Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It's Thursday. Bible study time. I'm always glad to gather together on Thursday night, my favorite at night of the week, because you and I gather together around the great big electronic table and we open the word together and do a little study, as we will tonight in the Book of James. Got an outline available for you at the RWM Connect site or you can see it@worstfy.com as well. And we'll get into that in just a moment. Hey, tonight's a good night to be here because I'm going to give away yet another rightly Divided Commentary very first one. Titus and Phyleemon. We've been through Titus and Philemon together. That was the basis for this commentary. This is a fairly short one because Titus and Phi Lehman are short books. What have we got? 80 pages right there and would love to get that before the summer is out. Colossians will be out and working on the first 2nd, 3rd John Commentary, so many other good ones. Eventually James will be out there as well in the rightly divided commentary series by yours truly. So all you have to do to take advantage of that wonderful offer of a free one going out is to comment. It doesn't matter if you're on Randy White Ministries or you're on YouTube or you're on Worship High, you just give a comment and it will put your name into the hat. And we'll be looking forward to that. And I would love to have you all join us in Branson, Missouri, september 3, four, five Labor Day weekend. This is our 8th time together on Labor Day weekend. Eight years in a row, never missed a one, and I'd love to see you there. The Book of Romans graphically presented. I showed a few sneak peeks just because we had a question this morning of unedited charts that we'll be using in Romans without all the pretty graphics and all that kind of stuff that we'll have for them. But by September we'll have pretty graphics and things will be there and be ready to go. Let me give, before we get into it, a few programming notes. I have to say a little more about this at the end, but next week most likely buckle up. There will not be Bible study and we will also miss some ask the theologians. I got to figure out which ones. Here a couple of reasons. One is I got to get some dental work done and it's going to take a few days of healing and the dental work to be able to talk well. And so I'll be off for that. And I'm going to take the opportunity to study Romans. So I'll be ready there while I'm laying up convalescing from some dental work. We'll be doing that. So I know I'll be on Wednesday night, and I'm not sure which days for asthathalage we'll see how that goes, but I don't think I'll be on Thursday night, very doubtful next Thursday night. So it may be just a little bit of a delay before we go on to session seven. But this is session six. And with that, only one more announcement, and that is that this Sunday where's my pen? I got to have the point here. This Sunday, the worst crisis of the biblical age is what we are going to talk about. And we're talking obviously about the worst, shall we say, physical crisis, but it was very much a spiritual crisis as well. And so much of the Old Testament talks about this crisis. There are entire books of the Old Testament about this crisis, but I have never given a sermon on it and I don't think I've ever heard a sermon on it. The worst crisis of the biblical age is the destruction of Jerusalem. We'll talk about that this coming Sunday morning in our Because You Ask series. If you happen to be listening to the archives and you're watching it delayed, then just look for the Because You Ask series. And the worst crisis of the biblical age, that's after we finish the book of Philippians. This will be our last session in the book of Philippians on this Sunday. That's at 945, and then the worst crisis of the biblical age at 1045. I think we'll have an interesting time looking into that. But tonight we're all about the epistle of James. Rightly divided and verse by verse. Rightly divided in the book of James basically means from chapter one, verse one you recognize, this is to the twelve tribes of Israel, and therefore it's not to us. This is one of those then that really is a shock to the system to just about every Christian I know. I don't think in my ministry I have ever met anyone who took the Book of James basically, as can I say, an Old Testament book, that this is to the nation of Israel. Now it's New Testament, as we call it, in that Christ has, by the time of the writing of the book of James, christ has died, he's been buried, he's risen again, he's ascended unto the Father, but he is so exclusively dealing with the nation of Israel in the scope of James that it simply cannot be applied to us. Oh, I know that almost everything there's some distant application that could probably be given that's just in principle, only the moral of the story kind of thing. But really, if we begin to apply the book of James to ourselves once after another, after another after another, we find these stumbling blocks, we trip and we fall flat on our face trying to keep it with grace. Of course this has happened down to Christendom, but for whatever reasons allergy to right division, perhaps for whatever reasons, the church has never wanted to separate James and give it to a Jewish setting rather than to a shall we call it a Christian setting, the body of Christ. Now there have been those, including Martin Luther, who just said let's get rid of it all together, maybe put it as a footnote, but let's only have 26 books of the New Testament instead of 27 books of the New Testament because this one just doesn't fit. So there have been plenty who are ready to cut it out of the New Testament altogether because they recognized this thing here just doesn't belong. But they didn't know the principles of right division, which really just begins with Paul's instruction, rightly dividing the word of truth. And they didn't want to be rightly dividing the word of truth. They didn't want to be dividing the word of truth at all because they're covenant theologians and covenant theologians do not divide. And so it's always been taken to the church. I saw just this week a little discussion going on on social media about the Book of James and they were saying, hey, the reason that Book of James is so problematic to so many Christians is because they take it about salvation. But it's not about salvation. Now to that part right there, I'll give it a thumbs up on social media. It's not about salvation. And then they always say it's about discipleship. And this is the sort of crazy, weird thing that's gone on in modern Christianity where you separate salvation from what goes after it, from walking with the Lord, as the Christian world always calls it, discipleship and make these separations. And then they went on and I found it interesting in the particular conversation one individual said, yeah, I'm glad to realize it's about discipleship. I almost got trapped into that mid axe heresy at one point. But then I realized and then he went off to talk about some things that aren't midx theology at all. It was totally a misunderstanding on his part, totally a caricature of midx theology. He would have been much better off to think through that point all the way and not take a caricature of it. I think even if you take the Book of James to be about discipleship, I use that the way that Christendom uses it, evangelical garbage. But even if you take it to be about discipleship rather than faith. If you could even make such a separation. But if you do it as I've said several times now. You're still going to fall flat on your face so many times through the Book of James. What you're going to have to end up with is saying something like. Well. Salvation is by grace through faith but the Christian life is work. Work. Work or you will be judged guilty. This seems to be be like a bait and switch to me and I don't like bait and switch. Whether it be down at the department store in the advertising or whether it be in the preaching from the pulpit. I don't like bait and switch. And I think by grace through faith, not of works, is where we stand. And the Book of James is not there. The Book of James aligns so perfectly with the Book of Deuteronomy or the Book of Leviticus? Those books of the law and of the prophets and the writings, that's where James aligns. And the difference between say, Leviticus and James is that in Leviticus they were looking for a coming Savior, Messiah. And James, those like James knew who the coming Messiah was and they were rejoicing that he is the Messiah. This is the one. But it's still completely and totally Jewish. So didn't know I was going to have that long of an introduction to James, rightly, divided verse by verse, but indeed we did. And now let's get into the Scriptures here. And we'll begin in James chapter two, verse I'll get to the right scripture here. We'll begin in James chapter two, verse eight, right here. And we will actually verse six. Sorry about that, James two, verse six. And James in verses one through nine has been talking in this little section. I have called it Kingdom Principles for Dealing with Economic Status. He started off talking about, remember the rich man comes into the synagogue and these are the things that you do. And the poor man comes into the synagogue and he says, hey, you should be no respect or persons as God is. And we were talking about that last week and made it up to verse five, one of those verses which is absolutely incompatible with Pauline theology. And that is the fact that God has chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love Him. Well, the Christian gift, the gift of God is not based upon poverty, nor is it based upon love. Both of those would be in the works department and that's not the basis of our salvation. So verse five incompatible with what we've got. Now he continues then talking about this, dealing with others in economic status. And he comes on down into verse six saying, but ye plural, ye have despised the poor, do not rich man oppress you and draw you before the judgment seat. He's gotten on to them again for that which they have done with the poor. And he speaks to them about despising the poor and why in the world are you doing this? Now, he's given the example of Israel here being chosen. God chose the poor, the poor of this world, rich in faith, and that's a reference to Israel. So God chose you, poor Israelites, and now you turn around and despise the poor. Now he turns this a little bit. He's not saying God chose the Jews and now you despise the Jews, but he's saying God has chosen the Jews who are the poor of the world, rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom, that's whom God has chosen but then he uses a little figure of speech here in Flips and says, but you have despised the poor, you are poor. God despised the poor. You are poor in faith and God shows you. Now you despise those who are poor monetarily. And who is it that oppresses you and draws you before the judgment? See, well, it's the rich. And you have put yourself in this position. You don't like it when the rich oppress you and yet you turn and you oppress others. You're the rich guy in this case. And he speaks about this. It's sadly ironic how often we become in some way humanity becomes the embodiment of the evil that was done unto us. We see it all the time. So here the rich men oppress you and what happens? They become the embodiment of the rich men and they begin to oppress others. And we see this especially when there is evil like oppression here, and oppression certainly would be evil. We see it in abuse. Often the abuse become the abusers. We see it in lies, for example. Often those who are lied to become liars. And it's just this thing that we have to kind of watch out for, I think, a little bit in our lives, just a human characteristic. But he's saying here to the twelve tribes scattered throughout, that the rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats. This word judgment seats here, or the word that's translated judgment seats, it's one word. Here is the actual I'll pronounce the Greek word. The Greek word is criteria. We get the English word criteria from it. They draw you before the criteria. Now that's plural. I believe singular would be a criterion. So the criteria, of course, today the English word criteria has come to mean the standard by which a judgment is made. So they draw you up and they oppress you and then they draw you to the judgment seat. And now here is exactly again that which is happening. I think of the story that Jesus gave of the man who was forgiven of his debts, and yet he turns around and will be totally unmerciful to the one who owes him $20 when he's been forgiven $20 million. And the disconnect there, the irony that is going on there. And you see that here in this verse that is seen now as we think about who we're talking about here. It is of course, the twelve tribes who are scattered. Now, is it the believing portion of the twelve tribes that James is speaking to? Or is it a broader portion of the twelve tribes? Or let's just say all of the twelve tribes. I really kind of think it's all of the twelve tribes. But let's suppose for a moment it's the believing portion. Now, if it is the believing portion, we could go, for example, to Acts eight, verse one. And it says right here after a little sentence about Saul. It says at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. Now that's the one that James was the pastor of, remember church's assembly. So this assembly at Jerusalem, which is under the leadership of Peter, but also it appears that James has become the local man on the scene. Peter is the apostle, but James is the pastor. And this church in Jerusalem and they were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Now, this only goes to Judea and Samaria, and we're looking at those who are scattered farther than that. But coming back here to verse six, this rich men who oppress and draw you before the judgment seat. If we're only talking about the believing portion, maybe that's the beginning of it there. You remember, of course, Saul of Tarsus was one of those who went out. If we're talking Jew to Jew, saul of Tarsus is one that went out and did it. And then of course we know that ended up that Saul became the oppressed drug to the judgment seat. Paul the apostle became the one who was oppressed and drawn before the judgment seat. Now that's if we're talking Jew to Jew, but what if it is Gentile oppression of the Jew and we're just talking generally all the twelve tribes, then we're talking more classic anti Semitism here. And I think this is what we've got. But he's just talking to all of the tribes, whether they're believing or they're not believing, it's all of the tribes here. And so you've got here again, you've despised the poor and rich man Gentiles, do whatever it may be, they oppress you, they draw you before the judgment seat. Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called? Now again, it could be in the sense of Acts chapter eight, that it's rich Jews who are oppressing believing Jews, and these believing Jews have become poor and the rich Jews are blaspheming the worthy name by which you are called. It could go either way. I'm going to go in the case of classic antisemitism that it really is going back, building this on verse five, god has chosen the poor of this world. We defined that as Israel. Now take that as Israel all the way, and rich men are oppressing Israel and drawing them before the judgment seat, do not they the rich of the world blaspheme the worthy name by which the poor of the world are called. Now that then means let's come down to this worthy name. Which worthy name are we talking about? Are we talking about the name Christ, the name Jesus, the name Yahweh? Which one is it? And the reason I am asking this question is because I want to know, is James writing to all of Israel, whether believing or unbelieving? Or is he writing only to believing Israel? Now, let's take it here for only believing israel? Do they blaspheme? Do they rich Jews blaspheme the worthy name of Jesus by which you are called? Well, Jesus certainly has a worthy name and absolutely we could build that case from scripture, couldn't we? The name that is above every other name. Now, this worthy name, you could argue Jesus, I think you could, although the name by which you are called now, this has nothing to do with calling, this has to do with nomenclature. What do they call you? I am named Randy. I am called Randy. That's what they call me. This is the same thing. What worthy name by which do they call you? Now, those who are believers in Jesus the Messiah were not called Jesusians. I have to think through that for a moment. They were not called Jesusians, they were called Christians. I don't think anywhere in the Bible would you ever find a place where Christ was considered to be a name. Now, sometimes we use it that way, of course, in modern, modern world, but Christ always just means Messiah. And so Christian really is the same thing as saying messianic messianic. Now, if you take this as Jew upon Jew upon Jew oppression, then they, the rich Jews blaspheme the name of Christ by which you are called. The problem is they wouldn't have said name, they wouldn't have said Messiah as a name. I think that and by the way, they were first called Christians at Antioch. Antioch is about 44 Ad in Acts chapter eleven. That certainly could have the writing of James. I certainly wouldn't have a problem in putting it 454-6474 eight in there. And so maybe this is the name of Christ Christians. I just think there's some flaws in the argument. I think the better argument is the world is drawing you before the judgment seat and in doing so they blaspheme the worthy name by which you are called. And that name being Yahweh. Yahweh, the sacred name which was given by God to his chosen people, is the name that is being blasphemed here. So I am taking this to be the whole of the Jews. He speaks to all of them, whether they believe in Jesus the Messiah or they don't believe in Jesus the Messiah, it is the whole of the Jews. You could, as I have said, you could argue this either way, it's only to the believing Jews or it's to all of them. I think what you read in the book of James, it's just a message to the entire twelve tribes. And he's speaking specifically, if you want to specify anything, he's speaking specifically to those who happen to be scattered. But that's more circumstantial than it has to do with content. In the content, he's speaking to all of them. And the Jewish people were being drawn before criteria judgment seats, they were being oppressed. And in doing so those oppressors were blaspheming the name of Yahweh, by which they were called and by which they were known goes on. Then in verse eight, continuing to talk about these kingdom principles, says, if ye, nation of Israel fulfill the royal law according to scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. Now, let's just take one of these secondary points of application. Would I do well to love my neighbor as myself? I think so, generally. Is that a true statement? Yes, but are we just really kind of talking proverbially? You'll do well. Sometimes you won't do well, but most of the time you'll do well. It's just a good rule of thumb to say, hey, I'm going to love my neighbor as myself. You do well in that. Yeah, I think you could go to, I don't know, you could go to a high school baccalaureate, and if they were to ask you to speak, you could stand up there and you would say, hello, graduates, I'd like to give you a word from the Lord today. And that word is love your neighbor as yourself. And you could give a dozen illustrations and some of them would make them laugh, and some of them would make them cry. In the end, you'd say, now, boys and girls, excuse me, you're high school graduates now, I mean, men and women, the class of 2022. I want to tell you that if you'll do this thing of loving your neighbors we've talked about tonight, you will do well. Now, let us pray. You could give a stirring baccalaureate speech right there. I might just write one myself just in case I'm invited. So there is that proverbial, yeah, you'll do well. But I think he's speaking more specifically than just this proverbial sense. So in verses eight and nine, he's going to give two scenarios. One, you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture. Two, you don't fulfill the royal law. So here you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture. This royal law, as it is called right here, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. That royal law is found in the book of Leviticus 1918, incidentally, because I argued that the name here, the worthy name, was Yahweh. Let's just go down here to Leviticus 1918. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord all caps means, and he uses that name by which they are called. Now, you've got again this royal law. If you fulfill the royal law, which again is right there, leviticus, love thy neighbor as thyself. Now fulfill the royal law according to the scripture. Now, what is the scripture? A couple of weeks ago, and we'll talk about it again tonight. It was a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it was last week, but perhaps it was. We talked about the Engrafted word that is found. It's referred to the Engrafted word is referred to in James chapter one, verse 28, I believe it is. I argued that the Engrafted word there was the Hebrew Scriptures, what we would call the Old Testament here according to the Scripture. My argument is that James is perhaps the very first New Testament book written, and the Scripture has to refer to the Old Testament. Well, here, obviously, it refers to the Old Testament. So this royal law, according to the Scripture given in a general sense, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And there it is given, and it says, okay, you're going to do well. Now, royal law, is there any place in the Old Testament where it's called the royal law? No. Is there any place in the New Testament where it's called the royal law? No. Here it is defined as the royal law. We don't have to ask the question, well, what is the royal law? And I read skimmed one commentary today that says if you do the royal law, they treat you like a king. I don't know that's true, but it's a nice bumper sticker theology anyway. Now, the royal law is defined right here, and Jesus called this the second greatest commandment. First they asked which is the greatest commandment? And he said, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul in mind and strength. I believe it is to love the Lord. And then he says, and the second is like unto it, love thy neighbor as thyself. So he didn't call it the royal law, but he said it's the second most important law that there is. Rabbi Akiva, amazing messianic figure, really, that lived early in the second century. The Barkaka Rebellion that we'll talk about one of these days of 135 Ad. Is centered around Rabbi Akiva. But Rabbi Akiva said this he was speaking of thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself in the book of Leviticus, 1918. And he said this. Let's see this law right here. This is a fundamental, all inclusive principle of Torah. Sounds like he's calling it royal law. The Jewish people definitely viewed this. Now, certainly they had the love of the Lord. You got the shamah as priority number one, but fundamental, all inclusive of the law right here. Love thy neighbor as thyself. No doubt about it. I think that a believer under Paul. Once again, we would do well to love thy neighbor as thyself, just as it says, but we are not under this law. The only reason that we would fulfill this law, want to obey this law, is just to be neighborly. Not to fulfill the law, but to be neighborly. Now, he wants them to fulfill the royal law. Flip side, he says if you have respect of respect to persons, respect to persons, again, don't read that as a good thing. This is a bad thing. Respect to persons says, I think I'm better than you. I think he's better than you. I'm going to put you way down here on the totem pole, because I'm going to rank you all and have respect of persons. Prejudice is what I'm speaking. So if you have respect to persons, this is a verb here, right? By the way, you could almost say if you're doing respect to persons, ye commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors. Now, again, they were giving two scenarios. One, if you do the royal law, you do a good thing. But two, if you don't do the royal law and you have respected persons, you commit sin and you are a transgressor. Now, what is this convinced of sin? We use convinced, of course, in modern English to mean I am fully persuaded, I am absolutely convinced. But that's not what it means here. It is the word, and it was the right word, chosen. I used to when I first started getting into the King James, and it took me a long time and you've probably heard me do it before I used to with the King James version, I would say, well, they shouldn't have said convinced, they should have said convicted, because this word really convinced is not what it is. They're not convinced of the law, they're convicted of the law. I think they should have used the word convicted. Now, I don't say things like that anymore. Here's the reason. Because I've studied the King James a lot more and I've studied words a lot more and I've studied both the Greek and the Hebrew a lot more and I've studied the English a lot more and what I discovered is that those translators are so precise that for me. Just to take those 50 some odd translators and say you all didn't get it wrong. That is tremendous arrogance of me. Now, I do this amazing thing when I look and say, why did you say convinced? You shouldn't have done that. Here's the amazing thing I do, I look it up in the dictionary, and especially a dictionary that has etymology, that is the history of the word. And I like the Oxford English Dictionary, but it costs you a little money. So if you would prefer not to pay any money, there's etym online.org, I believe it is, and there you can just look up a word like convinced, for example, it's free. You look up a word like convinced and guess what it tells you? It tells you that convinced up until about 1700 meant convicted. After 1700 it meant fully persuaded. And guess what 1611 was the King James. So convincerre the Latin they were using more of the Latin that they were brought to trial and they were convicted. So if you have respected person, you commits in and you are convicted of the law as transgressors. Now, let's suppose that you or I have respected persons. We don't want to, but let's just suppose that we do. Are we transgressors? Well, all of a sudden fall short the glory. Of God. I don't have a problem with that. But is that going to bring us any kind of conviction? We're saved by grace through faith. Let's suppose this, however. You and I are not respecters of person. We don't judge people based upon the color of their skin, based upon their educational status, based upon their social status, their economic status. We don't do that because we're neighborly people. So we're good with the law, right? Hang on just a second. Let's go on to verse ten, which begins, I call it a new subject kingdom judgment under the law, either convicted under the law, it goes on, for whosoever shall keep the whole law? And yet offend in one point he is guilty of all. In what way would we be able to apply this to the body of Christ? I can't think of one. This just doesn't apply to the body of Christ under grace. Let's consider it here for a moment. What are we going to do if we're talking about, hey, you offend even at one point, you're guilty of all. How are we going to apply this to the church? I think the best way is not to apply it to the church. The best way is to, shall we say, rightly divide the Book of James rather than trying to apply, if you don't rightly divide, you're going to wrongly apply. So let's remove this from the church. Why? Because we know that the church, as I'm calling it, the body of Christ is the scripture we call it. We know that the body of Christ is not under the law at all. So as we begin to think about this, yet offend in one point he's guilty of all, do you or I offend the law in one point? Well, I'm not a respecter of persons. Okay. Do you remember the Sabbath and keep it holy? Yeah, that's what I do. I remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. But of course we do it on Sunday. That's not remembering the Sabbath and keep it holy. In very basic sense. It is offensive to the Bible to say, I go to church on Sunday, therefore I remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. It's offensive to language, it's offensive to sensibility, it's offensive to the law. What about the sacrificial laws? What about the feast laws? When was the last time you observed the Day of Atonement? When was the last time you observed the Feast of Trumpets? When was the last time you observed Passover, which was supposed to be done perpetually unto all generations? When was the last time you did it? When was the last time you took your tithes into the storehouse? Biblically? Nobody's done it. It's impossible to do. And so here we are. We're not under the law, so we can't apply this to the body of Christ. That's not under the law. He was trying to apply this obviously, to the nation of Israel. If we go. Paul actually made a similar argument on a different side. What James is doing is saying, hey, Israel, you cannot skip a single part of the law, none of it. If you keep all of it except one, you're guilty of all, you must keep the whole thing. Paul gave a different argument. As a matter of fact, this argument was paul's argument is diametrically opposed to James. Let's look at Paul's argument. And that is Galatians five, verse three. And Paul says, I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Wait a minute, paul, what are you saying? Are you saying that we ought to do the whole thing? What Paul says, if you're going to do it, you got to do the whole thing. If you're going to come in and argue circumcision, you better argue the royal law and you better argue the feast laws, and you better argue the Tithing laws, and you better argue the Sabbath laws. I testify that every man that is circumcised, that is, he tries to do one part of the law. He's a debtor to do the whole part of the law, the whole thing of the law. That's really exactly what James is saying here in verse ten. Whosoever shall keep the whole law yet offended? One point is guilty of all. Except they're arguing two different things from two different perspectives. James, again, he's arguing, we, Israel, must do the law all the way to its jaw and tittle. We must fulfill the whole thing. We cannot put any of it aside. And Paul comes in and says, if you even do one part of it, you better do the whole thing. You're going to live by the law, you're going to die by the law. You better carry it out. Now, again, we noticed when we get down a little farther in chapter two, we'll get into the classic places where Paul and James seem to disagree. This one's a little subtle, it's a little under the cover. I don't know that I've seen people talking about Paul and James disagree here. And yet what Paul and James are saying, again is two very different things. Let's go on into verse eleven. For he that said, do not commit adultery, I said also do not kill. Now, if thou commit adultery, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou become a transgressor of the law. Again, just a very simple example to show the unity of the law. But could you go with me, maybe to the Westminster confession and talk about this unity of the law that we see in these two verses? If it's been at one point you're guilty of all, you can't begin to separate that you become a transgressor of the law. And yet this is very much a Protestant issue. I am not a Protestant. All Protestants believe that the law is divisible in ceremonial law. Civic law, sometimes called legislative law and sacrificial law, and you can slice it and dice it and you can split it up here and there, and we only have to do this. But they had to do that and put all this and I just think that neither James nor his half brother Jesus believed that. I don't think James nor Jesus would like the Westminster confession. I think they would say the Westminster confession, I'll use a Hebrew tomb, papa cock baloney. That's crazy, because it really started with John Calvin. John Calvin is the one that said, okay, what are we going to do with the law? How are we going to do this? So Calvin is the one that said, okay, let's divide it up three ways. And yet it just doesn't fit with verses ten and eleven here that take this law as a unity. Now let's go on into verse twelve. So speak ye Israel, and so do as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Now, what is this law of liberty? If you watch the commentaries, the commentaries really have a problem with chapter two, verses one through 1213. Really, because it's such a law abiding passage. And the Christian commentaries, of course, if they were to write on this, they would look at it and say, lot of law here, wow, lot of law. What are we going to do with this? I thought we were free from the law. And they would end up saying, well, we still have the moral law and we're obligated to the moral law. And this shows us that we're not just willy nilly free, we're still tied into the old Testament and obeying the principles of the old Testament, and on and on, I guess. And then they say, oh, I've proven it right here. He doesn't say we're under the law. He says we're going to be judged by the law of liberty. We Christians are going to be judged by the law of liberty. Moving on, and you have some right divider, raises hand and says, sir, what is the law of liberty? Well, it's grace. We're under grace. But being under grace don't sin you're under the law of liberty. It's a little oxymoronic to call grace a law. These are two things that don't go together, and yet most commentaries will try to say the law of liberty. That's not being under the law, that's grace. Why did he use the word law then? Why didn't he say, celebrate the fact that none of this applies to you and you are under grace? He could have said that. Paul was pretty clear about saying that. Just read the book of Galatians. Paul didn't mind saying in the book of Romans, for example, you're dead to the law. You just put it out there. So why wouldn't James just put it out there? This law of liberty, so speak and so do is they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Now, first of all, you and I are not going to be judged. Why? Because we have been given a gift. It is a gift of being complete in Christ. It is a gift of not having our trespasses counted against us. It is a gift of eternal life. So the whole thing doesn't even seem to fit. It's a shoe that doesn't go on our foot. So speak ye, and so do works, works as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Okay, what is the law of liberty again, is what it comes down to. And if we go back to let's see, what verse is it? Let's just check right here. Chapter one, verse 25. Husso Lucas into the perfect law of liberty. And continuous therein being forgetful here, but a doer of the work is this man shall be blessed in his deed. Now, you might want to go back to our notes on chapter one, verse 25. But there also it speaks about the law of liberty and looking into the perfect law of liberty. When we were here, we discussed this a little more and I said the perfect law of liberty was to back up in context here to verse 21, the Engrafted word, that is the word planted within you. What is the word planted within you? Maybe it's the oracles of God that have been entrusted to you. Maybe James, the first book of the New Testament, he has to be talking here about the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament, the Engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. And certainly the Old Testament had a pathway to national salvation. The Engrafted word of verse 21 is the law of liberty in verse 25. And that law of liberty is the same when you get down into verse twelve. So speaky. Let me just read this a different way. So speak and so do as they that shall be judged by the Torah. The Torah is the law of liberty. And again, we talked about this back in verse 25 that no Jew ever would say, oh, the Tory is such bondage, it's such a burden, it is such a heavy weight that God has put us under. No, every Jew would say, praise be unto God for giving us the law. It is the law that has set us free. It set us free from Egypt. It set us free from the bondage to the world. It set us free from being man. Pleasers. It set us free from ourselves. What a law of liberty? The law of liberty is the Torah. And he tells Israel to speak and do as they that should be judged by the Torah, because that's what's going to happen. Again, it's utterly compatible to the dispensation of the grace of God. Incompatible, I should say. It's utterly incompatible with the dispensation of the grace of God. Now let's move on and go to verse 13. For he shall have judgment without mercy. That hath showed no mercy and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Now, again in verse 13, that would create havoc with a Paulie message. Can you just imagine Paul coming and say, man, if you have not shown mercy, you are coming into judgment, buddy. I'm telling you, body of Christ, gift of God, whatever, you better set all that aside because if you have not been merciful, judgment is what you're headed for, judgment without mercy, and mercy you have. Mercy, it'll come and boast against judgment, rejoice against judgment, thou shalt be merciful. That's what James says. That's what the Old Testament says. What is it that God requires to love justice, to do mercy and forgotten the things that were there in the mic of passage, but perhaps you remember them and in the dispensation of the grace of God that you and I live in, it's not based on our works of mercy. It's based upon God's grace. It's a gift that we're giving us that removes us from judgment. Once again, I think it's just really quite amazing that the Church, the Body of Christ, has always taken the Book of James to be ours. And the best they can do is to say, well, it's not about salvation, it's a discipleship book. And in doing so, they say to live the Christian life in a way that's going to get you through judgment, you're going to have to do the law. To be a good disciple of Jesus Christ, you got to do the law. And in a sense, they're right. They're just using the word disciple of Jesus Christ wrong. And you and I, as really, we talked not too long ago and asked the theologian about being disciples. That really in and of itself is a very Jewish word, disciple. And I don't get upset when people use it just because I know what they mean. But am I carrying out discipleship in the Jewish manner? No, it's not me. And when we take the Book of James and try to apply it to the Christian life, we don't solve any problems at all. We still end up tripping right over it. And yet, sadly, if you agree with me, some probably don't. Some probably are still saying, I don't know, he's going a little far on this one, maybe he needs to back off. And others are just saying, no, he's flat out wrong. But if you agree with me, you're one of, I don't know, 1% maybe is it 1% of Christianity that says James is definitely the word of God and James in no way applies to the body of Christ. James helps us to understand if I reached down here for my poster, james helps us to understand what this group of people is under this national message to the Jewish people, the national gospel of Israel. It's not for the individual over here, it's for the nation over here. And James is certainly in the New Testament, but it's one what we call the Hebraic Epistles. It belongs over here with things like the book of Hebrews and the book of first and second Peter and the books of first, second and third John and Jude and Revelation. Those hebraic Epistles are here to Israel and rightly divide we take the individual message that is given here in Pauline epistles is where we find that particular message and we take that there. Okay, well, I am going to stop right there and we'll pick up next time in verse 14 what prophet brethren, though a man say you have faith and hath not works, can that faith save him? This will be interesting because we're very much getting into it'll be next time if faith without works is dead. The famous passage there. But again, though a man say he have faith and have not works, can faith save him? You know what Paul would say? James doesn't say that. James says that faith is dead, but it's not about salvation. It's not about salvation, it's about discipleship. That's what we'll talk about next time. Hey, don't forget a couple of things. One, if you haven't put a chat in yet and you're watching live, do it because I'm about to give away a gift. And let's see, this Sunday we got the worst crisis of the biblical age, the destruction of Jerusalem. I think it's difficult if you don't know how this came about. And we're talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, the first destruction of the temple about 586 BC. If you don't know how this came about, then what was happening really? It's hard to understand the book of Jeremiah, the book of Ezekiel, definitely the book of Lamentations, which is completely about this. It's even difficult to understand Daniel, it's difficult to understand Zechariah and Zephaniah, all of these exile profits in here, difficult to understand leading up to the exile, the exile itself, and then the post exilic profits, it's hard to put all that together. Many of the things they say to put together. This is why I would give this sermon, which is a little bit of a history lesson, if you will, from Second Chronicles. And yet it's a history lesson that becomes foundational to understand so many books of the Old Testament and even a lot of the Jewish psyche, if I could use that term, but the New Testament. So this Sunday, because you ask series, the worst crisis of the Biblical Age. And this Sunday also we will be completing the Book of Philippians. And I'll look forward to that. Now, let's see here. We've got a book to give away. I'll be giving it away in just a moment after I give some greetings. Here it is, the rightly divided commentary series like Thomas and Jamie and Lilywop just put their entry in. How do you do it? All you do is you have to say something on the chat box. That's all you've got to do. And you can do something just like Thomas and Jamie and Lilywop just did. They said, hey, we're here, too. That's all it takes to win such a first edition copy of the first volume of the Rightly Divided Commentary series. If you don't win, well, you can get it@dispensationalpublishing.com. Speaking of that, before I give some greetings here, let's see if let me get this pulled up on the screen for us. We put a couple of new things up at Dispensational Publishing. And let me just point those out. Here's. The shop button three right now, but there's going to be some more coming up in the next day or so, and you might want to get them the Long Night, Palestine Post, Hilkat Mohadim. Well, that one's a little more academic. Let me walk across the room over here and just get a few of these because I happen to have some of them right here. I wasn't planning on showing them to you, otherwise I would have had them close right here. This is Palestine coast. An eyewitness account of the birth of Israel. Those of you who love Israel and like to read history, it's a good one. It's quite a few pages, 500 something pages here. But it is a fellow who moved to what was then called Palestine, 1947 as a 25 year old and determined to make his contribution to the emerging Jewish state. Between 47 and 50, he was variously a local news editor, foreign news editor, correspondent with Palestinian post soldier, and a resident of Jerusalem. In vivid and often moving letters to his family, mordecai describes the news of the UN for vote for partition and the siege of Jerusalem. A lot of other things. If you like Jewish history, that one you might like. It's $19.95. Here's one that's not up yet, but it will come up. This is the month of July you might like. It proclaim liberty throughout the land. The Hebrew Bible in the United States. A source book. Now, again, it's a little bit academic, but it goes through really so many of the fundamental principles of American life and Western society, if you like Western civics. This one right here, it's not up yet, but it will be up. It's hardback. I think it's 29 95. And let's see, what else have we got here? Well, let's see. I have it, I just don't have it right here. To show you The Long Night, I would recommend that that is a Holocaust story, true story of this fellow who survived the Holocaust and he wrote about it. Ernst Bornstein. The Long Night. It's only $16.95. Here's one that's very interesting. A temple in flames. The epic story of the final battle for Jerusalem. This is one of those in a kind of a kind of a little coffee table book because it's got a lot of pictures full color throughout. I don't know. It's going to be, I think, 29 95. Also, another coffee table book right here that you like. The Holy temple in Jerusalem. And it goes and if you like to study the temple and you like good pictures, here's your book. Lots of information, lots of pictures. Here's the priestly garments that are here, some of the tools that are used. The chamber of the lepers, the ritual bath. You'll learn a lot of stuff. This is, again, it's kind of a coffee table book to put out there. It's a little more expensive, full color, obviously. 49 95 and a bunch of others. I don't have all of them here, but they're just starting to go up. So there's only three now. Just be watching that over the next few days is what I would say there to you. And you might like that. Okay. I didn't mean to go into all that advertising here just to say I'm giving away a book that you can also buy@dispensationalpublishing.com. But with that, let me give some. Hellos tonight, and good to see the Arizona branch of the Tao Stelogical Seminary coming in. Everett and Deborah. Thank you. I'm glad you're here. And then up in Wisconsin. St. Croix County, Wisconsin. John and Bev, thanks for being here. Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Tomatopoulos is here tonight. Thanks, Scott. Down there in the hill country of Texas. It's raining, he says, and the temperature is 75 deg. Well, how about that? I should just check the temperature here. I don't know what it is. Well, how about that? 74 deg. Right now here in Towson, New Mexico. Not raining, but glad it's cooling off then. You're getting some rain down there. You need it. Good to see our friend Neil up in Volkan, Alberta, Canada. Probably less than 75 deg there, isn't it? And let's see Maryland and Roger always with us from Waveshaw, Minnesota. And Lorna, good to see you tonight. It was a couple of days ago, Dr. Mike's birthday. We wish him a happy birthday. Keith and Carla in Auburn, Kentucky. Good to see you. Our friend Donald. Merles Inlet, South Carolina. This sounds like a lovely place there's, debbie and Crystal Springs, Mississippi also. Thanks for being here. And a hot evening in Weatherford, Oklahoma. But Chuck glad you're here. And forney Texas, good evening to you, to Giles family. And Jim says, good evening, comrades. Get with the program there. Good to see you. Jim at Piedmont, South Carolina. Jim, by the way, has been in my prayers this week because he's on our bulletin. I need to have the bulletin here in front of me. He's on our house extended family church family bulletin this week. So we got his picture up around here. And you've been in our prayers this week and appreciate that. Speaking of that, I should probably show you all some vacation Bible school pictures here in just a moment, too. Let me find those. I'll get there. But let me keep saying hi okay. I get so distracted. Rich and Jody, good to see you. Pensacola, Florida tonight. I hope you're having a beautiful evening. Bill is in Tupelo, Mississippi. Made a little trip this week, obviously because he was in Cypress last week. Texas, that is. Eric in Ohio. Still praying for you and your mom. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for being here with us. And Yeckolt Washington is here with us. Good to see you. Home of Tanya Harding. Yakolt, Washington. Speaking of rightly dividing, we're glad that you're here, Jennifer. Thanks. I love studying the Book of James. I appreciate that. Dr. Tom, good morning to you. Friday morning in Cambodia. It's a blessing to have you here. Thank you very much. Nancy, the Trask tribe in Colorado and Forrest is back with us. He was out last week. Glad to have you. And Smith. I get it right. Smithville, Missouri. Good to see you, Mike. That's very nice. The trucker who goes all over praying for you. And that's very nice. As people go down the road, lift up a prayer for us. I appreciate it and God bless you. Truckers. I got a t shirt. I got it earlier this year when it was the thing it said America runs on truckers or something like that. Should have warned it tonight and I know that you are going going to be here. Thanks, Mike. Susan, good to see you, my friend down in Katy, Texas. Welcome. And let's see, phil is here with us and asking for prayer for Lorraine Chavez to be healed of some health problems. Indeed, we will pray for Lorraine. Phil joining you in that. Wherever you're from. Not exactly sure where you're from, but God bless you for being here tonight and I do appreciate that. Chad Ford, Pennsylvania. Yeah. Philadelphia suburbs. Glad you're back. Thank you. Lexington, Kentucky. Linda, good to see you. Thank you very much. Let's see. Here's a question. Worship doesn't have screen share yet, does it? He says only if you have Apple TV. It does have screen share on Apple TV, but not yet on the others. Working on that, making progress on some things. We're getting there, but not yet. I appreciate that. I don't like having to use the communist channel. We're also working on a method of I'll call it I think it's called CDN Content Delivery Network. Depending on where you live, you either get a great signal from worstify or not a great signal for worship. And it's pretty consistent. If you don't get a good signal from worstify, you don't get it. And it has to do with the Internet highway between where we're serving from and where you live, which is typically pretty consistent. If there's a bottleneck in there, it only serves from one place. So we're working on separating that out so that your computer has options. If it says I can't get it very well from there, then it can turn over and say, but I can get it from this highway. No traffic there. So we're working on that, too. That'll improve the service for some of you who may consistently get poorer service on that. Dr. Mike, it is good to see you here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And happy birthday to you. Tara, good to see you. Butte, Montana. And I hope beautiful little Cheyenne is doing well. And Brett as well. I hope things are good up in Montana. Thank you, Linda. Linda. I already said that. But Linda is doubling up, hoping to get that book right and get there. I appreciate. Let's see. Sean in Cincinnati. Welcome back. Always good to see you. Thank you. Oh, thanks, Jim. That's the word I was looking for, tetragram. Tetragram is the covenant name for God, the yahweh yoke. I forget my Hebrew alphabet. Tetragramaton, those four letters. Appreciate that. Deb in the Ozarks. Thanks for being here tonight and always with us. Thomas and Jamie. As I already mentioned in Lilywalp. Appreciate it. Let's see. I think I have a question. You know what I'm going to do, chris, he's asked the question, is Christian nationalism a problem? I would love to put that on Ask the Theologian. So tomorrow Friday's edition of Ask the Theologian. I'm going to put that question. It'll save, right? It won't go away. Nathan? Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah, that's definitely going to be there tomorrow. It's such a good question. I hate to not put it on the television program, which I appreciate the support you all have given to that. Okay, almost time for the drawing, but I love to share what we're doing here at our church. And we had vacation Bible school this week. Here's the kids. You never get to see that side of the auditorium. Do you always get to see the other side of the auditorium? I had about 45 kids this week. Really good to see them all. And let's see how's this work. There they are doing a little game show kind of thing. Madison did very well putting all this together. And let's see, here are some of the kids doing their freshman. And you can just see the smiles there, can't you? By the way, there's a little courtyard right there. Some of you have seen it. If not, come on to the Tower's Prophecy conference in September. And we'll sit there. It's between the auditorium and the fellowship hall. There they are again. And here's some of the kids doing crash. This is Madison you've heard us talk about right there. And I think they're making boomerangs right here. And diamond. I kind of like his hair. That's nice. Here. There's the kids again working on some of their crafts. And there's Madison explaining how the boomerang is supposed to come back in theory. Some of the little preschoolers there playing a little soccer. There's one of the snacks. There it is. This is the Great Barrier Reef. We made it in a cup. The. Great Barrier Reef right there. My wife put those snacks together. That one's sideways. But some of the kiddos there yet another excited face. Oh, there's a smile. I knew it could be there. And he's ready to answer the question. Let's see what we've got here. Well, a few other pictures. Let's pass those pictures and see if we those are some of the books. Oh, there we go. Madison in her Australian get up during the game show up here. They were having some fun with that. More of the kids there. Oh, that's the buck that was in my yard. There he is, moving along. Come on. I took that just this morning because I thought the church looked pretty. Don't you think it looks pretty? And all of these flowers grew from seed or cuttings. Don't they look good? You didn't come to hear this, but my alyssum, I don't know if they're from Chernobyl or what. They've taken over. They're the biggest alyssum I've ever seen. Here they are again. Oh, this is today's snack. Hasn't my wife done well? These are koala bears and a palm tree, all edible. Makes me hungry. There's more of the kids doing well. I think they were making blood samples. I'm not sure why. Now, there is my granddaughter. Look at that. That's a good one, isn't it? And her mother there working in Vacation Bible School as well. Mum doesn't look so happy there, but I'm not sure about that. But there's Madison again working with some of the kids, showing off their blood samples. I'm sure that had something to do with something, I don't know. Doing a little singing going on there and I think that got it. Okay. It might have been more than you wanted, but, hey, it's free. You can always turn it off, right? Okay, now I got to do the drawing and we got to get out of here. And yeah, I don't know what the blood samples were all about, other than we have a science segment in Vacation Bible School, and there's always some biblical lesson that comes to it, and so somehow we got that. Okay, I'm going to draw a winner right now. And the winner is old Donald Merles Inlet. Congratulations. This one's coming your way. I'll write you a little note and get that sent out tomorrow. And yeah, congratulations on that. Now, with the winner and all that done, let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the blessing of fellowship, for the blessing of gathering around, as we often say, this great big electronic table, and just fellowshipping not only with one another, but fellowshipping in the Word. And we just pray that tonight we have rightly divided the Word and not misunderstood it. Dear Heavenly Father, this entire study has been built upon an assumption that we should take James, chapter one, verse one, literally and understand it to the twelve tribes of Israel. If there's anything about this. Dear heavenly father, that is incorrect. We do pray that you would use the wisdom of one another and the insight that we get from the word to correct our understanding there, heavenly father, because we do realize we're taking it in such a unique sense from the rest of Christendom. And here we lie in this I don't know if it's even 1% crowd dear heavenly father, in the way we're understanding that this to be exclusively hebraic and yet also, dear Father, as we study it this way, it has given us such freedom to understand the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and to understand the transition that is happening. We pray you'd continue to bless our ministry and you would watch over us. And each one who is here with us tonight. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. And again, God bless you. Thanks to each one of you for being here with us. And congrats to again donald Morgan Merles Inlet, California, North Carolina We'll get that sent off to you. I'll be back tomorrow morning. We'll ask Chris's question on Christian nationalism and get that in there. And we'll have a delightful time Sunday. Also, don't forget, no Bible study next Thursday night just due to some dental work and the study of the book of Romans. Until then. God bless you. We'll see you soon. You.