Follow in your own Bibles as
I read this evening from the second chapter of the book of
James, James chapter 2. For any of you who may be not
too familiar with your New Testaments, James is toward the back of the
New Testament. After Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians,
you come to that lengthy letter of Hebrews, and then you come
to James. James chapter 2, and I will begin
the reading with verse 14 and conclude the reading with verse
19. James chapter 2, beginning with verse 14. What doth it profit, my brethren,
if a man say that he hath faith, but hath not works? Can that
faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked
and in lack of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Go
in peace, and be warmed and filled, and ye give them not the things
needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if
it have not works, is dead in itself. Yea, a man will say,
Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith apart from
thy works, and I by my works will show thee my faith. Thou
believest that God is one, thou doest well. The demons also believe
and tremble, and then reading verse twenty, But wilt thou know,
O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren. The most important question that
any man, any boy, any girl in any age can ever ask is the question,
how can I, a sinful man, a sinful boy, a sinful girl, How can I,
a sinner, find acceptance and pardon before the God against
whom I have sinned, and in whose presence I must stand to be judged
in the last day? Of all the questions that you
and I might conceivably ask about a multitude of issues, There
is no question of greater importance than that precise question. How can I, a sinner, find pardon
and acceptance with the holy God who made me, the God against
whom I have sinned, and the God before whom I shall stand in
the last days? I say that there is no more important
question than that question for the simple reason that it is
that question and that question alone which addresses itself
to those issues which alone will be of any consequence when time
is wound down and eternity is ushered in. In a few brief years,
every one of us sitting in this building, every one of you listening
to my voice over the radio, will either be enjoying all that the
Bible describes of the consummate bliss of heaven, or you will
experience all of the horrors, the frightening terrors, of that
which the Bible describes as hell. And because all of us is
destined either to know the bliss of heaven or the terrors of the
damned in hell, there is no more important question than this
question. How can we, sinners who deserve
hell, find forgiveness and acceptance with God that we might enter
heaven? And the Bible addresses itself
to that great and burning question. And the answer of the Bible to
that question is abundantly clear. And its answer has two fundamental
or component parts concerning which none of us can afford the
luxury of ignorance. We can afford the luxury of ignorance
concerning many things. If you were to ask me to explain
Einstein's theory of relativity, I would simply shake my head,
my shoulders, and throw out my hands and say, I'm ignorant of
the whole issue. If you were to ask me to explain
many things about many fields of human experience and human
knowledge, I would have to confess ignorance, but that ignorance
is not fatal. But my friend, if you are ignorant,
both in knowledge and in experience of the Bible's answer to this
question, how can you, a sinner, find acceptance with the Holy
God, your Maker and your Judge? That ignorance is fatal, for
it will result in your eternal damnation. And ignorance to the
Bible's answer to that question is inexcusable. Because it is
not an answer tucked away in some remote part which we might
possibly overlook. It is an answer that is stamped
upon the face of page after page of the Word of God. And I say
that answer has two basic parts or two components and simply
stated they are this. Number one, the only ground upon
which a holy God can forgive and accept sinners in his sight
is to be found in the person and work of Jesus Christ our
Lord. The message of the Bible from
Genesis to Revelation is that there is but one basis or ground
upon which a holy God can pardon and accept sinners, and that
basis or ground is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. And so we find such statements
as Matthew 121, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He it is
that shall save His people from their sin. Or the words of our
Lord Himself who said in John 14 and verse 6, I am the way,
the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by
me. Or we take the testimony of the
apostles in Acts 4.12, neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. or the words of the Apostle Paul
in Timothy. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And so the answer of the Word
of God to that burning question is clear. When we ask the question,
how can we sinful men find pardon and acceptance with the God who
made us and who will judge us, that answer comes to us in no
uncertain terms. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. It is the Christ of Scripture,
in all that He is as true God and true man, joined in one person
forever. It is in that person who lived
and died and rose again, and on the grounds of what He is
and what He has done, that we sinners can find pardon and acceptance
with God. But then there is a second part
of God's answer to that question. or a second component in that
answer, and it is this. There is but one way for us to
enter in to what Christ is and has done for sinners, and that
one way is by faith. The ground on which God forgives
sinners is Christ. The means by which sinners lay
hold of that provision is by faith and by faith alone. Now again, this is not a truth
that is tucked away in some remote part of the Scriptures. It is
taught from Genesis to Revelation. It is said of Abraham that he
believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Again the Scripture says, God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in Him may not perish but have everlasting life. Again,
but as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to
become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name,
or again, by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God. And so the scripture's answer
to that question is abundantly clear. Now granted, it is not
a faith divorced from repentance. True faith always has as its
handmaiden genuine repentance. In the language of the preacher
of a bygone day, repentance is the tear in faith's eye. And there is never the eye of
faith fixed upon Christ without repentance. And granted, faith
will always be productive of good works, and good works will
always be the fruit of faith, but never does the Bible say
we are saved by repentance or saved by good works. It says,
by grace are you saved through faith. And so in answer to that
great question, how can we sinners find pardon and acceptance with
our God, our Maker and our Judge, against whom we have sinned?
That answer, I say, is abundantly clear. It is by Christ alone. It is by faith alone. Now let me ask you a question.
If you were the devil, and you hated God, and you hated the
souls of men, and in your hatred you were determined to keep men
in your grasp and to drag them to hell with you, where would
you concentrate all of your attack? Upon God and upon the souls of
men. If you were the devil and hated
God, and hated the souls of men, where would you concentrate all
of your energies? Would you not concentrate it
upon God's answer to this most important question anyone can
ever ask? How can sinners find pardon and
acceptance with God if God's answer is in the person and work
of Christ? Why, you see, the devil has constantly
driven to undermine the teaching of the Bible concerning who Christ
is and the nature of what He did for sinners. And He has at
the same time constantly driven either to add something to faith
as the means by which we receive that salvation, or to confuse
the minds of men as to what faith is. so that they think they have
that faith which is unto salvation when what they have is a cheap
imitation. Now, I have spent the majority
of my energies in the first few meetings of this brief series
concentrating upon those portions of the Word of God which point
us to the person and to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in these first few meetings, most of our time has been taken
up with beholding Christ in His saving mercy and power. But now tonight, I want to direct
your attention to this whole matter of what is the nature
of true and saving faith. And I know of few verses which
do this in a more powerful and striking way than does the verse
that is the basis of our study tonight, James chapter 2 and
verse 19. James chapter 2 and verse 19. Thou believest that God is one,
the demons also believe and shudder." Now you see the Apostle James
has been dealing with a very difficult problem. It was the
problem of people who had been mixed up and deceived with respect
to the second part of God's answer to that great question. How can
sinners find pardon and acceptance? They were clear in their minds
that it was through Christ alone. But they were confused in their
mind and in their experience with regard to what kind of faith
it was which would bring them into the blessings of salvation.
And so in the passage I read in your hearing, you'll notice
that the emphasis falls upon the nature of the faith that
saves. Verse 14, what does it profit,
my brethren, if a man say that he hath faith, but have not works? Can that faith, in other words,
can that kind of faith save him? You see, the emphasis falls upon
the quality of true faith in contrast to spurious or fake
faith. And that contrast comes to its
most striking expression in verse 19, our text for this evening. As we seek to open up the text,
will you notice with me, first of all, the fact of the faith
of the demon. the fact of the faith of the
demons. Listen to the words of the text.
The demons also believe. First of all, we must consider
the identity of these beings called in the text the demons. If you have the old authorized
version, it says the devils, plural. From our understanding
of the Word of God, demons are spirit intelligences. They are spirit beings. They
have no bodies. They can inhabit the bodies of
human beings or even beasts, as we read in the Gospel records
when the demons entered into the bodies of the swine and they
ran headlong into the sea. And in all likelihood, though
we cannot be dogmatic, they are probably fallen angels who, with
Lucifer, son of the morning, fell in a concerted rebellion
against God. But this much we do know about
the demons. They are the embodiment of all
the anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-truth, spirit of the devil himself. These demons are nothing but
wickedness through and through. They are committed to the promoting
of wickedness. They are called, in certain passages
of Scripture, spiritual wickedness in high places. They are graceless,
they are Christless, they are evil, and they are damned, and
they know they are damned. For we read in Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 8, that the demons cried out in the presence of Jesus,
Have you come to torment us before our time? But now it is these
spirit beings who are the very essence of evil, godless, Christless,
graceless, and damned, of whom James says, They are believers. Look at the text. The demons
also believe. We could translate it, the demons
also are believing. They are believers according
to the language of Holy Scripture. Well, you say, well, maybe that's
a different word in the original from the word for the belief
of Christians. No, it isn't. It is precisely
the same word that is used in John 3.16. Whosoever believeth
in him shall not perish. The same word for believe that
is used throughout the New Testament is the word that is used right
here. The demons also believe. And you see what James is doing?
In trying to shake some of his readers and those who would listen
to the reading of this letter. out of the complacency of self-deception,
the complacency that comes when people hear the gospel that says,
Whosoever believeth on him hath everlasting life, and then become
careless and say, Oh, sure, I believe on Christ. That's something I
did ten years ago, five years ago. Sure, I believe on Christ.
He's trying to shape that kind of cocky confidence by saying,
Hey, wait a minute. Do you know you have something
in common with the demons? They also believe. The demons are believers. They, though damned spirits of
evil, are still believers. Now that should tell us something
at the very outset of our study tonight. If you sit here tonight
feeling very comfortable, saying, Oh, well, in the light of what
the preacher said in his introduction, Christ alone is the ground of
salvation. Faith alone is the means of receiving
it. I believe on the Lord Jesus.
So whatever he's going to say, it doesn't have any real pointed
application to me. Listen, my friend, it may very
well have very pointed application to you. You may be no better
off than the demons. Now I'm not saying you are not
better off, but you may be no better off than the demons. The
demons also believe. That's not my notion. That's
the statement of the Word of God. And so our first consideration
from the text is, we've established the fact of the faith of the
demons. Now in the second place, consider
with me, from the text, the nature of the faith of the demons. What
is the nature of their faith? And two things are told us about
the nature of the faith of the demons in this passage. Number
one is this. It is an orthodox, or a correct,
faith. Notice how James says it. Thou
believest that God is one, the demons also believe. Now remember, James was writing
primarily to people of Jewish background. And if you had been
a good Orthodox Jew from the time you could remember anything,
you would have remembered your parents making this great confession,
taken out of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one Lord. And that confession of the unity
of God stood, as it were, for every other truth respecting
God which God had revealed concerning Himself to the nation of Israel. And so the very touchstone of
orthodox faith was this confession of the oneness of Jehovah. And so what James is saying to
these people with Jewish background is, thou believest God is one,
the demons also believe. In other words, he is telling
them that the faith of the demons is an orthodox faith. That is,
it believes what is revealed concerning God. Now, James is
not saying that that's all the demons believe. For when we turn
to the pages of the New Testament, we find the demons speaking through
the mouths of those whom they possess, and it's obvious that
they have an orthodox faith concerning Jesus Christ. Listen as I read,
or follow in your own Bibles, from the eighth chapter of the
Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew's Gospel, chapter 8,
and we read in verse 28, And when Jesus was come to the other
side of the country of the Gadarenes, there met him, too, possessed
with demons, coming forth out of the tombs, exceeding fierce,
so that no man could pass by that way. And, behold, they cried
out, saying, What have we to do with thee, thou Son of God? Now you remember that it was
not until the 16th chapter of Matthew that Peter, speaking
on behalf of the disciples, says, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Here in Matthew 8, the demons
are confessing the proper identity of Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore,
they're confessing that they believe him to be the judge and
governor of the entire universe. the one who will judge them in
the last day, for they ask the question, Art thou come hither
to torment us before the time? They acknowledge that he is not
only the Son of God, but that he is the moral governor of the
universe, he is the ultimate judge of the universe, and they
acknowledge their belief in the torments of hell. There is a
lot of orthodox theology in their question, is there not? And the
Bible teaches us that the nature of the faith of the demons is,
first of all, to be understood as an orthodox faith. That is, they believe what is
revealed concerning God. And not only do they believe
it, they are here openly confessing it. But then there is a second
thing about the faith of the demons as to its nature. According
to James 2.19, it is not only an orthodox faith, it is a disturbing
faith. Look at the language. Thou believest
God is one, the demons also believe, and the word tremble is not strong
enough. It should be translated, the
demons also believe, and shudder with horror. We would say, I
was so scared that the hair stood up on my skin. That's the strength
of the word. The demons also believe and shudder. So it is not only an orthodox
faith, it is a disturbing faith. It indicates a faith which brings
spiritual reality so near to them that it causes emotional
upheaval in the demons. They shudder in the presence
of the Son of God, saying, Have you come to torment us before
the time? Now, are you prepared to say
that the demons are saved? Is there anyone sitting in this
building who would be prepared to say, I believe that demons
are saved, that they will go to heaven at the last day? Is there any man, woman, boy
or girl here on the bottom floor in the balcony listening to me
over the radio? Anyone who is prepared to go
on record is saying, I believe the demons are going to heaven. I believe the unanimous answer
would be no. Do you think I'm a fool? Of course
not. The demons are evil spirits. damned spirits, who along with
that archdemon, the devil himself, will be cast into hell in the
last day. But, my friend, listen, this
text says they have faith, the demons believe, and it tells
us that the nature of their faith is both orthodox and disturbing. Now, what does that mean? It
means that when James was writing to these people, he was trying
to shake some of them out of their carnal security. Their
attitude was, oh yes, Christ saved. Sure, I believe that.
Everybody believes that. Sure, I believe in Jesus Christ. I trust in the Son of God. I
confess the apostles' creed every Sunday in church. I believe in
God the Father Almighty and in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And right down the line you go. I believe He died on the cross.
I believe He was buried. I believe He rose again. I believe
in the judgment of the last day. My friend, listen to me. Listen
to me. You can believe every bit of that. Furthermore, you
can be greatly emotionally moved by all of that, and you can even
openly and articulately confess it, and not be any better off
than the demons, because they do every one of those things. Now have I read anything into
the text? Or have I simply opened up what
is there? Let your own conscience answer.
Have I projected any fanciful notions of my own into the Bible? Or have I opened up from the
Bible what God has deposited in it? Your conscience is on
my side. It is God who tells us the fact
of the faith of the demons. It is God who tells us the nature
of the faith of the demons. And it is God who says it is
tragically possible for there to be a parallel between the
faith of the demons and the professed faith of so-called Christians. Now doesn't that disturb you?
Doesn't that make you sit there and ask the question, oh God,
do I have true and living faith? Do I have that faith which the
Bible speaks about when it says, by grace you say, through faith? Do I have that faith which Paul
speaks about in his letter to Titus when he speaks of the faith
of God's elect? Or do I have merely demon's faith? And my friend, if your heart
and mind are not agitated with that question, and if you care
no more for your never-dying soul than to take that question
seriously, you may as well get up and leave, because the rest
of the message has nothing to say to you. Because what we're
going to do in the third place, having examined the fact of the
demon's faith, the nature of the demon's faith, we're going
to now consider the deficiencies of the faith of the demons, and
we'll do so by comparing the deficiency of demons' faith with
the glorious characteristics and fruits of saving faith. And the first thing with respect
to the deficiency of the faith of the demons is this. It sees
no beauty or loveliness in its object. It sees no beauty nor
loveliness in its object. We go back to that passage in
Matthew chapter 8 for a moment. When the demons speak in the
presence of Christ, they speak truth concerning who Christ is. But the first deficiency in the
faith of the demons lies in this. They cry out, verse 29 of Matthew
8, And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with
thee, thou Son of God? You see, their language is, You
are the Son of God, but what have we to do with you? In other
words, it was an expression that there was nothing in the Son
of God to which they were drawn as they beheld the beauty of
His person. Though they confessed Him to
be the Son of God, there was a revulsion in their very beings
toward Him. Whereas when Peter confesses,
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, It is that
same Peter standing with the disciples when great multitudes
forsake the Lord Jesus until Christ turns and says, Will you
also go away? And Peter speaking for the others
says, To whom else can we go? You see, they saw a beauty in
the Son of God that caused their hearts to be attached to Him.
And though in a moment of weakness Peter cursed and swore and reached
back, as it were, into the vocabulary of his fishing days and said,
I know not the man, just a look from the Son of God broke his
heart and he went out and he wept bitterly. And then when
he pens his epistle he can say this concerning himself and all
believers, whom having not seen ye love. Whom having not seen,
ye love. You see, it is of the very essence
of saving faith that it beholds a beauty and a loveliness in
Christ that draws out the heart to Christ and draws the heart
into loving attachment to the person of Christ. Saving faith
is never content to take a blessing from Christ and go its own way. Saving faith in its very nature
is attachment to the blesser and the enjoyment of the blessings
in communion with him. That's why Paul can describe
conversion in the language of 1 Corinthians 1 9. Here's the
language. God is faithful by whom you were
called into the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Paul could say in 2 Corinthians
4 and verse 6, a lovely text, God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And from that moment when God
gave Saul of Tarsus inward eyes to behold the beauty of Christ
inwardly, notice he's not referring to the outward light that he
saw and the outward voice that he saw. He says, God has shined
in our hearts, not on our eyeballs, but in our hearts. And from that
moment on, he loved him. And he could say, the love of
Christ constrains me. My friends sitting here tonight,
let me ask you a very personal question. Do you profess to be
a believer? Do you profess to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you profess to trust in the
Son of God for salvation? Let me ask this question. Have
you beheld, not with your physical eyes, not in terms of a dream
or a vision, but with the eyes of faith, have you beheld the
beauty of Christ? a beauty that has caused your
heart to run out to Him, in loving submission, in the bonds of deepest
attachment, so that when God says the church is the bride
of Christ, married to Christ, bound to Christ in love and in
submission, that is indeed true of you. Is that true of you?
Or do you have the faith of the demons? or very orthodox faith. Oh yes, you confess everything.
You're supposed to confess about who Christ is, where He came
from, why He came, what He did. But my friend, let me press the
question upon your conscience. Is your faith true and saving
faith, or is it the faith of demons? Does it see any beauty
or loveliness in its object? A beauty and a loveliness that
has captured your heart. It's because of that great truth
that the same Bible that says, he that believeth not shall be
damned, says in 1 Corinthians 16.22, if anyone loved not the
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned. Let him be accursed. We're not saved by our love to
Christ. Faith is the means by which we
come into union with Him. But because that faith will always
have as its attendant love to Him, the same Bible that says,
He that believeth not shall be damned says, If anyone love not
our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed, let him be damned,
let him come under the judgment of God. Well, there is a second
deficiency in the faith of the demons. Not only does it see
no beauty or loveliness in its object, secondly, it experiences
no transformation into the likeness of its object. It experiences
no transformation into the likeness of its object. Follow me now. The demons confess that God is
one. They confess that Jesus is the
Son of God. They have an orthodox creed,
but they are demons still. They are still the epitome of
opposition to God, the epitome of commitment to evil. They are
still the very essence of rebellion and anarchy against the rule
and the reign of Almighty God. Whereas the very nature of saving
faith is to bring us into such a relationship with Christ that
by degrees we are transformed into the very likeness of Christ.
Look with me for a moment at 2 Corinthians chapter 3, the
clearest statement of this truth in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul is
here describing the nature of the blessings of the new covenant,
that is, the administration under which the gospel is now preached,
in contrast to the ministry of God under Moses. And we read
in verse 18 of 2 Corinthians 3, But we all, and I want you
to pause and look at those words, let them sink in. But we all,
This is not for a few super-duper hyper-spiritual people, this
is not just for apostles, but we all, that is all true believers,
all true Christians, but we all, with unveiled face beholding
as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the
same image from glory to glory, that is, from one stage of glory
to another, even as from the Lord the Spirit. Every single
believer As he beholds the glory of the Lord reflected in the
scriptures, is by degrees being transformed into the likeness
of Christ. Now what does that mean? Does
it mean that his physical features will become more and more like
some so-called picture of Christ? No. We have no idea what Christ
looked like except that he was homely. He hath no form nor comeliness
that we should desire Him. There was nothing in the physical
appearance of Christ to attract attention, to make all the young
ladies in Palestine nudge one another when He walked by and
said, whew. No. Isaiah said He hath no form
nor comeliness. There is no natural beauty that
we should desire Him. When the Scripture says we are
transformed into His likeness, it is speaking of the moral likeness
of Christ. That is, we come more and more
to love what He loves and hate what He hates. We come more and
more to reflect those characteristics that were part and parcel of
the One who could say, I am meek and lowly in heart. The compassion
The patience, the love, the tenderness, the zeal, the hatred for sin,
these are the moral qualities of the Lord Jesus. And this passage
says, we all, not some, not a few, we all, speaking of every Christian,
every true believer, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the
Lord, are transformed into the same likeness from one stage
of glory to another. And who does this? The indwelling
Spirit who dwells in every single believer. And where the Spirit
indwells, the Spirit transforms. And if He doesn't transform,
He does not indwell, and if He does not indwell, you're not
a believer. And this must necessarily be
so, because God's purpose in the salvation of every one of
his children is clearly stated in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter
8 and verse 29. For whom he foreknew, that is,
all whom he marked out in love beforehand. He also predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the firstborn among many brethren. And whom He foreordained or predestined,
them He called. Whom He called, He justified. Whom He justified, He glorified. You see, there are no breakdowns
in this process. Every one upon whom God set his
love in eternity, every single one of them in time is called,
in time is justified, everyone shall be glorified, and between
justification and glorification is the process of transformation
into the image of Christ. My friend, you better not take
this as so much preacher's talk. I'm asking questions with something
of the felt pressure of the last day upon my own heart. The realization
that I shall stand before my God and give an account of this
hour spent with you in this month of March in 1980 And never again
will we be gathered together in this precise way until we
all stand before Him in the last day. My friend, listen to me.
Let the question burn into your conscience. Are you being transformed
into the likeness of Christ with a transformation that has no
explanation but the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit? Not
do you go to church, not do you tithe, not do you sing your hymns
and go through rituals. Do you find yourself grieved
over sins that no one knows about but God? Do you find yourself
grieved that you're not more patient and gentle with your
wife and with your children? Do you find yourself longing
to have a greater zeal for God's glory and a greater love and
compassion for sinners? I'm not asking you, are you one
who's prepared to come up here tonight and stand on a pedestal
and say, look at me, how spiritual I am? No, no, your very words
would condemn you. But I'm asking, is there that
panting, that hungering after likeness to Christ? Is there
a pursuit of those means put at our disposal whereby we may
become more like Him? The reading of His Word, meditation
upon it, the fellowship of the saints, the sanctifying of the
Lord's Day. You see, the demon's faith is
such that those demons experience no moral transformation. into
the likeness of the object of their faith. Sure, they believe
on Christ. He is the Son of God, but they
are never made like Him. The curse of modern evangelical
Christianity is millions in our own beloved country who say they
believe in Christ, but who are not more and more becoming like
Christ. They have the faith of the demons. They can laugh at the raunchy
jokes at the office. They can sit and watch the filth
that pours over the television in the soap operas during the
day. Women and men who dare to say
they are Christians vicariously entering in by way of fantasy
to all of the immorality and infidelity that is woven through
the warp and woof of almost every daytime soap opera. who can sit
down at night and watch movies that have as their basic plot
infidelity and immorality and nakedness and fornication and
murder and foolishness, and sit Sunday morning with a hymnal
in their laps and say, My Jesus, I love Thee. It's a wonder God
doesn't send them out of heaven and say, Enough! Are you uncomfortable with plain
preaching like that? My friend, if you're uncomfortable
in the presence of a mere mortal, how will you feel when you stand
in the presence of Almighty God, whose eyes are as a flame of
fire, and who will search you to the depths of your being? Then there is a third characteristic
of the faith of the demons, and I want to touch on it briefly.
The faith of the demons is such that it sees no beauty or loveliness
in its object, it experiences no moral transformation into
the likeness of its object. Thirdly, it produces no works
of obedience done out of love for the sake of its object. It
produces no works of obedience done out of love for the sake
of its object. You see, the demons are subject
to Christ, but much against their will. When Jesus said to the
demons, go out of the man and enter the swine, they had to
obey him because he is the Lord even of demons. But they did
so against their will. In the last day when he says,
depart from me into that place prepared for the devil and his
angels, demons will go into hell against their will. But you see,
the mark of saving faith is that it brings the will to choose
the will of God out of love to its object. Paul can use this
very, very descriptive little phrase in Galatians 5 and verse
6. He speaks of faith which worketh
by love. Look at it for a moment. Galatians
chapter 5 and verse 6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. Baptism or the lack of it mean
nothing. If there is union with Christ,
form and ceremonies are not the issue. This is the issue. Faith
working through love. Now what does that tell us? It
tells us wherever there is true, saving faith in Christ, there
is love for the object of that faith, and that love will always
be a working, performing, a doing, and obedient love. You remember
how Jesus put it? If ye love me, ye will keep my
commandments. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. He that loveth me
not keepeth not my words. That's why John can say in 1
John 2, 3, and 4, if a man say, Oh, I know him. Oh, sure, I'm
a believer. I've trusted Christ for many
years. If a man say, I know him, and keeps not his commandments. My words, I'm quoting 1 John
2, 3, and 4. If a man say, I know him and keep not his commandments,
he is a liar and the truth is not in him. It doesn't say he's
a backslidden Christian and needs to get rededicated. It doesn't
say, well, he's saved but not surrendered. It says he's a liar. The truth has never taken a saving
root in his heart. Some of you have been lulled
to sleep by the lies of smooth-talking preachers who've told you, oh
yes, if you trusted Jesus back five, ten, fifteen, twenty years
ago, you're all right, you're safe, you're going to heaven.
But don't you think it would be nice if you yielded to Him
and surrendered to Him and began to serve Him? Then think of all
the good you could do and think of all the rewards you would
get. And you sit there and say, well, preacher, thanks for the
advice, but I kind of like having The way it is now, got the best
of both worlds. Almighty God says, if you say
you know him and do not keep his commandments, you're a liar
and the truth is not in you. Jesus said in John 10, 27, my
sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. Hebrews
5, 9 says he became the author of eternal salvation unto all
that obey him. Jesus said in Matthew 7, 21,
not everyone who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom
of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is
in heaven. You see, the faith of the demons
produces no works of obedience done in love toward its object. They confess God is one. There
are no works of obedience done in love. They confess Christ
to be the Son of God. There is no work of obedience
done in love. But the mark of every true believer
as though he obeys him poorly, though it is his greatest grief
that he obeys with so much vacillation, and though at times there is
downright disobedience, it is the confession of every believer
that the basic bent and purpose of his heart is to be the loving,
obedient servant of the Son of God. not obeying Him to gain
His favor, but obeying Him out of loving gratitude for the favor
already received. We love Him because He first
loved us. Now I'm going to go after your
conscience again. And I'm going to press some questions on your
conscience as we close tonight. Do you know anything of a faith
that produces acts of loving obedience to Jesus Christ? I mean obedience where the rubber
touches the road, not obedience in the abstraction. I mean obedience
in the situations where the Word of God touches your life. Obedience in the home. Listen
to me, man, who has a ring on his finger. who calls himself
a husband. Do you take seriously what God
says? Husbands, love your wives even
as Christ also loved the church. Gave himself for it, so what
men to love their wives as their own bodies? Do you take seriously
what it means to seek to cultivate a self-giving, sacrificing, nourishing,
cherishing love of your wife? Or is she just something you
use when you get a sexual itch and it's bedtime? Someone you
use when you're hungry and you need a meal? Someone you use
When your underwear and your socks are dirty and you need
a wash maid, is that all she is? And you're a hot shot deacon
and a big shot professing Christian. My friend, if you love Christ,
you take seriously what he says about your role as a husband.
To love your wife as Christ loved the Church. to sacrifice your
own plans, your own likes, your own natural desires, to find
joy in saying no to your own plans, that you might bring pleasure
to your wife. You take seriously what the Bible
says when it says in Ephesians 6, 4, fathers, not mothers, not
parents, fathers, bring up your children. in the chastening and
admonition of the Lord. I didn't put that there, God
did. Do you take that seriously? I said my job is to bring home
the bacon. Who said so? Who said your job
is done when you bring home the bacon? Who said so? Not God. That's the least of
your jobs. Your job is to be responsible
for the molding of those children. so that they can become true
men and true women and take their place as useful citizens of two
kingdoms, the kingdom that shall never perish and the kingdom
that now is. I'm not asking if you claim to
be the perfect father, the perfect husband. All I'm asking you is
this. Do you seek to obey those clear commands that are spoken
to you as a husband and a father? Or do you just treat that like
so much religious advice? Jesus said, if you love me, you'll
keep my commandments. What about you wives? Wives? is subject to your husbands as
the church is subject to Christ. As the church is subject to Christ,
so let the wives be to their husbands in everything. Oh, but
Mr. Martin, don't you know that?
Yes, I know all the garbage that is spilled out by the so-called
feminist movement. And that's all it is, is garbage
from hell. You'll never hear the word women's
lib on my lips. That's not liberation, that's
bondage. It's bondage for a poor fish
to be liberated and stuck on the limb of a tree. It was never
made to sit on the limb of a tree. It was made by God to find its
joy and its usefulness in the ocean for which God created it.
And God created the woman to be a help answering to the man.
God made the woman to find her joy in accepting her God-given
role. Now listen to me, women. Do you
take that seriously? With all the din of the so-called
feminist movement screeching in your ears? Did this King Jesus
get through all of that? And so you bowed His feet and
said, Lord Jesus, I don't care if all the women in the block
think I'm a fool. I don't care if they call my
husband a tyrant. I don't care what they call me,
but Lord Jesus, You died for me. You let out Your life's blood
for me. You washed me from my sins, and
I love You, Lord Jesus. And I love You enough to believe
when You say, be subject to your husband in everything. That you
meant that for my good and your glory, and that's the kind of
wife I want to be. That's what it means to obey
Him. When He calls you, let no corrupt communication proceed
out of your mouth. when He calls us to be kind-hearted,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another. In other words, the
commandments of God are the full spectrum of His revealed will
throughout the entirety of the Bible. And though none of us
obeys perfectly, every true Christian obeys purposefully. See the difference? Not perfectly, but with purpose
of heart. If you would ask me tonight,
Mr. Martin, are you a perfect husband? I'd say no. And if I dared to say yes, you'd
just have to put through a phone call to my wife and find out
I was lying. But if you ask me, do I purpose
to be a perfect husband, I answer with all my heart, yes. You see,
my performance falls far below my purpose. But my purpose is
real because the love is real. And when your love to the Son
of God is real, your purpose to please Him is real, no matter
how you may fail in the performance. Now, you see, that's what sets
saving faith off in complete contrast to the faith of the
demons. The faith of the demons produces
no works of obedience done in love for the sake of its object. Now, as we bring the message
to a close, I hope you feel something of the weight of this text we've
studied tonight. If I were to start right up here
on my left with our brother, and come right across this row,
right down, take in those side sections, the few of you up in
the balcony, and I were to ask, do you believe on the Lord Jesus?
I would venture to say probably 90% of you sitting here tonight
would say, oh yes, I'm a believer. All right, now let me ask you
the next question. Is your faith the faith of God's elect, or
is it demons' faith? Oh, it may be very orthodox.
You believe the right things about God and Christ and the
cross and the resurrection. You may even confess them as
did the demons. Jesus is the Son of God. But
I ask you, my friend, oh, I ask you, compare your faith with
the faith of the demons. The faith of the demons is deficient,
first of all, in that though it is an orthodox and a disturbing
faith, it sees no beauty in its object. Do you behold anything
beautiful about Christ? Beautiful enough to make you
want to give yourself to Him without reservation. Now, I've
been here since last Saturday night. I've preached, I think
this is the fifth time, and I've said nothing about myself, and
that's deliberately so. because I'm not called to preach
myself but Christ Jesus the Lord. But may I at this point, I think
I've earned the right perhaps to interject just a little bit
of a testimony and not have that misunderstood. I was reared in
a Christian home, a home in which I was taught the truths about
God and Christ from my very infancy. I don't ever remember a time
when I doubted that there was one God, that He existed in three
persons, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that He died
for sinners, that He rose from the dead. But you know, I was
not a Christian until I was almost 18 years of age. You know what
the big difference was? Everything I knew about Christ,
everything I confessed about Christ, everything I subscribed
to with regard to Christ, I saw no beauty in Christ that made
me want, as a teenager, to have Him take a place above football,
popularity, girls, and pleasure. Whatever I believed about Christ,
He had to take His place after sports, popularity, friends,
and pleasure. But when God was pleased by the
Spirit through the Word, Bring me to see the Christ of the Bible. I had no visions. I heard no
bells. I heard no flutter of angels'
wings. But by the Spirit through the
Word, I beheld Him dying for this sinner. I beheld the Lord
of glory willing to come from the undiminished majesty of heaven
to the filth and rottenness of this world. I beheld Him in the
Scriptures, walking that lonely path into Gethsemane, that more
lonely path yet to Golgotha. And when I beheld Him in the
Scriptures, sinking beneath the mountain of divine wrath and
judgment for my sins, rising from the dead in power, I beheld
a beauty in Jesus that made me gladly Kiss sports goodbye forever
as the god of my life. Kiss friends goodbye forever
as the idol of my life. Kiss pleasure goodbye forever
as the supreme goal of my life. And to say, Lord Jesus, I'm yours. Do with me what's good in your
sight. And my friend, that's been almost
30 years ago. And he's more lovely now than
I knew him to be then. I was swept off my feet when
I first met my wife. It's a bad basis to begin a relationship,
let me warn you, but I must be honest. You see, one of the problems
with infatuation is it sees no faults in its object. Love is
not blind. Love is realistic. Infatuation
is blind. And as we've shared now almost
24 years of marriage, I've seen many warts in my wife's character. She's seen many more in mine.
But I love her with a love that I've never known before. It's
grown, deepened, broadened. But in these years, almost 30
years since I initially saw beauty in Christ, I've never found a
flaw, no wart, no mole upon the face of my Savior. My friend, that's what I'm asking
you. Have you beheld a beauty in Christ that has caused you
to give yourself to Him? True faith always involves a
sight of the beauty of Christ. that makes it your joy to give
yourself to him? True faith involves, in contrast
to the faith of the demons, gradual conformity to the likeness of
Christ. Would you dare to let me go to
your husband or wife with whom you've lived for the past five,
ten, or twenty years and ask them, is your husband or wife
becoming more and more like Christ? Or would you hang your head in
shame if I asked them such a question? My friend, your faith may be
merely the faith of the demons if it is not resulting in more
and more conformity to Christ. And if it does not result in
loving obedience to Christ, you say, well, Pastor Martin, I don't
know anything about those things. I thought just believing Christ
died fixed me up and all was well. And what you've preached
tonight from the Scriptures and you've only given us the Scriptures,
it's torn me to pieces. It's left me shattered. What
do I do? My friend, go to the God who in mercy has shown you
your wretched condition and ask Him for Christ's sake to have
mercy upon you. Ask Him to give you such a revelation
of Christ in the gospel as will ravish your heart so that you'll
never be the same again. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cleave to the Son of God. Pray with that blind beggar,
Son of David. Have mercy upon me. Thou believest God is one. The
demons also believe and tremble. May God grant that your professed
faith will be that faith which is unto everlasting life. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are bowed
in the presence of one before whom all things, even the deepest
recesses of our hearts, are naked and open. And we pray for each
one who has heard not the opinions of men, but the proclamation
of your truth, both here in this auditorium in a living room,
in a car, sitting at a dining room table, sitting in a kitchen,
those who have heard over the radio, gracious God, we plead
that your word will fasten itself upon our consciences and that
we may have direct and deep dealings with you in the light of that
word. strip away the carnal confidence of those who have nothing more
than the faith of the demons, and bring them to the faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray for those of us who,
by your grace, have been brought to faith in your Son. We do confess
that we love Him. We do confess that we want to
be like Him. we do confess our desire to obey
Him. But, O God, with that confession
we cry out, have mercy upon us for the poverty of our love,
for the weakness of our obedience, for the meager measure of our
conformity to Christ. O God, make Your people in this
community so like Your Son that wherever they go, in whatever
relationships they sustain, it may be evident, in spite of all
the external religion about us, that there is such a thing as
true and vital religion. Lord, draw a line between empty,
hollow religion and true and vital Christianity. Do it, O
God, in this town. Do it, we pray, even through
the preaching of the Word in these days together. Hear, O
Lord, the cry that we have offered in your presence, and seal the
word to our hearts, and grant that the benediction of your
own presence, pressing your own word upon our consciences, may
rest upon us and abide with us as we leave this place tonight. Again we pray. Keep us from every
form of activity and conversation which would unnecessarily turn
our minds away from the sober things which we have heard tonight.
Hear us, O God our Father. We plead in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.