James chapter one, reading from verse 22, and we'll go down to verse 27. And James writes, this is the word of God. James writes, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, He is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Actually, we're not going to read to verse 27. That is the extent of our reading today. So we're down to verse 25. And may the Lord bless to us that reading from his word.

It is ever a preacher's job both to comfort and challenge his hearers. And he does so by faithfully preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Comfort is given. It is desired by all who hunger after righteousness. Comfort is given for the weary and heavy laden. Comfort is given in the gospel for the broken hearted and for all who feel the weight of sin and temptation in their lives.

But the preacher has to challenge as well as comfort. And challenge is necessary for those who have grown careless and complacent in their spirit. Prophets of the Old Testament had one message. They had one message for those who mourned in Zion and for those who were at ease or we might say asleep in Zion. And the preacher's message has not changed.

Isaiah chapter 61 and verse one says, the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. And this is accomplished when the preacher preaches Christ crucified.

Indeed these were the very words that the Lord Jesus Christ quoted in the synagogue at Nazareth at the start, the commencement of his own ministry. He stood up there in the synagogue, he took the scriptures from the leader of the synagogue that day and he read that passage from Isaiah chapter 61 and he said, this day have these things been fulfilled in thy hearing. And we remember what the reaction was. The people got angry and they would have thrown him off the top of a hill.

The Lord Jesus Christ also knew that that was the message that he would now give to the world and commit to the care of his apostles and to the preaching throughout the whole earth. No preacher can see the heart of his hearers. Well, the Lord could, but I can't. And some of you today may be under conviction of sin. Perhaps your love for the Lord has grown cold. Perhaps you're anxious for what lies ahead. For you, I hope that by turning us again to look upon the blessed Saviour, I have a message that will do your soul good, that will warm your heart.

But here is the thing. There are some whose hearts are not only cold, but hard. Whose spirit is not weak, but dead. whose sins are suppressed out of public sight, but far from forgiven. And it has always been thus. Peter, the Apostle, and Paul, John, and Jude, all spent significant portions of their epistles writing to the churches, all spent significant proportions of their epistles warning the church of false brethren crept in unawares. The Ananias and Sapphira, of our age. Hypocrites, speaking lies, teachers of damnable heresies, men who profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate.

And where are these people? Outside of the church? Outside of the denominations? Outside of the Christendom, as we sometimes call it? No! in the church, in the denominations, in Christendom.

And James is no different to these other apostles. Indeed, much of his epistle is taken up with warnings to the church, warnings to first be aware and then to beware. of nominal Christians whose religion is in their mouth but not in their soul. Believers in name only, self-righteous frauds, deceiving their own selves while angling, if possible, to deceive the very elect.

And it wasn't just the apostles who spoke like this. It was the Lord too. He spoke of the difference between vain religion and pure religion. Religion of the head versus religion of the heart. The Lord spoke of wheat and tares growing together in one field. They weren't to be separated out because, well, that would damage the true wheat and the fruitfulness of the wheat. So they were to be left growing side by side. The faithful and the reprobate existing side by side through all the ages of the church.

In the parable of the sower, the Lord distinguished between the outcomes for seed sown on stony and thorny soil and what grew in the good ground. And if you remember that parable, indications of green shoots and speedy growth was no evidence of true spiritual life. In fact, it's the tests and trials of life that ultimately prove the resilience of the root. None of us like testing trials, but it is those very problems, those very hardships and difficult times that prove the resilience of the root and ultimately the fruitfulness of the plant.

The Lord and the apostles often called out empty professors in the church of their day. in the followers that they had, and every age is afflicted by those who name the name of Christ, but bear no fruit. These men claim to have a Christian testimony, they attend Christian worship, they listen to Christian preaching, but their religion is vain. They are hearers only. Theirs is a false profession. There is no truth in their heart, no reality in their witness, no outworking of their faith.

The Lord and his apostles were not passive in this matter, and nor should we be. We've been supplied with armour and tools to withstand the wiles of the devil and to expose false professors. And I don't mean church discipline or excommunication or separation. People have tried that. People have tried that down through the ages and they get into smaller and smaller groups as they look at one another and try to examine whether one another are really of the faith. Really, is that what we're coming to? How can we possibly know another man's heart?

I don't mean excommunication and separation. I mean the tools that we have been given, the armor that we have is the power of the gospel. And James is showing that to us in this passage. James has shown that the great distinction in the heart of man is whether or not the word of truth, the gospel of Jesus Christ, has been spiritually and effectually engrafted there in the heart. That's what James has said in the previous verses. We thought about that last week. That is what distinguishes whether a man is a child of God or not, has the gospel been engrafted into the heart. If a person's heart has been cut and the gospel implanted, or to use again James's word, engrafted, it will grow and be fruitful. There's no doubt about that. The Holy Spirit will see to it. And I think you know, if you've been listening to us for any length of time, I think you know that is the reason for the troubles and the trials that you experience. There's a pruning going on. There's a training that's required, a bending and a twisting and a rearranging that is required to make our lives fruitful for the Lord.

Let me change the analogy a little bit. Our Lord is forming his vessels of mercy into vessels of honour. So don't be disheartened when you feel the pressure of his hand on your shoulder.

So this is what James has been teaching us. But now he's going to continue, he's going to develop, he's going to deepen our understanding of this matter. And he's got a third picture for us, if you like. We've talked about the engrafting of the plant. Then I twisted it and spoke about the potter with his pots and his vessels of mercy and vessels of honour. Well, here's a third little picture. James brings forward a simile of a man beholding his natural face in a glass. A man beholding his natural face in a glass. And actually, we'll discover as we go through this little book of James, that James uses a lot of these pictures to communicate his doctrine. We're going to have a good time, I think, listening to some of these similes, some of these metaphors being presented to us. James is full of them. He uses them to communicate his teaching. No doubt copying the examples of the Lord who spoke so readily in parables.

But here we're talking about a man beholding his face, his natural face, in a glass. And this is an unregenerate man who sees his own reflection in the mirror. held up by gospel preaching, or held up in gospel preaching. The idea of a glass there is a mirror. We speak of it as a looking glass sometimes. That was a mirror. But this man, this unregenerate man who sees his own reflection in the mirror, held up in the gospel, in gospel preaching. He may, in that moment of hearing, give some agreement to the truth of the gospel. He may give some mental assent to what he's hearing. This message concerning his sin. But the point that James is making here is that those who have not had this engrafted experience of the word of truth into their heart, those who are natural men and women, that does not last. Such a man, he has a look into the mirror, into the glass. He hears what's said. He even likes what he hears. But as soon as the mirror is removed, he forgets his true state, his true state in nature, by nature, because he remains spiritually unchanged.

And I don't want to pass over this without telling you that I believe what James is describing here is the vast majority of what is called Christianity in our modern world. James, this is what James says, if any be a hearer of the word, and that's what people are doing all throughout the Christian world so-called. They hear, they go week by week. to their services, they listen to their preaching, they listen, they fulfill the routine, they go through the practice, they have their ceremonies, and then they go home. If any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, that's in the mirror. For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and straightway forgeteth what manner of man he is. And many people read the Bible, they hear the gospel preached, but as soon as it's over, they forget it, because it isn't engrafted into their hearts.

James Parpus in warning. He is warning. He's speaking these warnings to us, but his purpose is to provide a contrast, to show what the reality of true spiritual experience and understanding is.

He's saying, as it were, to the church to whom he is writing, to the people of God, he's saying that's not you. That's a man who beholds his natural face in the mirror and then he goes away and he forgets it. He forgets what manner of man he is. But that's not you. Not if you're a true believer.

There are others who look into this gospel mirror, into this looking glass, and it's not their own reflection they see. It's not their own natural face that they see. It isn't their own works, their own self-righteousness, or their own worthiness. They see something, or rather, they see someone altogether more lovely. They see the beauty of Christ.

When they look into the gospel, when the gospel is meaningful to them, when the gospel has a hold of their heart, when it's entered into their heart, They see the beauty of Christ. Regenerated sinners look into the gospel and they see not their natural selves, but the spiritual transformation that Christ has worked in them. They see the full beauty of what James here calls the perfect law of liberty.

And that's the title of our service, our sermon today, The Perfect Law of Liberty. And what a wonderful phrase that is. Let me just tell you this, right? Our Bibles would be poorer if James had not given us this delightful title for the gospel. By it, he is describing the perfections of Jesus Christ and his imputed righteousness to sinners like you and me. What a wonderful phrase it is, the perfect law of liberty.

When a regenerate man, when a born again believer looks into the perfect law of liberty, They do not see their natural state with their sin and their need. Rather, they see Christ reflected in the gospel. They see the success of his ministry. They see his effectual redemption, his mission of salvation accomplished and applied. They see his beauty and his majesty. and the sight captures and holds their gaze.

Having seen the true source and nature of grace and peace with God in Christ, they're transfixed by the vision. Having seen the loveliness of their Redeemer, who is altogether lovely, they cannot turn back to their own self-righteousness, to their own good works. They're incredulous of the legalist or the Arminian or the free will peddler who only see themselves and revert back to their own strength.

The believer thinks, why would we go back to old rag righteousness when we can wear the robes of Christ's righteousness, enjoy the blessing of his accomplishments, and the liberty of the freedom that he bestows. That's what the child of God thinks when they look into the perfect law of liberty, when they hear the gospel of sovereign grace.

I mentioned yesterday that this glass is called the perfect law of liberty, not because it is a law in the sense of Moses' law, the Ten Commandments, but because it is the truth. It is the teaching and the doctrine of God's grace in salvation. And it is obeyed It is done by faith. We do this law, we obey this law by faith when we follow its teaching, when we believe in what it teaches us.

The perfect law of liberty is the revelation, the divine revelation received and believed by faith. and a doer of this work is blessed because his deed is done in faith. It's by faith that the blessings of God in Jesus Christ are received. God's blessings do not arise as a reward for our good works. That's the wrong way round. That is, as the saying goes, the cart before the horse. Good works flow from the blessedness of possessing faith in Christ. A believer's good works are a return of thanks to the Lord, an expression of gratitude, an offering of worship. practical service given to the Lord. That is our worship of God. That is our gratitude. That is our doing good works.

In fact, For all that the legalist rests in his legal obedience and the Arminian in his dedication to the Lord, it's only believers that actually have good works because only works done in faith are good works. And only faith is the gift of God. And that is what we see in the perfect law of liberty. These are offered in gratitude and none of them are considered meritorious as they are given back to the Lord.

The perfect law of liberty is a powerful description of the gift of imputed righteousness from God to men. It's said to be perfect. It's perfect because it is a completed work. It's got a beginning, it's got a middle and it's got an end. And all of those beginning, middle and end are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's perfect because it's complete. It satisfies God's holiness and it ministers to our need. Every righteous requirement is fulfilled in the perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the perfect law of liberty.

Why is it called a law? Because it measures holiness and it announces justification on all who are in Christ. What does the old law do? What did the Moses law do? Well it announced the imperfections of guilty men because it showed how far short, how much they had transgressed. It measured the degree of punishment that they ought to receive for the wickedness that they perpetrated. That was what the old law did. This is the perfect law. This measures holiness and announces justification on all who are in Christ. It brings liberty.

The perfect law of liberty. It brings liberty because it frees those under its rule from the slavish bondage of constantly falling short of God's holiness and perfection. Let me put it like this. The perfect law of liberty says to every regenerated soul, you need holiness and you've got it in Christ. And looking into that glass, why would we ever wish to divert our gaze? Why would we look away?

Under the perfect law of liberty, The power of faith is revealed. You know, power is maybe the wrong word to use here. That implies creature strength, and that's not what I'm trying to do. Maybe efficacy is a better word. The perfect law of liberty shows the efficacy of our faith. The value and the usefulness of our faith is seen under this perfect law of liberty in what it accomplishes to bring the blessings of Christ, the blessings of God into our experience.

Okay, faith is the channel by which God presses through, God prompts and provokes these blessings of our understanding, of our spiritual wisdom, of our awareness of what Christ has done for us. And it is by faith that we lay hold upon the blessings that flow to us in this perfect law of liberty. For a start, faith continues looking to Christ alone for righteousness. Faith won't look anywhere else. Why would it? When a person discovers grace by faith, he discovers peace, liberty, assurance, assurance of salvation and resting in the eternal sufficiency of the crucified Christ.

False faith misses the beauty of Christ. It doesn't see it. It sees its own reflection. It sees itself as a co-worker, as a partner in salvation. It sees natural self in the mirror of works religion, and it strives to adorn itself. I've got a picture of someone trying to do their makeup in front of a mirror. That's what the natural man is doing. He is trying to make himself look good in the mirror of the gospel when he has no understanding of what the true gospel is. You cannot make yourself pretty towards God with your good works, your good deeds.

False faith hears the gospel, but having failed to see the beauty of Jesus Christ and his righteousness, it just looks away again.

Let me use a little bit of jargon here, which many preachers and Bible teachers use. They tell us that the law of Moses is the believer's rule of life. Now, Reformed Baptists and Presbyterians, amongst others, I'm sure, make a lot of this idea of the Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments being the believers' rule of life. And when they say this, they mean that the Law of Moses continues to be the standard by which believers' lives are measured by God And we are obedient or disobedient, holy or unholy, sanctified or defiled, successful Christians or unsuccessful Christians, to the extent that we score favorably against Moses' law, the Ten Commandments, or not. So that the Ten Commandments is like a ruler, set aside our lives, and it is to be our measurement for living. That's what it means when it says the rule of life. It means it's the ruler that measures how good or bad we are being in our Christian life.

Well, that's what the people say who say that the moral law, or Moses' Ten Commandments, is our rule of life. I don't believe that. I do not believe that. I believe the perfect law of liberty is the believer's rule of life. And in God's sight, every believer in Christ is justified, is holy, is sanctified, and is successful because they are in Christ. They are clothed in his righteousness. They are acceptable in him. They're obedient insofar as they have faith. The new man is holy and without blame before him in love. We are accepted in the beloved who is Christ. We are accepted by God in Christ. We are reconciled. We are justified. We are sanctified. We are covered with God's own righteousness when we have faith in Jesus Christ.

So that our standing before God isn't reckoned according to the measurement or the standard or the ruler of Moses' law, which Christ has already fulfilled on our behalf for us, but according to the gospel. That is, in Christ we are free from all condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. That's my position.

Now I'm not saying we are perfect or complete in ourselves, but we are in Christ. Our old man, the old man of flesh, still sins and we know that. We know it more now than we ever did before. Satan still tempts our natural passions. But in Christ we are perfect and complete. And in looking into the perfect law of liberty, we continue to exercise the faith by which all the blessings of Christ's righteousness, his goodness, his love, his faithfulness, his strength, his wisdom, his peace, and every other derived grace flows to us. That's what it means to live by faith. That's what it means to live by faith. We live our Christian lives leaning upon our Saviour, deriving blessing from Him in order to combat the devil's trickery and the old man's failures.

James tells us, continue therein. being not a forgetful hearer. What? What is he talking about? Continue in the law of Moses? No, in Christ, continue in Christ. We are dead to the Moses law. We continue in the perfect law of liberty. We've relinquished the heavy yoke of Moses law for the light yoke of Christ. Our lives are lived walking in the Spirit. We're free, we're liberated from the burden of personal obedience to rest in Christ's obedience. And we are to continue therein, being not a forgetful hearer of the gospel of free grace and imputed righteousness. Don't forget it. Don't walk away and forget what you've learned in the gospel. That's not you. That's not what you do. you live in the light of the perfect law of liberty.

And remember, being a doer of the work is not referring to doing the works of Moses' law, but the work of Christ's law, the perfect law of liberty. That man or that woman who does so, shall be blessed in his deed. Shall be blessed by keeping the faith, by cherishing the faith, by living the faith, and by constantly looking to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

Christ's people live to the glory of God and serve Jesus Christ, not out of duty, but out of love. Our service is an expression of gratitude given freely upon every remembrance of the wonderful works of Christ for us and the precious promises of our Heavenly Father in Christ.

We're finished, but for your homework this week, I want you to remember this phrase, the perfect law of liberty. And I want you to think about it often, or to put it into James' words, continue therein, being not a forgetful hearer. Amen.