Facial Recognition

James chapter 2 There’s a new
piece of technology if you haven’t heard of it already you will
soon it’s called facial recognition and the technology is such that
it is utilizes cameras to focus in on the image of a person’s
face and through a series of databases is able to identify
with great accuracy who the individual is. And so the proposition is
to have this in airports and other important places where
people can be identified, where troublemakers, nefarious people
can be identified as such and singled out and secured. And as you probably already know,
this isn’t a big, isn’t hugely popular with the ACLU. And so
there’s already fights in various cities to do away with facial
recognition. But the facial recognition that
is so popular in our world today and growing in popularity is
not the facial recognition that I want to talk about today. James
actually uses the image of facial recognition in the course of
his dialogue. It’s not a completely unattached
series that he enters in here in chapter 2, it’s really another
point of examination for the Christian in the believer’s faith,
which is a tendency. And this is a tendency that not
just some, I would suggest to you, that it’s a tendency to
sin that all people fall into in various degrees, in various
ways, sooner or later. It’s the sin of partiality. James
returns to a subject that he’s already introduced to us earlier
in his epistle. It was the relationship of the
interaction between the rich and the poor in the congregation.
Just briefly glance back at chapter one. It’s been a while since
we were there. Verse nine. The brother of humble
circumstances is to glory in his high position. The rich man
is to glory in his humiliation because like the flowering grass,
he will pass away. The sun rises with a scorching
wind and 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. And so James just keeps hold
of that theme, that subject. Evidently in this church in Jerusalem
and its environs, there was a disparity, a growing vibrant disparity between
the wealthy and the not so wealthy. And James wants to, he needs
to address it. James wants to point out that
discrimination, especially discrimination over monetary differences or
financial status, is sin in and of itself. To pander to one,
to cater to one, as over against the other, is sinful. And so James takes this theme
that he’s already introduced in verse nine of chapter one,
and he expands it here and really quite pointedly zeroes in on
a particular sin associated with the relationship of the rich
and the poor. If you would, James chapter two,
and we’ll go all the way through verse 13 this morning. I didn’t say I would preach all
the way through verse 13. Chapter 2, verse 1. 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 comes also in a poor man in dirty clothes, and 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 over there or sit down by my footstool. Have
you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges
with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren,
did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith
and the heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who
love him? But you have dishonored the poor
man. Is it not the rich who oppress
you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme
the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you
are fulfilling the royal law, according to the scripture, you
shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. But if you
show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the
law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law
and yet stumbles in one point has become guilty of all. For
he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery,
but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the
law. So speak and so act. as those who are to be judged
by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless
to the one who is shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. James essentially walks into
a courtroom and wants to build a case. He wants to find those
and indict those who are guilty of this sin of partiality. And he’s building a case piecemeal
against them. And the first thing that he does
is introduce this idea of distinctions or prejudice or bias based purely
on what they see with the eye appearance. He’s building a case
against prejudicial dealings. Where we already have our mind
made up and we begin to ignore the facts. Look first of all
at the warning about biased living. A warning about biased living. You see it in the first verse.
This is the one who is prejudiced by appearance. We’ll talk all
through what that looks like. Or you could even call it disrespectful
respect because they are noting, they are treating people in a
particular way based on what they see, but the end product
is utterly disrespectful. We need to shun this horrible
pride and horrible sin. Look at verse one. James begins
by saying, My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious
Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. Even
the name that James uses to appeal to these believers lays the ground
the groundwork, really, for an indictment against unjust and
divisive behavior. He calls them, once again, brethren. In fact, he does it twice in
this section. And he appeals to them that the
Christian Church, Christianity itself, is a brotherhood. It’s
a brotherhood of like-minded believers, each of them gifted,
none of them better than the other, each of them in desperate
need of a savior, James appeals first and foremost by appealing
to all of them, not just as brothers, but as my brothers. James puts
himself down in there with them, and he appeals to them on a very
intimate and personal level. How appropriate this was. Of
all people. For James to urge brotherly kindness,
this was a beloved pastor to these largely Jewish believers. This was someone who loved them
and serve them and modeled Christ for them. And for him to appeal
to them as brothers. Had to resonate with these believers. James reminds them. that as disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they have together an intimate, a
sacred bond together. They are in Christ together. And to do anything intentionally
to jeopardize the fellowship of Christ, people has to be a
horrible sin. My brethren. James says, do not
hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude
of personal favoritism. This faith that he mentions here
is obviously faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But James does
it again. He points to our glorious Lord
Jesus Christ. There’s one savior. There ought
to be one body of Christ. There can’t be these divisions
and diversity. James points to the new life
that each of them had because of Christ and in Christ. And he calls them. He calls them
out. You who call yourselves Christians,
you have named the name of Christ. If you have named the name of
Christ, you have come into the church and there is one church. Look at the passage again, my
brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t taint him. Don’t besmirch
the Lord Jesus. Don’t give the Lord Jesus a black
eye in your divisiveness in your factious behavior. Do not hold your faith in our
glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. We should note it, that that
word in the Old Testament, in the Septuagint, the Greek translation
of the Old Testament, the word is the same word that was used
throughout the Old Testament to speak of the Shekinah glory
of God. If that is unfamiliar to you.
Exodus 40 should begin to remind you the cloud covered the tent
of meeting the glory of the Lord filled the temple. Numbers 1410
the glory of the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting. And so
the Shekinah glory of God was the glorious manifestation of
Jehovah to his people in the Old Testament. And in the New
Testament. In the New Testament, Hebrews
one and beyond. Throughout the the New Testament,
Jesus Christ is said to be the glory of God. He bears the glory
of God. He is the manifestation of God’s
glory. Paul in first Corinthians calls
him. Not surprisingly, the Lord of
Glory. In the Gospel of John, The gospel
of John almost seems fixated on this idea of the glory of
God. Here, just by way of recollection,
John 1 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We saw his
glory. Glory is of the only begotten
from the Father full of grace and truth James John rather to
11 the beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee
and manifested his glory John would go on to say that if you
have seen the Lord Jesus Christ you have seen the glory of God
and Whereas the glory of Christ should have been the church’s
sole focus, their only focus, they should have been overjoyed
that their wretched and sinful lives had now been seized hold
of and literally drafted and placed into Christ fully glorified. But it seems that some. in the
church or in churches, plural, because James, remember, is writing
somewhat of a circular letter. Some in the church with which
James was very familiar as the pastor. They were beginning to
recognize. They were beginning to focus
on something else. They were practicing what James
himself will go on to point out is facial recognition. They’re
beginning to focus on something other than the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They were focusing on their differences. Look at the passage once again.
My brethren do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus
Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. Here’s where James
gets to this idea, where I’ve gotten this idea of facial recognition,
this attitude of personal favoritism. It literally, it’s a Hebraism.
The word means to lift the face. You’ve heard in the Old Testament
scriptures how often in individuals their countenance was fallen,
their face fell and hung in shame. This is one who either manually
is lifted up by another, by the chin, or is brought to lift up
their head, not in pride. But the interesting thing with
this word in the New Testament, in the New Testament, it’s always
used in a bad sense of showing preference. favoritism towards
others for some worldly means, whether it’s a person’s position
where they cater to one as over against another whose rank is
lower or wealth or power, somebody who can do them a good turn,
a good favor, as opposed to someone who can’t. One pastor described it so simply
like this. Literally, it was the receiving
of face. To lift up the face. To denote
a partiality of a judge raising the face of someone to his unjust
advantage. The picture that he points out
is of a judge who looks down and extends mercy to someone
unjustly. He’s doing the criminal a favor. And it’s not just mercy in the
sense that God has shown to each of us. There’s something in it
for the judge. The judge has benefited in some
way from this act of lifting the face. He goes on and says
this biased judgment is based on external circumstances, such
as rank, wealth, race, and disregarding the intrinsic merit of the person
involved. Did you hear what he said? This
is a judge who looks not at the facts of the case, This is not
a judge who in his heart of hearts is prompted to show this criminal
mercy. This is a judge who has done
what he’s done unjustly. He’s done what he’s done only
to receive back either power or money. Ecclesiastes mentions one of
the great marks of the demise of society. Ecclesiastes 8 11
because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed
quickly. Therefore, the hearts of the
sons of men among them are given fully to do evil. The judge has
a job to do and when he can be bought and paid or when he can
receive some other kind of remuneration The justice system is destroyed. It is respective persons as one
translation had it. It’s a compound word, as I said,
meaning to lift up the face. But it’s used in the case of
someone who is bowing and pleading for mercy before this king and
the king gently reaching down and lifting the face. But it’s
out of partiality. It’s out of favoritism. It’s
because of a respective persons, not because of a heart of mercy. Contrast that with how God operates
for a moment. God operates fairly. No one can
ever wag a finger at God and suggest that he had been bought
or paid off or that someone struck a sweet deal with God. God always operates fairly. God operates justly. That interesting little word,
four letter word, just. I remember reading in the qualifications
of an elder. And in Titus, it comes across
that character quality, that an elder must be just. And I can remember thinking almost
whimsically, just what? An elder cannot stick his wet
finger in the air and wait to see what direction the wind is
blowing before he makes a decision. He’s got to do what’s right.
That’s what God does every time. God does what’s right. God is just. God is impartial. It’s fascinating, the same exact
word that James uses is used only four other places in the
New Testament to speak of God. You know them, Romans 2.11. In that great passage of scripture,
Paul has already indicted the Gentiles, the heathen world,
by saying that they are literally under sin. And here in chapter
two, Paul says that the Jews are likewise condemned in their
sinfulness along with the heathen because there is no partiality
with God. God is a just judge. Ephesians
6 9 their master and yours in heaven. There is no partiality
with him. Colossians 3 25 he who does wrong
will receive the consequences of wrong which he has done and
that without partiality because God is a just judge. First Peter
1 17 that clear admonition, humbling admonition. If you address as
father, the one who impartially judges according to each one’s
work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay
on earth, live reverent lives, live lives that seek to honor
God. God is a fair and an impartial
judge. God himself is Fair and impartial. And that is a theme that is throughout
the scriptures, old and new. Deuteronomy 10, 17, the awesome
God who does not show partiality or take a bribe. He cannot be
bought. Second Chronicles 19, 7, God will have no part in unrighteousness
or partiality or the taking of a bribe. Job 34, 19, God who
shows no partiality. Acts 10, 34, gliding into the
New Testament. The apostles were able to easily
provide this attribute of God from the scriptures. God is not
one to show partiality. Galatians 2, 6. Likewise, God
is a just judge. God cannot be bought. God cannot
be negotiated with. God cannot be won over by evil. And as such, because God is a
just judge, God is an impartial judge. God demands his children
the same. There’s a clear command throughout
scripture of impartiality, justness. Deuteronomy 117. You shall not
show partiality in judgment. You shall hear the small and
the great alike. You shall not fear man, for the
judgment is God’s.” What he’s after there is this idea of catering
to those who are powerful. Leviticus 19.15, you should do
no injustice in judgment. Job 13.10, he will surely reprove
you if you secretly show partiality. God knows your motives. God knows
your heart. God sees the outcome. Proverbs
18.5, to show partiality to the wicked is not good, nor to thrust
aside the righteous judgment. Proverbs 24, 23, to show partiality
is not good. Proverbs 28, 31, likewise. All of those passages point to
a prohibition, a clear admonition to stay as far as we can away
from bias treatment and bias judgment toward others, where
we don’t look at the facts. We don’t evaluate the case. We
judge them only on what we see with our eyes, their particular circumstances
and how they might enhance us, their popularity, their rank,
their bank account, all of those things. And to accept the outside
surface, the face for the inner reality, is just to do injustice. It’s to take only the face and
leave the rest. You know, this happened in the
early church. It happened a lot in the early church, and I believe
that is exactly what James is addressing in this particular
passage. You know of one. I’m going to
have you turn to another in a moment. You know of one. Remember in
the book of Acts? Remember when we talked about
how deacons came to be. In Acts chapter 6 verse 1, listen
to this one verse. At this time, while the disciples
were increasing in number, a complaint arose. No great surprise, it’s
people dealing with people, right? A complaint arose on the part
of the Hellenistic Jews against the native Hebrews because their
widows were being overlooked. in the daily serving of food.
You had impartiality taking place. You had preference being given
to one group over against another. This is the early church. Remember,
they just had fire on their heads. They just had tongues. They had
it all figured out and within no time at all. Partiality has
already entered the church. Unjust judgment, unjust behavior,
sin. But I want you to turn to another
passage where you see such a graphic example of it. First Corinthians
chapter 11. First Corinthians chapter 11. And you know this
passage because it’s the passage from which much of our celebration
of the Lord’s table is presented and Paul is alternately addressing
the foibles of the Corinthian church, and at times he commends
them and encourages them in something that they had done. But in this
particular case, it’s not an encouragement that he wants to
give. It’s not a congratulations. It’s a rebuke. Look at verse
17, where Paul says, but in giving this instruction, I do not praise
you. Because you come together, not
for the better, but for the worst. Do you hear what he says? Your
meetings are so tainted that it would be better if you stayed
home. What a horrendous rebuke for what is supposed to be the
gathering of the people of God. What happened? Look at verse
18. For in the first place, when
you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among
you. And in part, I believe it. For
there must also be factions among you so that those who are approved
may be evident among you. There are always going to be
factions. It doesn’t mean they’re just,
but a sinful clan must be separated and ultimately removed from the
church. Look at verse 20. Therefore, when you meet together,
it is not to eat the Lord’s supper. Now, this is interpretational,
and I wouldn’t necessarily die on this sense that I have of
this passage. But this is what my sense is
from what’s taking place here. He basically says, call it whatever
you want. Just don’t call it the Lord’s
table, because the way you’re practicing it, is totally unchristian
has nothing to do with the lord therefore when you meet together
it is not to eat the lord’s supper for in your eating each one takes
his own supper first one is hungry another is drunk do you get this
this is like a food orgy this is people stuffing their face
and not at all Concerned about those who are around them. There’s
nothing to do with communion in this There’s nothing to do
with oneness and what they would do the practice was to bring
a love feast together ideally to share and then at the end
of it they would celebrate the Lord’s table and This now It’s
a mess It’s ungodly It’s dishonoring to God himself And so Paul has
to give them instructions on even how to conduct a potluck.
Look at this. Therefore, when you meet together,
pardon me, verse 22, what do you not have houses in which
to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church
of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to
you? Shall I praise you in this? I
will not praise you. Paul basically rebukes the very
idea of their coming together and says, if you want to stuff
your face, if you want to eat yourself sick and drink yourself
drunken, go home. Don’t bring that here. And he rebukes their partiality. Remember their faith is in a
glorious Lord Jesus Christ and to live any other way is to taint
that glory to besmirch that glory James says don’t let all these
Personal distinctions that you have with other people don’t
let those come in to the glorious body of Christ don’t let the
respective persons hold sway and Especially you who named
the name of Christ. You might remember that Israel
was fond of face. Israel lifted face. Israel showed
favor to face. Israel exercised facial recognition
when they picked a king, didn’t they? And we saw what that led
to. Samson, in an equally wretched
manner, picked his wife only on her appearance. Get her, for
she looks good to me. But it isn’t just people’s appearance. We have a tendency to do this
based on wealth. We have a tendency to do it on
racial lines. We have a tendency to do it over
gender differences, good looks, popularity. All of those things
come into play and give us equal opportunity to sin the sin of
partiality. My hero in the faith, Robert
Johnstone, said, Faith in Christ and respective persons are diametrically
opposed to each other in proportion as the one is cherished. You
want to practice partiality? Your faith in Christ is diminished.
The other is weakened. To speak of faith enveloped in
respecting of persons is a contradiction. Faith in Christ is a cordial
acceptance of the gospel of God’s mercy. which is not a message
to this or that class of men, but to all men universally, to
men regarded from that moral point of view in which we all
by nature constitute one class. Do I need to finish it? Sinners who have earned death is our
wage A man who believes the gospel has come to feel himself the
fellow sinner of all around. He has become convinced that
his relations to God are immeasurably greater, of greater moment than
any he can hold on to in his fellow creatures. What does money,
what does power have to do with any of this? This is the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Lord Jesus Christ. But James is building his case.
He has introduced his concern. He has given a warning about
biased living. And there might be many sitting
there quite smugly thinking, not me. I dodged this one. I’m good so far. And so James
lays the wood. James points out specifically
how this plays itself out in the average church. And even
though, I will tell you, even though I don’t think James is
citing an exact, perfectly precise occurrence that he witnessed,
it’s so prolific, it’s so frequent that this happens, that this
illustration isn’t even all that surprising, is it? James gives an example of biased
living. this judging of distinctions
by appearance. Look at the conditions that he
gives in verse two. For if a man comes into your
assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and
there comes in a poor man dressed in dirty clothes, and 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 over there or sit down by my footstool. Those
are the conditions. And it’s uncomfortable, isn’t
it? Because we’ve all done this. We’ve all come very close, I’ll
tell you that. This man comes in to the assembly
with a gold ring. This is one example of favoritism. But there are dozens and dozens
And even though the situation here is hypothetical, anybody
could grasp this image. Anybody could understand. And
most people had lived this. They’d been on one side of it
or another. Either they had come into wealth and walked in and
been treated differently. I remember years ago they did
a study. Somebody put on what they called,
they called it, a fat suit. And they walked around and people
treated them differently. You dress up in fancy clothes,
right? Dress for success. You put on fancy clothes and
people treat you differently. Women are treated differently
than men. Blacks are treated differently
than whites and so on and so forth. It is replete. It’s in
our nature to be partial. But even though James is citing
this general principle, everybody could recognize it. Probably
everybody in the church was already under conviction because this
picture is so vivid. It’s so pointed. It’s almost
as if James is watching it play out right in front of him. Right? This man comes walking in. He’s
describing him. He’s got a gold ring. He’s flashing
his fancy clothes. And meanwhile, this other guy
comes in. The rich man, fancy jewelry,
fancy clothes, receives this just flattering, sickeningly
flattering. Well, oh, brother, come here. You know, that’s how it goes.
And meanwhile, this other guy wanders in. Probably nobody even
pays attention to him initially. But I want you to note one little
thing here I forgot to mention. The man comes into your assembly.
You know what the word there is? Synagogue. The word meant
assembly, but James is in transition here. James has been raised in
the synagogue. James as a Jew was familiar with
the synagogue. In all likelihood, they still
met in the synagogue, the assembly. But he says that these two men
came into your assembly. They may not even formally be
part of the Church of Christ yet, but they’re there in your
midst. They’re there with you. They’ve
come to a meeting in this public worship. They’ve come to see
and meet with Christians. They’ve come to see and meet
with God himself. And instead they come in and
they’re immediately sectioned off. and pointed to two different
seats. The gold ring and the fine clothes. If you’re wearing a ring today,
you’re not under indictment. Most of us wear some kind of
a jewelry. It’s representative of our marriages. In many cases, there’s nothing
wrong with rings. It’s the response to the ring
that James is after. It’s the response. And this guy
must have had a big, flashy piece of jewelry on his hand because
it drew the attention of everyone. And then he adds to that with
a fine clothes. And then he counteracts that
or contrast that with the poor man who wore these dirty, shabby,
stinky rags. And he says, That’s all the hypothetical
backdrop, but you pay attention. You pay special attention to
the one wearing the ring and the fine clothes, or the one
who’s in a position of power, or the one who is politically
aligned, or the one who is got power over you, or the one who
is of some favored race in your eyes. We pay special attention to them. And that special attention speaks
of an earnest, fond look. It’s an eye of favoritism. and
it starts in the heart, but it comes to the eye, and it soon
will affect the actions. It’s not just to look upon. It’s
not just to enjoy, but it’s to look upon with a with a hope
of gain, to look with favor and to look with attention, but to
look with a view to gaining something in return. James is building his case, and
now he’s ready for the indictment. He’s presented the situation,
the example of biased living, which followed the warning about
biased living. It’s there for all of us. All
of us have done it. And now he issues forth the indictment. These distinctions based on appearance
are sinful, utterly sinful. Look at the passage once again,
take it in running, start, 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 comes in a poor man dressed in dirty clothes, and you pay
special attention to the one who is wearing fine clothes and
say, you sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man,
you stand over there or sit down by my footstool. Have you not made distinctions
among yourselves and become judges with evil motives? And his question
is rhetorical. If that’s how you live, if you
treat people differently based on the color of their skin, based
on how much money they have, based on what kind of power they
have. If you create distinctions like
that in your mind and act upon them, you have done these things. It’s no longer rhetorical. You’ve
made unjust distinctions and you become judges with evil motives. this word distinctions, it literally
speaks of dividing into two, or being in doubt. It literally
means to be at odds with your own self. Your own heart is divided. You know this isn’t right, and
yet you do it anyway. You know what God’s word says,
yet you believe it anyway. And so the picture that’s painted
is in these distinctions is somebody who’s at odds even with themselves. Thomas Manton, faithful Puritan
brother said, respective persons is had. In other words, it happens.
Respective persons happens in the same cause. And what he paints
is this situation where both ought in this particular situation
to be treated equally. In the same cause, we give more
or less to anyone than is appropriate. Now do you begin to see how prevalent
this is? We favor someone. Respective person happens in
the same cause when we give more or less to anyone that is appropriate
because of something in his person which has no relation to that
cause. out of a consideration for some
external glory, which they’re either good looking, or they
have money, or they’re the right race, or they’re in some position
of power, and I’m going to cater to them. I’m going to give over
to them. And he says, if that’s the case,
if you’ve made these distinctions, if you’re torn even in your heart,
you know it’s wrong, and yet you’re doing it anyway, You have
become a judge with evil motives. The judgment started wrong. The outcome is wrong. They are evil motives. That little
word, dialyximos, is used about 10 times in the synoptics, typically
like this, often of the Pharisees. Out of the heart come evil thoughts. But about the same number of
times it’s used by Paul, and Paul uses it just incredibly,
fabulously, widely varied ways. Listen to a few. Romans 121,
you know this verse. Even though they knew God, they
did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile
in their speculation. And their foolish heart was darkened.
They were literally given over to their sin. but it started
in their head and their heart. Romans 14, 1, it’s translated
passing judgment. Philippians 2, 14, you know this
verse, do all things without grumbling or disputing. It’s that act of disputing that
Paul has in view. Disputatious reasoning is what
one person described it as. It’s that division deep within. And he said, well, how does this
happen in the church? I don’t know. I remember a long time
ago, a deacon came to me and there was thought of somebody
who was going to pull up stakes, move on, go to another church.
And this deacon came to me and said, none of the deacons we
have now. This deacon came to me and said, oh, they can’t leave. They’re big givers. I said, first
of all, how do you know that? And second of all, why do I need
to know that? And third, what difference does
that make? What difference does that make? I see the same thing when athletic
stars are propped up as if they’re more important people or movie
stars or whatever. When they become a Christian
or allegedly become a Christian, they’re propped up and immediately
they’re given the red carpet treatment. And we’re left holding
the bag in due time, aren’t we? So often. Johnstone said it this way, living
in a world where blustering and self assertion are very largely
employed to gain men’s ends. That’s why we do what we do is
to get something in return. And often prove for a time helpful
how apt even believers are to drift with the current to give
way to unhallowed tempers, to bring jealousy and anger into
consideration and discussion of matters immediately concerning
the kingdom of God. He says we give in and we taint
the glory of Christ in our unjust judgments, in our impartiality. Correct that, in our partiality.
It’s a sin, brothers. We’ll come back to this passage
next Lord’s Day. But examine your hearts, if you
would, at the throne of grace. Lord, we see how easy this is
to slip into this sinful tendency. And we pray that you would open
our eyes to its presence and to our weakness to it. to our tendency to sin in this
way against our brothers and against even Christ himself in
his church. God grant us the grace to be
removed from this tendency to see things as they are and to
be just in our dealings with one another. We ask for your
grace to see that through. It’s in Jesus name that we pray. Amen.