If you turn back to James 2,
while you're turning there, Lynn let me know that I'd not announced
we're having a church dinner this Sunday. So we're having
a church dinner this Sunday. I guess everybody knows about
it. It's been in the bulletin. I always look forward to that. And I want
to try to deal with this subject, respect of persons. Respect of persons. Now, I've
preached through James before, I feel like I've got a bit more
light on this than I have in the past. Who is the person who
is a respecter of persons? James says, my brethren, have
not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with
respect of persons. Who is this person who shows
partiality, who treats people differently depending upon the
color of their skin? or their economic status, or
their education. Who is this person? James describes
him in verses two through four. For if there come under your
assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there
come also a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect
to him that weareth the gay clothing, and saying to 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 are become judges of evil thoughts? Now, the person who
is a respecter of persons looks at people not as an end in themselves,
but as a means to an end, my end. my personal happiness and
well-being. A respecter of persons has no
respect for persons. That person uses people for their
own end and for their own happiness. How can these people benefit
me? That's why someone has respect
of persons. They have no respect for that
person. They're simply thinking, how can they be used to benefit
me? How can they be used to promote
my end, my own personal happiness? Now, this kind of thinking permeates
religion. Permeates it. You will have a
better, more happy, and more fulfilling life if you obey the
commands of God. Now, if that's why you obey the
commands of God, for one thing, you don't obey them in the first
place. And for another thing, you obey God's commands because
of God's commands, not to make you happier and to have a more
fulfilled life. Hell is certainly not a place
where you'll be happy, so you want to avoid that place at all
costs because it's a place where you will not be happy. And that's
actually the appeal you use. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? You want to go to heaven. You'd be a lot happier in heaven than
you would in hell. I know this sounds simplistic, but it is
the way religion is presented. Why, they even make God a means
to an end rather than the end. Now that's what it is to respect
persons. A religion of personal gain.
Now I remember this happening. When I was a student at UK, I
remember there were posters put up all over campus and it said
how to have a better sex life. How to have a better sex life.
And it was religious. And it was, I don't know if you
all have ever heard of Josh McDowell. He's that guy who set out to
prove how Christianity was false because he could prove that the
resurrection was not true. And in doing the research on
the resurrection, lo, he found out that the resurrection was
true. Therefore, he was forced to be a Christian. It's baloney,
what it is. All it is is baloney. But he
had this big appeal that if you were a Christian and were in
a monogamous, however you say the word, you would have a better
sex life and a more fulfilling sex life and so on, as if that's
got anything to do with it. That's a religion of personal
gain. It's kind of like the books,
the pleasures of knowing God. You'll have a more pleasurable
life and you'll know you'll be better off if you know God. That is a religion of personal
gain. It's really the respect of persons. Now, if you're a respecter of
persons, you will view people according to how they affect
your personal agenda. And the example he gives is this, what
if a millionaire came in here tonight? a multimillionaire,
a man who had $100 million, and a guy comes in who makes minimum
wage, and he's dressed in shabby clothing. Now, which one are
we going to pay the most attention to? Now, the rich man can give
us some status. Look who goes to church there.
The rich man can put so much money in the offering box back
there, although they usually don't, but that's what we think.
Generally, the people who have money, there's a reason they
have it. That's been their purpose in life is to make money, and
they know how to hold on to it. That's just the way it is. But
at any rate, a rich man comes in. He's somebody in town. He's
a politician. He's a famous athlete. He's somebody
who has a lot of money. And this poor guy comes in. What
can he do for you? He doesn't increase the status
of the church. This rich guy, if he'd give us money, we could
do more things for missions. We'd get on more TV stations. It would
help the church. It would help out. Now that kind of thinking is
pure flesh, pure foolishness. There's no truth to it. And every one of us, beginning
right here, would have a tendency to want to pay more attention
to the rich man who came in than we would the man in shabby clothing. Now, there's only one remedy
to that. The only remedy to a respective
person's is having a high and glorious view of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And when we see Him as He is,
flesh is what? Flesh. That's it. Rich flesh,
poor flesh, it's just flesh. And we understand that somebody
like that can't help us at all. Only the Lord can help us. Only
the Lord can do anything for us. We don't look to human means
and human riches for help, but when we have respect to persons.
We think, ah, that person can help us, that person can make
the church grow, or that person can help me in my life. And when
you have respective persons, you have no respect for that
person. You're simply using them as a
means to promote your own end and own agenda. Respect of persons
makes men big and God small. Now, I realize we can't make
God small. He is who he is no matter what we do or no matter
what we think. But in that person's eyes, man is more important than
God and respect of persons is a great sin. Now, What destroys this idea
of the respect of persons, which we've all been guilty of, giving
some people preferential treatment, because we think of how they
can benefit us? Well, the gospel. The gospel is what gets rid of
this idea of the respect of persons. Now, verses 2 through 4, For
if they come into your assembly, a man with a gold ring, in goodly
apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile arraignment,
shabby clothing. And you have respect to him that
wears the gay clothing, and saying to him, sit thou here at a good
place. And say to the poor, stand thou there, sit here under my
footstool. Are you not then partial in yourselves, and you become
judges of evil thoughts? Now, when I show partiality,
I arrogate to myself a place I have no business, a judge.
all of a sudden I'm able to judge between the value of one person
and another. And you become judges of evil
thoughts, evil opinions. This thing of the respective
persons is a great sin before God. I think it's interesting
of the eight, there are eight definitions of sin in the Bible.
I preached on that not that long ago. What does the Bible teach
about sin? And one of the definitions is the respective persons. The
respective persons is actually a definition given as to what
it means to commit sin. Now everything about the respective
persons is contrary to the gospel of the grace of God. Amen? Amen. Now, I love the way James
deals with the respective persons. He uses election. Look what he
says in verse 5. This is what he uses to deal
with the respective persons. He uses election. 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. Now the first appeal he makes
is election. Who has God chosen? The poor. The poor. Now he's not really
talking about financially poor. Financially poor people are as
wicked as financially rich people. I mean, one's as bad as the other.
He's not really talking about financially poor people. And
as far as that goes, there's nothing wrong with being rich.
Abraham was rich. David was rich, Solomon was rich,
Job was rich. Many of the characters in the
Bible had great wealth and riches. It just depends on if the Lord
gives us the grace not to grasp onto it. But the fact of the
matter is, the problem's not poverty or riches. So when he
speaks of God choosing the poor of this world, who's he talking
about? He's talking about those who are poor in spirit. He saves every one of them. And
He made every one of them that way, poor in spirit. God has chosen the poor. Now
this thing of God choosing is just a fact. It's just a fact. I love the scripture, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
The Lord said, you have not chosen me, but I've chosen you. I love
the simplicity of that language. How many different ways are there
to take that? Well, we chose him because he first chose us.
No. The Lord says, you did not choose me. I chose you. We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you. Isn't that amazing? Why me? I'll never get over that. Why
did he choose me? Why did he choose me? That word,
God hath chosen the poor of this world, is literally, God hath
elected the poor of this world. Those who are poor in spirit.
He made them that way, and he chose them. Now I want you to
turn to this passage of scripture. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Verse 26. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. How many famous people we have
in this assembly? How many millionaires? How many
athletes? I don't see any. Not a one. For you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. One woman in the 1700s, Lady
Huntington, she was a countess, she said, I'm so thankful for
the word in. It doesn't say not any. It says
not many. Because she knew she was one.
So I'm thankful for the word in. And say not any, says not
many. Verse 27. But God hath elected
the foolish things of the world. 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 hath God chosen, yea, and things which are nothing
to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh should
glory in his presence. Now we read of the elector. God hath chosen. Three times we read that. God
hath chosen. God hath chosen. God is the chooser. I love the way the scripture
points out in 1 Timothy 5 21 speaks of the elect angels. The
elect angels were the ones who didn't fall away. All the rest
of them fell away. And the only reason they didn't
fall is because they were elect. God chose them to not fall. What about Israel? God elected
Israel. He chose Israel. He passed by
all the Gentile nations. They deserved to be passed by. But because he's gracious, he
chose Israel. There's no way you can read the
Bible and not see how God doesn't discriminate and make a difference
with Israel over the rest of the world. And then he elected
individuals. I've heard people try to explain
away election by saying, well, it's election of nations. Well,
if election of nations is OK, why isn't election of individuals
OK? He elected individuals. He chose who would be saved before
time began. And it just says God is God. We love election. The election of itself, I think,
is very interesting. You'll notice that he does the
direct opposite of what we would do. We would choose the wise
men after the flesh. We would choose the mighty. We
would choose the noble thinking of the benefit they could do.
But God didn't. He did the direct opposite that
we would do. And how gracious is his election? God hath chosen the foolish. God hath chosen the weak. God hath chosen the base. God hath chosen the despised. God hath chosen that which is
nothing. What's nothing? You can't even
hardly define it. I mean, what is it? It's nothing. That's who God has chosen. And the elected are described
negatively, not wise, not mighty, not noble. And they're described
in this positive fashion as well. And the positive fashion is foolish,
weak, base, despised, and nothing. And why did he do this? Look
in verse 29, that no flesh. Notice he doesn't say that no
man would go in his presence. He says that no flesh. Mr. President, your flesh. King, your flesh. Governor, flesh. All the world's
great, nothing but flesh. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. That's why God makes this choice
that no flesh is going to glory in his presence. Now, I want
to be respectful of all people, but I also want to remember this.
Man at his best state is altogether vanity and no flesh is going
to glory in his presence. Who has God chosen? The poor. Those who have no resources,
Now, that doesn't mean all poor people. You know that because
many poor people die in their sins. It's talking about the
poor in spirit. He chose every single one of them. And here's
how poor they are. They're so poor that they have
nothing, absolutely nothing, absolutely nothing but Christ. That's all they have. Nothing but Christ. But what's
that make them? Rich. Rich. All those who are poor
in spirit are rich in this one commodity. Faith. Now when you have nothing but
Christ, that's what faith is. You look to Him only because
you have nothing else. And you don't want anything else.
You don't need anything else. You don't want anything else.
You simply want to be found in Christ. That's it. And He is
all you have. That's what faith is. If you
have anything else, you don't have faith. When you have faith,
all you have is Christ. He only is your salvation. You look only to Him and nowhere
else. Now, to those who are not poor
in spirit, they can never be satisfied with faith only. Having
nothing but Christ, which is faith only. Having faith is being
rich in faith. All these people who are poor
in spirit, they're rich in faith because they have Christ. And
that's what makes them rich. It's not talking about the greatness
or the strength of their faith. It's talking about the greatness
or the strength of the object of their faith, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And He is their strength. Now, that one who's poor in faith
can say from the depths of their heart, really believing this,
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. Isn't it wonderful to be there?
Takes all the pressure off to be nothing and for him to be
everything. Having faith is being rich in
faith because faith is the evidence that you're an heir of God. Look
what it says in verse five. Back to James chapter 2. Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world, elected the poor
of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which
he hath promised to them that love him? Now these people who
are poor, Yet rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, every
one of them have this in common. They're described of them that
love Him. Same way those folks are described
in Romans 8, 28, and we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to His purpose. They love God, and they're the
called according to His purpose. If I have faith, I love God. Now as soon as I say I love God,
the first thing that pops into my mind, yeah, not near as much
as you should, granted. He deserves to be loved infinitely
more than my pathetic love. I really believe that. But listen
to me. I love every one of his attributes. I love God as he is. I love the
sovereign God. I love the God who controls everything
and everybody who's absolutely sovereign. Anything less than
that is a God that's not even worthy of worship. I love the
absolute justice of God. Don't you love it how he's absolutely
just and that he won't let one sin go unpunished? Everything
he does is perfectly just and righteous. I love the holiness
of God. Holy, holy, holy. And He's the
God we worship. I love the infinity of God, the
omnipotence of God, the strength of God, the wisdom of God, the
grace of God, the love of God, the immutability of God, all
these wonderful attributes of God we love because we love God
as He is. Somebody says, I love God, but
not that God. I know. I know. We've got different gods.
But the God of the Bible. This is the God we love. And
we love Him exactly as He's revealed in Scripture, don't we? I love
that verse. Hearken, my beloved brethren.
Now you talk about partiality and giving preference to certain
kinds of people. Remember election. 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? Verse 6. What a rebuke. But you have despised the poor. A rebuke for which we all hang
our heads in shame that we would ever show respect of persons
in light of who he is. And he says this to every one
of these people that he's writing to. You have despised the poor. Now he tells us how unreasonable
this is. Do not rich men oppress you and
draw you before the judgment seats? Do they not blaspheme
that worthy name by which you're called? Humanly speaking, who
does the oppressing? The rich. They're the ones who
do the oppressing. They're the ones who try to confiscate
what you have. They're the ones who draw people
into the course to get more and to get more and to get more.
They're the ones who do things like that. Now am I saying all
rich men are bad? Yeah, so we're all poor men and
I'm not trying to pick that out but what I'm saying is it's the
rich men who try to take from the poor. That's the way it's
always been and as far as the dishonesty and so on. They're
the ones dragging you into court so they can confiscate your goods.
Verse 7, Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you
are called? Now this is the name wherewith she shall be called
the Lord our righteousness. They blaspheme that name. They
blaspheme that name. They say that's foolishness.
They blaspheme that name that's the name which is above every
name, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you have respect for somebody
like that, thinking, they'll do something good for you. Guess
what? They will not. They will not. That's looking
in the wrong place. We don't look to any man to do
us good, do we? We look to the Lord himself.
That's who we look to. And to have respect of persons
is to fail to look to the Lord, but it's to look to men. And
look what he says in verse 8. If you fulfill the royal law,
according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
you do well. Now, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. It's so beautiful. Another way to say it is do unto
others. as you would have them do to
you. Now this is the way I'm to deal
with men. May God give me and you the grace
to do it and to show no respect for persons because when I show
respect for persons, I have no respect for that person. I'm
simply using that person for my own agenda. And that's why
it's such an evil. And that's why it's so wrong
in God's sight. No, I want to fulfill the royal
law of the scripture to love your neighbors yourself, which
is just another way of saying do unto others as you would have
them do to you. Now, listen real carefully. The
Bible does not tell me how to treat you. I got that wrong. The Bible doesn't
tell you how to treat me. The Bible tells me how to treat
you. Now what do you think about that?
The Bible doesn't speak to other people. The Bible speaks to me. I hope so and so heard that.
I hope I heard it. Doesn't matter whether so and
so heard it. The Bible does not tell others how I ought to be treated. The Bible tells me how to treat
others. That's our rule of conduct. Now,
how do you want people to treat you? I know how I want them to
treat me. First of all, fairly. I'd like
you to give me the benefit of the doubt. I'd like you to be
nice to me. I'd like you to be kind to me.
I certainly don't want to be around you when you're judging
me. I can't stand to be around somebody when I can tell they're
just sizing me up and judging me. It always makes you want
to go ahead and throw out something to give them something to think
about. I don't want to be around people
like that. I certainly don't want people
to be a respecter of persons with me and treat me with discrimination.
I want people to be thoughtful. forgiving, merciful. I want people
to be not hard on me. Don't be hard on me. That's how
I want to be treated. Now, the Bible doesn't tell you
to treat me that way, but it sure enough tells me to treat
you that way without reference to how you treat me. Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you. That's what it means
to love your neighbor as yourself. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that
a perfect rule of conduct? The Bible doesn't tell people
to not be critical of me. It tells me to not be critical
of them. To speak evil one not of another. Brethren, by this shall all men
know you're my disciples, by your love one to another. If you fulfill the royal law
according to Scripture. Boy, I'd love to have that in
my mind all the time. All the time. I want to treat
you the way I want to be treated, with respect, in a non-judgmental,
kind, merciful, gracious way. That's the way I want to be treated.
And that is the rule of our life. If you fulfill the royal law
according to the scriptures, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself, you do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. Now, respect of persons is nothing
but manipulation. Don't you hate being around people
that you know you're being manipulated by them? You know they're using
you and they're using you as a pawn to get this done and that
done. That's respective person, someone who's trying to get something
out of somebody. That person is not an end to
them. They don't have any respect or love for that person. They're
simply using them. That's it, nothing more. That's what respective
persons is. As I said, if you have respective
persons, you have no respect for them at all. Now, James tells
us this is sin. If you commit respect to persons,
you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. Now, there are two things that
will not go together. They're incongruent. They can't
fit together. Having the faith of Christ, having His faith as your faith,
that where you see Him as He is. You know, the Lord Jesus
Christ has a high view of Himself. He's humble, He's lowly, but
He also knows He's the highest. And if I have the faith of Christ,
I look to Him, how can I have respect to persons? I mean, they're
flesh. They're like me. They're nothing
but flesh. A high view of Christ. prevents
respective persons. A high and exalted view of the
Lord Jesus Christ is what will drive respective persons away. Now may the Lord deliver us from
this horrible sin, respective persons. And may we be enabled
truly to do unto others as we would have them do to us. What
a beautiful, beautiful commandment. And it's a commandment. And the
other, the other cure to respective persons, what James uses, I think
is glorious. He uses election. Election blows
respective persons out the water, doesn't it? Thank God for his
gospel. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and we ask that you would deliver us from this
respect of persons because we have such a high respect and
regard for your person. We see men as they are. And Lord,
deliver us from thinking men can help us and trusting in horses
and chariots and men's power and influence and money. Lord,
deliver us from that. It's so contrary to faith in
our son. It's so contrary to your grace.
Lord, enable us to have the faith of our Lord
Jesus Christ without the respective persons. Bless this message for
your glory and our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
You got Mitch?