If you would, please turn to
the book of James. James is right after the book
of Hebrews. I wanna read verses of James
chapter two, verses 17 to 20. So James two and verse 17. Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. 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,
and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead. I've entitled this, Faith Without
Works Is Dead. It was tough to come up with
that one, Walter. Well, this is odd for me. because I'm gonna
preach about works today. Yeah, yeah. We talk about grace
here and we talk about grace here a lot because grace is our
life. His grace is our life. Without his grace, we have no
life. But that grace has many, many
results. Now I understand, I looked into
this a little bit, I understand that Martin Luther had a problem
with the Book of James. And I can kinda understand why.
I don't agree with it, but I understand it. Because
when I started out, I didn't get the Book of James. I really
didn't get it. It took a while, you know? Now, granted, I believe I was
a lot more ignorant when I started than when Martin Luther started.
I believe he should have known better. But being how his upbringing
was Catholic also, I can understand why he might be a little ignorant
in some stuff. I understand. And he did come
around later and actually include the book of James in the Bibles
he was printing. He didn't at first. But I also found out he
had a problem with Hebrews, he had a problem with James, he
had a problem with Jude and Revelation. So nobody's perfect. And when
you're coming out of a mess, you bring part of the mess with
you, because it's still here. I was listening to your sermon
from last week on the way up here, Walter, and I had a thought
in my head when you talked about, we were talking about being born
of God, right? I am born of God. You are born
of God if he has born you, begot you, begat you. Pick a tense,
I don't know which. Okay, here's the thing. My old nature was not born. I had a new nature implanted.
That old nature is still that whited sepulcher when inside
is death. There's no life in the old nature.
Life was given to me. And life was given to you, put
in you. And we do start out ignorant.
So, I mean, like I said, Martin Luther, I believe, did know more
than I did when we both started out, but sometimes a little knowledge
can be dangerous. Luther believed and preached
that salvation was by faith without the deeds of the law. He said
by faith alone, and that's true. Paul wrote this. In Romans 3,
27, and 28, he says, where is boasting, then it is excluded.
By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Then he
goes into Romans 4, and the first three verses, he talks about
Abraham being justified by faith. Abraham believed God and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham was before the law. There
was no law then. So how could the law be required?
It couldn't. And that was Paul's point in
Romans three. But also, James wrote this. And this is part of where Martin
Luther had a problem, I believe. In verse 24 of chapter two, ye
see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith
only. So I can understand how you might
think on the surface there's a contradiction here. You'd be
wrong, but you can think that. I had this problem. I mean, this has been on my head
for a while, when I've been dealing with Hebrews and other stuff,
and it's just there, and it's gotta come out, so. Because we should know, as believers,
that there is absolutely no contradiction in scripture. Any thoughts of
contradiction come from us. There's that old nature. There's
that old nature. Any lack of understanding is
that exactly? A lack of understanding on my
part. Not a lack of truth in the scripture
or a contradiction. Because there is no schism in
the scripture. But boy, there's plenty of schism
in us. In us. We're the problem. We
always have been. Now, I think the essence of what James
is saying here can be explained in one small verse. And it's
the first verse I read, verse 17. Even so, faith, if it hath
not works, is dead. Being alone. Network, being by
itself, being alone. Now, very clearly, James is not
writing of an addition to faith for salvation. He's not saying
you have to have this in order to be saved. That's not what
he's saying at all. I wanna say that out clearly
in the beginning. You are not saved by faith and
works. But if you are saved, you have
faith and works. I wanna just lay it out. There's
the conclusion. Now let's get to it. That's all
right, I got a roundabout way here. Because it is clearly true,
Paul wrote this also. Salvation is by grace, through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And I don't want anybody anywhere
to think that I'm saying any different. Even though I'm gonna
preach works. Even though I'm gonna preach
works. Because Paul didn't stop there. And James is well aware
of that. Whether he knew what Paul wrote
or not. Because Paul continued on. For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ordained that
we should walk in them. We should walk in them. Paul didn't leave out works either.
Paul didn't. I like that. James is writing
of the difference between a true faith and a false faith. He's
writing of the difference between a true faith and a false faith.
Paul was dealing with one thing in Romans, James is dealing with
something else in his epistle. But they both agree. True faith
is always followed by works. And a faith without works is
not a true faith. This is where James puts in a
strange statement there. And I do love this statement. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works
and I will show you my faith by my works. Thou believest that
there is one God, oh you do well, Can you hear their sarcasm? Seriously. You're doing, oh, that's so nice.
Bless his heart. He believes there's one God.
The devils believe and tremble. And you know, it's a good thing
to tremble before God. I don't see it in a lot of churches.
I don't hear it from a lot of pulpits. If you don't tremble
before God, you don't really know God. These devils believed
and trembled, it didn't do them a lick of good. Their works showed
their heart. I find that strange. Now, their works show that their faith
is not a true faith, the true faith. There's a saying, And I wrote it down, because
I didn't want to get it wrong. Here it is. Works are not an infallible
proof of true faith. However, the absence of work
is an infallible truth of a lack of faith, or a false faith, or
no faith. Works don't prove faith, but
faith without works is dead. If there is no works, there is
no true faith. God has ordained that you walk in them. You may
not even know what they are. That's the beauty of this thing.
Sometimes you don't know you're doing a good deed. But I can
tell you this, gathering yourself together with the people of God
is a good work. And if you forsake the assembly
of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, you better
check some things. If you can stay away, willingly,
as a habit, you might wanna look at something. Because the lack
of good works, a lack of works, is an infallible proof that the
faith is not right. Faith without works is dead. Paul agreed with that. Now, as I said, Paul was writing
on one subject and James was writing on another. Paul was
writing in Romans against legalism. people wanting to add something
to grace and faith for salvation, for salvation, for salvation. The works of the law or any other
works are not necessary for salvation, are not necessary for acceptance
with God. Paul wrote that clearly and he
meant every word he wrote down. Paul wrote that our righteousness,
our forgiveness, and our acceptance is in the Son. It's totally in
Christ Jesus. It's not that there's no works
for salvation. There are works for salvation. It's just not
yours. You understand? There are plenty of works for
salvation. It's just not yours. It's His. And that's what Paul
taught in Romans, very clearly, very succinctly, and over and
over again. Salvation is by grace through
faith. He wrote that down in Ephesians. And our acceptance, our forgiveness,
our salvation, our justification, our righteousness, our faith
is all in Jesus Christ alone. Now James is writing about what
some people call carnality. Nowadays, what I happen to call
it, and what I've heard people call it, is easy believing. There are people who say they
believe Jesus. They'll come to the front of
a church, they'll make a profession, and then they'll go right back
to wherever they were. Just as happy as can be thinking they're
secure. It ain't so. It ain't so. Coming to a hump in the floor,
as Walter called it one day, that they call an altar, is not
coming to Christ. That is not the way, the truth,
or the life. But that's our way. That's man's
way. Faith, here's the key. that I
want to bring out. Faith, from verse 17, faith without
works is dead. But don't forget these last two
little words. Being alone. Being alone. Now, true faith
is not dead. How do we know that? How can
we possibly know that? Well, know this. True faith is
never alone. It's never by itself. True faith is the gift of the
Spirit. True faith is what? The fruit
of the Spirit. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, I mean fruit is very important. You look at a lot of the Lord's
parables. I'll give you two just for an example. What happened
to those branches that were on the vine that didn't have any
fruit? They broke off. And what did he say? They are
fit only for the fire. Fruit is important. If you're
gonna be a part of that vine, you're gonna have fruit. Or the
husbandman's gonna take you out. That's not a good thing. And then Jesus, when he spoke
the parable of the sower, said there was three grounds. Guess
what those three grounds had in common? There's four grounds,
but three of them had something in common. Three of those grounds did not
bear a single fruit. One ground, the good ground,
in a good and honest heart, what? Brought forth much fruit, much
fruit. Some 100-fold, some 60, some
30-fold. We're not all the same. But all
of God's people bear fruit. And that fruit is of the spirit.
What's that mean? It means the fruit is necessary. Now I am not up here to be a
fruit inspector. That's not what I'm here for.
But I'm here to tell you the fruit is necessary. Because if there's no fruit,
That means there's bad ground. That's what the parable of the
sower says. It doesn't matter whether it's stony, thorny, or
a wayside. It's bad ground. It's bad ground. Fruit is necessary. So what is
the fruit of the spirit? Again, we turn to Apostle Paul. But the fruit of the spirit is,
singular, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith. One, two, three, four, five,
six, seven before you get to faith. Meekness, temperance,
and I don't think that's all. But against such there is no
law. Against such there is no law. What am I saying? True faith
is never alone. If you've got true faith, You've
got some love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
and temperance to go along with that faith. True faith is never alone because
the fruit of the Spirit is singular. It's one fruit. It's one fruit. But there's love in there, there's
joy in there, there's peace in there, there's goodness. You
know, an orange, you can slice it open. But you get the whole
orange. You know, there's a piece of
love here, joy, and your love may be stronger than my love.
My goodness might be stronger than your goodness. Yeah, I don't
believe it either. My meekness suffers pretty bad.
But I got some. Temperance. You get the whole
fruit of the Spirit. Because, see, that begetting
is done by the Holy Spirit. How are we given life? The Spirit
blows where it lifts it. You can't tell where it come,
where it go, but it goes inside. Whose fruit is it? Fruit of the
Spirit. Who gives you faith? God's Holy Spirit. Who gives
you fruit? God's Holy Spirit. Now do you
think he gave you a half bad fruit? Not the one of God's children. Not the one that God chose before
the foundation of the world. Faith is never alone. True faith
is never alone. There's more. There's more. And what is the first fruit listed
here by the Apostle Paul in Galatians? Love. Love, that's the first
fruit listed, love. Walter spoke about this last
week, love. And this is what James is keying
on. I didn't read it on purpose because
I want you to look here now. Because we're gonna see James,
Paul, John, and Jesus Christ himself all seem to have a key
on the word love. Because love is very important
in the salvation of his children. James put it this way in James
2 and verse 14. What does it profit my brethren
though a man say he have faith and not have works? Can faith
save him? Verse 15, if a brother or sister
be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto
them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding
ye give them not the things which are needful to the body, what
doth it profit? You understand what James is
pointing out here? just seeing your brother or sister, not a
stranger, your brother or sister naked and destitute, hungry,
without a place to live, without a place, without clothes. And
you just look at him and say, be warmed, be filled. May God
bless you, brother. What does that profit? Well,
it don't profit them and it sure don't profit you either. because
that is not the actions of love. He doesn't come out and say it
here, but that's what that is. These are not the actions of
a believer who loves his brothers and sisters. Because love would
help its brethren. Love would give to its brethren.
In this, whether he knows it or not, James is sort of saying
the same thing Paul said that love is necessary. Absolutely necessary. Just as necessary as faith in
the life. Not to get life, but in the life
of a believer. Let me turn back to First Corinthians,
chapter 13. Very quickly. 1 Corinthians 1, though I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity,
that's love. And look it up, the word in the
Greek is agape. That is the selfless, pure, true
love. And have not love, I become as
a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge.
And here, listen to this. And though I have all faith. What's James talking about? What's
exactly James talking about? Huh. What does it profit, my brethren,
the old man say he have faith. and have not works. Can faith
save him? What Paul say, though I have
all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love,
I am nothing. Even though your faith might
be able to move mountains, it can still be a false faith. I'm
nothing. That's what Paul, I mean this
is the apostle Paul writing. If I have not love with my faith,
I am not of God. That's how important love is
in the life of a believer. Like I said, not to get life,
but because of that life given, the fruit of the spirit. If I give away all my money to
feed the poor without love, it profits me nothing, nothing. Faith without love is dead. That's what Paul's writing. And that's what James is saying.
That's what James is saying. Faith without love is dead. True faith is never alone. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts. Know ye not that your body's
the temple of the Holy Spirit? First John three and verse 10
put it this way, in this the children of God are manifest. Now they're not created this
way. They're not made this way. Although they are made this way.
So they're not created this way. They're made manifest. And the
children of the devil. What's that? True faith and false
faith. The children of God are manifest,
and the children of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. That's what it says. That's what
it says. If you don't do righteousness, you're not of God. Now, you want
a specific? Neither he that loveth not his brother. So, loving your brother is a
righteousness. That's how you can do good deeds
and not even know it. Faith without works is dead.
Faith without love is dead. Believers and unbelievers are
made manifest this way, made known, shown to each other by
whether or not they love the brethren. John continues on about four
verses later, 1 John 3, 14. We know, we know, believers know
that we have passed from death to life. Well, how is that possible? You can't know you're saved,
Walter. How many times have we been told that? Well, nobody's
told me lately, but I don't talk to them anymore. It worked out
well for me, I don't know about them. We know that we pass from death
unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not
his brother abideth, lives in death. I don't wanna abide in death.
Been there, done that. Don't wanna do that anymore. we can know that we have passed
from death unto life in that we love the brethren. We love
those that are begotten of our Lord. We love the Lord and we love
the ones he's begotten. And that's an assurance that
you are saved because faith without love is dead. What did Jesus Christ say? I'll
just give you two things. A new commandment I give unto
you, this is John 13 and 34 and 35. A new commandment I give
unto you, that you love one another. As I have loved you, that you
love one another. That you also love one another. Jesus Christ never gave us a
command without him fulfilling it in us. I didn't actually love you people.
It's just the way it is. Our relationship, our love, goes
through Christ. Earl told me that when we first
met, and I didn't quite, I didn't get it, really. I knew I liked
Earl, and I loved what he preached. But as you come to it, it's like,
yeah, I can't hang around with Walter and with Earl, I can't
hang around other people the way I do with them, the way I
did with them, and with my wife, and with you guys, because we
can sit here and have a sermon on works by talking about love. And yet it goes perfectly hand
in hand with by grace are you saved through faith and that's
none of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Lest any
man should boast for where his workmanship created unto good
works. And he's ordained that we're
gonna walk in him. And he put in you both the will and to do
of his good pleasure. You know there are times I love
putting line upon line, line upon line and precept upon precept.
And we know we've passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. And Christ commanded us to love
the brethren. Verse 35, by this shall all men know that ye are,
what, my disciples. If ye have love one to another. Now those are the words of Christ
Jesus, and that's what James is talking about here, that you're
not doing. And if you're not doing it, you
ain't got no way of saying you have true faith. You may have
faith, but it ain't true faith. If you don't love the brethren.
And it shows. And it shows. I found one thing here. Go back
to Hebrews. Chapter six, verse nine. I just preached this a couple
weeks, three weeks ago. That fits perfectly with this. This
is the bridge between what Paul was talking about and what James
is talking about right here. But beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though
thus we speak. Paul was writing about salvation. James is writing about things
that accompany salvation. They're both preaching the same
Christ. Now how is that possible? Who
is grace? And it's the truth of God. There
is no contradiction. There's a complimentary. Because you can't have one without
the other. Who said so? God said so. I don't
have to say so. Although I will. You can't have
one without the other. That's what James is teaching. And I know the world gets this
all wrong. Because they're gonna say, see
these works are necessary for your salvation. To keep your
salvation. And that's a lie. That's a lie. That's a bald-faced lie of the
devil that he told Eve in the garden. No, no, it's not that way. You do these because you are
saved, because of the life given you, because of the life put
in you, because of the spirit in you and the fruit of that
spirit. Paul in Romans was writing of
our salvation by God, totally by grace, through faith in Jesus
Christ. And James in his epistle was
writing of the things that accompany God's salvation. By grace, through
faith, and in Christ. Works because of salvation. Both are equally true, and both
are equally scripture. because this is the reality of
God's salvation. We are saved by grace and through
faith, and that faith is never alone. We have the fruit of the
spirit. Because of faith, God's gift,
because of love, the fruit of the spirit, we work. I mean, look at Hebrews 11. Give
me just a minute. Come on. I don't know if this
ain't the reason maybe Martin Luther had a problem with Hebrews.
I don't know. By faith, Abel did something. Abel did something. Did it by
faith. But he did it. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice, by which he obtained witness that
he was righteous. I was looking at that the other
day. You understand? We say it, and
Walter said it first, I remember. God had respect unto Abel and
his sacrifice. He had respect unto Abel, then
it says he had respect unto his sacrifice. Well here it says,
by faith, He obtained witness that he was righteous. It's the
same gospel. By faith, Enoch was translated. Because he had this testimony,
that he pleased God. But without faith, it's impossible
to please him. But faith is the gift of God,
right? He's got to do the work first.
but because he's done a work, you're gonna work. By faith,
Noah, by faith, Abraham. Uh-oh, where is she, where is
she? By faith, the harlot Rahab. Can't
leave out the harlot Rahab. Even though she's not a harlot
anymore. But here amongst all these heroes
of the faith as they call them, Jews and some that were Hebrews
because there was no Jews. There's this Gentile woman. Right
in the mix. David's great great grandmother,
great great great grandmother, something like that. My goodness. James is saying that a faith
that doesn't show forth in love and in works is a false faith. And that's what he's talking
about here. Paul was talking about our salvation before God
is not dependent upon our works. But our life in Christ will show
forth works for it's not life in Christ. So what am I saying? Well, I
know some people, and probably you do too, who have a tendency
to say, well, I believe, and they may believe orthodox doctrine,
Doesn't matter, but they may believe orthodox doctrine. But
I don't care much about that church stuff. Look out. Look out. I don't like being with believers.
Watch out. Watch out. I don't feel a need
to gather together with the people of God. Way watch out. Faith without works and specifically,
specifically without a love of the brethren is dead. It's dead. And maybe so are you,
if that's the way you feel. You might want to make your calling
an election sure. Well, that's a mean thing to
say. It's a mean thing to say somebody
might be dead. No, actually, that's me being
nice. Because that's the truth of God. Faith without works is
dead. It's of no value. Not that I get to take credit
for my works. And you don't get to take credit for your works.
But they better be there. They better be there. And that's
what James is saying. And he agrees with Paul down
the line and everything else. Paul says the same thing. I can
do everything and have not love, I'm nothing. I'm lost. I don't want to be there. I don't
want to be there. Our heavenly father, we're thankful
for this time and this place. Most of all, we're thankful for
your word. you have given to us for our learning our admonition
our rebuke thank you Lord for all you've given to us please
be with Walter as he comes to preach your word and we'll give
you all the honor and the praise for it is yours now and forever
in Christ's name amen