Read verses 8 through 13 with
me. James 2, verses 8 through 13.
If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect
to persons who commit sin and are convinced, convicted of the
law as transgressors, Whosoever shall keep the whole law and
yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said,
Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now, if thou
commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor
of the law. So speak ye. And so do as they
that shall be judged by the law of liberty, for he shall have
judgment without mercy that hath shewed no mercy. And mercy rejoiceth
against judgment. Now, the word law is mentioned
five times in these five verses. The royal law. The law of liberty,
it's called. James chapter 2. Let me make
a clear and plain declaration concerning God's law. Let there
be no mistake about this. Listen carefully, okay? Law means
commandment, not an option. Law means a rule laid down. It's not advice. Now, there's a moral law, the
Ten Commandments. Not, thou shalt not. Levitical
law. The whole book of Leviticus is
full of many, many, many, many laws, ordinances, commandments.
He says blessings and curses. There's the law of works, okay? That's the moral law. That's
Levitical law, the law of works. The Lord said, this do and live.
Thou shalt and thou shalt not. God is holy. God is just. God is perfect. God requires
perfection. It shall be perfect, Leviticus
22, 21, I believe it is. It shall be perfect to be accepted. Perfect in thought, in word,
and in deed, and motive. The motive behind it. Our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect. I was talking to men this morning
on the way here about our Lord. Somebody in a car did something
on the way here that just aggravated me. I don't suppose it does it
to you. But I said, you know, the Lord
was never irritated. Never aggravated, never impatient, completely, utterly compassionate
with. God requires that. It's our reasonable,
that's the way we ought to be, shouldn't it? Paul wrote, so
Paul wrote a whole book of Romans. and Galatians and others, to
say it's evident that no one is justified by the law. It's pretty evident, isn't it?
The law says one thing, you're guilty. On all charges, all points, thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Guilty on the
very first one. And the rest of them. Love your
neighbor as yourself. The law is a curse to us sinners. It's not the fault of the law.
The problem is not in the law, it's in us. Because we've got
this thing called sin. And the law is good. If there
were no laws, if there was no law, It would, all hell would break
loose. In fact, our country's about
in that state right now. They're changing all the laws.
And we're about to see what total anarchy is. Like judges, every
man's going to do whatever's right in his sight. Okay. The law's good, the law's just,
the law's holy. We're not though, that's the
problem. Bless God, He sent Christ. He sent the Son of God, made
of a woman, made under the law. made under the curse of the law.
And it wasn't a curse to him. He delighted in the law of God. He loved the law of God. The
Son of David, his satisfaction was to do. He said, My meat and
my drink is to do Thy will, O God. It's on his heart. Fulfill it. Here's the Gospel. Satisfaction
and substitution. The Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
the law. He fulfilled it. He established
a righteousness. This is our salvation. This is
not doctrine. This is our salvation. This is what Jesus Christ did
for his people. He came here. We can't keep it. But Christ came. He can keep
it. He did keep it. He loved to keep
it in motive. thought, word, deed, everything
about it. He said, I delight to do thy law. I love it, I love
it, I love it. But He didn't do it to show us
how, although He did. But that wasn't why He did it.
He did it for us. He did it for God, Brother John
did it. Satisfy God. And Isaiah 42, 21 says, the Lord
is well pleased for his righteousness sake. Well done, my good and
faithful servant, he said of Christ. This is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. He did this for God. As a man, as a man that has satisfied
the law of God, a man has fulfilled the law of God, a man has glorified
God in thought, in word, in deed, in motive, with every step he
took, every word he spoke, every deed he did, and God said, now
that's a man. And he did it, though, for his
people. Worked out a righteousness. And
somehow, some way, mysteriously, marvelously, mercifully, graciously,
He charges that to us, imputed that to us. And the Father put
this on them, like that robe, put this on them. Give this to
them, this gift of my righteousness. And God looks as though we're
accepted in the beloved way, justified by His work. Not ours. Not ours. But the law says, the
soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. Something's got to be done
about every law we've broken. The penalty's got to be paid.
The soul, it says, must surely die. And Christ said, kill me. Don't kill them. Kill me. That's the gospel best I can
make it. Okay? The law. And now we're saved by what's
called a law of faith. The law said, this do and live.
We can't. We didn't. We deserve to die.
Christ said, I will. I did. It's done. He gave it
to us. Live. Christ, die. Justified? Condemned. Christ
condemned. Come to heaven, not by your works,
but by His. Go to hell for their works. Substitution. And now, God said, here's the
law. The law of faith. Here's how you get into glory.
Believe. Not an option. Not a choice. Not good advice. Command. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Not work. Not do. Believe. You may think that's easy. But
it's not. It's impossible. The Holy Spirit
of God has to work that work. He has to make us believe. Because
we're so self-righteous. We're so proud of ourselves.
And we just don't have a clue Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be justified from all things, all points. The royal law, the royal law
that's speaking up here, the law of liberty, this is another
law, okay? The law of the king, it's called
the royal law. The Law of the King, King Jesus,
the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, okay? The Lord Jesus Christ
set down this law. It's not an option. It's not
advice. It's command. The Law of Liberty,
it's called. It is commands. It is rule. He
laid down these rules, laid down by our King, but it is a yoke. But it's not a yoke of bondage.
It is a yoke. But our Lord said it's not heavy. It's not grievous. It's light.
It's not chains, but liberty. And here's the law our Lord laid
down. Here's what He said. You love one another as I loved
you. And if you don't, you're going
to be judged by that law. Now, this is serious. In fact, it's more serious than breaking
the mortal law. In fact, the Lord says this. He said, I will write my law
on their hearts. Thank God. It's a law of love. It's a royal law. A law of liberty
written on the heart of God's people. Love for God. He said
this. Our Lord said all the laws fulfilled
in it. Love thy God and love thy neighbor. It's a law of liberty. It's called
a law of liberty because we're not under bondage, not under
the threat of punishment for breaking the law. You know, the
law, how do you feel when a policeman gets behind you in the car? How
does he make you feel? I mean, you could be doing the
speed limit. All your stickers in order, you know. And your
registration in the glove compartment, you know. But how does it make
you feel? Uneasy, doesn't it? Uneasy. Because there's a threat. It's
a threat to you. It's a threat to you. This law is a law of liberty.
You're not under this threat of punishment. Chastening, yeah. Chastening, yeah. Or who the
Lord loveth, the chastening. We need it. We need it bad. If
we be without it, we don't want to be let loose. Completely. You don't want to be out from
under this law. The law of liberty, it's because
we're not under threat of punishment. We're not under the laws of duty,
although this is our reasonable service, isn't it? The old writers,
many of the old writers, Thomas Manton and John Owens and on
and on they go. Newton, they talked about duty,
duty, duty. I don't have a problem with that
because it is our duty. Our Lord said, do this. This is what you
owe. Your duty. Love one another.
Love the Lord. But it's not so much duty as
desire. And this law of liberty is not
to be saved. Well, if I love my neighbor,
if I love others, the Lord will be pleased with me and I'll go
to heaven. No, no, no, no. It's not merit. It's not to be accepted by God.
It's not a righteousness that we're establishing. No, no, no. No. Not something we should be
proud of. Something we really should be
ashamed of that we don't love like we should. No, it's just
love. That's what it is. Verse 8 said,
now, if you fulfill this royal law according to the Scripture,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well. Oh my, let me ask you honestly,
do you fulfill this? Oh my, we've come far short. But now let me ask you this,
do you want to? Do you want to? Is it your heart's
desire to love like Christ did? But there's judgment by this
law. Verse 12 says, Speak and do as
they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. The whole
book of James is pressing this thing of faith without works
is dead. There's no life in it. There's
no life there. You can say what you will. Remember,
he said, in another chapter, he said, If you believe there's
one God, you do well. Well, but the devil believes
that. It's not being a staunch believer of the doctrine. The
Jews believed sovereignty. Ooh, did they ever. Election,
they believed that. The whole book of James is pressing
on us. John 14, go over to John chapter 14. The whole book of
James is pressing on us that faith without works is dead.
Chapter 1, verse 22 of James, he said, Be you doers of the
Word, not hearers only, if you just deceive yourself. Our King laid down this law,
this commandment. It's not grievous. Actually,
it's liberating. You know that? This law of love
is liberating. To love rather than hate. is liberating. You know, if you're
full of hate and hate others and always just serving yourself
rather than others, that's bondage to self. There's no harder taskmaster,
no more cruel master than yourself. You can never please yourself. You will never serve sin. It's impossible. You cannot fulfill All the demands
of this lust in us can never be happy, trying to make yourself
happy. That's bondage. The way of the
transgressor, Scripture says, is hard. It's hard bondage. It's hard to please yourself.
It's impossible, actually. But this is liberating. John
14, was our Lord free? Was our Lord free? His whole
life was spent serving others. And so, He's free from self-pity,
as I was talking about, free from aggravation. John 14, look at verse 15. He says, If you love Me, keep
My commandments. Verse 21, He that hath My commandments,
and keepeth them. He it is that loveth me, he that
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him,
manifest myself to him." This is the thing, you see, that the
Father hates more than anything, for brethren not to love and
serve one another. You know something about this,
you parents know something about this, that the thing, you know,
you will forgive your children for about anything, but when
they can't get along, when they're acting selfish and mean and,
you know, telling on one another, it makes you angry, doesn't it?
And you come down hard on them. Don't you? Verses 23 and following,
Our Lord answered and said, If a man love Me, he will keep My
word. My Father will love him. We'll
come unto him and make our abode with him. He that loveth Me not
keepeth not My saying. And the word which you hear is
not mine, but the Father's which hath sent me." John 13, go back
there. You know, this chapter where
he washed feet. Our Lord washed feet. John 13,
verse 12, after He'd washed their feet, took His garments back
and sat down again. He said unto them, Know ye what
I have done unto you? You call Me Master and Lord.
And you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."
We're talking about the Lord, the Master, the supreme owner
of everything, who took off His royal garments and came to this, came down amongst us lowly and
washed our sins in His own blood. Now, he says, you bunch of servants
living here. It's not beneath you. In fact,
this is what your whole life is about. This is why I let you
have life. This is why I don't snuff you
out right now. You serve one another. That's
what you're for. God's in heaven. What can we
do to Him? Nothing. But His feet are still here.
That's what he said. Serve one another. Verse 14 and
John 13, ìIf I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your
feet, you also wash one anotherís feet.î Iíve given you an example
that you should do as Iíve done to you. Do, do, do. This is what
James is talking about. Read on. ìVerily, verily, I say
unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord.î This
is what Christ came to do. This is what He did all His life. What are we to do? Well, I'll
serve ourselves. He didn't. Anyone deserved to
be served, it was him. But he didn't. So I've given
you an example. Why? Not just because it's your
duty, but listen, read on. Verse 17, if you know these things,
happy are you if you do them. You'll be blessed in the doing. You'll never be blessed in the
receiving from everybody like you are in doing. It is truly,
our Lord said, more blessed to give than to receive. It gives
great delight. God delights in it. He loveth
a cheerful giver. and will repay with interest,
with great peace and love and assurance. It's just so. Lord, teach me this royal law. Write this law in my heart. If not, our Lord said, you're
going to be judged. judged by this law. Go back to James 2. This royal
law. This royal law. Our Lord, I started
to read to you many verses in John 15 where He said, do this. He said, this is my commandment. If you love one another, He said,
I've spoken these things that my joy might be in you. For the joy set before Him endured
the cross. For the joy. You know, nothing gives me more
joy than to serve my children. It gives me great joy. Any sacrifice
is not too much. I don't even think of it as a
sacrifice, do you? Well, Christ said, do that for everybody. We're family. We're brothers. Not just those that love you,
your immediate family. The unbelievers do that. But
here's the royal law. Here's how you know that you're
one of God's children. You love them that love you.
That's not thankworthy. And greater loveth no man than
this, our Lord said. He laid down his life for his
friends. Well, there's greater love. For a good man, some might
die. For a righteous man, some might.
But Christ, God commended His love toward us and why we were
yet sinners. And our Lord said, if I did that
for you, it shouldn't be hard at all for
us to do it. We're a miserable bunch, aren't
we? And it's, you know, this is, it's easy to see why we don't
have more peace and joy and contentment Rich in faith because we're so
selfish. You see why we're so bound by
fears and doubts and worries and self and the world and all
this stuff? Because we haven't learned this
law very well yet. We haven't got this written on
our hearts like it ought to be. Draw an eye unto God. And he said it here in chapter
2 of James, verse 12, he said, so speak ye, I love you, brother. That's so cheap. Better not to say that. Better
to do it than not say it. Our Lord said, by your words
you'll be judged, you'll be condemned. You know, my dad's generation,
they didn't tell their children they loved them very much. They
just didn't. Some of you remember your parents,
your dad, or whoever, just didn't all the time didn't say, I love
you. I love you. This modern generation, they
go around saying that a lot. That's cheap. But I knew he loved
me. He didn't have to tell me all
the time. My mother didn't tell me all
the time, but I knew it. Why? They served me. Always there for me. I'll speak and do and be judged
by this law of liberty. But, verse 13, he shall have
judgment without mercy that hath shown no mercy. You know what I need more than
anything? I need mercy. I'm the chief of sinners, and I need mercy. And you know,
this is the only condition of receiving mercy in the Bible. Be ye merciful. That's what he says, and not
an option. Our Lord said in Luke 6, verses 35 and 36, Be ye merciful. And the Lord plainly said, if
you forgive not your brother's trespasses, your father won't
forgive yours. We ought to fear not being merciful,
not being forgiving, long-suffering patience, more than committing
murder. Do you hear me? You know, the
Scripture says it would be more tolerable in the judgment for
the harlots and the publicans than the Pharisees, who said
they loved and they didn't. Did you hear what I said? We
ought to fear this more than committing murder, than the worst
sin. Because if you don't forgive,
he said, you won't be forgiven. If you don't show mercy, you
won't receive mercy. And why would it be hard? Why
is it so hard to show mercy when we need it so much? In the next
hour, I want you to pay close attention. We're going to see
how our Lord showed great, perfect mercy because He's perfect. But
it says in verse 13, and I close, mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
You know, it's a great cause for rejoicing that our God is
so merciful that He, in sovereign mercy through Christ our Lord,
bearing our sins, frankly forgives us all. Don't you rejoice in
God's sovereign electing mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell
you, if you're a sinner and your greatest need is mercy, you rejoice
more than anything else in God's sovereign mercy, the gospel of
your salvation. Mercy rejoices against judgment. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. I talked about Christ doing for
His people. There is no condemnation. Well, you know that Romans 8
verse 1, can you quote all of it? There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the
flesh, but according to the Spirit. We don't often quote the rest
of that. The Spirit of God is first what? What is the fruit of the Spirit?
What's the first fruit of the Spirit? First fruit, somebody
tell me. Love. Love. Love, joy, mercy. Now, I'm not saying, and he's
not saying that we should rejoice if we think we're merciful. You ought to be afraid if you
think you are. You ought to fear. You ought to ask the Lord for
forgiveness for being so full of pride. But here's the thing, and I asked
you this a while ago, do you desire to be merciful? Is this in your heart? Is it
in your desire to be like Christ? Your need to be merciful, and
do you not desire it? Do you not want to be like Christ?
Do you not? Do you not want to be merciful
and gracious and serve your brethren? Do you not see that it's your
reasonable service? And do you not love your brother
and sister? And do you not see that they're
worthy of your service and your mercy? And do you not? Well,
that's not natural. That's not natural. That's supernatural.
This is something the Spirit of God does within His people.
He puts this new creature that's like Christ, who is merciful. That old man is not merciful. Our Lord said in another place, the world is going to hate you.
They're full of hate. That's natural. It's natural
to hate. It's unnatural to love. God puts that in you. Do you
love your brother? Yeah, I do, but I sure don't
show it like, well, I'm glad. Rejoice. Rejoice if you feel
the workings of the Lord in you, that you do have that desire
that wasn't there before. That wasn't there before. If
you truly love your brother, rejoice. That's not of yourself,
but that's of God. And mercy rejoiceth against judgment. But oh my, if we'll judge ourselves. This is one of the weightiest
scriptures I know in all the Bible, what I'm about to quote. Think about it. If we'll judge
ourselves, we'll not be judged. Right there it is. Okay. Okay.