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James 2:8-13 - Mercy Triumphs over Judgement · The Bible Explained with Jenn Kokal

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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Well, hello and good morning friends and faithful listeners,
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Speaker 1: and thank you for tuning into the Bible Explain podcast
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Speaker 1: to discuss the Book of James with me. I've been
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Speaker 1: loving the Book of James so far. It's been very
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Speaker 1: fun to do these deep dives into God's word and
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Speaker 1: James Chapter two is a really fascinating chapter. So today
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Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about how if we don't
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Speaker 1: love our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, then we
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Speaker 1: are essentially breaking the New Covenant, the law that you
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Speaker 1: and I are under right now, I think it's going
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Speaker 1: to be a pretty interesting episode, so stay tuned. Right
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Speaker 1: after this quick word from a sponsor. Alrighty, faithful listeners,
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Speaker 1: let's turn in our Bibles to James chapter two, eight
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Speaker 1: through thirteen. I'll be reading as usual from the web.
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Speaker 1: Make sure to grab you our delicious cup of seven
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Speaker 1: Weeks coffee, the coffee brand that supports life in the
1:03
Speaker 1: Womb and my favorite coffee brand as well. It's like
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Speaker 1: the only coffee that I'll drink because it does not
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Speaker 1: give me heartburn. It is pricey, I will admit that,
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Speaker 1: but it is a very good coffee nonetheless, and I
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Speaker 1: think that you guys will enjoy it. You can find
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Speaker 1: my link for that linked in the description of this episode.
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Speaker 1: But grab whatever coffee you're drinking this morning, for you
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Speaker 1: wonderful coffee drinkers, and for you crazy tea drinkers, grab
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Speaker 1: your hot leaf juice and join in with me by
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Speaker 1: reading James two eight through thirteen. However, if you fulfill
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Speaker 1: the Royal law according to the scripture, you shall love
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Speaker 1: your neighbors yourself, you do well. But if you show partiality,
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Speaker 1: you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
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Speaker 1: For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in
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Speaker 1: one point, he has become guilty of all. For he
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Speaker 1: who said do not commit adultree also said do not
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Speaker 1: commit murder. Now, if you do not commit adultree, but
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Speaker 1: you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
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Speaker 1: So speak, and so do is. Men who are to
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Speaker 1: be judged by the law freedom, for judgment is without mercy.
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Speaker 1: To him who has shown no mercy, mercy triumphs over judgment. Now,
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Speaker 1: on Thursday, we already discussed what verse eight means and
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Speaker 1: what the royal law is. The royal law basically means
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Speaker 1: the law that rules everything just as somebody who is
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Speaker 1: royalty rules everybody else. So the royal law is you
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Speaker 1: shall love your neighbor as yourself. Now, the reason James
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Speaker 1: is saying all this is because of what we discussed
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Speaker 1: on Thursday, which was Christians showing partiality to other Christians.
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Speaker 1: So say, like a poor Christian comes into your church,
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Speaker 1: and also a really wealthy Christian comes in that might
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Speaker 1: be able to give the church money. A lot of
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Speaker 1: times the Christians will mistreat the poor man and then
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Speaker 1: give preference to the rich man, and even act as
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Speaker 1: if the poor man is not welcome in the building.
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Speaker 1: And James calls this a sin. He says, this is
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Speaker 1: breaking the royal law. According to the scripture, you shall
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Speaker 1: of your neighbor as yourself. But if you keep this law,
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Speaker 1: then you do well. However, in verse nine, if you
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Speaker 1: show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law
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Speaker 1: as transgressors. And since Jesus has no favorites, he loves
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Speaker 1: all of his children, we should also show that same
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Speaker 1: mindset to our brothers and sisters in Christ. But if
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Speaker 1: we don't do that, if we show partiality to somebody
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Speaker 1: over another person, we commit sin, being convicted by the
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Speaker 1: law as transgressors. Now, when James says this, he is
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Speaker 1: not saying we are under the Old Testament laws. We're
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Speaker 1: under a different law that James goes into in verse twelve.
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Speaker 1: We are under the law of freedom. And I'll go
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Speaker 1: more into that in just a moment. But just because
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Speaker 1: we're under the law of freedom does not mean we
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Speaker 1: can kind of just do whatever we want to do,
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Speaker 1: because sometimes we misunderstand what freedom really is. In order
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Speaker 1: to be truly free, there has to be some kind
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Speaker 1: of rules in place. I know that's kind of an
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Speaker 1: oxymoron in a sense, but if there's no guidelines in place,
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Speaker 1: like say, you know, a society is kind of like
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Speaker 1: what is that move? Was it the Purge? I don't remember.
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Speaker 1: It was like a really dumb movie that came out
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Speaker 1: a long time ago that became a cult classic. But
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Speaker 1: essentially the entire society had a day where everybody could
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Speaker 1: just do whatever they wanted to do. They could like
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Speaker 1: kill people and rape people and you know, cause all
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Speaker 1: sorts of chaos and just do terrible things. But that
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Speaker 1: wasn't a free society because everybody had to lock their doors,
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Speaker 1: and you know, people would build these elaborate cages for themselves,
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Speaker 1: essentially that they could stay in for the entire day
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Speaker 1: so that they could have safety. But people would think
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Speaker 1: that ultimate freedom means you can do whatever you want
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Speaker 1: to do, but in the end, that just leads to
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Speaker 1: people being caged up because there's no rules in place.
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Speaker 1: So essentially, there has to be rules in place in
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Speaker 1: order to truly have freedom. So just because we are
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Speaker 1: under the law of freedom in Christ, that does not
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Speaker 1: mean there aren't rules in place. And I will go
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Speaker 1: into that in just a moment. But just because we're
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Speaker 1: not under the Old Testament laws doesn't mean we can't
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Speaker 1: take examples from the Old Testament laws, especially considering the
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Speaker 1: fact that the Old Testament laws are there for us
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Speaker 1: to learn from and they're all summed up by loving
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Speaker 1: God and loving your neighbor as yourself. So we can
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Speaker 1: absolutely go to the Old Testament laws and use them
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Speaker 1: as guidelines in our own lives. That doesn't mean that
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Speaker 1: we are bound by the Old Testament laws like the
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Speaker 1: people were in the Old Covenant. We are now in
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Speaker 1: the era of grace and freedom, but we should still
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Speaker 1: look back at the Old Testament laws and use them
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Speaker 1: as guidelines in our own life. He says, in verse ten.
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Speaker 1: Whoever keeps the whole law or the whole Old Testament law,
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Speaker 1: and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty
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Speaker 1: of all of it. And that might sound kind of
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Speaker 1: confusing to you, because you may look at the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament laws and think of them as separate points. You
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Speaker 1: might be like, oh, you know, murdering has nothing to
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Speaker 1: do with stealing from somebody, Committing adultery against your spouse
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Speaker 1: has nothing to do with envying. But that's actually not true,
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Speaker 1: because all of them are related because they came from
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Speaker 1: the same source, came from God himself. So if you
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Speaker 1: break one, even if it's something that you consider to
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Speaker 1: be the smallest commandment, then you are guilty of being
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Speaker 1: a sinner. You are a law breaker. I guess the
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Speaker 1: best modern example I can give of this is when
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Speaker 1: a criminal breaks a law and is thrown into prison
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Speaker 1: for breaking it, we generally consider that person to be
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Speaker 1: a law breaker. It doesn't matter which law that they broke,
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Speaker 1: they are a law breaker. Same goes for the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament laws. If someone breaks just one of them, then
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Speaker 1: that means that they are a law breaker, and it
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Speaker 1: doesn't matter how small that commandment that they broke was
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Speaker 1: they are a law breaker. They are a sinner in
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Speaker 1: the eyes of God. And coincidentally, there is an Old
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Speaker 1: Testament law that the Jewish rabbi is considered to be
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Speaker 1: the smallest one. It's called the least of all of
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Speaker 1: the commandments, and that is found in Deuteronomy twenty two
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Speaker 1: six and seven. So I'm going to read that to you,
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Speaker 1: the least of all of the commandments. It says, if
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Speaker 1: you come across a bird's nest on the way, in
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Speaker 1: any tree, or on the ground with young ones or eggs,
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Speaker 1: and the hen is sitting on the young or on
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Speaker 1: the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young.
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Speaker 1: You shall surely let the hen go, But the young
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Speaker 1: you may take for yourself, that it may be well
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Speaker 1: with you, and that you may prolong your days. Now, basically,
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Speaker 1: that is a law against animal mistreatment. If you are
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Speaker 1: hungry and you are walking along trying to find something
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Speaker 1: to eat, and there is a nest sitting on the ground,
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Speaker 1: and you see a hen sitting on the eggs, you
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Speaker 1: decide you want those eggs for breakfast. You are not
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Speaker 1: supposed to take the chicken along with the eggs. You
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Speaker 1: are mistreating that mother Hen in every single way that
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Speaker 1: you possibly can, both by taking her young and also
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Speaker 1: by taking her as a meal. You should not do that.
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Speaker 1: God says, let the mother Hen go her way, and
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Speaker 1: that is called the least of the commandments. But notice
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Speaker 1: what it says here in verse seven. This is really interesting.
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Speaker 1: You shall surely let the hen go, but the young
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Speaker 1: you may take for yourself, that it may be well
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Speaker 1: with you, and that you may prolong your days. There's
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Speaker 1: one other time we see that phrase, that it may
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Speaker 1: be well with you and you may prolong your days.
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Speaker 1: And that phrase is found in Deuteronomy chapter where was
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Speaker 1: it Deuteronomy chapter five sixteen. Honor your father and your mother,
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Speaker 1: as Yahweh or God commanded you, that your days may
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Speaker 1: be long, and that it may go well with you
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Speaker 1: in the land which Yahweh or God gives you. That
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Speaker 1: is one of the ten commandments, by the way, So
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Speaker 1: how can we say that respecting the mother hen is
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Speaker 1: the least of all of the commandments. In the eyes
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Speaker 1: of God, every single one of these commandments is a
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Speaker 1: big thing. It's a big deal. That's kind of what
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Speaker 1: Jesus alludes to in Matthew twenty two thirty six through forty.
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Speaker 1: A pharisee comes up to Jesus, it says in verse
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Speaker 1: thirty five. One of them, a lawyer, asking him a question,
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Speaker 1: tested him, teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law.
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Speaker 1: Jesus said to him, you shall love the Lord your
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Speaker 1: God with all your heart, with all your soul, and
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Speaker 1: with all your mind. This is the first and the
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Speaker 1: greatest commandment. A second, likewise is this, you shall love
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Speaker 1: your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets
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Speaker 1: depend on these two commandments. Jesus himself said. The entire
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Speaker 1: law and the prophets depend on those two commandments, love
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Speaker 1: of God and love of your neighbor. The commandments depend
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Speaker 1: on your love. And that is what James is getting
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Speaker 1: at here in verse two. Even if you break the
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Speaker 1: smallest commandment, the least of all of the commandments, then
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Speaker 1: you are breaking the entire law. You become a law breaker.
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Speaker 1: Jesus says something similar in Matthew chapter five, his famous
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Speaker 1: Sermon on the Mount. Here's what Jesus says in Matthew five,
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Speaker 1: starting in verse seventeen. Don't think that I came to
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Speaker 1: destroy the law or the prophets. I didn't come to destroy,
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Speaker 1: but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until
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Speaker 1: heaven and earth p not even one smallest letter or
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Speaker 1: one tiny pen stroke, shall in any way pass away
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Speaker 1: from the Law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever
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Speaker 1: shall break one of these least commandments and teach others
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Speaker 1: to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom
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Speaker 1: of Heaven. But whoever shall do and shall teach them,
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Speaker 1: shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For
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Speaker 1: I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of
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Speaker 1: the scribes and the Pharisees, there is no way you
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Speaker 1: will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. So Jesus tells
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Speaker 1: the entire crowd that he did not come to destroy
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Speaker 1: any of the law or any of the prophets, but
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Speaker 1: to fulfill all of these things that the Law and
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Speaker 1: the prophets said about the Messiah, and also that until
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Speaker 1: the end of the earth comes, so until Jesus comes
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Speaker 1: again the second time, not even the tiniest pen stroke
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Speaker 1: from the Old Testament law is going to pass away. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: because of this, whoever breaks the least commandment, And maybe
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Speaker 1: Jesus was thinking of that hen on the eggs. It
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Speaker 1: could be whoever breaks the least commandment and teaches others
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Speaker 1: to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom
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Speaker 1: of Heaven. But whoever shall do and teach these commandments
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Speaker 1: shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. And
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Speaker 1: then he throws a little jab at the end against
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Speaker 1: the Pharisees. But yeah, what Jesus was saying there was
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Speaker 1: that you can't break any of the Old Testament laws
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Speaker 1: without becoming a law breaker. Now does this mean that
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Speaker 1: Christians are still under the Old Testament laws? Well, no,
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Speaker 1: because we've gone through the Book of Galatians, and Jesus
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Speaker 1: even said it himself. He fulfilled the Old Testament laws,
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Speaker 1: and he fulfilled the prophets. But like I said at
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Speaker 1: the beginning of this episode, we still have the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament laws as Christians. They are still relevant to us today.
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Speaker 1: Why is that because we go back to them and
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Speaker 1: we can see the heart of God. We can see
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Speaker 1: how we should love our neighbor, we can see how
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Speaker 1: we should love God. But the Old Testament laws have
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Speaker 1: been fulfilled. We kind of covered that very briefly in
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Speaker 1: the Book of Hebrews. You know, Jesus is the high
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Speaker 1: priest of the Heavenly Temple. The Old Testament laws involving
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Speaker 1: everything that the Levites should be doing in the priesthood,
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Speaker 1: those things are a picture of heaven. So the levitical
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Speaker 1: laws of the Old Testament have been fulfilled because Jesus
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Speaker 1: is doing them perfectly up in heaven right now. And
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Speaker 1: then even the civil laws that Israel was supposed to fall,
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Speaker 1: you know, the government that was put in place, those
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Speaker 1: laws have been fulfilled because Jesus is doing them up
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Speaker 1: in heaven with his kingdom. He is also the king
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Speaker 1: of kings and the Lord of lords. But then there's
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Speaker 1: the cleanliness laws. Those also have been fulfilled in us
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Speaker 1: because Jesus has made us clean. All the Old Testament
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Speaker 1: laws that talked about cleanliness were a picture of the
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Speaker 1: spiritual Jesus has made us clean. And the morality laws,
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Speaker 1: those are basically the Ten Commandments. Those are any that
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Speaker 1: talk about how to love your neighbor, how to love
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Speaker 1: animals like the one we just talked about with the
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Speaker 1: hen even how to love the environment and the fields
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Speaker 1: and the farms that we are supposed to take care
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Speaker 1: of the land that God gave us. As well as
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Speaker 1: the laws that tell us not to commit sexual sin
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Speaker 1: and witchcraft and idolatry. Those are all the morality laws
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Speaker 1: that we should still be looking at in the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament today. And I believe following the Old Testament laws
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Speaker 1: have not gone away. But that doesn't mean that we
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Speaker 1: are bound by these Old Testament laws any longer. Like
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Speaker 1: I said, we are under now the law of freedom,
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Speaker 1: which is what James says in our Passage for today
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Speaker 1: verse twelve. So speak and so do as men who
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Speaker 1: are to be judged by the law of freedom. So
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Speaker 1: we are not bound by the Old Testament laws like
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Speaker 1: the people in the Old Covenant were before Jesus came
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Speaker 1: to earth. That was how they obtained righteousness with God.
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Speaker 1: We don't achieve salvation by following the Old Testament laws.
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Speaker 1: Only Jesus and his grace and his mercy toward us
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Speaker 1: could we actually achieve righteousness. Jesus Us again, he made
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Speaker 1: us clean through the sacrifice that he made. So we
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Speaker 1: are under a brand new law, the law of freedom.
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Speaker 1: And that's what Paul talks about in Galatians five, verse
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Speaker 1: thirteen and fourteen. In fact, if you want to learn
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Speaker 1: more about this entire topic and how the Old Testament
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Speaker 1: laws both relate to Christians, but how we are not
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Speaker 1: bound by them. I recommend reading the entire Book of Galatians.
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Speaker 1: It basically is all about that. But in verses thirteen
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Speaker 1: through fourteen, here's what Paul says for you, brothers were
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Speaker 1: called to freedom, only don't use your freedom as an
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Speaker 1: opportunity for the flesh, but through love, be servants to
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Speaker 1: one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one
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Speaker 1: word in this you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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Speaker 1: But if you bite and devour one another, be careful
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Speaker 1: that you don't consume one another. So if you have
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Speaker 1: true love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, you
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Speaker 1: are keeping the Old Testament laws, essentially, is what Paul's arguing. Now. Granted,
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Speaker 1: the entire motivation of Paul writing the book Galatians was
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Speaker 1: to tell them to stop trying to earn their own
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Speaker 1: salvation by keeping the Old Testament laws, because Jesus paid
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Speaker 1: the penalty for us. But if you really want to
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Speaker 1: keep the Old Testament laws, all you have to do
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Speaker 1: is truly love your neighbor. Now, the love that Jesus
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Speaker 1: and Scripture talks about is not the same kind of
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Speaker 1: love that the world understands, because the love that the
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Speaker 1: world understands is basically results in anarchy, kind of like
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Speaker 1: the Purge, going back to that silly movie, it's a
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Speaker 1: free for all. You do you and I'll do me,
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Speaker 1: and there's no rules, and you know, we just love
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Speaker 1: each other freely. That is not what love actually is.
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Speaker 1: Here's what love is based on One Corinthians thirteen four
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Speaker 1: through seven. Love is patient, Love is kind. Love does
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Speaker 1: not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud.
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Speaker 1: It does not dishonor others. It is not self seeking.
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Speaker 1: It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs.
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Speaker 1: Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
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Speaker 1: It always protects, It always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.
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Speaker 1: That's a very different kind of love than what the
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Speaker 1: world understands. This is a humble kind of love. You
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Speaker 1: think about yourself less and think about other people more.
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Speaker 1: That is the kind of love that one Corinthians thirteen describes.
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Speaker 1: And that's the kind of love that James is talking
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Speaker 1: about right here. If you don't love a fellow brother
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Speaker 1: and sister in Christ, and you show partiality to them,
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Speaker 1: and you say, oh, this person is better than this
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Speaker 1: person because they have money or whatever. If you can't
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Speaker 1: love your fellow brother and sister the way Christ tells
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Speaker 1: you to, how can you possibly love somebody that is
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Speaker 1: persecuting you? How can you possibly love an enemy? How
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Speaker 1: can we be like Jesus. When Jesus was up on
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Speaker 1: the cross saying Father, forgive them, for they do not
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Speaker 1: know what they are doing, Jesus demonstrated what true love
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Speaker 1: really was. And by the way, if you think that
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Speaker 1: Jesus was just this hippy dippy, life dovey, happy go
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Speaker 1: lucky kind of guy, you are incredibly mistaken. In fact,
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Speaker 1: if you really want to get to the heart of
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Speaker 1: who Jesus was, I highly recommend you read Matthew chapters
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Speaker 1: five through seven. That is the famous Sermon on the Mount.
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Speaker 1: We read part of it today on this podcast. Jesus
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Speaker 1: was not hippie dippy. In fact, he followed the Old
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Speaker 1: Testament laws to a t, and he was the true
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Speaker 1: embodiment of love. He told people the hard truth, but
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Speaker 1: he did it with grace and kindness, and sometimes he
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Speaker 1: did it with a whip in his hands. Jesus was
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Speaker 1: the true embodiment of real love. So that is what
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Speaker 1: we are called to have, even under this new era
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Speaker 1: of grace, even under this law of freedom that all
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Speaker 1: of us Christians now live under the New Covenant, And
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Speaker 1: now concluding in our passage for today with verse thirteen,
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Speaker 1: for judgment is without mercy to him who has shown
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Speaker 1: no mercy, Mercy triumphs over judgment. So though you and
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Speaker 1: I have been called to freedom, this does not mean
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Speaker 1: we use that freedom to do whatever we want to do.
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Speaker 1: But we are actually free to serve. Again, that is
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Speaker 1: what Galatians chapter five, verse thirteen says. You are called
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Speaker 1: to freedom, but don't use your freedom as an opportunity
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Speaker 1: for the flesh. But through love be servants to one another.
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Speaker 1: So we are free to serve, and we're going to
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Speaker 1: be shown the same level of mercy that we gave
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Speaker 1: to other people. Matthew Chapter seven again Jesus's famous Sermon
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Speaker 1: on the Mount. Here's what Jesus says, starting in verse one,
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Speaker 1: don't judge so that you won't be judged. For with
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Speaker 1: whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged. And with
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Speaker 1: whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you.
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Speaker 1: Why do you see the speck that is in your
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Speaker 1: brother's eye, But don't consider the beam that is in
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Speaker 1: your own eye, or how will you tell your brother?
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Speaker 1: Let me remove that speck from your eye, and behold,
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Speaker 1: the beam is in your own eye, You hypocrite, First
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Speaker 1: remove the beam out of your own eye, and then
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Speaker 1: you can see clearly to remove the speck out of
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Speaker 1: your brother's eye. Now, of course there's some humor in that.
19:03
Speaker 1: But notice here Jesus is not pulling his punches. He
19:06
Speaker 1: calls the people who do this hypocrites, and nowadays that's
19:10
Speaker 1: like one of the most the biggest insult you can
19:12
Speaker 1: tell somebody is that they're a hypocrite. Jesus did not
19:15
Speaker 1: always pull his punches. He is upset over the people
19:20
Speaker 1: who judge another person when they are doing the exact
19:23
Speaker 1: same thing. He says, in that case, it is better
19:26
Speaker 1: to just not judge anybody, because if you judge somebody
19:29
Speaker 1: and you're doing the exact same thing when you stand
19:31
Speaker 1: before that throne of God, whatever you judged somebody else,
19:35
Speaker 1: it's going to come back to you. Whatever measure you
19:38
Speaker 1: use to judge somebody, it's going to be measured back
19:41
Speaker 1: to you. So basically, if we refuse to be merciful
19:45
Speaker 1: and loving to other people, especially when we have received
19:48
Speaker 1: so much mercy and love from God, when we've done
19:51
Speaker 1: very similar things as these other people. Then James says
19:54
Speaker 1: that we are going to be judged without mercy for
19:56
Speaker 1: the way we conducted our lives because we did not
20:00
Speaker 1: show mercy to other people. Mercy triumphs over judgment, So
20:06
Speaker 1: James makes the argument that it is better to be
20:08
Speaker 1: merciful to somebody than it is to be judgmental of
20:12
Speaker 1: those people. So we need to remove the unnecessary judgment
20:16
Speaker 1: out of our lives. We shouldn't be judging the poor
20:18
Speaker 1: Christians being like, oh, you know, they don't work, they're lazy,
20:21
Speaker 1: this and that, and making assumptions about their lives. We
20:24
Speaker 1: shouldn't be judging the rich Christians being like, what are
20:26
Speaker 1: they doing with their money? Why aren't they giving it
20:29
Speaker 1: to this? Why aren't they doing this? We shouldn't be
20:31
Speaker 1: judging anybody actually as brothers and sisters in Christ, unless
20:35
Speaker 1: they are in a sin that we really understand, you know,
20:38
Speaker 1: Jesus he called out sin. Part of being truly loving
20:42
Speaker 1: is calling somebody to the truth and not rejoicing in
20:45
Speaker 1: unrighteousness in their lives. But I would argue that the
20:48
Speaker 1: majority of times that Christians judge their fellow brothers and sisters,
20:53
Speaker 1: they are probably not doing it with the right motive.
20:56
Speaker 1: They are probably doing it without understanding the full picture.
20:59
Speaker 1: And that's why it's really important to truly have a
21:01
Speaker 1: brotherhood with our fellow Christians, so that we understand what's
21:06
Speaker 1: going on in their lives, so that we can call
21:09
Speaker 1: them to account if that's what's needed, so that we
21:11
Speaker 1: can pray for them if they are struggling through something
21:14
Speaker 1: or if they're having a really hard time. But more importantly,
21:17
Speaker 1: James argues that it is better to be merciful than
21:20
Speaker 1: it is to be judgmental, because even if we're judgmental,
21:24
Speaker 1: once without cause, we have become lawbreakers. We have broken
21:29
Speaker 1: the law of freedom that we are under, and that
21:31
Speaker 1: is called a sin right here in verse nine. Well,
21:36
Speaker 1: this was a really convicting episode to me personally. If
21:39
Speaker 1: I'm being honest, I have a tendency to be more
21:42
Speaker 1: judgmental for sure than I do merciful. And James calling
21:47
Speaker 1: it out for really what it is, which is a
21:49
Speaker 1: blatant sin and being a lawbreaker. If you do something
21:53
Speaker 1: like that, that really hits home, doesn't it. But faithful listeners,
21:56
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for making it to the end
21:58
Speaker 1: of the episode with me. Why I let you all go.
22:00
Speaker 1: I'm going to move to an advertisement break, and then
22:03
Speaker 1: I will be back right after that to wrap things
22:06
Speaker 1: up on the episode. Now. I really hope to see
22:10
Speaker 1: all of you faithful listeners back on Thursday, because on Thursday,
22:13
Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about the last half of
22:16
Speaker 1: James two, and this is the part that talks about
22:20
Speaker 1: how the demons believe in God and shudder, and how
22:24
Speaker 1: if you have faith and know works, you essentially have
22:26
Speaker 1: the same kind of faith that a demon has. James
22:31
Speaker 1: is similar to Jesus in a lot of ways. He
22:33
Speaker 1: doesn't pull his punches, that is for sure. And granted
22:36
Speaker 1: they grew up in the same household, and James, I'm
22:39
Speaker 1: sure learned a lot from Jesus growing up. So we're
22:42
Speaker 1: going to talk about that on Thursday, and I really
22:44
Speaker 1: hope that you guys tune in for that episode because
22:46
Speaker 1: it's an important one. It talks about our spirituality and
22:49
Speaker 1: our salvation. It's a really important episode that I hope
22:52
Speaker 1: all of you faithful listeners tune in to here. But
22:55
Speaker 1: as you all know, tomorrow, which is the old Testament
22:58
Speaker 1: side of stuff, because on Mondays and Wednesdays I do
23:01
Speaker 1: an Old Testament episode. Tuesdays and Thursdays are from the
23:04
Speaker 1: New Testament. Tomorrow we are going to be in the
23:06
Speaker 1: Book of Nehemiah and talking about the Feast of Booths,
23:09
Speaker 1: what that feast is, why it was important for the Israelites.
23:12
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a pretty interesting episode
23:14
Speaker 1: to all of you guys as well. Hope to see
23:16
Speaker 1: then six am or whenever you choose to wake up
23:19
Speaker 1: and listen until tomorrow. Happy listening, and God bless I
23:28
Speaker 1: just want to take a second to thank the team
23:30
Speaker 1: at Life Audio for their partnership with me on the
23:32
Speaker 1: Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeaudio
23:35
Speaker 1: dot com you will find dozens of other faith centered
23:38
Speaker 1: podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting,
23:42
Speaker 1: and more.