This is actually a continuation of the passage that we did last time we were in the book of James. And so what I want you to do is turn to James chapter two. We're gonna get kind of a running start in looking at the context of what James is saying here. We're gonna start back in verse one with James talking about partiality and how the church's role should never to be partial against people in the church. Some of you are here for that, some of you are not, so let's go back to verse one. We'll read down through verse nine. My brother, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, for, he gives an illustration, for if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there, sit down on my feet, have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law, we'll talk about that in just a minute, 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. Here's what Paul is saying. Partiality equals sin. Partiality is sin. What is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law. It's breaking the law. It's either not doing what the law requires or it's doing what the law prohibits. Partiality, showing partiality, favoritism, being favorable towards somebody based on their external appearance, based on their economic status, whatever it would be, is sin. But there's a problem here, because we have been learning in Galatians about the law of sin and death, is what scripture says. That is the Mosaic law, the law that was meant to show people that they're sinners. That is different than what James is referencing. Do you remember this morning, and if you weren't here this morning, this may be a little bit confusing, you have to go back and listen to the message, but there are two laws that are contrasted. One is the Mosaic law and one is the law of Christ, as we'll see later. That is the moral law of God. That's the law of freedom. Because you're always either chained to sin or chained to Christ. And James is referencing the latter. And what he's gonna do in our passage is that he's going to compare the wrong thought process of what the law is versus the right thought process of what the law is, all right? And I wanna draw a picture for you, I'm not an artist, but I wanna try to illustrate this before we get into the passage, because I think if you go into the next verses with this understanding, it's really gonna open it up for you. There are two ways to view the law. One is to view it as a list of rules, right? And perhaps there are those that are non-important and there are those that are really important, right? So you've got the non-skinny, the skinny ones, right? And this would be like, maybe don't lie. I mean, that's not that big of a deal, right? Just a little white lie or deception. And maybe it would be things like don't covet. Nobody really knows when you covet things. And so that would be something You know, maybe it's not that big of a deal, as long as they don't act on it, then it's not really a big deal. Maybe it's a small sin. And then you've got the big sins, like don't murder, don't commit adultery, maybe don't steal, things of that nature. Don't bring harm to other people. These are big sins. And so the thought process in the day was that you had little sins and you had big sins. That thought process is still prevalent in the Catholic Church, mortal sins and venial sins, and it actually bleeds over into Christianity if you're not careful. The problem with this concept is that you end up weighing them. It's like, well, I'm not really that bad, right? Because I didn't lie about anything big, it was just a little white lie. Or I just stole something small that they'll never miss. and you can excuse your sin. For instance, I don't know if you've been following out in California, there's a law that was passed that you can't prosecute stealing unless it's over a certain dollar amount. I don't know if you guys have seen that or not. So you have people who are walking into stores and maybe the dollar amount's $500, whatever it is, and they'll steal $450 worth of stuff in broad daylight, in plain sight, obvious about what they're doing, and they'll just walk out the door because they can't be prosecuted and nobody can stop them. And what some of them will say to kind of excuse their sin is that, you know, they have insurance. And so it's not really stealing because their insurance will cover the replacement of these items. And so therefore, it's not really stealing from them. They don't lose anything. I get stuff, everybody wins. And it's this excusing these different, you know, basically saying, I'm not doing anything really bad. It's finding ways to excuse what's wrong. And if we follow this pattern, it's very easy. First of all, it's wrong. Secondly, it's very easy to fall into the mindset of excusing the small things as long as I don't do the big things. It's also common to say, well, I've done a lot of big good things, right? really good things, I mean this was a really good thing, and this was a really good thing, and so these two things outweigh maybe these three small things, right? And so you end up with this giant scale. And so it's very important that when we view the Christian life, that we don't view the moral law, the character of God that we're supposed to reflect, and that our sin offends, we can't view that as a list. Instead, we have to view it as a whole. And when I say whole, I don't mean like a whole in a donut. I mean the entirety, W-H. We view the character of God, the moral law of God as one whole, not as a list. And I'll show you why that's so important. and what James is saying in this passage. So look at verses 10 through 13 with me. We're gonna go verse by verse, and we're gonna look at each one of these words to understand what he's saying. Four, which shows us that he's linking to what came before. So here's perhaps the question that someone would ask that he would be debating with. I mean, partiality isn't really that big of a deal, is it? I mean, if we were going to categorize partiality, it would be like this, not like murder or stealing or adultery. You know, partiality is not really that big of a deal. So maybe we can still tolerate a little bit of it in our lives and a little bit of it in our church. Four, whoever keeps the whole law. So we're talking about someone here who's keeping the entirety of God's moral character. but they fail. Make sure I get my notes out here. Okay, this word means to stumble. So it's like someone who's running a perfect race and then they stumble and they fall. This hypothetical person is keeping the entire law but yet in one little point has become guilty of all of it. So here's what he's saying, this word guilty is a judicial pronouncement of guilt. It's saying that someone looks and says, you are now under this pronouncement of being guilty. Here's what James is saying. Even if you were, which you can't, but even if you were, but you can't, but let's just pretend like you can, okay? Let's pretend like you can keep every single aspect of God's moral character. You are perfectly loving. You are perfectly merciful. You are perfectly giving. You are perfectly holy. And you go on and on and on and on and on. And you, I mean, you are just running your Christian life since the day you were born, and you are just perfect in every way. And yet, in one little aspect, I mean one teeny tiny minutia, one point of the law, of God's character, you offend just one little point. Maybe you don't even fall, maybe you just stumble. What is true about you? You're guilty of how much of it? All of it. So we've got the two ideas of the law here, right? We've got the list and we've got the whole. He is combating this idea of a list-based Christianity, of saying, I'm really not all that bad. I can tolerate a little bit of sin in my life. And he's saying, even if you have stumbled in just one minor aspect, just one little teeny tiny point, you're guilty of the whole thing. Four, He who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder. Who is this here? Who said do not commit adultery and do not murder? God did. And this is where we get this idea. You see that God said this. It's proceeding out of him. The law that we are to obey is God's character, God's essence flowing out of him. and we are to look at God's character in scripture and to say, this, this is my standard. And so the source of this moral law is not you. Man, I'm actually a pretty good person. It's not someone who's worse than you. At least I'm not as badass. The source of the law is not some man-made list. It's the character of God himself. That's what James is saying. God is the source of this law. And there are two laws here. Do not commit adultery and do not murder. It's interesting that these two commands are reflected on the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, You say don't commit adultery, I say that if you look upon a woman to lust after her, you've already committed adultery in your heart. You say don't murder, but I say if you hate somebody, if you have anger towards somebody in your heart, you've already murdered them in your heart. And so it's not just about outward actions, this is about the inward heart attitude. If you do not commit adultery, look at the rest of this verse, you do not commit adultery, so you don't do the first one, but you do murder. So you don't commit adultery, but you do murder. You have become a transgressor of the law. This means that you are guilty of all of it. Now, let's stop there for a minute. He basically says the same thing twice, once in verse 10, once in verse 11. If you offend in one point, you're guilty of all of it. Because the source is God. He said, don't commit adultery, don't murder. You didn't commit adultery, but you did murder, so guess what? You're actually guilty of adultery too. You're guilty of all of it. So instead of viewing this as a list, you have to view it as a whole. Have you ever seeing a giant pane of glass and just wanted to throw a rock at it. Am I unique in that? I don't know. You see these huge trucks driving down the road with these massive panes of glass, and there's something about watching glass shatter that is so cool. And then maybe it's the mischievous child in me that's just like, oh man, that would be so cool. As a kid, I threw a rock through a pane of glass, and I got in trouble for it. It broke the whole thing. And that's what James is saying here, is that one sin, God's character is that pane of glass, and any more than you can just affect one part of that glass without it going everywhere. So you can't offend just one part of the law. When you throw a rock through a giant pane of glass, it doesn't make this nice little hole. Boink, and it pops out, and then you can take that, and you can put it back in, you know, and maybe glue this piece of glass back in. That's not the way it works. When that glass is affected, it shatters all of it, and that's what Paul is saying. This is why it's so important that we view God's moral law as we'll see him refer to it here, the law of liberty, which means a law which brings freedom. We have to view it as God's character reverberating into this world, reflecting into this world. It's not a list. God did not give the Bible and say, hey, here's a list of do's and don'ts. He said, here is a book that reveals who I am. And so therefore, as we read the scripture, as we understand the scripture, it reveals to us who God is, and our responsibility as Christians, as children of our Father, is to reflect our Father's character. It's to be the type of person that gives an accurate reflection of the character of God. Are we going to do it perfectly? No, we're not. And that's why God promises forgiveness when we confess. He promises that he's covered those sins under his blood. But our desire, our goal, our growth of sanctification is to understand the character of God in a greater way and then have our lives reflect that character. And this is the reason why there's no levels of sin in God's book. That you don't say, well, This person goes to purgatory because they didn't commit any mortal sin, but yet this person goes straight to hell because they committed a really bad sin. It's that all sin is sin because all of it shatters the character of God. Does that make sense? You guys see what he's saying here? It's one whole picture. You can't grade the different sins. The sin of favoritism is just as bad as the sin of murder or adultery. Does it have the same physical effect? No, not on our lives, but it does have the same spiritual effect. With that in mind, look at verse 12. So, with that in mind, so speak and so act. This is an active Greek verb here, both of these, to where it's a continual action. So continually be speaking in this way, so continually be acting in this way. This is something that should be a part of your life. Continually be speaking, continually be acting as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. Here's the explanation of what he's talking about. And in order to understand that law of liberty, you have to go back to the first time James uses it in chapter one. Go back to chapter one and verse 22. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who intently looks at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and once forgets what he's like. Verse 24, 25. but the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, that's scripture. This is what scripture reveals to us to be true about God. Whoever looks into the law of liberty and being one who perseveres, not a hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he'll be blessed in his doing. And so James, if I said Paul, I'm sorry, James is setting up this pattern of looking into the law that brings freedom, that's what the law of liberty means, the law that brings freedom, the scripture, looking at this law, and then having your life reflect that law. Having your life reflect what you read. And he even says here in verse 12, having your life reflect what you say. Say the truth and act the truth because you will be judged by this law of liberty. The law that brings freedom. The law is not disjointed, so you can choose what to obey. Again, if you go back up to here and you see the law as a list, Perhaps you could choose which ones are important, which ones aren't important, choose which ones to obey, choose which ones not to obey, but because it's not a list, because it's God's character, our life should reflect that character that brings freedom in our words and in our actions. In verse 12, James kind of hints at his theme for the next section in the book of James, which is this. If you say something, but your life doesn't back it up, it's not true about your life. A true confession about what you say will be reflected in your life. We say this way, your talk talks and your walk talks, but your talk talks, your walk talks louder than your talk talks. In other words, what you do proves what you believe. There's a guy named Jordan Peterson who is a philosopher, and you can read some of the stuff he's written. You can see some of his interviews on YouTube. And he may have just come to faith in Christ through understanding scripture. Really a fascinating story. It's a long story. You can go look it up and kind of follow it. His name is Jordan Peterson. But he says something interesting. Somebody asked him, do you believe in God? And he's very perceptive, he's very deep in his thinking, you kind of have to follow his logic, but he said something that's really stuck with me that is what James is getting at here. And he said, I don't know how to answer that question other than to say I act as though God exists, so therefore I believe God exists. In other words, it's not enough for me to just say I believe in God because if I look at my life and I'm not living as though God exists, I don't really believe it. So do I believe that God exists? Well, I act as though God exists. So I guess, therefore, I do believe that God exists. And that's what James is saying, is that you need to act in a way that reflects the character of God, that reflects what you're saying you believe. It's not just enough to say it. You have to speak, you have to be speaking the truth of Scripture, and you have to act as those who will be judged by this. Will you be judged to gain entrance into heaven based on your works? No. But will you be judged for your works? Yes, you will be. That there are rewards in heaven given to those who live a life in pursuit of Christ. You will be judged under the law of freedom. Let's look at verse 13. Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. This is reflecting on the person who is speaking and acting in different ways. This is actually a really complicated verse. It took me quite a while of reading and studying through this and reading several commentaries to actually understand what James is saying because he keeps shifting back and forth in his concepts here. I think what James is saying here is that if you say you have mercy, but you don't live that way, you're under judgment. Because your life doesn't reflect what you say you believe. If you are a Christian, then your life will reflect that truth. Mercy triumphs over judgment. for judgment that is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. The one who has shown no mercy is the one who is not acting in the way in which they are speaking to be judged by the law of liberty. So they're saying they believe the Bible, their lifestyle does not back it up, their works do not back it up, and so therefore they are judged by the law of liberty based on their works because the works prove their belief system. Mercy triumphs over judgment. And then he says, show mercy, actions of mercy. This last sentence, I believe, refers back to the partiality section, where you have the person coming in, the poor person, to where they've been judged by their outward appearance, and they're judging the rich person by the outward appearance, so the rich person comes in, they receive lots of mercy, and the poor person doesn't. And what James is saying is, mercy is a part of the life of the believer. Show mercy. Because God's character is that of mercy. Mercy reflects the law of liberty. A little bit more of a complicated section here in the book of James. It flows from the passage before it. And so let's back up and read this with the concept of not looking at the law as a list, but looking at it as a whole and recognizing that he's talking about partiality and how you can't show partiality, you must show mercy because you have to abide by the entire character of God. You can't choose what laws to follow and God's character and what laws not to follow with God's character, they're all important and you can't tolerate any sin in your life. Partiality, verse 10. For whosoever keeps the whole law, you've been following God, but you've stumbled in one point, maybe you've shown partiality in the church. You've become guilty of all of it. You've shattered the glass of God's character. For he who said, the source of the law, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery, but do murder, if you don't do some of the law, but you fulfill other parts of the law, you have become guilty, a transgressor, you have broken, you've shattered the glass of all of it. So speak and act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. Speak and act as those who are reflecting the character of God. Don't tolerate sin in any respect in your life. Don't tolerate any sort of, specifically in this context, any sort of favoritism. You could contextualize that in your life. Don't tolerate any sort of small sin or large sin in your life because committing a small sin is the same as committing a large sin. It shatters the character of God. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy characterizes the law of God. Show mercy to all. And if you're not showing mercy, perhaps it's revealing in your heart that you'll be judged by God rather than accepted by God because those who are children of God reflect the character of their father. This was a little bit of a harder passage this week, and so hopefully, this is what the big picture of what he's saying. You can't treat the law as a list. You have to treat it as a whole. Don't view sins as some are worse than others. When you commit a sin, it's as though you've broken the whole law. As a Christian, we have forgiveness when we come to God in confession, and that God restores us in relationship For the unbeliever, there's no room to say, yeah, but I'm really not that bad. I haven't done this. It's that one sin affects the entirety of God's character. Make sense? I know it's a little bit harder to understand in this context, but that's what Paul's, I mean, that's what James is getting at. Hopefully I haven't said Paul too much tonight. Looking at Galatians. Any questions about that concept? Any questions about that concept that were brought up in your mind? All right, let's pray and we'll be dismissed. Father, thank you so much for the truths of Scripture. Thank you that you have revealed your character in the Scripture to us, that we can be confident in who you are. I pray that you would make us a people who reflect your character accurately. that we would not fall into the trap of tolerating small sins in our life such as partiality, but that we would reflect your character in every way to the best of our ability, that you would give us the grace to live in freedom and reflect the fruit of the Spirit so that we can be an accurate picture of you to others. In your name we pray, amen. Thanks so much for coming out tonight.