Alright, now in the book of James,
chapter 2, I'm not going to try to go through
all the verses that Brother Joe read, but I'm going to lay the
foundation. And this is a subject that every
person who's interested in salvation, every person who is interested
in what the Bible teaches, Every person who is interested in understanding
the true nature of real faith ought to study, ought to learn,
ought to be familiar with this portion in the book of James.
It has been a very controversial portion of scripture for so many
people because they don't really understand what James is talking
about. A lot of times people will set
James here against the Apostle Paul and what he wrote in his
epistles concerning how a sinner is justified before God. Well,
the Bible is very clear from Genesis to Revelation that sinners
are justified before God by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ
upon his mercy. It is by his blood and his righteousness
alone. And our justification, our being
declared not guilty, made righteous in the sight of God, has nothing
to do with anything that we do by way of works or efforts or
obedience. And, listen to me, it has nothing
to do with what God does in and through us, the subjective work
of the Spirit. Because everything in our right
standing before God goes back to the cross, goes back to the
death of Christ, the shedding of his blood where he made an
end of sin, where he finished the transgression, where he brought
in everlasting righteousness. And that is the work of Christ
alone. Now, we as sinners saved by grace, all that we do that's
pleasing to God, And that is the life of God in us, Christ
working through us by his spirit and by his word, by way of obedience,
by way of works, by way of love, and even faith itself is the
fruit and the result of what Christ accomplished on the cross. So that's important because we
have to understand that salvation is by grace. And James is not
denying that when he talks about faith and works here. For example,
James is not talking about how sinners are justified before
God here. He's talking about how a person's
profession of faith, you say you have faith, I think if not
all of you, most of you in here would say we believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. I make that claim, you make that
claim. And what James is talking about in this portion, really
in his whole book, the book of James, What he's talking about
is not how sinners are justified before God, but how a sinner
who claims to be justified before God, a sinner who claims to believe,
have the gift of faith, how that person reveals the genuineness
of that faith. How is your faith real? Now,
James has a lot to say about faith. He talks about how faith
is going to be tested. He talks about the doing of faith.
Back in chapter 1, he said, be doers of the Word and not hearers
only. It's no good if you claim to
have faith and you love the Word of God and just hear it only
and not be a doer of the Word. In chapter 2 and verse 1, he
says, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. The faith there is
the gospel. In other words, don't claim that
you're a possessor of truth. and that you have faith and then
be a respecter of persons because those two things don't jive together.
They just don't work together. God is no respecter of persons,
he says. God's law is no respecter of
persons. And therefore, we should not
be respecter of persons. We shouldn't judge or value any
person based upon what they are outwardly, their pedigree or
whatever. It's salvation by grace. I'm saved by the grace of God.
I didn't deserve it. I didn't earn it. You didn't
deserve it. You didn't earn it. We're in the same boat. We're
in the same boat sin-wise. We're all sin that comes to the
glory of God. We're in the same boat grace-wise. If we're saved,
it's by grace. And there's nothing in me that
recommended me unto God. And you too. So we shouldn't
have respect of persons. True faith is the gift of God. We read in the opening, for by
grace are you saved through faith, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. The whole purpose of God's salvation
that he freely gives to his people in Christ is to glorify himself
and that no flesh should have any room to boast, that no flesh
should glory in his sight. You see, we don't glory in our
flesh, we don't glory in our accomplishment, we don't glory
in our works, we glory in Christ. God forbid, Galatians 6.14, God
forbid that I should glory, boast, have any confidence in anything,
save except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. His person, His finished work. And so when he says in Ephesians
2.8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves, Most scholars will say, well, that's not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God. It goes all the way back
to salvation and not just to faith alone. In other words,
he's saying all of salvation, including faith to believe, is
the gift of God. It's not in us by nature. It's
a work of the Holy Spirit within us. It's a powerful work. It's
a sovereign work. It's an irresistible work. Because
once the Spirit, by the Word, convinces you of the reality
of sin, and what we need and what we are by nature. And the
reality of God's holiness and justice to punish all sin, the
soul that sinneth must surely die. The wages of sin is death. That's what we earn, death. And
then the reality of the glory of Christ and Him crucified and
risen again, how God saves a sinner by the blood of Christ. Once
He convinces you that, you will not refuse. Once He does that,
that's His irresistible work. So he says, he says that faith
is a gift of God. Paul wrote about that in Philippians
when he was talking about their sufferings. He says, for unto
you it is given. That means it's a gift. In the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, that's a gift,
but also to suffer for his sake. Peter wrote about it, 2 Peter
1.1. He says, Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ
to them that have obtained. like precious faith. That word
obtained means that it's a gift that has been given and received
and with us through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
That faith to believe is the gift of God that comes through
the blood and righteousness of Christ established on the cross.
It's a gift of God. James believed that. Look at
chapter 1 and verse 17. He says every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above. That includes faith. It's a gift.
Now here's the question that James is asking. Here's the question
that we need to ask ourselves. Do I have true saving faith? I know I have a profession. Do
I have true saving faith? You know there are different
kinds of faith. I'm not talking about different degrees of faith.
There are different degrees because faith grows. Faith grows as our
knowledge grows. We grow in grace and in knowledge
of Christ in the scripture. There are different kinds of
faith. For example, look at James chapter 2 and look at verse 19. He says, Thou believest that
there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also
believe and tremble. You know what kind of faith that
is? That's intellectual faith. That's the kind of faith you
know something is true. But it really doesn't mean anything
to you. It really doesn't matter to you. You can take it or leave
it. It's true. Yeah, there's one God. But you're not committed
to that God. You're not seeking that God.
You're not seeking salvation from that God. It's an intellectual
faith. That's not saving faith. You know, there are faith in
idols. That's a kind of faith, faith in idols. Isaiah spoke
of it in Isaiah 45 about those who pray unto a God that cannot
save. Pray into a God that cannot save.
A lot of people do that. You know why? Because they pray
into a God of their own imagination. They think about who God is. They don't know. Man by nature
doesn't know God, the scripture says. Has to be revealed. And
they won't search the scriptures to see who God really is. And
they talk about, my God would do this, my God wouldn't do that.
Well, your God may be an idol. If they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. So there's faith in idols.
There's temporary faith. The Lord spoke of that in the
parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew chapter 13. He
spoke of the seed of the gospel falling upon stony ground. That's
the stony ground here. And the man received it immediately
with joy. But then trials came. Persecution
over the word, and then he left it. And then he speaks of the
seed that fell amongst the thorns, the thorny ground here. That's
the one whom the cares of this world choked out the word, and
it didn't take root and grow. They had better things to do,
better fish to fry, other things to do, and they left it. 1 John
chapter 2 speaks of those who left the word. They went out
from us, but they were not of us, the scripture says. And then
there are false professions of faith. Our Lord spoke of that
in the Sermon on the Mountain, Matthew 7, verse 21. He says,
Not everyone who saith unto me, Lord, Lord, is in the kingdom
of heaven. So there's false faith. There's
false professions of faith. But the Scripture tells us this,
Hebrews 11, verse 6, Without faith it is impossible to please
him that is God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is." Now that means more than believing that
he exists. But it means this, it means we
must believe that God is as God reveals himself. You see, we
must worship God not just in spirit from the heart, we do,
but in truth. What does God say about himself
in this book? Most people today have no idea
of God's sovereignty. God's electing grace. And when
you mention those terms, they bow up against you, because they
don't know what the Scripture teaches. And there are certain
areas of this mysterious universe that they cannot jive within
their minds. How can God be totally, absolutely
sovereign and man still be held accountable? Well, He is, both
are true. Just the fact that you can't
jibe that in your mind is no reason to deny what God reveals
about Himself. Just submit to the Lord and seek
Him, and you'll find Him. That's what the Scripture teaches.
But you see, you must believe that He is as He reveals Himself,
as He shows Himself to be. Not as you think Him to be, not
as others say He is, but as He reveals Himself. And especially
true in the salvation of sinners, it says in that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. How do you seek the Lord
and find reward? You seek him in Christ. You seek
salvation by his grace. You see, if you seek him and
expect reward from him based on your works, do you know who
you're seeking? You're seeking an idol, because
the God of this book will not reward anybody based on their
work except the reward of death, if you want to call that a reward.
That's right. If you want to seek the true
and living God and find salvation, come to him as a sinner seeking
mercy at the mercy seat, that's Christ, through his blood and
righteousness alone. The Bible says in John 3 in verse
18, he that believeth on him is not condemned, that is, believe
on Christ. But he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. Well, here's the issue of James.
What kind of faith is saving faith? Well, number one, that
faith which is the gift of God. The gift of God. Now, here's
the question. How can I know I have that gift?
Well, here's the second thing. What kind of faith is saving
faith? Faith that is founded upon the Word of God. That's important. Faith that
is founded upon the Word of God. If the foundation of your faith,
what you believe, is not founded upon this Word, then it's false
faith. It is not saving faith. Isaiah
chapter 8, I think it's verse 20, that's where he said, to
the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. We read it back in James
chapter 1 in verse 18, where it says, of his own will begat
he us, that is the new birth being born again by the will
of God and the power of God. He says of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth, not the lie. It's founded upon
God's word. Romans 10 17 says faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And what is that
word? Well, look at Romans chapter
one with me. Romans chapter one, here's a
sort of a summation. Of that word. By which God begets
his people. And he gives them faith to believe.
It says in verse 1 of Romans chapter 1, Paul, a servant of
Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel
of God. There's the word. And this gospel,
verse 2, is the same gospel he had promised of four by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures. The Old Testament gospel is not
different from the New Testament gospel. It's the same. Same God
of the Old Testament, same God in the New Testament. And here's
what he says. God verse 3 concerning his son
Jesus Christ our Lord It's a gospel of Christ and this Christ our
Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh
That's his humanity That's his humanity His sinless humanity
born of a virgin Created in the womb by the Holy Spirit born
of a virgin This one of whom is said, his name shall be called
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And then
verse four and declared or determined to be the son of God. Now notice
it didn't say he was made to be the son of God. He was made
the seed of David. That's speaking of his humanity.
It was created in the womb of the Virgin, but he wasn't made
to be the son of God. He's always been the son of God.
He's the Alpha and the Omega. This speaks of his deity. It
says, "...declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead."
What that's saying is that the resurrection from the dead, His
resurrection, proved Him to be God. He's God and man in one
person. That's a foundational principle
of the word of truth by which God begets us and gives us faith. And then look over at verse 16
of Romans 1. Now he says, for I am not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. Now that's the word. He says,
for it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that
believe it. This gospel preached, it can fall on deaf ears or it
can fall on the hearing ear. Now who gives the hearing ear?
You don't have it by nature. We don't, we're not born with
it. It's given by God. That's why Christ told his disciples
in Matthew 13, blessed are your ears for they hear. Blessed are
your eyes for they see. Christ said to Nicodemus in John
3, you must be born again or you can't see or understand the
kingdom of God. So it's the power of God unto
salvation, not to everybody without exception, but to everyone that
believeth, everyone to whom God gives faith and they believe.
He says to the Jew first and also to the Greek, Greek being
a way of referring to Gentiles. Look at verse 17. For therein,
in that gospel, is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, and
I believe that first faith is the content of the gospel, the
doctrine of Christ, the gospel, the message itself, to faith. That's the faith given in the
new birth by the Holy Spirit by which a sinner lays hold of
Christ, believes in, trusts, and rests in him. As it is written,
the just, the justified shall live by faith. What's that mean?
It means they live by looking to Christ. Now turn to Romans
10. Now he said, therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
What is that righteousness of God? You see, if my faith is to be
founded upon the word of God, what God says of himself, he
tells me who I am. I'm a sinner. I'm ruined. I deserve
nothing. I've earned nothing. I can do
nothing to please God, to recommend myself unto God. It tells me
the truth in His Word of who God is. He's holy. He's just.
He's righteous. He must punish sin. And yes,
He's merciful. And He's loving. And He's compassionate.
But how can He be both? How can He be both a just God
and a Savior? How can He be both a righteous
judge as well as a merciful, loving Father? He cannot pervert
justice in order to save me or you. He can't do it. He'd have
to quit being God, and that's impossible. He must be just when
he justifies. How's that possible? Well, look
at verse 1, Romans 10. The key to it is this term, the
righteousness of God. That's how he can be both just
and juster. What is that? Look at verse 1. Brethren, my
heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might
be saved. I bear them record that they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being
ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness, they're trying to work their way into
righteousness, work their way into God's favor, they have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Now, what
is it they haven't submitted themselves to? The righteousness
of God. Verse 4, for Christ is the end. That word end means fulfillment,
means finishing, completion. He's the fulfillment of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You must believe
in his finished work on the cross to establish righteousness. You
must know that you have no righteousness of your own, that Christ is your
only way of access to God by his righteousness. That's faith
that is founded upon the word of God. And then we continually
live by the word of God. But now here's the third thing. What kind of faith is saving
faith? Faith that's the gift of God? Faith that is founded
upon the word of God? Thirdly, faith that looks to
Christ alone for all salvation, for all forgiveness, for all
righteousness. That's what James is talking
about here when he talks about faith. The Bible says in Hebrews
chapter 12 that we're to run the race of grace, Looking unto
Jesus, verse 2, Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author,
that's the beginner, the originator, and the finisher, the completer
of our faith, the perfecter of our faith. In other words, Christ
is my salvation in the beginning, Christ is my salvation in the
end, and Christ is my salvation in between. He's all my salvation. It's never conditioned upon me.
Salvation is never conditioned to get it or to keep it or to
finalize it. It's all Christ, His blood for
all the forgiveness of all my sins, past, present, future.
It's Christ, all my righteousness and right standing before God
is in Him and by Him and through Him. And we look to Him and Him
alone. God said, look unto Me, all the
ends of the earth, and be ye saved. Who? A just God and a
Savior. How? Through Christ. Not everybody
who claims to have faith in Christ looks to Christ. Do you know
that? There are some people who have faith in their baptism. They look to their baptism for
their salvation. And you say, well, they add Christ to that
or they add baptism to Christ. Well, that's a denial of Christ.
It's not faith in Christ plus. Somebody said Christ plus religion
is really Christ less religion. And that's true. It's not faith
plus your pedigree. It's not faith plus your church
membership. It's not faith plus your baptism
or your tithing. It's not faith plus. It's not
Christ plus your works. It's faith in Christ alone for
all salvation. Some people have faith in their
faith. Did you know that? What is it, if somebody were
to ask you, what is it that makes the difference between heaven
and hell? You'd say, well, my faith. Not so. Christ makes the
difference between heaven and hell. You say it's too simple.
Yeah, it's too simple for the natural man. It's got to be something
else, you know. It's got to be something I do.
But you see, when it becomes something you do, then it's not
grace anymore. It's not conditioned on the sinner
at any time, in any stage, to any degree, in any way. It's
all Christ. And so faith looks to Christ,
rests in Christ, submits to Christ for everything that God requires
of me, I find in Him. Here's the fourth thing. It's
faith that issues forth in repentance. Turn to Philippians chapter 3.
Faith that issues forth in repentance. You see, here's what I'm saying.
You cannot believe in Christ and trust him fully for all of
salvation and hold on to something else. Hold on to something else for
salvation, hold on to something else to make it sure, certain.
Paul's expression is in Philippians three, look at verse three, he
says, for we are the circumcision. Now he's talking to both Jew
and Gentile here. He's not talking about physical
circumcision here. He's talking about spiritual
circumcision. He dealt with that in the book
of Romans, chapter 2. Circumcision of the heart. The
cutting away of the filth of the flesh of the heart. What
is that? That's another way of saying
we've been born again. We're the people of God. We're
the spiritual people of God. How do you know that? Well, it
says in verse 3, "...which worship God in the Spirit." We worship
God from the heart. It's not just outward profession.
It's not just outward show. And then he says, we rejoice
in Christ Jesus. Now that word rejoice is translated
in other passages as glory. We glory in Christ Jesus. It means to boast. It means to
have confidence in. In other words, what he's saying
is we glory in Christ Jesus. We boast in Christ. Our brag
is Christ. I've got nothing to boast in
of myself. You've got nothing to boast in. You may think you
do, but we don't. We have one thing to boast in,
Christ and Him crucified. That's the same word, that word
rejoice, there's the same word that's translated glory in Galatians
6.14, God forbid that I should glory, saving Christ and the
cross of Christ. Our boast is Christ. Our boast
of wisdom is Christ. Our boast of holiness, righteousness,
pardon, forget, is Christ, Jesus. And look here, now that's faith
now. We boast in Christ, that's faith. Here's repentance, and
have no confidence in the flesh. I don't have any confidence in
the flesh. Now, when we speak of the word
flesh, most people speak of the awful sins of humanity, of immorality
and debauchery that people get involved in, and those would
be concluded or included. But what he's talking about here
is religion. Look at verse four. He says,
Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man
thinketh that he have whereof he might trust in the flesh,
I more circumcised the eighth day. That was under the law of
Moses. of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew
of Hebrews, touching the law, a Pharisee? A Pharisee is one
who went above and beyond the call of duty and religion. Concerning
zeal, persecuting the church. In other words, when Paul, as
an unbelieving Pharisee, when he saw something he thought was
heresy, he went after it. He was zealous. Touching the
righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Nobody could
look at Paul and blame him for anything outwardly. But look
at verse 7, now here's repentance. But what things were gained to
me, those things I thought gained me a footing in the house of
God, in the family of God, those things I thought recommended
me unto God, those I counted loss for Christ. I see now that Christ alone is
the only thing that is gained for me in the kingdom of God,
in salvation. Yea, doubtless, verse 8, but
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord. for whom I've suffered the loss
of all things, everything that I used to boast in and have confidence
in and think recommended me unto God, I lost them all and do count
them but dumb that I may win Christ." They don't have any
value at all now because I see Christ's blood and righteousness.
That's repentance. I let loose of all those things.
I turn loose of them. I've repented of them. That's
the cutting away of the filth of the flesh spiritually. That's
why he calls it circumcision. Because those things that I thought
proved my salvation, I no longer see that. That's the faith that
issues in repentance. And then fifthly, look back at
James chapter 2 now. Here's true saving faith. Faith
that issues forth in love, obedience, and good works. Now that lays
the foundation of what James is saying, faith that issues
forth and proves itself to be genuine. In other words, justified
in that sense, vindicated by love, by obedience and by good
works. You remember when we read Ephesians
chapter two there in verse eight, he says, for by grace are you
saved through faith that not of yourselves, not of works.
Verse 9, not of works, lest any man should boast. Remember what
verse 10 said? For we are his workmanship. A
sinner saved by grace is the complete workmanship of Christ.
He's not his own person. He's not a self-made person.
But we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. There's the
foundation of it. In other words, God didn't save
us without satisfying His justice. We're created in Christ Jesus.
That's the new creation which Christ brought forth on the cross
by his death. And then he says, we're created
in Christ, and then he says, now listen, verse 10 of Ephesians
2, unto good works. Do you see that? Unto, not because
of. It's not because of good works.
It's not based on good works. We don't have any good works.
And the only good works we have after salvation are the work
of Christ in us by his Spirit. So it's unto good works, it's
the fruit, not the cause, it's the result, not the ground, unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Now, what James is saying now, any profession of faith, that is not accompanied with
that fruit of good works, love, obedience, and good works, is
a false profession of faith. He's not denying what Paul wrote
in Romans about how a sinner is justified before God. He's
already spoken of the perfect law of liberty. That's the gospel
of God's grace. There's liberty in grace. Let
me tell you something. There's no liberty in trying to be saved
by your works. That's bondage. I mean, that
is bondage. You may think you're free. The
Pharisees thought they were free. When Christ told them the truth
will make you free, they said, well, we're in bondage to no
man. These were guys who were trying to do their best to establish
a righteousness of their own. They were trying to be saved
by their works. And they said, well, we're in bondage to no
man. We're Abraham's seed. They were in bondage and they
didn't know it. Now, that's man by nature right there. We're
in bondage and don't know it until God shows us. And so there's
no freedom, there's no liberty in trying to be saved by your
work. There's liberty in the grace of God. And that's what
James is talking about. He's talking about a faith. It's
a dynamic faith. It's the gift of God. It's based
on God's Word. It looks to Christ. It issues
forth in repentance. And it evidences itself by love
and obedience and good works. Good works. And when we talk
about these things, what we're saying here, what James is saying,
justification by the grace of God in Christ and works of faith
are not opposed. They go right together. One is
the cause. The other is the result. One
is the somebody said this way. One is the root. The other is
the fruit. And that's the way we're looking
at. And that's why he says in verse 14, what does it profit
my brethren, though a man say now here's the key, he says,
He has faith. Do you say that? I say that.
You say that. And have not worked, but there's
no evidences, there's no results of works. Can faith save him? Can that kind of faith save him?
That's a dead faith. That kind of faith can't save
anybody. That kind of faith is not a gift of God. That kind
of faith is not based on the Word of God. Listen, anybody
who comes along and says they have faith, and uses that salvation
by grace as an excuse to be lazy and indifferent and undiligent,
and even an excuse to sin. I can tell you right now, that
faith is not the gift of God. That's not saving faith. It's
not based on the Word of God, because the Word of God says
otherwise. You see, that kind of faith does
not look to Christ, because if you're looking to Christ, For
all of salvation, there's a love for Christ, and there's a dynamic
desire given you by God to be like him and follow him. Faith is a dynamic. It's not
just a profession. Faith is a gift of the Spirit
of God. And it's in the heart of man,
given by God. His mind, it goes to his mind,
but it doesn't stop there. It's not just intellectual faith
like the faith of these demons who believe there's one God.
It goes to the mind, it goes to the affections, what you love,
what you hate, what you desire, what you don't desire, and it
goes to the will. It brings a sinner to Christ,
and it issues forth in repentance, and it evidences itself in love
and obedience. The Bible says in Galatians 5,
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith." What is the hope of righteousness by faith? That's
the hope of our glory in heaven through Christ. For in Christ
Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
It doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Gentile, but faith which
worketh by love. Where there's true faith, there's
love. And when we talk about love,
there's two things I think we have to keep in mind. Number
one, We don't want to lower the standard of love to the point
of excusing our lack of it. And number two, we don't want
to set it so high so as to despair the fact that we don't love perfectly.
Let's be real. And I told you, love is not a
feeling. We think it is because we live
in a Hallmark generation. Now, don't get me wrong, faith
and love, they can be emotional. They can draw forth the emotions,
the affections. And that's good if it's based,
you know, emotionalism is is evil. But emotions aren't. And what I'm saying is this,
if you gauge the power of the spirit of God by emotions, that's
emotionalism. You know, I've had people say,
well, I just didn't feel the spirit there. Well, feelings
come. Feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. All right? Sometimes I get up
here behind the pulpit and I feel great. Sometimes I feel terrible.
But either way, either way, here's how you're going to tell if I'm
preaching in the power of the Spirit. If I'm preaching the
truth of God's Word. If I lift up Christ and put myself
and you and all men in the dust where we belong, dependent on
Him. whether we feel bad or whether we feel good. Love is not how
you feel about a person. If that's it, then we're all
in trouble. Because I'm going to tell you
why. Because if love, that is, the gift of the Spirit that's
shed abroad in our hearts, if that's how we feel about a person,
then we are respecters of persons and we don't have faith. Because
he said, have not the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory, with respect to persons. It's not how I feel about you.
It's not how you feel about me. You may not even want to speak
to me. But you see, love is that which binds even people like
that together in a mutual admiration and praise and glory and worship
of Christ. That's right. Now, it evidences
itself in the most simple task. If someone's hungry, you feed
them. If someone needs clothing, you give them clothes. If they
need help, genuine help, then you help them. And if we refuse
to do that, the Bible's very clear. It doesn't pour any punches
there. If we don't do that, we don't have the love of God in
us. If we would ignore a brother or sister in Christ who needs
help and just go on our way, that's not the faith of God's
people. That's not the faith. This is what James says here.
If a brother or sister be naked, then I didn't say here, you know,
if a brother or sister whose personality you all jibe, it
doesn't say that. It's just a brother or sister.
Who makes a brother or sister? The father and the mother do,
right? In the physical family. Who makes a brother and sister
in the family of God? God does through Christ. You all have families, don't
you? I do too. You didn't choose them. My mom and dad didn't come
to me before I was born and said, now do you want this one as your
brother and this one as your son? No, they didn't ask me a
thing about it. And that's the way God's love is. You see, if
you're in the family of God, you know why you're there? Because
God put you there through the blood of Christ. And it has nothing
to do with personalities. Brother Tim James, when he was
preaching, he talked about love as a choice, and he's right.
Something I choose to do in opposition sometimes to my feelings and
how in my thoughts and you know, that's why it's a warfare This
thing about face if a brother or sister be naked and destitute
daily food and one of you say unto them Depart in peace. You
don't feed them. You don't clothe them Be warmed
and filled that's kind of like saying well get away from me.
I hope somebody helps you you know And he says, notwithstanding
you give them not those things which are needful, necessary
to the body, what does it profit thee? What you've just proven
is that your claim of believing and loving and knowing Christ
is unprofitable. It's sham religion. It's nothing. It's just a claim. So he says
in verse 17, even so faith, that profession, if it hath not worked,
if it's not a dynamic principle that issues forth in love and
obedience and good works, it's dead, being alone. There's no
opposition here whatsoever to salvation by grace. There's no
opposition here whatsoever to justification before God by grace
alone through the blood and righteousness of Christ. He just simply saying. Walk and talk what you say you
believe. Period. Put your money where
your mouth is. Huh, that's what he's saying. Even so, he says, verse 18, Yea,
a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy
faith without thy works, and I'll show thee my faith by my
works. In other words, we ought to be
a people who want to go through our lives showing our faith. Now, that doesn't mean putting
a bumper sticker on your car. That doesn't mean wearing religion
on your sleeve. That's too easy. Do you know
that? That's just way too easy. That doesn't mean going around
holding a sign up and saying, look at me, I'm a Christian.
No, you know what he says? Let me conclude with this today.
Look at Matthew 5. And we'll come back here. And
I want to show you, this lays the foundation of what James is saying
now. There's no opposition here. To what? The Holy Spirit encouraged
Paul to write. Look at Matthew 5.16. He says, Let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven. Now, what most people look at
that and they say, well, then the light is our good works.
Not so. The light is the truth of grace. The light is the gospel of God's
grace. The light is the glory of God
in Christ. He's talking about witnessing
the gospel. Tell people about Christ. Who he is, what he did,
why he did it, where he is now. And he says that they may see
your good works and do what? Talk about how great of a fellow
or how great of a girl you are? No. That they may what? Glorify
your Father which is in heaven. Now how are they going to do
that? There's only one way, when they come to faith in Christ.
Don't look at me. Don't applaud me. Don't boast
about me. Look to Christ. What are you
going to tell a person when they see your good works? I'll tell
you what you're going to tell them, you're going to listen
to. If God were to judge me right now based upon my best works,
where would I be? I'd be in hell. If God, listen,
if God were to look at me and mark iniquity I wouldn't stand. My works, even those which Christ
works through me by His Spirit, they are not my salvation. They are not my righteousness
before God. They are not my holiness before
God. Christ is. That's when you're
letting your light shine. Christ is my holiness. Christ
is my righteousness. Christ is my salvation. And all
those works, However many or however little, we don't count
them, we don't know, there's no list, no checklist. They're the work
of God, by His grace. They redound to His glory in
Christ.