Turn with me if you'd like in your own copy of the scripture to James chapter 2. Our meditation will focus on verse 8 and verse 9, but we want to see it in its larger context. James 2 beginning at verse 1. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 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, or sit down at 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 the 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 men. 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 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 but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, do not commit adultery, also said, do not murder. If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of Liberty. For the judgment, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Let's draw near to our God in prayer. Father in heaven, we pray that as we now take up your word, we pray that you would use it for good in our lives. We do not believe that we are on a fool's errand because Lord Jesus, you have said, you have prayed that we would be sanctified in the truth. And you have expressed to the father that his word is truth. So father help us to come and to honor this noble book and we pray that you would send your spirit to help us to understand and rightly value and to practically apply this portion of your word to our lives. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. I have said that our focus is going to be on verses 8 and 9, but we need to look back to the earlier verses 1 through 7 to see that we're in this same theme. If there is this wealthy man that comes in, then he is not to be given a seat of honor. The poor man, we are not to tell him, here sit on the footstool, sit at my feet, but there is to be a fairness that is exercised as we entertain visitors in the worship of God. I want to highlight as we begin this one phrase, this one set of words there in James 2 and verse 8, If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, the scripture, I'm afraid that we could easily pass over the significance of this. If you understand this title, the scripture, you will understand why we as a church are doing what we are doing right now. Here is a book of James, which is some little five chapter letter written almost 2,000 years ago. And at this point in our service, these otherwise seemingly normal people are going to spend some 45, 50 minutes studying two verses. Why would you do that? Well, these verses are a part of the scripture, which means the holy writing. John Blanchard writes, nearly 4,000 times in the Old Testament alone, 700 times in the first five books, 40 times in one chapter. The claim of divine authorship is made. God said, God spoke, the word of the Lord came, the Lord commanded. This is the language of the Old Testament from beginning to end. Incidentally, if these statements are false, then the Bible is surely the most evil and perverse book ever written because it tells nearly 4,000 blasphemous lies about its origin in the Old Testament alone. Those of us sitting in our Sunday school class and hearing of the rise of deism will see how the Bible addresses its own authorship from God. But now, notice with me that the New Testament feels the same way about itself being the Word of God as the Old Testament. King Jesus said, the scripture cannot be broken. Paul wrote, all scripture is breathed out by God. And Peter shared his deep conviction regarding the prophetic word, how it has come from God. Notice verse 21, for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God. as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. So yes, these are the words of James the half-brother of Jesus and the leading pastor of the Jerusalem Church. However, these are more than the words of a man. These are the words of a man who was carried along by the Holy Spirit so that these words would become a part of the unified whole of God's Word to all men of all time. We study these words because with Peter we believe that Lord Jesus, you have the words of life. Come with me then to Roman numeral 1, Roman numeral 1, the commendation. We have very simply a commendation, Roman numeral 2, a condemnation. First of all, from verse 8, the commendation that goes with kingdom law. It goes right along with it. So notice with me, A, the all-important command of loving your neighbor. Here we're looking at those words, the latter part of verse 8, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. These words are quoted by the Lord Jesus, first of all, in the New Testament. He is quoting them from Leviticus 19.18. And these words are found quoted six different times in the New Testament. I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 22. And the first thing that we notice here is that Jesus uniquely exalts this all-important Old Testament command, Matthew 22 and verse 36. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets. And then if you want to know the other places where this commandment, love your neighbor as yourself appears, It appears in Mark 12, 31 is a parallel here to Matthew 22. In Luke 10 and verse 27, Jesus quotes this love to your neighbor, to the lawyer who wanted to know how he merited heaven. And then he asked, well, who's your neighbor? And the Lord Jesus goes on to give the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Lord Jesus, though he does not quote it, there in Matthew 7 in verse 12, gives the parallel thought. So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. Love your neighbor as yourself. But then, not only the Lord Jesus, but Paul repeats this all-important command. Love your neighbor as yourself. I invite you to turn to Romans 13 and verse 8. And here, Paul is going to give this command, this broad command of loving your neighbor as yourself. It's going to be there in the latter part of verse 9. But in the first part of verse 9, I want you to see that he quotes four of the Ten Commandments. Four of the latter six, or the second table of the law. Notice Romans 13 and verse 8. Owe no one anything except to love each other. for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. And what is unmistakably plain here is that love and law are friends. Love and law go together. Now verse 9. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. Which one is that? Well, it's the seventh. You shall not murder. Which one is that? The sixth. You shall not steal. The eighth. You shall not covet. the 10th, and any other commandment are summed up in this word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And if we didn't get the idea that love and law are friends, then notice verse 10. Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is a fulfilling of the law. But Paul uses this word, this command, love your neighbor as yourself, Galatians 5 and verse 14, you need not turn there, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And now back to James. James chapter 2. James repeats this all-important command. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. So why does God give this principle of love? And why does God give us his moral law? Why does he give the Ten Commandments? Well, three reasons. God's moral law is a muzzle. What does that mean? Well, it means that for you as a child, even as you hear the commandment that you are to honor your father and your mother, and you hear the commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, Even if there is no deep heart dealings, those commandments will exert a pressure on your mind, so at least externally, for at least a few minutes as you're thinking about it, that you will want to honor your father and your mother. And you will want to love them. A muscle doesn't deal with the heart of the dog, does it? But the muzzle deals with the external action of the dog and keeps him from doing what he otherwise might. And that's one of the purposes of God's law, just to restrain evil. It's a muzzle. But God's law is a mirror. And God gives us this command so that we will go to our mirror and say, how do I do? How much do I look like the command of loving my neighbors as I love myself? Well hopefully as we stand before that mirror we will see some of the blotches on us and quite frankly some of the open wounds in us that demonstrate I'm not doing very well at keeping any of the commandments and I'm not doing real well at having a heart that is just suffused with love for my fellow man. And so hopefully, when you see that, you'll get a sense of embarrassment and a sense of, oh, I get it. This is why I need Jesus to die for me on the cross. It is a mirror to show me my need so that I will come to faith in Jesus. But thirdly, it's not only a muzzle, it's not only a mirror, but it is a map. Once you're a believer, God's law is still operative in your life. You remember how this paragraph begins, James 2 and verse 1. James is talking about those who are holding faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. They're Christians. They've already looked into the mirror. They've already become convinced of their need of the Lord Jesus, but now the law of God is a map for them. The law of God is for the believer a map to tell me where I am to go and how I am to please God in my life. Now, hopefully you're a believer. Hopefully you have started out on this path of living for the glory of God and hopefully there's been a change so that you're not quite as selfish as what you were. But I hope that every true Christian is aware, is painfully aware that all of your selfishness has not been drained out. And so this is a map for us. Loving others as myself will guide me in a thousand different situations. I will recite to myself, due to others, as you would have them do to you. And it's amazing how that little verse, what am I gonna do in this situation? There's this and there's that and the other is so complex and I can't figure it out. Recite this verse and all of a sudden it becomes very plain. I need to do to others as I would have them to do to me. In William Grinnell's words, the Christian is bred by the Word and he must be fed by the Word. What did he mean? Well, it's by the Word of God that God brings us forth to spiritual life, James 1 verse 18. The mirror of the law is part of the conversion process. I see the blotches, I see the hole in the side of my head when it comes to loving others, and I see my need of Christ. But once I'm a believer, I do not have the freedom to then just take, oh, law of God, I don't need that anymore. I'm a Christian. No, you still need it as a map. to help you to know what is the will of God. So first of all, A, the all-important command of loving your neighbor. And now secondly, B, the honorable name for loving your neighbor. This, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. What title does James give it? Do you see it there in the first part of verse 8? If you really fulfill the royal law, that's what I think most of our versions call it. The royal law. It's unusual language, isn't it? The only time in all of the scripture that it's given this particular title, the royal law. And if we don't get anything else, we ought to get this, that James speaks of God's moral law in an honorable way. He doesn't slight it, but he honors it. a good name, the Royal Law. Some suggest that it means this, it means the Royal Law because of all the laws, of all the commandments, that you've got these two commands to love that are the highest commands that are over all the other commands. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And I don't think there's any, that is true. But I question whether or not that's really the emphasis in this passage. Some tell us the royal law simply means, well, you've got a king. And this is the law of the king. But I have referred to it as a kingdom law. Why is that? Well, notice with me, verse eight is not very far away from verse five. What does that mean? Well, we have literally in verse eight, James is calling it kingdom law. And in verse five, he's just told us that we are heirs of the kingdom. You get the first stage of the kingdom when God rules in our hearts now, you get the second stage of the kingdom when we are with Christ for all eternity. But in English, when we talk about kingdom, what word do you hear in it? King. We could take king, kingdom, kingly, and we hear in all of them this parallel thought. Well, it's about a king. The guy who rules. What he rules over. How he rules. Guess what? In Greek, it's very much the same thing. Listen to it. Basilea, kingdom. Basilkan, kingdom as an adjective, the royal. Basileus, king. So basil, basil, basil. And this is what we don't see on our English version. This is why I'm saying kingdom. And one of the top Greek dictionaries says, well, it's royal law because of its overarching significance or more probably because it is given by the king of the kingdom. And one of my commentary friends says, Would it be possible to read this in a Jewish Christian context without thinking of the kingdom of God, mentioned in verse 5, and the kingship of Yahweh that was, in Christian thought, invested in Jesus? Is it not most natural to see a reference to the whole law as interpreted and handed over to the church in the teaching of Jesus? The law is the sovereign rule of God's kingdom. And the little note, confer Matthew chapter five. Well, let's go to Matthew three. You can turn there if you want to. We've already read it. But I want to highlight several of these verses. Matthew 3 and verse 2. Repent, this is the Baptist, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The summary of what Jesus does as he is preaching and teaching. Matthew 4, 17, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew 4, 23, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. There is the rule of Jesus in the heart and the rule of Jesus for all eternity. Matthew 5 in verse 3, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. You want to be in the kingdom of heaven? Then you've got to declare your moral bankruptcy before God. Matthew 5 in verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We read it in Matthew 5, verse 17. The one who'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven is the one who slights God's law. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Verse 20, for I tell you, unless your righteousness succeeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And having said that, where does Jesus go? Kingdom of heaven, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of heaven. Let me talk to you about the sixth commandment. Let me talk to you about the seventh commandment. Now, if you were counting, we would have already now seven times in Matthew's gospel where Matthew has used the term kingdom of heaven. and once gospel of the kingdom, so eight times for simple kingdom. In Matthew's gospel, 31 times kingdom of heaven is found and 53 times some aspect of kingdom is found in Matthew. Here's my question for you. Do you think that Pastor James has learned to appreciate the law of God in the way that his older half-brother, Jesus, the Son of God, taught us. Well, yes. And James is not to be regarded as one who is least in the kingdom of heaven because he is minimizing and despising the law of God. He is to be recognized as one who is great in the kingdom because he takes the law of the king of the kingdom and he says it's a royal law. It's a kingdom law. And as long as you've got a king ruling over his kingdom, then expect that these laws, these commandments will be in place. And as we look over this bit of background, It's interesting to ask this question. Do you think that new covenant believers, believers this side of the cross, should be allergic to Jesus' kingdom law? Well, not if he's their king. Not if they have Jesus' kingdom in their hearts and that Jesus is ruling. Jesus says his law is for the kingdom of heaven and James says it is kingdom law. It is royal law. Blanchard writes, biblical love demands that regardless who people are, regardless of what they believe, regardless of how they behave, regardless of their attitudes or actions toward us, we will constantly seek to act towards them in ways deliberately calculated to bring about their greatest good. That is the biblical meaning of love, and when men begin to act like that, things happen. We are always obligated to love our neighbor as ourself, to treat them in a way that we would want to be treated. Thirdly, C, the condition, the condition. The condition of loving your neighbor, it's very plain that in verse 8, we have a conditional statement. A conditional statement's an if-then. If you really fulfill the royal law according to scripture, then we have to supply, then you are doing well. If this part is true, then the other part is true. And notice with me in this condition, What is the action verb here following the if? If you really fulfill, if you complete it, if you're doing it, if you are living out, loving your neighbor as yourself, if you're working at it. It's not, well, I did this once, James. I thought of my neighbor and I did this once. really wore me out, but I did it. No, this is an ongoing activity as character of life. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. And that brings us fourthly to D, the commendation for loving your neighbor. James is aware that not all of the people in the church have the same problem. It may be a number of them that are looking at the wealthy man and the poor man and saying, all right, we're going to show honor to the wealthy man. But that may not be characteristic of all of them. And so James says in verse eight, if you are really fulfilling this royal law, according to the scripture, if you're loving your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. Now, some of us who may tend to be more negative, and we feel like it strengthens our persona, we could always be there, we can be counted on to point out someone's fault. I'm worried that this may weaken James' position for him in kindness to say, you're doing well if you're doing this. Does it weaken his position? No, it actually strengthens it. He's able to make a distinction. There are some, and if you're showing this love from your heart, you're doing well. And now he turns in verse nine to the negative. For one, you are good. For the other, you're rotten. And it comes with greater power. And all of this brings us to Roman numeral two. We've seen the commendation that goes with kingdom law. Now in verse nine, the condemnation that goes with kingdom law that comes along in this section, verse eight and verse nine. First of all, A, the name for preferring the rich. Verse nine, but if you show partiality, partiality is favoritism. It's the issue at hand. It started back in verse 1. We're talking about the rich visitor versus the poor visitor. And we're not to look at them and make a distinction. Okay, because you are this, therefore I'm going to show love to you, or therefore I'm not going to show love to you. We can broaden the application and see that it is wrong for us to look at someone and to treat them less favorably on the basis of, fill in the blank, their financial situation. Treat them less based on their skin color, their lack of connection to old money, their caste level, their ethnic background. It's wrong to look at someone on some external and make a decision, this is how I'm going to treat you, in distinction from someone else. Secondly, B, what you are working in preferring the rich. Now verse nine, but if you show partiality, oh, here's Pastor James with his typical plainness, you are committing sin. You are committing. You are literally working. It's a word from which we get energy. You are working in the present tense. You're doing this right now. It's not something you did 10 years ago. You're committing sin. Sin, in this word, is missing the mark. Secondly, see, no, thirdly, see. What you are working and preferring the rich was B, now C, how you are seen in preferring the rich. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the laws, transgressors, that word convicted means bring to light, to be exposed, to be seen. I suppose shine a light on an activity. If it's done in darkness, you shine a light on it and then you can see it. And I see that I'm doing this. I see that I have transgressed. It's one who's crossed the line. Then that means that James is working to convict us of sin and transgression. What is sin according to the old catechism? Sin is any lack of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. It can be missing the mark, there's the target, there's the bullseye, but you're not even close, you're not even on that wall. And then there's the line, this is what God wants you to do, the side. But you step across the line. You're a transgressor. And now fourthly D. Fourthly D. Practical questions. Where is your standard of right and wrong. We've all got a standard. Where is yours. Here we learn this morning of God's objective standard that in one very real and very important sense is outside of us. We can imagine James talking about the rich man, the poor man, who you're going to honor. In a modern, maybe a man of every age would say the same, would say, I disagree with you, James. I feel that I have not done anything wrong here and you are just being overly sensitive. If I want to give up my seat in church worship, I am free to give up my seat to whomever I feel is best. Pastor James. Don't you understand that it is natural for me to feel closer to some as opposed to others? And I feel it is wrong for you to impose your ethic on me. What word has been repeated over and over there? Did you even hear it? It may be such a part of your vocabulary that you don't notice me using it. I feel. I feel. My own subjective sense of what is right and wrong is the standard and it's so much a standard for me that I can sit in judgment of Pastor James who's writing under inspiration. Where is your standard of right and wrong? What is the message of James and Jesus? Well, there is a royal moral law of God that is found outside of us. Now I said that it is in a very important sense outside of us. What sense is it a part of us? Well, the blessing of the new covenant is that he will take his law and he will write it on my heart. But that happens over a process of me coming, saying, God, show me your will, and I'm looking to that standard that is objective and outside of me. And praying it in in the Spirit of God is helping me as a child of God to think more and more like my Heavenly Father. But here's the deal. If we have been living in a world where we have forgotten God and we're living for our own selves, how good do you think we are going to be in discerning what is the right thing to do when the right thing to do is not to be selfish? That's my whole existence over here. And once you believe, it doesn't all get flushed down the toilet. It takes years and years. It takes a whole life. And maybe in a whole life, you got 30% of it flushed out of you. Praise God for heaven and for the bump of glorification. Whatever your or my feelings, if we have violated something of God's law, then we need to know that is the objective standard. It is outside of myself and it's fairly plain. The royal law is a kingdom law. Yes, Jesus has a two commandment summary of his law. Love God, love your neighbor. but he also has a 10-point summary of his law. Number two, second question, second practical question. Did Jesus' two-point standard of love replace Yahweh's 10-point standard of law? This is an extremely popular teaching in our day. Is this what Jesus taught? No. Jesus taught that all of the law and the prophets hang on these two of loving God and loving your neighbor. When Jesus taught about loving enemies in Matthew 5, when he talked about his kingdom, he specifically talked about the sixth commandment and the seventh commandment. And when Paul is talking about you shall love your neighbor as yourself, that's the second part of the verse. And the first part of the verse is four commandments from the 10 commandments. If we're to understand that the law of love has replaced the law of commandments, then Paul is being intentionally confusing. When Pastor James teaches us to love our neighbors, he talks about loving our neighbor, verse eight, and what does he say in verse 11? Sixth commandment and seventh commandment. That's rather confusing. What could it be that that which is extremely popular in our day is founded on extremely flimsy Biblical basis. If you believe that the law of love has replaced the law of commandments, may I graciously suggest to you, you believe that because you want to, not because the Bible tells you to. Number three, practical question. How helpful is it to live out loving your neighbor as yourself. Well, it's very helpful. It's applicable in many, many, many situations of life. From when you first open your mouth in the morning to speak, love your neighbor as yourself. Do to others as you would have them do to you. I got work to do. What about you? Who do you speak to? Do you like to be ignored? No. What do you say? Do you like to hear complaints? Or do you like a warm greeting? Do you like to be lied to? How you say it, what tone of voice do you dislike? Do you like someone to speak to you in a domineering way or in a caustic way? Love others. as you would have them do to you. Love others in a way that shows your love to them. When you are paying your bills or giving a tip, love your neighbor as yourself. Do you like to be stiffed? Do you like to be cheated? Do you like to be paid on time? When you give the report to the boss, Do you like someone else taking the credit for work that you have done? Then don't do that to someone else. When you are teaching, do you like someone to walk in five, 10 minutes later after you've started? Do you like it? Then don't do that to others. You see, all of the places where this thing can apply It's like 1 John 1, 9. If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just. Have you used that verse too much? Thankfully, it can't be worn out. It may get better with use. And so is this command, love your neighbor as yourself. You can't overuse it. Fourthly, fourth question. Does Pastor James have an evangelistic goal when he urges the churches to love their neighbors as themselves? Well, I fully expect that he does. Because James knows the heart of the Father and His grace in sending the Son. And James knows better than most the heart of Jesus. willingness to come to live and die. And James wants the church visitor, rich or poor, to know as he walks through the doors that he or she is loved from the heart and his or her best interest will be sought. So my hearer, whoever you are, I want you to understand the gospel of grace. You may have been saddened this morning to hear me Read the word sin. You are committing sin. You are exposed as a transgressor. Oh, that hurts my feelings. That makes me feel bad. You may be saddened to see your natural selfishness dominates your thinking. For just a few seconds, you've looked at yourself in the mirror and asked yourself how well you do on loving others as yourself. And you didn't like what you saw. It makes you sad. You're missing the mark. You've crossed the line. And you may be further sent to know that in the eyes of God, there is none who is righteous. No, not one. and that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. How is that evangelistic? Well, I think of the words of Newton's hymn. You got to see that you're a wretch. You got to see that you're lost. You got to see that you're blind before you can ever be converted. Listen to this line in verse two. It was grace that taught my heart to fear. There it is. I see sin. I am committing sin. I am shown to be a transgressor. I do not love my neighbor as myself. I see my weakness. I see my fault. and I see God's righteous standard, and I hear of an eternal destruction, and all of this makes me sad, and all of this makes me fear. That's the grace of God. Grace first makes us to fear. But then, blessed be God, that same grace relieves our fears. So the first step in conversion is to look in the mirror, see how bad off you are, to see that you're facing an eternal destruction. Feel bad. You should. Fear. You should. But then the next step of God's grace is to come and see that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came, lived a perfect life, died an absolutely perfect sacrificial death, and he offers you salvation if you will but cry out to him in your sadness and in your fear of where that's going to take you. And that grace will then relieve your fear. And God will give you peace with him. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would cause that little word, royal law, kingdom law. May it stick in our minds. May we see that there is a law, there are directions for living Lord Jesus in your kingdom. As long as there is a kingdom, there will be rules, there will be direction. Father, make us as believers to walk on that map, to be glad to have a sense of direction given to us. How do I respond in this, Father? Direct us. by even this simple command, love your neighbor as yourself. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Father, work by your Spirit in larger hearts and give us the great privilege of living in a company of the true children of God who are day by day, over the course of months, over the course of years, are being made less selfish and more loving. Spirit of God, we need you to work. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen.