Favoritism (Part 2 of 6)

In many settings. Wealthy people are given preferential treatment with the hope that they might in turn share some of the riches or their influence that kind of favoritism is not to be practiced in local churches that what Jesus taught you how we prevent find out today on Truth for Life.

Alistair Begggest teaching from chapter 2 in the book of James were in verses one through four. It is impossible to embrace believing Jesus. We understand historicity in reality of who he is and what he's done, but it is possible for us to have an intellectual grasp of these things ourselves ever having become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I believe in Jesus is able to look back to a precious moment or precious moments or a period of time in his or her life. We are consciously and personally. They moved from a state of unbelief to estate unbelief.

They realize that Jesus is our Savior and that they were sinners and that they needed a Savior and that they needed to ask Jesus to be their Savior and to be there for the means to believe is why Lily in acts 16 prosperous business woman with a prayer meeting a ladies Bible study if you like down by the river anybody would've settled Lydia. She's she's in June there's a there's a believer. Lydia she hasn't. She has brownie thanks such a nice lady.

Lydia Paul the apostle shows up in the prayer meeting of the Lord says Luke opened her heart and she who was a religious worshiper of God became believe in the same passage in acts 16. The Philippian jailer makes the same shift doesn't the earthquake happens. The chains are loose.

He thinks that the prisoners are all going to escape is about ready to kill himself because he knows that will be his destiny.

If the word gets out that they're all gone. Paul shouts don't do yourself any harm. He says I have to sing it all night there and I couldn't believe you were saying. Most people are cursing and you keep saying about this risen Jesus how he is our Savior and the Lord of the K can I just ask you guys. What must I do to be saved and pulses will if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be safe and if your family believe as well fill me say so down by the Riverside and then in the context of the jail we have these baptismal services while because they were making public expression of their private personal belief in Jesus. Do you believe Tivoli receipt when you get to verse five and you need worry about our country.

One really get there this morning but when you get when you look at verse five and he says this, my dear brothers is not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith. You need to realize that the fact of God's choosing doesn't deny the necessity and reality of our believe the fact of God's choosing does not deny the necessity and reality of our believe it. People asked me this question just about every single Sunday what God chooses, as I suppose we don't have anything to do with her tall know absolutely wrong. We have everything to do with it.

God does not believe for us.

We must believe that's why today we are either believing or where unbelief John Murray, the late Prof. John Murray in a wonderful passage in one of his books uses this illustration I shared for your help. He says we must never ignore the necessity of personal acceptance and trust. The lifeboat is no good unless the drowning man gets into it and no one can get in for him. He must do it for himself. Yet surely he would never say that the hand which sees the lifeboat was his salvation.

He could only view it as the means by which he apprehended the proffered safety ceiling. We bring to our salvation is the sin for which we need forgiveness. And when we reach out and of faith we are simply taking the safety that is proffered to us in the provision that Jesus has made under this divine transaction. In that moment in that experiential moment in time that all the secret dimensions of the purposes of God, become ours in their fullness and their focus out of the tear puts it as follows new life in Christ may trace its conscious and public history back to the moment of decision of commitment of accepting the Lord Jesus as one's personal savior is there in your life.

A moment of decision of commitment of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. That's the question that's the question because if there isn't, how in the world do you believe that you believe if you don't know that you were married on a certain day prior to the date you were unmarried and after that they were married.

Then you clueless or real unmarried but he goes on every conversion has a secret history which the Bible reveals and which owes its origin to God's choice so you can say to me when you believe in Jesus entrusted I believed and trusted him as far as I can understand it on a Sunday afternoon, having come home from a Sunday school where I've been, probably the worst boy in the class but it better but it figured out something of what was being said about the necessity of being a dreadful little sinner and need your Savior.

I didn't have any problem with the first part was reinforced regularly for me and I went on when I asked my father how old you have to be to become a Christian to believe in Jesus and he said there's not is not about how old you are, is about whether you understand this and this and this and he led me through the gospel and then we knelt down by a chair in a room in suburban Glasgow and I asked Jesus to forgive my sin to come and live my life and maybe the kind of boy he wanted me to be. That's the moment the conscious experiential moment in time that I base my understanding of faith upon but I recognize that behind that is a secret history of God whereby he ordered all the steps of my life leading me into that very form and into that Sunday school class and into that moment in time and the faithfulness of the teacher who said what she said in order that I healing which he said might come to believe in Jesus, my dear brothers. He writes as believer's easy until we believe we don't have the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity living in our lives, enabling us to please God. Until we believe all we can do is try our jolly best. Try as best we can. We come to researchers is don't show favorites so we make an order that we put it in our daytime try this week week of 15 April. Try not to show favoritism this week like hanging ornaments by the work of God in our lives is sure to put his spirit within us that what he calls for. He enables that's why he sets there is a religion that is absolutely worthless.

It is externalism the religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this control come compassionate heart uncompromised testimony and under compassionate heart. I don't want you showing favoritism to realize how how uncomfortable this is me will come back to it. We must we must proceed to the end. But our whole culture.

When I say our lives to save Western culture. Because Britain has led the charge on this stuff.

You can you can meet snobs like you can meet in Britain. We have snobbery down to a fine art. We have made an art form of snobbery on the basis of accent on the basis of schooling on the basis of money on the basis of status and at least a little of it has bled across the Atlantic Ocean and fight we live in a culture that is driven by all these things we come out of that culture in which we live.

Monday through Saturday and it is very difficult for us not to bring that culture right into our gatherings of God speak. That's what makes it so challenging, so the description is first of those who are his readers.

They are believers. Believers, in whom believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ is… Get on that doesn't really matter doesn't yes I think it actually does.

Because this little verse here is one of the most notoriously difficult verses to translate from the Greek and if you doubt that you should avail yourself of the King James version and if you read the King James version and you may have in front of you. Verse one reads as follows, my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons crystal clear is as one of the best arguments for a modern translation in English that you can find in the whole Bible. Here again, my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with respect of persons. The literal translation from the Greek is brothers of me not in respect of persons have been the faith of the Lord of ours Jesus Christ of the glory.

What is significant is Jesus Christ. Case docs say and more ink has been spilled in the commentaries over why it is that James puts it in this order are not about a weary year with the stuff that I weighed myself within the week that is gone by. But what causes us to do his to say since James is a very articulate and clear communicate. Since James is masterful in his use of language. He clearly hasn't slipped up on the first fence is aware even triple the first hurdle he came to, and in trying to express himself here in the first what is now the first verse of chapter 2 is couldn't really get it out can get it on the way wanted we can possibly believe that. So we have to then assume that the reason the business as it is, is because he wanted guys to think about Jesus in relationship to glory Lord Jesus Jesus Christ all the glory those of you who are in the honors course significant group of you, but I'm pretty all in the honors course is another who are in the honors course. Your mind will be immediately jumping ahead and should be because you be thinking glory rich man whom Rich Jesus. Jesus. Jesus in heaven is on our Jesus on the throne. Jesus on a donkey, Jesus, and Jesus and embraced in heaven. Jesus in a smelly stable must be some reason that he describes Jesus in this way in terms of glory and will spend the final part of our time there and I invite you to turn this to three passages of the Bible first in the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 33 Exodus 33. I think we need to do this otherwise when we come to the imperative don't show favoritism. I will just be completely discombobulated Exodus chapter 33 and Moses is asking God to make sure that his presence goes with him as he seeks to lead the people because it will be the presence he says of God that will distinguish him from all the other people on the face of the air and in verse 18 Moses makes a request. Now show me your glory.

He sets the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But you won't be up to see my face because no one can see me and live in the chapter closes out with a description of the manifestation of God and his glory passing by in a way that is anthropomorphic to try that our finite minds might be able to capture something of this historic and incredible encounter.

But when Moses asked to see his glory the Lord speaks in terms of his goodness and his name in our church verses from Psalm 132 whatever I think you have exalted above all things, your name and your word. What is so significant about that because the name of God doesn't simply tell us who he is. It tells us what he is the name of God is expressive of his attributes and of his character. If you like the glory is shorthand for the personal presence of the Lord, show me your glory I made. May I live in your presence, may I encounter you mad. May I meet you is what he asks a fast forward all the way through the Bible either to two Corinthians in chapter 4 is the second passage is our penultimate passage. Two Corinthians 4 and verse six for God, who said let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ as we meet God. How do we see God's glory revealed what we see it revealed in Jesus. How could we possibly meet God's glory in Jesus because he came down to where we are.

He was rich beyond all splendor, all for our sakes became poor and and coming down to where we are. Jesus was no respecter of persons is impossible to read the Gospels without recognizing that again. Don't make a mistake here Jesus obviously had a particular relationship with Peter James and John were talking about when I talk about friendships within the framework of friendships in relationship to humanity. Jesus was just as prepared to call a rich man down from a tree.

Zacchaeus taken him under his house and sort them out as he was prepared to allow a woman of ill repute to come in and weep over him and for her tears to wash his feet and four are here to dry because he was no respecter of person why because he was prepared to set aside the glory which was his due, which is our third passage Philippians 2 to set aside the glory which was his due. In order to come down into our existence and it is only when we grasp and are addressed by the wonder and reality of that that we will then begin to face up to the ugliness and the inconsistency of judging other people on the basis of what is external and superficial pretty see the point that James is going to make is this God it operated on that basis with you. Okay to seat you think you would've pulses of same same thing in first Corinthians says consider your calling Brett now many of you were mighty know many of you were noble.

Now many of you were significant.

Don't lose sight of the consonant. It's important, isn't seen on any he says not many in the history of the church is a history of God's moving amongst the masses, not God's moving amongst. The the intelligentsia or his moving amongst the rich and the famous innocent, it absolutely is. Therefore, when a church family gets it completely upside down. When an organization gets it completely the wrong way around and affords peculiar benefits and blessings, inroads, affections, opportunities on the basis of the label inside or the particular design on the outside of the plastic parts made to look so much like leather or the watch on the rest or the number plate on the come, then that church.

Our church needs a solid goes of James chapter 2, my dear brothers and sisters. He says you are the believers in Jesus the Lord of glory. Don't whatever you do, show favoritism very uncomfortable as I find very uncomfortable with only started. Therefore, there is much, much more of an uncomfortable nature that awaits us. Next time the blessing of God is not reserved for a select few. Jesus offers the gift of salvation to all who will believe listing to Truth for Life. That's Alistair Begg with a warning against favoritism. Alister returns in just a minute. It is tempting to skip over some of the uncomfortable parts of Scripture like today's message we open the Bible each day.

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When you do that today when you become a true partner you choose the amount you want to give each month signing up is quick and easy go to Truth for Life.org/truth partner or call us at 88858878841 to become a true partner. We will say thank you by inviting you to request two books we select each month were currently recommending a book titled God is a devotional guide to the attributes of God. This is a perfect guide to help you grow in your understanding of God and your relationship with him no matter how long you been a believer, request your copy of the book God is when you sign up to become a true partner today or you can request a book with a one-time donation to Truth for Life. Just visit Truth for Life.org/donate now, here's Alister to close today with prayer father, thank you for the Bible. Thank you were not here to listen to the conjecture of a man's mind were not here to offer up our own ideas and notions of what needs to be and when we work our way through the Bible we were stuck with the passages that we would perhaps sometimes one just to dance around because the absolutely pain is back on her heels. We've all been in churches where people became elders and leaders because they were godly, but because they were wealthy who were given positions of influence because they had a good business brain, but they did have a heart for God. We want you to help us with this so that we might out of reverence and love for the Lord of glory. Treat each person with respect and dignity that owes nothing to finance education, social standing, racial profile, Lord, we don't want our religion to be worthless. We pray in Jesus name, amen about the pain we are finding out how and why favoritism is un-biblical. How then did Jesus teach so many different people, rich and poor, young and old, without ever showing partiality. Join us tomorrow as we take a closer look at the example he supports the Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life learning is prolific