Do you ever find yourself talking about or thinking about sin in different categories like there are the bad sins and then the not so bad sins? Today on Truth for Life, we'll find out why all sin matters and we'll learn how God's law actually grants us freedom. Alistair Begg is teaching from chapter 2 in the book of James. We're looking today at verses 8 through 13. It was customary for the Jews or the Essenes or the Pharisees to draw little circles around themselves when it came to the fulfilling of the law of God.
And so the law is perfectly clear. Love God in his entirety and with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. The man says to Jesus, Could you please just tell me who my neighbor is? What's he trying to do? He's trying to limit the number of people that are in his circle so that he can disregard all the people that are outside his circle.
And I say to you again, that man is not an unusual man. That is why the challenge here in James chapter 2 reverberates through our congregation and, indeed, through our lives. I haven't found these verses the easiest to get a handle on, and so I've gathered my thoughts under four words.
I'll tell you what the words are so that you can know that we're making progress. The first word is if, the second word is but, the third word is so, and the final word is because. Second word, but.
But. If you show favoritism. James still hasn't let go of this, you see. He's back at favoritism again.
The contrast is clear. If you keep this royal law, you do right. If you show favoritism, you sin. Now, remember what James has introduced as his illustration, back up in verses 2 and 3. Suppose, he says—this is a supposition—imagine a man comes in, and he wears a gold ring and has fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.
If you show particular attention to the man wearing the fine clothes, give him a nice seat, and you disregard the poor man, then you have become judges with evil thoughts. In other words, you've violated the royal law found in Scripture. Now, I find it very interesting that he comes back to favoritism not on account of the fact that it was mentioned previously but in light of what he then goes to in verses 10 and 11 to make his other point. He goes to murder and to adultery.
Nobody can say that because they did one or failed to do one that they're clear in the other. But the interesting thing to me is that he doesn't say, love your neighbor as yourself, you're doing right, but if you murder, you sin and are convicted by the law as a lawbreaker, or if you steal, or if you covet. He doesn't actually go to one of the commandments per se. He goes back to favoritism, which makes it all the tougher. Because some of us are tempted to think that provided we haven't done any of the Big Ten, as it were—or not the main ones in the Big Ten—that we can somehow or another just go quite merrily along with a little bit of slander and a little bit of gossip and a little bit of favoritism and a little bit of a judgmental spirit and so on. Because after all, you know, we're not breaking anything here, really, of significance.
James lays the axe to that notion. Favoritism is not a small matter, because favoritism says we have broken the ruling principle that summarizes God's expectation for his people to love our neighbor as ourselves. You see, the moral law of God is not multiple choice. I don't know how it is here, because I've never taken exams here, but in Britain when you take exams, especially in the arts, if you're taking an exam in history or Shakespeare or whatever it might be, they will often allow you to choose your questions, so that they may set ten questions, which are there on the sheet, and at the bottom it says, six out of ten to be attempted. You don't have to do the whole ten. You can choose whichever six you want. Which is exactly the way in which we're tempted to regard the Ten Commandments.
There's Ten Commandments. Have a go at six of them. See how you're doing. You know, you don't have to all choose the same six, but just go ahead and choose six and do your best. No.
No. It's not multiple choice. It's not six out of ten to be attempted.
Because look at what he says. Whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at one point is guilty of breaking all of it. The fact of our breaking God's law is significant and serious, because God's law is an expression of his character and his nature. The reason we have the law of God is because it says to us, if you like, verbally, what God is ontologically. God does not reveal himself to the people in the Old Testament. Let me just show you this, if you want, in Deuteronomy 4.
In Deuteronomy chapter 4, when God reveals himself—and this great call for obedience is the hallmark of the chapter, and then the forbidding of idolatry— Deuteronomy 4, if you just look down at verse 11, You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain, while it blazed with fire, to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness. Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form.
There was only a voice. He declared to you his covenant, the ten commandments, which he commanded you to follow, and he wrote them down. Verse 15, he comes back to the same thing. You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt, and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, and so on. The fact is that God revealed himself in what he said. He revealed himself in what he said. And what he says is expressive of his character and of his nature. Therefore, if I look at the law of God and say, I don't have to deal with this one, what I'm saying is that, number one, that my love for God is deficient, but also, at the same time, that there are aspects of God's nature which actually don't matter.
And that cannot be. To say that one of the commands has less of an impact on me than another, to break God's law, to show favoritism, is to be a law-breaker. So, thirdly—so. There's no so at the beginning of verse 12, but we could put one in there without altering the flow of the argument if you do this in verse 8, but if you don't in verse 9. So let me tell you what to do in verse 12. Speak and act in the awareness of the fact that we're going to be judged by the law that gives freedom.
We're going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. Oh, you say, I don't like the sound of this. No, it brings us up, doesn't it? That's why in class the students in the back always said, Is there a test on this? Excuse me, is there a test on this? Why is that the first question in the class?
Because they want to know. It's going to change the way they approach everything. If there's no test at the end, we might listen, we might not, we may show up, we may not. And what James is saying, there's a test at the end. Now, for the believer who has passed from death to life, who has been justified by faith through peace with God, for whom there is no condemnation, because they're now in Christ Jesus, that does not remove the believer from the dimension to which James is referring here.
Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom. It's the very same thing that we have when Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, when he talks about being confident that he is absent from the body and at home with the Lord, and he's confident, confident, and confident. And then he says in verse 9, he has his own soul, so we make it our goal to please him, whether we're at home in the body or away from it.
Now, here comes his because. Because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Now, which part of that don't we understand?
It's mysterious, it's hard to put the pieces together, but it is impossible to step back from this. Although in Christ our eternal destiny will not be unsettled by this examination, this examination will nevertheless take place. And that's why James speaks so clearly. Now, what he does is simply drive home what he's going to come to in verse 14, which we're not going to come to, and you can relax on that. James is giving indication here that the proof of justifying faith is works. The proof of justifying faith is works. The ground of our salvation is the work of Jesus.
The evidence of our salvation is to be found in our works and in our deeds. Hence, verse 14, what good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
He's going to come and hit this very, very hard. What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith and yet disregards the royal law which gives freedom? He doesn't say, Can faith save? He says, Can such faith save?
Because we remember already that at the end of chapter 1, he's pointed out the fact that there is a kind of religion that is absolutely spurious. It is worthless. It is useless. It is not that people aren't going around saying, I'm religious and I think I'm okay. They're doing that in totality. But the judgment of the Bible is a waste of time.
It's completely useless. It's facile. Now, there is a religion that God our Father regards as pure and as faultless. What is it? It is a compassionate heart, a controlled tongue, and an uncompromising testimony. What is he addressing here? The compassionate heart. If the religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is a compassionate heart, and if a compassionate heart reveals itself in the royal law that gives freedom—love your neighbor as yourself—and we do not love our neighbor as ourselves, then we call in question the validity of our profession of faith. That's what makes it so challenging.
And that's what's supposed to happen when we take these tests. That's why the book of Hebrews is full not only of promises but of warnings—promise, warning, warning, promise—so that the warning may make us go, Whoa! And the promise may bring us back to the place of security.
Now, let me wrap this up. Having escaped God's just penalty on our sins, on account of Jesus' death on the cross, we are then put in a position where we gladly accept the duties, the obligations to which the law points us, because of the indwelling Spirit of God who gives to us the resources to enable us to keep the law as never before. That's why in Hebrews 10 you have it classically, quoting Jeremiah 31, whereas before the law was written on tablets of stone, now the law is written on the fleshy tablets of our hearts. That's the prophecy of Jeremiah. And after the writer to the Hebrews has dealt with the finished work of Christ, he says, and we have this on the strongest of authority, and he quotes Jeremiah 31. In other words, the law is written into us, and it's a law which sets us free. It's a law which enables us. Because in Jesus, the precepts become promises.
Oh, they remain precepts, but they become promises. Imagine a thief coming to church on a Sunday. He comes in, and he's just so obviously a thief. He steals stuff all the time. Not everyone knows this.
In fact, the people around him have got no clue. He sits out in the church, and he looks up behind the pulpit, and he finds that the Ten Commandments are up there in bold letters. And there it says it, Thou shalt not steal. And he sits a little lower in his chair, because he realizes that the law condemns him. The minister then explains that Jesus Christ, the perfect one, has kept the law in all of its detail, fulfilling all of its precepts for those who will love him and trust him, and that this same Jesus has paid the penalty that the law brings upon the unbeliever by his death upon the cross, and that this wonderful liberation is available to those who will come and trust in Jesus. And the thief says, That sounds fantastic.
That is exactly the kind of thing I've been looking for. I want to be free. I want to be free in my conscience. I want my sins to be forgiven.
I want to be a new person. Just like the thief on the cross. And out he goes into his week, and he comes back the following Sunday, and he takes his place again in the congregation, and he looks up, and the Ten Commandments are still there in all of their brightness and convicting power. But when he looks up at Thou shalt not steal, it's not n-o-t that is flashing.
It's shout that is flashing. And he realizes that the prohibition has become a promise in Jesus, that he, in giving his spirit to live in his life, enables him to do what the law requires him to do. And it is not a ladder up which this poor thief is trying to climb to gain acceptance into heaven, but it is a mirror which has shown him his need of a Savior.
And then it is a map which orders his way of life. That, you see, is why it is referred to as the law that gives freedom. Freedom. Freedom was offered last night all around Cleveland to people, and it's bondage.
Smoke this, try this, go here, do this, have this. You want to be free? Invitation to bondage. The Bible's the only place that you can discover freedom. Because the Bible is the only place that is honest about the predicament of man. And the predicament of man is that he is enslaved. And he's enslaved to himself and his own passions and his desires and his wants and his interests. And he needs to confess his enslavement, and he needs somebody who can set him free. And that person is Jesus. And when that Jesus sets us free, he doesn't just set us free to run around the community and do whatever is in our tummy to do. He says, now, not only am I giving you a forgiveness, I'm giving you a family, and I'm giving you a framework. And I've written it down here in my book, and I want you to go and read this book, because it is my book to you, and the precepts are promises as well as prohibitions.
Well, our last word is because. If you keep it, you do right. If you show favoritism, you break the law. So, speak and act in light of the fact that you're going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because—notice a word of caution and a word of comfort—judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. For your homework, you can read the story of the unmerciful servant in Matthew chapter 18, 23–35. Bottom line, a failure to display mercy is an indication of the fact that we have not entered into the mercy that is offered to us in Christ. Human mercy is proof of having received divine mercy.
And when we learn to live in obedience to God's Word, we will deal with others as God has dealt with us. Therefore, no grudges. No grudges. No acrimony. No, I'm not writing to her stories.
No, well, he's my brother, and he did it, and he stole the car, and that's why I haven't spoken to him in seven years. There's none of that at all. Not in Christ there isn't. Because I'll tell you right now, judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. No. What, is it that our mercy earns God's mercy?
No. It is that our mercy reveals that we understand mercy. That's why the story of the unmerciful servant is so powerful. He owes a sum that he cannot pay. He's forgiven. He has a few workers in his garden. He goes out to one of them. He owes him five dollars. He says, Hey, where's the five dollars you were going to give me? The man says, Oh, give me a chance.
I'll get it back to you. He grabs him and chokes him by the throat and wants him cast into jail. And the master of the unmerciful servant said, Come here, you. He says, You obviously don't understand what happened to you if you did.
You would not treat that person like that. If you want to think about it in terms of another parable, think about it in relationship to the story of the prodigal son. The father represents God, and he's running down the street with open arms. The Pharisees out in the backyard saying, There ain't gonna be no party for my brother, I'll tell you that right now. That son was lost.
Big time lost. Because he refused to show mercy. Because he didn't understand mercy.
And then, the word of comfort. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Mercy triumphs over judgment. It's a great word, isn't it? Because ultimately, even our own merciful acts are tainted, aren't they? They come from mixed motives. And when I ask myself the question, How merciful am I really? I don't like the answer I get back. That's why we have to retreat again to the place where mercy there was great and grace was free, and pardon there was multiplied to me, and there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary. Because that's where the ground's level, isn't it?
That's where it doesn't matter what your school tie is or what the square footage of your house is. Doesn't matter if you're black, white, green, or yellow. Mercy there was great and grace was free, and pardon there was multiplied to me. Therefore, with the same comfort that I have been comforted, with the same mercy that I've been shown, I'm gonna show that to others. Every one of us will face God's judgment, but believers will be acquitted because of God's mercy through Jesus.
You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. We learned in today's message that our mercy doesn't earn God's mercy. We can't gain access into heaven by doing good deeds. Salvation is through Jesus alone. If you'd like to find out more about the gospel, take a minute and visit our website. There are a couple of short videos available that will explain to you God's plan of salvation.
You can watch them, download them, you can even share the videos as often as you'd like with others. You'll find them at truthforlife.org slash learn more. Our mission at Truth for Life is to teach the Bible to as wide an audience as possible. This is the reason we offer so many free or at-cost resources on our website.
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You can sign up by going online to truthforlife.org slash truth partner. And when you become a truth partner, one of the ways we'll say thank you is by inviting you to request two books that we offer each month. Today we want to recommend to you an adaptation of a classic book that is perfect for children. It's titled Little Pilgrim's Big Journey Part Two. This is a children's book based on John Bunyan's sequel to his own original work titled The Pilgrim's Progress.
In part two of Bunyan's story, the female character, Christiana, navigates the challenges and pitfalls of the Christian life. Little Pilgrim's Big Journey Part Two retells this adventurous sequel in language simplified for young kids. This is a book that does a great job introducing young children to the persistence and faithfulness needed for the Christian life. Each chapter is followed by a summary of key points to help you explain to your children how to find comfort in God's promises and how to remain faithful to God regardless of their circumstances.
There are also questions that promote further discussion. This cloth hardcover book even includes a coloring book so young listeners can further engage with the characters in the story. Now if this title sounds familiar, we offered Little Pilgrim's Big Journey Part One earlier in the year which retells the story of Christian from Bunyan's original. Many parents wrote to tell us just how much their children loved this book. So request your copy of the book Little Pilgrim's Big Journey Part Two when you sign up to become a Truth Partner or when you give a donation at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapine. Stories of deception abound. Tomorrow we'll find out why self-deception may be the most dangerous of them all. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
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