James chapter 2. Let's read the
first nine verses. My brethren, have not the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of
persons. For if there come unto your assembly,
your synagogue, a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel, and
there come in also a poor man in vile raiment. And you have
respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, the nice clothing. And say unto him, Sit thou here
in a good place, chief seat. And say to the poor, Stand thou
there, or sit here under my footstool. Are you not then partial in yourselves,
and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich
in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them
that love him? But ye have despised the poor.
Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment
seat? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are
called? If you fulfill the royal law
according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
you do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin and are convinced or convicted of the law as transgressors. Verse 1, he says, have not the
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect
of person. And what James in this whole
book is dealing with, emphasizing his faith without works, is dead. So what he speaks of, the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, he's talking about the life that he
lived. the walk of faith, the way that
Christ lived as a man before God and before men. His life
was a life of good works. He went about, Scripture says,
doing good for the glory of God, for the good of others, with
no respect of persons. None whatsoever. And verse 8,
he said, if you fulfill this royal law, love your neighbor
as yourself with no respect to persons, no partiality to any,
do not show favoritism, no preference to some over others because of
whatever, then you do well. Our Lord, Scripture says, judged
not according to the sight or the hearing. He judged righteous judgment.
Now this is a good lesson in life and in spirit. We're not to judge according
to the sight of our eyes, judge by material possessions or what
a man owns, the things that he has, or in physical differences,
the way someone is dressed and so forth. No prejudice, either
for or against. No prejudice. In the body of
Christ, this is what Scripture teaches us clearly. In the body
of Christ, there's no rich or poor. In fact, we're all poor. Though we may think we're rich,
though we say, that's what He said to the Laodiceans, didn't
He? You say you're rich and increased with good, and you don't realize
you're poor. But in the body of Christ, there's
no rich or poor, no great or small, no significant or insignificant,
no important or unimportant. There's no black, no white, no
male, no female. This is what's called equity. Not inequity, but equity. We're all a bunch of sinners.
Saved by grace, Christ is the Lord. There's only one in our
midst who's worth anything in Himself, and that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. So James uses this illustration. Suppose two men walk into our
assembly. Two men walk into our synagogue,
our church house. One is rich, one is wealthy.
It's obvious from his clothing, from his apparel. And maybe somebody
well-known, usually people that are rich are well-known, influential
people, people of some kind of status in the community, maybe
an office, a position that they hold. And another man walks in
and he's very poor, it's obvious from his clothing, and nobody
knows him, he's a nobody. And we say to the rich man, to
the well-known person, to the person of influence, the person
who's somebody in the community, because of his wealth, because
of his or her influence. We say to them, well, it's good
to have you. Sit down here. And everybody
just makes over that person. At the same time, we kind of
ignore the poor fellow. You know, he slips in, sits on
the back row, and nobody pays any attention to him. Our Lord says that's evil. It's evil. We've become a judge
by appearance and not as our Lord who looks on the heart. You know, what a lesson this
is because the Pharisees looked moral and looked righteous and
dressed just right and talked just right and everybody esteemed
them highly. But the Lord, they were an abomination
to Him. And he called them all a bunch
of hypocrites. A bunch of hypocrites. And our Lord says this way of
thinking is evil. We've become a judge by appearance,
a judge of our thoughts. Our judgments are evil. Our judgments
that we make are evil. They're a judgment according
to appearance and not on the heart. And this is a good lesson,
isn't it? To not cater to the rich and
the famous because of influence, because of favors that they can
show us or give us. The people of God are not to
enlist the aid. Listen to it. The people of God
are not to enlist the aid of the world's rich and famous,
the wealthy and important people of this world to further the
cause of Christ. If we do that, we reveal our
utter ignorance. Our utter ignorance of what is
truly needful. And I thought about this, you
know, as preacher and people, we're not to have this kind of
way of thinking toward the world, toward the well-known, toward
the rich. We should not as preacher, me
as a preacher, you as people, should not cater to the rich
and famous, the well-known. As a preacher, If I seek to please
men, Scripture says, I'm not the servant of Christ. If I'm
catering to anyone of influence or of wealth in order to reap
from them, to forgain for this church, that's evil, isn't it?
I'm not a true called preacher, if that be the case. If that be the case, if I'm real
conscious of somebody well-known or rich or somebody that could
maybe do us, so to speak, some favors, I will tone down the
message, won't I? I will try not to be offensive
to that person so that they won't leave and we lose their money. That's just not the case with
God's true preacher. Cannot be. Cannot be conscious
of the rich, the influential, or else we'll tone down the message
so as not to offend. You know, if anything, if our
message does not offend the natural man, the person who comes in
here the first time, we've not said it clearly enough. Did you
hear me? That's a fact. Barnard used to
say, preach for a verdict. Preach so clearly. Preach so
plainly that when people hear you, they'll know what you said
and they'll go away with one of three reactions. They'll be
mad, sad, or glad. They'll hear it clearly enough.
I know one time Dad got a letter from someone, a TV hearer, and
the woman, I think it was, said to him, she said, you know, you
and Jimmy Swagger are my two favorite preachers. And Dad read that and I remember
him saying to us men, he said, I'm not preaching clear enough.
I'm not saying it clear enough. I need to be more clear now. Because you need to see and hear
the difference. So as a preacher, if I'm conscious
of the rich and influential, and I'll try to tone down the
message, if I acknowledge, if I court the rich saying that
we need them, that we can use what they have, I'm ignorant
of God. Ignorant of God. Over in Genesis
chapter 14, Yeah, Genesis 14. I didn't write
it down, but I think this is where it's found. Abraham, the
king of Sodom, wanted to give him, yeah, Genesis 14. Look over there with me. Genesis
14. You remember when Abraham came and rescued Lot from the
battle of Chedolahomar, and actually Abraham rescued many, even the
king of Sodom. You remember that's such a type
of Christ being the Savior of the world, but especially them
that believe. That is, everyone owes their life and breath to
our God, but He especially saves His people, like Lot. But the king of Sodom, after
Abraham rescued all of them, and this is the great story of
Melchizedek coming. What a chapter. 21, the king
of Sodom was so grateful to Abraham, he said to Abraham, you give
me the persons. You give me Lot and those you
rescued. You take the goods. You take all the spoils. And
Abraham said, verse 22, Abram said to the king of Sodom, I
have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the
Possessor of heaven and earth. The cattle on a thousand hills
are His. All the gold and silver and all the mines belong to Him.
What you have, He gave to you. Now, I don't need, well, he says,
I don't need what you have to give me. Read on. He said, verse 23, I will not
take a thread, a shoelatchet. I will not take anything that
is thine, lest you say, lest thou should sayeth, I have made
Abraham rich. No. God provides all our needs. God provides all our needs. Here's
a way you can distinguish the true church from the false. False
religion is always having all kinds of fundraisers. And they
say things like this, God needs your money. He can't do anything
without you. He has no hands, but He needs
your money. I want you to help God out. That's abomination. That's saying not God's people. Ever. Never. We never elicit
the favor of, the influence of, the money of, the riches of,
the world. They don't have anything we need.
Now, here's wisdom. Here's our true attitude. But
we have what they need. They don't have anything we need.
We cannot benefit from anything anybody who comes in here has
to offer today. But they can sure benefit from
what we have. Like Simon Peter said, and James
and John went to the temple that day, and there was a beggar sitting
there asking for alms. And Simon Peter, they were poor.
Our Lord didn't give them pockets full of money. They didn't give
money to anybody. Our Lord owned all the riches
in the world, but He never gave a dime to anybody. What does that tell you? what
we really need. When the Lord could have made
every single poor person fabulously wealthy, He never gave them a
dime. Simon Peter said to that man,
he said, silver and gold have we none. And that's not what
you need. But such as we have, we give
unto you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and
walk. Our Lord, who is wisdom, never
gave a dime. He provided money for taxes. He told Peter, go down and cast
a hook and get out. And there was no more, no less,
was it? Didn't make them rich, just paid their taxes. Where
are you going to come up with this year's taxes? Many of us
right now are wondering, where are we going to get this money?
Why would you worry about it now? been provided every year. You don't have to resort to anything.
Well, and as a people, as a church, as I said, it reveals our ignorance
if we believe that the world can do us any favors, that men
have what we need. That reveals our ignorance of
the one thing needful. And of our God who supplies all
our needs, that reveals our ignorance. I remember one time somebody
saying to a pastor, he brought a rich man to the service and
he said, our church, he can help our church a great deal. No, he can't. The higher church
can sure help him if the Lord is pleased. And so it's evil. And here's an evil attitude to
want the rich and the famous for the Lord to save the rich
and the famous as opposed to the poor and the nobodies for gain. That's the evil in
it. In other words, Well, I'm not
going to say it. Maybe my neighbor will listen
to this, but I've got some poor neighbors
and I've got some real rich ones. Who would I prefer the Lord save? A better exam to my heart. I
want the Lord to save them all and have talked to them all.
And many of them have come here. But who did the Lord choose,
Lazarus or the rich man? Who did He choose? Lazarus. Lazarus. So this is what He's
telling us. This is what our Lord did. This
is our Lord. acted, no respect of persons. To say that God, to do that,
to seek the aid of the world's rich and famous, to court their
favored and wealthy and so forth, is to say that God is a respecter
of persons, that God can benefit, that God needs people. That's
to deny the faith and say that God needs people. It is to deny
that God supplies everything. To court people, the rich, is
to deny, that's hard to say together, to deny that God provides all
our need. It's not men, it's God that's
providing. When the church in Ashland started
on the television back in the early 80's, the cost was astronomical. Even back then, something like
a thousand dollars a week. Back in the early 80's. A vast
sum of money. Then and now. It would be five
times that now. But they trusted the Lord and
they never had one single appeal for money, ever. The church doesn't
do that. You won't find it in the Scriptures.
False religion does that. That's how you know them. That's
why they're doing it. And the preacher preaches accordingly.
It's a denial of the faith. It's a denial of the truth of
blessed are the poor. Blessed are the poor. Hath not God chosen? Look at
verse in our text. It says, Hath not God chosen? Verse 5. poor of this world, literally.
I mean, they were literally poor. Those were the ones that our
Lord chose, the literal poor. Now, not all were poor, thank
God. We better say that. Thank God
it doesn't say not any wise, mighty, or noble, not any
rich, doesn't it? He says it's harder for a rich
man to go into the the kingdom of God than a camel to go through
the eye of a needle. Well, thank God he does choose
some rich, doesn't he? Thank God. A man like, well,
Paul Thacker, the Lord, that man, you know, the Lord made
him wealthy in the construction business and saved him. Oh, my. He put his money where
his mouth was. He built a church in Pikeville,
Kentucky. You know that story, don't you? You know where that
money came from, don't you? The Lord sent a flood through
Pike County, Kentucky. Wiped out every bridge in Pike
County, Kentucky. A flood, a disaster. A plague,
as it were. And Paul got the contract to
build all those bridges. And with the money that he got
from those bridges that the Lord wiped out, he built a church.
And he went down there to preach. And the Lord raised up Tom Hardin
and the rest is history. Blessed are the poor. The poor
are the only ones that need the gospel preached to, don't they? To court the rich and the famous
and the people of this world for whatever reason is a denial
of the power of God and the Spirit of God to save sinners. It's to say that salvation is
for sale. It's to say that salvation is
for the high and the mighty and the noble and the rich and the
famous. No, no, no. It's for the poor. It's for nobodies
who have nothing. And I don't want to do that as
a preacher, and we need not do that as a people, as a church. I remember this, and it still
bothers me. One time when I was a very young
preacher, I think maybe the first year or two I was here, and a
preacher from this community came to visit us and brought
another man that everybody knew. And a young 34-year-old preacher,
you know, I acknowledged him and that man before everybody. And I remember your dad's face,
Stephen. I remember your dad looking at
me with such disappointment. He looked at me like he was disappointed
in me. And that bothers me to this day. It bothers me to this day. I
wish I'd never done it. I wish I'd take it back. So,
that's what he's telling us. James chapter 2. So, with respect
to persons, oh my, did not he say in the first chapter, verse
9, look at this, let the brother of low degree rejoice in that
he is exalted. But the rich, and He's made low,
there are some who are rich in the world's goods, and yet the
Lord reveals to them, in mercy and grace He reveals to them,
they have nothing. There are nothing and nobody
from nowhere. And what they need is the unsearchable riches of
Christ. Now, that rich person should rejoice that God revealed
to them the truth, that they got a good look in the mirror.
And don't forget it, because you're going to lose it all anyway.
And to the poor, to the lowly, rejoice in that you may not have
much of this world's goods. That's okay. Our Lord did not
either. But oh, if you have Christ, you
have it all. Isn't that where this all started?
That's where it all started. And so he says to us, remind
us, don't, you know, you say you have faith, you're following
Christ. Christ didn't do this. preference
of person and so forth. Now, there are three types of
rich, and let me close with this. There are three types of rich,
so-called rich, in the world. The rich people think they're
rich. There are those that are rich
in material things. But you know what the Scripture
says? There's he that hath riches and yet hath nothing, the proverb
says. There's he that hath riches and
yet hath nothing. You know why you're not rich
when you have the things of this world? That's the only so-called
riches you have. You know why it won't enrich
you? Because it's vanity. It doesn't enrich your life at
all. No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. In fact, our Lord said it's better
to have little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure.
And what do you have when you have great treasure? What do
you have with great treasure? The more you have, what do you
have? Trouble. Worry. You've got to work harder to
pay for it. You've got to have more to keep
more. And then you worry about it.
If you have something new, you don't want to scratch on it. Right? If you have something,
you can lose it. If you can lose it and not bother
you too bad, And that thing didn't make you
rich, did it? True riches are love, joy, peace,
righteousness. You know, the whole world wants
to be happy. The whole world wants to be happy. Nothing, no earthly thing can
make you happy. Nothing. Only Christ. Blessed is the man
who trusteth in Christ, who believeth Christ, whom Christ is all to. If he hath Christ, he realizes,
she realizes. All I need is food and rainbow,
just to keep my body clothed and to keep food in my belly.
And what I really need is Christ. If I have Him, I can lose everything
and not lose anything. Because everyone's going to lose
everything. It can't make you happy if you
lose it, can it? And that's why people worry about
the thoughts of losing it. The Lord wrote, well, this whole
book is about that, the vanity of the things of this world.
But he had Solomon have it all. He had Solomon experiment with
everything, ecclesiastic. And his conclusion, Solomon was
a preacher. And he said, this is my conclusion, people. Listen
to me now. I had it all. It's vanity. None of it. None of it will satisfy.
It won't do it. But he says, I tell you this,
Christ, through his wisdom, will satisfy. Nothing else will. There's wisdom. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, as a man, by faith, walked by faith. Scripture says he had
no place to lay his head. Or did he? His head was lying on the bosom
of his father at all times. Now, that's the faith I want.
And you? So we don't need the riches of
this world, but the world needs the unsearchable riches of Christ.
And he said that, Hath not God chosen the poor? Verse 5, the
poor. Not many wise, not many mighty,
not many noble are called. Hath not God chosen? Who were
our lords? intimate friends and companions
at all times. Who did our Lord Jesus Christ
spend all His time with? Sinners, publicans and harlots,
the low street people. That's right. That's right. And what does that tell us? Christ came into the world to
save sinners. Like I said, there's three types of rich people. Those
that are materially rich, and that's not riches. That's not riches at all. Then
there's those that are rich in talents and in ability. Think they are. Oh, my. My, my. Knowledge puffeth up. Ability
makes someone proud, not look to God, not thankful for the
grace of God. It's just a fact of the matter.
You won't find many doctors and lawyers and senators and professors
and well-known people in the world, athletes and so forth,
in the church house. It's just a fact. God doesn't choose many of them.
The rich didn't need that poor rabbi when he was here. Those
Pharisees, they didn't need him. Look at him. He's poor. He can't
contribute to our coffer. He can't contribute to our money.
Boy, you're ignorant. You're blind. The beautiful saw
no beauty in him. The beautiful people saw no beauty
in this brown-skinned Jewish fellow with common garments.
What's he got to offer our church? Oh, my. If you only had him in
there, he wouldn't need anybody else. See how our sight, our judgment
is so poor? the knowledgeable, those that
thought they knew something. There's those that are rich in
knowledge and righteousness and morality and works, like the
Pharisees and the scribes and the lawyers and the doctors.
They thought they knew something. They don't need this poor rabbi.
He only speaks in one syllable word. What can he teach us? This carpenter. The religious didn't need him.
The righteous didn't need him. What do I need with him? You
need everything that he has, because you have nothing. Oh,
but the poor, when they saw him, the ugly, when they saw Christ,
they said, he's altogether lovely. A poor sinner like that woman,
guilty, caught in the act of adultery. Boy, she thought he
was the most beautiful man The sinful desperately need Christ's
blood to pay for their sins. The unrighteous, they need Christ's
righteousness to cover them. Theirs are filthy rags. The ignorant,
they need Him to be wise for them. By His knowledge, they
need Him to justify them. His knowledge of the law. chooses the poor, should not
we? But don't do this either. We shouldn't be guilty of this,
judging a rich man, rejecting him. Let me ask you this in closing.
Are we going to start a church here? Are we going to start a
church? Who would we want to start it
with, a banker or a harlot? This reveals our true understanding. Well, we're trying to build here
a community service building, a family life center, or a place
where sinners can hear the gospel and have their souls saved. See? Harlots need this. The biker does too, but that's
who the Lord came for. That's who the Lord came for.
And I remember Brother Todd Nyberg, he was just a student at UK. He started preaching and they
opened up a little building. They wanted to open up a place
to preach the gospel. And so they chose the roughest
place in town. They chose a place where it's
kind of like a ghetto. And he thought, his thinking
was, well, you know, the harlots are there, literally there. And
that's where we'll go and that's where we'll set up our little
building and they'll come in. Well, he also found this out,
that even the drunks and the harlots are self-righteous. Because
they would come in and there would be a drunk stumbling in
the service every now and then. And while he's preaching and
Todd preaching that God's holy and man's nothing and man is
unrighteous and a filthy rag is righteous and you're a sinner
in need of God's mercy and grace and you don't have anything that
would make you acceptable to God. You have nothing that God
needs. You're no good. Your thoughts,
you're totally depraved. You're a sinner through and through
by nature, by practice, by choice. And you're going to have to be
saved by the mercy and grace of God. Well, that old drunk
came up to him after service and said, I ain't as bad as some
people. Self-righteousness. They all need it. Rich, poor,
and my, my. And let me close with this. It says in verse 6 and 7, you
despise the poor. If you act this way, you despise
the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and
draw you before the judgment seat? Do not they blaspheme that
worthy name by which you are called? In other words, the rich
and the famous of this world, they don't give God any credit
for that. If God's people are rich, they do. They give Him
all the credit for it. All the glory for them. They
have anything. They say, by the grace of God, I have what I have,
am what I am. But the rich people of this world,
they take all the credit for it. When the Scripture says,
God maketh rich, Hannah's prayer said, the Lord maketh rich, the
Lord maketh poor, the Lord raiseth up, the Lord casteth down. Promotion
cometh not from man or from thee, it cometh from God. And demotion.
God does all these things. So the rich blaspheme God. They take glory to themselves.
And if the truth be known, most riches are obtained by fraud,
corruption, crime, or inheritance. And if you inherit it, you shouldn't
take any credit whatsoever for it. And isn't that a good illustration?
That salvation is by inheritance. We don't earn it. We get it by
the rights and the merits of one another, the Lord Jesus Christ. We inherit it. We are joint heirs
with Him. And James says this, they draw
you before the judgment sea. If you have a rich landlord and
he owns several pieces of property, miss a payment. Miss a monthly payment and see
what happens. My sister used to write tables. My daughter did too. And they said the worst tippers
in the world, the most greedy and miserly, the ones that were
the most demanding and rude to them, were the rich and the religious. They both said if a bunch of
church ladies came in in their finery, they knew they weren't
going to get much at all. Well, God sees through that,
doesn't He? So concerning the walk of faith,
oh man, let's judge righteous judgment like our Lord, not by
the side of the eye.