Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.61LIKELY
Disgust
0.1UNLIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.66LIKELY
Sadness
0.16UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.55LIKELY
Confident
0.46UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.93LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.99LIKELY
Extraversion
0.5UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.86LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.87LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
SLIDE
{ “The Law!” }
Bible Text: James 2:8-13
Intro:
(TEXT SLIDE #1) Today we are going to continue with our verse by verse Bible study series through the book of James.
And as you can see up on our video screens, the focus of our Bible verses today is on THE LAW!
Now when I mention THE LAW, what MEMORIES POP INTO your minds?
(INTRO SLIDE #1)
There are some of us here that when we think about the law, we think about the teachers or nuns that we grew up with in school, THEY WERE the law! (INTRO SLIDE #2)
For many of the men here (including me) when we hear that word “LAW” we think about the POLICE and the times that we have been arrested for BREAKING THE LAW! (INTRO SLIDE #3)
For you Holy People, when you hear about THE LAW, you think about God giving the law, or the 10 commandments to Moses up on Mount Sinai! (INTRO SLIDE #4)
But the law that we are going to learn about this morning is God’s law that HE has WRITTEN OUT FOR US in the pages of our Bibles.
And this word “LAW” is actually a very common Biblical word.
The word “LAW” is mentioned 642 different times in your Bible.
And we are going to see the word Law brought up 4 different times in the Bible verses that we are going to be studying this morning.
(INTRO SLIDE #6)
And if you are taking notes, in our Bible text God’s word is going to reveal to us…
SLIDE
4 Purposes of THE LAW for us as Christians! (REPEAT)
So let’s get started and please open up your Bibles with us to the book of James Chapter 2.
And we will begin where we left off a few weeks ago , by reading verses 8 and 9.
James Chapter 2, and we will begin by reading verses 8 and 9 together.
Bible Text: James 2:8-9 / Background
SLIDE
8-9- If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you [e]show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
As we get started here, keep in mind what the author James, (who was a Pastor in the early church in Jerusalem) is writing to us about.
As we saw last time and then see again right here in verse 9, James has been warning us as believers about the SIN OF FAVORITISM.
We must do our best to love and respect everyone equally just like God does.
But as we pick up here in verse 8, James tells us to… keep the royal law found in Scripture.
So what is this LAW that the Bible is bringing up here?
We find out what this law is right here in the middle of verse 8… the royal law of Scripture is TO LOVE your neighbor as yourself.
And that brings up the first of our four purposes of the law for us as Christians.
And that is…
#1-The Royal law (or most important law) is love.
(REPEAT)
So why does James call this the royal law of scripture?
The main reason James gives it that name is because this law of Love was given to us by the King of Kings Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And this Law of LOVE is the law that Jesus is going to rule with in His future Kingdom.
And since Jesus is our King, and as Christians we are part of His Spiritual Kingdom today, His Royal law of love needs to be a priority for us!
Do you remember the story of when Jesus FIRST INSTRUCTED US about this Royal law of love?
The Gospels tell us that one day the enemies of Jesus who were the Jewish religious leaders came to Jesus trying to trick Him with a question about the Jewish law.
And I want to read the exchange that Jesus had with them and we find that conversation over in…Matthew 22:34-36
(SLIDE)-
“34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
So they were asking Jesus this question… “Which law or commandments of God is the VERY MOST IMPORTANT of all to keep?
And we find Jesus’ answer to this question in the following verses,
(SLIDE)-
Matthew 22:37-39 “Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Bingo, THAT’S IT, Jesus made it CRYSTAL clear which law He believes is the most important for us to follow.
It wasn’t only loving God, which everyone would understand, but to everyone’s surprise Jesus added to that and brought up the importance of us loving our neighbor, loving the people around us!
That’s what Jesus said and that’s what Jesus lived out, and we are never more like Jesus than when we are Loving God and loving others!
Let’s continue on by reading verses 10 and 11 together.
(SLIDE)
James 2:10-11 “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.”
Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”
So in these verses James continues his teachings about the law and did you catch what he said about BREAKING THE LAW here in verse 10?
Let’s read verse 10 again…For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
And then in verse 11 we are then given an example from the 10 commandments found in Exodus Chapter 20 of how if we break just one law, we are guilty of breaking all of it.
And that is what the Bible teaches, that even if you could live a perfect life and at the very end we messed up and sinned in just one area, we would still be guilty as lawbreakers.
We can try and picture breaking the law this way…
It’s like a guy hanging off a cliff on a long chain.
How many links of that chain have to break for the guy to fall?
JUST ONE, and the guy is a goner!
God’s law works the same way, and the Bible teaches us that as lawbreakers, we are sinners that deserve the judgment of a righteous and holy God.
WOW Derek, isn’t that kind of harsh?
Is God that mean?
No, because if God is going to be a GOOD GOD, than He must also be a HOLY GOD, and the only way that God can be both Good and holy is if He deals with all sin!
And this brings up one of the main reasons why God has given us the law, the law is like a perfect mirror that we can examine our lives with and it shows us our every flaw and our every sin.
And that brings up the 2nd of our four purposes of the law for us as Christians in our Bible study today.
And that is:
SLIDE
#2-The law shows us that we are sinners in need of a Savior.
(REPEAT)
Now this truth that ALL PEOPLE ARE SINNERS is very controversial in our world today, and do you know why?
Because people don’t like to think of themselves as sinners, instead, everyone likes to think of themselves as what… “A GOOD PERSON!”
Every single non Christian that I know believes that they are a good person!
And many of them don’t think that they need Jesus or the church because they are going to get to heaven anyway, why?
They are A GOOD PERSON!
One of the most popular arguments that Non Christians try and make against God today, is they say “I just can’t believe in a God that would send “GOOD PEOPLE” to hell!
So what is the answer to that question?
First off, according to the Bible, there are no good people!
But then secondly, God doesn’t want anyone to go to hell, instead God’s will is that none shall perish but that all shall come to repentance!
Jesus talked a lot about this topic of people being good, and I want you to listen to what Jesus had to say about over in…
(SLIDE)-
Matthew 19:17
Jesus speaking here said… 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?
[f]No one is good but One, that is, God.
But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
So according to Jesus, there are no good people, only God.
Now when people make that popular claim of… “I AM A GOOD PERSON” we know what they are doing when we do it.
They are looking around and COMPARING THEMSELVES to the people around them.
And anyone can find someone else that is more wicked and more sinful than they are, and when I compare myself to those kinds of people, sure I am a BETTER PERSON than they are.
But the problem is, other people are not our standard for goodness.
God the CREATOR get’s to set the standard for goodness, and Jesus told us God’s standard for being good over in
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
And Jesus described God’s standard this way …
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9