Well, good morning, everyone. Welcome. If you have your Bibles with you, why don't we open up to James 2, and we're looking at verses 5 through 13 this morning. So James 2, verses 5 through 13. Remember, he has just been making that first argument of do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. And then he jumps into the illustration that he gives between the rich man that had entered into the assembly and then the poor man that followed. And so we pick it up at verse five. He says, listen, my beloved brethren, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith? and 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, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not commit murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and act. as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we do come to you and Lord, just acknowledging our need for you. to rightly understand your word, to make it applicable in our own lives, and Lord, for us to be all the better for it, to be more like Christ, to love like Christ, to give like Christ, and to be a neighbor, a good neighbor to all. In Christ's name, amen. If you remember from last time, James is addressing the issue of faith and favoritism, faith and favoritism. And his opening argument, as I said, is in verse 1 of chapter 2. It's really more than an argument. It's actually more like a plead. He's pleading. He's pleading with us and with his readers, along with some correction as he begins to unpack verse 1 in the remaining 12 verses. His argument is really as follows. If your faith is in the glorious Lord Jesus Christ, well then, don't show partiality, don't show favoritism. You can't have that kind of attitude, he's saying. His whole argument finds its meaning and is rooted in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, as I spoke last time. It is Jesus who humbled himself in the form of a bondservant, when in heaven, He had what? All the riches, all the glory. He had it all. But there was glory here on this earth as he walked in grace and truth, as he walked in grace and truth, as he was giving hope, as he was healing, as he was touching, as he was interacting with the poor, with the needy, with all sorts of people. It's the way he spoke. It's the way he didn't set any boundaries. He was one that crossed what they would deem the boundary of the clean and the unclean. But this is Christ. He went all in. His example is ours. He didn't really have, he didn't have a social economic grid that he processed everything through and saying, well, that person is in that class, so therefore I'm not going to approach that person or I'm going to stay away here or there. Well, James, even after giving us this argument in verse 1, he follows it up by an illustration. He gives us this illustration in verses 2 and 3, and I just want to make some observations here just to help us understand really how this illustration is quite relevant in that culture, yet not as relevant maybe in our culture. And what I mean by that is as it relates to favoritism between the rich and the poor. Throughout much of history, there always existed these two groups, these classifications, the rich, the poor. It's not so much a middle class of some sort, not as we know it here in America and other wealthy countries. Now, that exists in other countries in the world. I'm talking about here primarily in America. And during the time of writing this letter in the first century, it was predominantly the poor class and the minority was the wealthy class, the rich. The distinction between the poor and the rich was quite evident. you would have a hard time making the mistake of putting one in one group and the other in the other group, mixing them up, so to speak. I remember reading, and some of you will remember reading George Mueller's biography, and so in there, it speaks of, he tells, his autobiography, he tells of how One of the convictions he had as he became pastor was that he had to eliminate the pew purchasing aspect of that time, the option that was out there. What was happening was the wealthy would purchase seats up in the front. And you would even have, some would even have a gate that you would walk in, a little door and your key, and then you would have that if you bought the pew. if you bought the chairs. I mean, talk about an attention grabber, right? Here come the pew, Mr. Pew purchaser, and he's walking into the church, and he's sitting down, and what attention is he getting? He's getting quite the attention. Can you imagine what the rest of the church is thinking? Can you imagine what is at stake for the pastor if he's gonna shut that down? That was a source of income for the church. But Mueller did, and he did it rightly. It was right to do that. Today in America, most, though, would fall into the category of the middle class, even though the middle class is divided into the low, lower, and the upper middle class. But, Saints, that's not the reality in some parts of the world. In a lot of parts of the world, there's this one calculator, you can go online and check it out, and if you put, I put in, I think it was a, A $35,000 or $40,000 salary in the United States for a family of five is considered middle class. It's considered middle class in respect to all the world. Let me put it this way. In 2022, more than half of the world would have a total income of less than $10,000. That's just putting things into perspective of where we are at here in the US in comparison to the rest of the world. Can you imagine that if one of us would walk into a low income, I mean third world country, and we would go into their village and we wouldn't change our dress, right? The way we dress, the way we look, and we would walk in there, what that would be like? What that would look like to them? That would be a shocker. That really would be. And so this is what they were dealing with at the church where James was writing. But I want to ask you a question. Are we that far removed? Are we that far removed? Remember last time, we were left with the challenge of testing our own motives as it pertains to partiality. Personal favoritism. Are our motives driven by right and Christ honoring standards or examples? Is that what's driving us? Or have the standards of the world or even our own preferences play the role as to how we view others? how we approach others, either in conversation, either if we're going to help somebody or minister to somebody. What grid do we go through? How do we process this? And this is very important because although James is talking specifically about the rich and the poor, it does bleed into many other areas as it pertains to our own lives. Do we show partiality as it pertains to personalities? Do we only talk to those who we feel comfortable talking to? Do we avoid certain people because we just know that they will require a lot more energy and effort from us? It's amazing how many times we have passed judgment, myself included, on someone by just observing them. Just observing them, external appearances, they may walk towards you, you may pass by them, but you never even once talk to them, but yet we've already determined in our minds certain things about that person. Are there distinctions, saints, that you have made in your own mind, in your own heart, as it pertains to your interactions or communications with others, with those in the church? We need to be thinking about this because we don't know the hearts of men as Christ did. As a matter of fact, if we knew the hearts of men as Christ did, I don't think we would talk to anybody. But Christ didn't show partiality. And at the same time, He wasn't ignoring what was in the heart and the intentions of man. He knew them, but he was after the heart. He was drawing them near. He was drawing them with loving kindness. And if there was ever one who did not show partiality, if there was ever one who loved his neighbor as himself, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the example. You see, the sin of partiality is the sin really of judging by lack of knowledge and external appearances. And as James noted, it almost always bears down to those who are poor, those who are destitute, those who are disadvantaged. It can even be those who may seem socially awkward or they could be visibly unattractive or intimidating. Ultimately, it comes to this. Are your motives centered around self? Are they centered around what can this person benefit me with? What can I get out of this relationship? Or is it more of what can I give? Is it Christ-centered? How can I serve? How can I minister? How can I be a better example of Christ? Well, James is proceeding in our text this morning to give us the application to all of this. What are we to draw or learn from all of the saints? This is what James is getting at. This is how he's going to lay out verses five through 13. He'll provide some practical applications to what he has said thus far. And we know this because of how he even begins verse five. He begins verse five by saying, listen, my beloved brethren, listen, my beloved brethren. He's calling for attention. He wants the attention of his brothers and sisters in Christ by saying, essentially, this is important. He wants to help them. The Holy Spirit wants to help us as well. He does. This is why this is here. We need help in this area. I've divided the verses before us into the three applications, but what I really want to do is spend less time on the first two and more time on the last one, because I do believe that verses 8 through 13 is rich in application. It's far-reaching and applicable to our everyday living. So, the first application, beginning in verse 5, and the second, which are in the form of questions. James brings it forth in the form of questions and really they are both general truths. General truths. So what does that mean? That means that these are not absolute. They're not always going to be this way, but this is generally so. All right, the first question is this, did God, did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? Notice how he begins the question, did not God? You see, in the Greek, and I appreciate the English translations because they held to that, the format in which they are, he's asking the question, when somebody says, did not, or what are the other questions there? Is it not, he says, or do they not? We are automatically receiving that, hearing that, and the answer is to be in the affirmative. And the answer should be yes. Yes, it is so. That's the way he wrote, and that's the way we're to understand it. So when we hear those questions, it should be the answer, yes. Now one clarifying point, the poor that James is referencing are not the poor in spirit that Christ talks about in the Beatitudes. They are not the poor in spirit that Christ talks about in the Beatitudes. James is identifying the poor as it pertains to their economic status, their earthly possessions, the way in regards to the worldly assessment of poverty. If I could put it that way, what the world would consider poor. But notice the choice of God. Notice the choice of God. And this is to be understood, again, as generally so, not always. God chooses the poor. He chooses the needy. He chooses the helpless of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. He's choosing them unto salvation. But this election doesn't imply any merit in and of or within their poverty. It's unmerited grace. It's because of the love of God that has been set upon them. It's not they merit it because they were poor. I wanna dig a little bit deeper because I think by providing you with some scripture references, I'm gonna let the scripture speak on this. Remember, James is tackling the topic of faith and favoritism. So Deuteronomy chapter 10 verses 17 through 19, we read this, for the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God. I love it and how he elevates God. And then he says, who does not show partiality nor take a bride. In other words, this awesome God. How great and mighty and powerful He is. And then He's going to come and tell us, but He doesn't show partiality. Now you already see the distinction there. I mean, in our minds, we're probably thinking rich, poor. The rich showing this, you know, the way that they're treating the poor. But here is God Almighty. And yet he does not show partiality. He executes justice for the orphan and the widow and shows his love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. So, here's the application, show your love for the alien for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. God showed them love, mercy, and no partiality, and you are to do the same. This is what he's saying there. Consider also the command of the Lord in Leviticus 19.15. This kind of, it balances out the poor and the rich here. It balances things out. It says, you shall do no injustice in judgment. But listen to this, he says, you shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the rich. So don't be partial to the poor or defer to the rich or to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly. Judge them fairly. And think about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, 26-29. Something we've heard in the men's retreat by Brother Lee. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble. But listen to this. It flows with what James is saying in God's choosing. He says, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen. He has chosen the things that are not. so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. He even gives us the reason why God has chosen the poor, and the unwise, and the unworthy, and the needy, and the foolish things, the base things, the despised things, so that no man may boast, so that those who think they are will come to nothing. He may nullify the things that are. But I want us to know that the rich are not excluded from entering the kingdom. We can't go on this topic or this argument that James has brought forth and say, well, then that means that none that are rich will ever enter into the kingdom. I mean, what are we going to do with Abraham, who the scripture says, who was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold? What are you going to do with Job who was the greatest of all the men of the East? What are you going to do with Solomon? What are you going to do with Joseph of Arimathea? That it said of him that he was the rich man from Arimathea. What are you going to do with Zacchaeus who was introduced in the scriptures as a chief tax collector and that he was rich? What are we going to do with them? Well, we're going to accept them. That's what we're going to do. And understand that though there are the rich, though there are the poor, and God has chosen the poor, that the rich are not excluded, but they are also not many. Consider Jesus and what he said about him, what is said about him at his birth. What is it? Luke chapter one, verse 53. He will fill the hungry with good things, and the rich, he will what? They will leave empty-handed. He will leave them empty-handed. He sent them away empty-handed. Think about even what is said when the rich young ruler approaches Jesus. Remember, he walked away very sad and very grieved because Jesus told him to sell everything and give it to the poor. This grieved him. And so as you can imagine, as he's walking away, Jesus is saying, Oh, how hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. How hard? This is an observation by our Lord. It all boils down to their own neediness and the Lord making that known to them. The rich have placed their faith in their own abilities and have no great need. They are the mighty, they are the noble, the wise, the strong, but not so much for the poor. They lack and are needy. And the Lord loves to show himself strong so that no man may boast. James continues in verse six and seven. He says, but you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? The answer is yes. The rich do personally oppress and drag us into court. That's the answer that the reader is supposed to give. So in contrast to God's way of treating the poor, here is a church that has dishonored the poor man. This is exactly the opposite of what James talks about at the end of chapter one. What pure religion is. It's to care for the needy. It's to care for the helpless, for the destitute. Even in Galatians chapter 2 verse 10, think about Paul after visiting the Jerusalem consul. What is it that he says there? He says that they also, this is what they gave Paul as a charge. You also, Paul, remember the poor. And Paul says, which I was also eager, very eager to do. That's the instruction that the consul of Jerusalem gave to Paul. Don't forget about the poor. Don't forget about them. There's something knit into the fabric of God in choosing the poor. As one commentator said, that these saints, these people gathered in the church that James is writing to, that they should have realized that of the two visitors, the poor man was the more likely prospect as a convert. In other words, they should have erred on the side of God. They should have erred on the side of God's normative mode of operation, choosing the poor and promising them the kingdom. As it pertains to the rich who oppress and drag them into court, this would be generally true throughout the ages. I mean, Lee is beginning the book of Acts, and we're gonna see that in the book of Acts in live color, very vivid. Just think about that. The rich, the wealthy, those who are usually the ones in power, exercise that position or authority over the helpless and poor. And they do so in a hurtful, they do so in an oppressive way. The only other time this word oppressed is used is found in Acts chapter 10 verse 38, where Peter preaches. He says, you know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed. There it is. Who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him. And the way that, so you can see oppression is in the negative sense, but the way that even the Old Testament, the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, is usually describing the oppression or the hardships against the poor and needy is in using this term, this oppressed term. It's not, it does not carry the meaning of religious persecution. Not this right here. But there in verse seven, he is making another argument. And he's making the argument against the rich who blaspheme the fair name by which you were called. The fair name by which you are called, which is the fair name of Christ. Now this would fall under the category of religious persecution. This itself, the rich in general, at that time, and even today, against the very person and name of Christ, Those that are against Christ, as a result, will be against His people as well. They will oppress. They will blaspheme the name of Christ. They will persecute the church. Again, this is generally so. We don't really need to look far. I mean, just glance throughout church history, and we really will find that it's not the poor that are persecuting the church, is it? We don't really find that. It's those in power. There's something about the sinfulness of man that when they are in a position of power, wealth, and influence, that they oppress or run down those who cannot defend themselves. It must bring some kind of gratification to the sinful man of putting somebody down. And you know, sometimes we even hear it and feel it in our own hearts and minds, don't we? We do, we do sense that. And we got to check ourselves of that. If somebody would sin grievously, in a way it almost lifts our soul. in a very strange way, sinful way, instead of being hurt by what just took place, thinking, well, that automatically, maybe this is the way we process. Automatically we think, well, then we're better than that person. Somehow we've elevated ourselves above that person. But that's just wrong thinking. That's not right. And so, The offense or the wrong committed that James is bringing forth is this, that they, the Christians, that would testify of the great, beautiful, noble name of Christ, and then dishonor the poor man who has the same claim. There's something wrong with that. When you're coming under the beautiful name of Christ, and yet you're dishonoring the very ones that the scripture says that God has chosen. So how can we benefit from these truths? What can we glean from these, brothers and sisters? Well, the command is very plain. Don't show partiality. Don't show favoritism. To do so is to show our blindness to the attitude of God to the needy. To do so is to expose our hearts as not being right before God and man. To do so is to undermine the gospel. To do so is to go against what Christ came to accomplish, it is to miss grace altogether. Because it is written in 2 Corinthians 8-9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. Are your hearts right? Is your heart right, saints? Does this choosing of God cause you to rejoice? Does it make a love for the poor and needy rise up in your heart? Then you are seeing it rightly. But does it cause you to disdain or dislike the wealthy? Then you are seeing it wrongly. So then what is the answer? The answer is found in verses eight through 13. That's where the answer is found. And this is where James takes us. It's wonderful to see. This is where he spends the bulk of his time. He's beginning in verse eight in such a way that it points us to the answer, to the right way, to the remedy. And it's God's remedy in all of this. He says, if, however, you are fulfilling the royal law, And then he describes what the royal law is. He ends with, you do well. If you are fulfilling the royal law, then you do well. What is this royal law? Well, it's first according to scripture. That's what he says. It's according to the Holy Spirit. It's not any law of the land decreed by man. It's of God. It is royal because it is crowning. It is royal because it is set by Jesus Christ, the King of all kings, King Jesus. And it identifies the lifestyle in his kingdom. What is his kingdom governed by? Love. In chapter two, verse 12, we'll get to that, but it's also the law of liberty. The royal law and the law of liberty, same thing. It is the law that Christ lived out. It's the law that says you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. Simply put, what does it mean to love your neighbor? It's to do right and to do the right thing to your neighbor, for your neighbor. to be right with your neighbor. You wouldn't be doing wrong to yourself. You wouldn't be doing the wrong thing to yourself, so don't do it to your neighbor, in essence. Well, the whole law of God is summed up in the word of love. Yet, love is not somehow against law or law against love. The nature of the law is love. at the core, and the law demands love, but the law tells us how to love, which, for example, don't steal. And it's love that fulfills that law. So I'll repeat that. The law tells us how to love, for example, don't steal. And then love fulfills that law. Love carries it through. And if you are fulfilling this law, James says, you are doing well. But, he continues in verse 9, if you show partiality, you are committing sin. He's coming back to partiality. He keeps coming back to favoritism. He keeps coming back to this one thing. And the verdict issued by the royal law, he says, counts you or declares you guilty. Not only that you have sinned, you've committed a sin, meaning that you have not measured up to the requirements of the law, but that you are also a transgressor of the law, which means you knew about the law, but you broke it anyway. You're a lawbreaker. So not only are you committing sin, but you're also transgressing the law. By not showing partiality, or by showing partiality, you're demonstrating your lack of love for your neighbor. Saints, when we do not love others, we sin. We can boil it down to that simple of a statement. When we don't love others, we are sinning. Now that's going to affect every single one of us, isn't it? Because now I have to evaluate every intention of my heart. What am I about here? If I don't love, what does that say about me, my heart? What does that say about the way I view God? I read it somewhere that sin springs out of a lack of love. Sin springs out of a lack of love. Think about the lawyer that asked the question to Jesus. Remember, it's the lawyer that came and asked Jesus a question which actually gave rise to one of the most popular and most repeated parables, the Good Samaritan. Everybody knows the Good Samaritan. And so, you remember, he stood up and says, to test Jesus. He wanted to test Jesus. And asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replied, to do what is written in the law. I love that answer. It still stands today, saints. Do what is written in the law. And then Jesus asked him, very, very importantly, how do you understand it? How do you understand what it means to live according to the law? Well, the lawyer responded correctly, summarized the Ten Commandments into two. He says, love the Lord your God with all of your mind, with all of your soul, with all of your strength, with all your ability, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the right answer. You can hear the crowd going, Yay! He got him. What is he going to do now? After Jesus encourages him and he says, Okay, well you do that very thing. Do it. His heart was exposed. This lawyer's heart was exposed. He couldn't keep it within anymore and attempting to limit his loving to a select group of people in a preferred few in order to justify himself before the Lord because he has been doing that right. He says, well, who is my neighbor? And he was probably waiting for the answer of, well, those who are just you interact with, or just the people in your group. The lawyer really wanted this. It was only those who were like him, or those who can provide something in return to be his neighbor. You see, he was looking for something to get out of the relationship, and Jesus said, He gives the story of the Good Samaritan, but also in Matthew 5, verse 46, Jesus said, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Because that's easy. He says, do not even the tax collectors do the same? He says, if you greet only your brothers, You say hello to only your brothers, those who are near to you, well then, what more are you doing than others? The Gentiles do the same. So this love for a neighbor, Jesus defines it in a more unique way. It's a special kind of love, isn't it? It's not just a love that can be manufactured. There's no other love that can rise up and love like the law requires to love others as ourselves. Therefore, it must be understood that this love needs to be the outflow of our love for God, but especially God's love for us. This is what we have to deduce. This is what we have to rest on. It can't and won't work the other way. We don't love God because we love others. And if we have experienced the love of God for us, it then compels us, it constrains us. And we will love others as ourselves. Our love for others must always be accompanied by a care for them, a concern for them, a special attention to them. We need this. I need this. As I communicate with my wife, as I communicate with my children, my coworkers, with all of you, We all need this. So, how much more are we to be the examples of Christ because we have been infected, we have been touched, we have been inundated with this great love of Christ. James continues in verse 10 with what seems like a refutation of the argument he just put forth, or someone making light of the sin of partiality as compared to the rest of the law, the rest of the Ten Commandments. And they're thinking, well, the sin of partiality, the sin of favoritism, probably thinking, well, everybody does it. Everybody works through some kind of grid in their own heart, and everybody shows some kind of favoritism to somebody or to somebody else. Let's read verses 10 and 11. Let's shed some light on this. He says, for whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not commit murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. It's almost as if they are minimizing the sin of partiality or the lack of loving our neighbor as ourselves. But to James, there is no small sin. There's no little sins. There's not this sin of preference or this preference that I have that goes one way and then there's the heavier ones, the Ten Commandments, and then the lighter ones. Nor is there picking and choosing of commandments. Because if we do so, we're taken away from God's own revelation and requirements. We're taken away from his revelation, his requirements. And if so, if we break one, we are guilty of breaking the whole law because the law in itself is a whole. It's not divisible. You can't divide the law. It's indivisible. And it's so because of the character of the one who spoke it. Notice what he says in verse 11. He says, for he who said, He's falling back, this is his argument, he's falling back on God said it. It's He who said it. And he goes, the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not murder, and do not show partiality as well, because this is the context. They're more than just words written on stone or on a piece of paper or on some manuscript. These are the words of God for he who said. This was James' argument. So to break any part of the law, any part of the law, is to disobey God who is speaking to you and me. For every part of the law reflects some aspect of his nature. James is bringing forth the seriousness of the sin of partiality. This is what he's doing. He wants to bring it right in front of our faces. Because once again, at the core, this is just demonstrating our lack of love for one another. Our lack of love and keeping with the royal law. We're not loving each other as we ought. Nor are we loving our maker. We're not loving God. I really want to end where James ends because I believe it is here where we find our answer. In verse 12, he tells us to speak and act, speak and act, as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. James is getting back to our speaking and acting. He's getting back to being doers of the word, not just hearers of the word. To speak and act in such a way that we are governed by and with the understanding that we are under the law of liberty. Under the law of liberty. In other words, the royal law, as I mentioned before, the law of liberty. The law that brings freedom. The law that brings freedom. This is diametrically different from the freedom that the world offers. That kind of freedom that the world offers just drives you to enslavement. It enslaves you and enslaves me if we find freedom in things of this world. It will only take us deeper and destroy us. It will draw us away from Christ and cause us to live an unsatisfied, bitter, selfish, sinful life. That's the freedom of the world, and I want no part of it. I know you don't either. Through Christ, we have been set free from the law as our taskmaster. It doesn't condemn us any longer, but by His Spirit, by His Spirit, we have the power to obey the law. The law hasn't changed. Our relationship to the law has because we have been changed. The law has now become the way of life. It's the way I live out my life. It is liberating to know that we can live in obedience to God through the Spirit because of Christ. There is freedom. You are free to live rightly. And you have the gift of the Holy Spirit that empowers you to live rightly and to love your neighbor. In 1 John 3, 24, he says, the one who keeps his commandments abides in him and he in him. We know by this that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us. But notice we are to speak and act as those who are to be judged. I don't want to spend too much time here, although it's very intriguing, and I know that this would capture your attention. But in, you know, even in 2 Corinthians 5, 10, where, you know, as regards to speak and act as those that will be judged, what believers being judged, you got 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10, where he says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, the bema seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body here on earth, whether good or bad. This is it. Do you think of this way? Do you think in the way of that I will be judged one day? I'm not talking about the judgment and regard. Listen, Romans 8.1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. It's not the judgment in regards to justification. We've been justified. We've been justified and that's once and for all. He died for our sins once and for all, but we are not going to be judged in that regard. Everybody that has been justified goes to heaven and is with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there is a judging of the works here on this earth, the judging of sanctification. And we're not gonna get into that. I hate to drop that whole subject right now, but maybe we can get into another time. It's not a loss of salvation, it's a loss of commendation. Let me put it that way. But also, and more importantly, the commendation that will happen. To be judged by the law of liberty is a healthy fear of judgment, which is a true motive for every believer. It really is. I'm going to strive. And Paul talks about this. I've worked hard. I've worked harder than anybody else. But it's Christ that is in me. He's the one that has helped me. And so maybe the question that would arise, and I want to get to this because time is running short again. What does this speaking and acting look like? It's mercy. That's what he's saying. It's mercy. It's all of mercy. Three times in verse 13, we find the word mercy. Even though this verse in itself is a hard and challenging verse to hear, yet encouraging and much needed. What is mercy? Mercy is the outworking of the heart and showing pity, showing compassion, showing kindness to those who are in misery. It looks not at what the person deserves, but at what the person needs. That's mercy. And if we bypass or fail to show mercy, we ourselves will be judged without mercy. But this doesn't mean that mercy now becomes what makes us acceptable before God. That's not what James is saying here. No, what James is doing here is bringing forth the reality that if you are not practicing mercy, it is evident that you have not received divine mercy. I'll repeat that, so that if you're not practicing mercy, it's evident that you have not received divine mercy. For if you have, mercy would be on your lips, it'd be on your heart. And as you speak, you will speak mercifully. And as you act, you will act in mercy. It's not acting in mercy in perfection. But that's your heartbeat. That's your desire. I want to be more merciful. I want to show mercy to my fellow brothers and sisters. I want to show mercy to all people. How many of us are erring on that side of mercy with others? Showing compassion and kindness. Having pity and giving of your time and possessions just as you have been given. Truth is, we fall short. We do. Sign me up. I'll be first in line. I fall short of that. Our prayer ever needs to be, oh Lord, give us more love for our neighbors. Let us have a real sense and understanding of the mercy we have been given. And let that mercy overwhelm us so that it will cause us to show mercy. James ends with a very comforting word, a word that really encapsulates the gospel and our hope in this life and for eternity. He says, mercy triumphs over judgment. Because we fail, because we are not always merciful, we run. We run to the place where mercy was great and grace was free. We run to the cross. And there, saints, we see that mercy and truth have met together and that righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Psalm 85 verse 10. That's what we see there. So let me end with this. Where do you stand in regard to mercy? Where do you stand in regards to love? Where do you stand in regards to partiality? Ultimately, where do you stand in your faith as Your faith is in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. We need to meditate on that. We need to go back and think about, really just get alone and think about the mercy that you have received. And that should just drive you to your knees in gratitude and praise to the Almighty. And then only give as much as mercy as you have received. That's it. Love one another, saints. Outdo each other in love and compassion and kindness. Carry each other's burdens. Help where help is needed. Repent where you have wronged others in this area. Forgive as you have been forgiven. Listen, God didn't hold back any mercy towards you. So let mercy triumph over judgment. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so very much that your mercy is new today. And we need it. So, Father, thank you for giving it. Help us as well to demonstrate mercy and love, Lord, to one another, to all people, and let them see the glory of Christ. where our faith lies, and what we believe. The risen King of Kings is His name, Jesus Christ. Amen.