• (Jas 2:1 ESV) My ____________, show no ____________ as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of ____________.
    • My brothers – The ____________ – This is written to the church
    • Partiality
      • Romans 2:9-13, Ephesians 6:5-9, Colossians 3:23-25
        • No matter who you are
          • We are each one called to ____________ as ____________
          • We are each one commanded by Christ to live lives that ____________ Him.
        • As He does not look at the status of man
          • We, His people, are to do the same.
  • (Jas 2:2 ESV) For if a man wearing a ____________ ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a ____________ man in shabby ____________ also comes in,
  • (Jas 2:3 ESV) and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a ____________ place,” while you say to the poor man, “You ____________ over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”
  • (Jas 2:4 ESV) have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become ____________ with ____________ thoughts?
    • Judging these two on their ____________
      • On what the ____________ classifies as higher or lower
    • We do this at some level whether we mean to or not
      • We look at where someone lives
      • What they drive
      • The clothes they wear
        • Jude 1:16
    • Instead of judging by ____________ we should be looking at the heart
      • Matthew 11:7-11
        • It is interesting to this of ____________ ____________ ____________
          • This forerunner of Christ
          • Who was nothing in the standards of the world
      • Our calling in James
        • As individual ____________
        • And as a church
          • Is to look at the fruit of ____________
  • (Jas 2:5 ESV) Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God ____________ those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the ____________, which he has promised to those who love him?
    • It is interesting that the ____________ historically is rarely visited by the wealthy.
      • True Biblical Christianity
        • That calls us to meekness
        • To ____________
        • To mercy
        • To ____________
          • Those are not attractive to the material world.
    • And we know that God chooses His church
      • He elects His people
      • He has chosen those whom He desires
        • To be ____________ in faith
          • The very gift of faith in Christ
          • Matthew 5:1-16
        • As His people, as His church
          • We are called to walk in this way
            • Called to walk in a manner that brings glory to ____________
              • Not to ourselves.
      • And more, we are called to treat others as God does
        • Without ____________ on the world’s standards
        • Seeing the ____________ of people
  • (Jas 2:6 ESV) But you have ____________ the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who ____________ you into court?
  • (Jas 2:7 ESV) Are they not the ones who ____________ the honorable name by which you were called?
    • Is it not those who seem to have the most that also make things the most difficult for us?
      • Those who take things to ____________
      • Those who ____________ and cause trouble?
        • The ____________ do not to that
        • The ____________ do not do that
  • (Jas 2:8 ESV) If you really fulfill the royal law according to the ____________, “You shall love your ____________ as yourself,” you are doing well.
  • (Jas 2:9 ESV) But if you show partiality, you are committing ____________ and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
    • If we are living lives in the mold of ____________
      • Loving those who need it as ourselves
      • Like the good Samaritan?
        • Luke 10:25-37
        • We are to be the ____________.
        • We are to be the ones who show ____________.
      • Mercy is this:
        • mercy: kindness or good will towards the ____________ and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them
          • It is not being kind and helpful to those who might give is more back
          • It is not doing something nice for ____________
          • It is not being kind for your benefit, so they will like you
        • Mercy is showing kindness, ____________, to those who are miserable.
          • And this is hard to do consistently.
          • But yet our calling to do so.
  • (Jas 2:10 ESV) For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in ____________ point has become guilty of ____________ of it.
  • (Jas 2:11 ESV) For he who said, “Do not commit ____________,” also said, “Do not ____________.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the ____________.
    • Which is all of us
      • Thanks be to God for His ____________ toward us
      • Thanks be to God for His ____________ toward us.
    • Maybe you can say you have never murdered anyone
      • You have never committed adultery
      • But we know those are extreme examples
        • Have you ____________ what someone else has?
        • Have you ____________ your father or mother?
        • We don’t have to list them all.
          • We are all ____________ 
            • Saved by ____________.
  • (Jas 2:12 ESV) So speak and so act as those who are to be ____________ under the law of liberty.
  • (Jas 2:13 ESV) For judgment is without ____________ to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
    • (Mat 5:7 ESV) “Blessed are the ____________, for they shall receive mercy.
      • Let us be the people who show ____________
        • Who love out neighbor
      • Let us recognize the mercy of ____________
        • Given to us by a God who is good
        • And a God who is great
      • Let us recognize the calling of God on His people
        • That He ____________ us before the foundations of the world