John K. Jenkins Sr - Living Out Loud (Book of James Chapter 2)
Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to Bible Study Tuesday night. Such a joy to be here. Thank you for joining us wherever you are in the world. I'm excited and thankful for your presence tonight. Thank Reverend Stephen Hurd and our praise and worship team for reminding us about the goodness of God. Have you experienced the goodness of the Lord? Has God been good to you? I'm sure He has. But have you recognized it? Are you grateful for it? I don't know about you, but I'm very grateful for the goodness of the Lord. He's my hope, my answer, and my deliverer. And I'm giving Him the praise, thanking Him for a brand new day and a brand new opportunity to live for Him, worship Him, and serve Him.
Opening Prayer
Father, thank You for Your loving kindness and the multitude of Your mercies. You woke us up this day and gave us the activities of our limbs. We are grateful for that—that You spared us for another day. We do not count it lightly how You have extended Your mercy and grace to us. So we humble ourselves before You and graciously give our praise to You, thankfully give You worship and praise for being the great God that You are.
And we're praying today that You would be in charge of this Bible study tonight, that You would guide our thinking, our dialogue, our discussion. O God, that what Your saints hear, they would hear the word of life—that for somebody it would be a rhema word that would give them a solution, an answer, a sense of direction for whatever the challenges might be in their life. Anoint us to be a mouthpiece, Almighty God. Allow this word to feed Your sons and daughters. It is my prayer that You would allow this truth in this second chapter of James to be revelatory and insightful.
And God, we come acknowledging that in our own strength and abilities we are unable to see the depth of Your truth, but only when You open our eyes can we see it. And so we pray that You would just help us to see it. We acknowledge our shortcomings, and we pray that You put a hedge around this place this evening, put a fence around us, Father, and rebuke every distracting spirit. Allow us to hear Your word.
And I pray, Father, that somebody will be helped, encouraged, delivered, and set free by the truth of Your word. Now let us be Your conduit and Your instrument this night. In the precious and mighty name of the resurrected Savior, Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen.
And we're praying today that You would be in charge of this Bible study tonight, that You would guide our thinking, our dialogue, our discussion. O God, that what Your saints hear, they would hear the word of life—that for somebody it would be a rhema word that would give them a solution, an answer, a sense of direction for whatever the challenges might be in their life. Anoint us to be a mouthpiece, Almighty God. Allow this word to feed Your sons and daughters. It is my prayer that You would allow this truth in this second chapter of James to be revelatory and insightful.
And God, we come acknowledging that in our own strength and abilities we are unable to see the depth of Your truth, but only when You open our eyes can we see it. And so we pray that You would just help us to see it. We acknowledge our shortcomings, and we pray that You put a hedge around this place this evening, put a fence around us, Father, and rebuke every distracting spirit. Allow us to hear Your word.
And I pray, Father, that somebody will be helped, encouraged, delivered, and set free by the truth of Your word. Now let us be Your conduit and Your instrument this night. In the precious and mighty name of the resurrected Savior, Jesus the Christ, we pray. Amen.
Entering Chapter 2 of James
All right, we're again in chapter two of the book of James. We've already given you the insight that James was a brother of Jesus, and we recognize that he's writing to the churches, to the 12 tribes of Israel that are scattered abroad—he says to us in chapter one. And he gave us powerful insights in chapter one. I hope you all enjoyed chapter one as much as I did. I loved it.
Here's chapter two tonight. We're going to start talking about chapter two. Again, we're calling this series "Living Out Loud." You can't talk it—you have to walk it. It's our sub-theme for this teaching today. But living the Christian life out loud is what we are subtitling this passage today. So get that in your heart for this evening.
Okay, and we're going to start. We only have two sections. I'm dividing this particular chapter up into two sections. And here's the first section: it is talking about avoiding the sin of partiality. Avoiding the sin of partiality. And that's covered in James chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. Jot that down: avoiding the sin of partiality.
Partiality Defined and Prohibited
So let's dive into this very quickly today. And I have some sub-points to these first 13 verses. It challenges us—it's James' instruction that you have to be cautious and careful about partiality. And he begins by telling us—and I'm going to start by defining for us partiality.
Partiality defined: and here's what he says in verse one. Let me read verse one to you very quickly. It says, "My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality." Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. That's his warning, his challenge to us.
Let me take a moment and define for us partiality. It is the fault of one who, when called on to requite or to give judgment, has respect to the outward circumstances of another and not their intrinsic merit—being a child of God or having the image of God—and so prefers the person who is rich or powerful over another person who is destitute of such gifts.
Let me break that down for you. That's the formal definition of it, but let me tell you what it means. It means that you make a judgment about somebody based on their appearance, based on what they look like, based on what they're wearing, whether they have a certain attire on, whether they're carrying a certain level of jewelry. It is a warning about how we judge and evaluate or even give value to a person. That's partiality.
Scripture Prohibits Favoritism
And here's the thing—I'm defining it for you—that's what it means. It is a warning to us because that's it defined. But my second sub-point has to do with the fact that the Scripture prohibits us. It is a prohibition. God prohibits us from showing partiality, showing favoritism. It's a warning that God tells us: He says, "Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with partiality." Don't be a Christian and bring to the table an attitude of evaluating persons based on their outward appearance.
Now, I know sometimes people say, "Well, Pastor, you show partiality," or "You sometimes give honor to people." Yeah, the Bible does tell us, instructs us, to give honor to whom honor is due. Yeah, we are called to give honor to certain people. That's honor, but that's not—here's what the distinction is: we are not judging them on the basis of what they wear. If the President of the United States walks into our facility or church service and we give him a seat in a particular place, we're showing honor to him based on the office that he holds. It has nothing to do with what he wears, nothing to do with what he looks like. It has to do with the level of office that he holds. We respect and honor the position that he holds. And the Bible tells us to give honor to whom honor is due.
And so some of you haven't learned how to give honor to people. You haven't learned how to be respectful to people when honor is due. Instead, we too often judge people based on the car they drive, the house they live in, the clothes they wear, the jewelry on their fingers or around their neck or whatever. We give value to them based on that—not on giving honor to whom the Bible tells us to honor. Never does the Bible tell us to honor somebody on the basis of their attire. It's a warning. So He prohibits it.
That's verse one. Both of these first sub-points center around verse one: we define partiality, and secondly, in verse one He tells us, "Don't do it." "Do not hold the faith..." That's what He says. "Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality." So that's our first warning.
Partiality Illustrated
And then when we go to verses two and three, He actually gives us an illustration of it. He gives us partiality illustrated. Partiality is demonstrated. And let's read verses two and three. So He gives us an example of what it looks like. Here's what He says: "For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, 'You sit here in a good place,' and say to the poor man, 'You stand there,' or 'Sit here at my footstool'..."
That, my friend, basically means you have evaluated a person on the basis of their appearance. In the Bible—not only in this passage but in other passages—warns us and gives us a warning that that is not the role, that is not the way we are to treat people. We don't evaluate people on the basis of their apparel. That's the warning of Scripture. And that's the one that I want to give to you today: that a lot of people have made a lot of mistakes, a lot of errors. They've fallen short of what God's expectation is—that we not evaluate people solely and strictly on their appearance. I cannot say that loud enough. I cannot say it long enough. The Scripture says, "Don't do it. Don't do it."
Dangers of Partiality (Verses 4–13)
And then He tells us—here's some dangers in verses 4 through 13. I'm going to spend some time walking through verses 4–13 because in verses 4–13 He tells us what the dangers are in evaluating a person in this way, of judging, of showing partiality. We get the warning about that.
Let's read these verses very quickly. Let's walk through here. Let's start at verse four. He says this: "Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" He said, "Look, here's what He says: you became a judge when you do this. You become a judge, and the basis of your judging," He says, "is based on evil thinking, wrong thinking, sinful thinking." He warns us not to think in that way, not to put your mind in that sense of direction. "Don't even evaluate people." That's what the word "judge" means. He says when you do this, you're becoming a judge, and you're basing it on your twisted thinking.
One of our deacons—did you more—always used to say, "You got to get rid of your stinking thinking." And that's really what this man is saying. It says you've shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts.
Listen, my beloved brethren, in verse five: "Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?" That's profound, that's powerful, that's amazing. And I love this—what He says—because what He's saying is God's heart is inclined toward those who don't have the riches of this world. God has a compassion and a heart toward people who are the least of these. That's who God's heart goes after—the least of these, those who don't measure up, those who don't have the accoutrements of life.
He says, "Listen, my beloved brethren, God has chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith." That's why many of us have been raised in poor, struggling circumstances. But guess what? God gave us the capacity and the ability to be rich in faith. And I love this—and to be heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him. I love that right there. God picks those.
And here's the danger: when you don't operate like that, and you pick the people who look rich and people who have the wealth and come in with a certain attire, and you judge them—or at least you evaluate and put them on a pedestal and give them the honor—He says what you've chosen to do is reject the people whom God has chosen. This Scripture says God has chosen the poor. Has He not chosen the poor? Yes. And has made them rich in faith. He has made those who are the poor of the world to be endowed rich in faith.
That's what I want to say to those who are struggling, don't have enough money to meet certain bills, and you find yourself in a struggling situation. I got great news for you: the world may reject you, the world may overlook you, and God says, "Don't bring that attitude into the church. Don't you walk in the church with that attitude." God celebrates those who find themselves in that posture. And He says you're rich in faith, and you are an heir of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him. He says He's going to put you in a posture to love Him, and you will be an heir of His kingdom. I love that verse right here.
More Dangers and the Royal Law
Here's verse six: "But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?" You know what He says? You're honoring people who take advantage of you. That's what He's saying. He said, "You've dishonored the poor man, but look—the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts and sue you and treat you badly and don't respect you or honor you." And yet you've elevated them into a posture and a position of honor while they have dishonored you. He said that's not how we function in the kingdom. He's trying to give us a warning that His kingdom doesn't operate like that. Partiality is dangerous, and His call to us is don't operate in the arena of partiality.
Then He goes in verse seven: "Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?" They don't have any respect for who you are, your name, your reputation, or anything. They treat you lowly and bad and disregard you.
But here's what He says in verse eight: "If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself,' you do well." You do well. You want to fulfill the royal law of Scripture—loving others as yourself. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Treat people the way you want to be treated. Treat people like you want people to treat you. He says when you do that, you do well.
You know, and I want to challenge all of us in our day-to-day activities and behavior that you treat people the way you want to be treated. You honor people the way you want to be honored. And the Scripture says when you love your neighbor as yourself and you treat people the way you want to be treated, He says you do well. This is an honorable thing in the kingdom of God.
Then He says in verse nine: "But if you show partiality, you commit sin." It's point blank. If you show partiality, if you judge a person on the basis of their attire, what they look like, the jewelry they got hanging on them—you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. You've missed the mark.
And some of you need to repent before God because you have been guilty of evaluating, judging people on the basis of what they wear and what they look like. You're guilty. And the Bible says that's sin. You commit sin. This is clear as day. It says you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. You've missed the mark. You've fallen below the standard. You're operating in a way that is not acceptable and pleasing to God.
And some of you probably have to think about how you have treated people that you knew very little about—how you treated them, how you responded to them, how you reacted to them. Did you greet them with love? Did you greet them with respect? Did you offer them something to eat? Did you offer them your seat? Or did you put them in the category: "They ain't nobody. They don't mean nothing. They're not important." Is that how you treated them? The Bible says with clarity: you've committed sin.
One Sin Makes Us Guilty of All
Verse 10: "For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." You know, there are 613 laws in the Old Testament—600 plus—and it says if you stumble in one of them, you're guilty of breaking them all. Yeah, you have missed the mark. Breaking one makes you guilty of breaking them all.
Look at verse 11: "For He who said, 'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law." So you know what He's saying: all it takes is one law for you to break for you to be a transgressor. All it takes is one.
You know, y'all, we think sometimes that, "Well, I may have done this, but I didn't do that. I may have went here, but I didn't go there." Yeah, that doesn't make you any better. Go on and preach, Pastor James, because I'm doing the best that I can. But here's what it boils down to—this verse 12: "So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty." He says ultimately you're going to be judged, and you're going to be judged by this law of how you treat others—the law of liberty, the law of love. So speak and so do as those who will be judged.
Think of it: He says speak and treat and walk and act with a mindset and a mentality that realizes and recognizes that one day you'll have to stand before God and give an account of how you treated other people. Did you treat them with the law of liberty, the law of love, the law of respect? Did you show them respect? Did you show them honor? Did you show them the love of Jesus Christ?
You know, my biggest struggle every day is dealing with people who treat folk badly. This is my problem. My problem is dealing with people who don't want to treat their spouses right. This is what I spend a lot of my day doing—telling husbands and wives to treat each other with love and the law of liberty. Oh God, good Lord, I'm preaching and teaching right now. Yeah, some of y'all treat people you don't know better than people you do know. Oh my gosh.
Look at verse 13: "For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." Oh my gosh, that's so powerful. You won't have any mercy if you don't show mercy. If you're not compassionate, if you don't have patience, if you don't show love, if you show no mercy—you won't have no mercy. And I love this verse: His mercy triumphs over judgment. God says when He shows mercy, it overpowers judgment. And thank God that He did not give any of us what we deserve. He showed us mercy. And yet we don't want to show other people mercy. And oftentimes our lack of mercy to other people is on the basis of what they look like.
So that's my challenge. Let me start off with that challenge today. Let me start off pushing and telling us: some of us are guilty of partiality, favoritism—liking who we want to like. You know, the church got cliques, groups over here. You like these people, don't like those people over there. They ain't done nothing to you, but you like your clique—like the people you hang out with. Y'all stay together in your little group, don't speak to other people in another group for whatever reason. I don't even know what the reason might be. And yet we want God to show us mercy and compassion, but yet we don't do the same to other people. Help me, Jesus.
Part Two: Saving Faith Produces Good Works
All right, let me go on to the next section because I feel something coming on me right here. Let me go to part two of this passage: saving faith produces good works. James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26. Here's the second half. I've divided this chapter up into two parts. I gave you part one about partiality, and here's part two: saving faith produces good works.
And I love this. This is a section of the Bible that gets quoted a million times by people because it says some profound things. And let's take a moment—let's dive into the fact that when you have saving faith—faith that saves you—it produces good works. And I got this divided down into a few sections.
Faith and Works (Verses 14–17)
Let me take a look at number one: faith and works in verses 14 through 17. He talks about faith and works. And I want to spend a few more moments looking at these verses and look at what it says about faith and works because it has some profound things to say about faith and works.
Verse 14: "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?" He raises a question: Is it all that's required—is faith alone? Does it profit a person if he says he has faith but there are no works to go along with it? Can faith alone save him?
"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled'..." Y'all send them away. He says thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Let me read that to you again: "Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."
You just can't say to that person with needs—and you have the resources to help them—you can't just say, "Be on your way. Go on about your journey. Be happy." You can't—that's not what you can say. "Be warmed, be at peace, depart in peace, be warmed and be filled." Faith—thus it says—if it does not have works, faith is dead.
So faith and works—they go together. They're partners. They're twins. They walk together. They come together. You can't have one without the other and accomplish what God wants. If you've got faith, it's going to produce some works. And so faith and works go together. They're twins.
And the second part of this says this: faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Jot that down. Remember that. Faith without works doesn't survive, doesn't live—it's dead.
Faith Without Works Is Dead (Verses 18–20)
Verses 18 through 20—let's read those verses. He reiterates that: "If someone will say to you, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." I love that. He says you say you got faith, and I say I have works. Show me your faith without works. Faith is demonstrated by works.
You know a person has faith because you see works. You see them making acts. If I'm sitting in a chair right here—I'm sitting in a stool—and I came in here today in this studio at the sanctuary, at the worship center, and I sat down in this chair, put all of my weight in this chair because I had the faith it would hold me up—that I wasn't gonna crash to the ground. Yeah, here it is—I sat in it. But if I kept saying, "I believe it's gonna hold me up," but I never put my butt in it, I never sat down, I never put all of my weight on it—that faith— I don't really believe it. That's what He's saying here.
He says if I have faith, then I ought to be willing to sit down in the chair or to be willing to put my faith into action and make it happen. You can't just have faith.
And look at verse 19 bears this out. Verse 19 says, "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble." Even the devil believes in God. He knows God. He believes it—knows that God exists. It takes a little bit more than just saying you believe. The devil knows that God is real. He knows that Jesus is alive. And He says if you believe that there's one God, you do—that's great—but that ain't gonna change your life. That's not gonna make you what God wants you to be. Because you know what He says? Even the demons believe and tremble. Even they believe. They know that He exists, but they have no works. They don't have the saving faith.
Look at verse 20: "But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?" Hang your hat right there. Oh foolish man—you need to know, everybody needs to know—He says, "Oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead." Don't tell me that you have faith but I don't see any actions to back it up. That's how you know that a person has truly had an encounter with Jesus and truly has put their faith in Jesus. This is how you know—because they have works that go along with it. There's some evidence. There's some sign.
So faith—He said here—faith without works is dead.
Faith Demonstrated by Works (Verses 21–26)
And let me give you this last part: that faith is demonstrated by works. That's what verses 21 through 26 say. This is my fourth section here today: faith is demonstrated by works.
So y'all, did y'all get my points here today in this one? Faith and works. Faith without works is dead. And faith is demonstrated by works. It is revealed, manifested by works. The fact that I have works that go along with my faith demonstrates that I truly do have faith.
Let's look at verses 21–26. Here's what it says: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?" This is in verses 21 through 24. Let me read this because I might have to come back through these again. "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?"
Y'all remember the story about Abraham and his son Isaac—that God asked him to bring his son Isaac up to the mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. And Abraham went up there willing to offer up his son as a sacrifice.
Verse 22 says, "Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?" His faith was demonstrated because he believed that when God told him to go sacrifice his son, he was willing to do it. He says here his faith was working together with his works, and by his works his faith was made perfect.
Verse 23: "And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God." Because this man was willing to take his son up on the mount, on the altar, and sacrifice him. And the Bible says in verse 23 this faith he had made him righteous before God. It was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called a friend of God.
"You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only." Oh, this is so profound, powerful, amazing, remarkable.
Now here's the thing I want to say about this—here's the deal that I want to say about these passages right here. I want to just close with this point right here, and I'll be finished in just a few moments.
Abraham—in Hebrews 11—I want to point something out to you. Hebrews 11, verse 17: "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac..." And listen to this: "when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son." He was willing to offer up his only begotten son.
Go ahead to verse 18: "of whom it was said, 'In Isaac your seed shall be called.'" Here's the point this is making: he was willing to offer up the son that represented the promise that God made to him—that he would be the father of a great nation, and that Isaac represented the seed to that. Abraham was willing to offer up the son that represented the promise.
Go to verse 19: "concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense." This is—I hope you all are getting this—Abraham took Isaac up on the mountain to sacrifice him, and he was willing to sacrifice him. You know why? Because he believed that if he sacrificed him, God was going to raise him up from the dead. That's faith. He concluded that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. That's profound. That's the kind of faith he had—that he was willing to do that.
And guess what? God's calling you and me to let our faith be demonstrated by us being obedient to Him, making the choice to know that God will meet our needs. God asks you to tithe, and you struggle in the tithes because you got more bills than you got money, and so you rob God—the Scripture says you'll rob God—as opposed to believing that He will raise it up and bring it to pass.
In verses 25 and 26—let me read these two verses to you to finalize with these. It says, "Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead."
He gives us another illustration. He gives these illustrations of people who demonstrated their faith by their actions. Abraham did it when he was willing to offer up Isaac, and Rahab—when Joshua and the children of Israel, back in the book of Joshua, were going to conquer and take over Jericho. Joshua sent some spies into Jericho, and they came into Rahab's house. And Rahab hid the spies because the people of Jericho—the king—heard these strangers came to town, these Israelites came to town, and they were coming to scope out the land for conquering and taking it over. And Rahab hid the spies and protected the spies from the army of Jericho coming to capture them.
And it was accounted to her that she believed in the God that they were serving. It's profound. She said, "I heard about what y'all have done. We heard about what y'all did, and our people are scared. And I want y'all to remember me when y'all come back to take over Jericho—remember me and my family, remember my father and my family."
And that's in fact what happened—because she exercised faith, because she believed God, because she had the courage to believe God. When the army of Israel came back to conquer Jericho and they marched around the walls and the walls fell down and all of that, they spared the lives of Rahab and her family because she acted on the fact that she believed that the God that they served was the real God—the God that Israel served, the God that gave them the victory in their previous battles—was going to give them the victory in the battle against her own people, her own country, her own city of Jericho. She believed God was going to give them the victory. She said, "I want to be on the Lord's side. I want to be on the winning side." So I'm going to protect you. She gave them instructions on how to escape the army.
And because of her demonstrated faith—it was demonstrated by her works—my question to you today: How are you demonstrating your faith in Jesus? How are you walking by faith? How are you believing God to be everything that He said He was?
Write down Hebrews 11:31. Jot that down. Let me read that to you real quick: "By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace."
By faith—this she was a prostitute. God can save a prostitute. God can save anyone with a checkered past. Here's the great news: she had a checkered past, she had a messed-up history, she had failed in her past. But God—because she dared to believe God—He changed her future and changed her circumstances because she dared to believe God.
I don't care what you've done in your past. I don't care what your failures might have been. I don't care how low you have fallen. I don't care how ugly, how sinful, how raggedy your past has been. We serve a God who can save you if you just extend your faith to Him. And that faith will be demonstrated by your actions.
And here's the action you can take today to demonstrate your faith: call us about accepting Jesus. That's what you can do. You can demonstrate your faith today. You can demonstrate your belief to say, "You know what? I want to believe in that God. I'll put my faith in that God." You can do that, and God will save you, forgive you, cleanse you, wash you, change your future, change your present and your future, give you destiny, give you hope, give you an answer.
God saved Rahab, this prostitute. The spies slipped into the city. Joshua sent them to spy—said, "Go scope out Jericho. Give us the report so when we come to do battle, we'll be able to know what the situation is." So the two spies came, and when the army was searching for them because they had come to town, they hid in Rahab's house. That was a smart move on their part—because perhaps they discovered that was a place accustomed to seeing men going in and out. So for these strange men to go into a house, perhaps they felt that wouldn't seem unusual. And she hid them.
She said, "I believe that when y'all come to conquer Jericho, y'all gonna win. Your God's gonna give you the victory. And I wanna be on that side."
And I'm here to tell you tonight: God will do the same for you.
Closing Worship and Questions
I'm going to come back and take questions in just a moment, but I'm going to have our praise and worship team just sing a little song right there—just seal this message. And I'm gonna come back and close with answering a few questions. So sing that for just a minute.
Thank you, Brother Larry. I know that's a little bit backwards from the way we do it, but that song was so powerful. Thank you, brother, for sharing that.
I do have several questions here tonight that I want to try to hit a couple of them at least.
Is it possible to extend mercy and grace even when holding a person accountable for their crime? Yeah, you can. You can show mercy and grace by not—if I go to the top of a building and I jump off, and on my way down I realize I made a mistake and I say, "Lord, forgive me, show me mercy"—God can show mercy and let me live, but I will still hit the ground. I'm gonna probably break some bones, but He can show me mercy by letting me live. And the mercy of God can be extended, and we can show mercy to people by perhaps not giving the punishment to the degree that maybe it was deserved. But I still believe this: it's always appropriate to hold people accountable for their wrong and for their crime, but you can extend some level of mercy—maybe not punish them to the degree that they deserve to be punished.
Kenneth: "You cannot describe works?" Your works is what you do. It's actions. It's good deeds. That's what works are—good deeds, works, actions toward blessing, helping, being obedient to God, serving and helping other people. That's what it is.
Can you distinguish between loving correction versus judging? See, the word "judging" means that you are evaluating without facts or that you're making a determination about somebody based on appearance—without investigating facts. That's what judging is. Loving correction says I have the facts, and I'm going to correct you based on the facts. Judging just goes by appearance—what you see. That's what judging does.
Matter of fact, somebody asking the questions: Can I give a definition of partiality again? Partiality means you evaluate a person based on their appearance. That's what it means. It is not honoring the person as a child of God, but you are giving judgment in respect to what they look like externally. And you don't value them as being a child of God. You don't look at them as a child of God, but instead you prefer to look at what they wear, what their external appearance is, and you make a judgment about that person based on what you see. That's what judging—that's in fact what judging means. And that's what partiality is—that you favor judgments. I look at you and make a determination based on what you look like on the outside. Partiality means I lean to the plus of you because of what you wear, what you look like, the jewelry that you have, the stuff that you have—I lean in your favor, in your direction, show you partiality because of that. That's what that means.
What does the Bible say about parents who show favoritism toward one of their children because of that child's personality, temperament? You know, that's a tough question because here's what I believe: I don't believe—some people feel that all children should be treated the same. I don't subscribe to that. I believe—I've had six kids, and each one of my six kids had their own personality. And my evaluation of how I dealt with them and how I disciplined them or how I raised them is on the basis of me treating them based on what each of them needed. What all six of my kids didn't need the same thing. I had one child I could tell them to do something one time, and it's done. But I have another child I got to drag them—I gotta drag their butts out of bed, make them wake up.
So you treat—and I guess as a child you might want to call that favoritism—but you know, I believe you have to treat your children on the basis of what their needs are. And I don't doubt that there might be some parents that do show favoritism. I don't know. But I would hope that—here's what I believe: I believe that the environment that I was raised in, the parents that God gave me, the place that I lived, the community that I was raised in—God put me there knowing what the circumstances of my life would be, knowing how my parents would treat me, good or bad. God knew that—what I needed to be the person He wanted me to be.
And I look back over my life and I see some things that happened during the course of my life that are not things I would have chosen, but I know that God allowed those things in my life to help make me the person that I am today. I wouldn't be the person if I didn't have some of those things happen to me. So all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose—Romans 8:28. You got to know that.
Let me hit one more. If you are a victim of being treated with partiality, what should you do? You should—if you've been treated badly or somebody has shown partiality against you—you don't retaliate. The biggest thing you got to learn is I'm not going to retaliate and go back against that person based on the fact of how they treated me. You treat them—and you treat others—in the way that you want to be treated. You be godly. You be big enough, holy enough, spiritual enough not to allow them to drag you down to their level of how they treated you.
Final Prayer
Father, thank You for our Bible study today. Please help us get this in our hearts and souls. Help us to evaluate ourselves is my prayer. Help us to evaluate how we treat other people and that we don't show partiality. In Jesus' name, Amen.