If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to James this morning, James chapter 2. James chapter
2. My text will be found in verse
26. But we're going to be moving through around James quite a
bit this morning, I believe so. But this is where I want us to
focus our attention, because this is going to be my topic
this morning. And I've entitled it, Just What
James Says Here. Faith without works is dead. James says in verse 26 of chapter
2, verse 4, "...as the body without the Spirit is dead." He uses
an illustration here that we can all visually see to make
a spiritual point. He says, "...as the body without
the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead Also, as
I've preached the gospel in many different places over the years,
I love to preach the gospel, and I love to fellowship with
people I haven't met before. I used to preach at a hospital,
and you'd get all kinds of different people come in every Sunday,
and you'd want to get to know them. They'd hear the message,
and the question I desired most was this. Are you a Christian? Are you a believer in Jesus Christ?
And strangely, you don't think you'd get these kind of answers,
but you do. Are you a Christian? No, I'm a Catholic. Some would
say, no, I'm a Baptist. No, I'm Episcopalian. And that
didn't make any sense to me. What does that have to do with
anything? Are you a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? They'd
insert their denominations. Some would say, yeah, I'm a Christian.
But then you ask them questions about sin, righteousness, judgment,
about Christ and His work, and they don't have any understanding
of these simple things. These rudimentary things that
believers know. They say, I love Jesus. I love
Jesus. I got that a lot. And you say,
oh, yeah, you do. Well, where do you worship? Well,
I don't really go to church. Do you know? Do you read? No,
I really don't read the scriptures very much, but I really love
Jesus. I don't pray as often as I should, but I really love
Jesus. A man can attend. Now, I want
you to understand that none of those things saves us. I mean,
if we attend church, if we read our Bible, if we pray, none of
those things save us. But listen to me. If you are
saved, you will do these things. You will do these things. A man
can attend church. A man can even preach the gospel
and be lost. Our Lord said in Matthew chapter
7, many will say to me in that day, when they approach Him in
judgment, they will say to me, Lord, Lord. You see, they're
making a profession here. They profess Him to be Lord. They profess to have loved Him.
They profess to have served Him as their Lord. And they say,
have we not preached in Your name? And in Your name cast out
devils, and in Your name done many wonderful works you see
what their profession was their salvation was based on their
preaching on their their miracles and on their works and Jesus
is going to make a profession he's going to say I profess that's
what you profess now this is what I profess I profess this
I never knew you Depart from me and listen what
he said about their work. You that work, they do work. Nobody denies they do work. Your
work is iniquity. Your work was not righteous,
it was full of sin. These who profess Christ are
not then, they're only professors. They only make a vain profession
of faith. These men may be religious. They
may be moral men. But listen, if they don't know
Christ, listen to this, Christ don't know them. Christ don't
know them. They don't know Christ. A man
is never to rely on his works or knowledge to save him. A man
is never saved by works or physical knowledge. A man is not even
saved by his faith. You can't be saved without faith,
but I promise you this, you are not saved by your faith. What I mean by that is faith
is not just a mere profession. It is a gift of God. If you have
not true faith, there are many people who have faith, and they
have faith in their faith. If you have faith in your faith,
your faith is dead. You see, we who believe Christ
have faith in the object of our faith. Why? Because our faith
is always fluctuating. It's never... I mean, at times,
we don't even have faith. At times, our faith is almost
nothing. But the object of our faith is
always everything. He's my salvation, even when
my faith is low. He's the object of my faith.
Faith is a grace. For by grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God, faith is.
It's a gift of God, not of works. Not of works. Why? Lest any man
has any room to boast or brag. Jonah said salvation is of the
Lord. So we know that salvation is not by works. But we must
see this, that all true faith does work. It's not by works, but this is
the point. All true faith works. When God
gives a man faith, He also gives him work. We are created in Christ
Jesus unto what? Works, which God has ordained. Before the foundation, He ordained
our good works, that we should walk in them. So he gives a man
faith. He also, James is saying, look,
he gives him works. He gives him evidence that that
faith is genuine. A man that has truth-saving faith
has works. What do I mean by works? I mean
obedience. That's what I mean. We honor
and love God. Works is anything done in faith
and love. We're going to see that in just
a minute. A good work is anything done in faith and love. And that's
a product of true saving faith. Our salvation is never, and I'm
emphasizing this being very important, because I'm going to talk about
the works of a believer. Every believer has works, and
we're going to talk about those works, but these works are not
to be trusted, they're not to be rested on, they're just products
of what faith is, faith does. Titus chapter 3 says, "...not
of works of righteousness which we have done." But according to His mercy He
saved us. You're saved by mercy. And the evidence of this is the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. The new nature
is given to you. That's what's happening when
He saves you. He gives you a new heart, a new
nature. by His power and grace which
He shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that
being justified by His grace." We're never justified by these
works. Never, never, never. And when James talks about being
justified by works, he's talking about manifestation. He's talking
about when our faith is justified. Our faith is evident. What is he saying? He's saying
you're not justified by your works. It's just your faith is
justified, it's true. And if you don't have these works,
James is telling you, you're not alive, you're dead. Your
faith is dead. But we're saved justified by
grace before God. Heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. But those who are saved by faith, saved by grace
of God and given faith to believe in Christ as our only hope, with
faith comes good works and these This is the fruit of the Spirit.
That's what he's talking about, that evident fruit of the Spirit. If you have the fruits of the
Spirit, do they always stay inside? Well,
I have love, and I have faith, and I have meekness, and I have
temperance, but you know what? I never manifest any of those.
It's all in here. See, these fruits of the Spirit
are not just doctrines to be rattled around your head, they're
to be exercised in your body. Love. How does love manifest? What if I never see you? What
if I never care for you? What if I never talk to you? Do I
love you? Well, I could say it. I don't
mean anything, because I don't have love for you if I don't
do those things. See, love has to be manifest if it's real.
Faith has to be manifest if it's real. Temperance has to be manifest
if it's real. These fruits of the Spirit are
to be lived out and exercised in every true believer. Now look at your text with me.
James says this, "...for as the body is dead without the Spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead." He's using a very simple
analogy. Come on. You take a dead man. He just died. He's a very fit
man, a very handsome fellow, and he's laying there and he's
dead. And you look at his body and you say, well, man, he looks
like a specimen. He looks like a fit man. Look
at that. He's got muscle. He's got hands,
strong hands, strong legs. Look at him. Wait a second. Something's missing. What is
it? It doesn't matter how strong
his muscles were. It doesn't matter how strong his legs were.
If he doesn't have life, he's dead. And faith is the same way. You look at a man and say, well,
man, look, he believes the doctrines of grace. He attends church.
He goes in prayer meeting. He looks fit. But if there is
no exercise of the fruits of the Spirit, what's wrong with
him? He has no life. He's dead. His faith is vain
and empty. This is a dead man can do nothing. So is a man that is holding on
to faith to save him that has no real object of faith. There's a difference between
believing about Jesus and believing on Jesus. Massive difference. Massive difference. James says
in 2.19, he says, you believe there's one God, well, you've
done well. But the devils do that, and you know what? They
do something you don't. They actually fear. You don't
even fear. You believe God, so what? Believing about Jesus and relying
on Jesus are two different things. Trusting Christ and trusting
what you heard about Him are two different things. I heard
this a long time ago, a large denomination, somehow they got
290,000 people to make a profession of faith. They recorded it. They did this on purpose, got
everybody up there, 290,000 people. And just a few months later,
they wanted to see what happened to them. They could only account
for 14,000 still actively attending after a few months. You see, these only made a profession
of faith. They exercised a choice, as though
they would choose a hamburger or a french fry. They chose Jesus. And then they unchose Him later. You see, if you come to Christ
by the power of your will, you can go away by the power of your
will. Salvation does not come by decision, but by God Himself. It is a revelation. It is a resurrection. It is a miracle of grace if you
believe on Christ. All those who base their salvation
on some decision or work that they've done and not on Christ
Himself, listen, there won't any work follow. Not any true
work of grace in their heart because their faith is dead.
The Apostle James in this book, he's dealing with the subject
of self-deception. If you want to know what he's
dealing with, he wants you not to be deceived. Some in his day, as in our day,
have the idea that making mental assent is following Christ. But they don't have true faith.
They don't have any life. They go on their way thinking
they're going to heaven. What a horrible situation. Remember
ignorance and the pilgrim's progress? He just went on happy-go-lucky.
Everything's well. Well, Christian said, that's
not the way. And he said, well, that's your
opinion. I'm just going to go this way. And we'll all get to
the same place. No. It wasn't until he got there
he found out he was cast out. Listen, I have a purpose in this
message. I don't want any of us to be
deceived. Please. Please. It's the heart's desire
that you know if your faith is living or dead. I don't want you to be deceived,
to think you have life, and to think you can have faith without
works to show it. You may live and see as you fit
and cling to this idea, one saved always saved. Well, that's true
if you were one saved. But what if you weren't once
saved? That don't apply to you, does it? So that's my first point here.
True faith works. True faith works. Now, work does
not produce faith. That's religion's view, isn't
it? Go out and do something and that will generate faith. No. Works don't produce faith. But everyone who has true faith
does produce works. All God-given faith will manifest
itself in obedience to the law of Christ. To the law of Christ. You see, we are not antinomian.
We do not go back under the law of Moses, but we do have a law,
and it is the law of Christ. You want to see it? When I'm
talking about all of these works, you want to know that you're
going to see a pattern in all these works that believers do, is that
they're always done in faith and love. Why? That's the law
of Christ. Go to John. Go to 1 John chapter
3. 1 John chapter 3. Listen to this.
In verse 23, and this is His commandment. Wait, that's His law, isn't it?
This is His commandment. When James is talking about the
commandments, all throughout this book, this is what he's
talking about. And this is His commandment. That we should believe
on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. Well, there's law number
one. Commandment number one. Believe
on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. You want to know commandment
number two? Here it is. And love one another as He gave
us commandments. 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 that he has given us. How do we know that?
If we keep his commandments. And he says later, his commandments
are not grievous. Listen, why in the world would
faith in Christ be grievous? If you really believe in Christ,
that's not grievous. Matter of fact, we want more
of it. You want more faith? Yes. Love for Christ. Is that grievous? How about love for your brethren?
Is that grievous? Not to the new man, it's not.
I want to tell you something, it is to the flesh. Now, you're
going to war with that, but we'll get to that in just a minute. What are some of the works, then,
that this law produces? First of all, I want us to see
this love to God. If you have true faith, you will
love God. That's just so, isn't it? That's
just a natural process. Go over to the Gospel of John,
Chapter 3. Gospel of John, Chapter 3. Y'all know this. Everybody knows
this really well. Verse 16, For God so loved the world Here's
love. John says not that we love God,
but that He loved us. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. There's a manifestation of His
love. Now, see, God's love works. Isn't that right? God's love
manifests itself. How? He gave His Son for the
purpose that sinners, that we should believe on Him, that whosoever
should believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting
life. God sent His Son not into the world to condemn the world.
Why? It was already condemned. but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned. He that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
on the name of the only begotten Son. And this is the condemnation,
that light is coming to the world. And what do men love? We loved
something first, didn't we? What did we love? Darkness. Men
loved darkness rather than light. Christ came into the world, the
light of the world came in, and we loved what? Darkness. That's
what we loved. Natural man loves darkness. He loves to hide his sin. And so, that's why men like confusion. Men like to confuse religion
so they can hide in it. When the light shines, there's
no hiding. And men love darkness rather than light because their
deeds are evil. For everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light,
neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
He that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be manifest, that they are wrought in God. What do we love
now? We love the light. We love darkness,
but now we love light. We love God. Why? He first loved
us, gave His Son to us, gave His Spirit to us. We love God. Do you love God? Let me tell you this. One of
the easiest things in the world to do is say, yes, I love God. Even people that totally despise
it can say it. Easy to say, right? What's the
manifestation that you love God? Remember, faith without works
is dead. Here's one, worship. Those who
love God, worship God. Worship God. Here's a work that
every believer is inclined to do in their heart to worship
God To worship God listen what Paul says in Hebrews 10 verse
24 Let us consider one another To provoke unto love and good
works and that following the law of Christ love one another
In worship, don't you know you're fulfilling the law of God and
loving one another? You are. How do you do that?
Provoking one another, encouraging one another to continue in the
faith. Provoking one another to love,
comfort, peace, joy, simply by going. By worshiping and loving
God, you love someone else. You exhibit love to your brethren,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter
of some myth. As I've told you before, this building is important,
not because it's a building. Who cares about what the building
is? It's just a building. But what
we do there is vitally important. We provoke one another, we encourage
one another to love. How? Through the preaching of
this Gospel, through the remembrance of the things of God that Christ
has accomplished on our behalf, it provokes me to love Him, which
provokes me to love you. If I don't love Him, I can't
love you. If you don't love Him, you can't
love me. We are just unlovable people. But if you love Him, and His
love is in you, your love will be for me, and my love will be
for you. And we do this through worship.
Worship is vitally important. And the love we have for Christ
is manifest in this public worship. It's manifest here. Why? Because
He's here. You get that? He's here. If you
love Him, you want to be where He is. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there I am. You know, the first person here
was him. He was here first. Every worship service, he's the
first one in. He's always there. He said, there I am already.
Before you even get there, I'm there. You remember in Revelation,
John, he sees him and he falls over dead. And Christ puts His
hand on him and quickens him and lifts him up. Remember, He's
walking among the candlesticks. And then He reveals a mystery
of it. And He said, these stars which you see are My servants.
They're preachers. And the candlesticks which you see there are the churches.
He's walking among the candlesticks. Today, right now, in every worship
service where His people meet and His gospel is preached, He
is among us. Is it not just a reasonable work
that we would want to be with Him? to worship Him, to honor
Him, to praise Him. He's walking right now among
us. We say we love the Lord and forsake the assembling of ourselves
together. Is that not the greatest hypocrisy? True believers love to be in
His presence. They love to be with Him. True
believers love His people and long to encourage each other
Keep the faith. You know what I want you to do?
I want you to hold fast. I want you to grab hold of Him,
and I don't want you to let go. And I know you have the same
desire for me, that I hold fast. And so we do this by provoking
one another. Just by being together. We encourage
one another. Not only this, but private worship.
Not just public, but private worship. True believers, we desire
to spend time alone with Him. I tell you, there are just some
problems we can't fix for other believers. And sometimes they just need
to get alone with God. And if we neglect to get along
with God, we're asking for our world to hurt. God's people need
private worship. And listen, if a person stops
publicly worshiping, I'll tell you this, he stopped privately
worshiping long before he stopped publicly worshiping God. This is a work of believer. We
desire his presence. We desire this friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. I need His hand. I need His touch. Something that you can't give
me. Something that I can't give you. Something that only He can
do for me. The second thing is true believers,
we recognize this, we are slaves. We are slaves. You go back to
James, look at chapter 1, look what James says of himself. He
starts this out like this. He said, James, a slave. James a slave of God and of Jesus
Christ. I'll tell you this, if you have
true faith, true faith has this work, we have one master. True
faith has one master. True faith serves one king. True faith in Christ. Desires
this that Christ our master have the preeminence in everything If you go to Luke chapter Luke
chapter 14, I know I'm flipping you around a little bit Luke
chapter 14 You know this well And look at verse 20 You see
if that's right. I don't know if that's right I got the wrong, oh, I'm in the
wrong book. That would help by putting myself
in the wrong book. Yeah, Luke chapter 14. Look at verse 26. He said, If any man
come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters, and yes, his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. What does this mean? that we're
to hate fathers and mothers and children and wife? No, we know
that that's not the case. Our Lord is not commanding us
to hate them. What He is saying is, in comparison to your love
to Me, your service to Me, those you hold most dearly must be
put aside with all malice if they interfere between your relationship
and Mine. If anything takes the preeminence
of Christ, it must be put down. Why? We're servants. You know
what? That's offensive to man, isn't
it? That's offensive to man. I like this though. He says if
you hate father, mother, sister, well, you know what? You may
hate them already. You may not like them already. That's why
he said this. And you're owned still. You know who I hate the most?
Me. I despise my natural self. Why? So that Christ may have
the preeminence. We must put down our desires,
our hopes, our dreams, our visions, so that Christ, His will, have
the preeminence. This is true faith. This is not
super-Christian faith. This is true faith. This is in every believer. If
you have true faith in Christ, you realize that He must have
the preeminence. His will is superior to all. And what is His will? Love one
another. Is that not a gracious will?
Love one another. That's His will. That's the will
of our Master. That's the command of our Master
in this life. Love one another. So we, who are believers, are
to work this work of love. James says in chapter 1, verse
27, Pure religion, undefiled before God and the Father, is
this, Visit the followers, the widow, in their afflictions,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world. This matter of
pure religion is simply faith in Christ. Wasn't that the first
commandment of our law? Faith in Christ. That's pure
religion. And pure religion always exhibits
this, love and compassion. If your faith is real, genuine
faith, it produces love. Why? Because you know what you
were. You know what He did for you. How then can we not do that for
others? If we've received grace, should
we not be the most gracious? Love one another. Now this visiting the fathers
and widows, that's not the full scope. There's a greater scope
here. I'm talking about all believers. Our Master was good at this,
wasn't He? Being compassionate. Even so should we, if we are
followers of Him. Hear His command, love you one
another as I love you. I want you to get a vision of
this. How do you think the church would
be if we would just follow that command? Would there be any strife? Would there be any division whatsoever
in the church? If you love like He loved. Well, you don't know what that
sorry son of a gun did to me. If you did, then you would know
I can't love Him like that. Well, how did Christ love you? How sorry were you? How filthy
were you? And He loved us even when we
were ungodly. And what did He do when we were
ungodly? He died for us. Now He says, you go and do likewise. What about marriage? What if
two believers... Do you think there would ever
be divorce if two believers would follow this one command? Is it
possible? Do you see how much harmony it
would bring if we would just follow the simplicity of this
command? Love one another, how? As I love
you. What does that mean? That means
taking the fault even when it's not your fault. Taking the blame
even when it's not your blame. Isn't that what Paul said? He said, look, if you have a
falling out with your brother and you're right and he's wrong,
take the fault. Why? That's the command. It's not really a suggestion.
If you have true faith, we know it's not a suggestion, is it?
It's a command. And true faith loves. Why? The Master said so. We are servants. And the Master
commands us to love. Now, I'm going to give you something
that's even harder than that. This is also to extend to those
who hate us. You heard it said, love your
neighbor and hate your enemy. But I was a master saint. Love them that hate you. And not only hate you, but they
actually lay their hands on you. They actually hurt you physically,
emotionally, whatever it is. Bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you. Pray for them that despitefully
use you and persecute you. Why? That you may be children
of your Father which is in heaven. That you may exhibit true life
and faith that your Father has given to you. Now, loving your
enemies does not save you. It's just an exercise of what
you've been given, if you have true faith. You've been given
true love. And true love exercises itself. I want you to know this. Love
is a deliberate act. Most of us think of love as some
feeling, right? I have feelings for you. I do. I have feelings for you. So it's
easier to love you since I have feelings for you. But what do
feelings really have to do with love? Love is a deliberate, willful
act of good towards someone with no reward in mind. That's what
it is. You're not gonna love, you're
not gonna have any feelings for your enemies. Nobody's saying you're gonna
have a warm fuzzy every time you get around your enemy. Love
is a deliberate, willful act of obedience. Why? In hopes that God might
save them. in hopes that God might show
them mercy and give them a heart of mercy. Number three, true believers. True believers desire to live
a life that is pure before God. bow before God and love Him and
serve Him and worship Him. True believers desire to live
a pure life. Now this is true. Sin is not
gone from the believer. No one says that. No one believes
that. In other words, John would not
say little children sin not if there were no sin. Why would
he say that? He wouldn't have any need for
that exhortation if sin was gone. But sin remains. Therefore you're
exhorted, you're commanded this, sin not. Because sin still remains,
and this is the greatest desire of a believer's heart, is to
be rid of it. To be rid of sin. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? How did Paul look
at his nature, his old man, as a rotting corpse dragging him
to the earth? Not to be coddled, not to be
cared for, not to be loved, but to be mortified, killed. That's
all the flesh is good for, to be killed. It's not good for
anything, but to be put off. And that's the desire of the
believer, to put off the old man and his deeds. We still have sin, but our desire
is that we look to Jesus Christ to be delivered from it. We look
to Christ. We look to His work upon the
cross to satisfy God's justice on our behalf. And we look to
Him right now making intercession for us this morning. Have you
sinned in this worship service? Of course we have. Sin is mixed
with all we do. What is our hope? Our hope is
this, He ever liveth to make intercession for me. Right now
I'm worshiping, desiring to worship, desiring to be pure, but my hope
is this, not in my purity, but in His intercession. He intercedes. And we know this, for our comfort,
there is therefore now no condemnation. Even though we have this old
nature that constantly sins, our hope is in this, in Christ
who has made this true. No condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. We as believers still sin, but
I'll tell you this, sin is no longer the tenor of our lives.
True faith exhibits this. Sin no longer has dominion over
you. Now, I've heard this a lot. Well,
you know, I just couldn't help it. Well, that's a load of crap. You didn't want to. Let not sin
reign in your mortal body. You know what you did. You know
what you did. You let it in. Why? You wanted
it. you gave in. It's not that you
didn't have the power, you just didn't have the desire. And there
are times we sin the sins of omission, which are just sins
where we have no thought to it. But sins of commission are sins
that we do, do on purpose. But this is true. We hate it. When it's accomplished, when
sin comes and it's accomplished in us, it's detestable to the
believer. It's detestable, not just what
men do to us, but what we've done, what I've done. David said,
Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in
thy sight. And listen, whatever you do to
me, you're right. Whatever chastening you have
for me, you're right. This is the heart of the true
believer. We don't want to sin. But I'll tell you this, we don't
live in it constantly. Sin is not ruling in the believer's
life. I know people who are constantly
living in adultery and fornication, and they say, well, I'm a believer. No. No. There's no evidence of
that. Why? Sin rules your life. It's
constantly. It's not saying that the adultery
and fornication can't be committed by believers. It does. They do. But I know this, every one of
them are convicted of God and they repent. They turn. Why? They live. They're alive. Go to Romans chapter 12. Listen
to what Paul says to the believer. Romans chapter 12. Believer, we desire to be transformed,
not conformed to this world. We don't want to be conformed
to this world. Paul said this, I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God. What does that mean? Because
of the love of God. Because of the grace of God.
Because of the death of Christ. Because of the resurrection of
Christ. Because of the Holy Spirit being given to you. I beg you
because you've received grace and mercy from God. Listen, present
your Not your mind and philosophy.
Not your theology. Not that thing rattling around
in your head and you making assent to the doctrines. He's saying,
look, if this has happened to you, then do this. Present your
bodies. What? A living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. In other words, put your body
where your mouth is. You've heard of put your money where your
mouth is? Put your body where your mouth is. If you profess,
then what? Present your body, your life,
your all as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God,
made holy by Christ, made acceptable by Christ. But listen, which
is what? Reasonable. Do you not believe that's reasonable?
It's reasonable to give your bodies a living sacrifice. Why?
If you believe, listen, faith has work. It's reasonable. That's reasonably going to happen.
You're going to present your bodies a living sacrifice. Why?
Because of the mercies of God. Because of what God has done
for you. You will reasonably do this. Be not conformed to
this world. In other words, don't listen
to the vain philosophy of this world. Don't listen to it. Don't
be conformed into how men think. Who cares how men think? Who
cares what men think? And what this world feels and
what this world thinks? Don't listen. Don't be conformed
to their thinking. But be transformed, how? By the
renewing of your mind. That is by the gospel. You hear
the gospel being preached. It is constantly renewing our
mind. It is constantly bringing to
mind and remembrance the things that God has done. I was reading
in Psalms this morning, and I can't tell you how many times he says,
I remembered, I remembered, I remembered, I remembered. He was in trouble.
And what was his remedy? Remembering what God did. And
so how do we renew our minds? By remembering what God has done
for us. Renew your minds so that you
might be transformed and not conformed to this world. That you may prove that acceptable
and perfect will of God. Don't buy into the world's lie
that a person can have Christ and sin too. Don't do it. We know that's not true. If you're
alive, you understand that's not true. Shall we sin that grace may abound? What? God forbid that I should live
such a life that would dishonor my master. True faith wants a
life that's pure and righteous. Live soberly, righteously, and
godly. When? When you get to heaven?
No, in this present world. Why? We're alive. We're alive,
and we desire to be alive. We desire to live a life. I'm
thinking about faith and obedience, how they go hand in hand. You
can't have one without the other. I don't want to quit soon, but
think of Abraham. As a matter of fact, he mentions
Abraham, James does, in our text there. Verse 21 of chapter 2, He said, was Abraham not our
father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the
altar? What is he saying here? Listen, Abraham was justified.
He says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for
righteousness. Then God said, take thy son,
thine only son, and offer him to me. Now, if we were to use
the wisdom of the world and the flesh, we could say, well, I'm
already justified. Why in the world do I need to
offer my son? That don't even make sense, that I should have
to offer my son. If I kill my son, God promised
him, my son shall the whole world be blessed. Now, if I kill him,
then that's not going to happen, so I guess I could just forego
killing my son. No. You see, Abraham's faith
was justified by his obedience. How did your faith justify it? By your lips? by your words. How's your faith
manifest? Could Abraham's faith be manifest
without offering his son? No. Neither can yours. Neither
can mine. Faith and obedience go together. You can't have one without the
other. Don't boast of your faith without
any obedience. Faith always generates obedience.
Obedience never generates faith. Never the opposite way. But true
faith always obeys. And so this is why Paul said,
"...be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor drunkards, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor extortioners.
None of these shall inherit the kingdom of God." Is that clear? Everybody understand that? Is there any exception to that
rule? No. And listen, such were Some of
you. What's the difference? You were
washed. You've been washed. You've been washed. You were
sanctified. You were justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. This is the
difference. And if those things are true,
then those things that you did, you now hate. So let us examine ourselves to
see if we are working in this matter of keeping ourselves pure,
because that's necessary. Why? It's obedience. It's obedience. I'm going to skip to this last
one. I've got a couple more, but I'm going to deal with this
one last thing. True believers have a heart of evangelism and
a desire to help their brethren. This is a work of true believers.
Look at James 5 and verse 19. He said, "...Brethren, if any
of you do err from the truth, and one converteth, let him know
that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his
way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of
sin." What brings a believer great joy is the conversion of
sinners. Is that right? I mean, do we not have a heart
for that? I have a heart for that. I long for sinners to come
to faith in Christ and be converted. Nothing greater. It's just wonderful.
But you know something that's equally great is that when a
brethren is fallen into sin, to help your brother, to help
your brother by restoring him. Restoring him. Now people got
a lot of ideas about it. I didn't say correct him. No,
we don't go around correcting people. That's not our business.
That's God's business. Our business is to desire those
that have fallen into sin, that they be restored in fellowship
to Christ and His church. Our desire is that they repent.
and that they turn not to us, but to Christ. I know of a believer,
he's committed a sin, and he's begged forgiveness from some
of the brethren, and you know what they want? They want him
to repent to the church. What good is that going to do?
If the man has repented to Christ, restore such-and-one. In a spirit
of meekness, listen, consider yourselves what Paul says in
Galatians. Consider yourselves. Why? You're prone to the same thing
they are. And so what James is here saying, look, if a brethren
has fallen in these works, and we can, we do, we fail in worship,
don't we? We fail in love for our brethren.
We fall into sin. So all of these works, we're
not perfect. We want to be pure, but we're
not. And so when a brethren is failing
in these works, what is our desire? Our desire is that they be restored,
reconciled. Reconciliation is a good word,
isn't it? Isn't that what Christ did for us? And you have to be
reconciled to God. He reconciled you. through the
death of Christ. God reconciles you to Himself.
So what do we desire for our brethren? This is our work. That
those that have fallen, we desire them to come back. And know this,
He says if you converted a sinner from the earth, you saved the
soul from death. And you hide a multitude of transgressions. So you know what happens when
a believer falls and you restore him? What do you do? Do you go
around telling all their sins? No. They're gone. They hide a multitude of sins. So a work of a true believer
is this, that we desire and seek unity among the brethren. And if I fall, my desire is that
you restore me gently. If you fall, how do you want
to be restored? Paul said, you that are spiritual,
And you know that word there has to do with a broken bone.
Setting a broken bone. How do you want a doctor to set
your bone? With all the love and attention.
With all the care and concern. That's how you restore a broken
bone. Let me ask you this in closing. Are these your works? Faith without works, dead. A true living faith desires these
works, longs to do these works. No, we're not doing them perfect,
but that's our heart's desire. And it's not only our desire,
we do them. We do them. willfully, acts of
love and mercy, not for praise to self, but to our Master. As a self-examination, is this
our faith? May God ever make it so in the
hearts of His people. Our gracious Father dismisses
with your mercies and blessings take these words and if you would
be Merciful apply them to the hearts of your people So that
we might exalt thy name and praise thee that we might Lord set aside
the sin of self So that Christ should have the
preeminence in all our all our lives. Give us grace to present
our bodies as living sacrifices, made wholly acceptable by Christ,
but this is our reasonable service. Do it for your own name's sake.
Amen.