James chapter 2. True commitment to Christ Jesus
and to the brethren comes about when the love of God abides in
the heart of a sinner by God's grace. When the love of God is
in the heart, Those that are born of the Spirit of God realize
that we've been judged of God in Christ Jesus the Lord. We've
been judged of Him on the cross. God sent His Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and taking the sin of His people upon Himself,
Christ bore the wrath of God in the place of His people. And when the Lord makes us to
know that, when the Holy Spirit enters in and makes us to know
that Christ has condemned our condemnation. It makes us to
rejoice that there's no condemnation for us now. We're no longer under
the law of sin and death. We've been made free from the
law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus that abides in our hearts. And the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us. Get that now. The righteousness
of the law is fulfilled in us. The righteousness of the law
is the righteousness of God. Everything God requires, all
the perfection that God is, we have righteously fulfilled the
whole law of God. in Christ. His obedience is our
faithful obedience, and He's justified us from all sin. We've
been brought back now into that state that Adam was in before
he ever fell, and we have communion with God. But it's better because
it came about by the second Adam, who offered himself through the
eternal Spirit, and the eternal Spirit abides in us, and we have
eternal life now, eternal communion with our God. peace with our
God, and nothing can stop it, nothing can interfere with it,
nothing can hinder Him from keeping us and bringing us to Himself. And so James says here in James
1.12, So speak ye, and so do as they that shall be judged
by the law of liberty, that law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus, knowing that Our judgment is passed. We'll be judged in
mercy, in the law of liberty. And so, this has been the subject
of his epistle from the beginning. He's been talking to brethren,
believers, and he says that over and over throughout the book.
Brethren, beloved, my beloved brethren. To remind continually
that we're talking about brethren here. And these things that he
reminds us to avoid are things that are in our flesh still,
that we war with continually, and that's why we have to be
reminded of what we are in our flesh. And as we're reminded
of what we are in our flesh, he reminds us of what Christ
has done for us. This has been the subject of
the epistle from the beginning, speaking and doing. I want you
to look with me just a moment. Back up at the first chapter.
In the various trials of this life, The believer doesn't only
say he believes, but he counts it all joy. He counts it all
joy. I want you to notice the doing
that James speaks of here. Notice these action words that
James gives us in verse 4. He says, let patience have her
perfect work. Endure. Endure patiently the
trial. That's doing, brethren. Verse
5, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God. That's doing. That's not only hearing and believing,
but truly acting on Him, asking Him in faith. Verse 9, he says,
let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he's exalted,
but the rich in that he's made low rejoice in whatever state
we're in, knowing that God's work is for our good. Rejoicing,
that's an active, living, doing in the believer. Rejoicing in
Christ. He says in verse 19, knowing
that we've been begotten by the word of truth, he says, wherefore
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear. Hearing
is an act. To speak, slow to speak. Speaking
is an action. Slow to wrath, slow to be offended.
Look at verse 21. Wherefore lay apart, put off
the old man. All that excessive fleshly wisdom
and understanding and reasoning, put all that aside. Put it off.
That's an action. And receive with meekness the
engrafted word. That's doing, brethren. He says
in verse 27, pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father is this, to visit. as doing, to visit the fatherless
and widows in their affliction, in their trial, in their trouble,
those that are helpless to help themselves, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world. He told us in chapter 2, and
we do these things not with the respect of persons, expecting
advantage from somebody, but dealing with all in mercy, even
as our God has dealt with us mercifully. So you see, James
has been dealing with not only hearing, not only believing,
but doing. Paul put these things the same
way. All these things that James has
said, Paul put them this way. Remembering without ceasing your
work of faith. your labor of love, your patience
of hope, and our Lord Jesus Christ in sight of God and our Father.
So James says, don't only believe this, brethren. Don't only believe
God's word, but do these things. Be doers of this word. In verse
James 1, 22, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only,
deceiving your own selves. And so in chapter two in verse
12, he says, so speak ye and so do as they that should be
judged by the law of liberty. Do we trust God? Do we believe
God? And James is saying, then let's
act like we do. Let's act like we do. conduct
ourselves like we do. All right, now we're going to
consider the unprofitableness of one who merely says he has
faith. The title of the message is Faith
Justified by Works. Faith Justified by Works. James
2.14. What doth it profit, my brethren,
Though a man, somebody who says he has faith, somebody who's
claiming he has faith, though a man say he hath faith and have
not works, can faith save him? That so-called faith that is
not accompanied with these works, this patient endurance, this
asking of God, this receiving his word and putting off that
old man, keeping ourselves unspotted from the world, and visiting
one another in love and mercy, If he says he has faith, but
he doesn't have any of that that accompanies true faith, is that
going to profit him anything? Is that going to be profitable
for anything? And it gives an illustration. Verse 15. If a brother or a sister be naked
and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding you
give them not those things which are needful to the body. What
does it profit? What does that profit? Now, he
says you don't give it to them, because he's saying that if that's
us, if that's us who's not giving, then we're not profiting anything
by the faith that we claim we believe, and those that are around
us aren't profited by it. But you want to get the gist
of this illustration, then let's look at it this way. You were
naked and destitute. You who believe God, you were
absolutely naked in sin and rebellion against God and destitute of
any food whatsoever. But God didn't merely say to
you, peace to you, be warmed and filled.
He didn't merely say that to you. He didn't merely make a
promise to you. But He gave His only begotten
Son. He gave His only begotten Son.
And the faithful one, Christ Jesus the Lord, He didn't merely
say He believed the Father and loved His brethren. He didn't
merely say that. When the fullness of time was
come, when the trial came, you know what He did? He manifest
the righteousness of His faith. He manifest the pureness of His
faith. He counted it all joy. He endured
the trial of His faith, every trial, even unto death, even
the death of the cross. He patiently endured it. He asked
His Father in perfect faith. He sanctified Himself that He
might sanctify His people through the truth. Kept Himself unspotted
from the world. He visited sinners in our utter
helplessness, brethren. Sinners. Sinners. Ones that everybody else would
have nothing to do with. That's who He came to save. That's
who He came to serve. And He didn't only speak peace,
He finished the work. He wrought peace between His
people and God. He did the work. He finished
the work. There's nothing left for His
people to do. He did it for them. He finished
the work. Justified them. Made them righteous
and holy in Himself. And He clothed us in His righteousness. He went to the Father, He returned
to the Father, He sat down at the right hand of the Father,
and He sent forth His messengers, He sends forth His pastors, He
sends forth His Holy Spirit, He sends forth His Word, and
He quickens and makes alive in the heart, and He clothes us
in His righteousness. And He gives us life in Him,
and He continues to keep us and feed us with the bread of life.
He does that. Had God the Father and Christ
our Savior merely promised and not worked the work, it would
have been no profit in declaring God righteous and faithful. It wouldn't have been any profit
to God, would it? He wouldn't have declared His
righteousness and His faithfulness if He had merely made a promise
and not performed the work. And it would have been no profit
to you and I because we would have never been clothed in His
righteousness and given this bread of heaven. But how was
His faithfulness, the faithfulness of God and the faithfulness of
His Son, how was it manifest to you and I, brethren? Hereby
perceive we. This is how we enter into it
and realize His faithfulness and His truth. Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us. He did something. That's how
we know. Well, James says in verse 17, James 2.17, Even so
faith, brethren, if it have not works, is dead, being alone. Dead faith profits you nothing
and it profits no one else anything. Now, here's the first objection. Objection number one, verse 18.
Yes, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Someone
might object and say, well, grace is not always manifested in the
same way. You might excel in faith, but
I might excel in works. James says, show me thy faith
without thy works. Can you do that? I'll show thee my faith by my
works, he said. The believer, we're not in the
business of boasting of our works of faith. But wherever faith
is, life is. Wherever life is, there's living
and moving and breathing and acting. There's a commitment
to Christ and to the brethren wherever life is. Faith is alive. It's alive, brethren. We're alive
if we have faith. And living things grow and move
and act. Look down there at verse 26.
He said, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also. I used to go up to the crib when
Emma and Will were asleep and just watch them sleeping. And
they rest so soundly sometimes that they wouldn't even move.
And you'd look at them and you kind of want to reach down there
and touch them and make sure they're alive. And then you see
them breathing, or they move, or they roll over, they do something.
And you know they're alive. The Lord said, even so, every
good tree bringeth forth good fruit. It's not a maybe. It's not a possibility that this
is going to happen. It's going to happen. When Christ
takes over dominion in the heart and there's a life in the heart,
the life of Christ exists, there's going to be some good fruit.
So true faith, brethren, it's justified as being true faith
because it's always accompanied by works of faith, by labor of
love, by patience of hope. There can be works where there
is no faith. That's possible. Without this
love of God in the heart, that's possible. But it's absolutely
impossible to have faith without works. That's what James is saying. Well, here's the second objection.
Somebody might say, well, I might not have works, but I still believe
God. Look at verse 19. Thou believest that there is
one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
You hear no better than devils. The devils believe there's one
God. The devils believe and they tremble at the fact. But devils
don't have any love for God. And they show no works of faith,
no labor of love, no patience of hope. A man can make a boast
of faith He can argue doctrine. He can defend doctrine. He can
be accurate in everything he claims to believe. He can give
all his goods to feed people. But if the love of God is not
in the heart, James says, verse 20, But wilt thou know, O vain
man, that faith without works is dead? And I'm going to talk
to you at the end a little bit more about that, about a man
being able to preach without this love, without this faith,
and a man being able to understand all doctrine without this love
and this faith, and be able to give without this love and this
faith. And I'll show you the work that manifests the difference.
Now we come to some examples of works of faith. That was an
illustration to show us how absurd it is to say we have faith without
works. Which is absurd to say that you
fed and clothed somebody that came to you that went away empty
and unclothed and hungry. Just that foolish to say you
have faith without any works. Now here's the example he gives
of faith, the works of faith. Verse 21, Was not Abraham our
father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son
upon the altar? Turn over to Genesis 21 and let's
look at this. Genesis 21. Let's see what this
work of faith is. Genesis 22, verse 1. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham. He gave Abraham a trial. and
said unto him, Abraham. And Abraham said, Behold, here
I am. Now, have you and I suffered a trial? Have we suffered a trial? Now, both of these examples of
faith that are given here are examples of faith which are proven,
where faith is proven to be true faith by a trial, by a trial,
by that which is It's not possible for us to do in our flesh. It's
not possible for us to do it in our flesh, these things. Now
watch this. Have we suffered a trial? How
about this kind? Verse 2. And the Lord said, Take
now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." This is Abraham's son. This is
his only son. This is the son he loves. This
is the son of whom it was said, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. But Abraham believed God. He
believed God. He accounted, the Hebrew writer
said, he accounted that God was able to raise up even from the
dead. That's the faith he had. He accounted
that God was able to raise up even from the dead. He knew that he himself was an
idolater in a land of idolatry, dead in trespasses and sins,
and God had come to him and raised him from the dead and given him
life in Christ. He knew that. He knew that he
was old and couldn't have a child, and Sarah's womb was dead, and
yet God raised up a son from the dead through Sarah's womb
and gave him Isaac. He had seen that. He believed
God. He knew God was faithful and true to His word. And so
Abraham charged God faithful. He charged him able to raise
up his son even from the dead. Now what God the Father commanded
Abraham to do is what God the Father had done for Abraham and
done for you who know him and trust him. He gave his only begotten
son, the son of his love. The Father offered him up for
a burnt offering, a sacrifice well pleasing to God. The Lord
Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and he was glad. Abraham believed
God. This is what Abraham saw. He
saw God giving him his own son. He saw God providing his son. And he knew God was faithful.
That was all his salvation, all his hope. Like David, God had
made with him an everlasting covenant. It was ordered. It
was sure in all things. And it was all Abraham's hope.
And he knew, if he's done that for me, whatever else he does,
it'll be for my good. It can only be for my good. And
he believed him. He had genuine God-given faith. How do we know that? Verse 3.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his
ass, took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son,
and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and
went unto the place of which God had told him." Abraham was
swift to hear God's Word. He was slow to speak against
God's Word, slow to be offended by God's Word. He received the
Word from God. You see, you think, well, this
is a strange thing for God to tell somebody to offer up his
only son. If you've offered up less, God
won't receive you. He just won't receive you. We
got to wholly be trusting in Christ Jesus, the son of God
alone and nothing else. God won't receive us. He won't
receive us. And this thing wasn't... God
doesn't tell us to do what's right, brethren. It's right because
God tells us to do it. And that's what faith believes.
Did it stand to reason? If he started reasoning in his
own mind, that's polluted vanity. It does no good. Don't think
with the insane membrane here. Don't think with that. That won't
do you any good. If God said it, it's right. I'm going to
do it. I'm going to do it. I believe
Him. Verse 4, Then on the third day
Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. You know,
three days is a long trial when you're about to offer your only
son. That's a long time to think about it, isn't it? But you know
what we see here Abraham doing? We see him patiently enduring
the trial, don't we? He's doing the work of God. Do you suppose he asked God for
wisdom during that time? God said, I will tell you which
mountain that you're going to offer him on. He didn't tell
him the mountain to offer him on at first. He said, I'll tell
you which mountain Abraham went not even knowing which mountain
it was he was going to offer him on. You think he communed
with God on the way there? Asking God for wisdom. Asking
God to keep him from the spots of this world and from that filthiness
of his own flesh. Verse 5 says, And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. Abraham
believed God was able to raise his son even from the dead. He
said, we're going there to worship. And I am the latter coming back
to you. We'll be back. You know, if I was to reason
upon my works, my faith, it'd be pretty poor. I wouldn't have
much hope. Much hope at all. God says, God says, you provide for my people and
don't worry about yourself. I'll provide for you. We think, well, I, you know,
I got all this business going on. I can't miss this business
now. This was Abraham's only son who God said to promise the
Messiah was coming through. Who owned his son? Who gave his
son life? Who gave him his son? Who promised
the Messiah? Who gave you your business? Who
promised you? Who's the one that's going to
make it prosperous? Who's going to provide for you?
Who's giving you all your sustenance? That's unbelief to think otherwise. It's unbelief. It's not the work
of God. It's unbelief. And we're so full
of that. So full of that. But he said,
I'll come back. I'm coming back to you. Verse
6, And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid
it upon Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand
and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake
unto Abraham his father and said, My father? And Abraham said,
Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire
and the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And
here we get a little example of visiting someone in affliction. They're going up that mountain,
and Isaac knows if they're going to worship God, they can't go
except they come in a lamb. And he knows if they're going
to offer a burnt offering, they've got to have a lamb. They can't
go up there without a lamb. And he's concerned over this
matter. He's looking at his daddy and thinking, Dad, what are you
thinking? Dad, here's the wood, here's
the fire, we've got everything, but we didn't bring a lamb. How
are we going to come to God without a lamb? Abraham didn't unbridle
his tongue and give that boy a lashing, did he? In his affliction,
when he's asking his father, Father, what are we going to
do about a lamb? He didn't unbridle his tongue or scold Isaac. He
visited Isaac in his affliction. And this is what he said, verse
8. And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
Here's what he visited his son with. God will provide. My son, God will provide. Do you believe that? Do we believe
God will provide? Abraham is manifesting he believed
God will provide. He's doing what God told him
to do. Do we believe that God will provide a lamb? God gave
His Son, the spotless Lamb of God. That's what Abraham believed. God will provide Himself. God
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. God, the
Son of God, is that lamb. God providing Himself a lamb.
He bought the church with His own blood. God did. And if you believe Him, if I
believe Him, here's the work of faith. So they went both of
them up together. They went up that mountain together.
Verse 9. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood." You think of this. Isaac's been
carrying the wood. He's been helping with all of
the things they carried up there. Isaac's a sizable boy. Abraham
didn't have to wrestle him. He laid down on that altar. Christ
Jesus, the Son of God, laid down His life willingly. And Abraham
willingly had his son laid down on that altar. God the Father
willingly gave His Son who willingly laid down His life. His Father
bound Isaac on that altar. He bound him on it. The religious
hosts and men who hate God bound Him to the cross. They nailed
Him to the cross. But God the Father bound Him
to the cross by making Him sin for His people. And Christ Jesus
the Lord willingly bound Himself to that cross by entering into
surety engagement before the world ever began. And He shows
us His faith by doing it. He did it. Verse 10, and Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. He didn't waver,
did he? He didn't show respect of persons.
He didn't say, now this is my boy. Lord, I'm Abraham now. He drew back his hand and took
that knife And he was about to slit the throat of his son just
like they would a lamb and drain the blood out of him. That's
exactly what he was intending to do in his heart. Brethren,
that's believing God. That's believing God. That's
the work of God. Verse 11, And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thy hand
upon the lad, and neither do thou anything unto him. For now
I know that thou fearest God. God knew this before. He knew
this before. But God worked this in Abraham
by His grace, and you might read it this way. Now I've made it
known before all men. I've made it known before all
men." How does James say faith is justified? Is true faith?
Seeing thou has not withheld thy son, thine
only son, from me. That's how. He didn't withhold
anything from God. God gave it to him. It was God's. That boy was God. God gave him
the boy. He said, you want him Lord? Here
he is. He's yours. We get a hold of our things and
act like we really earned them ourselves and got them ourselves. He gave us the breath. He gave
us the energy. He gave us the understanding.
He gave us the wisdom. He gave us the place. He gave
it to us. And we somehow act like now if
we don't hold on to this, we're not going to be able to make
it. The angel of the Lord said, I
know thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thy only son, from me. Did you get that? The angel of
the Lord said that to him. You've not withheld. You believe
the Lord because you've not withheld your only son from me. This is
the angel of the Lord, brethren. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. Verse 13, And Abraham lifted
up his eyes and looked, And behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by his horns. Do you see Christ, the Lamb of
God, with the thorns pressed down upon His brow? Do you see
Him caught in the thorns of the sin and rebellion that we are?
Do you see Him caught in the thorns of the wrath of God as
He pours it out upon Him? Look at this. And Abraham went
and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in
the stead of his son. In place of. As the substitute
of his son. That's what Abraham saw by faith
from the beginning. This is what Abraham was trusting
from the beginning. This was the sum of Abraham's
faith. Substitution! God has provided himself a lamb. Verse 14, And Abraham called
the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day, in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. He said, My son, God
will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And after this,
he said, we're going to call this place from now on God has
provided. God has provided Himself a lamb.
I've heard him speak. I've heard him talk. He told
me, don't you put your son on that altar, take him off that
altar and see in that ram over there caught in the thicket what
I'm going to do for you and for that boy Abraham. That's what
the Lord Jesus Christ told him. And he had the Word of God. He
had it from the beginning. This is why all this was manifest. He really did trust God. And
He manifested. You hold your place there in
Genesis 22.14. I'm going to come back to it in just a minute.
Look back in James 2.22 now. See'st thou how faith wrought
with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? It was
justified as genuine faith. 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.
He believed God long before this. He was justified, accepted in
the beloved long before this. He was the friend of God long
before this. But the Scripture was fulfilled
in the sense that Abraham's obedience to God's Word in offering up
his son Isaac manifest that the faith he had was genuine faith. The Scriptures were fulfilled.
Indeed, Abraham truly did believe God. And we see it by this work
that he did. James said to us that he that
endureth to the end shall receive the crown of life which your
Lord hath promised to them that love him. I want you to listen
to this in Genesis 22.15 back there. And the angel of the Lord called
Abraham out of heaven. This is the Lord speaking. This
is the angel of the Lord. This is Christ, the Son of God
speaking to Abraham. And he called Abraham out of
heaven the second time and he said, By myself have I sworn,
saith the Lord. For because thou hast done this
thing, it is not withheld thy son, thine only son. In blessing
I'll bless thee, in multiplying I'll multiply thy seed as the
stars of heaven, as the sand which is upon the seashore. Thy
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou
hast obeyed my voice. And so Abraham returned unto
his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba,
and Abraham dwelt there, him and Isaac together. You see this
crown of righteousness, this rejoicing that Abraham received?
He just obeyed God. He just obeyed God. Well, back
in our text, brethren, the second example is Rahab, and we don't
have time to get into Rahab specifically. We've looked at her before. But
she was justified by that her faith was genuine as well. She
received the messengers and sent them out another way. The king
came to her. sent word to her, and she had
the spies in her house, and the king sent word to her, and said,
where are those spies? And Rahab, believing God, said,
I sent them out another way. And so the king sent all his
folks out that way to go after them, and they shut the gates,
and when they did, then Rahab told the spies in her house,
now you go out another way. You go out this other way. And
here's why she did it. She said, we have heard We've
heard how the Lord dried up the Red Sea and delivered you out
of Egypt." And she said, and when we heard that, our hearts
melted. And she said, I know that the
Lord God, the God of heaven, is your God. I know He is. And He's the God of the earth
beneath. That's why she did what she did. She believed God. She
trusted God. You might say, reason this way
and say, well, that was such a risk for her. She risked death. No, she didn't. No, she didn't. The Lord Jesus Christ said, don't
fear them that can just kill your body and can't do anything
to your soul. Fear Him who can kill both body
and soul. It was a risk for her not to
trust Christ and do what she did. It's a risk for us not to
trust Him and obey Him and commit everything to Him and to His
brethren as well. But now, look at this. I want
you to get this, and this is our closing comments. These works
of faith are the fruit and the effects of the love of God who
lives and abides in our hearts, brethren. We perceive the love
of God because He laid down His life for us, John said. And he
said we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. James
said Abraham was called the friend of God. God had manifest to Abraham
how that God was Abraham's friend in providing his son, that one
who sticks closer than a brother. And Abraham manifested his friendship
to God by obeying God, doing what God gave him to do. And
so Rahab did the same and they laid down their lives for him. Now brethren, Paul said, I'm
not going to have you turn there, but I'm getting this out of 1
Corinthians 13.1. You can read it at your leisure, but let me
give you this. Paul said preaching is good. I could have the tongues
of angels and be able to preach. That's fine. But only when the
love of Christ constrains us Will we preach Christ and Him
crucified alone? Because it's going to cause great
trial that goes against all our reasoning, all our carnal understanding,
all our carnal wants to go some other way and some other fashion
to get people into some religious profession. If the love of God
is in the heart, it's going to constrain a man to preach Christ. He said, understanding is good. There's men who are ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They
have it. They've got it. They understand
all. They've got it, the truth. But
they don't believe the truth. They love their understanding.
They love their intellect. They worship their finding out.
They worship their seeking. They worship their finding and
knowing and debating and banting these things back and forth like
a volleyball. But the love of God in the heart makes a man
look into this word for Christ alone and seek Christ alone.
Faith is good. It's good to believe. We covered
that with James. You believe? Well, good. You're
like the devils. They do too. But only the love
of God's gonna make you lay down your life for Christ. Submit
to Him. Submit all to Him. To be used
of Him with everything He puts in our hands. We are here for
Him. He's our work. He's our occupation. He's our vocation. He's our profession. Now everything else that I was
striving for when I didn't know Him, going to college and trying
to get all my stuff, is just something I do on the side to
provide for Him and worship Him. You understand that? I don't
fit him into my schedule when I have time. Now I got everything
else arranged around him and his brethren. And without that,
I'm a liar. Restoring all our goods is good.
It's good, but only when the love of Christ is in the heart
will we do it because we're truly wanting to provide for brethren,
to take away every obstacle and hindrance that's going to keep
them from seeing Christ, that they might worship the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Everything else, we might as
well be in the Catholic church buying us some forgiveness and
a soothed conscience so we can go on living like we want to
live and do what we want to do. That widow that came there with
those two mites and she gave those two mites gave everything
she had. How you gonna eat when you get
home tonight, woman? Don't you, aren't you wise as
we are? Look at us, we gave some stuff, but we kept back a little
bit so we'll have something when we get home. That's what Ananias
and Sapphira did. That was their heart. We'll give,
but now, let's hang on to something, cause after all, this is our
life. What is your life? What is your
life? What is it? Is it vacationing
somewhere? Is it going off to see the tropics? Is it to do all the, just fill
yourself with pleasure of this world? That's the only commodity
we have in this country anymore, is pleasure. That's it, we got
nothing else. All the cargo ships are coming
over here full and going back empty. Because all we got is
pleasure. What's done, what good's it done
us? Huh? What good has it done us? When the believer perceives the
love of God for him, it'll be manifest in his forsaking everything
else for Christ and His brethren. They're not merely works of morality. You can do that. You can do that. It's a consecrated life to God
and to his brethren. I'm not going to go home to my
mother and my father today. I've got family on both sides
of my family, aunts and uncles and nephews and cousins that
live within 20 miles of one another. They have get-togethers every
week. They see each other constantly.
And I'm generally the only one that ain't there. But you know
what? I'm not worried about going and
burying the dead. Let the dead bury the dead. This
is my family. God's put me here to serve you,
not to serve anybody else, to serve you. I can't go home and
sit around and laze around on the couch and do nothing. That
woman right there supports this work far more than she ought
to have to support this work. I can't lay around. I can't take
a vacation. We're in this thing, brethren,
because it's our life, not in this thing because it's just
something we get together and do every now and again. So we
can go on out and kick up our heels and live high on the hog
and and not feel bad about it, is this life? Is Christ our life? Is everything else fading, fleeing,
a vapor that will soon vanish away? If it is, we'll manifest it. If it is, we'll manifest it. It'll be proven. The widow laid down her two mites,
that was her Isaac. That woman that came with that
alabaster box of ointment, 300 pence they said it cost. Is that
what he offered for a day's work? The Lord offered, said in that
parable, a day's work, was a pence. 300 pence, that was almost a
year's wages. And she brought that box and
never gave it a second thought, and busted it open and poured
it on the Lord. King David said, I will not offer
burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost
me nothing. It cost God his son. Is there
anything, anything, anything, Too great for me to give up anything. This is the commandment. That
we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love
one another as He gave us commandment. And He that keepeth His commandments
dwelleth in Him and He in Him. And hereby we know that He abideth
in us by the Spirit which He hath given us. You know, I don't know your heart. The Lord said, no man knows another's
heart but the one that's in him. I don't know your spirit. I don't
know your heart. But you do. You do. You know. And this is what James is saying.
It's not about you looking at me. You know the church at Corinth,
they bound Paul's hands. They bound Paul's hands in their
belittling of the gospel and how little they thought of it,
and then criticized Paul for not serving them like the other
preachers they liked to serve. It's not looking at somebody
else. James says, if we don't continue in this world, we deceive
our own selves. This is a heart-searching thing.
This is, Lord, Lord, keep me. Keep me. But we have assurance
in the heart because you're here. Brethren have sacrificed. You
have given up. You come from great distances. I guarantee you that there'll
be folks that won't show up in churches all over the country,
all over the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic this morning because of the snow,
that somehow make it out to a Super Bowl party tonight. It just won't
quite be as bad. Even if the roads wasn't even
cleared, it wouldn't be as bad. They can do that. We used to
hunt an hour away, duck hunt, an hour away from where we lived.
And man, we'd go sleet, snow, rain, it didn't matter. Just
every day of the season, we would go there. And when we'd get up
to go to church on Sunday mornings, my friends would be like, why
in the world do y'all drive? We had to go an hour. Why do
y'all drive an hour to go to church? Wherever our heart is,
that's where our treasure will be. That's just fact. Just fact. James says, but whoso
looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth, he
being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be blessed in his days. Abraham received nothing but
rejoicing from the Lord. The Lord spoke into his heart
and he said, Abraham, there's nothing that's going to defeat
you. There's nothing that's going to come between me and you. All
the rest of your days, you're mine and I'm going to bless you
beyond your wildest imagination. You trust him. I think you do.
I think you trust him. I think you believe him. As this
love grows, as we grow in this grace, this commitment grows,
brethren. It becomes life, life, life. That's my prayer, life. Amen.