In James chapter 2 and verse
14, James asks this question. What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he have faith, and have not works? Can faith
save him? What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he have faith, and have not works? Can faith
save him? For brother or sister be naked
and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding ye
give them not those things which are needful to the body, what
of it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. 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. Thou believest
that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? What of it, Prophet, my brethren?
Though a man say he have faith and have not works, can faith
save him? James' message throughout this
epistle, as we have seen, is that there is a reality about
faith. And that those who have true,
living faith are those who, when tried, are brought through the
trial. are those who, when brought to
the point of death, look unto Christ their Saviour and through
Him and Him alone live. There is a reality to their faith. It's a living faith. It's a faith
which loves God. It's a faith which loves their
neighbour. James has spoken of the law of
God and the fulfilment of the law of God. He's spoken of those
who would, as it were, turn to the law, but how they fail when they think
they are keeping it in various areas, but fail to keep it in
another. The true fulfilment of the law
can come one way and one way only. And that is by perfect
love which fulfills the law in entirety. And no man by nature
has perfect love. No man by nature loves God and
loves his neighbor. He's full of sin. He's full of
hatred. He's full of rebellion. The law
is fulfilled through faith in Christ alone. The law is fulfilled
by Christ in the gospel, taking his righteousness and clothing
his children in that righteousness. Abraham, as we read in Romans,
believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness. He had no righteousness of his
own, but he looked under his God. He trusted, he believed,
he loved God, he followed God. And God looked at Abraham's faith
and counted under him righteousness. He accounted him as being righteous
because of whom Abraham looked unto. But that faith of Abraham's
was not an empty profession. It was not a mere consent to
the truth. It brought forth love for his God. It brought forth love for his
brethren. It caused Abraham to hear his
God and follow. When God called Abraham out of
Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham gave up all that he had. He left his home. He left the
riches of that place. And he went out not knowing where
he was going. He went hearing the word of God
and following his God, not knowing where he would go, prepared to
lose all things for the God whom he loved. He went as one who
walked by faith, with a true and a living faith. And that is what James is showing
us here. towards the end of chapter two,
when he speaks of faith having works. James is not saying throughout
here that man is saved by his works, that we are justified
by what we do. But he is saying that true faith
brings forth fruit. And where that fruit is seen,
that is an evidence that there is faith. We're justified, as
it were, by the works that faith brings forth, because a faith
which merely claims, a faith which merely says it believes
God, when it goes another way, is no faith at all. What doth
it profit If a man says he has faith and hath not works, where's
the reality of his faith when he shows no true love for God
and no true love for his brethren? It's an empty profession. It's
a mere claim, it's mere presumption. What sort of faith is it that
doesn't love? What kind of faith in God is
it that doesn't love God? And doesn't love God's will?
And doesn't love God's way? And doesn't love God's righteousness?
What sort of faith is it that says it follows Christ and yet
walks another way? What faith is it that does not
love the brethren? true faith works by love. We read from Galatians chapter
5. It's worth reading. It mirrors much of what James
would have us see here. There we read that Paul says,
stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ have made us
free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold,
I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall
profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are
fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love. He goes on to say, Brethren,
He hath been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion
to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law
is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. Faith, worketh by love. Paul is steadfast. in his assertion
that we are not justified, we are not saved by the works of
the law, he says, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made thee free. Stand fast, don't be entangled
again. Don't let those come that would
put you back under law, put you back under seeking to produce
some sort of righteousness by which you may have standing.
Credit before God. You're saved, you're delivered
by grace and grace alone. You're justified by faith in
Christ alone. And yet he asserts that faith,
that faith which rests in Christ, works by love. And that love
which it brings forth is the fulfillment of the law. It's true, it's real, there's
a reality to faith. As we saw James illustrate, if
a brother or sister is naked and destitute of food, will you
just wish them well? Or will you give them food? Will you clothe them? What sort
of faith is it that just passes by? You claim to believe. You may
say, well, I believe God and I believe the gospel. I believe
the truth. James reminds us that the devils
believe and tremble. Faith is more than recognizing
that there is a God. There is a God. He did create
this world. He does rule over it. He is sovereign. He is all-powerful. And it is
a fool that says in his heart, there is no God. So many delude
themselves. They say, well, I don't believe
in God, in their folly. In reality, when brought to the
right circumstance, when brought to the grave, Most who say there
is no God know there is. When the time of their death
comes and approaches them, their atheism soon departs. And they'll
soon cry out in terror that if there be a God have mercy upon
me. Soon they're overcome by fear. It's easy to be an atheist
and say there is no God when you are young and when you are
well and when the sun shines and when there's money in the
bank and your life is prospering and death seems a long way off. Oh, it's easy to be an atheist
then. But when death approaches, when
illness comes upon you, when the frailty of what you are becomes
a reality before you and when you know that your time has come,
Then you fear. Then you think, well, what's
beyond the grave? Am I right? But there are those who say,
well, yes, I do know there's a God. And when I look around
at the world around me, I recognize that this cannot have come into
being by chance. He must have created it. And
I've read the scriptures and I've read of Jesus Christ and
his love in laying down his life. I believe he did come and he
did die for sinners. I believe that. But is that faith? James says, the devils believe
and tremble. The devils know that God is true. They know he's there. They know
this is his world. The devils know everything that's
happened in history. They've observed, they've watched. They know Christ came, as the
scriptures declare. They know what he preached. They
know he died. They know he rose again from
the dead. They know the miracles testified
of in the scriptures are true. Yet they do not love, worship,
and serve the one true and living God. They believe the truth. They believe what is, but they
don't believe and trust and rest in and love and worship almighty
God and his son Jesus Christ. Belief of truth, belief of God
and his reality, mental assent to the fact that there is a God
and there is eternity to come, and there is a heaven and a hell,
and there is sin and righteousness, and there is a Saviour Jesus
Christ who came into the world to save sinners. Mental assent
to the fact that He did die, and He did rise again, and He
did suffer in the place of sinners, and He is crowned in glory, won't
save. What good is a mere profession? What good is mental assent to
the truth? A claim to believe in God, a
claim to believe the gospel indeed, where there is no reality to
that faith in terms of a true love for Christ and his people. The devils Believe and tremble. The fool of man says in his heart
there is no God. Some make a profession that there
is a God, but they still don't know him. They still don't love him. They still don't bow down and
worship Him. They still don't say before this
God that I am nothing. I am nothing before a holy God. He is my all. True faith is that which knows
God. not knows of God, not knows about
God, but knows God. Apostle Paul, having been brought
to know God, having on that Damascus road, when he sought to persecute
the church, he came into the presence of Jesus Christ. He heard a voice from heaven. He saw a light shining around
him. He heard Christ saying to him,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? He came into the very presence
of Christ, the Son of God. He heard his voice. He was brought
to life. He was shown the gospel. He came
to know that gospel by revelation. The Lord taught him. The Lord
taught Paul that gospel in truth, in doctrine, in understanding,
and in experience. And yet Saul's constant prayer
was that of which he spake in Philippians. that those things
which were gained to him, all that he was by nature, all that
he had built up in terms of his wisdom and his conduct and his
knowledge, his upbringing, he was born in the tribe of Benjamin. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel. As touching the law, he was a
Pharisee. Concerning zeal, he persecuted
the church. That which he fought was against
God. Touching the righteousness which
is in the law, he was blameless. All these things outwardly in
the eyes of men made him a religious man, an upright man, a righteous
man. And yet he saw all of it. as sin, as filthy rags, as that
which prevented him from knowing God. What things were gained
to me, those I counted, lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things, and do count them but done that I may win Christ. and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection,
and the fellowship of his sufferings, be it made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. He suffered the loss of all things. He was willing to suffer the
loss of all things. He said, take them away, Lord,
in order that I may know Christ, that I might be found in him,
and that I might not have mine own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that righteousness, which is of God by faith, that
which is through the faith of Christ. This is what he wanted. This was his constant desire
to know Him. And this is what true faith does. This is what true faith is. It's
that which causes us to know Christ. To be one with Him. To commune with Him. to know
the power of his resurrection, to have his life within us. Not to know of him, not to know
about him, not to know truths regarding him, not to know the
facts of the gospel, not to believe those facts and make mental assent
to those facts, not to presume on them and presume that they
concern us. When truly we do not know the
reality of them. Not to take the promises of God
revealed in the scriptures and as it were claim them and say
they're mine. When we don't truly know Him. When we're still clinging on
to something of self. Still clinging on to something
of our own righteousness. still pointing to something that
we are or something of our upbringing. Well I am. I was born in this
household and I was raised in this church and I did go to this
place and I did hear this preacher and I have professed and I have
been baptized and I have been a church member these years and
I have led meetings and taken part and I have served in these
ways. And I have given much of my income
towards the work of God. I've given it to the church.
I've given money to look after people and do this and that.
If we're still clinging on to those things that we've done
in our flesh, in our own strength, If we're still looking to them
as something that ultimately when we come before God we might
say unto him, Lord, Lord, I was here, I was there, I prophesied
in thy name, I preached this, I wrote this, I did this, I professed
that. If we're coming before him still
clinging on to something, then where's our faith in Christ
alone? Where's that which Paul sought
and Paul knew that his righteousness is that which is of God by faith,
that which is through the faith of Christ alone, that which God
gave him when he knew that all that he had was worthless. all
that he had though men might look at it and say well that's
upright and that's worthy and that's commendable Paul he said
no it's filthy rags it's filthy rags it's nothing Paul's faith was true he loved
Christ He loved him. He loved him so much that he
was willing to give up all for him. He was willing to suffer
the loss of all things. If a brother came to him in need,
and Paul had little, he'd give what he had for that brother
in need. If one came unto Paul, saying,
Paul, I'm lost, How may I now know God? Paul would take his
time and point him to the Saviour. Though it meant that Paul was
put in chains for declaring the word of Christ to his fellow
man, though it meant that Paul was put in jail in a filthy,
vile jail in dreadful conditions because he testified to Christ
and his gospel. Though it meant that Paul knew
that he could face execution and death at the hands of many
men at any moment, he still stood up. He still stood fast in the
liberty wherewith Christ had made him free. He still declared
the faith of Christ and the righteousness of God in the Gospel. He still
pointed sinners and said, here is life, here is righteousness,
here is salvation in Christ alone. He was willing to die for his
Saviour. His faith was seen through the
love he had for Christ and his brethren. There was a reality
to it. Just like Abraham's. Just like
Abraham's of whom we've spoken, Abraham gave up all when the
Lord came unto him as a heathen, idolater, iner of the Chaldees. Knowing nothing, God came unto
him and spake unto him and said, Abraham, leave this land and
follow me. And Abraham left all and followed. And later, God spake unto Abraham
and promised that of Abraham's seed God would make a mighty
nation. God spake unto Abraham and promised
him that in his seed singular Christ who would come in years
to come, that God would save a people, a mighty people, a
multitude through his seed and offspring. God made promises
of the gospel to Abraham, which Abraham believed. And God promised
Abraham a son, a son of promise, a picture of Christ to come,
but an actual son. He said, your wife Sarah will
conceive. And Sarah laughed in amazement
because they were old. She was well past the age of
childbearing. And though Abraham believed the
promise of God, he brought his wisdom to bear
and thought, well, I know God has promised me a son, but I
don't know how that son will come. And with Sarah, he brought
his own wisdom and the works of the flesh to bear, and brought
forth a child by Hagar, Ishmael, and thought, well, maybe this
is the child that God has promised. But God showed him that no, it
would not come through man's works. This promised child would
come as one that it would be impossible to be brought forth. This child would come as a miracle. I will bring him forth. And in
the picture of that one to come, Christ who was born miraculously
of Mary a virgin. an impossible conception, an
immaculate conception, the Holy Ghost brought forth a child in
Mary. So God brought forth a child
from Sarah in her old age, miraculously. She was past the age of childbearing
and that promised son Isaac was born. And God fulfilled his promise. But then one day, Abraham's faith,
that God-given faith that he gave unto Abraham, that faith
that caused Abraham to leave Ur of the Chaldees, that faith
that caused Abraham to suffer so many trials and yet continue
to follow his God, continue to love, continue to believe, was
brought to a trial that we cannot but imagine. God said unto Abraham,
take Isaac, that long-promised son, and sacrifice him unto me. I promised I'd give him to you.
You waited so long, the promise was fulfilled. You love him as
this dear son given unto you of God will now give him to me. What a trial to be placed under.
What a thing to be asked. I waited so long for Isaac. God finally gave us Isaac. And now I'm asked to take him
and slay him. To slay my begotten son. To slay the son I love. To slay the son in whom the promises
should be brought forth. But in this, Abraham saw the
righteousness of God. Abraham believed the gospel. Abraham knew that if God wanted
Isaac slain, God could bring him to life again. This God that
Abraham believed is a God that brings life. from the dead. Abraham had seen it. Abraham
knew it. The faith he had was a living
faith. He was once dead and blind to
the truth of God. He had no faith in the beginning. He could not believe. He might
have heard the scriptures. He might have said, oh I believe
there is a God. This world was created But he
did not believe and trust and love and follow that God. He didn't know him. And there
came the day when God caused Abraham, a dead sinner, to hear
and to believe and to live. He brought him forth from the
grave of his sins. He caused him to live. He knew
what it was to be a dead man. resurrected from the grave, brought
to life because that faith he had that trusted and rested in
God that caused him to know him and the power of his resurrection
was a faith that rested in the knowledge that this God causes
the dead to live. So when God called him to offer
Isaac. It's because of that faith and
the reality of that faith that he could follow through, that
he was willing to, that he knew God would bring Isaac again from
the dead. And of course, as he took up
that knife to slay his own son, God stopped him. Because God
had proved his faith. And God could look upon him and
say, I know Abraham. that thou art mine. You've shown
that you are willing. You've shown the reality of your
faith that you'd suffer all, the loss of all things. You'd
even offer up your own son for me. Well, Abraham, you need not. The Lord will give himself as
an offering. Abraham took that ram that caught in the thicket
and offered it in his son's place. He was substituted. And Abraham
saw by faith how his God would one day take his son and offer
up his son, the son of his love, his only begotten son, in Abraham's
place. and it's because of the death
of his son and the shedding of his son's blood that Abraham
lived. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled
which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto
him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by
faith only. Abraham's faith was not a mere
profession. It was a faith which would bring
him to be willing to give up all. Like Paul was willing to
give up all that he might know Christ. To be willing to give
up his own son that he might know Christ. It was true. Likewise also was not Rahab the
harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers
and had sent them out another way. She knew she was risking
life, she knew she was risking all, but she believed. So she
acted. For as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead also. We are justified,
we are saved by faith. Our faith rests in Christ and
in Christ alone. We rest in him for our salvation. But where there is true faith,
that faith works by love. It turns from self. and to Christ
alone. It turns from all confidence
in self in the flesh to confidence in Christ alone. It turns from
our will and our wisdom to God's will and his wisdom. It turns from hatred of the truth
to a love of the truth. It turns from the world and to
God and His kingdom. It loves. And where faith loves,
where it works by love, it bows down and worships. It worships
Almighty God. It worships the Savior. It bows down to Him. It follows
him. When Christ came to the disciples
and said, give up all and follow me, they laid down their nets. They gave up all that they had
and they followed him. True faith rests in Christ. It rests Faith which doesn't rest in Christ. Faith which continues to do something. Faith which, a profession of
faith, you may say you believe and yet you continue to strive
to live by your strength and your wisdom, you continue to,
as it were, come to the scriptures, come to the law, come to the
exhortations and do your best to keep them because you think
you should and you think God will be pleased with you if you
make a good effort, is a faith which is no faith. because it
has not come to see that all that you are is nothing. and is actually keeping you from
God. That's not serving God. That's
not following God. Those who speak of the law as
their rule of life, of sanctifying themselves through keeping the
law, because God would have them, because this is their guidance
in how to live, they're not bowing down to God. They're not saying,
my righteousness is as filthy rags. They're not coming to where
Abraham came. to where Saul came, Paul came,
that they count all these things but loss. They're not saying
that they deplore their own righteousness which is of the law, but they
want that righteousness which is through the faith of Christ,
the righteousness of God by faith. They've not given up all, they're
not resting. True faith doesn't turn to our
wisdom, our will, our works, our righteousnesses, our law
keeping. So often we may say we believe,
but when trouble comes upon us, we try to approach it in our
own strength. We act like God is not there.
This trial has come. Well, what must I do to get out
of it? And off we go in our own strength, trying to sort it out.
And we make more and more of a mess of it until God brings
us to an end of ourselves. And we cry out, Lord, I'm lost.
I don't know how to escape this. Help me. When God brings His people to
an end of themselves and cause them to cry out time and time
again to Him, then their faith, their rest in Him is proved.
They're brought to rest in Him. They're brought to risk all to
give up all for Him. That is the faith which we see
exhibited by Abraham, by Rahab, by Paul. they believed. And their belief, their faith
had consequences. It could bring them outwardly
into trouble. It could press them beyond measure. It could bring them to a point
where they did not know how they'd carry on. And yet, despite all,
like Job, they could say, though the Lord slay me, yet will I
trust him. I'm happy to give up all that
I may know Him. It brought forth works of faith. It brought forth that love of
faith. It brought forth the righteousness
of God wrought by God the Spirit through their faith in them.
And that is why James says that they were justified by works,
not by the works of the flesh, not by the works of the law,
not by the works of man, but by the works of faith, the works
of the faith of Jesus Christ which He brought forth by His
Spirit through them. They were justified by faith,
but a real and a living faith, the faith of Christ which brought
forth love. Not works of the flesh in which
we can glory, but the works that God brings forth by His grace,
by His Spirit, in which we praise Him and glorify Him, for the
work is His and His alone. Oh, what we see in Paul, in Rahab,
in Abraham, but through them all we see that faith of Christ
which Paul rested in. We see him, we see his faith,
we see him as he, as pictured by Isaac, came into this world. He gave up his glory in heaven
above, he gave up the riches, the majesty, in which he dwelt. He was made a little lower than
the angels, made a man. He entered this world of darkness
and sin. He was cast out. He came unto
his own people, the Jews, and they rejected him. The Romans
rejected him. The world rejected him. His disciples,
even at the end, stood back from him. Everyone rejected him. He was cast out. He suffered
the loss of all things. He was willing to come to the
cross. We read from Paul in Philippians
3, where he's willing to suffer the loss of all things that he
might know Christ. But this is because he knew that
mind which was in Christ Jesus. As he writes in chapter 2, that
mind of Christ, who being in the form of God, fought it not
robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Oh what Christ gave up and suffered
in order that he should save his people, sinners like you
and I, from their sins. In order that he should save
Rahab, Abraham, Saul. He gave up all. It's his faith
that he gave to Saul, to Rahab, to Abraham, That's the faith
that loves. That's the faith that works. That's the faith by which we
are justified. And those are the works of faith
by which we are justified. His faith, the faith of Jesus
Christ, the faith which at the cross in the darkness manifested
the righteousness of God. showed forth the love of God
for his people. That faith which was willing
to go into the abyss, into the depths of the grave, to suffer
hell, the outpouring of God's wrath in eternity against the
sins of all his people, that was willing to be made sin, that
was willing to be judged and burned up under the outpouring
of God's fury and wrath against sin. That faith which took Christ,
the light of God, into the darkness. And that faith in the darkness
at the cross shone forth in the darkness. As the people sat and
watched, they saw the darkness, but it's Christ's faith which
faith beholds. And Saul, when he looks to Christ
at the cross, Abraham, when he looked down through time and
saw Christ sacrificed as Isaac was a picture, when he saw and
beheld his Saviour sacrificed, he saw the light of Christ's
faith shining in the darkness. He saw Christ's love for him. He saw Christ's love for God
and for his people. He saw that Christ gave himself
for Abraham, a sinner. Paul looked back and saw Christ
gave himself for Saul, Paul, the sinner. He gave up all for
those he loved. What faith! What faith this is
to behold, the faith of Jesus Christ. Has God given you this
faith, which works by love? This faith of Christ, this faith
of which Paul rejoiced when he looked at Christ and said, he
loved me and gave himself for me. This faith which brings forth
fruit, Paul saw himself as dead, dead to the law that he might
live unto God, dead to the law that he might bring forth fruit
unto God, alive because of the faith of Christ. Paul looked
at Christ crucified and he saw himself crucified with him. I am crucified with Christ. And the life which I now live
in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Did he love you? Did he give
himself for you? Has he given you that faith that
loves him in return? Amen.