and I have works. Show me thy
faith without thy works. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
in tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled,
which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto
him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
You see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by
faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the
harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers,
and had sent them out another way? For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."
Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead.
You remember he started out this chapter saying there in verse
1, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
without respect of persons, or with respect of persons. Don't
you have the faith of Christ with respect of persons? And
then he says, now don't do this, don't show respect to persons
where you don't have the faith of Christ. And then he goes down
to say, now don't have faith without works. If you show faith
with respect to persons, then you dishonor the Lord. And if
you have faith without works, and he's dealing all the way
down through here, he's talking about faith and the evidences
of faith, the effects of faith. And so here he is in these verses
that I read to you, in particular in verses 19 through 26, There
is a continuation of James' warning to those who boast they have
a faith, and that they have a faith and they're not interested in
their works. They don't have a faith and they boast about
having faith, but they don't have any evidence of their faith.
Faith without works. And that's what he says in verse
18. Yea, a man may say. We have the right to ask a person.
We have the right to look at somebody and say, you say you
have faith. You say you have faith. And you
can look at yourself and say, I have works. Show me your faith
without your works. Show it to me. Let me see it.
Give me evidence of your faith. I want to see your faith. And
he says, now listen, I'll show you my faith by my works, by
my actions. And yea, a man may say, and the
apostles saying this, that faith produces good works, godliness,
obedience. And he's saying that a man, if
he may say he has faith and does not have these works, his faith
is dead. Now look over here in Hebrews
11. Here's a perfect illustration of these things. Let me go give
us some more here. You know, every place where you found God
giving faith to a man, there was always faith when it was
there. It was always evidenced by obedience,
by works, even in Abel. Abel, it says here, by faith
Abel, Hebrews 11, 4, by faith Abel offered unto God a more
excellent sacrifice than came by which he obtained witness
that he was righteous. Who gave witness that he was
righteous? God did. And so, beloved, what did he
do? He offered the sacrifice that God ordained. He came with
the Lamb. He came before God by faith.
How do you know he had faith? He brought the right sacrifice.
And then it says, By faith Enoch was translated, that he should
not see death, and was not found, because God translated him. Before
his translation he had this testimony. Who testified of this? That he
pleased God. God did that. God testified of
him. And it says, But without faith it is impossible to please
him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them. Keeps His promises to them that
diligently seek Him. Now watch this. By faith, nor
being warned of God of things not seen as yet. That's faith. Moved with fear. And what did
He do? He obeyed. He prepared Him. Our God says,
You build an ark. He obeyed. And He built an ark to the saving
of His house. By faith, in verse 8, Abraham,
when he was called to go out into a place which you have to
receive for her, obeyed. They didn't even know where he was
going. God just said, go out. And he didn't even know where
he was going. And by faith, he sold him in that land of promise.
So you see, wherever there's faith, there's sacrifice, there's
obedience, there's pleasing God, there's going out. And that's
what James is saying here. Now, back over in our text, in
verse 19, he says this. And he illustrates it. He said,
oh, you say a man may say, I have faith. You've got the right to
ask him. I'll show me your faith. He said, you have faith? And
you believe that there's one God. You say you have faith just
because you believe that there's one God. Well, that's good. That's well. You do well to do
that. Oh, you do well because he says there ain't but one God.
There really is one God. The men believe there's one God.
That's the truth. There is only one God. Here,
O Israel, our Lord is one. Our God is one. And, beloved,
the light of nature teaches us that. We don't worship a dozen
different gods. We don't seek God's here, done,
and about. The light of nature teaches us
that there's one God. The works of creation. A tree
didn't make itself. A chicken didn't make itself.
A bird didn't make itself. A fish didn't make itself. A
sea didn't make itself. A mountain didn't make itself.
One God. Creation tells us that one person
made all these things. And the providence, how the earth
is sustained and the seasons go on. Scriptures prove that
there's one God. But he won't look what he says,
but even the devils believe this. The devils have this kind of
faith. They know, beloved, look with
me over in Matthew 8. They know who Jesus Christ is.
The devils believe that there's one God, and they tremble Matthew
8, they tremble at the wrath of God and the judgment to come
and the future torment that they're going to have. He says, you know,
the devils believe and tremble, and you'll find several places
in the Scriptures where they did tremble in the presence of
Christ. And here's one of them. Matthew
8, 28. And when he was come to the other
side, into the country of the Gergesenes, thou made him too
possessed with devils, coming out of the tomb. exceeding fear,
so that no man might pass thy way. And, behold, they cried
out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son
of God? They know that there's one God.
They know who Jesus Christ was. Now watch what they said. Art
thou come hither to torment us before our time? They trembled. He says, You say you've got faith
because you believe there's one God? The devils believe it. They
tremble at it. Look over in Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. And you know people believe if
there's one God, they say, you know, I believe in God. I believe
that there's only one God. Well, that's wonderful. James said, you're doing well
to do that. But the devil believes that,
and they tremble about it. In Mark chapter 5 and verse 7,
look what it says. And he cried, this spirit cried
with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with Jesus, thou
son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou
torment me not. I ask you by God. See, he called
him Jesus, son of God, and he said, I ask you by God himself,
don't torment me before my time. Don't torment me not. Don't cast
me out. I mean, they trembled at the
very presence of Christ. You remember, Paul would cast
out, do you remember he cast out a devil, a demon out of a
woman and followed him around. Had a spirit of divination. And
all this, the seven brothers got to set, seven Jews. And they
all got together and they said, boy, you know, Paul cast out
these devils and said, listen, me and you, all them fellas got
together and said, let's do it. They knew this fella had this
devil. And all seven of these guys got around. It'd been like
a Pentecostal meeting, you know. All these fellas got around and
laid hands on them and they all began to get, come out of him,
devil, come out of him, devil, come out of him, devil. About
that time, that fella got mad and he had demons. That demon
spoke through him. And it says, Paul I know, Jesus
I know, but who are you? And he flew on those fellas and
ripped off seven of them, jerked their clothes off of them, and
they run out there with their clothes ripped and torn and everything.
That tells me, beloved, that only Christ is our defender.
And, beloved, Christ undefeated even for me. So that's what he's saying. You
say you've got faith, and, oh, there's one God. Oh, I believe
there's only one God. That's wonderful. But the devils
know that, and they tremble about it. Now, back over in our text
here. Faith without works is no more than the faith of the
devil. And let me tell you this. It's not a lack of knowledge
that makes a devil a devil. They knew who Jesus Christ was.
They know who God is. And they even know who His saints
is. You know, he appeared when Job went up to present himself
to the Lord. It's not a lack of knowledge that makes a devil
a devil. You know what it is? It's a lack of love and obedience. They will not love God, cannot
love God, and will not obey God. And that's the same thing as
a faith without works is. And then he says in verse 20,
Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Wilt thou know, O vain man, he says, you're a vain man. You're
a vain man to profess that you have faith. You're a vain man
to say that you believe there's one God. You're a vain man to
say that you can have faith without works. Don't you know that it's
dead? It's vain to claim faith without works. It's vain to claim
that you know Christ without works. It's vain to claim to
believe the Bible without works. It's vain to claim that you love
Christ without works. It's vain, and don't you? And
that's why he says, do you want proof that I'm telling you truth?
Look down here in verse 26. You want proof how vain it is,
old vain man? And it's a vain man who thinks
that, you know, I've got faith. And what I do and where I go
and who I do with and what I say and how I act and my character
and conduct has nothing to do with my relationship with this
world and the people that's in it and my confession of faith.
He says, now watch, as the body without the spirit is dead, Boy,
when the life goes out of the body, it's dead, lifeless. No sight, no hearing, no speech,
nothing. No breath. And so faith without
works is as dead as a body without spirit. That's what he says.
And now look here at verse 21. And then he's going to illustrate
again the use of Abraham. It was not Abraham our father
justified by works when he had offered up Isaac his son upon
the altar. Now, let me tell you this. I
want to make this very clear here. When he talks about Abraham
being justified by works, he's not talking about the justification
of his person before God. That's not what he's talking
about. No, no. You keep this and let me show
you Romans 4. He's not talking about the justification
of his person. Romans 4, look what he says.
He's not talking about his justification of his person before God. Abraham
believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. And
we know that a man is justified without the deeds of the law,
without any works whatsoever as far as the sight of God goes.
And that's what he says here in Romans chapter 4 and verse
2. Believe God it was accounted
unto him for righteousness. Now to him that works is the
reward not reckoned of great. If you go to work, your reward
or your payment is not of grace, but of death. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. So when you go back over here,
and he says here in verse 21 of James chapter 2, Was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son
upon the altar? Now, what he's talking about here is not the
justification of his person before God. What he's talking about
here is the justification of his profession, of his claim
of having faith in God before men. You know, all them servants
went with him, and he said, you all stay here, and I and the
lad will go yonder and worship. Now, he was obeying God, and
what it was, beloved, the truth of his faith, the reality of
his justification before God, his faith was justified. I believe
God. How do you know Abraham believed
God? He offered up Isaac, didn't he? He said he loved God. He offered up the dearest thing
in his life and heart to him at that time. And Abraham claimed
to believe God, and his claim was evident when he offered up
Isaac. Now that's what we're talking
about here. That's why the Lord said, you're
going to be my disciple? If you love your father, your
mother, your brother or sister more than me, you're not worthy
of me. If he's going to be my disciple, the first thing he's
got to do is deny himself. And when you deny yourself, that
means you deny everything that concerns your life and turn it
over to Christ. And when he took Isaac up on
that mountain, beloved, He was already a justified man. He is
already a righteous man. But when he took Isaac up there,
everybody else, and he said, now that man believes God. That
man's faith is a reality. That man's faith has some substance
to it. He's not playing games with God. He's offering up his own son. Huh? He wasn't one of these fellas
that could take it or leave it. Oh my. If he had refused to go out,
if he had refused to authorize it, he would have proved this,
that his profession was vain and just nothing but words. Just
nothing. All he had was a profession. Oh Abraham, he says he believes
God. God told him to go out. Well, he decided he didn't want
to go. This is the truth. This is the
truth. I read it and I meant to bring it to you. I was reading
about this fella in one of the farm magazines. And he's a preacher. And when he got called to preach,
he put it off and put it off. And he says, Lord, if I be a
preacher, he said, I want to preach at this one church over
here. I don't want to go anyplace else. I want to preach at that
one. Well, God let him preach at that church. And then he told the Lord, he
says, Lord, I don't want to quit farming. I still want to farm
if I'm going to be a preacher. So the Lord let him farm to continue
being a preacher. He just bargained with God. Everything
he asked God to do, God done it. I don't want to go here. I want
to stay here. I don't want to be a full time preacher. I want
to do this here. The church can give me full time
and they can support me, but I still want to be a farmer.
So he bargained with God. I could just hear Abraham saying,
well, Lord, I'll go, but give me a little time. I'm going
to offer up Isaac, but I'll do it on my time, on my terms. And all you'd have found out
was that he just had words coming out of his mouth. His words of
faith would have just been empty words. And then in verse 22,
he says here, now watch what he says. Seest thou how faith
wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?"
Do you see? That's what he says. Can you
see? Don't you see how Abraham's faith and actions worked together? Abraham's faith and his works,
they went hand in hand. God gave him a command. Take
your son, your only son, and offer him up. And what did he
do? He obeyed. Why? Because he believed God. His works, his obedience, showed
his faith to be sincere and genuine. And his faith led him to obey
God, though he knew not why, though he knew not how, though
he knew not where. And then it says, by faith, by
his works was his faith made perfect. Now we know when he
says here his faith was made perfect. You reckon anybody's
got perfect faith? So that's not what he's talking
about here. What it means that his faith was proved to be genuine
and sincere. It was a mature faith, huh? It's
a complete faith. It was a genuine faith. And how
do we know that his faith was genuine? How do we know his faith
was complete? Because his faith, his words,
and his actions went together. His faith and what he'd done
went together. And then look what he says, and
then he goes right back to Abraham's justification before God. And
you see, in verse 23, and the Scripture was fulfilled, which
saith, Abraham believed God. The Scripture said Abraham believed
God. Well, how do you know if it was imputed unto him for righteousness?
Now he's talking here, Abraham was a believer. Abraham had righteousness
charged to him long years before Isaac was ever born. And he was called a friend of
God. You see, his sacrifice of Isaac was a fulfillment of Scripture.
Look in Hebrews 11, 17 just a minute. Look what happened here. And you know the sacrifice of
Isaac was the fulfillment of this scripture. His obedience
is clear proof of his faith that he was truly a justified person,
loved by God, favored of God. God called him his friend. Have
you seen my friend Abraham? Abraham is my friend. Abraham
is my friend. Look what it says in verse 17.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that received the promises
offered up his only begotten Son." Offered up his only begotten
Son. Now, Abraham was justified and
righteous years and years and years before Isaac was ever born. And here he said, how in the
world? Now, we look back. That's what he said. Our father,
we look back, and how many times have we used Abraham as an illustration
of and obedience and commitment to Christ. And yet, at the same
time, we turn around and see that Abraham was only justified
before God because God declared him to be righteous. How do you
know he's righteous? How do you know God justified
him? How do you know God loved him? How do you know God favored
him? How do you know God called him? He went out, not knowing
where he went. He soldiered, never owning a
spot of ground. And he offered up his only begotten
Son, his only dear Son, the Son in whom all the promises are.
So, beloved, when he said that he believed God, it was a heapsight
more than just words, huh? And then in verse 24, it goes
on back here and says, And he was called a friend of God. Oh,
my. Wouldn't it be something to be called a friend of God?
Abraham, my friend. And then he says in verse 24,
you see then, again he goes to say you see, seeest thou, don't
you see, can you see, you see then how that by works a man
is justified, and not by works only. You see how then that by
works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Now beloved,
This is not a contradiction of what Paul is speaking about over
in Romans 3.28 when he says that a man is justified without the
deeds of the law. He's speaking here. Paul is speaking
of the justification of the soul before God, the person before
God, without the law. And James is talking about the
justification of our faith before men. Paul talks about, we're justified. And you know, all of us, inside
our minds and our hearts and our feelings, our emotions, Gary
prayed and said, Oh Lord, you know, you made me see my wickedness. And we wouldn't trust in any
work we've ever done. We don't even trust in our faith.
Our faith never died for us. Our faith wasn't crucified for
us. Our faith never bore our sins. Christ bore our sins. Christ was crucified for us.
And we believe that, and we find rest in that. And we look to
God alone in Christ for our salvation. But how in the world do we know
that we are looking only to Christ for our salvation, that Christ
is our only righteousness? By love, our faith works, and
we love the gospel, we love one another, we endure for one another,
and take every opportunity we can to give evidence that we
have faith, and yet we do not trust in the evidences of what
we do. And James is talking about the
justification of our faith before men. I know people that I wouldn't
give you a plug and nickel for their profession. I wouldn't
give you a nickel for the profession. When you can do without the gospel,
and you can do without Christ, and you can do without the Word,
you can do without the fellowship of the saints. And you can do without calling
on God, desperately needing God. When you can do without the things
that's absolutely essential, to our very being, our spiritual
life and existence. As a baby is dependent on its
mother and its father for its existence, for its food, its
clothes, its growth, its bathing, its cleaning up after it, it's
utterly and absolutely dependent, it's necessary. And that child,
for its existence, it has to cling to its mom and daddy. And
we, beloved, as children of God, as God's people, we absolutely
have an utter necessity to cling to Christ, to cling to the Gospel,
to cling to one another, to call on God and desire Him above everything
else. And, beloved, that's why we love
to be with one another, have to have the Gospel, have to be
fed, have to have our faith fed, have to have our hearts encouraged.
We have to do it. We can't help but do it. And
that's what James is saying here, that our justification of our
faith before men. And oh my, I was just talking
about that here the other day. I was telling a fellow, I believe
one preacher that I know of is a false prophet. He said, oh,
I wouldn't say that for nothing. I said, I said it, I believe
it. I said, you know why? I said, I've known him for over
25 years and he has not got any fruit to his ministry whatsoever.
Everywhere he goes, he starts a division, he starts a fight,
he starts scattering the sheep. And then you take somebody like
Henry Mahan or Starr Richardson, look at their ministry. They
have fruit. They have people that love them,
and they love to hear them. And they preach the gospel of
grace of God in Christ, and preach love, and obedience, and character,
and grace, and mercy. That if you have grace, you're
gracious. If you have the love of God, the love of God shed
abroad in your heart, you're benefitted. If you've been shown
mercy, you show mercy. If you've been forgiven, you
forgive. You've been in need, people's
come to help your need. When you see somebody in need,
you help them. That's as simple as it gets.
And that's what James is saying here. Abraham, you say you believe
God? Go back that line. Oh, he believes
God, all right. And we believe God. And all faith works by line.
And all Paul is teaching that good works cannot be the cause
of justification over in Romans But James is teaching that good
works is an effect. Justification is the cause. Good
works is the effect of that faith. And good works flow from faith. It proves the sincerity of faith,
the genuineness of our faith. And Paul warns the legalists,
the self-righteous, who sought acceptance by their works without
the law. And James turns around here and
he warns the worldly, the empty professors. Those that profess
faith, that just use words, and their professions don't have
any love, don't have any obedience, don't have any works, don't have
any sincerity, don't have any obedience and love for Christ
and love for His people. That's what he said. Just words
is all you got. And then look what he says in
verse 25. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by
works, when she had received the messages and sent them out
another way? Now, you remember Rahab. She is in Jericho. She
hung that scarlet lion out of her window. What happened was,
they sent the spies out, and these two fellas went in to spy
out, and she come in there, and they know that there are spies
in there, and said, where they at? And she said, I've heard of God.
I've heard of your God. I've heard of the God of Israel.
I've heard what He does. I've heard how He acts. And I'll
tell you, if you'll save me and my house, I'll hide you, and
I won't let them folks find you." And she hid them, and they come
and said, where they at? She said, they went out this
way, and they went that way, and these fellas went the other
way. And she says, promise me that you'll save me. Now, she's
a harlot. Made her a living selling her
body. And he said, they said, now I'll
tell you what you do. You hang a scarlet line out your window.
And we see that scarlet line. He said, we'll come in there
and get you. And sure enough, when they marched
around Jericho seven times and blew that trumpet, seven days,
once a time, seven on the seventh day, seven times, whoa, down
come that wall. First thing they'd done, they
went in there and got Rahab and her whole family. Blown them
out. Do you believe God? How do you know she believed
God? She saved those two men. She saved those two men. How
do you know she believed she was going to be saved by those
men? She believed God. How do you
know she believed God? She saved those two men. Oh,
boy. And then in verse 26, For as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead also. And beloved, when
the spirit is gone out of a body, I mean the minute it leaves,
that body's as dead as it'll ever be. Dead as it'll ever be. When it leaves, it's just, life's
gone. It's dead. And that's what he's
saying. Just as that body, when you look
at it without the Spirit, is dead, he says faith without works,
without love, without obedience, without a genuine commitment and love for
Christ and His people, His gospel. He said it's just vain, useless,
unprofitable, just like a dead body. There's no hope for anything
that's dead. And faith without this obedience to Christ, without
work, is dead. It's dead. And you know, I'll
tell you something. I'll tell you something about
God's people and their works. You remember over in Matthew
25. The Lord said there, you know, some people came to him,
he said, depart from me. He said, oh, but Lord, we visited,
we went to the prisons, we went to the hospitals, we visited
the sick. He said, no, you didn't do that.
And then he turned around and he told his people, he said,
you know, you visited when I was sick, you visited when I was
in prison, you named off several things. And they said, Lord,
when did we do these things? When did we do these things?
Truly, God's people, right hand don't know what their left is
doing. They don't plan, I'm going to
do something good today. They don't get up in the morning
and say, I'm going to really do something good today for God. You know, they don't get up and
do that. I'm going to get up and just really set the woods
on fire for the Lord today. And then I'll tell you something
else. God ordained us unto good works in Christ. And it's impossible
to be a believer without having them, because God ordained us
to them. And you know, and you ask anybody
anything they've ever done, and they, you know, they'll never,
they'll, you say, boy, I, you know, I appreciate what you've
done with this, and I appreciate your, ah. It embarrasses them
almost to say anything about it. Huh? It does. Let me tell you some good works.