Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of James. James chapter two, we'll be looking at verses eight through 13 for this morning, and that is on page 950 through 951. If you're using the Pew Bibles, James two, eight through 13, Lord willing, we'll finish chapter two next week, and then we'll have a Christmas message of some sort the week after that, and then potentially some kind of a New Year's Um, message as well after that, but I have been so encouraged personally by the book of James and my study of it. Um, and more details. I've said, I've never preached through this book before. It really has just become so precious to me. There's a lot of rich theology here, and it's very consistent much more consistent than I ever realized in its message through each chapter and it really brings together other portions of theology throughout scripture that sometimes we may be confused about Seem to come together well and the things that James says he says a lot of things I just think he should get a lot more credit. It's the Holy Spirit The book should get a lot more credit than it tends to get it really is a wonderful book James chapter two, verses eight through 13. Let's hear God's word together. 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 judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the blessing of working through these books together. We thank you for your word, Lord, and what it means to us. Lord, the very foundation of our lives is resting on your word and the gospel that is found in your word. And Lord, we are so thankful that as we draw closer to you and realize how unreliable our hearts are, how fickle our emotions are, that we have a constant in the word of God that cannot be shaken. We have a constant that we can rest upon a sure foundation that is certain and never changes, never fluctuates. And so, Father, we do ask that you would bless our understanding of this text this morning. Give us a greater appreciation for the gospel and for our position in Christ. And we pray that you would bring these truths home to our hearts. Lord, take hold of our hearts and our ears and lead us to be good listeners today to your word. We ask for the blessing of your Holy Spirit to help to these ends, we ask in Christ's name, amen. Last time, James began to address the wicked sin of partiality, which involves showing honor and favor to various individuals over and above other individuals on the basis of some outward form of classification or position. Within the church, where we are brothers and sisters of the same household, united by the same faith, in the same Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, such partiality ought never to be found, and when it is found, it needs to be put out of the church altogether. James of course hones in on one specific form of partiality that was predominant in his time And of course is very common throughout all the ages. It's not just his time It's a very common form of partiality which is a favorable bias That is exhibited toward those who are wealthy over and above those who are poor to divide as it were in the church Classes by who has more to give and those who don't from a financial standpoint to show that kind of partiality In the church we ought to be committed, however, to serving all people of all classes and types without partiality, recalling that God is not impressed by outward status and is far more concerned with the inward man and the heart. And in fact, we saw last time that God has even chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith, for that matter. Finally, we considered how showing partiality is actually a sign of a serious heart problem. James removed, as it were, the curtain of our hearts to show us where it comes from, because we tend to just see things on the surface and he says I want you to understand where this sin of partiality comes from and he showed that when we show partiality we're actually setting ourselves up as judges over the people of God with evil thoughts and motives. It's a lot more wicked than it seems to be on the outside. The sin of partiality is a very serious offense against God and we'll see that even further this morning. Well that said, this morning we continue down this same path, we're in the same context here, as the apostle connects this sin of partiality then to a critical violation of the principle that is bound up in the second table of God's moral law, what she calls the royal law. So we're gonna talk about this royal law a bit this morning. When I say the second table, the 10 commandments are divided into two tables. The first grouping of commands address usually the first four, at least, address our relationship with God. And the second group, six through 10, address our relationship with one another. But all these commands obviously come together in the moral law. Well, let's talk about this royal law that James mentions here. We're gonna get back to addressing the law of liberty again, which we talked about a few weeks ago also. But let's talk about the royal law. Notice what James says in verses eight and nine. If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Now we have all probably heard, I would assume, what we call in society, right, the Golden Rule. We've all heard of the Golden Rule. What is the Golden Rule? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Well, no doubt that is a knockoff of James' Royal Law, which really is a summary of the second table of God's moral law, what we call the Ten Commandments. That's what the royal law really is. It's really a summation of the commandments, especially the second table of God's moral law. Jesus himself, in fact, had a vow when he interacted with the person who came to him and asked him about the greatest law of all. Jesus had a vow that all of the law, and the Apostle Paul goes on to affirm this as well, rests on two commands. All of the law rests on two commands. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, that fulfills the first table. And then to love your neighbor as yourself, the second table. Now, if we fulfilled the first table, or even the first command perfectly, we wouldn't even need to worry about the other nine commandments, to be honest, if we had no other gods but God in truth. Well, the reason for this is quite simple. The reason why these two commands, or this particular command, the royal law, fulfills the second table of the moral law, it's simple. You see, if you love God with all your being, right, you would fulfill the entire first table of the law, if you love God with all your being. And if you love your neighbors yourself, you would fulfill the second table of the law. And so to fulfill those two general commands would be to fulfill the entire moral law of God. Consider that if you love your neighbor as yourself, you're not going to murder your neighbor. You're not going to commit adultery with your neighbor or with your neighbor's spouse. You're not going to steal from your neighbor. You're not going to bear false witness against your neighbor. You're not going to covet the belongings of your neighbor. Much to the opposite, in fact, you would do all to preserve his life, to look for ways to sanctify and to encourage his marriage, to provide for his needs, to speak truthful about him, and to rejoice in his prosperity. And so speaking to the issue of partiality then, James appeals to the royal law, which is a summation of the second table of the Ten Commandments, stating that if we desire to fulfill the royal law, that is if we desire to love our neighbors as ourselves, as children of God with a new nature in Christ, we would be doing well if we're striving to do that. Now, he is not speaking with reference to our justification here. It's important to understand that. He's not talking about doing that as a means of being justified. He's talking about doing that as a means of obeying God, out of love for God, because of what he's done for us in the gospel, which is going to get into the law of liberty very shortly as well. He's not assuming that our relationship with God is determined by how well we keep the law. Rather, he is speaking about how our Christian calling, as those who have already been redeemed in Christ, ought to compel us all the more to strive to fulfill the royal law out of love for God and in response to his profound and perpetual grace toward us. It leads us to want to keep the law, not to earn God's favor, but out of love for him for what he has done for us in Christ to fulfill that royal law. We love God's law now, particularly because it is no longer a threat to us, and it now serves as our guide, rather than our judge in that sense, to show us how to love God in truth. This being the case, we ought to be compelled and motivated all the more to love all people, not because of what they can do for us, not because of any outward classification they may identify with, but rather because of what Christ has already done for us. and for His sake. It's not what they can do for us, it's what Christ has done for us that leads us to love all people. And that's why James moves on to say in verse 9, but if you show partiality, see he's still in the same context here, isn't he? But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. So he says, we do good if you want, if you seek to keep the royal law, you're doing good for yourself, that's great. But if you show partiality, he's connecting that now to the moral law, right, to this royal law, you're actually breaking the law and sinning against God as a transgressor. And so here James makes a bold statement that gives us further insight into the nature of God's moral law, the Ten Commandments. We're getting some insight here about the Ten Commandments given to us by James. Notice he states that when you show partiality in the church, that is to say when you esteem one group of people as better than another group within the church for any reason, you're actually breaking, you are transgressing the moral law and sinning against God. But how can this be, James? I haven't murdered anyone. I haven't committed adultery with someone else's spouse. I haven't stolen from anyone. I haven't become a false witness against them or coveted their possessions. Well, because the law of God was never meant to only address the things that you ought not to do against your neighbor. In other words, it's not only addressing things from a negative standpoint, thou shalt not, but it assumes as well what we ought to positively be doing to our neighbor, thou shalt. It's assumed. in the moral law. That's what he's saying here. The royal law uncovers this reality for us, doesn't it? That's what the royal law does. It uncovers the true nature of the moral law. And it's not a new law because in the old covenant, they were commanded to love one another in that way. It's not a new law. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves. The individual who came to Jesus and spoke to him and he said, what are the greatest commandment? He was an old covenant Jew. And he knew what these two great commands were. He didn't say, well, in the new covenant, this is the case. He knew they were taught that. We're called to love our neighbors as ourselves. And that is the true and proper fulfillment of the second table of God's moral law. And loving your neighbor means seeking to do good to them when it's in your power and ability to do so. And so to esteem one group of people over and above another group, especially in the context of the church, where James calls us brethren, for any reason, In this context, he's talking about because of financial status, is to sit against those who you place in the lower class, refusing to serve and minister to them, refusing to love them in the way that you minister to those and love those in the higher classes. You're not loving your neighbor when you distinguish among yourselves, right? Into different groups and classifications. Showing partiality is sin and to do so brings genuine conviction from God's law, James says. In other words, we are transgressors of his law when we show favoritism in the church. Now how serious is this matter? We tend to, in our society especially, rate the different magnitudes of sin, and I'm not saying that there's not a place for that. I'm not saying that there are different magnitudes to sins, but we tend to do that. We want to feel a little more justified because we haven't murdered anyone. We're not Hitler. We haven't murdered, right, all kinds of Jewish people and so on, the horrible things like that. and so we tend to justify ourselves. Well, how serious is this sin of partiality? Should we slide the sin of partiality in a lower category of sin than the other commandments, especially commandments like murder and adultery and maybe even thievery? Well, James magnifies the severity of the matter by what he states in verses 10 and 11. This is so important, brethren. Notice what he says in verses 10 and 11. And there are principles here that go far beyond partiality. Even though partiality is very relevant, we don't want to miss that. Listen to what he says. For whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. Why? 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. Not just the commandment, he says the law, right? And so here we're given further insight into the nature of God's holy law. What exactly is James saying when he asserts in verse 10, for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. What is he asserting here? James is here declaring, brethren, follow carefully with me here. He's declaring that the law is not to be broken down into compartmentalized units, but rather it is to be seen as one singular whole. In other words, we don't measure our obedience to the law by grading ourselves according to how well we keep any of the individual commandments. That's not how God's law works, and we're gonna see why in a moment. But suffice it to say that the moral law of God is like a singular piece of pottery, which when broken at any particular section, It shatters the whole thing. Imagine you take a ceramic glass or a piece of pottery and you put it out on the curb there and you take a pellet gun. and you shoot it, and it hits it, and it goes into one piece of it, what happens, right? The whole thing shatters. Even though it hit that one particular area, the whole thing breaks. Well, when you break a commandment, you don't simply break that commandment as if it were isolated from the other nine commandments. When you break a commandment, you transgress the whole law as a unit, because it's a singular unit. The law of God is inseparable. That's what James is saying here. Notice again, for whoever keeps the whole law, but fails in one point, has become guilty of all of it. Wow. How slow would people be to spurn and reject the fourth commandment if they really grasped what James is actually saying here? Well, just one command. But again, This also elevates the sin of partiality, doesn't it? The severity of it. We take the matter a lot more seriously when we consider that committing the sin of partiality, like every other sin, is an infraction that strikes against the entire moral law of God. And brethren, all the more that ought to bring this sin of partiality that sin of fostering cliques into different classes within the church among the people of God, it ought to bring it to the forefront of our minds. Because again, while this is a broader principle, I don't want to lose the focus that James has here in the text on this issue of partiality. Now why then, why then is it the case that breaking the law in any single point makes one guilty of breaking the whole law, right? That's a good question. Why? Why is it that it's this unit? Well, it really comes down to understanding, brethren, something about the law giver himself, doesn't it? That's the issue. In other words, we cannot distinguish the law from the law giver as if the law is made up of some universal principles that are outside of God himself. The law as a whole. proceeds from the very character and being of God. And this being the case, it comes forth as a single holy unit from a single all sovereign and eternal creator. That sets God apart from the rest of us in this world with law keeping and making laws. The unity, in other words, brethren, of God himself secures and assumes the unity of his law. And so James adds, listen carefully to these words. 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. Notice how James pins the unity of God's law to the one who gave the law, the Lord gave him. Right? For he who said, right? Look at Luke, we see where he's going. For he who said this also said this. That is to say the same God who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not commit murder. In other words, both commands came from the same divine creator and lawgiver. And therefore, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor, not merely of the single commandment, for these commands cannot be isolated, but you've become a transgressor of the law. You have broken the entire vase, the pottery. You have transgressed God's holy law. That's how God's moral law works. This isn't man's law, but God's law, and therefore the offense is capital, and to the highest degree, it's cosmic treason. And so James wants us to understand the gravity of law breaking in general, not as a means of diminishing the power of the gospel to free us from the condemnation that we deserve, but rather to appreciate the weight of violating any of God's laws and to give us an appreciation for the power and glory of the gospel for that matter, which delivers us from so weighty a condemnation. See, this statement, I have sinned against God, means so much more than we comprehend, brethren. So much more. And the more we understand what that really means, the more we're going to appreciate the gospel. Sin, in any sense, is no small matter when God is the one who is sinned against. You cannot divorce God's law from his being in person. The standard, in all of its parts, and as a whole, proceeds from who God is, and not merely from some abstract set of universal rules that he merely oversees. It's not like these universal laws that are out there, outside of God, and he just oversees it as some kind of an appointed judge. Where does the law come from? It comes from God himself, from who he is. And so James' point here brings the severity of the sin and partiality to the forefront, and every other sin for that matter. Any true believer ought to take these things to heart, especially as we strive to exhibit love to Christ by loving his people of all kinds. and classes. It is so antithetical to the gospel to divide into groups in the life of the church. So antithetical. And that's what's going on in churches today with all this woke garbage and all this other stuff and dividing people into groups and races and everything else. That's what's going on. Finally, James adds a concluding statement here that is both an encouragement and a warning to the Christian, who although will never be judged or condemned by the moral law, will ultimately be judged by the law of liberty. We get back to this other law now, this law of liberty that we talked about a few weeks ago. The law of liberty. Look at me at verses 12 and 13, and we'll see how this is all connected together. So speak, he says, and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. So here we come back to that phrase, law of liberty, which James had mentioned in the previous chapter. We saw that mentioned. And what did we note about this law of liberty when we considered it then? What did we see about this law of liberty? Let me read James 1 verses 22 to 25 to remind you of the context there when he mentions this law of liberty before. He says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law the law of liberty and perseveres, being no hero who forgets but a doer of acts, he will be blessed in his doing. So that's what we saw that term first mentioned by James. We consider then that the law of liberty is that same law or that law that comes through the gospel when having been freed from seeking justification by the moral law, which is impossible for sinners to do, Out of a new and grateful heart, we become inclined and compelled to obey the law of Christ, the perfect law, seeking to observe his new commandment, which is to love one another as he has loved us. Now what makes this particular law the standard for believers is not that we are taken away from observing the moral law. We haven't gotten rid of the moral law. He just talked about keeping the royal law being a good thing for us to do, right? So it's not getting us away from the moral law, but rather, listen closely to this brethren, We particularly look to Christ's example, who fulfilled the moral law perfectly, for the overall pattern and blueprint of what law keeping from the heart truly looks like, particularly when our hearts have been liberated, they've been freed from the condemnation that we truly deserve. We have a pattern now to look to. We've been brought into grace. We love others now, observing the royal law by fixing our eyes on Christ's particular love for us as the roadmap for understanding how to love others and how to do that with all sincerity. And so brethren, loving your neighbor as yourself, and loving others as Christ has loved us, the royal law and the law of liberty in Christ, both ultimately merge into the same form of law keeping, only in Christ, we now have the perfect example that would direct us to find the motivation and pattern for loving others. We ponder his profound redeeming love for us, We have a picture we can look to now, not just the command in itself. We have a life to look to now. And we transfer that same kind of love toward others. We ponder the self-sacrificing grace exhibiting life and ministry of Christ who lived and dwelt amongst and ate with and fellowship with sinners. And we love others. as He has loved sinners. There are no strings attached with that kind of love, are there? Because Christ will offer us has no basis drawn from any good in us, in anything that we have to offer Him. There's no basis in His love for us that has to do with anything we've done or anything good in us. It's a gracious love. And we are to extend such a gracious love toward others. This perfect law and this law of liberty directs us to obey the law. Here's the key, brethren. Here's what brings all this law together. This perfect law and this law of liberty directs us to obey the law, not as a rigid standard for securing God's merit, but rather out of genuine heartfelt love for Christ, constantly reminding ourselves of the profound glory and freeness of our redemption and what it costs God to procure it. That's why it's perfect. That's why it's the law of liberty, because it comes out of a freedom that we've been given in Christ. And so it merges with the royal law. We don't get rid of the royal law, but we don't keep the law as some rigid means of obtaining favor with God. It's perfect because it has motivated us by grace. And grace leads us back now to keep the law, not to rigidly observe commandments to earn God's favor. but to respond to the love of God that has been directed to us specifically in the life, ministry, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Love others as I have loved you. And so what then does James mean here when he states to his Christian audience, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty? Verse 12. Are we gonna stand before God in the judgment? We all are, right? we're gonna stand before God in the judgment. In fact, Jesus talks about in the Gospels, and there's a lot of confusion about this, but this brings it all together. When he talks about those who will come before him in the end and stand before him to be judged, and he says to those who would think that they knew him in some way, he says, depart from me. He says to them, you never visited me in prison. You never clothed me when I was naked. You never gave me drink. And the person says, well, Lord, I never saw you in those situations, right? How could I have done it? When you didn't do it for the least of these, my brethren, you didn't do it for me. And then the faithful come forward and say, well, Lord, I'm amazed that I'm here and you're receiving me. And he says, yes. And he says to him, as he stands before him in judgment, as it were, you visited me in prison. You visited me and took care of me when I was sick. You clothed me when I was naked. You tended to my needs. Well, Lord, when did we do those things to you? When you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you did it for me. The law of liberty is what judges the difference between the two groups. Verse 13 unlocks the meaning for us of what it means to be judged by the law of liberty. Notice, for judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. mercy triumphs over judgment. If we have truly been forgiven by Christ, that will be reflected by how we view others in our thoughts, in our motives, in our speech, behind the scenes, when nobody else is watching, what are we saying about the people of God? Not when we're in front of them. If we've been forgiven in Christ, that will be reflected by how we view others, especially within the context of the family of God, the church. God has given us a litmus test so that we can judge ourselves beforehand. For example, recall when the Lord Jesus Christ had said to his apostles and disciples that if we don't forgive one another, then we ought not to expect God to forgive us. What was the Lord saying when he spoke those sobering words? Right? Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother? Peter keeps stepping on my feet. How many times? 70? 70 times said. What was the Lord saying? Namely that the one who has been forgiven so much by God in Christ must and will forgive his brethren who sin against him. There's a law of liberty at work in there. Why? Because if God has pardoned so great a debt of our sin through the crucifying of his son for us, then how could we ever dare to forgive others, dare fail to forgive others, whose sin debts are infinitely smaller in comparison to the debt that we owe God? A lack of willingness to forgive others then reveals what? A self-righteous heart that cannot possibly understand the true gospel and what it means for sinners. You can't view others in the private chamber of your heart behind closed doors in the church in a negative and harsh way without thinking you are righteous in yourself before God, which means you do not know or understand the gospel. In this sense, the fact that one is unwilling to forgive will judge the true unregenerate nature of his heart which has verbally claimed to trust in Christ, but his life has spoken differently on the inside. Such a one is judged by his actions, which reveal the truth of the matter. " Well, likewise, if we have truly come to Christ, then we absolutely must and will strive to love others as He has loved us. And we must be willing to look at others in a gracious lens, because they will sin, they will fall short. But we remember that God is viewing us through a gracious lens, because we sin far more against Him. and in far greater ways, and that compels us to love others with a sense of compassion and grace. It's a principle of regeneration that lays hold of the profound richness of God's love for us in Christ and compels us to love others as Christ has loved us. That is the law of liberty. And if we don't, in any consistent sense, love in that way, then the true nature of our unregenerate hearts and our shallow faith will be revealed unto our condemnation when we stand before Christ at the final judgment to be judged by the law of liberty. This is why James will now get into the topic of faith and works. and their necessary relationship in the verses that follow, which we will consider next time. Isn't it wonderful to get to that very difficult and complicated faith and works chapter after going through all these verses first? Isn't it wonderful to see the consistency, how it flows right into it? You can see why James goes to where he goes. He doesn't just randomly say, faith is this and works is that, and without faith, if you don't have works, he doesn't just say that. It's being built into that through what he's going over here. And so, brethren, to be judged by the law of liberty is to be held to the example of Christ's love for us, to see if we, albeit we're not perfect, to see if we, albeit imperfectly, but to see if we are truly in the faith. If we don't look like Christ as Christians, then that will be revealed on the day of judgment. The law of the gospel, the law of Christ, must be in all of his true people, and the reality of its presence or not in us, evidenced by how we treat one another, how we speak about one another, and remembering our context of partiality as well here. That will determine whether we are truly in Christ or not. In this sense, it will judge each one of us. To put it another way, we will be judged by our fruits because the fruits will confirm the reality of the presence of Christ in us. Anybody can say they have faith. And yes, we're justified by faith. That's the absolute truth. But where does the faith look like? How do I see a faith? In the fruit. That's what James is gonna get to. If there is no fruit, then we're not in the vine. And if we're not in the vine, then we're still condemned and in our sins. Again, this is why the Lord spoke of many, many on the day of judgment who will stand before Him. And when He speaks these words, He's not talking about those who are in cults, atheists, and those who have no desire to know Lord, have never made a profession of faith. He's not talking about them here. He says there are many professing Christians who will stand before him on the day of judgment, and they will say, Lord, Lord. And he will say to them, depart from me. You worker of lawlessness, judged by the law of liberty, you have not exhibited the true fruit of conversion. The law of liberty will judge such people. It will judge all of us. But it will reveal whether or not we were truly born again. Those who do not do the will of the Father, those who are workers of lawlessness, will be cast out. And recall, again, these are not a group of atheists or cultists. These are professing Christians. What is the standard that will affirm or condemn all professing Christians? What is the standard? The law of liberty is the standard. And as James says here, judgment is without mercy. In other words, no mercy will be given to one who has shown no mercy, to those who have not exhibited the love that Christ has shown them toward others. Mercy, though, triumphs over judgment. Mercy wins the day. How does mercy triumph over judgment? Because true Christ-exhibiting mercy affirms one's true part in the gospel. It affirms the authenticity of your faith, which alone is what you're justified by. It affirms your union with Christ. It affirms your faith in Christ and how you now strive to walk like Christ, loving others as He has loved us. Mercy genuinely received produces a like mercy toward all, proving that it was genuinely received. And to this end, it triumphs over judgment because we are no longer under the law. as a means of justification, but under grace. Christ has triumphed over sin, death, and the grave. And our union with Christ, confirmed by exhibiting the same graces, assures us of our ultimate victory over judgment, in spite of the horrendous sins that plagued us throughout this life. we are justified truly by faith. And our faith is found to be authentic and truly justified by our works, which leads us to the text that James is going to get into next time. It goes right into it, flows right in. Well, brethren, let me leave you then with two concluding thoughts. in conclusion here, one directed to the believer and one to the unbeliever. Before we close, I want to leave you with two concluding thoughts. First, to the believer, to those who are professing faith in Christ, I want to expand on a point that I sought to bring out earlier. Can we not appreciate the sinfulness of sin when we consider the nature of God's law and how it relates to him personally. When we sin, remember, we don't merely break a law. We sin against God. Like David when he prayed in Psalm 51 after being confronted with his sin against Uriah and Bethsheba, adultery and murder and a whole host of other sins against Israel and against God. What did David say? Against you and you only have I sinned. Now, when David said this, he wasn't denying the fact that he had sinned against Uriah and others. If you went to David and said, David, when you said that, you're saying you didn't sin against Uriah? No, of course I did. That's not his point. Rather, David is elevating the magnitude of his sin to the highest level of its offense, declaring that he has very specifically sinned against God. Now he sinned against Uriah and all these others, but the real deal is he has ultimately sinned against God. And in confessing this, David had put himself right in the crosshairs of God's judgment without excuse, leaving himself entirely at the mercy of God. He knew he had nowhere else to run. He wasn't making excuses. I've sinned against you and you only have I sinned. And brethren, it is important for us of all people to recognize that when we sin, we sin at the highest level, and we ought not to diminish any of our offenses by comparing them to worse offenses, because we're sinning against the divine lawgiver who gave all the commands. I'm not saying this to lead us into the place where we believe that we're condemned because of our sins, but it will most certainly serve as a deterrent from sinning, and it will lead us to the place where the glory and power of the gospel and God's love for us, as seen in the gospel, will be brought home to our souls with great power, which leads me to say this. Can we not also appreciate, brethren, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the profound love that God has exhibited and continues to exhibit toward us through the gospel when we understand the severity of our sins? If our sins are that serious, and God crushed His beloved Son who bore our sins in order to redeem us from them, then just how great is the gospel and the love of God enveloped in the gospel to us, brethren? How great is God's love for us? You and I have sinned times beyond number. against God. We have sinned against God. And yet, He has forgiven. And He continues to forgive us in Christ. What temporal sorrow or pain in this life can ultimately trump the joy that is bound up in that reality? What a wonderful text that John gives us, and we'll get there when we get to the epistles of John. If we confess our sins, present tense, isn't that wonderful? Present tense. God is faithful, faithful to his covenant with us, and he's just, because a price has been paid, legally, to forgive us for all of our sins. and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness because of Christ. Doesn't that move you? Doesn't that compel you not to sin? That's why John says in his epistle, I tell you these things so that you don't sin. Doesn't that fuel you with the desire to love others in the way that Christ has loved you? Doesn't that shake you to the core with the desire to live sacrificially in service to Christ and his people? Doesn't that compel you to look upon everyone within the church from a view of being impartial, no matter what their outward classification might be? Won't that compel you to go the extra mile to sow gospel seeds in and outside of the church? You have been freed from the power, penalty, and guilt of sin so that you can now effectively live your life for Christ who loved you and gave himself for you. And it's the compelling motive and desire that you have to do that that shows that you keep the law of liberty. Process this reality daily, make it part of your prayer life and daily meditation, and fight the good fight of faith, making the glory of God, especially in his church, an essential priority in your life. Brethren, let us continue to strive to pray together. I will leave this job if I can't be at the prayer meeting. Now as a pastor, that has to be the case for me. Some of you have to work on Wednesday and I'm not telling you to leave your job. I have to. And I will leave a job as secure as it might give me if I can't be with the people of God and pray with you on Wednesday nights. Pray with us. Take the sacrifice. There's always going to be an excuse to not come to the prayer meeting. And I'm not saying there's never legitimate excuses. Come to the prayer meetings. Love and serve the people of God. Let us ever deepen our understanding of just how far God went to deal with our sins against Him. Sinning against a holy, righteous, and eternal God is a big thing. But where sin abounded in all of its corruption and evil, grace abounded much more. in Christ. Take that to heart as an eternal object of that grace, brethren. Finally, to the unbeliever, if you're outside of Christ here in this room this morning, it is absolutely critical if you're not a Christian to unbind yourself from the world's soft shackles, which would lead you to think that sin is a light matter. Sin, the violation of God's moral law, is cosmic treason. And you may not have broken all of the individual commandments, although in the heart you probably have. But you may not have, let's say, but if you broke them in one point, you broke the whole law. Because of the divine lawgiver. who gave those laws. All of your sins are very serious to God. They have set the GPS of your soul toward the destination of eternal hell and that destination will not change unless you are truly united to Christ by faith. You have broken God's law, and in breaking any of his laws, you have sinned against the lawgiver himself, and that is an offense of eternal weight and magnitude. But God has provided a means of forgiveness and reconciliation through his son, who he sent into this world, born of a virgin, as we celebrate this time of year, without any sin of his own, and who was put to death, crucified, and condemned for the sins of His people and rose again three days later unto their justification. If you believe into Christ, your sins will have been paid for by Christ on the cross and you will be free. from the curse and the penalty of your sins. May God give us grace, brethren, to take these truths to heart, to remember the importance of the royal law and its place in the life of the believer, and the law of liberty and its place in the life of the believer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for how these truths coordinate so perfectly with the rest of what we're taught in scripture. how they give us an understanding of the type of judgment that we would face, Lord, when we stand before our Savior. And Lord, we pray that we would keep our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that our faith in Him would be proven to be genuine in the way that we live and the way that we think about others. And Lord, if there's any in here who are living a double life, who are good in putting on a show, let's say, as it were, to make others believe that they really have what they don't have. We pray that you would reveal the truth to them and lead them to cry out to you for mercy and a true salvation in Christ, that you would change them from the inside out. Lord, remove the Christian culture from our hearts and bring in the reality of the Holy Spirit, who would bring us to live a true Christianity. Lord, please hear our prayers. Work in each of us, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.