The Sin Of Snobbery | James 2:1-13 | Pastor John Miller

I want to read this verse one that I want you to follow with me James says my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory here it is with respect of persons now like the new English Bibles translation of verse one it renders that my brothers believing as you do in our Lord Jesus Christ who reigns in glory you must never show snobbery I like that's where I got my title this morning if you have faith in Jesus Christ you're a follower of Jesus you're one of his children his disciple you should never have snobbery you know one of the best tests of the reality of your Christianity and the maturity of your Christianity is how you treat other people flatout if you are Christian you should be treating other people with God's love and God's grace and God's mercy and God's kindness every child of God should have God's love flowing through them to the world around them so how you treat other people is a great test of your spirituality and your true Christianity jesus said to his disciples by this shall all men know that you are my disciples what was the mark that you have what love one for another that's the birth mark of the believer now doctrines important theology is important knowing God's Word is important but you know it's possible to have a big head and a shriveled up heart it's possible to have a lot of theology and doctrine and trust me I am all for doctrine I'm all for theology I'm all for Bible truth so foundational and important but it doesn't do any good to have a big head and a shriveled heart and if it doesn't translate into your lives if your theology lifts you so high that your feet are not touching the ground it's false theology if your doctrine lifts you so high that you can't help someone out and you're not loving other people or you're not loving your wife or your husband or your children or your neighbor or your co-worker then your Christianity is false now we've discovered in our series of the book of James the marks of the mature Christian number one their joyful and trials number two their triumphant and temptations and number three they practice the truth they're doers of the word not here's only well this morning we're introduced to our fourth mark of maturity and that is they do not show respect a person's they don't practice partiality or as I have given the title to my sermon they don't show snobbery it was happening in James's day and sadly it's common in the church today there are a lot of Christian snobs and they judge people by the clothes they wear or by the watch they have or by their education or the color of their skin or the length of their hair or whether or not they have tattoos or where they live or where they went to college or if they did go to college or what part of the country they're from sad you know that even Jesus was rejected because he was a from a podunk town called Nazareth but actually said can anything good come out of Nazareth now I grew up my whole life in San Bernardino and that's not the town today that people want to be known for I remember being at the beach one day and I met this couple from Laguna Beach and they all were from Laguna Beach oh that's good where are you from I was like San Bernardino they actually said this they go we're sorry but you know I didn't bother me Jesus was from Nazareth amen can anything good come out of San Bernardino I think so if Jesus can come out of Nazareth San Bernardino amen but you were going to see that God's concerned about the poor and God's chosen the poor to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom so we shouldn't be partial we shouldn't kind of cater to people just because of their education or their money or their influence or their social status so today we have the same problem but God the Bible says looks on the heart not on the outward appearance amen and that's really a summary of what we're learning today that God looks not as men look on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart now there are three points I want to share with you about the sin of snobbery first we're commanded to stop showing snobbery and that's in verse one we've already read it but first we have a clear command it's an imperative in the Greek to stop showing snobbery go back to verse one my brethren so it's clearly speaking to Christians this is one of the sins of the saints and believe me there are a lot of sins among the Saints and this is a sin of attitude their sins of the flesh and their sins of the Spirit this is a heart attitude so he says my brother and my sisters have not in the Greek and would actually be stopped having so it's an indication that the believers he was writing to were showing respect to persons they were showing partiality they were being snobs so he says stop showing faith in our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory and by the way notice in my King James Bible the words the lord are italicized which indicates that they are inserted by the translators to give a flow of thought but we know they're not part of the original Greek so it would read the Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect of persons and it's not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ more accurately it's the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with respect a person's and what he's saying basically he's saying that faith in Jesus Christ and respect to persons are mutually exclusive that they're incompatible that they don't go together you can't have in one hand faith in Jesus Christ who's the Lord of glory and on the other hand you can't be showing partiality you can't be showing respect a person's now what exactly do we mean by respect a person's that phrase is taken from a Greek word that's taken from two words and the two words are face and receive the word face and receive and what it basically means is is that you accept someone you approve of someone based upon the outward appearance color of their skin the clothes they're wearing their ethnicity whatever it might be you basically approve of them or reject them based on appearance and the Bible is actually forbidding us to do this it's showing favor to someone because of outward appearance James says that it's inconsistent with the Lord of glory Jesus did not show respect a person's let me give you a few examples there was the poor Widow who in the temple Treasury put in her - - about half a penny now the disciples were watching catch this the rich folks they were coming in and they were dumping in all their money into the Treasury and they had a light like a temple trumpet-shaped treasurer on the wall it was a container on the wall that they would drop in was a piece of metal on the wall they would drop in their money and it would go clink clink as he dropped it in and they would come in with this great big ostentatious show and they would unload all their wealth and their money and people would watch and there go ah Wow look at that rich guy Wow look at all the money's putting in and then this little widow lady came in really really poor scripture refers to her Pannu worried her poverty and she reaches in her little purse and she takes out little to two mites which would be half a cent and she goes clink she drops him in and everyone goes oh that's nothing and Jesus goes no she has put in more than all the rest and the disciples were like what how could that be didn't you see Jesus didn't you see all the money they were putting in and jesus said they put in of their abundance they have a whole lot left over but this woman she gave next week's groceries she gave everything she had and she came from her heart and she gave sacrificially and she gave self tonight and she gave out of love and Jesus sees is not as men see so the disciples they were kind of blown away like wow we didn't see that and Jesus looks at the heart so when you give by the way did you know God doesn't look at the amount you go Lord I'm sorry I don't have much to give God knows your heart and it's not the amount God doesn't really need your money it's the attitude of your heart in your service to God are you doing it when the right motive are you doing it out of love for God and love for others and the glory of God God looks at your heart it's not the amount of our service amount of our giving us the attitude and the motive behind what we're doing I think also in John chapter 4 when Jesus stopped at Jacob's Well and sigh car and he interacted with a woman of Samaria now the disciples were gone and they came back and they saw Jesus talking to this sinful woman and they're thinking cooties immediately in their mind they're thinking oh my look at Jesus he's talking to that Samaritan woman not only a woman but a woman of Samaria not a woman Samaritan she's she's living with a guy out of wedlock she's been married five times and she's shacking up with the dude right now it doesn't say that those words in the Bible go where's that in the Bible let me check that out but when Jesus told her go call your husband she goes I don't have a husband Jesus I know you've had five and right now you're living with a guy you're not married to and she's thinking bust she said sir I believe that you are a prophet and Jesus actually spoke to her hard and she came to faith in Jesus Christ but the disciples were like what's going on here I can't believe the master would even talk to this person let alone interact with her this is amazing but that's again because Jesus looked at people differently and when Jesus was passing through Jericho there was the rich tax collector Zacchaeus he would be the equivalent of a mafia boss today the head of a mafia family a mob family he worked for the Roman government he was a traitor and he was rich and he had a big house but he's hiding up in this tree so he could see Jesus and don't you just love that story Jesus stopped he looked up the tree exactly as they said come on down I'm gonna go to your house today for lunch by the way that's a biblical basis for inviting yourself over for lunch Jesus did it just come up to somebody after church I'm going to your house to eat today Jesus did it I'm doing it come on down Zach I'm gonna eat at your house today and Zacchaeus like me yes you and everyone started snarling and complaining and gossipy he's gone to the houses Zacchaeus oh he's gonna get cooties for sure Zacchaeus is a sinner he's a wicked man what's he doing few hours later the door open and Zacchaeus came out it was a smile on his face and he said half of all that I've ripped off from you I'm gonna give back when a tax collector returns money you know he's been born again right i dude got saved we need the IRS to get saved right now in America don't mean a man filled with the Holy Ghost and given us our money back so Zacchaeus was a born again new man life changed because Jesus sees as another no other see Jesus looks at the heart and I believe that if we would just see like Jesus sees and reach out and Carib like Jesus cares he didn't go oh no I don't want to talk to that woman I don't want to talk to Zacchaeus Jesus saw the hearts and he reached out in love if a person is not a Christian never forget this Christ died for them for God so loved the world and I believe that that means just what it says the world that God loves every human being and he gave his son on the cross for their sins if a person is a Christian remember that Christ lives in them so if they're not a Christian Christ died for them if they are Christian Christ lives in them so snobbery is condemned in verse 1 then the second point I want to make is the illustration that is given of snobbery in verses 2 to 4 so what he does in verse 1 is he commands us don't show respect to persons and then he illustrates at verses 2 to 4 follow with me in your Bible he says for if they're coming to your assembly a man with gold rings in the Greek it is plural and it's actually multiple rings and some translate that gold fingered every finger on each hand was full of rings and he has goodly apparel or really fine clothing and they're coming also a poor man with vile or dirty filthy clothes he walked to church after he slept under the bridge and he hasn't bathed in weeks now that's not in the text I just threw that in there by the way and here's the problem you have respect verse three to him that where's the beautiful clothes the expensive clothes and you say to him sir sit out here in a good place and you say to the poor man you stand over there in the corner now therefore sit under my footstool are you not then and verse four is the application of the illustration are you not then partial in yourselves and you become judges of evil thoughts so they do two things they show partiality in their own heart and they are judgmental your judges of evil thoughts now it's most likely this is a hypothetical case but it certainly could have taken place and probably was taking place but notice he used the expression verse two for if there come into your assembly so it seems to be hypothetical but it certainly could happen there comes in this very rich man he's dressed very nice she had a beautiful chariot and he got to park it in a nice spot and all the ushers stumble over themselves trying to find this rich guy a nice seat in the church and then another guy shows up by the way the word assembly is the word synagogue the early Christians still met in the synagogue and they had designated seating and nice spots to sit and the women were up in the balcony and the men were down front and they had the chief seats of the synagogue where the aristocrats and the bigwigs they stood up front and everyone could see them so this guy gets assured to this nice chief seat and then this poor guy shows up and he's dirty kind of smelly he's not dressed appropriately and the ushers go up man that guy stinks and he doesn't look very good so let's let's hide him back in the corner that should never happen in the house of God amen that should never happen in the house of God but you know what we struggled with that we struggled with that my former Church in San Bernardino was in a very very rough poor neighborhood and we had people crawl out from bridges and come to church and there were times I admit I'm driving to church and I'd see guy headed our way and I go old pray that he doesn't come to our church today and then I read the book of James and God convicted and there's probably people you see I hope he doesn't talk to me hoping to come my way or you know and it's like we want to avoid certain people because of the way they look those are the very people that Jesus would be over sitting down talking to or getting up some food and sharing the gospel with this the very people we're trying to avoid but the very people for whom Christ died and God loves and especially when we come to church the ground is all even at the foot of the cross and there you know my desire for this congregation is that we don't look at each other by our social status or our class or money or our income of the cars we drive the homes we live in or the education we have or don't have at the color of our skin or age or what ethnic ethnicity we're from that we just look at each others as brothers and sisters in Christ in the family of God amen so the distinction that this snobbery will sit here you know even it here at revival you can get in the habit of I sit in this one spot that's my pew I busted you guys I've seen you come to church and you're like you're freaking out someone's sitting in my Pew ha ha ha I've even seeing people tell them excuse me this is where we said it's like do you own the Pew I can't believe it there's a hippie and he's sitting in my Pew there's a weird person God have mercy you know in the 18th century in England you had to buy your own pew or you rented a Pew only rich people got to come to church and so John Wesley goes okay then I'm taking the gospel out into the country I'm taking it to the poor people and he would preach to the miners which were barred from coming to church because they weren't the right social status and they would stand out by the thousands and listen to John Wesley preached in the open fields and their faces were blackened from working in the mines and the story is that as John was preaching you would see white streaks running down their faces as they begun to cry and they heard the good news of Jesus Christ and God raised up the Wesleyan revivals because someone went to the fields and went to the highways and begin to take the Gospels as those of the world rejected hundred years later William Booth was kicked out of the church because he was bringing undesirables into the church so he just said okay we'll just start our own church and he went outside the church and we had the birth of the Salvation Army and reaching out to those the world rejects I was around in the 60s and the 70s and when we had the Jesus Movement in dirty smelly long-haired hippies were getting saved and coming to church and sometimes barefoot the Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa thank God for Chuck Smith because the people were complaining these hippies need to get a haircut they need to put on shoes and they were sitting in the pew actually running their toes through the communion cup holders and the old people are like that's the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet we're in the end of times and one of them put a sign in the foyer one Sunday no bare feet allowed in the church thank God Pastor Chuck took the sign down and said if we are worried about the carpet because of their bare feet we'll tear the carpet out amen let the hippies come in and because of that I'm here today but some people like wonder they get a haircut when will they look like Christians pray tell me what does a Christian look like we look more like Jesus than they did but you know we still have that we look at people's hair and we look at the way they dress we look at their tattoos I can't believe like at the dress she wore to church this morning I can't believe that we freaked out kind of a Harper Valley PTA syndrome you know God deliver us that would have been a good title for my sermon this morning huh Harper Valley PTA and we're kind of like snobs and we we judge people based on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart the Bible says in Proverbs 22 to which and poor have this in common the Lord is the maker of them all I love that God is the one that makes them all now we've seen the command verse 1 not to show snobbery we've seen the illustration and now we have the reasons verse 5 to verse 13 it's the largest section of our text but here he gives reasons why we should not show snobbery and James gives the Christians three reasons if you're taking notes write them down the first is a theological reason it's in verse 5 look at it with me he says hearken or listen carefully my beloved brethren has not God chosen notice that God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised them that love him by the way in verse one there's a doctrinal or theological foundation for not showing respect to persons and that's the deity of Christ the Lord of glory now we have the second doctrinal or theological foundation for not showing respect to person and that is the grace of God so how we behave is determined by what we believe if we believe that Jesus did not show respect to person he's the Lord of glory if we believe in the grace of God then we should not show respect a person's now notice God chose the poor of this world rich in faith that's a general statement the Bible says there's not many it doesn't say there's not any mighty or wise chosen but the majority of people that come to Christ or common people God must have loved the common man he made so many of them you heard the statement and most of the early Christians were poor as they came to Christ but God's choice of them is the grace of God this is something you'll never ever be able to fully understand and that is that God saves you by His grace you don't earn it you don't deserve it you don't merit it that's what grace is the Bible says by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourself it is what a gift from God not of works why lest anyone should boast that's Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 you're saved by grace why so that we can't boast all the glory and all the praise goes to God and then the 1st Corinthians chapter 1 it says you see your calling brethren how that not many mighty not many wise not many noble but God has chosen what the foolish things of the world to confound the wise the weak things that confound the things which are mighty and the base things hath God chosen why again so that no flesh will glory in his presence if you are a Christian you are a foolish thing a weak thing a base thing God saves you by His grace and to him be all the praise and glory and honor someone said a-class church is not a church that magnifies the grace of God I love that a class church is not a church that magnifies the grace of God I want this church to magnify the grace of God amen and they were all saved by grace and we're all sinners and we don't earn merit or deserve so God has chosen the poor of this world now again this is not a condemnation of rich people riches are neutral poverty is neutral there are poor people who are poor in this world and rich in heaven there are people who are poor in this world and poor in heaven poor in spiritual things there are people who are rich in this world and poor in heaven there are people who are rich in this world and rich in heaven that's who I want to be and sadly this is what the church caters to today and it's wrong teaching or supposing the godliness is a way to get rich godliness is not a way to get rich I believe godliness can bless you prosperity and you'll be a good steward of your money and you'll be honest and hard-working and it will have its effect on your life and God will bless you but it's not carb lunch it's not a guarantee reading Hebrews chapter 11 of men and women of faith who wondered about in goat skins and sheep skins and we're destitute and afflicted and had nowhere to live and they were sawn asunder and they lived in caves you study the history of the church and you study the history of people who were persecuted and rejected and despised by the world but they were accepted by God in heaven I'd rather be poor in this world and rich in heaven than rich in this world and poor toward God amen so it's not an indictment toward the rich it's not in the Dyckman toward the poor it's just saying that you shouldn't have an attitude that caters or shows respect of persons to rich people and again that's my prayer for this church we treat everyone equally we don't cater to people that we feel like will advance our cause or help the church then he gives them a logical reason verses 6 & 7 first reason is theological second reason is logical he says but you have despised the poor do not the rich oppress you draw you before the judgment seats do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called and I want you to note at the end of verse 5 there's a question mark at the end of verse 6 there's a question mark and at the end of verse 7 there's a question mark they're all three rhetorical questions expecting a no yes answer there's not God chosen the poor of this world yes do not these rich people blaspheme that worthy name by what you're called yes do not they draw you before the judgment seats yes so it's illogical as to why the Christians were showing favor to the rich because they exploited them and they blast themed God and then thirdly and lastly he gives them a biblical reason verses 8 to 13 let's read it he says if ye fulfil the Royal law according to the scriptures and he's quoting there from Leviticus 19 verse 18 thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself you do well but if you have here it is respect of persons or you show partiality or snobbery you commit sin and you are convinced of the law as transgressors for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all for he that said do not commit adultery said also thou shalt not kill by the way those are commands and the Ten Commandments given by God and Decalogue he said now if thou commit adultery yet if thou does not kill you still become a transgressor of the law so speak ye and do ye as they that shall be judged by the law of Liberty first it's the Royal law verse eight now verse twelve it's the law of Liberty for he says verse thirteen he shall have judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy and mercy rejoices against judgment now I want you to notice that first reason biblically is that as we don't show partiality and we do love our neighbor as ourselves that we are fulfilling the Royal law notice it in verse a the Royal law that governs all laws why is it called the Royal law because it comes from the king god himself and it governs all other laws and under its obedience were set free and it's this thou shalt love thy neighbor as what and by the way in Ephesians 5 it says no man ever hated his own flesh but he nourishes it and cherishes it even as the Lord the church we actually a pretty self-absorbed if you're if you're in a group photo and you see a copy of it who do you first look for you're busted where am i what oh I don't look good I don't look that good come on you know you're stoked on yourself you're like checking yourself how's the lighting how's my smile how's my hair look you know and it's like you always look for yourself we're so narcissistic a Christian is to be thinking about others Jesus others and you are number three you get laughs and that spells joy so the royal law comes from God it controls all other laws someone asked Jesus what's the greatest commandment What did he say love God with all your heart soul strength and mind number one from the lips of Jesus himself loving God all your heart all your soul all your strength all your mind and then he said the second is like unto it but he said it says love your neighbor as yourself oh we don't like that one now I'm fine with loving my neighbor if I get to pick the neighborhood can I live right there Lord and that neighborhood and those people and how they're so wonderful but not over here Lord we're fine with loving our neighbor if we get to pick who our neighbor is so they actually asked Jesus when he said love your neighbor you know who's my neighbor who would you say is my neighbor and then Jesus let me tell you a story about a Good Samaritan and he was going down to Jericho from Jerusalem and he found this guy that was falling among thieves and the scribes and the Pharisees and the religious crowd they walked on the other side they pulled their robes tight they didn't want to get cooties or help this man and so he went by but this Samaritan which was a despised race in the Jewish mind he gets off his donkey and He pours oil in his wounds and he helps him and picks him up and he puts him on his donkey takes him down to Jericho and he goes into an inn and he reaches into his own pocket and he pays for the man he goes I'll be gone a couple days and when I come back if he owes you anything more I'm gonna pay that everyone knows the story the Good Samaritan and Jesus then my neighbor is anyone who has me even if I don't like his race even if I don't care about the color of his skin or even becomes from the other side of the tracks that's my neighbor anyone who needs help so when the Bible says love your neighbor anyone who is in need is my neighbor so we need to love our neighbor and be free from showing partiality now he goes on to say that it's the fulfillment of the law but if you have respect person's verse and I and want to go back and look at him verse nine you commit sin I've underlined that and highlighted that and made note of that that respective persons is sin that's transgression and whosoever shall keep the whole law but if you offend in one point you're guilty of all he's not talking about the degrees of sin sin is sin but there are sins that are more heinous than others let's admit that but we're still a sinner we're still lawbreakers you only have to lie once to be a liar you only have to steal once to be a thief you only have to break God's commandment to break the whole law you're a law breaker so the same God that said don't commit adultery by the way that is in the Bible thou shalt not commit adultery and said do not kill or don't murder but if thou commit no adultery yet thou kill thou art become a transgressor of the law so we don't want to be law breakers but let me give you the third biblical reason in closing verses 12 and 13 and this is so sobering it's so powerful but it's missed in this text so often and that as we as Christians yes you heard me right we as Christians twice in the passage my beloved brethren we will face a future judgment we will have to give an account to God for the way we treat people notice what it says in verse 12 of 13 so speak and do so our words and our works as they that shall be judged you go oh wait a minute wait a minute judge yes judged by the law of Liberty so as I pointed out first it's the Royal law now it's the law of Liberty that love your neighbor as yourself for he shall have judgment verse 13 without mercy that has shown no mercy in mercy triumphs literally over judgment so in our word speaky and then our works do ye as they that shall be judged you say well pastor john i'm confused i thought as a christian our sins were paid for i thought there's no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus i thought it was a done deal that's finished it's paid for and that's true so when we go to heaven we're not going to be judged for our sins we're forgiven but make no mistake we will give an account to God for the way we treat people we will give an account for what we did with our time and our talents and our treasures we will have to give an account for God God entrusted certain gifts and abilities to us did we use them for the good of others and first glory I believe with all my heart that is possible to have a saved soul but a wasted life oh yeah you're going to have them when you die and you'll be in heaven when you die but will you hear the Lord say well done thou good and faithful servant enter into the joy of the Lord I want to go to heaven with all my heart I want to see Jesus face to face I want to be with others that I love that have gone before me I can't wait to go to heaven but when I get to heaven I want to also hear I want to hear Jesus say well done well done thou good and faithful servant he died for my sins and he gave His life for me you know what what what more could I do but say Lord take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee take my silver and my gold not a might well I would hold take my speech take my feet take my hands Lord use me for your glory and basically James is closing this passage by saying look you're going to give an account to God you're going to be judged by God it's called the Bema of the reward and by the way the references to that or in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and if you serve the Lord with right motives you're going to take gold and precious stones and and metal to have and it won't be consumed with the judgment of fire you'll go to heaven with your rewards but if you are serving for wrong motives self-centered motives self advancing motives it's wood hay and stubble you'll still go to heaven you'll be saved but by fire you won't take anything with you and that's a sad thought so what are you doing with your time talent and try what are you doing with your life are you investing it and are you showing mercy verse 13 says he shall have judgment without mercy that has shown no mercy Jesus said and his Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:7 blessed are the merciful for they what shall obtain mercy whatever Manso's that shall he also reap amen you sow mercy you will reap mercy basically it's we should treat other people the way God treats us has not God been gracious and merciful and kind and patient with us the answer is yes should we not be patient and kind and merciful to others answer is yes amen

Channel: Revival Christian Fellowship

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Length: 39min 27sec (2367 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 06 2018