We're looking at chapter two
of James. We're gonna begin reading in
verse 14. It says, what doth it profit
my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works,
can faith save him? 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 those things which are needful to the body, what
doth it profit? 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? 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 saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him
for righteousness and he was called a 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 then sent them out another way. For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Now that is a very important
verse in the understanding of this chapter and of the whole
work of James. For as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead also. It is impossible
that a man could ever come to a right understanding of what
James is talking about if he does not clearly and plainly
see that faith is the gift of God not of works lest any man
should boast. Now here we're talking about
works and faith but you have to It's impossible, again, to
understand what James is saying here if you do not understand
that faith is that which God is pleased to bestow upon men,
and that that same gift that God gives to men is alive insofar
as the Spirit of God is that one that gives faith and causes
faith to operate in the sons of God. What often happens is
that men come to this book, and of course those who would like
to emphasize the ability of men and the efforts of men as being
useful in obtaining an interest in the kingdom of God, they will
come to this passage of scripture and they say, see here, this
proves that men need to do something in order to gain the favor of
God. James doesn't say that. The scripture
never says that. That's a figment of man's imagination
because you see, man by nature believes that. You don't have
to convince a man that he needs to do something to make God happy. The heathen do it. I mean, you
know, all the Aztecs and the Incas and all this and all those
human sacrifices and things that they did, why'd they do that?
Because they thought they needed to do something to bring themselves
into God's favor. And oftentimes men look at works,
they speak about works as though that is the avenue through which
men gain favor of God. And they say, see, you talk about
faith, but I've got the works, and the works is that which God
is pleased with. Well, there's no doubt that God
is pleased with works. In fact, the scripture says we
are ordained unto good works. because God's pleased with good
works. But we have to understand that
the only way that good works will ever be produced in a man
is because God Almighty works in him both the will and to do
of his good pleasure. And so when we speak of faith
or we speak of works, we still speak of that which God performs. Now what James is talking about
here is just exactly what Mr. Hart was saying in his hymn that
we sang there a moment ago. And that is that faith is more
than just talking about believing the Lord. I mean, if you went
out here into the community and you asked people, do you believe
in Jesus Christ? I would dare say that you would
find very few people that would say, no, I don't believe in him.
Now, you'd find some. I mean, there's some that would,
but most people consider that. I mean, you know, you listen
to these political candidates and stuff, and a lot of them
talk about this being a nation of faith and all of these things,
and we're a Christian nation and all of that. And as if, because
men say something, Well, I mean, look, look on the money. That's
all you got to do. To find out, I mean, that we're
a Christian nation, it says in God we trust. Doesn't that just
send chills up and down your spine each time you read that? It oughtn't cause to laugh. Because in many ways it's a mockery.
in God we trust. Oh, that it were true. You know,
I wish it was true. But unfortunately, I don't believe
that it is, because I think it's exactly what James is talking
about here, is speaking about faith, but not possessing faith. And so when he says here that
faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone, because
wherever you find the work of the Spirit of God giving men
faith, you will also find the Spirit of God causing works to
occur. I mean, it's just a true thing.
God worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And he works in his people. Now,
it's not always what men, he didn't say that men would look
at God's people and say, oh, you know, that's some people
doing good works. Now, a lot of what men do, you
see, is they encourage men, well, you need to be going out here
and doing this, and you need to be doing that, and then, you
know, you'll be doing good works and everybody can see it. No,
the works that God performs in his people, They're not always
visible to men. They're not always appreciated
by men. Sometimes they're very much not
appreciated by men. You know, if a man stands before
men and tells them that they're sinners in need of Christ, not
everybody thinks that's a good thing. Some people say, well,
wait a minute, I'm not all that bad. I mean, I'm a whole lot
better than this one over here. Well, might be. You know, you
might be the best person in this room here as far as how men judge
things, but that's not worth anything in the kingdom of God. The righteousness of men counts
for nothing. Now that's a sad saying. See,
people don't believe that. You don't even believe it. I
don't even believe it half the time. You know, I get to thinking,
well, you know, this is something that's gonna be good in God's
sight, look. The Lord knows what we are. He
said to Jacob, whom he loved, he said, thou worm, Jacob. The word there is maggot. It
doesn't mean like an earthworm. I mean, you know, if you had
a choice between being a maggot or an earthworm, you'd choose
the earthworm. Well, he didn't say you're an
earthworm. He said you're a maggot. What do maggots do? They feed
on garbage. They feed on rotting things.
And that's what he said to the one he loved. He said, I love
you, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated, thou worm,
Jacob. See, the Lord knows what we are
by nature. You can't hide it from him. People
talk about, oh, well, the Lord knows my heart. And I've told
you this many a time. And they say that and it's like,
man, I'm doing pretty good because the Lord knows my heart. Dear
brethren, if anything ought to cause you to fall on your face
in fear, it's that the Lord does know what's in your heart. He
knows it better than you do. You think you're doing all right,
He knows what you are. But in His mercy and kindness,
you see, He visits sinners with His grace and His mercy. And he takes maggots and he holds them to his bosom
because he loves them. Now that's an amazing thing.
And so James is speaking here about something that God's people
need to hear over and over again because we don't need to get
to thinking that we are doing all right because we know something.
See, a lot of times people study the Bible and they get to thinking
that because they believe some particular doctrinal view of
things, that that's, man, I've really come, I've really got
somewhere. You know, you can know everything
in this book backwards and forwards and be able to convince people
right and left of being true, and you still may be devoid of
that which James is talking about here, true faith. Because faith's
not in what you know. Faith's in who you know. Faith's
in that wherein a man knows what he is by nature and he knows
that Christ alone is that one who can help him. Now that's
true faith, you see, faith was that which Peter said when the
Lord asked him if he would go away, if he said, all these other
people, my disciples, the hundreds that's followed me for all these
years, they've all gone aside and he turned to his disciples,
he said, well, are y'all gonna go away too? Peter said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. See, that's true faith. He said, we believe and are sure
that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And because
we believe that, we can go to no other because you alone have
the words that we need to hear. Faith without works. Now was
that faith without works? No, that was faith with works.
It proved that the work of God was being performed in Peter. Was Peter a perfect man? No,
not long after that, he denied the Lord, didn't he? I mean,
you know, he did the same thing basically that Judas did. The
difference was that the Lord was pleased to work his work
of love and grace in Peter, and that he did not work in Judas.
Because Peter didn't deserve his favor any more than Judas
did. Now that gets some people upset. Why? Because they think
that men can earn the favor of God. They think that's unfair. Brother Al talked about it a
minute ago. You know, if God was pleased
to make the world, can He not make it like He wants it to be?
And what can you say about it? Nothing. Now that's a numbing
thing. And it's an angering thing. But, dear brethren, it's the
truth, whether we like it or we don't. Oh, that the Lord might
teach us. Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. The one illustration that he
used, he illustrated it as that one that sees somebody in need,
And the man says, well, you're in need, well, go and be filled. But he doesn't give to the man
the thing that he needs. Now that's a good thing for a
person to do, but the point is, that's the illustration, see.
That's the difference between that faith which is wrought by
the Spirit of God and that which is just in a man's mind. It doesn't do anything. He's
just going along, he's just saying, well, I'm a Christian. Well,
are you? Reminds me of Brother Ralph Barnard,
who was a preacher of note in times past. He was in a town
and he was holding a series of meetings. And he happened to
go in a store and he got talking with the girl behind the counter. And she asked what he was doing in
town. He told her that he was a preacher
and he was conducting a meeting. And he asked her, he said, well,
are you a Christian? And she says, oh, yes, I've always
been a Christian. And he said, honey, that's too
long. Now think about that for a minute.
What did he mean by that? See, you're not just born into
being a Christian. You've not always been one. You were born a rebel against
God. And that's the way you'd stay
if it wasn't for the mercy of God to open your eyes and bring
you out of that and show you the fact that you're a sinner
and that Christ is the Savior. And that is the work of God. And so faith without works is
dead. I mean, for a man to say he has
faith, but there's no evidence of faith that God has humbled
him before Almighty God that he might see Christ as the Savior. Yea, a man may say thou hast
faith and I have works. Isn't this the two camps? Some
people call it the Calvinists and the Armenians. You know? And one of them says, well, it's
this. And the other one says, it's that. Well, dear brethren,
we're not here to build up one side and put one down. Because
at the end of the day, all of that doesn't make a whole lot
of difference if a man doesn't know Christ. Now, I'm a Calvinist. I'm not
ashamed to be called a Calvinist. I don't believe everything John
Calvin said, but I definitely believe the main tenets of what
he spoke. I do believe in an absolute predestinating
God, which was one of the tenets of the things that he believed,
so I'm not ashamed of that. And I do not believe that Arminianism
It's true which Arminianism basically says that man has a free will
that allows him to either reject or choose God according to his
own desire. I believe that's an error. I
believe that's wrong. But you see, you can hold one
or other of those positions and not know what true faith is. Because that's not true faith. Those doctrinal systems are not.
But see, James says here, one says, well, I've got faith. The
other says, well, I'm gonna show you my faith by my words. Now,
I believe both sides are boasting. See, we don't boast of having
faith. Now, if you make a boast, let
your boast be in Christ. You know, because I see my faith
at best. Any faith that I have is weak
at best. And like that man in the scripture
that came to the Lord and said, Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. See, we know that we don't have
faith. And works, I don't know of any
works that I've got other than the works of God that He performs
in me. And I can't boast in that. I
mean, if the Lord works in me, both the will and to do of His
good pleasure, where's the place of boasting in that? A man can't
say, well, brother, I'm doing this and I'm doing that. Well,
it doesn't make any difference what you're doing. What we're
interested in is what is God doing. Is God doing something
in you? See, that's what he's talking
about here. Faith without words. Was not
Abraham our father? I missed something here. It says,
He said, one says I have works, and the other says that I'll
show thee my faith by my works. He said, thou believest there's
one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe in trouble.
So it's not any big thing for a man to believe in God. Now
people take off times, oh, I believe in God. They really think that's
something. You know, that a man believes
in God. Well, how can you not believe
in God if you look around yourself? I mean, the heavens declare the
glory of God. You can't escape that. You might
get in some intellectual, philosophical mindset and get to talking about
all these things with all these smart people. But you know, when
you look around you and you see the intricacies of creation and
the fact that whole things are working in a fashion that work
together and there's not total chaos, you can't help but believe
there's a God. But believing that there's a
God is not any great feat, dear brother. The devils believe,
he said. They believe, and not only do
they believe, they tremble. They know that God is an absolute
God. But that's not faith. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Sayest thou how faith wrought
with his works? By works was faith made perfect. Now why did
Abraham offer Isaac? Now some people present it as,
well, God wanted to see if Abraham had faith. And so he put him
to the test. And sure enough, turns out Abraham
did have faith. Now why did Abraham have faith?
Because God gave it to him. See, Abraham dwelt in Ur of the
Chaldees. As far as we know, he was dwelling
among heathens. We don't know that. I mean, there's
no evidence that Abraham came from some line of faith. But God called him out. Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works? See, that's exactly what I'm
talking about. Faith and works go hand in hand
because they both come from the same source. It's not that Abraham
had works and this bolstered his faith or vice versa, but
God gave these things to him. By works was faith made perfect,
that is it was seen to be what it was. The scripture speaks
about Christ being made perfect through suffering. Now do we
think that what that means is somehow or other that which was
already perfect became perfect? No, it means that it became fitted
for what he determined it to be, determined him to be. And
so it is that the Lord would demonstrate the work of faith
in Abraham. Because listen to this, and the
scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now again, here's
a place where people often go shipwrecked. They say, see there,
Abraham believed, and because of that belief, God said, you're
righteous. And Abraham's righteousness was
given to him on the basis of the fact that he believed. But
that's backwards. See, the Lord gave Abraham righteousness
and he believed because it was imputed to him. Now when something's
imputed to you, it's given to you. It's not, you haven't earned
it. He didn't say Abraham earned
righteousness. He said it was imputed to him.
Now notice this, it was about his faith because it doesn't
say Abraham believed. And it was imputed to him for
righteousness. It says Abraham believed God. Now there's a big difference,
you see. That comes back to what we were
talking about earlier. Faith. You know, when they talk about
all the different faiths of men, there are different faiths of
men. Men have faith in all kinds of things. All kinds of denominations
of people, they've got all kinds of faith. Is that the faith he's
talking about here? No, because there's only one
faith that's of any use. Isn't that
what Paul said? One Lord, one faith, one baptism. It's not all these different
faiths. I mean, I'm not against it. I mean, people can have any
kind of faith they want to have. But there's only one kind of
faith that's given to men by Almighty God. And that is the
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is the Savior of sinners.
See, that's the work of God in a man, to bring him to that place. And so Abraham believed God.
And it was accounted to him for righteousness. Was it that he
believed? No, it was that he believed God because God's the
one who possesses righteousness and gives it to men. So it's
not something Abraham did in order to earn the favor of God,
but rather the favor of God was bestowed on Abraham and he believed
God. Now could Abraham just not have
believed God? Think about that. I mean, the
whole kingdom of God, in a measure, in the earth is set forth as
what he did with Abraham. Now, what if Abraham, the Lord
had called Abraham out of the earth, Caledon Abraham, and said,
nah, Lord, I ain't going. You think that could have happened?
No, it couldn't happen, because when God calls men, they hear
him, and they do the things that he says to do. And that's what
James is talking about here is that the work of God in men is
the same work that gives them faith. He was called the friend of God
just like David was called a man after God's own heart. David
wasn't any kind of example, was he? I mean, look at his family,
look at his whole life. I mean, you know, and I'm not
putting David down because he was just a man. But you see,
the thing that makes David stand apart is not what David did,
but what God did through David. I mean, and I think I might have
mentioned this last week, you know, here you got David going
up against Goliath with a sling and a stone and somehow or other that stone went right in between
Goliath's eyes and knocked him out. Now did David have the power
to do that? Did he have the equipment to
do that? You know, I've heard people go into all these different
things trying to explain how, you know, the velocity of this
stone, you know, was such because of the sling motion and calculated,
you know, and this thing was going so fast and it hit just
right. Dear brethren, God guided the
stone to Goliath's head. And God gave the stone the power
to do what it did. Did he use David? Sure he did.
And did David act in faith? Sure he did. Why did he? I mean, all these other guys,
they was trembling in fear. Here's David, he comes on the
scene. When I was going to Sunday school,
they told us, oh, what a great man David was. Look at David,
he was brave. Now, if you'll be brave, you'll
be just like David. Well, no, you got the cart ahead
of the horse. Why was David brave? He was brave
because God gave him that bravery. He said, who is this uncircumcised
Philistine that he should defy the armies of God? Why did he
do that? Because God worked in him. Both
the will and the do of his good pleasure. And that, dear brethren,
is the works of faith. Because it's the work of God.
And wherever you find faith, you will find the work of God.
That's just the way it is. Are men justified by words? They
are insofar as it is the work of God. They're not justified
by their own words, but they're justified by the words that God
performs in them. Why was Rahab, it mentions Rahab
here, Rahab the harlot. Now I don't know about you, but
that's kind of not a real thing I would want on my resume. You
know, I can imagine that a woman would certainly not want to be
remembered as Rahab the harlot. Why'd the Lord put that in there?
Why was Rahab of all people? In the city of Jericho, why was
Rahab the one to whom the spies were sent? Why was that? Why did Rahab, of all people,
have faith in God? Because of the mercy of God,
the grace of God, the works of God. Faith without works is dead. Because faith without works is
not the work of God. See? Men can talk of faith all
day long. You can talk of faith, and the
other guy can over here, he can talk about works, but neither
one of them's of any value unless God's the one that's performing
the works and the faith. And he does that in his people. Oh, that the Lord might give
us a mind and heart today to praise him and to ask him to
work in us a perfect work. Because that's the work we need.
You don't need the work that you're gonna do. I can't, even
if I could stir you up. Now there's guys in the world
that have the gift to stir people up to do all kinds of stuff.
I'm not called to do that. I'm not gonna start trying to
do it. Because I see the folly in it. Because a man that goes
out here thinking he's doing something for God is missing
the mark. What we need is for God to do
something in us. Oh, that He might do so today.
That He might cause us to see our need of Him. He doesn't need
us. He doesn't need anything you
can do. You know, the poor, they need to be fed. People are in
need today, they sure do. And He may use you to that end. He might. But He doesn't need
you to do it because He can raise up stones to praise Him, Scripture
says. So He's able, see. He's not lacking in any wise. And He's not waiting to see who
will stand up and do something for Him. But what he is doing
is working through the power of his spirit to call his people
unto himself, to give them ears to hear the sweet sound of the
gospel that Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners, and he saith
such is called upon his name. Oh, what a glorious Savior he
is. He turns none away, and he calls today, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, come unto me. and I will give
you rest.