Let us look in our Bibles this
morning to James chapter 2. James chapter 2, and I will begin
reading in verse 14. Read through the end of the chapter. What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith
save him? If a brother or sister be naked,
and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
Depart in peace, be you 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. 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? 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. 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. Last week when we looked at the
first thirteen verses in this chapter, I stated that the subject
was very easy. And that subject was to have
respect of persons. And I might say the same about
this passage we're looking at today. The subject is faith without
works. It's very easy to see the subject
of these verses. In preparing this message, I
came across this statement that I wanted to give to us because
I believe that in this one statement, It pretty well takes in the teaching
of these verses. The statement is, James is saying
that while works are not an infallible proof of faith, the absence of
works is certain proof of the absence of faith. Amen. Let me read that to us again. In saying that while works are
not an infallible proof of faith, The absence of works is certain
proof of the absence of faith. Now, let's look at this passage
of Scripture by asking several questions. The first question
is, what is saving faith? What is saving faith? I think
every person here today, if you have been in church at any length
of time, we all realize the importance that the Scriptures place upon
faith. Because, for instance, in Ephesians
2, the apostle said, by grace are you saved through faith. By grace are you saved through
faith. And the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
to a woman one day. And he had told her that her
sins were forgiven, and then he said, Thy faith hath saved
thee. So everyone recognizes the importance
of faith, but this begs the question, what is faith? What is saving
faith? I'm afraid way too many people
who call themselves Christians, if they were asked, what is faith,
they would have to respond and try to define faith by saying,
well, it's a feeling. It's just a certain feeling that
I have. Well, let's look at the Scripture
this morning and see what the Word of God tells us about saving
faith. First, saving faith is a matter
of the heart. Now it goes without saying that
the object of saving faith is Jesus Christ. I said it goes
without saying, but I wanted to say that because faith is
not our Savior. Faith did not die for us. Faith
did not bleed for us. Faith did not satisfy the justice
of God for us. Christ did that. So it goes without
saying, even though I said it, that saving faith always has
as its object the Lord Jesus Christ. But now, as we look at
faith, saving faith, let's look at these things. First of all,
faith, saving faith is a matter of the heart. In Romans chapter
10 and verse 10, the apostle Paul said, for with the heart,
saving faith is a matter of the heart, for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness. The heart, in the Word of God,
refers to the mind, that is the intellect. the affections, the
emotions, and the will. The will. All three of these
are included in the word heart. Saving faith is a matter of the
heart, of the mind, of the affections, and of the will. Now, no one,
no one can have faith in Christ, who is the object of saving faith,
who has never heard of Christ. And this is the reason it is
so important, so all important, that we always be engaged in
preaching the gospel and sending the gospel out. The Lord did
not commission us to go into other countries and build hospitals
and teach people how to farm and all of those things. They
may be good and well, no doubt they are, but first and primarily,
We are sent into the world to preach the gospel, to preach
the message of Christ. A person cannot believe, no more
than you can come back from a place you've never been. A person cannot
believe in one of whom he has not heard. Faith is a matter
of the heart, the mind, the intellect, first of all. I want us to look
at two passages of Scripture. that I believe help us in this
matter of understanding what true faith is. I want you to
turn first to 2 Timothy. Turn back just a few pages in
your Bible to 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. We will see here these three
things, the mind, knowledge, affections. and the will, the
heart. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. The apostle says in verse 12,
For the witch cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I
am not ashamed. Now here we go. For I know, I
know. That's the first thing that we
see here about faith, knowledge. I know whom. Now that's the gospel. Whom? Christ. It's not just knowing
a number of facts. You know some denominations,
they catechize their children. They teach their children, but
they use that word catechism, and they have their catechisms.
And children from an early age, they learn to respond. What is
God, and what is man's chief duty? And they just have all
of these questions, and they give them the answers, and they
learn them just like they were in school, learning 2 plus 2
equals 4. But my friends, the gospel of
faith, saving faith, has to do with a person, not just with
facts, not just with doctrines, but with the doctrine of Christ.
the knowledge of Christ. I know whom the Apostle Paul
says. The Lord Jesus commanded His
church to go into all the world and preach the gospel and whosoever
believeth, he hears of Christ. We preach the gospel, he hears
who Christ is. I remember reading one time in
one of Charles Spurgeon's sermons, he said, many people are crying
out to the world, believe, believe, believe. But he said, the problem
is they're not telling people what to believe, who to believe,
I should say. We began preaching the gospel.
Who is Christ? Was He just a good man? Was He
just an excellent teacher, a moral teacher? Is that all He was?
Oh no, my friends. When we speak of Jesus Christ
the Lord, we're talking about He who is both God and man in
the one person. fully God and fully man. And why did he come here? Well,
the Scripture says he came here to do the Father's will. And
he was able to say before he left this world, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. He came to do God's will
and he did God's will. He didn't just try to do God's
will, he accomplished God's purpose. When he cried out on the cross,
it is finished! The work of salvation that he
had come to do, he had accomplished. Preach the gospel. A person must
hear of Christ, must learn of Christ, must be able to say,
I know whom. He's a person. And notice he
says, I. This faith is personal faith. I must know him. I must trust
in him. No one else can trust in Him
for me. And let me say something here
so there's no misunderstanding. Not even the Holy Spirit will
believe in Christ for you. No, no. You. Me. We. Ourselves. We must believe
in Christ. We must know who He is and why
He came and what He's accomplished and where He is today. He's on
the throne. He's the Lord God, reigning and
ruling from the Father's right hand. Paul says, I know whom,
and notice the next thing he says, I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded. I'm persuaded. We hear of Christ, of who He
is, and what He came to do. He came to reconcile men unto
God. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself. What did He do? I'm persuaded
that He accomplished, that He did the Father's will. That He
has done everything that is necessary in order for God to receive me. God to save me. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded. But notice now the will I've
committed, which I have committed unto Him against that day. I've
committed the saving and the keeping of my soul to Christ. I cannot save myself, and I cannot
keep myself. If it were not for the keeping
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I would have been gone a long
time ago, and so would you, my friends. This is faith. It's a work of the heart. It's
knowing Him, who He is, and being persuaded that what He did, God
has accepted. God raised Him from the dead,
and committing ourselves unto Him. Upon another's life, I think
John Bunyan said it like this, upon another's life I did not
live, and upon another's death I did not die. I stake my whole
eternity. Christ. Let's look at another
place, and Luke if you will. Luke chapter 5. Luke chapter 5, beginning with
verse 1, And it came to pass that as the
people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by
the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake,
but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their
nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's,
and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the
land. And he sat down and taught the people out of the ship. And
when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into
the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering
said unto him, Master, we have tolled all the night." We've
been out here working all night. And we've done this all of our
lives. We know something about fishing. We know something about
fishing on this lake. And we've been out here all night
working. And we've taken nothing. Nevertheless, now notice, at
thy word, at thy belief on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved. at thy word. And the next thing
we see here, obedience. Nevertheless, at thy word I will
let down the net. And when they had this done,
they enclosed a great multitude of fishes, and their net broke. The Lord Jesus said, Peter, launch
out into the deep and let down your net for a catch of fish. And Peter said, At thy word I'm
going to do it. And what did he find out when
he obeyed God's word, when he believed God's word? He found out that the Lord Jesus
Christ doesn't lie. His word is, Believe and thou
shalt be saved. So that's the first thing we
know about faith. Faith is a matter of the heart. Second, saving faith is a grace
given. Saving faith is a matter of the
heart, and saving faith is a grace given. Again, the apostle said,
ìBy grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God.î In Romans 10, he said, ìBut faith cometh.î
Well, if faith comes, that means it wasnít here before. Faith
cometh. Faith cometh. We're not born
with saving faith. Faith cometh. Faith is a grace
given. That's the point I'm making.
In Romans chapter 4, Paul gives two examples of two Old Testament
men who were saved, who were justified. The first one was
Abraham, and the next one was David. In the case of Abraham,
he wrote this, If, now listen, If Abraham were justified by
works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. For what
saith the scripture? Abraham believed God. And it
was imputed or counted unto him for righteousness. You see what
Paul is saying? If salvation is by works, then
Abraham would be able to boast, like so many people do today,
of their free will. Abraham would be able to boast, go around heaven bragging on
himself. And what he had done, oh no,
not before God. It's one thing God will not share
with another is his glory. And then he gives the example
of David. And he said, even as David, in other words, David
just like Abraham, even as David also describeth the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, counted righteousness
without works. Then he makes this statement
after giving those two examples of how Abraham was justified
before God and how David was justified before God by the righteousness
of another being imputed unto them. Then he makes this statement. Now, what does he mean, if? What
does he refer to, if? If is a faith. Well, the subject
is justification. The subject is God, God Almighty,
the thrice holy God declaring someone to be just. And he says, if. If it is a faith that it might be
by grace. If it's not by faith, then it
would not be by grace. Any other grace that we might
have, and there are many graces besides faith, but any other
grace would allow a man to boast, but not faith. Faith merely receives. Faith is merely the empty hand
that receives from God. Faith contributes nothing. It
receives all, everything from Christ. You substitute any other
grace for faith, and then It is no longer by grace. So it
is a faith, Paul says, therefore it, justification, it is a faith
that it might be by grace. So we've seen two things about
faith, saving faith. It is a matter of the heart.
And number two, it is a grace given. And number three, saving
faith is a living or a continuing grace. Let's go back to our text
in James chapter 2. Saving faith is a living or continuing
grace. The Lord Jesus Christ was here
in the flesh. At one time there was a number
of people who were following him, some because they ate the
bread that he created and the fish, and some because they saw
the miracles. But when the Lord spoke to them
concerning eating his flesh and drinking his blood, what does
that mean? It means trusting in Christ,
believing in him. They turned and went away. They
went back. Oh, they were believers up to
that point. But then they turned and they
went away. And our Lord, speaking to the
twelve, He said this, Will you also go away? Do you just have a temporary
faith? Some people do. Will you go away? And remember
Peter, speaking for the apostles, he said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe
and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. You see, saving faith is a living faith, a continuing
faith. We know that we are alive because
we breathe. Faith breathes. Prayer. We call upon the Lord. That's
how the Lord told Ananias when he sent him over there to Saul
to baptize him. Remember, Ananias was afraid
to go near Saul, Saul of Tarsus. And our Lord told him one thing.
He said, Behold, he prayeth. In other words, he's breathing.
He's got life. He has faith. Faith breathes. We call upon the name of the
Lord. And we must nourish our bodies
to continue life. Faith is a living grace. We breathe
in prayer and we feed upon the Word of God. He leadeth us in
green pastures beside the still waters. Faith lives. It doesn't come for just a little
while and then leave us. That's a temporary faith, and
it's worth nothing. It breathes. It lives. One of the covenant
promises, one of the new covenant promises is, God says, I will
make an everlasting covenant with them. Now, God says, I will
not turn away from them to do them good. But I will put my
fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me." Living faith. Saving faith is
living, continuing faith. He puts his grace in our heart
and we will not turn or depart from him. And fourth, lastly,
saving faith is a serving or working grace. And you see this,
if you want to look in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, this is illustrated
in Paul's words to the church, to the believers in this church
at Thessalonica. Beginning with verse 2, he says,
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of
you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith. I'm saying that saving faith
is a serving or a working grace. Paul was able to write back to
this church, and he had been with them for just a short time,
a very short time. But, he said, we remember without
ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of
hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father.
Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. For our gospel
came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sakes. Now notice, and you became followers
of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that you were examples The Word
came to this town. Paul went there preaching the
gospel and the Word came to some, not everyone in the town, but
everyone that he's writing to. The Word of God came to them
in power, demonstration of the Holy Spirit. It did not come
just outwardly. You know, a preacher stands up
and he preaches and the Word goes out and it falls on everyone
that is in attendance. But thank God, the Holy Spirit,
when it's His purpose, He takes that Word and it comes in power
to the heart of a person. That's what Paul says happened
when we preached the gospel to you. The Word didn't come just
in word only, but it came in power, demonstration of the Spirit
of God, so that you became followers of us. You became examples. to all that believe in Macedonia
and Achaia. For from you sounded out the
word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also
in every place. Your faith, there it is, your
faith to God's word is spread abroad so that we need not to
speak anything. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turn
to God from idols to serve the living and true God. So keep those things in mind
here. Saving faith. What is faith?
Well, it's the work of the heart. It's a matter of the heart. And
it's a grace that comes And it's a continuing grace, and it is
a serving or a working grace. Now, back to our text. What kind of faith is it that
James asks, can faith save him? What kind of faith is it when
James poses this question, can faith save him? He's asking if
a faith that does not have works, can that faith save him? We might
call it historical faith. But James called it dead faith,
dead faith. Can dead faith save a person? And he illustrates how worthless
this faith, this dead faith is by the example of a person in
need. He's hungry and he's cold. And someone says to him, be you
warmed and filled. Do those words warm his body? Do those words fill his empty
stomach? Of course not. The same thing
is true of the faith that does not have works. Verse 17, Even
so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Now that
word alone. Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead being alone. I like to use that word alone
in describing that we believe the Scriptures alone. We believe
that Christ is the Savior alone. And we believe that we receive
Christ by grace alone. And we believe that it is by
faith alone that we receive Christ. I love that word alone. Our faith is not based on the
decisions of certain councils, certain church councils, or some
supposedly infallible man in Rome. No, no. It says Scripture
is alone. If they speak not according to
the Word, it is because there is no light in them. And it is
by grace alone. And salvation is in Christ alone,
by faith alone. But I understand that this faith
is never alone. This faith is never alone, but
it is always accompanied by good works. Paul denies that we are
saved by works because it would allow us to boast. But then he
says, remember the Scripture, For by grace are you saved, through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. James tells us that faith without
works is like a body once the soul has left. Once the soul
has left, then the body doesn't move, it's not warm, doesn't see, doesn't
It's useless. Faith without works is dead. It's like a body without a soul. Well, third, what are some of
the works by which a person shows he has faith? Well, Paul calls
them good works. But what are they? Well, we worship
God. We worship God. We come and we
We put other things aside, and it just seems to me that too
many people who call themselves Christians, they want to serve
God only when it's convenient. Only when it's convenient and
I don't have something else to do, then I'll worship God. No, true faith worships God. We come together. as God's children
to worship Him. That's part of the good works
he's talking about. And our Lord said that we are
to be lights. Paul told the church at Philippi
that they shined as lights in this world, holding forth the
word of truth. Holding forth the word of life. We witness to others. We speak
to others of Christ and His salvation. We support those who preach the
gospel. We help those who are in need. We have compassion on others.
These are all good works. Some of you ladies, when someone
is sick and you prepare a meal and take to them, that's a good
work. That's what Paul is talking about,
James is speaking about, and there are many other illustrations.
You help someone in need, some brother, Maybe he's not a brother
even. You help them. You give. You give liberally. We had a
need recently in our congregation, and I think I mentioned it one
time. And you just opened up your hearts
and you gave abundantly. That's a good work, isn't it?
Sure it is, to have compassion on others who are in need. Help
those. Well, fourth, is faith without
works like the faith of devils? You know, he mentions devils
here. Is faith without works like the faith of devils? It
is in this sense. It's worthless. This faith without works is like
the faith of devils in this sense. It's worthless. The devils believe. They believe. And not only do
they believe, they tremble. Remember that one said to the
Lord Jesus Christ, I know whom thou art, thou holy one of God. And that legion of demons who
was in that one man, they knew who the Lord was and they besought
him, not to send them into the abyss and hell, but to permit
them to go into that herd of swine. They tremble, they know
that one day they will be cast into hell and the lock will be
placed on that pit of fire, the lake of fire, the bottomless
pit, and they shall be there forever and ever. They know that. There's no question
in their mind about God and about their future. They believe and
they tremble. And I tell you, James is saying
that faith without works is just as good as the faith of devils.
It may cause them to tremble, but it doesn't save them. One thing that they have, and
this always accompanies true faith, is the fear of God. Devils tremble. True faith always
has the fear of God. And it's not that slavish fear.
That's what the devils have. They have a slavish fear. They
know God is their Creator, their Master, and He will cast them
into hell. They know that, and they tremble.
But where there is true faith, there will be this reverence
of God. And the last thing, what was
justified? What is James saying? What was
justified by Abraham and Rahab's works? Well, it was not their
persons. It was not their souls. For the
Scripture says very clearly concerning Abraham that he believed God
and it was counted unto him for righteousness. And that happened
a long time before Isaac was even born. And you read the account
of Rahab there in Joshua chapter 2. And before the spies ever
came into the land, she had heard and she believed that the God
of Israel was the true God. What was justified by Abraham's
works and Rahab's works was their faith. Their faith was justified. Their faith was manifested to
be true, saving faith. I trust that the Lord would bless
this message to us here this day and all of us, that God would
give us saving faith and with the heart We believe unto righteousness. And with the mouth, let me not
leave that out, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. When you believe in the heart,
then what's the next thing? Well, with the mouth, with the
life, confession is made. Some of you, you need to confess
Christ as your Lord and Savior. You need to follow Him in baptism.
Identify with Him. Identify with His people, the
church, with this gospel. I trust God will give you the
grace to do so. Let's turn to number 441.