Presence of Moral Law in the New Testament (4)

Introduction: Prayer and a Medical Analogy for Preaching the Law

0:06 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, December 17th, 1995, at the Trinity Baptist Church of Montville, New Jersey.

0:19 James chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come into your synagogue or assembly a man with a gold ring in fine clothing, and there come in also a poor man in vile clothing, and you have regard to him that wears the fine clothing, and say, Sit here in a good place. And you say to the poor man, Stand there, or sit under.

1:03 Do you not make distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren. Did not God choose them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to them that love him? But you have disobeyed the man.

1:34 Do not the rich oppress you and themselves drag you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? Howbeit, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you have respect of persons, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.

2:13 For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery but kill, you are become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty.

2:48 For judgment is without mercy to him that has showed no mercy. Mercy glories against judgment.

3:02 Now let us pray and ask God's blessing upon our study. Let us pray. Now let us pray. And also remember Pastor Lamar, who is probably at this moment standing and beginning his ministry, bringing a charge to the congregation there in Englewood with respect to their responsibilities to Pastor Don, who will be formally installed this evening, at which time I will be privileged to bring a biblical charge to our beloved brother.

3:33 Let us now seek God's face again in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you for the largeness of your heart towards your people. We have sought you in this hour, trembling with awe before you as the judge of the universe. We have sought you in this hour, trembling with awe before you as the judge of the universe. We have sought you in this hour, trembling with awe before you as the judge of the universe.

4:26 We have sought you in this hour, trembling with awe before you as the judge of the universe. We have sought you in this hour, trembling with awe before you as the judge of the universe. Be to us the God of illumination. Be to me the God of utterance. Be to all of us the God of divine enablement. And what we pray for ourselves, we pray for that assembly there in Englewood and for Pastor Lamar as he brings a charge to that congregation.

5:18 O Lord, write upon the corporate heart of that assembly these things that are their solemn duty. O Lord, write upon the corporate heart of that assembly these things that are their solemn duty.

6:04 A man, a woman who has a legitimate sphere of occupation and calling in life, but I want you to imagine with me that each one of you were a fully competent, duly licensed, board certified physician. A doctor of medicine with proven credentials to practice medicine across a very broad field of medical concern. And you heard an appeal that went out from several mission agencies for such people, qualified, experienced, general practitioners, to spend a few months using their medical skills as an opportunity to meet some very critical needs in a remote, primitive village in West Erion, formerly New Guinea. And there, as a Christian. A Christian to minister medicinal help in the name of Christ, using opportunities where possible to bear witness to your faith in Christ.

7:16 And as a biblical Christian and a good churchman, you've cleared with your home church, and as a good, responsible provider, you've cleared with others with whom you may practice medicine and with your family, the proposition that for three months you're going to be a Christian. The proposition that for three months you're going to be a Christian. And you're going to go into one of these remote villages with other physicians, and there seek in the name of Christ to exercise your medical skills. Now notice, I've not called you a medical missionary.

7:48 You're just a doctor practicing medicine in a totally different setting. And so, in the providence of God, all the shots are taken, and your pieces are properly made out, and you find yourself in such a village. There in some remote part of West Erion. And you notice that in this particular village, there seems to be a common malady.

8:14 That as you move amongst the people and communicate to them through an interpreter, you begin to see a pattern of a general physical malaise. A general pattern of physical weakness and debilitation. And using all of the medical equipment that you've brought with you. And that the support team has brought in for you.

8:37 You go to your laboratory and you do your various tests, and you come to a group decision with the other doctors that these people are afflicted with a specific illness. But alas, an illness for which there is unknown treatment. However, the problem is this. The particular medication that will, under the blessing of God, cure the inhabitants of this village completely of their particular rare disease is such that if they take anything less than the required doses, it will do them absolutely no good.

9:21 If they take anything more than the appropriate doses, it will kill them. If they take the appropriate dosage, without accommodating, accompanying medications, and a very strict rule of diet in terms of the kinds of foods they eat. The medication will do them some good, but for the most part, it will leave them partially sick and in some cases crippled all their days. Now imagine, you are the doctor, you're there in the village, you've come to these conclusions, you're thankful that you've been able to analyze the problem, that you have the medication that can cure with the blessing of God the problem, but you also know from your medical knowledge, something less than the required doses will do no good. Back in New Jersey, making big bucks, or just barely making ends meet, whatever your practice in New Jersey provides, and go home. Too much, you'll kill them. And you don't want to have a conscience that you in any way contributed to violating the sixth commandment,

10:50 thou shalt do no murder, and you are also fearful that unless they can be persuaded to take the accompanying medications and alter their diet, they may be partially sick or crippled all their days. Now my question is this, if you were convinced of all of those things, what is the first thing you would seek to do with those villagers? Before you gave them any of the medication, whether by pill, whether in liquid form, whether by injections, what is the first thing you would do with all of the villagers to whom you were going to administer the medication? Don't answer out loud, class, but answer inside your head.

11:31 You kids, you're the doctor, you're the doctoress, all right?

11:37 What would you do? Well, you say, Pastor Martin, I think it's clear what we'd do. We would make it very plain through the interpreters, gathering the whole village together, that we have isolated and identified their disease. And we would tell them, if we felt it was necessary, the nature of that disease, but then we would say to them, now listen very, very...

12:01 very carefully. Here's the medication that if God blesses it can make you well. And you'd hold it up and say, there it is. Let's assume that it's in bottles from which it will be extracted and placed into hypodermic needles.

12:17 And you say, I put the needle here, I extract so much, and I put it in you, and with God's blessing it makes you well. However, however, you would make very plain through your translator that they were to have to have...

12:31 so much, every three days, every five days, whatever it is. And they should not have the idea that if a little is good, much more is better. You've got to tell them, you take more of this than is prescribed, and there'll be a funeral in the village that'll kill you. And if you begin to feel better and get careless and say, oh, well, I'm all better, and you don't continue to take it along with these other pills, and these other bottles of medicine, and change your diet from this, this, and this, to this, this, and this, you may be sickly all of your days, or you may be crippled all of your days.

13:12 Before you would give the first injection, before you would give the first bottle of the oral medication, what would you do? You would seek with all of your powers to persuade the entire village, no matter how long it took, that before they get the medicine, they've got to know the rules of how to use the medicine to their profit. Isn't that what you'd do? Dr. Van Graal, is that what you'd do?

13:45 In nodding his head, yes.

13:49 You'd say, Pastor Matt, has the cold weather affected your head? No, I hope not, for evil anyway, because this is precisely what I'm seeking to do in these messages, in these days. I've announced that we're going to take the medicine of the Ten Commandments, and we're going to take into our souls the potent medication of the ten words of God spoken by the mouth of God and written by the finger of God on Mount Sinai. However, as a spiritual physician, aware of what is taught in the Bible, and validated in church history, I happen to know that if this medication is not taken as it ought to be taken, it will, on the one hand, do you no good, or it may kill you, or it may leave you sick and crippled all the days of your life here on earth. And what I have been doing in these messages is only what a responsible physician of bodies would do. I have been seeking to gather the village together

15:15 and say the medication is still in the vial. We haven't drawn it out and stuck it in you yet. But we are concerned that we set the field of how this medicine is to be taken, and how much of it, in conjunction with, what other medications and the alterations that must be made in the other foods that we ingest while we are subjected to this medicine. And the whole end of this is that our direct contact with the Ten Commandments may ultimately be to our spiritual, healing, and well-being, and not to our death or to our detriment. So, with that fresh, extended justification and explanation of what we're doing, what have we done thus far? Well, we have established from the Scriptures that man, as created by God, is under an inescapable obligation to render, perfect obedience to God. The ground of that obligation is the Creator-Creature relationship.

The Enduring Obligation to God's Law

16:45 The standard of that obligation is the revealed will of God, and the ultimate proof of that obligation is the work of Christ and the coming day of judgment. And then we are establishing this second basic principle that the obedience which God requires, requires of man, is comprehensively summarized in the Ten Commandments. And we have seen this from the fact of the undeniable evidence of the influence of the Ten Commandments upon all men by nature. Romans 1.32, Romans 2.14 and 15. Secondly, the unusual circumstances surrounding the actual giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. From the specific preparations for the giving of the Ten Words to the preservation of those Ten Words in the Ark of the Covenant, God is saying, amidst all of that material in which He is revealing His mind and will to His covenant people, the Ten Words are distinct and set apart in a special category.

18:02 And then thirdly, we are distinctly, we are discovering together the obvious presence of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament as an unchanging and binding standard of righteousness. For you kids, that's just a big word for saying a standard of defining what is right and what is wrong. That's an abiding, a changeless, a binding standard of righteousness there is. That's a standard of righteousness.

18:33 There is. A standard to tell us what is right and wrong. And thus far we've examined seven major passages in the New Testament. Matthew 5, 17 to 20 and the two following paragraphs.

18:48 Romans 7, 7 to 14. Romans 8, 4. Romans 13, 8 to 10. Galatians 5, 13 to 15.

18:57 Ephesians 6, 1 to 3. And then in our communion meditation two Lord's Days ago, Hebrews 8, verses 10 to 12, in which one of the four distinct blessings of the New Covenant is that of having the Law of God written upon our hearts. Now we come this morning to the eighth pivotal, crucial, watershed passage which demonstrates that in the New Testament the Ten Commandments are set before us, as an unchangeable and a binding standard of righteousness. And our passage is the one that I read in your hearing. James chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. Now the text that affirms all that I would desire to expound with respect to our subject is obviously verse 9. If you have respect of purpose, if you have respect of purpose, you are committing sin, being convicted by the Law as transgressors.

The Problem Identified: Carnal Partiality

20:14 But since that statement comes in what the late Professor Murray called a universe of discourse, that was his poetic way of describing context, it comes in a connected series of thoughts. Put on your seatbelt and think with me as we attempt to work down through this entire paragraph, not in detail, but just capturing the main thread of James' development of thought. All of this begins with what I'm calling the problem identified, verses 1 to 4 of chapter 2. And then we have the problem corrected, verses 5 through 13. The problem identified, verses 1 through 4. What was the problem that James was addressing? My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, with respect of persons.

21:21 The problem is identified in that these Hebrew Christians were indulging in a pattern of carnal partiality, towards the rich, here called showing respect of persons. And in a very blunt imperative, he says, my brethren, do not find yourself in the posture as professed disciples of the Lord Jesus. Do not hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. Do not be found in the posture of claiming to be a sinner saved by the grace of Christ, saved by the work of Christ. Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ alongside of or in conjunction with showing respect of persons. And when he says respect of persons, he does not mean showing due respect to the various classes and distinctions in society. That very disposition is commanded in other portions of the Word of God.

22:38 Honor to whom honor is due. Honor the king. We are to show deference. Even ministers are to recognize the differing age groupings.

22:50 And Timothy is told, you can exhort the younger men as brothers, but the older men, you are to entreat them as fathers. No, the respect of persons here is then described in the following verses as a carnal pattern of partiality to the rich. For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring and fine clothing, and at the same time there comes in a poor man with vile clothing, what happens? Whoever is appointed the usher that day, this is what was happening.

23:25 They were looking to the man with the fine clothing and the sparkling gold ring and saying to him, sit here in a good place, a place of greater prominence, a place perhaps with more comfortable seats, while they were saying to the poor man, you go stand in the corner or you sit here under my footstool, not even a proper seat. In other words, what they were doing was making, verse 14, distinctions among themselves and becoming judges with evil thoughts. They were thinking evil of a man, not for what he was as a man, but for how he appeared in his station in society. This was called respect of persons. This was giving treatment of a preferential nature based upon what men's eyes could see in terms of a man's material and financial standing. This is the problem identified by James.

24:33 A carnal respect of persons showing partiality toward the rich. Do you see that from the passage? That is the problem identified. Now James is going to correct the problem starting in verse 5.

James' Four-Pronged Correction: Spiritual Purgative

24:52 And he gets their attention by saying, hearken. Today's idiom would be, listen up guys. That's the N word. That's what the coach says.

25:02 Listen up guys. Probably some of you school teachers say it out on the playground. Listen up. That's what James is saying.

25:09 Here's your problem. I've told you this is inconsistent. It needs to stop. I've explained sufficiently what I mean.

25:18 Now listen up. Hearken. Pay attention. And he's going to correct the problem.

25:24 And as he corrects the problem of this carnal partiality to the rich, he's going to use a four-pronged method of correction. To change the imagery, he's going to take the paddle of verbal discipline and give them four whacks on their spiritual behind. To change the imagery, he's going to give them four doses of spiritual purgative. You read in the old writers, so and so needed to take purgative.

26:02 That when you were sick, you got a purgative to clean you out good. Some of us were brought up on castor oil and other such purgatives. Well, this is what James is going to do. He says, now this thing must not be in the spiritual gut of you professing Christians.

26:21 And we're going to give you a spiritual purgative comprised of four ingredients. We're going to give you gracious pastoral discipline and correction. We're going to give you four whacks with these paddles. Whatever the imagery is that sticks most with you, James does not come at it with simply one perspective.

26:47 He's convinced it is so entrenched that it will only be uprooted if he uses a manifold approach of spiritual correction. And notice what they are. Number one, he says, your actions in this carnal partiality are contrary to God's actions in His electing grace. Look at verse five.

Correction 1: Contrary to God's Electing Grace

27:14 Harken, listen up, my beloved brethren. What I'm going to say may sting, but I love you. See, up in the beginning when he points out the sin, he just says, my brethren. Now when he's going to whack them, he says, my beloved brethren.

27:29 You kids, that's what mommy and daddy do. They're walking in the room when they're going to put the paddle on you, and they remind you, daddy's doing this because he loves you. And I know what you think sometimes, you see, that I should be so loved. But they do it, and that's what he's doing.

27:46 He's about to paddle them spiritually. He's about to rebuke them, and he says, listen up, my beloved brethren. And notice his first line of purgative, his first whack with the paddle. Did not God choose them that are poor as to the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to them that love Him?

28:14 But you have dishonored the poor man. What is he doing? He's saying your actions in this carnal partiality are contrary to God's action in His electing and redeeming love. God has chosen the poor to be rich and to be heirs of His kingdom.

28:39 You have despised and treated the poor with disdain. Corrective number one is, you're being ungodly. Your actions are not reflecting the character of the God whose children you profess to be. And God's kids are supposed to look like God their Father.

29:05 Jesus said you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. God says be ye holy for I am holy. So when James says, my brethren, don't hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ along with respect of persons when you do this, you're being ungodly. You're not being like God.

29:30 You prefer the rich and despise the poor. God's electing and redeeming grace has uniquely settled upon the poor and bypassed the rich. So his first corrective is, your actions are contrary to God's action. What's his second?

Correction 2: Irrational in Light of the Rich's Actions

29:50 Look at verse 6b. He then goes on to say, do not the rich oppress you and themselves drag you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? What is he doing here?

30:10 Here he is saying, your actions of carnal partiality are irrational, in the light of the rich and their treatment of God and His people. He says, don't you know that generally speaking, the rich of this world, not speaking of the rich within the congregation, do not the rich generically oppress you? And many of these would say, oh yes, we've known the oppression of the rich, and themselves drag you before the judgment seats? They've got the big box for the expensive lawyers, and you don't have any.

30:54 They take advantage of you and drive you before the judgment seats? And many would say, they sure do. And then he goes on to say, as the crowning word concerning their wickedness, do not they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called? And what is that honorable name?

31:16 The Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord of Glory. They blaspheme that name. What is he doing as a corrective?

31:24 He's saying, look, when you show preferential treatment to the rich, and you despise the poor in your gatherings, you are not only being unlike God, you are also being utterly irrational. You are treating with partiality those who despise you and above all, despise your God. And that's utterly irrational. Scriptures everywhere teach that one of the marks of a true man or woman or boy or girl who loves God is that he loves those who are begotten of God.

32:06 And that which binds him in his deepest social relations is not blood, social class, or money, but it's grace. He that is born of God loves Him also. That is begotten of Him. He that loves father, mother, brother, sister more than me is not worthy of me.

32:30 By this we know we've passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. And we love them not because of what they wear on their fingers or on their backs, but because of what God has put in their hearts of His grace. And that they love the name that we love. And they do not blaspheme the name.

32:51 They honor it. So you see how he's seeking to purge out this carnal respect of persons. His second dose has gone down. Dose number one, it's ungodly.

Correction 4: Forgetful of God's Judgment Principles

33:02 Dose number two, it's irrational. Dose number four begins in verse 12 and goes through verse 13. So speak and so do as men that are to be judged by a law of liberty for judgment is without mercy to him that it showed no mercy. Mercy glories against judgment.

33:28 Now wouldn't you like me to pause and try to unpack those two verses? I'm not going to because that's not germane to my purpose. But one thing is clear. He brings in as dose number four as whack of paddle number four.

33:42 He brings in the principles that regulate God's judgment. Notice how the word judgment is dominant. Judgment is without mercy. To him who showed no mercy.

33:52 Mercy glories against judgment. Speak as men that are to be judged. He says your dealings are going contrary to the fundamental principles of God's judgment in the last day. Those principles of God's judgment in the last day are to regulate your judgments in this day.

34:14 But you say, Pastor, you skipped number three. That's right. And you notice I skipped the largest section. The largest section of the passage.

Correction 3: Direct Violation of God's Law (The Royal Law)

34:22 Did you notice that? The largest section in the whole antidote to this problem of carnal preferential treatment runs from verse eight through verse eleven. And you know what it has to do with? He says your actions of carnal partiality to the rich are in direct violation of the law of God as summarized in the Ten Commandments.

34:55 Your actions in showing carnal partiality to the rich are in direct violation of the law of God as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Look at the language. How be it if you fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures you shall love your neighbor as yourself you do well. But if you have respect of persons repeating the very one Greek word from verse one have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons it's one long Greek word.

35:39 He uses it for the second time here. If you have respect of persons you are committing sin being convicted being thoroughly convinced and convicted by the law as transgressors for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point he is become guilty of all for he that said do not commit adultery also said do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery but kill you are become a transgressor of the law. You see without unpacking any of the details the third ingredient in his spiritual purgative the third paddle of his spiritual discipline is bringing into this assembly of Christian Jews or Hebrew Christians the abiding binding convicting authority of the law of God as embodied in the ten commandments. Now follow and see and God help us to feel the weight of this.

37:05 Surely you say if someone is guilty of this sin of carnal partiality to be told you are not being like God. Isn't that enough to pry him loose? Or at least almost if you add to that you are being totally irrational. You are showing favoritism to the very people who categorically and generically abuse you.

37:36 That's irrational. That doesn't pry you loose. You are acting on principles entirely contrary to the way you want to be dealt with in the day of judgment. Do you want to meet God as a narrow hearted unmerciful God in the day of judgment?

37:59 You say of course not. He said well then don't you become judges with evil thoughts here on earth as you deal with the poor. You say well surely any Christian those three reasons would be enough to forever pry him loose from any attachment to the sin of showing respect to persons. Apparently James did not believe those three reasons were enough.

38:24 He gives this third of the four and it is the fact that in so showing respect to persons they are acting in direct violation of the law of God as summarized in the Ten Commandments. Now let's look at the passage in greater detail. Before we then draw out several vital principles. What does he do?

38:55 Well first of all verse 8 as he is showing them that their actions of carnal partiality are in direct violation of the law of God as summarized in the Ten Commandments the first thing he does is reminds them of the divine summary of the law as it relates to our horizontal relationships. He reminds them of the divine summary of the law as it relates to our horizontal relationships. Verse 8 How be it if you fulfill the royal law and there is a lot of debate as to why it is called the royal law I think the most plausible explanation is it is the royal law because it is the king's law and what pertains to the king is royal and when God stooped down in Christ to become a redeemer he did not vacate his throne as a sovereign it is a royal law because its giver is a king though he has been a gracious king and has sent his son to die for sinners so that he is addressing the people who hold to the faith of the Lord Jesus the law has lost none of its royalty because it comes from the throne of the king. If you fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures

40:21 you shall love your neighbor as yourself you do well and James quotes that summary of the requirements of the second table of the law given by God himself in the Old and in the New Testaments Leviticus 19 in verse 18 and then in Matthew chapter 22 in verse 39 from the lips of our Lord Jesus and then we saw it in Romans 13 where Paul says that the law is summed up in this word you shall love your neighbor as yourself so he reminds them of the divine summary of the law as it relates to our fellow men he said now if you fulfill this royal law according to the scriptures you are doing well if you are living with your conscience under the gracious guidance of this summary of the second table of the law he doesn't say you are a legalist and in bondage you are terribly short of your gospel privileges he says no for those of you that are seeking to regulate how you relate to rich and poor according to the royal law of scripture the summary of the second table of the law you are doing well

41:49 that's what my bible says your bible says that you are doing well keep it up and don't let you don't understand your liberty in Christ you have no relationship to the law don't let anyone tell you you honor the king on his throne by stuffing your ears to his law and not letting it get into your conscience he says you do well but then he shows that the nature of this law that the nature of this carnal partiality is to be identified as blatant law breaking verse nine but and he uses a strong adversative but on the other hand in contrast to this but if you have respect of persons remember same word used up in verse one when he identifies the problem if you have respect of persons what are you doing he says you are committing sin this respect of persons is sin literally you are working sin sin as missing the mark you are missing the mark the standard of God is being missed

43:18 you are working sin respect of persons is sin secondly the nature of this partiality with respect to its very essence it is sin with respect this respect of persons is sin why look at the text because it is a transgression of the moral law if you have respect of persons you are working sin being convinced utterly convinced and convicted by the cross of Christ pastor what version is that that is the perversion of all antinomians who say all we need to guide us in moral conduct is the light of the cross James did not say being convicted by the cross he says being utterly convicted by the law as transgressors this respect of persons is not only sin it is sin because it is a transgression of the moral law of God and here the word used for transgression parabates means a stepping over of the boundary

44:46 sin is not only falling short of the mark of the standard set by God it is breaking the boundaries established by God and he says to these who hold the faith of the Lord Jesus when they show this carnal respect of persons they are sinning and he says you must know that you are sinning because the law thoroughly convinces and convicts you of transgression and then the third thing he says is that the moral law is a seamless garment of divine authority we are going to have occasion to come back to this text in another sermon but suffice it to grasp that principle for there is a connective whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point he has become guilty of all for he that said do not commit adultery said also do not kill now if you don't commit adultery but kill you are become back to our same terminology a transgressor of the law what is this point here is the fundamental point your respect of persons is sin this respect of persons is sin because it is a transgression of the moral law

46:11 and the moral law is a seamless garment of divine authority therefore if you treat any one part with contempt in essence you treat the whole with contempt because you treat its giver with contempt he that said don't do this also said don't do that and if you have regard to his authority you will not pick and choose and be selective in your moral choices see the emphasis he that said don't commit adultery it is the same God who said you shall not murder and therefore when you sin in showing this carnal carnal partiality towards the rich and despise the poor you are guilty of sin you are convicted by the law as transgressors that moral law which is a seamless garment of divine authority and fourthly the moral law which convicted them of the sin of impartiality a partiality I'm sorry is identified with the ten commandments see verse 11 for he that said do not commit adultery also said do not kill the seventh and the sixth commandments now if you do not commit adultery but kill you'll become a transgressor of

47:40 law what law the moral law of God is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments so now to summarize do you see what James has done in applying his four paddles of correction his four ingredients of spiritual purgative he says now listen this business of carnal respect of persons in your assemblies whatever those assemblies were and that's debated and I'm not even going to let you know what the debate is because it's not important he just says you people who hold to the faith of the Lord Jesus while showing this carnal partiality to the rich and despising the poor this has got to stop and it must stop because number one it's ungodly it's not like God number two it's irrational number three it is immoral and number four it is forgetful of the principle of God's judgment in the last day now having gone through the passage with you we looked at the problem identified in verses one to four carnal partiality the problem corrected with his four trumpet blasts

Principle 1: Conscience Bound by God's Law

49:08 his four strokes of the paddle of godly discipline the four ingredients of the purgative now what are the principles in this passage that are part of the doctor preparing the village for their medicine what are the principles that we need to grasp and lay hold of well in the time that remains let me highlight three of them number one the first principle is this as surely as the consciences of believers are to be bound by the example of God no one here would debate that I don't know of anyone of any theological persuasion who claims to believe the bible who says God is not the perfect example of the believer as surely as God's example is to bind the conscience of a believer our observation of men's treatment of the people of God and of God himself is to regulate our behavior I don't know of anyone who believes this bible that questions that except some of this nonsense in our day of unconditional love love everything and everybody in all the same way that certainly is not taught in the bible but apart from that we recognize that one of the marks of grace is that we honor those who honor our God and we love with a special love

50:37 of affinity and delight those who are born of God while like God we love with a love of principle benevolence even our enemies as he loves and cares for his enemies and I know of no one that would debate that being like God ought to bind my conscience following the pattern of observable relationships amongst men ought to regulate my conscience in terms of how I relate to them and I don't know of anyone who says he believes his bible that would not say God's principles of judgment in the last day ought to be reflected in how I relate and make judgments of people here in this life I don't know of any to debate that why then debate the third ingredient in the purgative when it is the most dominant ingredient in the whole concoction for the life of me I can't see any rational biblical grounds for saying cut out verses 8 through 11 no God has put them there saying to every Christian you must have your conscience bound

52:01 by the gracious pressure of the law of God as summarized in the ten commandments and it must enter into all of your thinking in all of your relationships let's go back some believe this may have been the first epistle written you're sitting in an assembly of Hebrew Christians one of the elders stands and we know they had elders because in chapter 5 any among you sick let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him one of the elders or an appointed reader stands and he starts to read the epistle and he comes to what we now have as chapter 2 my brethren do not hold the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons and immediately some who have been guilty of this sin they feel the arrows strike their heart and they say oh God I fear I've been guilty search me oh God and know my heart and then they listen as the reader goes on to read and he says listen up now hearken I've shown you how you're doing this now you who are guilty know who you are now I'm going after your conscience hearken listen up

53:30 pay careful attention my beloved brethren what I'm going to say I say in love it may sting it may wound it may hurt but I love you and love is willing to inflict the wounds for faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful the first wound he applies is you're not being like God has not God chosen the very people you are despising to be his children to be heirs of the kingdom of those that love him and the person sitting there says oh God forgive me I've been unlike you Lord if you acted like I did I wouldn't be here in an assembly of your people I'm of the poor of this world and I'm living proof that you have shown preferential treatment in your electing grace to the poor for as we heard in the previous hour not many mighty not many noble God hath chosen the poor and the weak and the despised that no flesh should glory before him and the person's conscience is smitten and they say oh God forgive me I've been unlike you Lord that's enough but then the reader goes on to say no no there's more coming and then he lays out do not the rich oppress you and the man says oh yes I've known that do they not drag you before the judgment seat yes I've known that and have they not dishonored and blasphemed the name by which you are called yes I've heard the fat cats who have no sense of need

54:58 and are utterly indifferent to the gospel blaspheme the very name of Jesus when I seek to witness to them and they call him a crude imposter who came out of the despised area of Galilee and his heart is smitten and he says oh God forgive me that I've ignored something so obvious that I'm showing preferential treatment to the very class of people who are among the most bitter enemies of your people and of the poor and of the name of your son what would you think then if the person reading the epistle came to the third ingredient in the purgative picked up the third paddle of loving pastoral discipline and said how be it if you fulfill the royal law what would have happened if the moment a person heard fulfill royal law someone would have stood up and said stop this is an assembly of people who hold the law the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ Moses has no place in this assembly of law but under grace to speak of commandments and fulfilling law

56:26 and being convicted by law as transgressors that brings us into bondage that brings us back into condemnation that brings us under a spirit of sin of fear and of dread stop it what would the reader say he'd say sir you sit down and shut your mouth God is speaking to his inspired penman his approved apostolic representative you shush and let God be true and every man a liar including you but alas in our day in the name of Christ and in the name of biblical exposition there are people who are doing that very thing the only difference is they crank out their books and their tapes telling James to shut his mouth though James will not be told to shut his mouth in this place so long as you as a people love Christ and love his word and when God by the Holy Ghost through James says you not only need the example of God

57:51 at work in your conscience the observable discernible patterns of men affecting your conscience in terms of how you relate to them the principles of the coming day of judgment to be in your conscience working in you as you relate to others you must have God's law at work in your conscience even that law summarized in the ten commandments that's the first principle as surely as the consciences of believers are bound by the example of God the observable identity of the friends of God the principles of the judgment of God there to be bound by the authority of the law of God as summarized in the ten commandments then there's a second principle and may God help us to grasp this and hold it in a death grip holding to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is in no way threatened or cancelled by holding to the ten commandments as a changeless binding standard of righteousness say Pastor couldn't you make that a little more simple I tried I labored but I can't reduce it

Principle 2: Faith in Christ Not Threatened by the Ten Commandments

59:18 you can't make a Cadillac into a Volkswagen and this is a Cadillac principle not because I said it because it's in the text holding to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ is in no way threatened or cancelled by holding to the ten commandments as a changeless and binding standard of righteousness did James forget the people he was addressing my brethren verse one hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect to persons he's consciously addressing them as people who hold to the faith of the Lord Jesus and what is one of the fundamental tenets of that faith that my works can only damn me my law keeping can never save me essential and fundamental to the faith of the Lord Jesus is the fact that I am God I am God I am God I am God I am God even if I am God complete with my love God is the communication of my way you know all of us find different ways of keeping the word God statewide

60:39 making God and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Those are the ABCs of the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. And James is writing to people who hold to that faith. And when he brings in the law into their consciences, saying it convicts them as sinners, he apparently does not feel in any way that he is prying them loose to the purity of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, or of their grasp of the faith in Jesus Christ. For you see, one of the fundamental, we might say secondary implications of that faith is stated in Galatians 3, that in Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free. Barbarian, Scythian, male, female, in Christ, all blood, worldly, geographical, cultural,

61:59 religious distinctions are obliterated. We are all one new man in Christ. And so when the law of God shows us we are acting contrary to that reality, it is not an enemy of holding to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a friend, a helper.

62:18 Help us hold to that faith more consistently. He brings the law close to their conscience. He says it utterly convicts them of sin. It identifies them as transgressors. Now is that to bring them back under the terrors of the law, back under condemnation? No! It is to help them in their sanctification, to be more like God, to live more consistent with the very principles of the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not to drive a wedge between them in Christ, to sever them from the death grip of faith in Christ. It is to drive them back to Christ for fresh pardon, back to Christ

63:07 to slay this wretched, carnal prejudice in their hearts, and to look to Christ for grace, to hold the faith of the Lord Jesus in a manner consistent with that faith, that not showing respect of persons, they would make it patent that in the gospel all of the things that separate men in this world are obliterated, and we are made one new man in Christ. And then the third and final principle of our passage is this, that the concern of every Christian should be to have respect to all ten commandments as a binding and changeless standard of righteousness, suffused, permeated, percolating, boiling over with, soaked up with, whatever terminology you can use, with God's authority. The concern of every Christian should be to have respect to all ten commandments as a binding and changeless standard of righteousness, suffused, permeated with God's authority. Verse 11,

Principle 3: Respect for All Ten Commandments

64:24 He that said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. God's authority stands behind every one of the ten words, and therefore, in our relationship to the law, we must remember it's the royal law, it's the king's law, and indifference, conscious, willful indifference to any one of those ten words shows utter indifference to the God who gave it. And that's the problem with some of you sitting here. The carnal mind is enmity, what? Against God, for it is not subject to the law of God.

65:08 You see, your problem with the commandments is a problem with God. You're God's enemy. You hate God!

65:17 And that's why you'll show a little respect to this or that commandment that doesn't pinch you, where your own natural inclinations lead and take you, but you don't have what the old writers call a disposition. To universal obedience! Why? Because you hate the God who speaks in His law.

65:36 And that's the God who holds you accountable for every breach of that law in thought, word, deed, motive, intention, and desire. And He has it all recorded with His infinite mind of undiluted omniscience. And if you go to the day of judgment with no mediator, you'll meet every one of those thoughts, words, deeds, desires, intentions, and motives, and your mouth will be shut while your damnation is heralded before all the gathered intelligences of the universe. And you'll sink into hell under the curse of that broken law.

66:16 But dear child of God, our hearts have been changed by grace. The heart of stone has been removed. We've been given a heart of flesh. God has internalized a disposition of delight in Him and in His law.

66:30 So the internal disposition! And affinity towards Him and His law when met by the objective standard says, Oh, how love I thy law!

66:43 It is my meditation all the day. The concern of every one of you, the concern of this preacher, should be to have respect to all ten commandments as a binding and changeless standard of righteousness suffused with God's authority.

Conclusion: The Law as a Guide for Sanctification

67:03 Now, I've spent an hour. Not quite an hour. Started at 12 o'clock. Finished my review.

67:11 What have I been doing? I've been the spiritual doctor who's going to give an account for what I've done. I don't want anybody, through failure to see how important this study of the ten commandments is, not to get enough of the medicine to do you good. I don't want anyone taking the medicine in such doses that it kills you.

67:33 And I don't want you taking the medicine without the other. Medicine. This is the other truths of the word of God that will leave you sickly unless your diet is adjusted to this dose of the words that God uttered from Sinai. And I trust when I'm in my grave, if the Lord Jesus tarries, and someone attempts in this congregation to say the ten words of God from Sinai have no place in a Christian's conscience, some of you will remember this morning when the Holy Ghost persuaded you from James chapter 2 that that is damning, Christ-dishonoring, unbiblical heresy.

68:25 And may God give you the moral courage to drive it out so that God's law will have its proper place in the ongoing sanctification of the consciences of the people of God. The people of God in this place who hold to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. In that sense, you can spit on the law if it comes before you and says, use me as a ladder to heaven. Spit on it and cling to the cross alone.

69:04 But when it comes before you and says, I come as a guide to your conscience, that in the strength of Christ and out of love to Christ, you may go to heaven more like Christ. Hug the law to your breast and say, Oh, how I love you. Our Father, we believe that weighty and soul-saving or soul-destructive issues are at stake in these issues. And we can only beg of you that by the ministry of the Holy Spirit you will write upon all of our hearts the things we have considered this morning. Oh, how I love you. Oh, Holy Father, have mercy upon those that stand beneath your law with no mediator in between. Give them no rest till they flee to Christ and find in him forgiveness for all their transgressions.

70:09 Help us as your people whose consciences have been dulled through our indwelling sin and through the influence of the world that we may in these days as we draw close to your holy law have our conscience, our sins brought to deep and thorough conviction that we might own our transgressions and flee to Christ afresh not only for pardon but for mortifying and overcoming grace. Lord, seal your word to our prophet, we pray and dismiss us with your blessing resting upon us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.