now let's keep your bibles open
there in James chapter two brother Randy read for us on the subject of faith and works
in salvation and for the past several weeks I've been preaching
through the book of first John chapter three and I'm going to
continue that but a dear brother and sister in Christ who live
in England that we communicate quite often with requested that I preach a message
on James chapter 2 verses 14 through 26 on the subject of
works and so I thought I would do that this morning not just
for them but for all of us. You've heard messages on this
but these are things we need to have re-emphasized in our
own minds and The Lord always seems to give us not new revelation,
but new light on his word that helps us to understand even fuller
what we already know. And this passage here, as Brother
Randy said, is much misunderstood, much misused concerning the issue
of faith, works, all of that in salvation. Some people use
the book of James to prove in their minds that salvation Salvation
that God provides is in some way or to some degree at some
stage conditioned on the works of men. And that's not what James
is teaching, obviously, and we're gonna see that. But a lot of
people, for whatever reason, you know, the Bible says the
natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God.
And so we understand why unbelievers cannot see past their own nose
on these issues of faith and works because it's natural for
us to believe salvation is conditioned on ourselves. That's natural.
Those who know the grace of God and salvation conditioned on
Christ alone in his work, that's a blessing of God's grace. That's
a revelation from God in the gospel. That's when he gives
us eyes to see and ears to hear. That's a regenerate, converted,
born-again person. But even, I thought about this
as I was studying for it, even believers, even true believers
who know salvation is not by works may have a little trouble
understanding the language as it's translated. And of course,
you know, we do have to look at translations and understand
them. In fact, one of the old reformers,
I can't remember which one, who first came out of the darkness
of Catholicism, he thought the book of James shouldn't even
be in the Bible because of this. And I don't know what his problem
was or what his state was. I don't go into that. I let dead
people alone. But the thing about it is, that's
not true. It should be in the Bible because
God put it in the Bible. This is the word of God. But
I do say this, there's several places in the Bible, as I say,
the gospel is a simple message, but the Bible's not a simple
book. It takes some time and some effort to study and certainly
takes the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But nowhere in the Bible
do you find a place where the rules, the responsible rules
of biblical interpretation need to be applied than here in the
book of James. And I'm gonna start with context,
context, context, all right? And here I'm gonna give you,
first of all, the context of the whole Bible. Don't be afraid,
I'm not gonna read the whole Bible this morning. But the context
of the whole Bible, and it was summarized in that passage that
I read in our opening, Ephesians chapter two, verses eight through
10. It's a summation. That gives us the context of
the whole Bible. And here's what it says. For
by grace, unconditional, unearned grace, are you saved? If you're
saved, it's by grace. And it's through faith, through
God-given faith. And even that faith is not of
yourselves. It's the gift of God that comes
by His grace through Christ. And it's not of works, lest anybody
should boast. So if you're saved by grace,
you don't have any room to brag about yourself. The only one
you need to brag about is Christ. And that's what I'm gonna do,
is I'm gonna brag on Him. Not on me, or you, or our church,
or anything. So it's not of works, lest any
man should boast. And then verse 10, for we are
His workmanship. A sinner saved by grace is totally,
completely the work of God. We are His workmanship. Created,
this work is created in Christ Jesus. That's by virtue of who
He is and what He accomplished in His work, His merits, His
blood, His righteousness. I am what I am, Paul said, by
the grace of God. A sinner saved by grace, justified
before God, based upon Christ's righteousness, imputed, charged,
accounted to me, washed in His blood, clothed in His righteousness.
I have life that comes from Him because of His death, burial,
and resurrection. You know, if you're a believer,
if you're born again by the Spirit, you have spiritual life, that
life is the resurrection life of Christ. applied to you, given
to you, imparted to you by the Holy Spirit. And it's evidenced
by the fact that you trust Christ. You believe in Him for all salvation,
not in your works. So we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus, unto. Now I always say that when I
read that, but not because of, not based on, but unto good works. Good works are the fruit of God-given
faith. They don't save us. They don't
make us righteous. They don't cleanse us. They don't
earn God's favor for us. They don't even earn our rewards
in heaven because that's not even in the Bible. Our reward
is the reward of grace. But its good works are those
which stem from, result from God-given faith to the praise
and the honor of God's glory and grace in Christ. So unto
good works, and then it says, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. If God before ordained that we
should do it, we're gonna do it. So how in the world could I gain
any favor from doing what God has already ordained me to do
in Christ? I know Paul says in Philippians
chapter two and verse 12, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. But he says right after that,
for it's God that worketh in you to do his good pleasure. You see that? You know what we
are? We're evidence of faith in Christ. And so that's what the whole
Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation and there's not one
verse in this book that teaches otherwise. Now that's not a preconceived
notion that I had because I didn't have that notion prior to my
regeneration and conversion. I had another notion. I used to think, even when I
used to call myself a Christian, when I wasn't, I used to think
there were verses in the Bible that says you're saved by grace
through faith, and then there's verses that say you're saved
by works. I used to think it was this way. You accept Jesus
as your personal savior, because you meet the condition of faith,
which is works, and then you keep it going. You seal the deal
with your life. And that was the false gospel
of moralism. In other words, people are saved and accepted
with God because they try to live better lives. Well, shouldn't
we try to live better lives? Well, yes. But here's the key. That doesn't save us. That doesn't
justify us. That doesn't make us righteous
before God. That will not cleanse us from
sin. So there's the context. But now go to the book of James
chapter two here. We actually go back to James
chapter 1. Now what is James talking about
in this book? Especially when he gets to chapter
2 and verse 14. What doth it profit my brethren
though a man say he hath faith and have not works can that faith
save him? Many translations will add the
word that. Can that faith save him? And
that's a good translation. Can that faith, can that kind
of faith save him? James's emphasis, his situation
is this. Here's a person who claims to
have faith in Christ. Here's a person who claims to
be saved. Here's a person who claims to
be a believer, to be a Christian. And so James is emphasizing a
person having more than just a claim just words without anything
to accompany those words that gives validity to the claim that's
what he's talking about all right now let me show you that look
back at verse 22 of chapter 1 look at what James says here Well,
look at verse 21. He says, Wherefore lay apart
all filthiness and superfluity and naughtiness and receive with
meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. What
is he talking about there? Believers fight sin. That's what he's saying. Fight
it. Don't give in to it. Now again, we're sinners saved
by the grace of God. And we're going to be plagued
with sin all the days of this physical life. But we're in a
warfare. And we're at a war against the
flesh. Not to be saved. Not to establish our own righteousness
before God. He says, receive with meekness
the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. What
does the engrafted, that's the word written on the heart, what
does that tell us? It tells us, for by grace are
you saved through faith, that not of yourselves is the gift
of God, not of works lest any man should boast. That's what
the engrafted word tells us. The engrafted word. The word
of God, which finds its whole meaning in the person and the
finished work of Christ as the Lord our righteousness, that
engrafted word tells me that no work that I do or no sin that
I avoid can save me or make me righteous before God. That's
what it says. And yet it tells me to fight it. That's part of this advanced
citizenship of Christianity. Now, people say, well, why fight
it then? Well, because it says so, and you have a motivation
implanted in your heart, and it's called grace, gratitude,
and love. Now, if you don't have that motivation,
then the only thing that's gonna motivate you to fight sin is
legalism and mercenary promises of earned reward. And so when
that motive is removed, you don't have a motive. and therefore
you reason in your unbelieving mind, well, then let's just sin
all we want to. Let's just throw caution to the
wind. No, grace puts a motive. The Spirit of God puts a motive.
It's a powerful motive in the hearts of the people of God to
fight sin, to be obedient, to honor God. Now, that doesn't mean it's easy.
It doesn't mean it comes natural. It doesn't mean that we always
do what we should do. It just simply means we have
a right motive now to fight sin, to obey God, and my soul, it's
a warfare. It's like, I don't know what
the worst battle of World War II was, but I saw that movie,
what was that movie? We saw recently, Dunkirk. Man, what a battle. It's worse
than Dunkirk in our hearts in fighting sin. So he says, do
this, but look at verse 22 of chapter one. He says, but be
ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your
own self. For if any be a hearer of the
word, and not a doer, he's like unto a man beholding his natural
face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way, and
straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was, but whoso looketh
unto the perfect law of liberty, and continued therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be
blessed in his deed." That is in his doing. Not blessed by
or because of, but in it. And that's important. So what's
James talking about? Here's the context. He's talking
about being a doer. Not just hearing what the preacher
says or what the word of God says, but being a doer of it. That's his subject. Now doing
the Word of God is not seeking salvation by our works. That's
against the Word of God. The Word of God forbids that.
In fact, the Word of God says that if you're working to be
saved, that's an evil thing. Did you know that? That's sinning. Did you know that? A person trying
to establish their own righteousness before God, the Bible says that's
evil. An abomination before God. Somebody
who says, well, I'm gonna try to be, do the best that I can
do in every way. And I think God will bless me
because that earns his favor or that makes me righteous. In
God's sight, that's evil because it denies God's glory. It denies
Christ. It exalts the sinner. And then you notice that phrase,
the perfect law of liberty. What is the perfect law of liberty?
That's the gospel folks. The gospel of God's grace. Nowhere
in the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the law of work
salvation called liberty. The law of work salvation is
always called what? Bondage. Whenever false preachers
stand up, and put people under the law for salvation, the Bible
says they're putting them in bondage, just like the Hebrew
children in Egypt, making bricks without straw, trying to be righteous
without the ability. The law of liberty is the gospel,
sets us free. Not free to sin, but free to
obey, free to honor God. And then he says, look at verse
26 of chapter one. If any man among you seem to
be religious and bridle not his tongue, but deceiveth his own
heart, this man's religion is vain. That's what James is talking
about. Vain talk, worthless, empty talk. Oh, I just love Christ. I love his word. What, do you
ever read it? Do you ever study it? Do you
ever listen to a preach? No, no, I don't need that. Huh?
That's inconsistent. That's like saying, oh, I just
love food, but never eat. See what I'm saying? And he says,
pure religion and undefiled before God and the fathers to visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction to keep himself
unspotted from the world. Now, what he mentions there is
a real problem that existed in that day. I mean, it exists today
too, but more so in that day because there were believing
widows and orphans that were left destitute, and the church
was to help them. And so James is talking about
pretty much the same thing that John was talking about. You claim
to love your brother, but you won't help them when they're
in need? That's empty talk. Now you know that. Oh, I just
love him. And then I'll jump over there
to James 2.14. Listen to what, or James 2, 15, listen to what
he says. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily
food, they're hungry and they're naked. And one of you saying
to them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding
you give them not those things which are needful to the body.
What does that profit? You say you believe in Christ,
you love Christ, you say you love the brethren, but you won't
help them. That's empty talk. That's empty, vain love. Now is there any doubt what the
context of the book of James is about? He's not talking about
how a sinner, listen, James is not talking about how a sinner
is justified before God. He's talking about the validation,
the proof of our faith in Christ, our love for Christ, our love
for the brethren. That's what he's talking about. James warns
the church to avoid things that are inconsistent with the claim
of faith. And then he states emphatically
that any claim of faith in Christ, any love for Christ, any love
for God's people that is not accompanied with the fruit of
good works is empty and false. So again now, I emphasize, James
is not talking about the ground of salvation. He's not talking
about the cause of salvation. He's not talking about the power
of salvation. That's all of God's grace in
Christ, based upon Christ's works, his righteousness imputed, his
obedience unto death. That's all. Christ is our all
in all. God's unconditional love is the
only cause of our salvation. Christ's righteousness imputed
is the only ground of our salvation. And his resurrected life applied
to his people by the Holy Spirit is the power of salvation. All
of grace. So James is speaking of a believer's
works as evidences of our faith. But now let me make a distinction
here. Turn to Matthew chapter five. I want to show you something
here. I was reading an article somebody
wrote about this. And the question was, do good
works evidence our salvation? Now, what I'm going to tell you
may seem a little difficult, but I want you to think about
this now. All right? First of all, we, by nature, don't even know
what a good work is. Did you know that? I mean, you
know, you look at somebody and let's say they're giving money
to charity. We'd say that's a good work.
But let's say the person who gave that money to charity is
an atheist. Does God see it as a good work?
No. Because it's not given out of
faith. It's not given by a sinner saved
by grace. It's not covered by the blood
of Christ. It's an atheist. We don't even know what a good
work is. You see two people, for example, Both of them are
kind, gentle, good husbands or good wives if they're women,
good mothers for good fathers. Are they both doing good works
in God's sight? Well, how do you, we don't know.
I'm glad that they are doing those things, I can tell you
that. I'm glad that people want to obey the laws of the land.
I'm glad of that. I'm glad there are socially responsible
citizens. But now, when it comes to God's
standard of what a good work is and what an evil deed is,
can I tell by looking at it? Like, for example, he talks about
that pure religion, all right, helping the widows and the orphans.
Well, is that a good work? Well, you don't know until what,
okay? Look at Matthew 5 and verse 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 here's my point. Do good
works, do they evidence our salvation? The answer's no. Because we don't even know a
good work until that salvation is revealed by something called
the light. You see, the light here is not
our good works. The light here is the light of
Christ, the gospel of God's grace based upon the work of another,
the work of Christ that shines on those works and reveals them
either to be good or otherwise. You see that? Does that make
sense to you? The light is what evidences our
salvation. What gospel do you believe? What
is your hope of salvation? What is your ground of salvation?
What is your ground of assurance? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. There's the light. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, not even my good works. but wholly
lean on Jesus' name, on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other
ground is sinking." I don't trust my works. I trust Christ. That's the light. Now, look over
at John chapter 3. That same light, that light,
now here's what happens. In Matthew 5, 16, that light
shines on the works of a believer. and shows them to be good, not
because they make that person righteous, not because they save
that person, not because they earn anything. The light is the
opposite of that. The light shows that they are
good works because they're the work of God and they're to the
praise of the glory of His grace. Remember what it said? Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and do what? Glorify your Father, which is not glorify you, not
praise you, not draw attention to you, but to him who saves
sinners by grace, who justifies the ungodly, to Christ as the
Lord our righteousness. Here's what I want you to know.
If you see me do anything kind, generous, or whatever, moral,
I want you to know this, that's not my righteousness before God.
That's not my salvation. That's not my cleansing from
sin. Christ is. I want to honor Him in my works. I want to praise Him. I want
the light to shine. The light is the evidence of
salvation. Now, what do the works show?
Well, look here in John 3, verse 19. This same light that reveals
a believer's works to be good because they're the work of God
and to the praise of the glory of His grace, This same light
exposes the evil deeds of unbelievers. Look at verse 19, and this is
the condemnation that light is coming to the world. Men love
darkness rather than light because their deeds, their attempts at
obedience, their attempts to keep the law are evil. We're
evil. Now, why are they evil? Not because
they're immoral or insincere, but because they're unbelievers,
because they deny God, they deny God's glory. They deny Christ. Verse 20, for everyone that doeth
evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved, exposed. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, look at it now, that his deeds may be made manifest,
that they're wrought in God, that they're the work of God. Now, does that make sense to
you? The light evidences our salvation, but now go back to
James 2 now. I'm just going to read through
this and make a few comments. But here it is. What James is
saying is that the deeds, the works of believers give validity
to our faith in Christ. Do I really believe in Christ?
Am I really a Christian? Do I really love the Lord and
love his people? Well, James says this. Now look,
don't just say it. Do it. You see a brother in need, help
him if you can, if you've got it. And don't lie about that. If you've got it and they're
really in need, it's not welfare now here. That's not what he's
talking about. He's not talking about just helping lazy people
get along. A brother or sister, a widow,
an orphan who's in need, your sister in Christ, your brother
in Christ, help them. here's what James says verse
14, what does it profit my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith
and have not works. Can that kind of faith save him?
This is what James is saying in the first part of this, faith
without works is dead. He says if a brother sister be
naked or destitute or daily food One of you say unto them, depart
in peace, be warmed and filled. Notwithstanding, you give them
not the things which are needful to the body. What's that profit?
What good is that? And so he says in verse 17, even
so faith, if it hath not works is dead being alone. The kind
of faith that is not put forth, the kind of love that's not put
forth in action is dead. It's just a claim. It's empty.
Verse 18. 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. What's he
talking, he said I'm gonna prove my faith by my doing. I'm not gonna, my faith forbids
me to claim that my salvation is by my doing because if that's
my claim, that's not faith, that's unbelief. My faith forbids me
To allow you to think, if the subject comes up and I have an
opportunity to witness, my faith forbids me to claim that my works
in helping this brother in need is my righteousness before God. But I really do believe the gospel. He says in verse 19, thou believest
that there's one God, thou doest well, the devils also believe
and tremble. Now the devils The demons are
a perfect example of those who have a claim of believing something,
but no works that accompany that to validate it. And so he says, in verse 20,
but wilt thou know, O vain man, now who's he talking about? He's
talking about one who just has a claim, just words on a page,
words in their mouth. But wilt thou, O vain man, that
faith without works is dead. So there's what he said, faith
without works is dead. Well, here's the second part,
the proof of genuine faith. And he brings up Abraham. He
brings up two people, Abraham and Rahab, of all people, a patriarch
and a prostitute. Think about that. Well, he uses Abraham. Turn to
Romans 4. Keep your finger there at James
2. Now let's read James 2.21. We'll
go over to Romans 4 here in just a minute. Was not Abraham our
father justified by works? Now here's the key. When he had
offered Isaac his son upon the altar. Now here's one thing I know that
he's not talking about. He's not talking about Abraham's
justification before God. How do you know? Because he's
talking about the time when Abraham offered his son Isaac upon the
altar. You remember that's Genesis 22.
They call that the Mount Everest of the Old Testament. You remember what happened there?
God commanded Abraham to take his only son Isaac and sacrifice
him. All right, that's the when, okay? When was Abraham justified before
God? Well, look at Romans four. Verse one. What shall we say
then that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh hath
found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof the
glory, but not before God. Now Paul is talking about Abraham's
justification before God. How do you know? He says not
before God. For what saith the scripture, verse 3, Abraham believed
God, and it, the righteousness of Christ, according to the promise,
was counted unto him for righteousness. Christ's merits, the merits of
the obedience unto death of Christ to come, was imputed to Abraham
for righteousness. Abraham's righteousness before
God is the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he says in verse four, now
to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of
death. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith, what was Abraham's faith, he
looked to Christ, is counted for righteousness. Imputed righteousness. The grace of God. Do you see
that? And how clear can it get? If you work, it's not of grace,
it's of death. Now go back to James two. Now
long after that, see Abraham was justified before God before
he was circumcised, the scripture says later on there in Romans
4. Abraham was justified in Christ all along. Based on Christ's
righteousness imputed to him. That's his justification before
God. But now James is talking about when Abraham did an act.
Did a work. as empowered and instructed to
take his son. And what did that prove? We'll
look at verse 22. See thou how faith wrought with
his works and by works was faith made perfect. Now a lot of commentators
say that word perfect there means mature. Abraham's faith was made
mature, but I don't believe that's what it is. The word perfect
does not always mean morally pure and perfect. That can only
be attributed to Christ. The word perfect means that it
has reached its completion, like the perfected work of Christ.
When Christ died on the cross, he brought it to completion.
He said it's finished. And here's what James is saying,
is when a sinner, saved by grace in faith, does that work out
of grace, gratitude, and love for God, not to be saved, not
to be righteous, but to honor God, then faith has reached its
completion. That's the goal. What is our
goal in life, believer? To glorify God. That's what Abraham
did by faith. He glorified God. And Hebrews
11 tells us exactly what happened there. I'll just read this to
you, but it's talking about how Abraham when he offered up Isaac,
Hebrews 11, 17, listen to this. It says, by faith Abraham, when
he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the
promises, he'd already received the promise of salvation by grace,
received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of
whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, Abraham,
accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the
dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. Abraham, do
you believe God? Here's the test, take Isaac up
there. This is not about justification before God, but now James connects
it, look at verse 23 of James 2. And the scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him
for righteousness, for he was called the friend of God. Every
bit of this was the act of a sinner saved by grace justified based
on the imputed righteousness of Christ. He not only claimed
to believe God, but he acted upon that claim. And then lastly
it says in verse 23, or verse 24, you see then how that by
works a man is justified and not by faith only. In other words,
it is not just a claim of faith that valididates, justifies us
before men to show that we really believe, but it's those works
that accompany us. Well, he says in verse 26, or
verse 25, likewise in the same way also was not Rahab the harlot
justified by works when she had received the messengers and had
sent them out another way? You see, Rahab had heard about
the Israelites long before they got there. And I believe she'd
heard the gospel. I don't know how, that's not
my business. The scripture doesn't reveal it. But you know what
happened? She received those spies and
she helped them because she knew that the God of Israel was the
God of all grace. She had faith and she showed
that by what she did. She helped them. And that's what
it's saying. Well, look at verse 26 and I'll
close. I think this verse really kind of caps it all off and proves
what he's talking about. He says, for as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. You
know what the word spirit there is? It's breath. And here's what
he's saying. You know, if I see you breathing,
that's a pretty good indication to me that you're alive. If you
stop breathing, that's a pretty good indication to me that you're
dead. And that proves what he's talking about is not the ground
of salvation, the ground of justification. You see, you're breathing. If
you're breathing, you're alive, but your breathing didn't give
you life. You're breathing just evidence
that life was already there. And that's what James is saying.
This is just evidence of our faith. We have more than just
a claim, more than just words, but we put it into action to
the praise of the glory of his grace. All right.