Okay, we begin here in James
chapter 2 and verse 1. Now James had begun the end of
the chapter, chapter 1, speaking of being doers of the Word and
not hearers only. And this is what James is dealing
with throughout the epistle. And so we begin here in James
2 verse 1 and he says, My brethren. Now that's important because
James is writing to those who have faith. And he says here,
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory
with respect of persons. Now, the first thing that we
need to understand, and the point of this passage is, God is no
respecter of persons. Now, the word says here, the
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I realize that some translations
will read faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's very important
for us to remember that Righteousness and faith is from the faith of
Christ who is seated in glory. The faith of Christ of glory.
And it's especially important to note when we're dealing with
respective persons. Now you know this. I'm going
to cover this with you one more time. But let me read Romans
3.21 with you. But now the righteousness of
God. Whose righteousness? The righteousness
of God. is witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, even the righteousness of God. Whose righteousness?
The righteousness of God. Which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Whose faith? The faith of Jesus
Christ. Galatians 2.16 says, knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the
faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ,
that we might be justified by the faith of Jesus Christ and
not by the works of the law. Now, James reminds us of where
our Lord Jesus Christ is now. He says, of this faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, of glory. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high." Glorified. And where does James remind us
that every good and every perfect gift comes from? He says in verse
17 of chapter 1, every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above. It cometh down from the Father
of lights. But now James here says, of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Ephesians 4.8, Wherefore,
he saith, when he ascended upon high, he led captivity captive
and gave gifts unto men. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Everyone of Paul's epistles,
he begins, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. So that's where James has us
to remember that this faith came from in the beginning. And that's
important, very important to understand. Jude gives us a definition
of respect of persons. He says, having men's persons
in admiration because of advantage. Now brethren, how do you have
this faith from our Lord Jesus Christ of glory? Was it because
He respected your person? Is that how you got this faith?
Did you do something or did He see something in us that would
be an advantage to Him and cause Him to choose you and to redeem
you and to give this faith to you? Listen to Ephesians 2.8,
For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. the gift of God by grace, not
of works, lest any man should boast. He said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. And the purpose of God according
to election that we see pictured in Rebecca and the two twins
that were in her womb is before they had done any good or any
evil, God said, Jacob, I love. Why? That the purpose of God
according to election might stand. It's not of works, it's not of
him that willeth, but of God. So, these are some things He
said to us. I will heal their backsliding.
I will love them freely. Don't you love that word? That's
one of my favorite words in Scripture, is freely. Being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ. James said
just before this, of His own will, No other reason. Of his own will, he begat us
through the word of truth. Now, if there's one thing above
everything else that you and I as believers should glory in,
it's that God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ is no respecter
of persons. Now, that we're reminded of that,
that we've received this free gift from our Father, from above,
from our Lord Jesus Christ in glory, who lived and died to
freely redeem us. Now, let's read verse 1 again.
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory
with respect of persons. Now, here's the second thing.
We'll see the illustration. Verse 2, For if there come unto
your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and
there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, things you can
see, things you can see with the natural eye, and you have
respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and saying to him,
Sit thou here in a good place, And you say to the poor, stand
thou there or sit under my footstool. Are you not then partial in yourselves
and are become judges of evil thoughts? Now, I can't find any
place in Scripture where James is addressing any particular
occurrence that this took place in, that he's rebuking them for
some particular thing they did. I can't find that in Scripture
anywhere. I do know, we do know this, that James was with the
brethren that came to Antioch when Peter got up from the table
where he was seated with the Gentiles and walked over and
sat down with the Jews, which was showing a respect of persons
because of outward an outward thing because they were the natural
descendants of Abraham. And Paul said there when addressing
that issue in Galatians 2.18, Paul said, Christ didn't teach
us that. That's not of Christ. It's just
like what James said, don't blame God if we're drawn away of our
own lust. Paul said, if I build again the
things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. And that's
what James is saying here. If we show partiality, we set
ourselves up as judges of evil thoughts. That's not of Christ. That's not of God. That's of
us. Verse 5. Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith,
heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love
him? The majority whom God chose in Christ before the foundation
of the world He has not given worldly riches or honor before
calling them or after calling them. He didn't choose them because
they were poor. He chose them before with no
regard to their persons, but he chose not to give them riches
or honor before or after. He saved them, the majority.
Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 1, for you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many noble are
called. Now, judging by outward appearances,
the majority of brethren are poor by this world's standards,
are not the honorable and the noble by this world's standards.
But God has made his saints rich in ways that no man can see with
the natural eye. Rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom
which he hath promised to them that love him. But if we show
partiality, here's the meaning of those evil thoughts. Look
at verse six. But ye have despised the poor. Now, here's the third thing I
want you to see, and this is the principle, the principle
here. This goes far beyond rich or
poor in material things. This was an illustration that
James gave as a respect of persons. The principle of respect of persons
goes far beyond rich or poor in noble things. Turn with me
to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. We're going to address this same subject in the second
hour this morning. But in the second hour, we're
going to look at not just why God chose to do it this way,
but at Him in whom He chose to do it in. Now look here in verse
19. For it is written, this is why
God chose the things He did. This is why God chose to save
the way He has and to use the instruments that He chose to
use. It's to stain the pride that man has in his own wisdom. Verse 19, For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. and will bring to nothing
the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? God chose that which is most
offensive to men, that which stains the pride of men the most. Those are the things God chose. He chose, verse 18 says, the
preaching of the cross. It's to them that perish foolishness. That's what he chose. To the
man who's rich in worldly, carnal, natural understanding, he can take on a form of religion. And the preaching of Christ crucified
is a stumbling block to Him. You know what a stumbling block
is? It's a block that's in the path, it's in the way. It gets
in your way. The Lord says the preaching of
the cross is to the Jew, to the religious man, to the man who
has a tradition, to the man who has a knowledge of history of
religion, a knowledge of religion, of a form of religion. It's a
stumbling block to him to have to subject himself to God, to
wait on God to save, to trust God to make disciples, to add
to his church daily such as should be saved. Only through the preaching
of Christ gets in the way of his doing, of his making disciples,
of his building a church like you'd build a business enterprise.
But to those rich in their own wisdom, their philosophy is the
preaching of Christ is utter foolishness. Men won't dare say
it. The Lord said when they came
back from going out and having this power that Christ had given
them, they came back and they said, we saw a man casting out
devils in your name, but he didn't follow us. And so we forbid him. And the Lord said, don't forbid
him. A man that's casting out devils in my name, the man wasn't
doing it because he was sin of Christ. But he said, the man
that's doing that can't soon speak evil of Christ, or he'll
betray that he's a devil himself. But here's what all such men
do. Back in our text. Now hold your place there in
1 Corinthians 1. And look back at James 2.6. Do not rich men
oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they
blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called? Now wealthy
men may do this. I don't know that wealthy men,
according to the flesh, do this more than Poor men do it. In our day and time, it looks
like everybody's ready to sue at the drop of a hat. But those
rich in carnal understanding, in religion, in this world's
wisdom, are far worse, far worse. They judge by outward appearance.
They oppress. Religious men drag men to the
judgment seat, the judgment seat of God's law, to the bar of their
polluted discernment. to the seat of vain tradition
before any seat of judgment whereby they can turn you away from Christ. And that's exactly why Christ
was nailed to the cross. Because that's how men respected
His person. They looked on that outward appearance.
And that's why He was nailed to the cross. He was in the way. And as soon as as soon as religion
got him out of the way. Even though the veil ripped down
the middle in two, and there was no Ark of the Covenant inside,
there was nothing. It made a vain sham of the charade
they were going through. It didn't matter. That didn't
matter. As soon as Christ was out of
the way, the natural religious man goes right back to practicing
what he practiced before. And Christ is just a thorn in
the side. Christ is just getting in the
way. Now back in 1 Corinthians 1.23,
Paul said, but we preach Christ. There's the difference. There's
the difference in having no respective persons. We preach Christ. That's the worthy name by which
you're called. James says, do they not blaspheme
that worthy name by which you're called? This one from a poor
family in a despised place of Nazareth, not even a place to
lay his head, Nothing to differentiate him among the mighty and the
noble of the world. No authority from religious leaders.
The highly esteemed religious host who were highly esteemed
among men. The highly esteemed religious
host despised and rejected and esteemed him not. You know what the word is? Nothing. Still do. Nothing. But they esteemed
him this, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. They blasphemed
the worthy name by which you were called." But then in 1 Corinthians
1, he says, "...but unto them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks." Aren't you thankful for that word? He saves the most
well-respected in religion, and the most well-respected in philosophy. He saves them both. He brings
them down. Let the rich man rejoice in that
he's brought low. And to them that are brought
low, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Verse
25, and here's what we realize. The foolishness of God is wiser
than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Christ Jesus and the cross and
the preaching of Christ crucified and those he saves are the base
things. They're the foolish things. They're
the despised things that God has chosen to confound the wise
and mighty for this reason, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. That's the principle we're dealing
with here in a respect of persons. Now, most know the doctrine that
the believer is not under the law but under grace. Look back
with me at James 2. Most know the doctrine that the
believer is not under the law but under grace. But I pray God
would make us to hear Christ when He says that that which
is highly esteemed by the natural carnal understanding is the breaking
of the entire law of God. It doesn't matter if you're saying
you're following what Moses said or if you're following what Christ
said. If we're looking anywhere but
to Christ, we're breaking the whole law. James 2.8 If ye fulfill
the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons,
ye commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in
one, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit
adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. Now
is there any under the sound of my voice that is yet so foolish,
so blind, so rich and mighty and noble, so highly respected
in His own eyes, as to read these words and say, He has fulfilled
the royal law that He has done well. Anybody here that can say
that? Verse 12, So speak ye, And so
do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. No man
can say he's fulfilled that law. No man can say he's done well.
So then what? So then speak ye. And so do,
as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he
shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy. And
mercy rejoiceth against judgment. They that shall be judged by
the thrice holy God, without spot, without blemish,
perfect and accepted, having fulfilled the whole law of God,
the royal law of God, to whom it shall be said, you have done
well, are those who shall be judged by that worthy name by
which we are called. He is the gospel of liberty. He is the Redeemer. He is Christ
Jesus, their Lord and Savior. Those who go on esteeming that
which God says is a stench, an abomination, who say within themselves,
this is what they say within themselves, the blind man, the
man that respects outward rather than beholding what he is and
rejoicing in Christ alone. That man saying, I have no need
of mercy. He's judging within himself,
I have no need of mercy. And therefore he shall have judgment
without mercy. But those who have been set free
speak and do as those that should be judged in Christ. They speak
of him who is their mercy. They cast themselves upon his
mercy. They continually beg Him for
new mercies for themselves and for those around them. And by
His mercy, they rejoice to show mercy to all. They do so for
one reason, one reason, because they rejoice that God's mercy
toward them in Christ Jesus has won them the victory over judgment. Mercy rejoices against judgment. So, James chapter 2 verse 1. My brethren, having seen this
illustration, having heard this word of warning, this wise word
of instruction, that Christ is all, and we have no reason to
regard anything in ourselves or in anyone else. Paul said
we know no man after the flesh anymore. My brethren, have not this gift
of faith from our Lord Jesus Christ in glory with respect
of persons. Verse 12. So speak ye, and so
do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Amen.