speak and act. That's so speak and so act. Speak in a way and act in a way. that shows that you are those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. Now, he's turned the phrase here. We're going to talk about that. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. Day by day, speak and act with love so that you really fulfill the royal law. That's what he's calling us to. He made it clear what he wants us to put away. This is what he's calling us to. Can we do this perfectly? No. Can we do this truly? Yes. For all who are in Christ, who has perfectly obeyed God in our place and has taken the strict punishment that we deserve in our place. In Christ, the royal law has become the law of liberty. It's the same law. It demands the same thing. But it's called the law of liberty because it's a law that we are now freed in Christ to actually pursue. We are actually able and made willing to start to love people this way. More and more. And so in Christ we pursue worthwhile religion as doers of the word, including this word. And as we do so, we can look forward to the judgment that's coming. We deserve strict judgment. We deserve merciless judgment. We can look forward to the day of judgment when judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy. Those who arrive that day and have never shown mercy will get merciless justice. But we're going to approach that day as those who have received the mercy of God in Christ have been joined to Christ and in the power of His Spirit are becoming more and more willing and able not only to put away the favoritism, but to start speaking and acting toward people with merciful judgments that agree with what God says about them, not what we think about them. And in that activity of putting away favoritism and putting on this kind of love, we start to bear witness to the work of Christ in us that demonstrates to them, other people, as it will demonstrate to Christ on the last day that we have known His mercy. Therefore, we can look to the day of judgment without fear because mercy triumphs over judgment. The mercy that has been expressed through us by the work of Christ will triumph over that judgment, that judgment that we deserve. And so, leave today knowing that for as much as we've been convicted and we need to be convicted on this sin, Remember, brothers, in Christ Jesus, that applies to you women as well. Remember that by faith in Jesus Christ, you've been joined to his glory, you've received his spirit, you are able and you are willing to do what has been set before you today. Ask God for the strength, they're determined to do it, and press on toward this end of fulfilling the royal law and showing mercy to God's people and strangers as well. for the glory of His name. Jesus promised, blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You that Your Word comes to us and cuts like a two-edged sword. It gets down to our hearts and divides between spirit and marrow. Lord, You've shown us part of ourselves today that we don't like to know that we need to see. And through James, you've borne on us mightily and heavily that we would be convinced and convicted. We thank you, Father, that even as you prepared us to hear that word with the reminder that we have enjoyed the benefit of the gospel of Jesus Christ, you've not left us without the reminder that it is according to the gospel, to the work of Christ himself, that we are able to hear this word and actually start to respond to it and pursue that worthwhile religion, a Christian life you've called us to, that pursues such things as this, forsaking favoritism and growing in love and mercy to our fellow man. Thank you, Father, for this word today. In Jesus' name, amen.