Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship 11/5/2023

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good morning, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand and hear God call you to worship through his word. O come, let us sing to the Lord.

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God and the great King above all gods.

In his hands are the deep places of the earth. The heights of the hills are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker.

For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. Let us pray. Eternal, immortal, and invisible God, infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, dwelling in light which no man can approach, where thousands upon thousands minister to you, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand before you, yet dwelling with the humble and contrite and taking pleasure in your people.

You have consecrated for us a new and living way, that with boldness we may enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, and have bid us to seek you while you may be found. We come to you at your call, and worship at your footstool.

Look upon us in tender mercies, do not despise us though unworthy. You are greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all that are about you. Put your fear into our hearts, that with reverence and awe we might serve you.

Sanctify us, that you may be treated as holy and honored by us when we draw near to you. Give us the spirit of grace and supplication to help us in our weakness, that our prayers may be faithful, fervent, and effectual.

Let your name be the desire of our souls. Let us draw near to you with our hearts, and not only with our lips, and worship you who are spirit, in spirit, and truth. Let your word be spoken and heard by us as the word of God.

Give us attentive, hearing ears, open, believing, and understanding hearts, that we may no longer refuse your calls, nor disregard your merciful, outstretched hand, nor slight your counsels and reproofs.

Let us be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Put your law into our hearts, and write them on our minds, and let us be taught of God. Let your word be for us, living, active, and powerful, a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart, mighty to pull down strongholds, casting down imaginations and reasonings, and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

Let us magnify you with thanksgiving, and triumph in your praise. Let us rejoice in your salvation, glory in your holy name. Open our lips, O Lord, and let our mouths show forth your praise, and let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen. Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin. Let us join together in confessing our sin. O my Savior, help me, for I am slow to learn, a graceless heart, my careless gaze, my poverty in love, my sloth in heavenly grace, my sullied conscience, my wasted hours, and my unspent opportunities.

I am blind while the light shines around me. Fade the scales from my eyes, and grind thus my heart. Please stand for the assurance of pardon, and find comfort in these words from God. Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice. Your sins are forgiven, amen. Please take up the the hymnal and open to hymn number 53,.

Praise to the Lord the Almighty, hymn 53, amen. Please take up the insert and look for our Psalm.

Of the week, Psalm 46. This will be very familiar to us because it was the Psalm of the month last month. So Psalm 46, God is our refuge and our strength. Just as a reminder, we're going to.

Sing the first, the top part, and then move to the second part. Psalm 46, amen. Please remain.

Standing for the reading of God's word from 2nd John. The elder to the chosen lady and her.

Children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever. Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.

I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we had from the beginning, that we love one another, and this love, that we walk according to his commandments.

This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, and those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist.

Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house. Do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds. Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

The children of your chosen sister greet you. This is the word of God.

Let us continue our worship by the singing of the Apostles' Creed. Please take the Trinity Hymnal once more and turn to hymn number 305, Arise My Soul, Arise,.

Hymn 305. Please make preparations now for the prayers of the people. Let us pray together.

O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsel, and all just works. Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot gain, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God forever.

Amen. For the church of Jesus Christ, that it may be filled with truth and love and be found without fault at the day of your coming, we pray to you, O Lord. For all ministers, missionaries, and the mission of the church, that in faithful witness the gospel may be preached, we pray to you, O Lord.

For those in positions of public trust, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person, we pray to you, O Lord. For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected, we pray to you, O Lord.

For this congregation, for those who are present and for those who are absent, that we may be delivered from hardness of heart and show forth your glory in all that we do, we pray to you, O Lord. Finding ourselves in agreement with all these things, we join our voices together and say, Amen.

Please stand and take up the insert once again and look for the new Psalm of the month, Psalm 67. O God, show mercy to us. Brother, any encouragement? Thank you, brother. Psalm 67.

The Royal Law of Love in James 2

Please turn in your Bibles to the book of James and chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 1 through 13. This is God's holy and infallible word. James 2. My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.

For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place.

And say to the poor man, You stand there or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

You do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder.

Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment. Please pray with me. Oh, Lord, I pray that our love for our brothers, love for our enemies, that we might fulfill the law. Oh, Lord, I pray for a powerful working of your Holy Spirit upon us that we might apply these wonderful truths.

And as our brother prayed that they would take a deep root in us. And I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. Thank you. Two weeks ago, we started James chapter two, and we learned that partiality is forbidden.

And we were challenged to take some inventory of our own hearts to root out that tendency in us to show favoritism. And we learned the sad reality that our favoritism is directed to ourselves. When we show favoritism to others, we do so that we might get some benefit.

So we were convicted by the deep, corruptible nature that we have that finds itself in opposition to the word of God. Today, we consider the royal law. And this law is the king of kings law. This is the law of Christ.

And under this heading today, I have four points of consideration. These are going to be intertwined. They're going to be enmeshed together, but this may help you to organize your thoughts. The first one is the title of the message, the royal law.

The second is transgressors of the law. The third is the law of liberty. And the fourth is mercy triumphs over judgment. The royal law, number two, transgressors of the law, three, the law of liberty, and four, mercy triumphs over judgment.

All of those phrases are found in the text that we're considering, verses eight through 13. Love, law, and liberty. Love, law, and liberty. Christ has reconciled us to the law in love. We now possess liberty.

When we think of these three words, we do not generally put them together. In fact, we see them at somewhat at odds with one another, particularly love and law and law and liberty. Those seem like competing ideas, but we learn in scripture that these actually all go together and they find their full expression in Christ.

They find their realization. These terms, which seem to be at odds, find a reconciliation in Christ and therefore for the Christian. There's a couple of principles of law that I'd like you to consider today as a backdrop to think of these things.

The first is the law that was given to our first parents in the garden. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. Were our parents in bondage prior to eating of the forbidden tree?

Answers no. Our first parents dwelt in freedom and in order to maintain that freedom, they had to obey this command. God was gracious in his dealings with Adam and Eve. And when we think about the covenant of works, but even in that early days, those primitive, righteous days of Adam and Eve, God was being gracious to them.

They had absolute liberty and freedom in their communion with him and with one another. The problem came when they disobeyed God. That's how this law concept starts. And as we learned a little bit today, we have an aversion to law.

We feel it restricts us. It takes away our freedom. Whenever I hear the legislature passes something, I know it's going to cost me. But it's not so with the law of God. The path to liberty is found in obedience to the law of God and the essence and substance of law, as we have learned, it's so clear in scripture is love, love for God and love for neighbors.

So these three, which seem at odds, come together. The second principle from scripture I'd like us to think about and evidence from scripture is the preface to the 10 words, 10 commandments in Exodus 20.

I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Therefore, 10 commandments. God had set his people free and liberated them from the tyranny and bondage of Pharaoh is a type of Satan, and he sets them free to worship him.

And then he gives them the 10 words. This law is not to take our fun away, but to give us liberty. We walk within the confines of the law. We have absolute freedom. We have peace. We have no chastening.

We have blessings set before us that we can go out and grab and take hold of blessings and promises of God for those who will obey and believe. The third principle, and I think this is in the background of James's reasoning, is Christ in Matthew 5, verse 17.

Do not think he would say, I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And in Christ's coming and fulfilling, he has set the captives, you and I, free. His perfect obedience liberates the people of God.

They enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The fourth principle, and this is the elevated commandment of the royal law, it's found in John 13, 34. Jesus even structures it as a new commandment because there's a new qualifying statement in the commandment, which is the royal law, which has been articulated throughout the pages of Holy Scripture and now is magnified in the person and work of Christ.

A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another. And here is the expansion, the enlargement of the love commandment. As I have loved you. Every saint throughout history has known that they were called to love God and to love their neighbor, but now Christ has elevated the commandment.

He's not detracted from it, but in his own person, he has exemplified the principle and he has demonstrated and shows to us, particularly when he gets to the cross, that he wants us to have a love that is self-sacrificing as he has loved.

He calls us to love one another. I should point out to you as well that the captivities of the Jewish nation were judgments against the nation for their failures to love God and to love one another. They violated the first and second table.

They became idolaters and worshiped false gods. They didn't look after the poor among them or the widows or the orphans. They failed to love one another. Of course, the question is posed to Jesus. This is attached to these principles.

What is the greatest commandment in the law? Of course, it's so familiar to us to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Let's consider the first verse and the first point of the outline, the royal law.

Look again at verse eight. It says, if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, then children, when you're reading your Bibles and you come across a phrase like this, the first question you should ask, probably without moving on, is what does that mean?

What is the royal law? I was talking to my youngest son last evening about this and I asked him the question about what the royal law was and he gave some pretty good answers. I said, let's continue reading this verse and let's see if more information is supplied to us and that we might know what the royal law is according to the scripture.

It's right there at the end of verse eight. So if anyone asks you what the royal law is according to scripture, you can say, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And if you do this thing, you will be doing excellently.

You will do well. We have to ask, well, what does this mean? What does it mean to love? This way. What is the royal law? The law of God is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments, the five books of Moses, the Pentateuch.

A large portion of it is the case laws, a commentary, an attempt to apply the ten words to all of the issues of life. Jesus' most famous sermon is really an articulation of the law of God in the Sermon on the Mount.

The greatest commandment, which we've already heard, is to love God with all that we are, to love our neighbor as ourselves. And so this is at the very heart of what law is. And it's royal. That word basilica comes from this Greek term.

It is a royal law because it's the king's law. The law came through Moses. The grace and truth has come through King Jesus. Moses was the subordinate law giver, but Jesus is the law giver. The law of Moses comes from the mouth of Christ.

Moses and Christ are not at odds. We have a faulty conception and notion about law. The law is the path for liberty. Walking on the path that God prescribes keeps us from all kinds of trouble. We have forgotten the gracious character of law.

And I think people, if we are going to be those people who walk in righteousness. If we're going to be those people who enjoy the blessings of God, we have to have a reimagined, reconfigured view of the law of God.

The law is a blessing. It's not a curse. And in fact, we're going to learn later that for the Christian, condemnation and judgment have been taken off the table because of the righteousness of the law.

Christ has been punished in our stead. Now our affinity and love for the law is now the path of blessing. The path of obedience has already been laid out in James as the path of blessing for the Christian.

If you really fulfill the royal law, and I love this qualifying statement, according to the scripture, all of our conceptions of law and love and liberty have to be formed in the pages of scripture. Very much what you're talking about this morning, Mark.

These aren't based on our feelings. These are based on the truth that proceeds from the very mouth of our God. So our conception of law of love and liberty need to be drawn from the pages of scripture.

And according to our text today, the royal law, the kingly law, Christ's law from scripture is you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I've been meditating on this idea for some time for something I'm working on, and I've always been amazed at this configuration of love for God and love for neighbor and how simple and concise and clear that it is and how embedded in the language is the knowledge that we love ourselves.

I think this is the place where the church today can really grow. We need to become much more selfless in our love. We are immensely selfish creatures. We love often to get love back. We serve in order to get something back.

We show compassion that we will be thought well of among our peers. And I think it would be wonderful if we could drive out our self-interest and our interest would then shift to God and to our neighbor.

And I think what would actually happen for us is our self-fulfillment would go through the roof when we're out seeking it for ourselves. We fall into all kinds of sin. But when we really fulfill the royal law, according to scripture, we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Now, the message from two weeks ago, that first part of James 2, is still riddled with this conflict about partiality and showing preferential treatment for the rich. That is not lost in our text, that it's still the context of the text that we're studying today.

Look at verse 9. It says, but if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. Now, I want you to focus on two words for me. Look at the word sin and then look at the word transgressors.

Sin is the more common word in scripture, hamartia. And I don't love its definition, but it is the best literal definition, is missing the mark. I prefer the catechism's answer. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

But this word hamartia means missing the mark. So children, I want you to imagine that I have a big long bow and there is a target with a bullseye down at the end of the church corridor. And I bring my bow back and I release the arrow and I shoot my arrow and the only acceptable target is the bullseye.

And my arrow falls limply to the ground, coming short of the target. I've missed the mark. It's the first kind of basic illustration of what sin is. The second found in that same verse, transgressor, parabetus.

And what this means is one who steps over God's line. I love the illustration of these two words in the same verse because it almost covers all the bases. Imagine again this walkway in the middle of the pews that we walk in and out of.

This is the path of blessing. Transgressors walk between the pews. Transgressors go down the other aisle. They don't stay on the path that God has prescribed for his people. And the object lesson for those who show partiality is they have missed the mark and they have transgressed the boundary lines of God's blessing.

To be a transgressor of the law is to be one who steps over God's line. Learn those concepts. It's very helpful for you to picture your sin. There is no sin of omission and transgression. Transgression is willful disobedience.

There's a little bit of omission and missing the mark, but not in transgression. Transgression is willingly defying the purpose and plan of God to do it our own way. And swinging back to this concept in chapter two, those who show partiality are guilty of a grave sin.

They are not fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture. And you and I violate this every day. We don't love as we ought to love. I've been thinking a lot about this in recent weeks. And a guy who is very important to me and mentoring me as a young pastor said, you know, when you were planting a church from the original church and he gave some very sage wisdom and advice, he said, you know, you guys are young and you're going to make a lot of mistakes.

Your preaching is not going to be the best. And your doctrine is going to have some holes in it. But you know, your little church plant could be the most loving church in the world. And I don't know if you noticed this, but we are awash in superficiality.

And when I was in California, I was thanking God for you, the people of Ascension. And I have had an increasing year after year growing love for the church, for the people of God. And we have to have a growing and deepening love for one another.

We can't have a shallow commitment to one another. The world does that today. The church seems to look a lot like the world. So how much do you love the brethren of Ascension? You should love all Christians, but how much do you love the brethren of Ascension?

Do you really love them like you love yourself? Do you merely tolerate them? Do you like the ones who who go on to can impress as much as you do? Are those the ones that you love? Do you love the ones who practice paedo communion and or do you only love the ones who don't?

Do you really love the saints that you have been united to in Christ? There's a world of blessing for us if we love one another, a world of richness and fullness and joy in Christ when we love one another.

So if we show partiality, we commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. My suspicion is that the audience that James was preaching to and writing to originally, they had a high view of the law.

They were loose lipped. They were rough on each other with their tongues. They showed partiality, but but otherwise they felt like they were really good Christians. They were really solidly rooted and grounded in the word of God.

And James said if they lacked love for one another, they were guilty of transgressing the whole of the law. Look at verse 10. This is reminiscent of the Sermon on the Mount, the language here for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

You've got all of your theological ducks in a row. You have sound reform theology. You believe in election and you believe in and radical corruption and you believe in a limited atonement. You believe in the perseverance of the saints and you have all of these things dotted and crossed.

Do you love the brethren? Do you despise other Christians for whom Christ has died? It's unloving. It's murderous heart. You would never cheat on your wife, but would you be enraged and angry at your heart and murder your brother or sister in Christ in your heart?

Jesus says we're guilty of murder if we do that for whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. I can imagine a rebellious spirit in us throwing up our hands and saying, well, why do I even try anymore?

If I miss the horn on the Hebrew letter or the jot or the tittle, if I miss it by even a little bit, my arrow, if it just touches the edge of the board, the target, I've missed it. Should I just throw my hands up and quit?

The answer is no. We are guilty of violating the whole of God's law and that should cause us to pause. It says in verse 11, he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law, a willful defiler, a rebellious, treasonous transgressor.

God says, walk down this aisle and you hop over the pews. I don't want to be that kind of person. You do not want to be that kind of person because you are in Christ. The people of Israel should have loved to hear the 10 words that Moses brought back from the mountain because God was their God.

Adam and Eve in the garden should have joyfully received that commandment because they had freedom and communion and liberty and joy and peace in the presence of God. How much more so for us? When all of the penalty and sting of the law for you, the Christian has been laid upon Christ, all of your sin, all of your transgressions laid upon Christ, should you not now receive and be delighted because of your love for Christ to keep his commandments?

That brings us to the third point and probably the most confusing statement. I think it's gonna be helpful for us to turn to the book of Galatians in chapter five. Please turn there with me. You have no idea how free you are, how much liberty has been given to you, and you are now freed by our Redeemer to fulfill the grand design of a redeemed creature, to have fellowship and communion with God and to preach his gospel to the nations and to walk in holiness and receive and enjoy all the blessings that are intended for us in our created and now recreated humanity.

An amazing section of scripture that helps us understand the law of liberty is found in Galatians five. I'm going to read a large portion of that now. Galatians five, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.

Of course, the context here is the imposition of the Judaizers to impose circumcision upon the Greeks as a qualifier, a prerequisite to faith in Christ. You better look in your lives and make sure there be no prerequisites.

The law was never the means of salvation. The law was given as the fruit of salvation. You've had salvation and in Christ and he gives us the law. Do you believe that? Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

When did the bondage come for Adam and Eve? Was it when the law was given or when they transgressed it? They transgressed it. The people of God in the Exodus are delivered. God has drawn them to his bosom.

He takes them and he says, you are my people. I am your God. I've brought you into my family, therefore live this way. That wasn't bondage in the giving of the law. The bondage came in the disobedience.

Paul says, Indeed, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

You will not have Christ alone as your salvation and you're going to have your foreskin clipped. Keep all of the commandments now, boy, and try to earn your salvation. Impossible. Impossible. You have been estranged from Christ.

You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. For we, through the spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. How important is love? For in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything.

But faith working through love should be pointed out that Paul and James are not at odds at all, it would seem. Same language. You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution?

Then the offense of the cross has ceased. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. Now, would you listen closely, children? Pay close attention when I say obey the law, our natural man recoils.

When I say you have freedom and liberty, our natural man says I can go do whatever I want. This is the goal of my life. It's just for me to do whatever I want. Verse 13 for you, brethren, have been called to liberty.

Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another for all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this love, law and liberty intertwined, interlaced in Galatians five and in fact, the whole of Scripture.