Speaker 1: Most of us eat every day, some of us too
much because yesterday's food is not enough to supply energy
for today's needs. Why then, do some of us expect
yesterday's portion of heavenly manna the word of God to
keep us through today's challenges. On this program, we are
going to change all of that. Let's experience God's words
today and receive the power we need to live healthy,
vibrant lives. Welcome to your Daily Portion with your host,
author speaker, Elle David Harris.
Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Good morning. It is Wednesday. It's
August twenty, twenty twenty five. Hello, my name is El
David Harris. I am your host, and this is your
Daily Portion where we give you God's Word every single
day and today is no exception. We are continuing in
our Lesson study series through the Book of Exodus, and
our caption for today is different functions of God's Law,
Different functions of God's Law. Before we get into that,
I'd like to say welcome to you and ask you
to go over to your Daily Portion dot com. Please
join our online community, pick up your Daily Portion Life
application guide, and let us know where you are in
the world. At your Daily Portion dot com. This is
one of the ways that we continue to build faith
and fellowship. Let's go ahead and pray, and then we
will get underway. Father, thank you for this day and
for giving us the truth as it is in Christ.
Please help us to lay hold upon you, lay hold
upon this truth and live live like Jesus lived in
Jesus' name. I pray, Amen and Amen again. Different functions
of God's law, and in this case we're talking about
the Ten Commandments law. So you all don't need to
be arguing in your Saba school classes when you're in
person about what law is witch and all that kind
of thing. We're talking about the Ten Commandment's law. Okay,
So we're going right to James. The Book of James
chapter one, Versus twenty three to twenty five. James chapter one,
verses twenty three to twenty five, and the Bible reads,
For if any be a hearer of the word and
not a doer, he is like a man beholding his
natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, or
he gazes at himself, he sees himself, like right now,
I can see myself on a big screen while I
am looking where you would be I'm looking at the camera,
but I imagine, because I've spoken in person so many
times I can't count. I'm imagining you on the other
end of this thing, but I can still see me.
So it's as if I were looking at myself God forbid,
and then straightway forgetting what manner of man he is? Yes,
verse twenty five. But whoso looketh into the perfect law
of liberty. So now we're very clear. This is the
Ten Commandments law, the Decalogue, as we said the other day,
the perfect law of what liberty. So for those of
you who think that if in fact you submit your
will to God or your friends, tell you this thing
that if you know you are attached to people who
believe that if we submit our will to God and
then we become law keepers, that somehow we become legalists,
that's silly, because this text in the Bible, inspired by
the Holy Ghost, says that we are looking into the
law of liberty. So the law of liberty liberates. I
hate this, I know, I know, I can't use the
same word it. The law of liberty puts us into
a position that if we surrender our will to God
and his law becomes a promise to us that we
are free to do God's will. I said, free to
do God's will, not free to just do everything, free
to do God's will, free to do God's will. And
the Bible continues and continue with therein he is being
a forgetful hearer. So if you look in and forget yourself,
you're a forgetful hearer, but a doer, Not a forgetful
hearer part of me, but a doer of the work.
This man shall be blessed in his deed. Let me
say it with no commentary now from the New English
translation of the Bible. For if someone merely listens to
the message of God's word and does not live it out,
he is like someone who looks at his own face
in a mirror. He gazes at himself and then goes
out immediately and forgets what sort of person that he is.
But the one who peers into the perfect law of
liberty and fixes his attention there and does not become
a forgetful listener, but one who lives it out, he
will be blessed in what he does. So the immediate
question is what are you looking at?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: What kind of mirror are you looking into? Are you
looking at the kind of mirror that's like you grading
your own paper and you deciding what it's going to be,
like Lucifer did where he said, I don't need that law.
We can make it up ourselves because we are holy beings. No, no,
I hope not. But if you're looking into the perfect
law of liberty, then there are a few things that
we need to experience. So James uses this mirror metaphor
to show us the purpose of God's law. There are
a few things, at least from James's account. It reveals
what we really are. It reveals what we really are.
It reflects our need for spiritual cleansing. So we already
see like what we really are is somebody who needs
God to cleanse us. So we see who we are.
We see what we are with no filters, nothing flattering,
nothing to tell us, well, it's not that bad. It
just reveals the truth, and we see that we are unholy,
we are miserable, poor, blind, naked, and sometimes don't even
know it by ourselves that is. And God is saying, okay, yeah,
so keep looking, keep looking. You see right there. You
need spiritual cleansing. And then the reality is it doesn't
repair the sin. It exposes it. There's some people trying
to wipe the law of God over our faces when
our faces are dirty, wipe the love of God up
under our armpits. I'm not being sacrilegious. I'm saying we
need to see this in real life, like you're looking.
You're looking in the mirror, right, Yeah, some people are
trying to wipe the law of God all over and
make it cleanse us, when in fact there is only
one who can cleanse us, and that is God. So
it reveals the fact that we need God. Okay, and
so let me not go to theological with the time
that we have left, and let's just go right in
again to the Bible. Romans chapter seven and verse twelve.
The Bible teaches us that it reveals God's character. He's
holy and just and good. In verse seven it defines sin.
Without the laws, sin cannot be recognized. And then in
Galatians chapter three and verse twenty four, you can rewind this,
you can rewind this one day. It points us to
Christ as our redeemer and deliverer. And then in Genesis
chapter two and verse seventeen, we see that it protects
life and liberty. It sets boundaries that keeps us free
from self destruction. And then finally in Jeremiah, chapter thirty
one and verse thirty three, where we see the New Covenant,
it promotes transformation when in turn it becomes rich and
in our heart because that's what God has promised. So
how do we apply this? How do we apply this?
There's so much we could say and likely should say,
but time is ticking. When you look into the mirror
of God's law, and I'm saying this to myself. When
you look into that mirror of God's law, don't just
nod at what you see. Respond, well, what is the
response like when I see that things aren't as right
as I hoped, When I look and see that they
are not as holy as I had hoped, or even
maybe God forbid had convinced myself when I had the
filter on, when I had the filter of well, at
least I'm not as bad as person acts. God forbid.
Now when I look, I don't just nod, I begin
to act. How do I act? Well, don't use the
law to measure ourselves with others or against others, use
it to keep our own walk aligned. Well, what was
what would be my response? What would be my own
walk aligned principle, well, going to God and saying God,
I feel off I'm off balance here. I can't stay
on that line like the people who get caught for
DUI or d wi, whatever the case may be, under
intoxication like and they tell them to stand on this
line and then walk forward one foot before the other,
and they start stumbling. That is the human looking into
the law of God without the Holy Ghost. And then
let the Holy Spirit use the law to convict us
and submit to the process, submit to God, and let
Jesus cleanse us. There are so many things that we
can learn here, but let's keep going. Make it a
great day, peace. Thanks for joining us listening. Friends.
Speaker 1: Always remember we cannot live by bread alone, but by
every word that comes from the mouth of God. This
has been your daily portion with l David Harris. Make
it a great day. Yeah,