Now, I want you to turn to two
passages of Scripture with me. The first one is our text, which
is James chapter 2. I want you to look at James chapter
2, and I'm going to be preaching from around verse 20 to 26, the
last part of this chapter, concerning the subject, works as evidence
of faith. works as evidence of faith. And then I want you to also turn
to Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. So you'll have
to do a little work this morning in following along here because
I'm going to be going back and forth from Romans 4 to James
chapter 2. And as I read these passages,
you'll see why. Let's read Romans chapter 4 to
begin with, just the first few verses. Paul writes here by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit in Romans chapter 4, what shall we say
then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, that
is his physical pedigree, what he did in the way of works, what
shall we say that Abraham hath found? Verse 2, for if Abraham
were justified by works, Now, what is it to be justified? You
know, that word justified, justice, just, sometimes translated in
the New Testament as righteous. If Abraham were righteous by
works, you could say. To be justified before God is
to be saved. Every saved person is justified. Now, what does that mean? That
means they're not guilty. You say, but we're sinners. Yes,
but if we're saved by the grace of God in Christ, we're not guilty. How can that be? Christ took
our guilt. That's why he died on the cross. He became guilty in my place. The debt that I owed to God's
justice for my sins, past sins, present sins, future sins, were
laid upon Christ. They were charged to Him, accounted
to Him. That's the doctrine of imputation.
Romans 4 is going to talk about that. Imputed to Him means they
were charged to Him. They were accounted to Him. He
became responsible for my debt. Just like, as I use this analogy
with our young people all the time, just like if you owed a
debt today, which most of us do, to a particular bank, and
I walked into that bank and saw your debt on the account books,
and I told the banker, put it on my account. I owe it. And
you don't owe it anymore. Put it on my account. I'll pay
it. And I pay that debt, and then I say, well, let's put some
money to your account. That's what happened as Christ
died on the cross. He took our debt. The debt of
his church, the debt of his people. We're going to see that. Brother
Joe read it in the book of Titus there. We'll refer back to it.
So to be justified is to be not guilty. You don't owe a legal
debt to God's justice. It's been paid for. What is that
debt? How did Christ pay it? By his death. The wages of sin
is what? Death. The soul that sinneth
must surely die. Now, either you're going to die
eternally, perish in your sins, or somebody who God appoints,
somebody who is able, and somebody who is willing, will stand in
your place as a substitute and take your sin debt and pay it
for you. That's what grace is all about.
Well, the only one whom God appointed is the Lord Jesus Christ, the
second person of the Trinity, God the Son in human flesh. The
only one who's able, to pay that debt, for all his people, all
his sheep. He said, I laid down my life,
John 10, for the sheep. The only one who's able to do
that is Christ. That's why Paul wrote in 2 Timothy
1, 12, I'm persuaded that he, I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. He's able to save to the
uttermost, Hebrews 7 says, them that come unto the Father by
him, and then one who is willing. And he's the only one willing.
John 13 says he loved his people unto the end, that is, unto the
finishing of the work, literally. So that's what it is to be justified.
It's to be not guilty because you have a substitute who paid
your debt. It's to be made righteous, to
be declared righteous in the sight of God, even though you're
a sinner in yourself, sinner saved by grace. So now if Abraham
were declared not guilty, and righteous, justified by works,
by what he did, or by what he tried to do, or by what he planned
to do, in any way, deeds of law, he hath whereof to glory. He's
got a reason to boast. In other words, it's like this.
If you were saved by something you did, then you'd have a reason
to boast. But he says, but not before God. Do you see that in verse 2? Not
before God. That's not the way it is in God's
way. Not before God. You see, God
says, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. God's way says, for by grace
are you saved, through faith, and that's not of yourself, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Now, the Bible has a lot
to say about works, good works. We read there in Titus, as Brother
Joe read, that we're to be a pattern of good works. That's to characterize
our lives. That's what that means. In other
words, not just a hit and a stab, but we're to be a pattern of
that. It says we're to be a people zealous of good works. That means,
you know what zeal is? You have a zeal for something.
Everybody's got a zeal for something. Some of you have a zeal to do
well at your job. Some of you have a zeal to make
money. Some of you have a zeal for your
family. Some of you have a zeal for other things. There's a zeal
there. Well, God's people are to have zeal for good works. So the Bible says a lot about
good works. But it never, in any passage of Scripture, portrays
good works as a way by which we earn salvation, or a way by
which we are made righteous before God. or a way by which we earn
God's blessings. So if Abraham, now he's kind
of like the archetype, he's kind of like the symbol here of a
sinner saved by grace. He says, if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. Verse
3, for what saith the scripture? What does the Bible say? The
Old Testament. Abraham believed God. And it was counted, now
that word counted is the same word I mentioned before, imputed
or charged, accounted to him for righteousness. Now what was
accounted to him for righteousness? The merits of the finished work
of Christ. Abraham was justified not by
his works, but by Christ, by the grace of God in Christ. So
he says in verse 4, now to him that worketh is the reward, not
reckoned, not accounted or imputed, literally, In other words, if
you work to earn salvation or to gain salvation in any way,
at any stage, in any time, to any degree, then it's not of
grace. There's a lot of people that
talk about salvations by grace, but they really believe works
in some way. They'll put works in there some
way as conditions upon the sinner. And if that's your case, then
don't talk about grace. It's a debt. It's what God owes
you. The problem with that is it's a lie, because God never
puts himself in a position where he owes us anything by way of
blessing or salvation. He's the God of all grace. Grace is a free gift. Now, it
doesn't come without cost. It costs the Son of God his life. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ met all the
conditions. Now, what we are, as sinners
saved by grace, and what we do by way of pleasing God, is the
fruit, the result, the effect of God's grace, not the cause. So Abraham wasn't justified before
God by his works. Now look over at James chapter
2, look at our text. He says in verse 20 of James
2, He says, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without
works is dead? Now what's he talking about?
He's talking about a person who claims to know Christ, to believe
in Christ, to rest in Christ, to love Christ, and to follow
Christ, but there are no works that evidence that claim. That's
what he's talking about. It's like the fellow who tells
his wife that he loves her, But he doesn't care for her, doesn't
take care of her, doesn't protect her, doesn't provide for her. That's empty love, isn't it?
Well, if you claim to love Christ, if I claim to love Christ, if
I claim to believe him, if I say Christ is my life, it's like
I was telling one of the fellows before the service, a pastor
friend of mine up in North Carolina, he had a fellow who started coming
to church, and then he left, didn't come in two years. Showed
back up one Sunday, and he walked out the back, shook the preacher's
hand. He said, boy, he said, I just
can't live without feeding upon Christ. The preacher said, well,
you must have been dead the last two years. Could you live if you didn't
eat food? Could you live physically if you didn't eat food for the
next two years? No. Now, don't go around here claiming
how much you love Christ, how much you need Him, when you don't
worship Him and don't attend to His Word and feed upon His
Word, say. That's what James is talking
about here. I know that's a hard truth for some of us, but it's
just true. Old vain man. That means foolish. That means worthless. Empty.
That faith without works is dead. But now look at what he says
in verse 21. He says, Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? Remember what Paul wrote here
in Romans 4? He said, well, if Abraham were justified by works,
he has reason to boast, but not before God. That's not how Abraham
was justified by works. But now James comes up here in
verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? Now,
what's the problem? Well, there is no problem. I
was, when I got in the car, I start the car up to come over here,
the radio came on. Usually on Saturday night I turn
it off so it won't come on on Sunday morning and blast me out of there.
So I turned the car and the radio came on and they were singing
a song. And I said, well, I'll listen to this. And here's one
of the verses. It says, why can't God's children
all get along? We all can't be right and we
all can't be wrong. We're all just singers singing
the same old song. Why can't God's children just
get along? Well, you know what the key to
that is? You know that's true. Do you know what the key to that
is? It says here, we're all just
singers singing the same old song. Now, my question, are we
singing the same old song? That's the key. If you want to
know about the song that all God's children sing, go to Revelation
chapter 5. It speaks of the song of the
redeemed. And it goes something like this,
worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive honor and power and
blessing. That's our song. We sing it in
different words and different forms, but it's the same old
song because we lift up Christ, my salvation. My salvation is
all wrapped up and founded upon Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. He is my wisdom. He is my righteousness. I have
no other righteousness but Christ. Yes, I've been made the righteousness
of God in Him by the grace of God. He is my holiness. If I'm set apart, it's in Christ. He is my redemption. He's my
all in all. His word is written upon my heart
by the Holy Spirit. And therefore, I struggle in
a warfare with myself in the flesh to continually look to
Him and Him alone as the author and the finisher of my faith. Are we all singing the same old
song? Well, look at James. Is he singing the same song that
Paul sang? And the answer is yes. Look at
it in verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works? When? When he had offered Isaac
his son upon the altar. Now, as you know, that's a reference
to Genesis chapter 22, when God told Abraham to take his son
Isaac, the son of promise, Take him up on Mount Moriah and offer
him as a sacrifice unto God." Abraham's faith was being tested
at that time. It was being tested. James started
out in his book here talking about testing faith. What's he
talking about there? He's talking about, well, we
who claim to have faith in Christ. We who claim to be saved by the
grace of God. We who claim to be justified
before God in Christ. Isn't that your claim? I'm justified
before a holy God in Christ. That's why I can take comfort
in Romans 8.1. There's therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh
but after the spirit. I can take comfort in Romans
chapter 8 when it talks about who shall lay any charge to God's
elect. It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession. Do you take comfort in that?
I do. Well, that kind of faith is going to be tested. Abraham
took comfort in that too. He knew God justified him, saved
him by grace, based upon a promise to send Christ into the world
to die for his sins. and to establish righteousness
for Abraham whereby God could be both a righteous judge in
punishing sin as well as a loving, gracious, merciful father in
saving him. God must be both. He must be
righteous. He must be justice as well as
mercy and truth. Anybody that talks about God's
mercy and truth or mercy and grace and love apart from his
justice and truth does not know the God of this book. He must
be a just God and a Savior. And God justified Abraham based
upon a promise to send the Messiah to do for Abraham what he couldn't
do for himself. And Abraham claimed that. He
believed God, the scripture says there. He believed God. So what
is the difference between Abraham and between James and Paul here
talking about Abraham? Well, you know, the Bible in
2nd Timothy chapter 2 and verse 15 says this study to show thyself
approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, let's rightly divide
the word of truth. Is there a contradiction between
Paul and James here? Are they are they just? Believers
going different ways, one the way of grace, one the way of
works? No, no, no, no. You've got to look at the context
of what they're saying. You've got to look at who they're
talking to, who they're talking about, what they're talking about,
what's their subject. Paul in the book of Romans is
talking about how a sinner is justified before a holy God. That's his subject. That's his
subject. He is combating those who would
claim that the way a sinner is saved, the way a sinner is justified,
is all or in part by their works. And Paul says, oh, no, that's
not the case. It's by grace. In Romans chapter 11, he went
on to say, if it's by grace, it's not of works. If it's of
works, it's not of grace. They cancel out each other. As
to a sinner's justification before God. But that's not what James
is talking about. James is talking about an entirely
different subject altogether. He's not talking about how God
justifies a sinner. He's talking about how a sinner's
claim of justification. How a sinner's claim to be justified. I claim to be justified. I'm
telling you I'm justified before God. That's faith in Christ. How a sinner's claim of faith
is vindicated and proven to be genuine and true rather than
just a false profession. Now that's what James is talking
about. Different subject. rightly dividing the word of
truth. They're not at odds. James is talking about the justification
of the person's faith before men. Paul condemns our works
as a cause of justification before God. He said that back in the
book of Romans chapter 3, right before Romans 4. He said in verse
19 of Romans 3, he says, now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, It saith to them who are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore, he says in verse 20,
by the deeds of law there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, that is God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of
sin. If you're trying to be justified, to be saved, to be made righteous
before God by keeping the law, the law has one thing to say
to you. Guilty. And that's it. You say, but I'm doing my best.
Well, the Bible says man at his best state is altogether what?
Vanity. That means the best I can do,
the best you can do, is not good enough. Somebody asks, well,
what does God require? He requires perfection. You say,
well, that's a high mark. Yes, it is. Nobody can do that. That's right. That's why salvation
is by grace. through the perfect one, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness, and not on
us. You see that? To be guilty, to
break one law is to be guilty of all. James said that. It's
the same thing Paul's saying right here, by deeds of law shall
no flesh be justified. You can't be saved by your law
keeping. You can turn over a new leaf and maybe some of us should,
but that's not going to save us. You see an alcoholic, you
say, that man should quit drinking or that woman should quit drinking.
You're exactly right. But that's not going to save
that person. You see that person who lives like a rebel all the
days of their life, you say, well, they ought to straighten
up and do right. You're exactly right. But that's
not going to be their salvation. Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, was
a man who was trying to do his dead level best to keep the law.
But when he saw the glory of God in his holiness and justice,
and when he saw his own sinfulness and his own wretchedness in the
light of God's perfect law and justice, he saw that he was of
all men most miserable in that sense. And then the Lord turned
him to Christ for all of salvation. I'm not saved by my obedience,
I'm saved by his obedience. I'm not saved by my suffering.
I'm saved by his suffering unto death. Somebody said one time
at a funeral about a particular man said, well, I know he's in
heaven because he suffered so much in this world. My friend,
there's not. Now, listen, I know there's a
lot of suffering in this world. There is. What's the news? And I'll tell you what, it tears
you up, doesn't it? But here's the fact of the matter.
There's no amount of suffering that any human being can go through
on this earth that will save them from their sins. That's
why it took the suffering of the Son of God in human flesh. That's why Christ, Isaiah 53,
had to suffer. And if you think your suffering
will save you, you know what you're actually doing? You're
boasting. You're saying my suffering is equal or better than His. That's right. It won't do it. And see, that's what Paul's talking
about. You cannot be saved. You cannot be righteous, justified
by that kind of thing. Look back at Romans 4. He says, in verse 4, remember,
he says, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of
grace, but of debt. Now, if you've got to work for
it, it's not grace. Stop talking about grace. If
that's what you're doing, it's debt. Verse 5, "...but to him
that worketh not." Now, what's he talking about? Now, the Bible
says that we're to be a people zealous of good works. We're
to be a pattern of good works. We're to promote good works.
In Hebrews chapter 10, I think it's verse 25, it says, "...provoke
one another unto love and good works." And now Paul's saying,
"...he that worketh not." What's he talking about? He's talking
about working for your salvation. Don't do that. It won't work. Working for your salvation will
not work for you. It will not work for me. It will
not work for any son or daughter of Adam, born dead in trespasses
and sins. So he says, but to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Now,
what does that mean? How does God justify the ungodly?
Well, he's talking about justifying those who are by nature and by
practice ungodly. Now, who is that? That's all
of us by nature. How does he justify? It says
his faith is counted for righteousness. Now, that doesn't mean our believing
is our righteousness. Let me show you that. Look at
verse 6. Even as David, now he goes to David, King David, in
the Psalms, also describe it, the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth, and see that word imputeth, that means to
charge or to account. He charges this person with righteousness
without works, without your works, without my works. Saying this,
and he quotes from Psalm 32, blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Now, there's the forgiveness
of sins based on the covering of sins. What covered our sins?
The blood of Christ. There's no forgiveness without
blood. You see, the Bible teaches without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission or forgiveness or pardon of sin. No sin deserves
death, and nothing's going to remove that sin but death. Somebody
said, well, your tears of repentance, they can wash away your sins.
Oh, no. That's not death, is it? There's a denomination that
calls themselves Christians that believe you get into the baptismal
pool back here, and that washes away your sins. Oh, no. That's
not death. Water won't do it. You know what
it took to wash away my sins and your sins? What are we saying? What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That's what washed away my sins. And then he goes on, he says,
He says in verse 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will
not impute sin, charge sin. Who did he charge it to? He charged
it to Christ. Now verse 9, cometh this blessedness upon the circumcision
only? That's the Jews. That's just
a way of referring to the Jews. Is that just for the Jews only?
Or upon the uncircumcision also? How about the Gentiles? He says,
for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
That faith is the object of faith, Christ. And here's what he says
in verse 10. How was it reckoned when he was
in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. Let me tell you what he's saying.
He's simply saying that Abraham was reckoned, charged, righteous
before God, before he was circumcised. When he was in Ur of the Chaldeans
and God called him out, he'd already been justified in Christ.
The promise. It was a promise to Abraham.
A promise of one who would come and die for his sins and establish
righteousness for him. And Christ said that in John
chapter 8. I think it's verse 56 or somewhere around there.
He says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw it and he
was glad. Think about that. So Abraham
was justified before God when he was not circumcised. And verse 11 says, And he received
the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith
which he had been uncircumcised. In other words, that physical
circumcision was just a seal, a sign of something that had
already taken place in Abraham's life, that he might be the father
of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, even
the Gentiles, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.
Righteousness imputed. Now go back to James 2. So let's look at the context.
Let's rightly divide the word of truth. What's Paul talking
about? He's writing of those who trusted in their works for
salvation. But James is not writing to them.
He's writing to those who neglected or denied the necessity of obedience
and works. And he uses Abraham as an example.
And look at what he says in verse 21. Was not Abraham our father
justified by works? Was not his claim of faith, his
claim of having been justified, his profession of faith justified
before men by his works, by his obedience? Abraham's faith was
evidenced by what he did. When? When he had offered Isaac,
his son, upon the altar. Do you know that was about 30
years after Abraham had been called to faith in Christ? What's
James saying? Well, he was justified back then,
now he's justified again before God? No. You know, justification
before God in its essence, in its whole realm, is eternal. Think about it. Let me add, justification
before God is based upon Christ being our surety. Isn't that
right? David called him our surety.
You know, when somebody becomes a surety for you, that means
they co-sign a note. That means if you can't pay it,
they'll pay it. Well, when could we ever pay it? Pay God for our
sins? We could never do that. Christ
was set up to be our surety before the world began in the everlasting
covenant of Christ. So there's a sense in which we
can say we were eternally justified in Christ. According to the eternal,
everlasting covenant of grace, there's a sense in which we can
say we were justified at the cross when Christ actually paid
that debt in time. And there's a sense in which
we can say we're justified when we're born again in our conscience.
That's when the Holy Spirit shows us our sinfulness and the blood
of Christ and the righteousness of Christ for our sins. So what
happened when Abraham offered Isaac his son? You know, that's
Genesis 22. God told Abraham that he and
Sarah would have a son. You remember that. They didn't
have one until they were both up. Abraham was about 100 and
Sarah was in her 90s. They were way past physical age
of childbearing. But God gave them a son of promise
by miraculous generation. Gave them Isaac, the child of
promise. And Abraham and Sarah, they raised that boy. And then
one day, God came to Abraham. He said, you take that boy up
on the mount and you offer him up as a sacrifice. And Abraham did it. Look over
at Hebrews chapter 11, just back a few pages. Hebrews 11, verse 17. It says, "...by faith." What
is faith? It's believing God. And remember
what I said, James. It's very clear on this. People
can have faith in a lie. They can believe a lot of things
that aren't true. They have faith, but it's false faith. But faith
here is believing God's Word, specifically His Word to send
Christ, the Messiah, into the world for Abraham's justification
to die for his sins. So by faith, Abraham, when he
was tried, when he was tested, you see, this is not Abraham's
justification before God. This is the testing of Abraham's
faith, the testing of his claim of justification. And he says
he offered up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered
up his only begotten son. Now he'd been given promises
by God. There's a lot of promises given
to Abraham, but the main promise that was given to Abraham was
the promise of the coming of Christ, the Messiah, to save
his people from their sins. And he says in verse 18, "...of
whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be caught." It
was through Isaac and his seed, according to the flesh, that
the Messiah would come. So verse 19, it says, Abraham,
accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the
dead, from which also he received him in a figure. You know what
that's saying is that Abraham knew that God, he knew that God
was faithful to his promise. He knew that if he took that
boy up there and offered him as a sacrifice, he knew that
God would raise him from the dead. And you know why? Because
he believed God. How do you know he believed God?
How was his faith vindicated? How was he justified in his claim? When God told him to take Isaac
up on Mount Moriah and offer him, he did it. And he raised
his hand. You remember he took the knife
and raised his hand? And the angel of the Lord stopped him.
Remember that? Read it again. Genesis 22. Some
people call that the Mount Everest of the book of Genesis. Because
it's such a wonderful type of Christ. our substitute. But that's
what James is saying, verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified,
vindicated, proven by works when he had offered Isaac his son
upon the altars? Verse 22 says, Seest thou how
faith wrought with his works? Faith working by his works. And by works was faith made perfect. When you think of that word perfect
in that culture, in that language, in this context, perfect does
not mean sinlessly perfect as we would think of it. Perfect
means that it's fulfilled, it's completed. It's the same idea
in Hebrews chapter 2 when it talks about Christ through His
sufferings, being made perfect through His sufferings. Christ
in Himself was always perfect, sinlessly perfect. He had no
sin and knew no sin. When he was offered up on the
cross, he had sins charged to him. He became responsible for
our sins, but in himself, he was still perfect in his mind,
his affections, and will. So when it says he was made perfect
through his sufferings, it doesn't mean he was made sinlessly perfect.
It means he completed the work through his sufferings. He finished
the work. And what this is saying is that
when Abraham obeyed God, And his faith was vindicated. His
faith came to its fulfillment. What is that? It's finishing
work. It's completion in obedience. Faith is not just something I
say. Faith is not just something I
think. It's something I do. And that's
the fruit of grace. That's the fulfillment of it.
So he says in verse 23, and the scripture was fulfilled. Now
think about this. The scripture was fulfilled.
That says, that says, uh, in verse 23, the scripture was filled
with saying Abraham believed God and it was imputed or counted
unto him for righteousness. And he was called the friend
of God. What he's saying here is this,
and this, this may seem strange, but it makes perfect sense in
the context. James is showing here how that works, sustaining
a relationship to faith, much as the fulfillment of a prophecy
does to the prophecy itself. In other words, you see a prophecy
in the Old Testament. God says this is going to happen. When is that prophecy made perfect?
When it's fulfilled, when it comes to its completion. And
prophecy is proven true when it is fulfilled. Abraham's faith,
in the same way, was proven to be true when it was evidenced
by this act of obedience. That's the fulfillment of it.
So he says in verse 24, James 2, you see then how that by works
a man is justified and not by faith only. In other words, your
claim of justification before God, your claim to be saved,
your claim to believe in Christ, It's not by just a profession
of faith alone. Not just by a claim. But it's
proven by the testings that God gives it and the deeds that proceed
from it. Now look at verse 25. He goes
to another person, Rahab. And notice how she's described.
Rahab the harlot. My, my. A harlot. This is one reason why many of
the Jews would claim that James should not even be in the Bible,
even though they disagree with the whole New Testament, those
who don't believe in Christ. Look what he says. Likewise,
what does that mean? In the same way. Also, was not
Rahab the harlot justified by works, vindicated? when she had
received the messengers and had sent them out another way." You
know who Rahab the harlot was. She's first mentioned in Joshua
chapter 2. Joshua sent two spies into the
city of Jericho, and Rahab the harlot hid them. She hid them. And you remember,
she's the one who let down the scarlet line. That's a type of
the blood of Christ. And they went down safe on that
scarlet line, were safe in his blood. Now, Abraham was the father
of the nation Israel physically, and he's the spiritual father
of spiritual Israel in the sense that he's the archetype of true
faith in Christ, true repentance. But what about Rahab? Rahab was
a harlot. And she was a Gentile, an Amorite. But Rahab's conduct in separating
herself from the calls and interests of her own ungodly people And
joining herself to the cause and interest of the people of
God was a vivid confession of the divine testimony that she
truly believed. She believed God. Look back at
Hebrews 11. Look at verse 31. And if you go back and read Joshua
chapter 2 through Joshua chapter 6, where all that is recorded,
you're not going to see where anybody stood and preached before
Rahab. But I'm going to tell you something. Rahab heard the
gospel. And I know that because the Word
of God says that all of God's elect will hear and believe the
gospel. And here's another proof of it,
verse 31. By faith the harlot Rahab perished
not with them that believed not. What does that mean? It means
she was a sinner saved by the grace of God. When she had received the spies
with peace, that's what she did. She wasn't punished with them.
She was a woman of faith. Somebody made a statement one
time and said, well, why does he have to keep calling her the
harlot? Didn't she stop being a harlot
after that? I believe she did. I'll tell you why. Because Rahab, continued with
the nation of Israel, and she later married a man named Salmon,
S-A-L-M-O-N. He was a prince of the tribe
of Judah, and I think he was the father, but he may have been
the grandfather, of a man named Boaz, who married a woman named
Ruth, who had a son named Jesse, who had a son named David. And our Savior came through the
seed of David according to the flesh. The tribe of Judah, the
scepter, the line of the tribe of Judah. And Rahab the harlot
is mentioned in the human genealogy that's recorded of our Savior
in Matthew chapter 1. You'll find her in verse 5 as
the mother of Boaz who married Ruth. who had Jesse, who had
David. And our salvation and our justification
before God is based upon the finished work of the greater
Son of David, the eternal David, the Lord Jesus Christ. She's
a great example of how God justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness
of another and not her own. She believed in the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. She proved her faith. And here's
the conclusion. Look at verse 26 of James 2.
For as the body without the spirit is dead, now the physical body,
and that word spirit there is the word breath. The body without
the breath is dead. You can't live without breathing. I don't think I had to tell you
that today. Incidentally, every breath we
take is a gift from God, isn't that right? This human body can't
live without breathing. So faith without works is dead
also. How do we know a person is physically
alive? They breathe. How do we know
faith is real? That it's a true gift from God?
That it's alive? It breathes. It breathes the
breath of good works. Good works. And those works I've
got on the back of your bulletin today. What is a good work? You
read that sometime. But it's a work that is done
to the praise of the glory of God's grace, not in order to
be saved, but because we already are saved. It's a work of gratitude
and love and grace to God. All right.