Father, your word tells us that we're very easy seeing specks of sin in other people's eyes and blind to the huge log sticking out of our eyes.
And your word tells us that we flatter ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin.
And Father, we know that your word says that, but we confess before you, Father, that we often don't really feel it and don't really practice it or think it.
Father, as we read your word today, Father, your word really is going to challenge us in this.
And so, Father, we invite and give you permission with nothing held back to have your word speak into the depths of who we are.
We hold nothing back that your word might speak into the depths of who we are, might reveal who we are, might bring the gospel to who we are, might rule in who we are in our daily lives.
So, Father, we ask in your kindness that you would have the Holy Spirit bring your word to us.
And this we ask in Jesus's name. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, the Bible text today addresses one of the main issues that is sort of tearing apart modern society in North America.
So, if you turn with me in your Bibles to James chapter 1, verses 26, we'll look at the text.
James chapter 1, verse 26 and following, and we'll look at the text.
And here's how it goes.
It doesn't sort of get right at it at first, this issue which is tearing apart much of the fabric of society in North America,
but it's going to get there.
And here's how it begins.
If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
James, tell us what you really think.
It's worthless.
Do you want to nuance that?
No, it's worthless.
Religion, verse 27, that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this,
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
And we're just going to pause that.
We're sort of looking here.
So, right off the way, we're right off the way.
Well, just one simple thing, if you're not aware of it.
The Bible, all the way through the Bible, right from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible,
Old and New Testament, when you see the phrase orphans and widows or widows and orphans,
depends on the, it's the same type of thing,
what you have to understand is it's talking about the poor and the powerless.
That's a poetic way of talking about the poor and the powerless.
The poor are always powerless.
Some people who aren't poor are also powerless.
But that's what it's talking about, poor and powerless.
But the problem we're going to have right away with reading this text is the word religion.
And those of you who might be watching or those of you here who are seekers or trying to figure out
or you got dragged here, you're not familiar with the Christian faith.
One of the things that evangelicals like us tend to say is when we see the word religion,
it's two thumbs down.
It's only bad.
We would echo the phrase of that famous theologian Bono from U2,
who says that religion is what you have when the Holy Spirit has left the room.
Or the religion is what you have when Jesus has left the room and what you got left is religion.
And that's what we would say.
We would say as well, we're not into religion, we're into relationship,
a relationship with Jesus.
And that's what we would say.
We would almost always use the word religion in a bad way.
And that in fact fits with how most Canadians would understand it.
If I told people that I was very religious, they'd go, what?
In their mind, they'd go, what?
He said he was really religious?
Like in a positive way?
But if I said that I was very spiritual, people might go, oh, that's sort of interesting.
You know, spiritual, not religious.
It's not a phrase you hear very much anymore.
But for most Canadians, we might tolerate religious people as long as they keep their religion private.
In other words, spiritual.
But religion is generally a bad word in Canada.
And spiritual or spirituality is generally a neutral to good word in Canadian society.
So right off the bat, when we're reading the Bible, we're going to have a hard time.
We're going to misunderstand what the Bible says.
Listen to it again.
And by the way, it's not always going to be easy to have the words on the screen.
It's one of the reasons why it's really important for those of you who are Christians to bring your own Bibles.
Or to bring your phone and have the Bible text and try to control your desire to check Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
You know, maybe in fact you need to have a locking mechanism.
It only opens the Bible.
Don't check the weather for the afternoon.
Just the Bible.
Most of us would be wiser if we spent less time on electronic devices, actually.
But that's a whole other topic of conversation.
And by the way, if you're watching this online,
there's a bit of an exception for the service.
We don't want you to turn the service off right now.
We're really glad you can join online.
Okay?
So anyway, the verses again, it goes,
If anyone thinks he's religious,
and right off the bat we're going,
Boo, yeah, yeah, boo, boo.
But then it goes,
And does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart.
That person's religion is worthless.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this,
to visit orphans and widows in their affliction,
and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
So what is really going on here with the use of the word religion?
And by the way, as I've said many times,
Christopher Hitchens, the New Atheists,
Deconversion Blogs,
none of them can top the New Testament for critiquing religion.
None of them can top the New Testament for critiquing religion in the bad sense.
What's going on here is a different word, a neutral word.
And in fact, it captures, when I was a young man,
there used to be posters and stuff like that that would ask this question.
If you were put on trial for being a Christian,
would there be enough evidence to convict you?
If you were put on trial for being a Christian,
would there be enough evidence to convict you?
And so the religion here is being used about the external life that you live,
the things that people can observe.
And that's what it's being talked about.
So in a sense, you know, if all of a sudden your co-workers,
you know, they're, I don't know,
they're just sort of, they see how you are at work,
and maybe they happen to see your credit card bill or your financial statement,
and they say, well, he doesn't spend money like a Christian.
I don't know, he likes to curse and swear and use foul language,
and I've seen him on Pornhub, and I don't know, like, he's a Christian?
Really?
It's a bit of a shock.
That's the question.
If you were put on trial for being a Christian from your behavior people could observe,
would there be enough evidence to convict you?
So now that you understand it, you're saying it's very, very interesting what John,
sorry, James is saying, is this is what,
these are going to be, in a sense, three tests that we're going to have
in terms of trying to evaluate religion,
how you actually live your life as a Christian.
And it's very, very interesting.
Like, whenever I prepare a sermon, I spend some time in prayer thinking about what would happen
if this was the Sunday, or if I was to share this text with some of the non-Christian friends
that I have, some of the non-Christians that I know,
and I try to guess how they'd, I try to figure out a little bit from conversations
how they might react to the text.
And just as a group like us will have problems with the word religion,
they would have problems with the word religion.
But it's an interesting three set of tests.
Tests, and I was thinking about it.
I think for my secular friends, they'd like the first test.
Because I think most people would say, like, in fact,
if you could write a self-help book on how to control the tongue better,
people would buy it.
Like, people would buy it.
If you could come up with some proven techniques to help you control the tongue,
people would buy that.
Because lots of people would acknowledge that they say stupid things.
And that's not even counting foul language and all that other type of stuff.
That most of us would acknowledge.
In fact, if there could be a book,
Men, How to Finally Talk Perfectly to Your Wife,
lots of men would buy that book.
It'd probably have to be written by a woman, by the way,
because a man, most of us men are, as our wives would put it,
shockingly slow learners in terms of how to speak to their wife.
But so most Canadians think, that's a pretty good test.
And then be interesting about how you relate to the poor and the powerless,
that people who are actually practicing a good religion, like externals,
there's a particular way, in a sense, an openness,
a visiting, a caring for the poor and the powerless.
And I think most Canadians would say, yeah, that's two thumbs up.
That's a pretty good test.
And then I was thinking about the fact that the worldly thing,
keeping yourself unsteamed from the world,
and here's where it would get a little bit tricky.
I think for those of you who are watching who aren't Christians,
you'd go, I don't even know what that means.
Like, it sounds a bit weird.
But it would get very, very uncomfortable.
Like, you know, one fellow that I have,
who I'm friends with, very friendly with,
one of the things he likes to do in his spare time, he's gay,
and he loves to go see drag queens.
That's one of the things he loves to do,
like go see a really good drag show.
And if I was to tell him that that would be an example of the world,
that you're supposed to keep yourself unsteamed for,
there'd probably be a bit of an awkward silence there.
Right?
So on one hand, this is a sort of an interesting list,
and just a bit of a clue here, or a precursor.
Most of the rest of the book of James
is sort of woven around these three themes.
How you use your tongue,
how you deal with the weak,
how you deal with the poor and the powerless,
how you deal with the weak,
and how you keep yourself unstained from the world.
That, in fact, is sort of how the rest of the book,
most of the rest of the book unfolds,
around trying to dig into that
in terms of what exactly it looks like.
And you still might,
but one of the other things,
before we get into the rest of it is,
it might be a bit shocking,
it is a bit shocking to us,
as to why it says that these three things
are the test of religion.
Like, you might say,
okay, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Like, why isn't it talking about communion,
baptism,
like Bible reading,
proper worship,
church attendance,
like small groups,
your personal prayer life?
Like, why is it,
what's going on here?
So there's two things to understand,
because that's a very, very good thing
to be puzzled over.
The first thing is that
you could talk about
all the different spiritualities
and religions of the world
in terms of how they try to balance
the vertical and the horizontal.
Or in other words,
the God word aspect of religion
and the human aspect
and creational aspect
of what it means to,
in that religion.
God word might be better
than vertical
for those religions
who sort of see God everywhere.
But, you know,
in a sense,
you could put a bit of a thing,
you know,
some emphasize more the horizontal,
some emphasize more the vertical.
But there is,
in fact,
the Bible calls us
to a type of balance around that.
And if you read the Gospel of John,
Gospel of John is big,
big, big on the vertical.
Like you read,
I mean,
in fact,
it even comes right out
and says at the end of the book,
why did I write this book?
I wrote this book
so you would know
who Jesus is and follow him.
Like,
he tells you why he wrote it.
Like,
it's almost all vertical.
James,
but it's not just vertical,
there's other things in it
that talk about the horizontal,
how you live
in terms of with other people
and with the creation.
I just sort of,
a bit of an aside.
Do you want to know something
which is really cool?
This isn't actually known very much.
We all know,
like,
who was it
who invented the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals?
The people who were responsible for it.
Wilberforce was one of the people,
the same guy
who was responsible
for abolishing slavery,
and also,
one of the guys responsible,
you can talk to James Lenny afterwards,
for the Christian,
the outreach to Israel,
which,
in fact,
created,
helped create eventually
the whole nation of Israel.
It was evangelicals
that wanted people
to come to a relationship
with Jesus
who started the Society
for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals.
So,
anyway,
so John is primarily vertical.
James is a book
that really majors
on horizontal things.
And why is that?
And so,
we're going to see,
it's not that he ignores the vertical,
but he really is going to try
to get us to think
far more deeply
about how shall we then live.
And to see why this is important,
just imagine this scenario.
After the service,
you go out for coffee with somebody,
and they say to you,
with no type of embarrassment,
said,
you know,
you get in talking
about spiritual things,
and,
you know,
whatever that means.
You know,
your walk with Christ.
And he says to you,
gosh,
you wouldn't believe it.
just yesterday afternoon,
I had this spectacular sex
with my mistress.
But after it,
while she was still
dozing in bed,
I had this most awesome
devotional time
in the Bible
with Jesus.
And when I left,
I gave her a peck
on the cheek,
she was still in bed,
and I just was going,
left feeling so high
about my walk with Christ.
Now you'd go,
I mean,
in fact,
you might not even know
what to say,
my guess is many of you
would be so gobsmacked
by that statement
that you would go,
because what you would
want to say,
those of you who are
far more direct,
is that you had a crappy
time in the Bible.
You can't have sex
with your mistress
and then say you've had
a powerful time
with Jesus.
It doesn't fit together.
It's like pouring water
on a fire.
It doesn't make
the fire better.
Unless your devotional time
was to be massively
convicted of sin
and say,
Lord,
have mercy upon me.
I need counseling.
I need therapy.
I need prayer buddies.
I need responsibility partners.
I mean,
if that didn't happen,
you had the worst
devotional time imaginable.
Right?
And so that's what
James is going to emphasize.
What are some of the things
that mark
a true walk
with Jesus?
Jesus.
And that's one of the reasons
why the book of James
is so important.
So what is the very first thing
that he starts to look at?
Well,
the very first thing
he starts to look at
is, in fact,
an issue which is
a profound human problem
and is, in fact,
one of the issues
which is tearing apart
the fabric of society
in Canada,
Canada in a small way,
but the United States
in a very big way.
Like, what is it?
Let's look.
Chapter 2,
verses 1 to 7.
And it goes like this.
My brothers and sisters,
show no partiality
as you hold the faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory.
I'm just going to pause there
for a second.
We're going to camp on that verse
just for a few moments.
It says, once again,
my brothers and sisters,
show no partiality.
It can also be translated
as prejudice.
It can also be translated
as discrimination.
It can also be translated
as favoritism.
Show no prejudice,
partiality,
favoritism,
discrimination
as you hold the faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory.
And it's a bit awkward
in the English translation.
You can sort of see it
if you look at it
very carefully,
but in the original language
it's very obvious.
Is you can't have,
if you say you have faith
in Jesus
but are showing prejudice,
it's destroying your faith.
In fact,
it'll be on the slide later on.
There's one really big idea
to this section.
It's a really big idea
I want you to take away
from the sermon
and we'll show it
on a slide later on.
And it is this.
The more real
the biblical gospel
is to your heart
and the more real
the triune God
becomes to your heart,
the more you see
the deep sinfulness
of favoritism,
partiality,
and prejudice.
I'll say it again.
It's the big idea
of the text.
that the more real
the biblical gospel
is to your heart
and the more real
the triune God
becomes to your heart,
the more you see
the deep sinfulness
of favoritism,
partiality,
prejudice,
discrimination.
And as many of you know,
and if you don't,
heart here refers
to the very command center
of who you are,
the depths of who you are.
That part of you,
that from that part of you
the mind comes,
the imagination comes,
the will comes,
the emotions comes,
memory, planning,
where that one,
the Bible says
there's one source
that all of these things
emerge from
and the biblical word
for that is the heart.
And so as the biblical gospel
becomes more,
is more real to your heart
and the more real
the triune God
becomes to your heart
because of the gospel,
the more you see
the deep sinfulness
of favoritism,
partiality,
and prejudice.
One of the things
which is very interesting
about this text
in the original language,
it doesn't make good English,
so it's not translated this way,
but it actually says
partialities.
It's plural.
And it's plural
for two reasons.
It's plural for emphasis.
Like, you know,
you're reading, reading,
whoa, reading, reading, reading.
You know,
I was walking the dog
and then this happened.
It's something like that
to shout at you,
so to speak,
put it in bold.
But it's also by saying
in plural,
it's saying all the different forms.
Left-wing prejudice,
right-wing prejudice,
white prejudice,
black prejudice,
North American prejudice,
African prejudice,
Chinese prejudice,
you know,
First Nations prejudice,
all types.
In a sense,
it's unprejudiced
about prejudiced.
It's impartial,
impartial,
about partiality.
It shows no favoritism
to the sin of favoritism.
And it says,
these things
are like fire and water.
They don't go together.
There's faith in Jesus
and there is prejudice
and favoritism.
And so this is really important to see
because as we all know,
gosh,
we would have a hard time
writing a book of the glory.
In fact,
if you wrote a book
called The Glorious History
of Christian Opposition
to Prejudice,
Discrimination,
and Racism,
people would mock it
mercilessly
everywhere.
So,
let me tell you,
I am not,
I mean,
who is it needing prayer?
It is me,
it's me,
oh Lord,
standing in need of prayer.
But the thing
which is really interesting
is long before
the Enlightenment,
long before secularism,
and not emerging
out of the pagan world
of ancient Greece
in the very,
very early days
of the Christian faith
is this stern
denunciation
of all prejudice,
favoritism,
partiality,
and racism,
completely and utterly
rebuked
as being incompatible
with the Christian faith.
In other words,
if you read
the book of Proverbs,
one of the things
which is so cool
about the book of Proverbs
is that in a sense
it talks about
the shamelessness of God.
And God is shameless
because he can use
all manners of conditions
of men and women
to shame you.
I've shared with you before,
I'll share it with you again.
What motivated me
to a deeper Bible reading?
It wasn't listening
to a Christian preacher.
That is not a,
I'm not being proud
about this.
It's just one
of the shocking things.
It wasn't because
I read some more
C.S. Lewis
or some great
Christian writer.
You know who inspired,
who in a sense
rebuked me
into Bible reading?
Was my first year
philosophy professor
who was an atheist
and a proud member
of the Communist Party
of Canada
where he ran
for federal
and provincial elections
on the Communist Party
platform.
and it was taking
his class
because he would
regularly
throw up Bible passages,
make fun of them
and I would be,
that's in the Bible?
But I realized,
I had to start,
I have to start
reading the Bible.
Gosh,
you know what,
I just can't read
Philippians over and over
and over again
and the Gospel of John
over and over
and over again.
I got to get
into the weeds.
I got to read
those lists.
I got to read
what really happened.
And so you read
the book of Proverbs.
One of the things
about it is that
that's just exactly
how God is.
Excuse me.
He's shameless.
He'll get your attention
with somebody
whose guts you hate.
He'll get your attention
with some
atheist,
communist
professor.
He'll speak to you
and Christians,
we have to be open
to rebuke
wherever it comes from.
But here's the thing.
To learn that
prejudice is a sin,
you don't need to read
post-modernism.
You don't need to read
critical theory.
In fact,
the matter is,
is that critical theory
encourages
prejudice
and favoritism
and partiality.
Part of the problem
we have in our culture
is that the knowledge class
is increasingly
influenced
by critical theory
and that is
increasing
prejudice
in our society.
In fact,
as is not
that well known,
if you want to go
to the greatest
centers of
anti-Semitism
in Canada,
you go to universities
with their
boycott,
divest movements
and other types
of things
which basically
want to see
the Jewish people
annihilated.
but you don't
have to go
to reading
Rousseau
or something
like that.
You go to the Bible
and if you read
the Bible,
the Bible says,
what does it say?
My brothers and sisters,
show no partialities,
no prejudices,
no racisms,
no favoritisms,
no discriminations
as you hold
the faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory.
And it says,
as it holds it,
it says,
one moment,
you can't be
holding on to
prejudice and say
you're holding on
to Jesus.
You can't be
holding on to
discrimination and say
you're holding on
to Jesus.
You can't be
holding on to both.
The more you're
holding on to this,
it means you're
letting Jesus go.
And the more you're
holding on to Jesus,
the more he's going
to convict you
of the sin
of prejudice,
discrimination,
and favoritism,
and of course,
racism,
which is one example
of all of those things
which are great sins.
And what prejudice
is all based upon
is the discriminations
that we make
based on appearance,
on sort of the things
which matter not
to God at all.
Things like appearance,
race,
and how many dollars
you got in the bank.
None of those things
matter to God.
It's not a sin
to be low income.
As the book of James
is going to say,
some of the things
that keep certain people
in low income,
boy are they sinful.
Wait till we get
to chapter,
I think it's chapter 4.
It's going to be
very stark about
some of these types
of things.
But the fact of the matter
is,
is that we make lots of,
and the Bible
is just saying,
anything which is based
on these types of decisions
about the color
of your skin,
about how old you are,
the color of your hair.
You got tattoos,
you don't got tattoos,
you got piercings,
you don't got piercings.
You know,
the way your accent
shows your social class,
that you might be
from a working class background
or a rural working class background,
your ability to speak,
the way we may be distinguished
between somebody
who's obviously,
you know,
working class
and somebody
who went to Oxford
or Cambridge
and has that type of,
all of those externals,
they're all examples
of prejudice,
favoritism,
discrimination
and they're all wrong.
And the Bible
is going to give us
a very,
now James is going to go
and try to bring this
home to us
by giving us
a very simple example.
And one of the things
we have to understand
about this simple example
is this.
The simple example
reveals
the role
of micro decisions
or unconscious decisions
in our life.
Most of you,
most of us,
if you're like me,
if our lives
were only formed
by the big decisions
that we make,
you know what,
we'd probably be
pretty good.
You know,
who you marry,
you know,
whether you go to school
or not,
like big decisions.
But the fact of the matter
is that most of our life
is made with
unconscious decisions
or micro decisions,
small ones,
and it's a micro decision
that James is going
to use as an example.
And look what it says.
Verse 2.
For if a man
wearing a gold ring
and fine clothing
comes into your assembly
and a poor man
in shabby clothing
also comes in,
and if you pay attention
to the one
who wears the fine clothing
and say,
you sit here
in the good place,
while you say
to the poor man,
you stand over there
or sit down
at my feet,
have you then
not made distinctions
among yourselves
and become judges
with evil thoughts?
judges based on,
James,
why don't you tell us
what you really think?
Evil
is what is
forming this
small action.
Evil
thinking processes,
both in terms of
the logic is evil
and the premises
are evil
and the result
is evil.
So it's saying,
you know,
it's a day
where the church
is almost completely full
and somebody comes in
just a few minutes
before 10
and they're obviously
very, very well off
and rich
and we respond to them
one way.
We say,
hey, listen,
you know,
there's the best seat
in the house.
We'll move,
Brian,
get out of the way
or Kat,
get out of the way.
This is the best seat
in the house.
We'll have you sit there.
Oh yeah,
we'd love to do it.
You have the best seat.
A poor person comes in
and you either tell them
to pick the worst seat
in the house.
I'm sorry,
you don't even give them a seat.
You say,
you have two options,
dude.
You can go stand
throughout the entire service
way back in the shadow
where we can't see you
or you can sit on the ground.
Those are your options.
Now, obviously,
it's a bit of an exaggeration
but it's a...
I don't know
if he's going to be
watching the service.
Usually,
when I give examples
about things society-wise,
I'll try to either be neutral.
I would have used
like a Trump.
I don't know
what I'm going to use
for neutral political things anymore
because Biden and Trudeau
are like two peas in a pod, right?
So, I don't know
what I'm going to quite do
for when I make a...
Maybe I have to say
those who watch Fox News
and those who watch CNN
or something.
I don't know
because it's just hard
but I either try
to be even-handed
or I'll talk about
Nazis or Soviet Union
or Cambodia
or something like that
and so one person
at coffee time,
back when we could
have coffee time,
he said,
George,
why don't you ever
use Canadian examples?
And I said,
well, you know,
the problem is
if I use Canadian examples,
I could lose people
in the sermon
because it becomes political
and they start,
you know,
nattering away
in their mind,
you know, at it.
And so,
I'm going to take a risk.
If he's watching,
he knows who he is.
He might remember
having this conversation
with me.
So,
here we have this example
of treating people
different in terms
of economics.
And in this example,
we could say,
by the way,
there's no way
we would ever do this
or think this,
right?
Come on.
I mean,
this is Church of the Messiah.
There's no way
we'd think about this
or do this.
So,
let's try to bring it home.
How many of you
are very bothered
by the fact
that teachers want to have,
here's how I'm taking a risk,
be vaccinated earlier?
Doesn't it show
a class bias?
Doesn't it show,
James 2,
that we don't stand up
and say the people
who serve us coffee
at Tim Hortons
and stock the shelves
in Metro
should be served
way before the teachers?
Let's be very honest
about it.
Teachers,
I know it's the unions,
I'm not blaming
particular teachers.
Teachers are amongst
the best paid careers
in Canada.
Absolutely
in the top bit.
Teachers
didn't have to work
last March,
April,
May,
June,
or I mean,
go outside,
they could all work
from home.
The guy
and gal
who's probably
a new Canadian
and maybe
if they're not
a new Canadian,
they don't have
a high school education,
they're working
in Tim Hortons
serving you
your coffee.
The guy
or gal
stocking the shelves
at the Metro,
on top of that,
if it's Tim Hortons,
they're probably
new Canadians
and probably
not white.
But why is it
that there's no
conversation
amongst Canadians
about why is it
that teachers
are even there?
Good grief,
I mean,
they were doing
everything at home.
Like,
we should be
honoring
those faceless
people
who work
in Tim Hortons
in Metro.
They should have
it way before
teachers.
In fact,
you know,
teachers and all,
they often have
a lot of protections
about people
coming in.
Tim Hortons
probably have none.
Who knows,
it could be
hacking up
COVID fumes
by the gallon
and come
and get their coffee.
See,
I might have
lost a whole
pile of you
and I might
now get
a few angry
emails
from people
who are part
of the teachers
unions.
That's fine.
I think
my point
is valid.
When I read
papers,
I don't think
I've seen
any,
there's debates
about the order
of teachers
getting it,
but nobody
has said
that Tim Hortons
employee
should get
it before
teachers.
Why?
Because there's
an unconscious
decision
and micro decisions
of class
bias.
Right?
I mean,
think about it
for a second.
I mean,
the civil,
I'm not putting
down civil servants,
but the upper
level civil servants
who make
these decisions,
they're of the
same social
class as
the teachers
and the union
leaders.
And parliament
is filled more
with people
who are like
that than
people who
got election.
Imagine in the
next election,
the only people
who could run
are current
people who
serve you
coffee at
Tim Hortons
or stock the
shelves at
Metro.
Now,
just as a
side,
we might
actually have
a better
house of
commons
if that
happened.
But now
I'm really
in trouble.
But anyway,
William F.
Buckley famously
said that he'd
rather be ruled
by a random
selection of
people from
the Boston
phone book
than the
faculty of
Harvard.
But anyway,
sorry,
now I'm really
losing you.
That's maybe
why I shouldn't
use these
examples.
I don't know.
I'm sorry.
But the point
is that we
make these
types of
decisions and
their micro
decisions,
their class
decisions,
we're unconscious
to them and
the Bible
says it's
wrong.
The Bible
says it's
wrong.
In fact,
if we just
go on,
we'll see a
little bit.
Remember I
said the
big idea
of the
whole sermon
is that the
more real
the biblical
gospel is
to your
heart and
the more
real the
triune
God
becomes to
your
heart,
the more
you see
the deep
sinfulness
of
favoritism,
partiality,
and prejudice.
Look at
what goes
on in
verses 5,
6,
and 7
as James
rounds out
this section
and starts
to launch
into the
next thing.
Look at
what he
says.
He says,
listen,
my beloved
brothers and
sisters,
has not
God chosen
those who
are poor
in the
world to
be rich
in faith
and heirs
of the
kingdom
which he
has promised
to those
who love
him?
Now,
just two
things here.
We're going
to see
here,
it's sort
of a bit
beyond the
Bible here
is not
saying that
every poor
person goes
to heaven
because they're
poor and
that every
rich person
is damned,
which is
sort of the
next verse.
It's not
making that.
It's making
a bit of a
more general
statement and
the fact of
the matter
is this,
that God
chooses people
who are poor
and powerless
to be his
children.
I've had many
people over the
years say to
me,
Jesus,
but I don't
know if
Jesus would
ever choose
me.
But what
James is saying
here is the
fact of the
matter is,
how does
conversion work?
Jesus chooses
you before
you choose
Jesus,
and that is
true of every
single human
being.
Whether you
are a person
who cannot
remember,
you became a
Christian so
young in your
age that you
can't remember
really becoming
a Christian
because you've
always loved
Jesus,
or whether
you've had a
dramatic
conversion
experience,
the fact of
the matter is
that Jesus
always chooses
you first,
and after he
has chosen
you,
you choose
him.
And the
fact of the
matter is that
Jesus chooses
people who
are poor
and powerless.
He does.
And if God
has chosen
those who
are poor
and powerless
to be his
children,
how can you,
if you believe
the gospel,
if he is your
Lord,
discriminate and
put them in a
lower place?
If God chooses
those who are
poor and powerless
to be part of
his kingdom,
how can we say
that we don't
care about that?
there's a
higher standard
than who's
in his
kingdom than
what he has,
and we're
going to
treat them
in a
different way.
And then in
verse 6 it
says,
but you have
dishonored the
poor man.
Are not the
rich the
ones who
oppress you
and the
ones who
drag you
into court?
Verse 7,
are they not
the ones who
blaspheme the
honorable name
by which you
were called?
And this
language of a
name by which
you were called,
in the original
language,
what it's trying
to capture is
an invoking of
a name over
you in terms
of now who
you belong to
or what family
you're in.
In a sense,
what it's saying
is this,
if God the
Father,
God the Son,
and God the
Holy Spirit
had a last
name,
if they had
a last name,
when you put
your faith in
Jesus,
when I put
my faith in,
let's just say
whatever,
I'm not going
to say,
whatever God's
last name was,
when I put
my faith in
Jesus,
I now have
a new
last name.
I'm George,
with the last
name is now
the name of
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy
Spirit.
And that is
true whether
you are in
Nairobi,
whether you
are in
Moscow,
whether you
are in
Tehran,
whether you
are in
Ottawa,
and it is
true whether
you are part
of the
Billionaires
Club,
or you are
an untouchable
in India.
the moment
you respond
to the
invitation of
Jesus to
have him
be your
Savior and
Lord,
to trust
that he
has done
everything that
needs to be
done to make
you right with
God,
and that when
you put your
faith and trust
in him,
everything that
is needed to
be made right
with God has
been accomplished
by him,
and he
takes you not
weighing your
merits,
but pardoning
your offenses,
he clothes
you with
his righteousness,
he gives
you new
life,
and he
takes you
as his
own,
his precious
possession,
you are now
part of his
family,
your last
name is now
his name,
you have a
new identity,
and that is
true regardless
of your
income,
regardless of
your race,
regardless of
your age,
regardless of
your nationality,
regardless of
your educational
attainment,
that is what
the gospel is,
that is who
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy
Spirit are,
they are a
God of love,
he is a
God of love,
from all
eternity,
and out of
an abundance
of his
love,
God has
done this
and offered
this for
his people,
and if that
is what it
means to be
a Christian,
how can you
show prejudice
and partiality?
How can you
not desire
to have
any class
bias,
any racism
in your life
removed from
your life,
as this
grips you?
chapter 1,
verse 18,
it talks about
how God
only gives
good gifts
and the
greatest gift,
he's only a
giver,
he's a
potential,
always giving,
and that's
why it
comes out
that the
more than
only the
triune God,
the more
as well you
see the
abhorrence of
prejudice,
discrimination,
favoritism,
racism.
It is evil.
So just
to close
up,
once again,
the big
idea of
the whole
sermon,
the more
real the
biblical
gospel is
to your
heart,
and the
more real
the triune
God
becomes
to your
heart,
the more
you see
the deep
sinfulness
of favoritism,
partiality,
and prejudice.
And then
one other
particular thing
to take away
is,
Lord,
help me to
see the
prejudice
log in
my own
eyes
before I
see the
prejudice
speck,
in the
eyes
of other
people.
You know,
on one hand,
what this is
telling us
to is to
dive deep
into the
gospel,
to say
to the
Lord,
not just
help me
to rid
prejudice
of my
life,
but help
father the
gospel to
become more
real to
me.
Help me
to know
you,
father,
son,
and holy
spirit,
more,
and to
be known
by you.
Fan into
flame within
me a
longing and
yearning to
know you,
and to be
known by
you,
and to
know about
you,
to be
formed by
the
gospel,
by the
gospel as
is portrayed
in the
Bible.
Father,
make that
true,
and father,
as you
make that
true,
in your
mercy,
deliver me
from seeing
the prejudice
and favoritism.
I mean,
don't deliver me
from ever
seeing it,
but father,
help me to
look first
for whatever
logs there
are in
my own
eyes.
You know,
when Jesus
says to
look for
the log
in our
own eyes
before we
see the
speck in
the others,
he's not
calling us
to moral
blindness in
the world.
that what
he's calling
you to is
the path
to moral
clarity,
a moral
clarity
based on
humility
and penitence
about yourself
and being
gripped by
the gospel,
a moral
clarity that
can see the
evil of
prejudice
in all
its forms,
while at
the same
time realizing
that it's
me,
it's me,
oh Lord,
standing
in the
need of
prayer.
please
stand.
If there
are any
watching this
or hearing
this who've
been troubled
by the fact
that they
think,
well I
don't know,
I think I
like Jesus
but I
don't think
he'd like
me.
He wouldn't
like me
because of
my views,
he wouldn't
like me
because how
messed up
my life
is,
he wouldn't
like me
because nobody
else likes
me,
he wouldn't
like me
because I
don't like
myself.
You know,
if that's,
you've now
been told
that in fact
the matter
is,
if you feel
any tug
to Jesus
at all,
you need
to know
that that
tug you
feel for
Jesus is
because Jesus
has chosen
you and is
calling you
to be his
own.
And there
is no
better time
than right
now to
say,
Jesus,
thank you
for calling
me.
I say
yes.
I say
please be
my Savior,
be my
Lord,
let me
be in
you and
be in
me,
whatever,
use your
own words,
just say
yes,
I'm no
longer
running,
I find
it hard
to believe
that you
would actually
choose me
before I've
chosen you
and want
me before
I even
wanted you,
but I
accept,
I give
myself to
you,
I surrender,
I'll use
your own
words,
there's no
better time
than now.
And for
all of
us,
it's,
you know,
as a
follower of
Jesus,
it's not a
bad thing
to be
convicted
of sin.
If you're
gripped by
the gospel
and convicted
of sin,
that's actually
a good
thing,
not a
bad
thing,
not a
thing to
be depressed
over,
but a
thing to
be hopeful
about.
So let's
just pray.
Father,
we thank
you that
for those
of us
who are
here,
that have
given their
lives to
Christ,
that he
is our
Savior and
our Lord,
we thank
you,
Father,
that that
good gift
comes from
you,
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy
Spirit.
We thank
you,
Father,
that you
called us
before we
ever called
on you,
that you
loved us
before we
ever loved
you.
You desired
us to be
your children
before we
ever desired
to be your
child.
And Father,
we thank
you for
this gift
of grace.
Father,
it's hard
for us to
get our
mind around
it,
bring it
home to
our heart
in a deep
way.
And Father,
you know for
each one of
us the
different ways
that we
are making
micro decisions
and unconscious
decisions that
flow out of
prejudice,
partiality,
favoritism.
Father,
please make
the gospel
more real
to our
hearts.
And Father,
have you
and the
Holy Spirit
and Jesus
become more
real to us,
three persons,
one God.
And Father,
help me to
see the
prejudice and
partiality and
favoritism
logs in my
own eye,
so that I
might see the
world clearly
and see myself
clearly,
that I might
be free and
delivered.
Father,
please help
me to see
that.
And I
ask this in
the name of
Jesus and
all God's
people said,
Amen.