In James chapter 2 we read the
following. 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 a man with a gold
ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man
in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth the
gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place,
and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit there under my
footstool, are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become
judges of evil thoughts? Harker, my beloved brethren,
have 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 seats? Do not they blaspheme
that worthy name by the which ye are called? If you fulfill
the royal law according to the scriptures, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. Ye do well. Verse five, 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? Poor of this world, rich in faith. We've seen that James throughout
his epistle is contrasting the reality of faith and those who
live by faith and have real faith with those who presume, with
those who have a form of godliness but not the reality. He speaks
of that faith which does, be ye not hearers of the word, but
doers. Faith without works, he goes
on to say, is dead. There are those who hear the
gospel, who profess the gospel, but all their walk, all their
conduct is in the flesh. They know things in their head,
but in reality they live and act in the flesh. There's no
reality to it. So when they look into the perfect
law of liberty, when they hear the gospel, when they hear the
word of God, all that is produced in them is that which their flesh
can respond to. They hear of that which they
feel they should do. and they try to do. They hear
of what the law of God commands, and they try to live accordingly.
They read the exhortations in the New Testament, perhaps, and
they model their life accordingly. But it's all in the flesh. And
when it's in the flesh, the reality of the lack of faith becomes
evident. James makes it plain that true
faith does. True faith loves the gospel. True faith loves God and true
faith loves the Brethren. True faith is impartial in its
love for the Brethren. It looks beyond the surface and
sees faith within. It loves for Christ's sake. Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the father is this, James says, to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted
from the world. Pure religion, true religion,
the reality of faith, loves God and loves the brethren. It has
compassion upon the fatherless. It has compassion upon widows. It has compassion upon the brother
of low esteem. It has compassion upon the worthless. It has compassion upon the wretched,
the poor, the desperate. Those who are ridiculed and rejected
by man, those who are despised by man, by nature, those who
are worthless, but who in God's eyes are objects of his grace,
objects of his love, objects of his mercy. The believer loves
God and loves the brethren. the professor makes his judgment
upon outward appearance and this is what James exposes in chapter
2. 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
a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also
a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth
the gay cloven, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good
place, and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under
my footstool. Are ye not then partial in yourselves? and I become judges of evil thoughts. There are those who are rich
on the outside. They may come in with a gold
ring in goodly apparel. They may seem something to behold
on the outside. But in reality they may be poor
within. And there are those who are poor
on the outside, nothing to look at, but who are rich in faith. Who do you set your love upon?
Who do you favour? How easily we judge by sight. How easily man in religion in
the flesh judges by the outward appearance. How he favours those that seem
better than others. Now whilst James describes here
physical outward appearance, those that come into the assembly
dressed in goodly apparel and those in vile raiment, Really
he is going beyond just the physical. He's speaking of all those things
on the outside by which we may favour others, by which we may
discriminate between one and the other. People's supposed morality or
righteousness, their goodly apparel, We look upon some and we see
what appears to be garments, as it were, of righteousness.
Their conduct, their speech, their appearance is better than
the conduct, the speech, the appearance of others. And when we prefer the one, above
the other amongst our brethren, how we become partial in ourselves. And though we may speak of grace
and being saved by grace in spite of all that we are and all that
we have done, as soon as we favor one brother over another because
of outward conduct or outward appearance or their knowledge
or their wisdom, their speech, all those things that flow outwardly. And we despise another who cannot
articulate what he believes in the same way, who is simple in
his understanding, who is rough in his manner. When we discriminate,
we find ourselves judging according to works. for all our profession
of faith, for all our belief in grace, for all the mercy that
God may have shown us. As soon as we discriminate between
one brother and another on outward appearance, we begin to judge
according to works. We begin to consider the goodly
apparel, the garments of righteousness, maybe someone's birth or their
origin, where they come from, what family they're from, their
status, their upbringing, where they studied, perhaps which Bible
college or theological seminary they went to, when we consider
the preachers and we say well this man studied here, and we'll
receive a man because of the college he's come from or the
degree he has or the understanding and wisdom he seems to convey
or we receive someone because of which church favoured them
or sent them or who commends them or who speaks highly of
them we look upon the outside all outward riches that people
have But God chooses the poor, the
despised, the wretched, the nothings. And so often the kingdom of God
and the assemblies of his people are made up of wretched, despised
nothings. When David fled from King Saul,
and hid in caves, and ran for his life, a company
gathered around him, who in the eyes of men were nothings, wretches,
outcasts, but they loved David. They loved
the truth. They loved the Lord. And the
church of God, the people of God, are those wretched, outcast
nothings, which are despised of the world, whose outward appearance before
the world is vile, whose wisdom according to the world's wisdom,
is lacking, whose knowledge may be scattered, and yet God chooses
them. God have grace and mercy upon
them. The disciples whom Jesus called
were rough, illiterate fishermen, working men, not the great, not
the mighty, not those favoured by the world, not the great high
priests in religion, but rough common men who were slow of speech,
lacking in the world's wisdom, but unto whom Christ revealed
the gospel. the truth in power, the perfect
law of liberty. He came unto those who were captive
because of their sin, who were lost in the darkness. who were
cast out by the world around them, who had no righteousness
of their own. And he came unto them in the
gospel with the perfect law of liberty and set them free. He came unto them and he declared
unto them what he would do for them, that he would go to the
cross on their behalf, that he would be rejected of the people.
that the scribes and the Pharisees would take him and reject him
and put him to death. He declared unto his disciples
that he would die in their place, that he must die in their place,
that he must take their sin, take their unbelief, take their
wretchedness, take their depravity upon himself that he must suffer
in their stead in order to set them free, in order to clothe
them again in righteousness, in order to wash them from head
to foot in his blood, in order to give them everlasting life. Reading Mark, Christ said, They
that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Sinners, the poor in the eyes
of the world, wretched sinners, those dressed in vile raiment,
He came unto the lost to call them unto life. He came unto
those who were sick to heal them through His blood, the nothings. Did He come unto you? Did He
find you in the darkness? Did He find you wandering in
the darkness? Did He find you out of your mind? dwelling in the caves, beset by a devil within you,
the devil of sin from which you could not escape, an evil spirit
within that caused you to destroy yourself. Could you not escape
it? Could you not escape this sin that you could not control?
And there you are, lost, outside the camp, despised by all, no
righteousness, no peace, no ability to get to God, or to claim His
mercy, or to claim the inheritance of heaven to come. You're lost
in the darkness. Did Christ come unto you and
find you there, lost, wretched, poor, in vile raiment? And did he touch you and make
you to see? Did he touch your ears and make
you to hear? Did he cry out to you, come forth,
live, follow me? 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. Yes, God chooses the
poor, and yet we by nature would choose the rich. These poor are described as rich
in faith. Pour on the outside in terms
of what men may see. Pour in their worldly wisdom. Pour in their knowledge. Pour
in their outward conduct. Pour in their righteousness.
They're sinners. How often the Pharisees saw Christ
mixing talking with, eating with, dining with sinners and how they
condemned him for having anything to do with them. So righteous
were the Pharisees in their own eyes. so unspotted from the world,
so zealous for the law and being clean before a holy God, so zealous
for their outward appearance and their outward conduct, they
set apart sinners. They despised them. They had
them sit at their footstool. They cast them out. and they
condemned any like Christ who had compassion upon them. They could not have mercy upon
sinners because they felt like they defiled themselves if they
mixed with them. They felt if they mixed with
these rough and ready people that they were bringing themselves
down. So they set themselves apart.
And all their zeal to be righteous before a holy God made them hard
and condemning of those very ones that needed
their compassion. Those very ones that needed life,
that needed to hear the truth. They wouldn't even come to them
with the truth. As Christ said of the Pharisees,
they cannot enter into heaven themselves because of all their
law-keeping. Despite all their law-keeping,
they're still full of sin within. They do not enter in, but they
prevent others from entering in also. They push these sinners
who need salvation to the back, whilst they scramble to the front
of the queue, full of wickedness within their hearts. They were
rich on the outside, Oh, on the outside they kept the law perfectly,
on the outside they did all that they should do, but inside they
were full of hatred. Hatred for sinners, hatred for
the poor and the wretched, hatred for the Lord of glory, hatred
for Christ, the Son of God. They took him and put him to
death because he mixed with sinners. Yes, they were rich on the outside,
but poor within. But God chooses, God have chosen
the poor of this world, rich in faith. On the outside there's
nothing to be seen. Men look upon them and say, who
are they? What do they know? Look how they've
fallen, look how rough they are, look how worldly they are, look
how sinful they are. How can they call themselves
believers? How can they say that they follow
Christ? Look at these! How can God have mercy on such
a one as that? They're nothing, they're wretched.
There's nothing to be seen on the outside. They don't have
the wisdom that others have. They don't have the knowledge
that others have. They don't have the upbringing that others
have. They're clothed in vile raiment. But in God's eyes, they
are the poor whom he has chosen. Rich in faith within. Rich in
faith. Oh, look not on the outward appearance. Have not God chosen the poor? Paul echoes this in his epistle
in 1 Corinthians. The foolishness of God is wiser
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise. And God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised have God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. We may be nothing if we're Christ's. We may be poor, we may be despised,
we may be weak in the world's eyes, But in Christ, we are the
righteousness of God. In Christ, we have all God's
wisdom, his righteousness, his sanctification and redemption. We're set free, we're delivered,
we're washed clean. However we may appear on the
outside before men, in God's eyes, we're perfect. He sees
his people. as he sees his son chosen in
Christ unto eternal salvation, righteous. We are the very righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ. We're perfect. But all we have and all we are
is from and in Jesus Christ through his gospel. the perfect law of
liberty. He that glorieth therefore, let
him glory in the Lord. Let him glory in the Lord. The
Lord, whom James refers to as the Lord of glory. My brethren,
have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
with respect of persons. He is the Lord of glory. Glory
in the Lord. The Lord of Glory has chosen
nothings unto salvation and this is a part of His glory, that
He takes those who are nothing in the world's eyes, that He
takes the despised and the wretched, that He takes those that the
world casts out as worthless. and He chooses to save them. He chooses sinners under salvation. He chooses nothings under salvation. And He chooses sinners under
salvation. He chooses them and He chooses
sinners. His glory is in His electing
grace of sinners in which there is nothing to glory. but who
are brought to glory in nothing but His grace and His mercy alone. Let him that gloryeth, let him
glory in the Lord, not in men, not in man, not in the wisdom
of man, not in the knowledge of man, not in the righteousness
of man, or the religion of man, or their birth, or their upbringing,
It's not about where they come from. It's not about their birth. It's not because they are a Pharisee
of the Pharisees as Paul was, or of the tribe of Benjamin as
Paul was. It's not because he grew up under
the law, zealous for the law and kept it blameless. Paul had
all of these to his advantage in the world's eyes. But all
these riches that he accrued in man's religion kept him from
God. It caused him to stand by as
Stephen was stoned to death. It caused him in his heart to
put Christ to death. And one day, As he journeyed
to Damascus to put other believers to death, Christ met him on the
way and said unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Where are your riches? Are you proud of your knowledge?
Proud of your wisdom? proud of your understanding,
has it brought you in your heart to put Christ to death? Has your understanding, your
wisdom, gleaned from this world or its religion, brought you
to despise Christ and his gospel, the very one, the only one that
can save you? Those who put him to death and
those who put him to death today and never know his mercy and
grace are those who will be cast out into outer darkness on the
last day. Where are you headed? Where has
your partiality got you? Where has your distinction got
you? Where has your wisdom and learning
got you? Has it brought you to see that
you are nothing before a holy God and fall down before Him
as a debtor crying out for mercy? Or has it brought you to persecute
the Son of Glory? Has it brought you in your heart
to say, away from me? I will not have this man to reign
over me. In what do you glory? Do you
glory in Christ or do you glory in self? By nature we all glory
in self. In what we are, in who we are,
in what we know, in what we do. We worship at the altar of self. But God has chosen the poor,
those who've been brought to see themselves as they are. But in reality, there's nothing
in self to worship. Those who've been brought to
see that all their wisdom led them to destruction, that all
their knowledge is worthless because they never knew Christ
through that knowledge. that all their riches are rust
and canker and fade away, that they are lost and they are dead,
that they are debtors before a holy God. God have chosen these
poor, whom he shows by his mercy and grace in the gospel that
they are poor, and brings them in that gospel to the feet of
Jesus Christ, To cry out, have mercy upon me, Lord, the sinner. These are poor on the outside,
but rich in faith. They're brought to see Christ. and believe. They're brought
to the perfect law of liberty, the gospel, and it sets them
free. Christ comes unto them in that
gospel and touches their eyes and makes them see. They're rich
in faith. This is all about faith. James
as he goes through this epistle is showing us time and time again
it's about whether you believe. Do you see Christ? Do you know
him? Do you know him? Did God save
us because of what we are or because of his grace and mercy
in spite of what we are? Are we not all poor in his sight? Are we not all wretched and sinful? Is this not what we all are by
nature? It is. Then how can we that profess
to believe look upon others and favour those who we consider
are in some way better than others on the outside? when we know from our own experience
that it's the richness of faith within that matters. We love
our brethren for Christ's sake. We love them as those who've
been forgiven, as we've been forgiven, as those who are wretched
sinners like we are. We know there's no good in us,
then why do we look for good in others? We know that we could
fall greatly every single day, then why do we expect better
from others? Why do we favour others according
to the outward conduct? rather than looking upon them
with that mercy and grace with which the Lord has looked upon
us. Believers forgive as those who have been forgiven. We show
mercy as those who have been shown mercy. We show grace as
those who know grace. We love as those who are loved. we are compassionate towards
the nothings. We read that parable earlier
from Matthew 18, in which Christ makes much the same point. We read there that, Matthew 18
verse 21, Peter came to him and said, Lord, how oft shall my
brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus
saith unto him, I say not unto thee until seven times, but until
seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven
likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his
servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto
him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he
had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife
and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him
the debt. But the same servant went out,
and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence.
And he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying,
Pay me that thou owest. And the fellow-servant fell down
at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me,
and I will pay thee all. And he would not, but went and
cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when
his fellow-servant saw what was done, they were very sorry, and
came and told unto their lord what was done. Then his lord,
after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked
servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desirest me. Shouldst not thou also have had
compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? And
his lord was wrath, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he
should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly
Father do also unto you, if he from your hearts forgive not
every one his brother their trespasses. Oh how easily we can turn in
the flesh from grace to works. Even as believers, we still have
the flesh and it still pulls us down. And how easily, despite
knowing the forgiveness and grace of God, we can look upon our
brethren with eyes of flesh and say, they shouldn't have done
that. How could they? I'd have never done that. And
we esteem the one whose conduct is good in our eyes. And we despise
those who outwardly our flesh despises. How easily we can turn to works
and an attitude and a look of works. Indeed, how such an attitude
can expose us if we know not grace. Ultimately, this is James'
message here. He's showing the difference between
those who truly have faith, who truly know grace and the forgiveness
of God, that they, knowing that forgiveness and mercy, have mercy
unto their brethren, because they know what they're like,
and they know they could be worse. So they love their brethren as
those who are poor outwardly, but rich in faith. They see them
in Christ. Whereas the religious, the professor,
looks on the outside and says, how could they? How can I mix
with this sinner? You shouldn't have done that.
And they turn aside as the Pharisees turned aside from Christ. And
they say, we will not listen to this one, as the Pharisees
said of Christ. And in their hearts, they put
them to death, as Christ was put to death of his enemies. Faith without works is dead. Be ye not hearers of the word,
but doers. True faith does. True faith loves. True faith shows grace. How often should I forgive my
brother? Seven times? Peter asks. No. Seventy times seven. Christ tells
him. Always. Constantly. Without ceasing. Because whatever
your brother does, you could do worse. Constantly. We are full of compassion. James reminds his hearers How
can my beloved brethren have 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
seats? Do not they blaspheme the worthy
name by the which ye are called? You favour them and they put
you down. You favour them and they condemn
you. The physically rich in the world
do this. They despise the poor. But the rich in religion do. They do it all the time. They
do it all the time. They did it with Christ. They
will do it with you. They hate the truth. They blaspheme
the name of the one who calls us. They put him to naught. They
say we will not have this man reign over us. They bring us
before the judgment seat. Is that not what the rich, self-righteous
Pharisees did unto Christ? They brought him before the judgment
seat. This man mixes with sinners.
This man claimed he's the son of God. They put him to death. And will they not do the same
to us? James goes on, But if ye fulfil
the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons,
ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. If ye fulfil the royal law, According
to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
ye do well. What a law. What a name. A royal law. Comes from the king
of kings, the lord of lords, to love our neighbor. None can
do this. None of us love God. None of
us love our neighbor by nature. We all put to death. We all hate
by nature. But God, by his grace through
the gospel, When he takes the chosen poor sinner and makes
him to be rich in faith, he puts love in the heart within. He
causes him to love God, to love the gospel, to love the perfect
law of liberty, to love the royal law, to love Christ, to love
his neighbor, to love the Brethren. He makes him love, not just those
who appear worthy of our love, but those who appear unworthy.
Not just to love those that appear worthy of love on the outside,
but to love those who are worthy of love on the inside. He loves
his brethren, he loves those who have faith. They may be poor
on the outside, they may be wretched and despised by the world, but
he sees the faith within, he hears their testimony, he knows
they're the Lord's. You see the Pharisees, the legalists,
may appear wonderful on the outside, zealous for the law, but they
break it all the time inwardly. Their love is partial. They love
the righteous and hate the sinner. And in so doing, they break the
very law they pretend to keep. We're reminded of the Good Samaritan. There's this man, beaten and
robbed and like dying on the roadside and along comes the
scribe along comes the priest these pharisees these zealous
of the law they come and they pass by on the other side because
they don't want to touch him they don't want to defile themselves
with a sinner and it comes to the to the samaritans outcast
of Israel, that one that Israel that the Pharisees despise as
being from another nation, it comes unto him to be the one
to show compassion. Where is their love despite all
their religion? Where's yours? Do you love God? Do you love the gospel? Do you claim to be religious? Do you do the word? Are you rich
in faith? Is the reality of love for God
and his gospel and his people there? The believer loves his
neighbor. He loves the Brethren. He is
kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven him. Paul exhorts in Ephesians
4. He loves not just those that
appear outwardly worthy of love, but those who appear unworthy.
Those who the world looks upon and despises, he loves for Christ's
sake. He sees them as being in Christ. He sees them as he sees himself,
as a wretched sinner like himself, but one that God has favoured
by grace. Did Christ not have pity on us
when we were lost in our sins, when we were wretched, when we
were blind, when we were foolish, ignorant, when we were nothings? Did he not show us mercy? Aren't we glad that he didn't
reward us according to our sins? but that he showed us mercy in
spite of all that we had done and all that we had said, in
spite of our hatred of him, our unbelief, our rejection of him,
he showed us mercy, he forgave us. Then shall we not forgive
our brethren? Or are we as that debtor who
went and persecuted those who owed him? Looking beyond what can be seen,
To that which is within, the believer loves the Brethren. He looks by faith upon those
who are rich in faith, as those who, like him, are rich in Christ's
grace, his mercy, his love, his compassion, his faith. He loves those who are rich in
faith. Amen.