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

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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Good morning, my brothers and sisters in Christ, and welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand and hear

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God call you to worship through his word. Oh, come, let us sing to the

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Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving.

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Let us shout joyfully to him with psalms. For the Lord is the great

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God and the great king above all gods. In his hands are the deep places of the earth.

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The heights of the hills are his. Also, the sea is his, for he made it in his hands, formed the dry land.

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Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker, for he is our

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God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.

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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 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 stand before you.

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Yet dwelling with the humble and contrite and taking pleasure in your people.

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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.

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We come to you at your call and worship at your footstool. Look upon us in tender mercies.

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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.

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Put your fear into our hearts that with reverence and awe we might serve you.

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Sanctify us that you may be treated as holy and honored by us when we draw near to you.

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Give us the spirit of grace and supplication to help us in our weakness, that our prayers may be faithful, fervent, and effectual.

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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.

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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 reputes.

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Let us be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools. Put your law into our hearts and write them in our minds and let us be taught of God.

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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.

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Let us magnify you with thanksgiving and triumph in your praise. Let us rejoice in your salvation, glory in your holy name.

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Open our lips, O Lord, and let our mouths show forth your praise.

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And let the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight. Through Jesus Christ our

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Lord and Savior. Amen. Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.

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Let us join together in confessing our sin. O my

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Savior, help me, for I am slow to learn. I am pained by my graceless heart, my careless days, my poverty in love, my sloth in heavenly grace, my sullied conscience, my wasted hours, and my unspent opportunities.

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I am blind while the light shines around me. Take the scales from my eyes and grind the dust of my heart unto me.

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Please stand for the assurance of pardon and find comfort in these words from God.

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Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.

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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.

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

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Praise to the Lord the Almighty. Hymn 53. Please take up the insert and look for our

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Psalm of the Week, Psalm 46. This will be very familiar to us because it was the

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Psalm of the Month last month. So, Psalm 46, God is our refuge and our strength.

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Just as a reminder, we're going to sing the first, the top part, and then move to the second part.

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Psalm 46. Please remain standing for the reading of God's word from 2

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John. The elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom

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I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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For many deceivers have gone out into the world, and those who do not acknowledge

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Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.

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Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

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Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

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God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

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If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house.

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Do not give him a greeting, for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

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Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink.

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But I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.

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

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Lord. Let us continue our worship by the singing of the

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Apostles' Creed. In God the

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Father, all who was conceived by the

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Holy Spirit, Born of His blood, crucified to judge the

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Holy Spirit, Leave the holy catholic church,

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To the innocent saints, the forgiven. Please take the

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Trinity Hymnal once more and turn to hymn number 305, Arise, my soul, arise.

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Hymn 305. Take off your guilty fear,

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Before the East End, Before the

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East End, My name is written on the ground.

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

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O God, from whom come all holy desires, All good counsel, and all just works.

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Give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot gain, That our hearts may be set to obey your commandments,

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And also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, May live in peace and quietness,

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Through the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior, Who lives and reigns with you and the

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Holy Spirit, God forever. Amen. For the church of Jesus Christ, That it may be filled with truth and love,

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And be found without fault at the day of your coming, We pray to you, O Lord.

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For all ministers, missionaries, and the mission of the church, That in faithful witness the gospel may be preached,

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We pray to you, O Lord. For those in positions of public trust,

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That they may serve justice, And promote the dignity and freedom of every person, We pray to you,

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O Lord. For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer,

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For refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, That they may be relieved and protected,

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We pray to you, O Lord. For this congregation,

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For those who are present, and for those who are absent, That we may be delivered from hardness of heart,

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And show forth your glory in all that we do, We pray to you,

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O Lord. Finding ourselves in agreement with all these things,

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We join our voices together and say, Amen. Please stand and take up the insert once again,

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And look for the new Psalm of the month, Psalm 67. O God, show mercy to us.

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Brother, any encouragement? Psalm 67.

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Please turn in your

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Bibles to the book of James and chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 1 through 13.

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This is God's holy and infallible word. James 2.

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My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, The Lord of glory, with partiality.

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For if there should come into your assembly A man with gold rings and fine apparel,

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There should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes. And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes,

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And say to him, You sit here in a good place. And say to the poor man,

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You stand there, Or sit here at my footstool. Have you not shown partiality among yourselves

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And become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren,

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Has God not chosen the poor of this world To be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom

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Which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man.

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Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?

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If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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You do well. But if you show partiality, you commit sin

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And are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever shall keep the whole law

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And yet stumble in one point, He is guilty of all. For he who said,

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Do not commit adultery, Also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder,

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You have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so do as those who will be judged

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By the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy To the one who has shown no mercy.

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Mercy triumphs over judgment. Please pray with me.

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O Lord, I pray that our love for our brothers,

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Love for our enemies, That we might fulfill the law.

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O Lord, I pray for a powerful working of your Holy Spirit upon us That we might apply these wonderful truths.

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And as our brother prayed that they would take a deep root in us. And I ask these things in Jesus name.

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Amen. Please be seated. Thank you. Two weeks ago, we started

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James chapter 2 And we learned that partiality is forbidden.

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And we were challenged to take some inventory of our own hearts

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To root out that tendency in us to show favoritism. And we learned the sad reality that our favoritism is directed to ourselves.

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When we show favoritism to others, we do so that we might get some benefit.

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So we were convicted by the deep corruptible nature that we have

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That finds itself in opposition to the word of God. Today, we consider the royal law.

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And this law is the king of kings law. This is the law of Christ.

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And under this heading today, I have four points of consideration. These are going to be intertwined.

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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.

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The second is transgressors of the law. The third is the law of liberty.

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And the fourth is mercy triumphs over judgment.

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The royal law. Number two, transgressors of the law. Three, the law of liberty.

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And four, mercy triumphs over judgment. All of those phrases are found in the text that we're considering, verses 8 through 13.

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Love, law, and liberty. Love, law, and liberty.

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Christ has reconciled us to the law in love.

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We now possess liberty. When we think of these three words, we do not generally put them together.

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In fact, we see them somewhat at odds with one another. Particularly, love and law, and law and liberty.

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Those seem like competing ideas. But we learn in scripture that these actually all go together.

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And they find their full expression in Christ. They find their realization.

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These terms which seem to be at odds find a reconciliation in Christ. And therefore, for the

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Christian. There's a couple of principles of law that I'd like you to consider today.

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As a backdrop to think of these things. The first is the law that was given to our first parents in the garden.

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But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat.

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Were our parents in bondage prior to eating of the forbidden tree?

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The answer is no. Our first parents dwelt in freedom.

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And in order to maintain that freedom, they had to obey this command. God was gracious in his dealings with Adam and Eve.

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And when we think about the covenant of works. But even in that early days, those primitive righteous days of Adam and Eve.

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God was being gracious to them. They had absolute liberty and freedom in their communion with him and with one another.

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The problem came when they disobeyed God. That's how this law concept starts.

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And as we learned a little bit today, we have an aversion to law.

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We feel it restricts us. It takes away our freedom. Whenever I hear the legislature passes something,

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I know it's going to cost me. But it's not so with the law of God.

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The path to liberty is found in obedience to the law of God.

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And the essence and substance of law, as we have learned, it's so clear in Scripture, is love.

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Love for God and love for neighbor. So these three, which seem at odds, come together.

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The second. Principle from Scripture, I'd like us to think about.

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And evidence from Scripture is the preface to the 10 words, 10 commandments.

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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.

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Therefore, 10 commandments. God had set his people free and liberated them from the tyranny and bondage of Pharaoh is a type of Satan.

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And he sets them free to worship him. And then he gives them the 10 words.

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This law is not to take our fun away, but to give us liberty. We walk within the confines of the law.

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We have absolute freedom. We have peace. We have no chastening.

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We have blessing 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.

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The third principle, and I think this is in the background of James's reasoning, is

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Christ in Matthew 5. Verse 17. Do not think, he would say,

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I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

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And in Christ's coming and fulfilling, he has set the captives, you and I, free.

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His perfect obedience liberates the people of God. They enter into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

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The fourth principle, and this is the elevated commandment of the royal law.

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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.

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A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another.

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And here is the expansion, the enlargement of the love commandment.

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As I have loved you. Every saint throughout history has known that they were called to love

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God and to love their neighbor. But now Christ has elevated the commandment.

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He's not detracted from it, but in his own person, he has exemplified the principle.

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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.

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He calls us to love one another. I should point out to you as well that the captivities of the

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Jewish nation were judgments against the nation for their failures to love

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God and to love one another. They violated the first and second table.

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They became idolaters and worshiped false gods. They didn't look after the poor among them or the widows or the orphans.

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They they failed to love one another. Of course, the question is posed to Jesus.

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This is attached to these principles. What is the greatest commandment in the law?

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Of course, it's so familiar to us to love the Lord, our

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God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind.

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This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

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Let's consider the first verse and the first point of the outline, the royal law.

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Look again at verse eight. It says, if you really fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture.

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And 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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And if you do this thing, you will be doing excellently. You will do well.

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We have to ask, well, what does this mean? What does it mean to love?

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This way. What is the royal law? The law of God is summarily comprehended in the

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Ten Commandments. The five books of Moses, the

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Pentateuch, a large portion of it is the case laws, a commentary, an attempt to apply the 10 words to all of the issues of life.

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Jesus is most famous sermon is really an articulation of the law of God in the

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Sermon on the Mount. The greatest commandment, which we've already heard, is to love

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God with all that we are, to love our neighbor as ourselves. And so this is at the very heart of what law is.

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And it's royal. That word basilica comes from this Greek term. It is a royal law because it's the king's law.

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The law came through Moses. The grace and truth has come through King Jesus.

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Moses was the subordinate law giver, but Jesus is the law giver.

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The law of Moses comes from the mouth of Christ. Moses and Christ are not at odds.

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We have a faulty conception and notion about law. The law is the path for liberty.

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Walking on the path that God prescribes keeps us from all kinds of trouble.

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We have forgotten the the gracious character of law. And I think people, if if we are going to be those people who walk in righteousness.

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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.

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The law is a blessing. It's not a curse. And in fact, we're going to learn later that for the

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Christian condemnation and judgment have been taken off the table because of the righteousness of the law.

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Christ has been punished in our stead. Now, our affinity and love for the law is now the path of blessing.

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The path of obedience has already been laid out in James is the path of blessing for the

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Christian. If you really fulfill the royal law.

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Now, 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.

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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

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God. So our conception of law of love and liberty need to be drawn from the pages of scripture.

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And according to our text today, the royal law, the kingly law,

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Christ's law from scripture is you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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I've been meditating on this idea for some time for something

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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.

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And how embedded in the language is the knowledge that we love ourselves.

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I think this is the place where the church today can really grow.

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We need to become much more selfless. In our love.

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We are immensely selfish creatures. We love often to get love back.

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We serve in order to get something back. We show compassion that we will be thought well of among our peers.

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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.

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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.

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We fall into all kinds of sin. But when we really fulfill the royal law, according to Scripture, we love our neighbor as ourselves.

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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.

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That is not lost in our text. It's still the context of the text that we're studying today.

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Look at verse 9. It says, but if you show partiality.

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You commit sin. And are convicted by the law as transgressors.

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And I want you to focus on two words for me. Look at the word sin. And then look at the word transgressors.

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Sin is the more common word in Scripture, hamartia. And I don't love its definition, but it is the best literal definition.

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It's missing the mark. I prefer the catechism's answer. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.

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But this word hamartia means missing the mark. So children, I want you to imagine that I have a big long bow.

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And there is a target with a bullseye down at the end of the church corridor.

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And I bring my bow back and I release the arrow and I shoot my arrow.

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And the only acceptable target is the bullseye. And my arrow falls limply to the ground, coming short of the target.

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I've missed the mark. It's the first kind of basic illustration of what sin is.

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The second, found in that same verse, transgressor, parabetus.

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And what this means is one who steps over God's line.

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I love the illustration of these two words in the same verse because it almost covers all the bases.

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Imagine again this walkway in the middle of the pews that we walk in and out of.

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This is the path of blessing. Transgressors walk between the pews.

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Transgressors go down the other aisle. They don't stay on the path that God has prescribed for his people.

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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.

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To be a transgressor of the law is to be one who steps over God's line.

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Learn those concepts. It's very helpful for you to picture your sin. There is no sin of omission in transgression.

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Transgression is willful disobedience. There's a little bit of omission in missing the mark, but not in transgression.

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Transgression is willingly defying the purpose and plan of God to do it our own way.

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And swinging back to this concept in chapter two, those who show partiality are guilty of a grave sin.

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They are not fulfilling the royal law according to the scripture. And you and I violate this every day.

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We don't love as we ought to love. I've been thinking a lot about this in recent weeks.

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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.

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He said, you know, you guys are young and you're going to make a lot of mistakes.

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Your preaching is not going to be the best. Your doctrine is going to have some holes in it.

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But, you know, your little church plant could be the most loving church in the world.

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And I don't know if you notice this, but we are awash in superficiality.

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And when I was in California, I was thanking God for you, the people of Ascension.

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And I have had an increasing year after year growing love for the church, for the people of God.

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And we have to have a growing and deepening love for one another. We can't have a shallow commitment to one another.

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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?

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You should love all Christians, but how much do you love the brethren of Ascension?

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Do you really love them like you love yourself?

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Do you merely tolerate them? Do you like the ones who go on to cannon press as much as you do?

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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?

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Do you really love the saints that you have been united to in Christ?

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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.

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So if we show partiality, we commit sin.

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They're 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.

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They were loose lipped. They were rough on each other with their tongues. They showed partiality, but otherwise they felt like they were really good

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Christians. They were really solidly rooted and grounded in the word of God.

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And James said if they lacked love for one another, they were guilty of transgressing the whole of the law.

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Look at verse 10. This is reminiscent of the

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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.

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You've got all of your theological ducks in a row. You have sound reform theology. You believe in election and you believe in radical corruption and you believe in a limited atonement.

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You believe in the perseverance of the saints and you have all of these things dotted and crossed.

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Do you love the brethren? Do you despise other

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Christians for whom Christ has died? It's unloving.

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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?

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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.

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I could imagine a rebellious spirit in us throwing up our hands and saying, well, why do

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I even try anymore? If I miss the horn on the

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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,

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I've missed it. Should I just throw my hands up and quit? The answer is no.

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We are guilty of violating the whole of God's law and that should cause us to pause.

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It says in verse 11, he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder.

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Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

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A willful defiler, a rebellious, treasonous transgressor.

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God says, walk down this aisle and you hop over the pews. I don't want to be that kind of person.

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You do not want to be that kind of person because you are in Christ.

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The people of Israel should have loved to hear the 10 words that Moses brought back from the mountain because God was their

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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.

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How much more so for us? When all of the penalty and sting of the law.

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For you, the Christian has been laid upon Christ. All of your sin, all of your transgressions laid upon Christ.

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Should you not now receive and be delighted because of your love for Christ to keep his commandments?

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That brings us to the third point and probably the most confusing statement.

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I think it's gonna be helpful for us to turn to the book of Galatians in chapter five. Please turn there with me.

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You have no idea how free you are.

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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.

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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.

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An amazing section of scripture that helps us understand the law of liberty is found in Galatians 5.

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I'm gonna read a large portion of that now. Galatians 5. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which

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Christ has made us free. Of course the context here is the imposition of the

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Judaizers to impose circumcision upon the Greeks as a qualifier, a prerequisite to faith in Christ.

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You better look in your lives and make sure there be no prerequisites. The law was never the means of salvation.

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The law was given as the fruit of salvation. You've had salvation in Christ and he gives us the law.

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Do you believe that? Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which

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Christ has made us free. And do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

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When did the bondage come for Adam and Eve?

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Was it when the law was given or when they transgressed it? They transgressed it.

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The people of God in the Exodus are delivered. God has drawn them to his bosom.

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He takes them and he says you are my people. I am your God. I've brought you into my family.

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Therefore live this way. That wasn't bondage in the giving of the law.

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The bondage came in the disobedience. Paul says,

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Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.

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And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.

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You will not have Christ alone as your salvation and you're going to have your foreskin clipped.

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Keep all of the commandments now, boy, and try to earn your salvation. Impossible.

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Impossible. You have been estranged from Christ.

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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.

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How important is love for in Christ? Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything.

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But faith working through love should be pointed out that Paul and James are not at odds.

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At all, it would seem same language. You ran well.

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Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion does not come from him who calls you a little leaven leavens the whole lump.

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I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will have no other mind, but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment.

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Whoever he is. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do

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I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.

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I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off. Now, would you listen closely?

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Children. Pay close attention. When I say obey the law, our natural man recoils.

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When I say you have freedom and liberty, our natural man says I can go do whatever

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I want. This is the goal of my life is just for me to do whatever I want.

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Verse 13 for you, brethren, have been called to liberty.

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Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another.

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For all the law is fulfilled in one word.

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Even in this love, law and liberty intertwined, interlaced in Galatians five.

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And in fact, the whole of scripture. We need to make law and gospel distinctions.

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But we must understand these things go together. Surprising almost, isn't it?

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Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. You've been set free from the bondage of sin.

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You have now the capacity to walk in righteousness, which would be the most fulfilling and beautiful way to live.

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You cannot use your liberty as an opportunity to feed your sinful set sensual impulses.

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Use your liberty through love. To serve one another.

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For all the law is fulfilled in one word.

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Even in this you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another.

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Beware, lest you be consumed by one another. It's also interesting in the prelude, the preface really to the fruits of the spirit.

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You have these dirty legal terms. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath.

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Selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like.

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If you participate in these things and these are the practices of your lives. You will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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That's halting. James is asking us to have a genuine faith. It seems that Paul is as well.

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But listen to the difference in the tone, in the flavor, the aroma of the language of the fruit of the spirit.

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And see how love and law and liberty kind of intertwine again in this section. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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Against such there is no law. If you practice these things, if this is what your heart sings, if this is what you love, you cannot find in the pages of Scripture a law that condemns you.

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Law and love and liberty. All together against such there is no law.

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And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

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We resist the law. We resist the commandment. We should love it because Christ has saved us and redeemed us and he's washed us and he's purified us.

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And he's he's making us holy. And we're going to be glorified one day. This is an easy command for us.

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To mortify the flesh. If we love Christ and we love his holy ways.

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If we live in the spirit. Let us also. Walk in the spirit.

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Let's go back to our text. James 2. The audience in the days of James were transgressors of the law because they didn't love their brethren.

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Illustrated in this particular set of partiality. But the broad application for us is, are we guilty of failure to love

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God and to love our brothers and sisters in Christ? Particularly, he charges us and gives us an admonition.

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He says in verse 12, so speak. And so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

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Do you have salvation in Christ? And if you do, do you walk in it? If you do, you are operating on that glorious liberation of the children and people of God.

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And he closes our section with these words. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.

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Mercy. Triumphs over judgment. Brethren.

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Mercy. Grace. Unmerited favor.

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Blessing promises. Have triumphed over judgment because Christ is born the judgment.

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And because he has borne the judgment, you have been the recipients of mercy.

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You, therefore, are required to be like Christ and to show mercy as an outward expression of your gratitude.

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For God's love. Surely the commandments of Christ.

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His yoke. Is easy. His burden. Is light. You're free.

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You're freed from the bondage of Satan and sin and death.

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You're now free to to walk in righteousness. You're now free to to fulfill the the optimum state of human existence as a child of God.

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Walk in that glorious liberty. Do not entangle yourself in ensnare yourself with the bondages that strip away your freedoms in Christ.

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Well, I've run out of time and I have a lengthy application section, so let me go there now.

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I want you to think intently and deeply about these things. What relationship?

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Husband, wife, parent, child, siblings, workers. Workplace. What relationship?

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And what conflict is not improved by a scriptural love in action?

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Whatever conflicts you're involved in, whatever struggle you're enduring, love is the essence of God's character and law.

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And he has given us the capacity, the utility of putting the scriptural love into action.

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If you need a Lord's Day activity today, read the larger and shorter catechism on.

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The Fifth Commandment, and particularly its sections on the superiors, inferiors and equals.

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How to love in those. Relationships. Husbands love your wives.

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Children. Love your parents. How do we do that? By obeying them.

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Love one another in this goofy, small little church. And enjoy all the blessings of real

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Christian fellowship. Deeply love one another. Second, and this is very important.

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This is very covenantal, very important and probably lost largely to many people.

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Maybe not you, but many in the church today. We need to now consider the corporate nature of our existence.

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We are, even here in this room, so individualistic. And here's what

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I mean by this. As a Christian, my first identifier,

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I'm a Christian. I have a singular allegiance to Christ.

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But I'm not alone. I'm an individual who has a singular allegiance to Christ, but I'm part of the body of Christ.

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I've got to love my brethren. I may have more of these titles.

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And men, as you get older, you start getting more titles. I'm a husband, so now

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I live corporately with my wife. And I have to love as a husband is to love his wife.

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I love as a Christian, but now I have more responsibility. I have to love this very covenantal, familial way.

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Corporately, I have to love my wife. It's just not me. It's me in relationship to Christ.

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Me in relationship to the church. Me in relationship to my wife. Me gets very small.

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And God and Christ get exalted. And others get exalted. But I get diminished. I don't get to do what

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I want to do. I have to consider my relationship to Christ and the church and my wife.

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And my wife has all of these children, so I'm a father. I'm a father to nine children.

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And now I'm a father -in -law to three great people. But now I have to love corporately.

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I have to love my children as a father is to love his children. But I'm also to love my in -laws.

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As is appropriate as a father -in -law. I'm a pastor.

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I serve with another pastor. But I'm not alone. We're not alone. We're part of a presbytery.

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So now I have to think about all of that. Corporately. It's not just me. It's not just you.

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Zach is more than Zach. Zach's a husband. Zach's a father. Make sense? I'm also a son.

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And I was chastened by my father for not spending enough time with them.

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So I was rightfully rebuked. I need to still remember, even though I'm a father, and as a pastor,

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I'm a father of fathers in some ways, I'm still a son. So I've got to make my way over to my parents' house and spend rich time with them to be a good son.

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I'm also a brother. And I don't think of my little sister as I ought.

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I don't think every day about my little sister. But I'm still a brother. And I have to think about myself in relationship to my sister.

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I need to love my sister. I'm an uncle. I have ten nieces and nephews.

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Is that right? And I have to love them. And it's hard to believe with my youthful appearance,

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I'm a grandfather. But I'm a nephew also. You and I live in a calm pond, and every time we move like a pebble in the middle, the ripples affect other people.

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If you excel at love in your home, in your family, in your church, in your workplace, your extended family, imagine the ripple effects that would have for the kingdom of God.

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Third, I want you to mortify your spiritual pride.

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We've got a lot of pride in the room. You take pride in your areas of perceived obedience, and you fail to recognize the holes in your disobedience.

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We like to talk about what we like to talk about. But do we like to talk about our hamartia, and our parabetus, our missing the mark, our failure to walk in His ways?

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We need to mortify our spiritual pride. We have transgressed the boundary lines of God's protection and blessing, and we have missed the mark and fallen short in our obedience.

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We should be humble about it. We shouldn't be discouraged. We have Christ. We should be humble about it.

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We should be getting to work on those things. Fourth, your accusation from James and from me that you're a transgressor of the law, that you haven't fulfilled the royal law of Christ.

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All of these things reveal our need of Christ, and Christ alone for our salvation.

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The standard, we're reminded again, is perfect, precise, exacting obedience.

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No, brethren, take heart today. Christ has met the standard. And now

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I have this new uncomplicated view with the law because I see it for what it is.

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It's a blessing for the redeemed. It's a blessing for His people to walk in the 613 laws.

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It's a good thing, a wonderful, blessed thing for you to obey. Stop resisting in your natural man the blessings of the law.

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When I say law, you recoil. You should say, give me the law of God, because here is where liberty is found.

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Today, we strive for greater obedience because we don't have the fear of punishment.

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Hey, children, my children speak of my discipline, and it's very exaggerated.

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I point it out to Jacob, very exaggerated. But parents, this is one thing

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I want you to instill in your children. They need to be disciplined when they have transgressed, but you don't want your children walking in fear and in eggshells in your home.

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Children, don't obey your parents so that you might not get disciplined.

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That is the old man kind of view of law. That's one way to conform to your family standards and laws, is for you to say,

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I'm not going to disobey my mom and my dad because then I won't be disciplined.

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I'll get to do what I want. We aren't operating in fear. We've been made perfect in love.

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Children, obey your parents because you love them, and you recognize them as God's authority, and you want the blessing that is attendant with obeying the command of God.

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It's going to go well with you if you obey. Big difference, isn't it?

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That's how we should approach the law of God. We're safe and secure in the family of God.

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We belong here. We're not walking on eggshells. We're not fearful that he's going to strike us down because we have

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Christ. So we stand a little taller. We perform a little better because of that security that we have as the liberated children of God.

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Finally, today, I really want you to do this.

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I want you to ask the Lord, because James has given us license to do so.

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Ask the Lord today to give you greater wisdom, that you would take the knowledge that you have right now and that God would enable you in the power of his

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Holy Spirit to love him and to love your neighbor more, more consistently with the truth of Scripture.

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And the second half of the prayer is that he would grant in the power of the

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Holy Spirit that he would give to each of us a greater capacity and higher and higher decrees of love for God and for love toward one another.

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The Christian is to be known for his love. May the

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Lord make it so in your home, in your marriage, in your family, your work life, your church, and your efforts to reach the lost.

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Please pray with me. Lord, I pray that your people will excel at scriptural love, at the royal law of love, the law that brings liberty found in the gospel and person of Christ.

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Lord, I thank you that your mercy has triumphed over judgment, and we, like you, should be blessed, that we should heed the beatitude and be merciful to others because you have shown us mercy.

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O Lord, grant us this gift, we pray. O Lord, we horrendously miss the mark in our sin.

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We trample on the well -trod path of obedience, and yet you restore us, you reconcile us, you renew us because we are in Christ, we're part of your family, and you set us on the path again.

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O Lord, I pray that our response to that will be gratitude and thanksgiving and, oh yes,

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Lord, obedience. New, fresh commitment and obedience to walk in your ways.

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O Lord, we want to enjoy the liberty that you have secured for us. We pray that you would grant us this and give us greater wisdom and a greater hunger and thirst for your love and to show that love to others.

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We ask all this in Jesus' name, amen.

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Let us continue our time of worship with the giving of offerings tithes.

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Please stand now and let's pray together. O Lord, we're filled with thanksgiving for the life that you've given us.

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O Lord, we are easily able to identify the defects in our lives, but we have failed to see all of the blessing.

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O Lord, you have blessed us so immensely and I pray that it's out of this blessing and gratitude that we would give, that we would give generously to your church and to one another in love.

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We ask that you would use these tithes and offerings for the advance of your kingdom through the bold proclamation of your gospel and chiefly,

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Lord, in the making of disciples. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. We've had the privilege of singing some great things and there's been great prayers offered today.

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Let us, with a holy reflex, now give glory back to God in the singing of the

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Gloria Patri. Let us begin. Lift up your hearts.

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Let us give thanks to the Lord. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you,

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O Holy Lord, Father Almighty, Everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life, that when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name, evermore praising you and singing.

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Please be seated.

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I'm going to ask you to pray with me now. O Lord, you have given yourself to your church.

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You've given us your body and your blood. You have given us your righteousness.

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You have borne justice. You call upon your church to be nourished and fed.

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We thank you for these elements of bread and wine that convey to us beautifully and tangibly the body and blood of Christ given for us.

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O Lord, I pray that your people be refreshed and renewed as they partake of the sacrament, that they would be nourished and strengthened.

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And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Our Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

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Likewise, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in all of you.

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For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he dies.

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Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Christ is died. Christ is risen.

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Christ will come again. Let's pray together that we might enjoy

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Approach the Table. We do not presume to come to this your table,

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O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table, but you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear son,

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Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.

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Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast.

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The gifts of God for the people of God. Thanks be to the Lord. What a joy to be in God's house with his people, to receive all these gifts and blessings.

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Let's now make this commitment together in sincerity and truth.

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Almighty and ever -living God, we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your

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Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your

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Son and heirs of your eternal kingdom. And, O Lord, grant us this other benefit, that you will never allow us to forget these things, but having them imprinted on our hearts, may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed.

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And now, Father, send us out to do the work you have given us to do, to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord. To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory now and forever.

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Amen. Please stand. Receive now the blessing.

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Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to work his will, working in you what is well -pleasing in his sight.