All right, as Robert said, we're
going to be looking at James chapter 2 this morning on the
subject of faith and good works. In last week's bulletin, I had
an article. It was a short statement, actually,
on good works that was intended to go along with this message.
But as you know, we got diverted because of Debbie's mother. Coverture prayers for her. She's
doing okay at this point so after having a heart attack But I want
to just read this statement to you because what I'm gonna do
in this message is I'm gonna look at this statement I'm gonna
unpack it sort of as we go through James chapter 2 and say some
things about good works the good works of a believer and That's
that's a little bit redundant because in the Bible the only
one who can do good works is a believer Because before faith,
there's nothing that, without faith, it's impossible to please
God. You mark it down. And you can be the best person
that you can be on earth, but without knowing Christ, without
being blessed by the grace of God, justified by Christ's righteousness,
born again by the Spirit, kept by the power of God, there's
no such thing in the eyes of God, according to his standard
of good works, that are acceptable. the statement goes like this
it said good works are acts of obedience to the Lord done by
sinners who have been justified made right with God by God's
grace based upon Christ's righteousness imputed who have been born again
by the Holy Spirit and brought to faith in Christ and repentance
of dead works and idolatry They are works done towards God in
our worship, service, devotion, self-denial, done towards our
brethren in Christ and our neighbors, acts of charity, acts of compassion,
acts of kindness, done in the power of the Holy Spirit from
the regenerate heart guided by the Word of God, aimed towards
His glory, not our own, and motivated by grace, love, and gratitude
in the assurance of our complete salvation by God's grace, sovereign
grace in Christ Jesus our Savior and Lord. Now that statement,
I know it's a short statement, but it sounds kind of long when
you read it like that, but if you got that bulletin, keep that.
Put it inside your bulletin if you need to, or your Bible if
you need to, because it's something good for us to learn. But let
me start off introducing this message not only with that, but
by some general thoughts on good works according to God's word.
Let me give you these statements. Number one, good works are acts
of charity, Acts of devotion, acts of self-denial. Look at
James chapter two, look at verse 14, and listen to what the word
of God says. It says, what doth it profit
my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, that he believes
in Christ, that he's a believer, he's a Christian, and have not
works? Can faith save him? Can that
kind of faith, now I'm gonna talk about that a little bit
later on, can that kind of faith save him? The kind of faith that
is a profession without fruit, and we'll talk about that. And listen to the good works.
If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food,
and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, and be ye warmed
and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which
are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so, faith,
if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Now some people
relegate anything, any mention of good works in the scripture
to being gospel related in the sense that it only means preaching
the gospel or witnessing the gospel. Well, preaching the gospel
and witnessing the gospel are good works, but that's not all.
I mean, it goes, 1 John chapter 3 tells us, it goes from a person
who gives their life for the gospel, all the way down to just
giving a thirsty brother or sister in Christ a drink of water. That's
what John said. And that's what James is talking
about. If you've got a brother or sister in Christ, and even
helping our enemies now, you know, Christ said that we're
to do good to our enemies. but especially our brethren in
Christ who are in need. So we can talk about acts of
charity, that's towards each other, forgiving one another,
all things like that, helping one another with the basic needs
of life, clothing, food, whatever, if we're in need. Now, not talking
about welfare here. We're not talking about those
who are too lazy to work. You know, the Bible has another
segment of scripture for that in 1 Thessalonians, I think,
where it talks about those who don't work, who are capable,
they don't eat. But now, if somebody, through no fault of their own,
through some kind of a disability or whatever, and they're in need,
we're to help them. And James says that's a good
work. Now, so we talk about acts of charity, acts of devotion
to God, praying to God, worshiping God together. That's a good work.
Peter spoke of them as the sacrifices that we are worshiping God and
serving God that are accepted with God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. And then look at verse 21 of
James 2. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? Now here's the key. When he had
offered Isaac his own son upon the altar, You know what Abraham
did? God told him to take Isaac up
and sacrifice him. Well, did Abraham really believe
God? Well, he proved it when he took Isaac up there and fully
intended to sacrifice the boy. Of course, God stopped him. Abraham
knew that he'd raise Isaac from the dead. And look at verse 25,
likewise also was not Rahab the harlot. You know the story of
Joshua sending the spies over into Jericho? before they marched
over into the promised land. And Rahab the harlot, a woman
of Jericho, she let the scarlet thread down and brought the spies
up and hid them and all that, and says she was vindicated.
That's what that word really means, or that's the sense of
the justified here. Was not Rahab the harlot justified
by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them
out another way? You see what he's saying? Now
those are the good works. There's no use denying them.
Some people say good works just means faith and repentance. Well,
those are good works too. They're the gifts of God. They
don't come from us. They come from God. But that's
not all. So we look at acts of charity,
acts of devotion, acts of self-denial. They're good works. So here's
the second thing. The source and origin of all
good works is God alone. Whatever good works we do, we
need to recognize that we're not the source of it, we're not
the origin of it. And I'll give you two scriptures.
Number one, the first one is Ephesians 2 and verse 10, which
says, for we are his workmanship, God's workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works. Created in Christ Jesus unto,
not because of, but unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. Now, when was this for
ordination? It was before the foundation
of the world. God's the source and origin. And then another
scripture is Philippians 2 and verse 12 and 13. And this one
says, wherefore my beloved, As you have always obeyed, not as
in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Verse 13, for
it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good
pleasure. Now we do the good works, no
doubt in denying that, but it's God working in us. He's the source
and the origin of these good works. It's all by his grace.
So here's the third thing. Only those who are justified
by God's grace through the Lord Jesus Christ can do good works. See, these good works that we're
talking about, they're not meritorious. They're not things that we do
in order to earn God's love, or to earn God's favor, or to
earn God's blessings, or to earn righteousness for ourselves.
They're not meritorious. And I'll show you this in just
a minute. But think about it. The righteousness by which we
are justified is totally, 100%, the work of Christ. It's His
obedience unto death. His righteousness imputed to
us legally. God declaring us so through Him. Grace reigning through righteousness
by Jesus Christ our Lord unto eternal life. Good works, Ephesians
1.6 says this, it's all to the praise of the glory of his grace
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. You know what
he's telling us there? He's telling us that our works
are accepted, our good works are accepted because we're accepted. I'm accepted of God in Christ. Outside of Christ I have nothing
and am nothing. And then 1 Peter 2, 5, which
I referred to earlier, you also as lively or living stones are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Well, what are
these spiritual sacrifices? Well, it's our praise, our worship,
our prayers, our giving, all of these things that we do to
the praise of the glory of His grace. Again, not trying to earn
God's favor. And that brings me to the fourth
thing. Only those who are born again by the Spirit can do good
works. Before we're born again, before
we are brought by God to faith in Christ as our only hope, our
only merit, our only righteousness before God, we can do no good
works. It's only evil deeds, fruit unto
death. That's what the Bible calls it.
We go to Romans chapter 7 and verse 5, which says, for when
we were in the flesh, when we were unregenerate, before being
brought to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, the
motions or the passions of sins which were by the law did work
in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we're
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held,
that we should serve in newness of spirit. You see, before we're
born again, we don't have that newness of spirit. We've got
that oldness of the letter. Legalism. Mercenary. That's what religion is. That's
what false Christianity is. Salvation conditioned on us,
what we do. But when we're brought to Christ
by God-given faith and repentance, we see that what we do is not,
our salvation is not conditioned on what we do. It's conditioned
on Christ and what he did. You see that? So before being
brought to Christ, listen. Being born again, think about,
what happens when we're born again? Well, we're given a new
heart. We walk in newness of spirit.
And it's then that it's established within our hearts the motives
of grace and love and gratitude. And that's acceptable to God.
And it's then that our works are aimed towards His glory.
Remember the verse, let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and do what? Glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. See, we're not doing it to bring
attention to ourselves or to show people, well, look how good
I am. We want their attention to be
towards the Lord in Christ. And that's the light that shines,
that's the gospel. So fifthly, Good works are given
to promote the gospel that we believe, that we love and witness
and to vindicate our profession of faith in Christ and love for
our brethren. And that's where it brings us
to James chapter two. But before we get there, I wanna
direct your attention to an Old Testament prophecy in the book
of Ezekiel chapter 36. I wanna show you something. And
this prophecy, of Ezekiel is given to show a contrast. And that contrast is between
the nation Israel under the old covenant law which could not
save anybody. Now you understand that. The
law of Moses, the law of Sinai. It was not given for them to
find salvation by their keeping it because they couldn't keep
it and they didn't keep it. Neither would we now. I've heard
people say, you know, well, you know, if I'd have been living
back then, I would have done this, I would have done, you'd
have been just like the rest of that bunch, because we're
all sinners. And Ezekiel was showing the contrast between
that old covenant legal system, which could not save anybody,
it was not given for salvation, it was given to show them their
sin, and their rebellion, and their depravity, and their need
of grace. And the contrast is between that
old covenant legal system and the new covenant of grace given
to the people of God, in which he gives them a heart to serve
him. And listen to what it says in Ezekiel chapter 36. And let
me see the verse here I want to go to, verse 27. Under the
new covenant, and Jeremiah, he prophesied of this 70 years before
that. He said, I'm gonna make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and Judah, that's spiritual Israel,
not like that old covenant, which condemned them, but the covenant
of grace. And here's what God says he'll
do. Now, this is a way of stating the new birth, regeneration.
He said, I will put my spirit within you, that's spiritual
life, because before that happens, what are we? Spiritually dead.
I will cause you to walk in my statutes. God said, I'm gonna
cause you to walk in my, that's his commandments. Yes, that means
to believe in Christ, to repent of dead works, but also to do
good works motivated by grace, love, and gratitude, and you
shall keep my judgments and do them. Now that's a prophecy. Now with that in mind, go back
to James chapter two. Look down at verse 18, James chapter two. He says, yea,
a man may say thou hast faith and I have works, show me thy
faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works. Now what's he talking about?
Well, he's talking about the genuineness of our proclaiming
that we believe in Christ and that we love Christ. Do you say
that you love the Lord? Do you say that you love Christ,
that you love his truth? All right, what is the proof
of that? And he says in verse 19, thou
believest that there's one God, thou doest well, the devils also
believe and tremble. The devils, the demons, they
know that God exists. They know there is a God, but
they don't love God. They know that Christ exists. You remember
when Christ was, when the disciples were trying to cast out demons,
and they said, we know Jesus of Nazareth, but we don't know
you. And then they cast him out. He cast them out. He said, thou
believest, there's one God that thou doest well. The devils also
believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man. Now you know what a vain person
is, don't you? That's a person who has no spiritual
value. That faith without works is dead.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac,
his son, upon the altar? Now the key there is when did
this happen? It's when Abraham offered up
Isaac. All right, now hold that thought. Verse 22, seeest thou
how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect? Now that word perfect there means
to achieve a goal. In other words, his faith reached
a goal. And the faith that reaches the
goal is that faith that brings forth works to honor God. Not
to honor me, but to honor God. The completion of a work, the
reaching of a goal. And he says in verse 23, and
the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed
God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness, for he was
called the friend of God. Now what was imputed to Abraham
for righteousness? the righteousness of Christ.
That's what his faith was. And so they saw him offer up
Isaac. And they could say, well, he
really believes what God said. Verse 24, you see then how that
by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Okay, I'll
get back to that. Verse 25, likewise also was not
Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the
messengers and had sent them out another way. For as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Now we talk about the relationship of faith and works. And I want
to emphasize that we're not to use this as some people say,
to become what they call fruit inspectors. It's not a situation
where I'm to set my gaze upon you all, and I'm to try to figure
out if you're doing enough good works. All that is is self-righteous,
Pharisaic legalism. And it's not that I should be,
you know, we examine ourselves, to see whether we'd be in the
faith. But if I come to myself and say, well, am I doing enough?
Well, doing enough for what? Here's the thing about it. No,
we have never done enough to be saved. That's why salvation
is by grace. Could I ever do more? Always. How about you? Somebody said,
well, I've done my quota. Well, what's your quota? Because
whatever it is, it's too low. No, we haven't done enough. That's
not the point. This is not some kind of a self-seeking,
self-evaluating thing. It's just simply, listen to me,
it's simply a sinner saved by grace going through the struggle
of the flesh and the spirit. Seeking to do what's right. Seeking
to glorify God. Seeking to support my claim in
all these things. And I know people, they have
trouble with it, is, well, you know, I could always do more.
Well, me too, we could all do more. But we're not sitting here
saying, well, this means we're gonna judge ourselves by our
works. What standard would you use if
you did that? Because, you know, the Bible
tells us, as sinners saved by grace, that the standard is Christ
and his righteousness alone. And how do I know that I stand
before God in Christ? Not by the good works that I
do, but do I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Am I looking to
him for all salvation, all righteousness, all forgiveness, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith? And somebody might
say, you know the old argument that this contradicts what Paul
said in Romans 4. You know, Paul in Romans chapter
four, he talks about we're justified by faith or by grace, justified
by the righteousness of Christ alone. James said we're justified
by works. Well, the problem that people
have with the harmonization of Paul and James revolves around
these three words, faith and justification and works. Those three words. Let me show
you what I mean. When Paul speaks of faith in
Romans 4, well, actually in the first part of Romans, what's
he talking about? He's talking about God-given
faith in Christ that brings a sinner into a spiritual union with Christ
that can never be broken. It's the gift of God. Ephesians
2, for by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works. lest any man should bow. It's not our works that brings
us into union with Christ. The works are the fruit of our
union with Christ. But God gives us faith to believe. It's the gift of God. And we
lay hold of Christ. And that's what Paul's talking
about. He's talking about a God-given living faith. He said in Romans
four and verse three, Abraham believed God and thus he was
considered to be made right with God. because he believed God. But now when James talks about
faith, what's he talking about? He's talking, here in this passage,
he's talking about a dead faith like the demons have. Remember
verse 19, thou believest that there's one God, thou doest well,
the devils also believe and tremble. That's a dead faith. It's a mere
profession without heart, without truth, without grace, without
life, without spirit. And that's why I read that Ezekiel
36 passage. When God gives faith to His elect,
He says, I'll put within you a new heart. Well, what is the
heart? It's the mind. That means He'll
give us a new mind, a new attitude. It's the affections, it's the
will. And He said, a new heart I'll give you, a new spirit will
I put within you, the spirit of life, the spirit of love. the spirit of truth, the spirit
of obedience. And I'll take away the stony
heart out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of flesh. He
says in verse 27, I'll put my spirit within you and cause you
to walk in my statues. God puts within our minds and
our hearts a desire to believe him and to obey him. That's given
to you. To obey him, not like the Pharisee,
You remember Christ and Matthew when he talked about when the
Pharisees, when they pray and when they fast and when they
give, they do it to be seen of men? That's the old heart. That's oldness of letter. But
a new heart that gives us a desire to obey God in Christ, to glorify
Him. To give Him all the glory and
praise for what He's done. That's the kind of faith that
Paul talks about. But the kind of faith that James
is talking about is dead faith just like the demons have. And
I look at myself and you look at yourself, is my faith like
the demons? Is it the kind of faith that
just, ah, there's one God, you know, and let's just go about
and throw caution to the wind? No. That's a dead faith. So understand that Paul and James
are talking about two different kinds of faith. Paul, God-given
faith that comes to the heart, gets to the very soul, and implants
upon our hearts the motives of grace and gratitude and love
and a desire to glorify God. I always take inventory of myself
in this way. Why have I been preaching for
40 years? Is it to draw attention to myself? Well, I can tell you
honestly from my heart that the first thing I want to do anymore
is take attention away from me for a lot of reasons. But I want
to point you to God. I want Him to be glorified. I
want this message to glorify God, not me. Well, here's the
second thing, works. When Paul speaks of works, In
Romans chapter four, he's talking about works of the law aimed
at earning and deserving salvation. He's talking about works that
a sinner uses to try to make himself righteous before God.
And he says that's impossible. You cannot make yourself righteous
in God's sight by your works of the law. Remember he said
that Israel sought righteousness, but they didn't find it because
they sought it not by faith, by looking to Christ, but by
works of the law. And that's impossible. Again,
it's not of works, lest any man should boast. That's the kind
of works that Paul's talking about in Romans four, Romans
all the way through. But now James, he's speaking
of works that are energized by God and motivated by grace. Look
at it again, look at verse 21 of James 2. Was not Abraham our
father justified by works? When? When he had offered Isaac
his son upon the altar. Are you telling me that James
was counted righteous before God when he took Isaac up? No,
the Bible tells us that Abraham was justified before God before
he was circumcised. In fact, we believe in eternity
past. Abraham was made right with God
legally, not spiritually now, but legally in Christ. His sins were imputed to Christ
and Christ's righteousness imputed to him. And in time, Christ redeemed
him on the cross, shedding his blood for Abraham's sins imputed
to Christ. And in time, the Holy Spirit
was sent to Abraham to call him out of the Ur of the Chaldees
and he believed the gospel. Now that all happened before
Abraham offered Isaac, took Isaac on that mountain to offer him.
So what's he saying here? Well, he's saying that Abraham,
his faith was vindicated, shown to be real, genuine God-given
faith. when he took Isaac up there upon
the word of God. And what does Hebrews chapter
11 say? That Abraham knew that God would
raise the boy from the dead. So he took him up there and he
fully intended to sacrifice Isaac, knowing that God would raise
him from the dead. Well, how do you know that Abraham knew
that? Because God told Abraham that it's through Isaac that
the Messiah would come. And the time Abraham took him
up on that mountain, he didn't have any children, Isaac did. Here's the key. Paul is speaking
of how sinners are justified, made right, forgiven, made righteous,
declared righteous with God. But now James is talking about
something entirely different. He's talking about how a saved
sinner's faith is justified, vindicated before men. Think
about it. Why should we as sinners who've
been justified before God and born again by the Holy Spirit
desire and strive to be zealous for and to maintain and encourage
good works in ourselves and our brethren? Know what the Bible
says? Look over at Hebrews chapter 10, just a few pages back. Look at the order of this. Beginning at verse 19. Well, let's read verse 18. Now,
God says He will not charge His people with sin. In fact, over
in Romans 8, it says, who shall anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Why is it that God in justice
will not impute our sins to Him? Because He imputed them to Christ.
When Christ was made our surety, our sins were imputed, our debt
was imputed to Him. Our debt was not imputed to Christ
when we did any good works, see? Or when we did anything. And
it says in verse 18, now where remission, where forgiveness
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. How could good
works be an offering for sin, if and when Christ, our sins
were imputed to him and he offered himself one time? for by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified." So
to say that my good works earn forgiveness or earn blessings
is to deny Christ. But look at verse 19, having
therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by your
good works. Is that what it says? By the
blood of Jesus. Now there's the ground of salvation.
There's the ground of justification. There's the assurance of salvation. And he says, by a new and living
way, that's the new covenant in Christ, which he hath consecrated,
or made new for us, not with us or by us, but for us, as our
surety, our substitute, our redeemer, through the veil, that is to
say his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart, a sincere heart, in full
assurance of faith, the full assurance of looking to Christ
for all salvation, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, that's the application of this truth to our hearts by
the Spirit, and our bodies washed with pure water, made pure by
the blood of Christ. Verse 23, let us hold fast the
profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful
at promise. Let us consider one another to
provoke unto love and to good works. On that basis, On that
ground, we are to consider one another and provoke. Normally,
when we think about provoking someone, we think of something
negative. But here, this is a good thing. I want to provoke you
this morning under good works for the glory of God, motivated
by grace, love, and gratitude. One thing I know about this and
the work of the Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit will never take the
Word of God and use it to motivate any of God's people in good works
legally, pharisaically, aimed at earning or deserving our way
into heaven. And the Holy Spirit will never
take the Word of God and motivate any of God's people to throw
caution to the wind and not to strive to fight against the flesh.
and be the best people we can be. Do the best works we can
do. Not to be saved, but because
we have a high priest over the house of God. Christ, our Lord,
by whose blood and righteousness alone we're justified, sanctified,
kept by the power of God. And based upon that, God gives
us life within and brings us. We want to glorify and give thanks
to the God who has saved us, who keeps us, We don't wanna
be like the hypocrites, do you? I don't wanna be like the hypocrites.
We don't wanna do all that we can to promote and not to hinder
the, we wanna do all that we can to promote and not to hinder
the salvation of others. Men and women are not gonna be
saved by looking at what we do. Like the Bible tells us in 1
John 3, the world won't know us. I don't care if they see
us doing great good works. They don't even know what good
works are. They just think any act of human morality is a good
work, but that's not the case. Without Christ, it's a dead work.
It's evil deeds. But in Christ, it's fruit unto
God. It glorifies Him, whom to know
is life eternal. I hope that's clear. I want it
to be for all of us. We need to have that settled
in our minds, don't we, on this issue. Let's sing hymn number
489. We'll sing a couple of verses.
Glory to His name. $489. Let's stand and sing this
as our closing hymn.