(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - All right, good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. I hope you had a good week in the Lord. We're gonna go ahead and start our service this morning. (gentle music) ♪ Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ In the fury of the storm ♪ ♪ When the winds of doubt blow through me ♪ ♪ And my sails have all been torn ♪ ♪ In the suffering, in the sorrow ♪ ♪ When my sinking hopes are few ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ While the tempest rages on ♪ ♪ When temptation claims the battle ♪ ♪ And it seems the night has won ♪ ♪ Deeper still than goes the anchor ♪ ♪ Though I justly stand accused ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ Through the floods of unbelief ♪ ♪ Hopeless somehow, oh my soul now ♪ ♪ Lift your eyes to Calvary ♪ ♪ This my ballast of hope ♪ ♪ This my ballast of assurance ♪ ♪ See his love forever prove ♪ ♪ I will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ (gentle music) ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ ♪ Oh, never be removed ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Christ the sure and steady anchor ♪ ♪ As we face the wave of death ♪ ♪ When these trials give way to glory ♪ ♪ As we draw our final breath ♪ ♪ We will cross that great horizon ♪ ♪ Clouds behind and life secure ♪ ♪ And the calm will be the better ♪ ♪ For the storms that we endure ♪ ♪ Christ the sure of our salvation ♪ ♪ Ever faithful, ever true ♪ ♪ We will hold fast to the anchor ♪ ♪ It shall never be removed ♪ (gentle music) - Good morning, everybody.

I wanna welcome you all to this morning's service, and particularly if you're brand new to the church, we wanna welcome you and ask that after the service, please visit us over at our welcome booth in the parking lot. We'd love to meet you, answer any questions you may have, and give you more information about the church.

I wanna highlight a few of our announcements for the upcoming weeks. Importantly for all of the members, please make sure you note that Sunday, the 21st, is a full Sunday with a fundraiser lunch that's going to be supporting our summer admissions team, and then after the lunch at 2 p.m., we'll be having our members meeting.

If you cannot make it, please go either to the web or the app. There's a quick absence form, and just let us know what's happening. Please also note that after the members meeting, there's gonna be a service fair, and we want everybody to stick around for that, find out what's happening in different teams, and also sign up for volunteer opportunities.

With that said, I wanna highlight that on Saturday, the 20th, for the FAM245, that's the group of more recently marrieds, there is a workshop taking place at 10.30 in the Sprouts Room, so please make sure to participate in that. The other thing is for the whole church, on Friday, April the 26th, will be praise and prayer.

There will be no Bible study that week, for those of you who are newer. That service starts at 7.30, and we hope that all of you will be there, participating in that time of praise and prayer. The last thing I'm gonna mention is that, please save the date. In the summer, August 16th through the 18th, there is a family ministry summer retreat.

We're excited to have Dr. John Street back with us for that summertime, where he'll be preaching on the subject of God's design for our marriages. So please make sure to save the date, mark your calendar so that when the registration comes out, you can participate. Today, after our worship time, we're gonna be having our brother Jeremiah be baptized, and we'll be able to hear his testimony and fellowship that way.

At this time, we'll do our time of offering. If you have a physical check, the box is right by the entrance. Otherwise, we can submit our offering digitally. Let's take a moment to pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your incredible grace. What a privilege it is for us to come together, God, in fellowship and in worship, lifting up our songs of praise to you.

We pray, Father God, that you would bless us thoroughly. What's more, God, we ask that by the joining of our faith, we will grow, we will continue to mature, and in so doing, we would love and honor you. We pray, Father God, that in our offering, it would be an expression of our desire to really lift you up and devote ourselves to you.

We ask, God, that you would continue to bless the ministry, that it would be about your kingdom, that it would be about you, Lord. We thank you for this time. It's in Christ's name, amen. At this time, would you please rise and take a moment to say hello to your neighbor, and we will continue our worship.

A praise. A praise and glorify our God, the Father of our Lord. In Christ he has in heavenly realms his blessings on us all. For pure and blameless in his sight, he destined us to be. And now we've been adopted through his Son eternally. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace.

To the praise of your glory, you are the God we sing. A praise. A praise and glorify our God, who gives his grace in Christ. In him our sins are washed away, redeemed through sacrifice. In him God has known to us the mystery of his will. That Christ should be the head of all, his purpose to be.

To the praise. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace. To the praise of your glory, you are the God we sing. A praise and glorify. A praise and glorify our God, for we believe the word. And through our faith we have a seal, the Spirit of the Lord.

The Spirit guarantees our hope until redemption's done. Until we join in endless praise to God the free. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace. To the praise of your glory, you are the God we sing. To the praise of your glory, to the praise of your mercy and grace.

To the praise of your glory, you are the God we sing. ♪ Through the nation's rage, kingdoms rise and fall, there is still one King reigning over all. So I will not fear, for this truth remains, that my God is the Ancient of Days. None above Him, none before Him, all of time in His hands.

For His throne it shall remain and ever stand. All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His name. For my God is the Ancient of Days. Though the dread of night overwhelms my soul, He is here with me. I am not alone, for His love is sure and He knows my name.

For my God is the Ancient of Days. None above Him, none before Him, all of time in His hands. For His throne it shall remain and ever stand. All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His name. For my God is the Ancient of Days. Though I may not see what the future brings, I will watch and wait for the Savior King.

And my joy completes standing face to face in the presence of the Ancients of the Days. None above Him, none before Him, all of time in His hands. For His throne it shall remain and ever stand. All the power, all the glory, I will trust in His name. For my God is the Ancient of Days.

For my God is the Ancient of Days. Amen, you may be seated. Hello, my name is Jeremiah Yong, and this is my testimony. For my entire life, I have grown up surrounded by an amazing, slightly chaotic, God-fearing family, memorizing verses, reading the Bible, attending church, and giving testimonies like this one.

I remember the first time I claimed to trust in Christ as my Savior when I was 11. This, however, wasn't a sincere confession to die to the old self and put on the new. I only desired to follow in my friends' footsteps of announcing their faith in Jesus. My dad is a pastor, which led to a lot of church moving and few Christian friends.

As I grew older, this began to stir up resentment. My siblings all had friends their age, and my parents seemed to have all the grown-ups, so why didn't I get to hang out with anyone? Why wasn't there anybody for me to talk to or confide in? More often than not, I felt left out, angry at my parents, and more importantly, at God.

Instead of going to church in order to glorify and honor and praise the God of the universe, my Creator, I saw church and Christianity as a way to satisfy my earthly needs. When we made the switch to another church, this led to even further resentment on my part, and I did everything I could to drag my feet by being silent when asked to speak and participating in things with a bad attitude.

I viewed Sunday school as boring and trivial, talking about things that I had already heard a hundred times over. Bitter, I stopped reading the Bible and began obsessing over the legality of my actions, seeing how close I could get to sinning without technically breaking the law in my words, relationships, and actions.

In hindsight, it was clear that I was drowning in selfishness, refusing God. I was trying to justify myself on my own with my actions and deeds rather than genuine faith. I was seeking to answer the question, "How can God serve me?" rather than, "How can I glorify God?" Eventually, one of the youth leaders must have noticed my pity parties, and he invited me out to lunch to talk.

There, he asked me the question, "If you were to die tonight, how certain would you be that you would go to heaven?" I answered, "Eighty percent, but I know that it is all because of God. The other twenty percent is just me being indecisive." Looking back, it was at this moment that I began to question the intent behind my actions and my salvation as a whole.

My answer to that question revealed that I had not put my faith in God. Despite giving the pastor's kid answer that I could contribute nothing to my salvation, I never truly believed that. This experience began to lead me on the slow and steady path of conviction, but it wasn't until early in my senior year of high school that I truly gave my life to Christ.

Along with the culmination of stress, failing friendships, and self-reflection, it dawned on me that I couldn't answer the question, "Why do you go to church?" Were these actions I called faith really genuine? Or were they merely a shell, displaying morality on the outside, yet hollow inside? As the realization of my own selfishness and hypocrisy began boiling up, I remember calling a youth leader in tears, asking for help.

On that day, I realized that none of my works, no matter how great or good, could contribute to my salvation. Even where I tried my best to succeed, I had ended up failing. God truly was, and is, the only one who can save me from my wretched state. There was nothing else I could turn to, no people, no course of action to cleanse me from my sin.

Sitting on the side of the road there, I turned to Him and truly placed my faith in Christ. Fast forward to now, I have only barely begun to scratch the surface of who God is. Yet I have been so incredibly encouraged, as prayers have been answered, and I find more and more in the richness of His word and character.

Now I understand that I go to church, and furthermore, do everything in order to glorify Him. While I still struggle with my inability to follow the law, as well as my depraved, sinful nature, instead of living a Pharisaic life, I find myself back before the cross each and every day, for I cannot live without Him.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Thank you. (applause) Thank you, Jeremiah, for that encouraging testimony.

Jeremiah, do you understand that by this baptism, as you enter into the water, you express your union with Christ in His death, and when you come out of the water, you express your union with Christ in His resurrected life? I baptize you now in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

(applause) Amen. Well, we are encouraged by your testimony. Thank you for sharing it. If you would now all take your Bible over to James 1:26. James 1:26. We are taking a break from Luke and jumping into this topic that I've entitled the sermon A Glorious Impartiality, something that we may not think about frequently, but something that is a glorious character trait of our God.

So let's take a look at James 1:26. The scripture says this, "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undisfiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world." Chapter 2, verse 1, "My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism." Let's take a moment to pray.

Heavenly Father, we ask now for your blessing, a spiritual blessing, God, of conviction, understanding of your instruction, but also a kind of belief that moves us, changes our attitude, changes also the way we see. So we ask, God, that you would lead us in Christ's name. Amen. I want to ask you quite an interesting and a little bit uncomfortable question, which is, in the Bible, who does Jesus hate most?

It's a weird question to ask, I know. Take a moment to think about it. When you think about the biblical passages, the person that Jesus, or the people that Jesus gives his most scathing rebuke are typically false leaders, right? But then when you think about what he says to them, what he reprimands is their hypocrisy, that they would have the outer shell of being this well-washed, white, you know, presentation, but inside you're just decaying.

There's emptiness, there's worthlessness, and as a matter of fact, it's filled with all kinds of greed, ungodliness, selfishness, and pride. And then he points at them and says, "Woe to you "because you're gonna be judged "very, very severely "for your fakeness," 'cause you're phonies, right? He doesn't hold back his words, and he's so sharp with them.

Now, I bring this up because in this passage in the book of James, James tries to tell us there is a kind of religion that is so fake. You say that you love people, and then you won't even love the orphan, you won't even love the widow. You say that you worship a holy God, but you have no restraint over your tongue.

You say whatever you want, and you're vile. This is worthless. You're fake. But then on top of this, a primary thing that he highlights is, and you practice favoritism, which I thought, wow, that's really interesting. So today we're gonna take a moment to look and examine in our own hearts and our own lives, is there a pattern of partiality where we favor certain people, we look at certain people, and we give them honor and respect that we won't give people that we think are beneath us.

And I do think the scripture will tell us many, many times that we as people of this world are so prone to judge by first appearances, right? God said it himself, that you judge from the external, I judge the heart. Now we tend to judge based on community judgments, like I may not even know, but so long as the group thinks so, it is.

And so in that way, scripture is gonna tell us, I don't want you to speak and judge like the world does, where it's so external and fleshly and superficial. But at the same time, if I look deeper into my own heart, not only is there a pressure from the outside, I guess the way the world does things, but there is a pressure from the inside.

Because ultimately, there is a desire and ambition in my heart. I want to actually excel in those superficial games. I want to be better looking. I want to be taller. Honest to God, I want to be a little bit taller. I want to be more educated. I want to be better, more skilled, more respected, have X, Y, and Z.

And in that way, my own internal ambitions feed the superficial, partial, very, very evil thing. And what the word of God is gonna tell us, is that this fleshly attitude must not be in our faith. And so, James chapter 2, verse 1, gives us this point in exhortation. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

And to be clear, it is always because our Heavenly Father is so different from the world. Amen? Our God, His character is holy. It's consistent. And it's gloriously impartial. And that's what we're gonna be looking at today. As a first point, we do have to take time to make sure we understand this sin.

Yes, it's pretty straightforward, but the Scripture reveals to us both the external, the pattern, the behavior, and the internal desire. So take a moment with me to look at James chapter 2, verse 1, down to verse 3, and this is what it says. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.

For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you, you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand there or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil motives?

So as a first point, we're going to identify the elements of our partiality, but if you think about it, he wants you to actually imagine. I love it when the Scriptures gives us like this hypothetical example, and he says, "I want you to imagine "here at church at Berean, "you have somebody "who is very clearly wealthy." You know, back then, people would wear rings on every single finger in order to show like, "I am the boss," right?

Their show of wealth was incredible, and what's more, it says he was dressed in this fine clothes, and today, essentially, it would be like somebody walking in with like a $15,000 suit. He's got a huge Rolex, maybe a big chain, drives up in a Porsche, whatever you want to imagine.

He's here, okay? He's here at church, but then there's this other man who you can immediately tell, "This man is in poverty. "His clothes are raggedy." Now, what's really interesting is today I want to highlight this idea what we're getting at is the judgment of how we categorize and assess people.

Who is the sinner here, right? What's interesting is we live in a generation where automatically the masses will say, "I know who's the sinner, "the guy who drove up in a Porsche. "How dare he show up at church "all blinged out like that." Why? Because obviously, wealthy people are their oppressors.

No, that's not what this passage is saying. Now, is it fair that somebody is making like 400, 500 times more than the other person? That's for another discussion. But the sin lies not in the heart of the rich man, nor even of the poor man, but the sin lies in the church member who came in and said, "Whoa, look at that.

"Look at him." And said, "Whoa, come over here. "We've got a special seat "right up in the front for you." Right? The sin is in the heart of the individual who made distinction. Now, by way of just pure definition, in verse 1 where it says, "Do not have this attitude "of personal favoritism," that word is just one long word that literally means receiving faces, meaning you are judging purely on the face of a man.

Right? In another way, in our idiom, the way we would say it is we're respecters of people. Why? Because we see beauty, we see title, we see wealth, and then we say, "You deserve my respect." Right? "You're worthy in my eyes." And that's at the heart of the sin.

And in this illustration, what we're seeing is the person who is the church member is impressed with all that. "I'm impressed with your wings. "I'm impressed with your car." And so I want to ask you this question. Do you have any element of this kind of immediate superficial respect for the things on the outside?

Now, just as a caveat, please know that, again, I believe this generation, every generation, actually, has a lot of perverse thinking. One of the ways that sounds good but is not true is that you have to treat every single person equally and that each person actually should be equal in respect to how they're treated at all times.

Now, it sounds good because it's a general principle, but no, I respect my elders and you should too. It's biblical. It's not just a culture thing. Scripture says, "Stand up for the aged." Right? You should show respect for the elders. What's more, people are in positions and titles like of authority.

Romans chapter 13, if somebody is an official, if somebody is a governor, you give them the respect. You give them due submission. What's more, Scripture even says, if there are people in your lives who are laboring over you, preaching, teaching, guiding, and shepherding your heart, they're worthy of double honor.

Right? So, is it the case that you have to do exact same thing to every single person in every single way? No, that's not what he's getting at. The idea is, what are you actually impressed by? Do you honor what God honors? Or, we're talking today about a kind of judgment or eyes that's stained by the world.

Do you honor and impress by the things that the world honors? Does it look just like the world? And so, I ask you this applicational question. Do you see any pattern of partiality in your heart? And maybe another, again, kind of uncomfortable question is, do we see any pattern of partiality in the church?

Well, we have a pattern of honoring the professionals, honoring the people who are, you know, the experts in fields and people who are highly educated, you know. Now, as I ask that question, I want to just answer and say, we don't want to be judgmental. If you're like, oh, shoot, like the other day, I did, you know, call somebody Dr.

So-and-so. You know what? Don't feel bad about that. I'm not judging you. Why? Because you know this passage is primarily getting at the heart. That in the heart, he says, didn't you become a judge with what? Evil motives. It's right there in your ideology. It's in your eye, and it's in your heart.

Now, what he says is, first and foremost, that the sin of this is one of arrogance because what he points out is that you've put yourself in a place of judgment. You are making distinction amongst people, judging people as worthy and unworthy. Who made you judge? Who gave you the authority to categorize people like that?

That's where part of the sin is. When you practice a favoritism or partiality amongst people, whatever category you're using, it ends up judging you, and therefore, immediately, you're guilty of a lot of things. You're guilty of not only the favoritism, but of arrogance, snobbery, right, and often injustice. And what's more, what he gets at is, he asks the question, what is in your heart and what is your motive that you would show these individuals this kind of undue respect?

That you would treat them with, "Hey, come over here," and then you would treat the other guy with like, "You know what? "Just say whatever. "On my feet, on the ground, "whatever, I don't care." What is in your heart that does that? And then sometimes I ask myself literally the question, what is in my heart that I find in myself?

There are some times when I'm in my own just kind of overestimation of my courage. Like, you know, I'm not a respecter of people, but if I meet somebody who is like a CEO of a big old company, I find in myself, in my heart, fear. Why do I give reverence and fear to somebody who has title, but to the person who doesn't?

It's like, "Eh, what's up, man?" Right? Why? As we do this, the passage is telling us, God doesn't see this as, "Ah, every culture does it." God doesn't see this as, "This is just the way "that society is." Every time we have a bunch of people, you kind of get into a hierarchy.

He sees it as evil. Right? He sees it as evil. And so I wanted to show that yes, there are elements by way in which we show this kind of desire, and we have various categories about career, education, just skill set, and then external beauty in which we show favoritism.

God sees it as evil. Going to point number two, we have to ask the question, why does God see it as such evil? Right? When he says that there's this evil motive in your heart, did you know, you know the New Testament language is so robust. There are different terms for evil.

Right? There's just bad, kakos. There are terms of transgression. There's terms that call for basically lawlessness, and sometimes even straight mistake. Sometimes you're just missing the mark. Right? But this word is a word that is translated more so perversion or even pornography. Why? Well, we know it's because it is incongruent.

It is in opposition with the holy character of our God. Point number two is we need to take a long look at God's glorious, impartial character. Okay? And we want to give glory for that. We want to understand how God works, how God operates, and how that is to his great excellence.

Turn your Bible over to Deuteronomy 10, verse 17. For this point, we're going to walk through some really important passages, and this is what the scripture says. Deuteronomy 10, 17. "For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God, who does not show partiality nor take a bribe." Now, pause there.

I was really shocked by this because when you think of the mighty God, the one who has power, maybe even when you think of Jesus Christ, who's going to come to judge with a mighty sword coming out of his mouth, he has eyes blazing fire, he's riding on a horse, and he has a scepter in his right hand, he's going to crush the nations.

You're not thinking, "Yeah, and you know what? He's impartial." Right? "He's pretty fair." Right? Like, that's not what you're thinking. Notice how the fact that he doesn't take a bribe from anybody is to his glory. And what's more, he essentially says that in this passage of Deuteronomy, verse 18, "He executes justice for the orphan, the widow, and shows his love even for the alien by giving him food and clothing." So show your love for the alien for you are aliens in the land of Egypt.

You know what I've been seeing a lot on the internet recently? And maybe it's just because all the sports are starting to get, you know, either ready or in full force. So I've been seeing a lot of videos of botched calls in the NBA where the referee is like, "Technical on you.

Technical on you." You know? Because they're arrogant and sometimes they get mad. Or they call a foul and you're like, "Oh my goodness. You just ruined the game." Right? Because recently in March Madness, all that kind of stuff happened. Or you know what's even worse? In baseball, you have people getting in people's faces and screaming and yelling.

You know what's the worst kind of referee? Right? Obviously they're human. They miss calls. One of the worst kinds are people who are easily manipulated. You know? A superstar, a basketball player comes up in a referee's face and just starts screaming, crying, complaining, and the referee's like, "Yeah, we need to change that up." Can you imagine how angry you would be if a referee was so easily manipulated by complaints and whiners?

Or he was a respecter of persons like, "Oh, LeBron said so." Right? Like it would be just completely flabbergasting. Like, "Are you serious? You don't, what, deserve to be there. Should be fired today." That's how we would feel. Praise God He is not a respecter of people scared or manipulated.

Another passage, Romans chapter 2 verse 9 through 11. Romans chapter 2 verse 9 through 11 it says, "There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek. But glory, honor, peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For there is no partiality with God." You see that? He's talking about His justice and His mercy, His rewarding, and He says at the end of that, "God is impartial." Right? And we know that that is the foundation by which we're supposed to do everything, just like you know you're supposed to love, just like you know you're supposed to forgive.

Likewise, God expects in the same way that you express impartiality. Now, what's really interesting about this is He talks about both Jew and Greek, and someone might say, "Hey, wait a minute. Not show favoritism. God chose the nation of Israel, the Jews. A precious apple of His eye. What do you mean He shows no favoritism?" But understand this.

God's show of mercy is His choice, but He never, ever once, and He never will, be like, "Since you're the apple of my eye, that's okay. You're not going to get judged. I know you did a bad thing, but no insult." Right? Like He's not going to be that kind of parent.

But instead, think about this. Because they are the apple of His eye, who gets judged first? Who gets examined first? Who is forced to come to a reckoning? And so you think about this, and God still is just and holy. Here's another passage, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 5 through 9, and I want to highlight this because as I say that, God is so impartial, He does not give you a pass just because you suffered a lot.

He doesn't give you a pass just because, you know, we got to understand context, and we got to understand history. No. His judgment is firm, it's exacting, and it's always impartial. In Ephesians chapter 6, He speaks to slaves. He speaks to slaves and masters. And this is what He says, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not by way of eye service, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.

With good will, render service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord whether slave or free." And so in other passages, like Colossians, He says, "Don't just show goodness to the good masters, even to the bad ones." And then in verse 9, He says, "Masters, do the same thing to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him." It goes both ways.

God doesn't show partiality to the rich because God needs nothing from the rich. They offer Him nothing. Everything they have is by the mercy of His hand, but also to the poor. God is not a respecter, and He doesn't even give partiality to the poor. Leviticus chapter 19, verse 5 through 18.

Leviticus 19, 15 through 18. Chapter 19, verse 15 through 18. "You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly." See that? It goes both directions. It's like, "Ah, you know, the poor and grew up..." Let's just turn a blind eye to the stuff He does.

No. Verse 16, "You shall not go about as a slander among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor. I am the Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.

You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." Amen. I want us to think about, in the book of James, He was saying there's a huge contrast between you being stained by the ideology and the practice of the world versus how God operates.

Praise God that He is not like any of them. He's not moved. He's not bribed. He's not manipulated. He's not coerced. He's not on a whim, but it's just and fair, and that's why we can have the confidence that even if you're a poor, poor orphan with no money or if you're a rich, rich man but you have committed great sin, all of His mercies, all of His grace is consistent.

So that's what I'm saying is that this is the glorious attribute of God that maybe we don't think about quite often, but He is just not in an individual who judges us just by our face and appearance, but He sees all in His righteousness, and from that foundation He gives mercy, and so that moves us to our application where we know that our command is to be like God.

Point number three, your judgment, the way that you view people must then be in keeping with God's law. Your judgment must be in keeping with God's law. Take a moment with me to look at James 2:8-11, and notice how it says, "However, you are fulfilling "the royal law "according to Scripture.

"You shall love your neighbor "as yourself." Then you're doing well, but if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as a transgressor, and I just summarized that in my first point, point A of our third point here, that basically when we practice any kind of favoritism, we're transgressing God's law.

The law of God reveals His character and how He operates in the universe, and He says, "You're going against that." Verse 10, "For whoever keeps the whole law "and yet stumbles in one point, "he has become guilty of all. "For he who has said, "'Do not commit adultery,' "also said, 'Do not commit murder.' "But if you do not commit adultery, "but commit murder, "you have become "a transgressor of the law." So the point is very clear, and it's a point that we've read in the book of Galatians as we've been doing Bible study in the midweek, that when you transgress God's law, you've become a transgressor.

It just highlights the idea that we in our culture and in our heart, we minimize our sin, that we are sometimes respective people. And in order to highlight this, I just want us to imagine, okay? Again, I don't want you guys to overdo it, that if you are nice to anyone in particular, that I'm sitting here judging you, especially you guys, if you treat somebody with some kind of chivalrous and gentleman nature, I'm sitting here like, "Ooh, you like her." That's not what I'm thinking, okay?

But I want us to just imagine this point that this particular sin we don't think about a lot, but God sees it as evil. So imagine with me that scenario we saw earlier of somebody coming in who's like a major celebrity. I apologize for using this example, but the person I thought about first was Taylor Swift because she is like A-list of A-list people now, right?

And what was funny was I just automatically assumed that her fan base was like 13-year-old girls. But then I was wrong. There are older men, there are older ladies. Sometimes when I see photos of concerts, I see like 50-year-old women and like just older people loving and eating up her songs.

Cool? She's loved, like just beloved by a lot of people, okay? So I want you to imagine lo and behold, she catches wind that Berean Community Church is having a special event and she shows up. How would you respond? Like just prepare yourself to meet a celebrity here one day.

How would you respond, right? Initially, you'd be like, "Oh my gosh! "Do you know who's here?" And you'd probably tell your friend and you'd do the look, look, look, you know? And then you would tell your friend, "Don't embarrass me, okay?" Like don't go all crazy now, but then you're getting all crazy.

Maybe you go up and you say, "Hi, I'm so-and-so. "I'm Mark. "I'm so glad you're here." Okay, you're just being very welcoming, but then you go above and beyond. You're like, "Come on in." And then you're like, "We have a cafe." So you take her to the cafe and then you buy her, you know, a discounted cup of coffee and you're like, "Look, I'm serving you," you know?

And then okay, you're like treating her really well, but then you come to the door and then the welcome team people are like, "Sorry, no coffee," but they're like, "But she's Taylor," right? And you're like, "You can bring it in." Did you sin? Now let's say this analogy continues on and you're just coming over here and I love the fact that actually when I look out, the people who are sitting up in the front sometimes are like our college students, a lot of young people, et cetera, and Chase is right here, but then he's always in the front, but imagine if I come over, I'm like, "Chase, get lost," right?

"Get out." Like Taylor needs to sit up here in the front. There's no room, okay? Did I sin? Did I? Now the thing about it is I think we would all be like, "I get it. "It's Taylor Swift," right? And for the guys, I realize obviously if you're not a fan of Taylor Swift, but for me, I'm a huge basketball fan, so if Michael Jordan came, you'd bet I'd buy him coffee, you know?

I'd have him like, "Sign my shirt," you know? I mean, that's what I would probably do, right? And then we would all understand that and laugh because that's just what we do. And then God says, "That's contrary to my law." You see what I'm saying? To all of us, all of that would be acceptable because it's Michael Jordan, because it's Taylor Swift.

And God says, "That's contrary to my law," and you don't fully understand that goes against my royal law. And I am the one who told you not to murder or to commit adultery, and yet here you are being a respecter of persons, and I told you, "No, I don't operate like that." But as a second part, not only is it against my law, He says, "That's against my mercy." That's not how I show favor.

Every single person who walks into this room is going to come into this room by mercy, amen? And it doesn't matter if they're Michael Jordan. They'll walk in here, not because they're Michael Jordan. They will not take a seat of honor because they're Michael Jordan, but because of mercy.

And God says, "When you do that, "you mess up my picture of the gospel." And in that sense, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, God, I'm sorry." You're right. And as much as I think I'm not going to do that, if I saw Michael Jordan, I would probably act a little silly.

Yes? But that is not the way God works, and what's more, He might look at us, you know, in this passage, He says, "Wait a minute. "Aren't these people that you're honoring "the people who oppress you, "who blaspheme God?" So God is going to look at us and say, "How can you be so impressed?

"You think it's such a minor sin "to be impressed by money? "You think it's a minor sin "to be just impressed by this celebrity status? "But how can you be so impressed "with this pagan who just happens to dunk a ball, "who can jump a little higher than you?" It's like to me, to God, it would be like little grains of sand, but one grain of sand is just a little taller than the other.

You honor stuff that I would judge. You know, just recently, it kind of wrecked my world about basketball and stuff like that. I read that the entourage that walks around with Michael Jordan calls him Yahweh. Yeah, I went, "What?" My favorite player is going to get judged by God.

Why do I honor him? Now, if you're major sports fans or fans of musicians, I'm not dogging on you. You could have a favorite something or other, but it's an appropriate question to ask. What are you so impressed by, and what does that tell us? What are you giving honor and respect to?

Are we giving our honor and respect to pagans because they can sing well? We dare not then allow that worldly fleshliness to come into our church that we would be respecters of men. Amen? That's the application. And so God says it's so different in his world. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 27.

1 Corinthians 1, verse 27. "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world "to shame the wise, "and God has chosen the weak things of the world "to shame the things which are strong. "And the base things of the world "and the despised God has chosen. "The things that are not, "so that he may nullify the things that are, "so that no man may boast before God." So in one section, we know, because God is impartial and glorious, then amen.

I will not glorify and pride myself in the flesh even if that individual brings me some kind of pleasure about how good they are. But on the flip side, he says, obviously we're not gonna condemn any individual because God says if you mock a poor person, God has honored that person, favored that person, graced that person.

How dare you dishonor somebody that God has graced? Amen? And in that way, our God is glorious. In that way, our God is merciful. It's so amazing. There's another passage I want you guys to turn your Bible over to. It's Exodus chapter 23, verses one through nine. Exodus chapter 23, verses one through nine.

It says, "You shall not bear a false report. "Do not join your hand with a wicked man "to be a malicious witness. "You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, "nor shall you testify in a dispute "so as to turn aside after a multitude "in order to pervert justice.

"Nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his dispute." I feel like, just to comment, that in our generation, there is temptation to do so. Because we live in a instantaneous media generation where news flies fast, we get the first glimpse of news, and we can join in a false accusation.

We can have group thinking. We can have bias, and we can condemn people. Be very cautious, amen? God does not want that kind of judging us. He does not want us to have partiality. Verse four, "If you meet your enemy's ox "or his donkey wandering away, "you shall surely return it to him." I thought that was so funny, that God cares enough to imagine a scenario where you see a donkey in trouble.

But take a look at this, verse five. "If you see the donkey of the one who hates you "lying helpless under its load, "you shall refrain from leaving it to him. "You shall surely release it to him." So there he's saying, even in a situation where you know this donkey belongs to a guy who hates your guts, you're not allowed to just be like, "Ha ha, sucka," and leave.

But you're supposed to help. Verse six, "So then you shall not pervert the justice "due to your needy brother and his dispute. "Keep far from a false charge "and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, "for I will not quit the guilty. "You shall not take a bribe or a bribe blind, "for a bribe blinds a clear-sighted "and subverts the cause of the just.

"You shall not oppress a stranger "since you yourselves know the feelings of a stranger, "for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt." So that point, again, being so impartial that you're treating every individual with the kind of humility, yes? With the kind of fairness of Christ. And what we're shooting at is, remember, the whole thing was our religion should be pure.

Another way to say it is, let also our love be pure. One of the ways that Christ was very offended is Christ would regularly say, "You know the law. "You know you're supposed to love your neighbor." And what was the petty response of the people? "Well, who's my neighbor, though?" Right, like that was the response.

And God says, "No, I want your love to be pure. "I know you're a people of sight, but walk by faith." And therefore, another way to say this is point number four, that you must speak and act as those who are judged by the law of liberty. In the charge for you to not show favoritism, another way to say this is, "I want you to speak and act as those "who are judged by the law of liberty." You know, the reason why I came to this passage is because so much of our weekday Bible study was pointing to this, pointing to this, saying, "You are free.

"You're free in Christ." And what's more, the passage literally tells us that you're going to be assessed, evaluated, and Christ is going to come to a point where that reckoning and rewarding is gonna happen, but he's going to use the standard of your liberty, which is strange to think about, right?

Now, another way I want you to have you think about this is in Galatians chapter five, verse 13, it says, "For you are called to freedom, brothers. "Only do not use your freedom "as an opportunity for the flesh, "but through love, serve one another." Through love, serve one another.

I made point of this on Wednesday, but I want to reiterate to you. In God's eyes, you are so blessed. You're free. You have the spiritual blessings of Christ to say that you're free from the curse of the law, to say that you have the love of Christ. You're so thoroughly blessed, and so how will God assess you?

What have you done with all this blessing? Have you been complaining like the world? "We don't have enough, and we need more power, "and we need more money." Have you been grumbling? "It's not fair." Have you been talking like the world, where you just are ambitious to be higher, greater, faster, more skilled, more honored?

You're free from all of that. God sees you, and you should see yourself as free. Amen? Another way to think about this is, you know who you're not going to be judged by? Even though we're very afraid, every single one of us, because we're human, we have the fear of man.

God says you're free from the judgment of man. God says you're free from the threats of man. You're free from the false promises of man, and you're free from the examination and the kind of cruel judgment of this world, the world that will constantly make you feel like less.

"You don't have enough. You don't have this." And it's constantly producing in us the false expectation that we need to live up to its standards, or else we're going to incur its judgment and its curses. "Oh, no. If I don't go to this prestigious school, oh, no, if I'm not a part of this group, what's going to happen to me?" Brothers and sisters, we're free.

Amen? We're free. Speak and live like those who have liberty. God sees you as ones who have been so blessed by Christ, it turns everything upside down. Yes, the world sees the poor man as the one who has no power, but what does the Scripture say? By way of conclusions, James 1:9-11.

James 1:9-11, this is what the Scripture says. "But the brother of the humble circumstances is to glory in his high position, and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with a scorching wind, and it withers the grass, and its flower falls off, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed.

So, too, the rich man, in the midst of his pursuits, will fade away." I want to conclude by saying this. I know that the majority of us, I mean, we're not going to be so silly like the world and be like, "Oh my gosh, Michael Jordan, you're my idol." Right?

"I wanted to be just like Mike," you know, and all that kind of stuff. And we're going to impress him by how much of a fan I am, which, you know, with my youth, that's what I would have done. But there is this question. Do we still buy into that system?

And I would say, I don't know. I mean, I don't think so. I don't want--now that I'm, you know, older, I've lived my life as a Christian for 42 years-- how old am I, 41 years? Now I'm 41 years, and I've lived my life as a Christian for the last half of it, right, 20-some years.

I know better than to want to be like Mike. Right? So in that way, I've been fighting the stain of the world. No, I don't want to be the tallest, best basketball player, the most richest person in the church. I don't want any of that. But then, as I was praying over this, I asked, "Is there any of it within my heart, Lord?" And then I thought about my kids.

I want them to ball it up so hard, they just break ankles. I want them to be taller, so I'm like, "Eat more, eat more." You know what I mean? I want them to be well-educated, so I'm thinking and researching the best way to educate them. And I realize the system of the world is so subtle.

It's all around, right? I want it for my kids. And then I know in my heart whatever my kid experiences, I experience. Right? My pride now comes from their pride. Let it be that I am not impressed with wealth, height, or skill, but the man who loves Christ, the man who has faith.

This to us is glorious. Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. God, from your vantage point, it must be so obnoxious and silly for people who are in a humble posture, a situation of desperate need for you, and then constantly they're playing this game of wanting to be more and better.

But God, thank you, Lord, that in your mercy you have given us a solution. You could have just crushed us, but thank you for Christ, that you teach us a better way, a way of humility, a way of perfect contentment in our Lord Jesus. I ask, God, that in that way we would learn what it means to be unstained by this world.

We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Let us stand together for the closing praise. The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bow down with care. God gave his Son to win.

His erring child he reconciled and parted from his sin. When years of time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall, when men who year refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call, God's love so sure shall still endure all measureless and strong, redeeming grace to Adam's race, the saints' and angels' song.

Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong.

It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels'. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong. It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. It shall forevermore endure the saints' and angels' song. Amen. Let's pray together. Father God, as we sing that song, we just want to thank you.

God, that your love is perfect and pure, and God is not tainted by any selfishness. As you are the sustainer and giver of all life, you needed nothing from us, and therefore you lavishly gave to us your grace and your mercy. Father God, what can we give to you in return?

Lord, we just thank you. And I pray, Lord, that you would guide us and lead us, so then our eyes and our judgment would be righteous like yours. But also, Lord, that our hearts would then freely love, that without trying to play any games with people, trying to barter, trying to climb, trying to compete, but help us, Father God, to love as you do.

We thank you, Lord, it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. God sent his Son. They called him Jesus. He came to love, heal and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lived. Because He lived, I can face tomorrow.

Because He lived, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future. And life is worth the living just because He lived. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anger holds within.