Open your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of James. The book of James. Today's message
is called Two Examples. Two Examples. We'll continue
our study in this wonderful epistle, chapter 2. Last week, we looked at verse
19, where we saw that the devils believe in God and tremble, but
it's not a saving belief, but they know who He is. We looked
at several examples of that. And they know there's only one
true God. They know there's not multiple
gods. They know there's only one true God. And they actually
identified the Lord Jesus Christ by their own words, which we
looked at last week. They identified Him as the Lord
Jesus Christ. They identified Him as the Son
of God. They identified Him as the Holy One of Israel. And again,
they know there's one God, and they tremble. They tremble. Now, in this section, James has
been instructing us, again, by the power of the Holy Spirit
of God, who is the true author of the scriptures. He's been
instructing us the difference between true God-given faith
and false professions, or false professors. And he will
give us an example today, two examples. of how faith works. And remember, these works in
no way justify Abraham or Rahab before God. They justify Abraham
and Rahab before man. They're proof and evidence that
God has brought a work in them. They would not have done these
things They would not have believed on God unless he granted them
faith to believe. And it's the same for us, right?
We've been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to
trust him with our eternal souls. And he is the sure one. He is the only salvation for
sinners. And these works, again, that
James is speaking of, they prove our faith that it is truly God-given. Let's read verses 20 to 26. And
we'll see James brings forth two examples of these works that
he's speaking of, which prove our faith. Again, in no way do
they justify Abraham or Rahab before God. We are only justified
before God in Christ. You're going to hear me say that
a lot in this message, because it's so important to keep reiterating
that fact, that our justification before God is only in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 20. 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 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 sent them out another way? For as the body
is without spirit, For as the body without the spirit is dead,
so faith without works is dead also. Now verse 20 there says,
but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead.
The man or woman who boasts of faith without works is foolish. He or she is condemned forever
as they are void of all those works which are proof or just
evidence of spiritual life. In verse 20, James asks a question
here of a man who says he has faith without works. Brother
Tim James brings this forth. I thought this was really well
done. The question would read in today's vernacular, you who
say that a person can have faith without works, do you want proof
that faith without works is dead? So the context of the question,
again, Context is so important, isn't it? We've learned that
in our studies in Peter and 1 John, and as we went through various
studies in the scriptures, we learned that context is so important. People will take verses, and
they will tear them out, and they will make a whole false
doctrine with verses. Now works mongers love this section
of the scripture, because they say, see, faith without works
is dead. But they don't understand the
passage of the scriptures. They don't understand that James
is bringing forth justification before man, and Paul is bringing
forth justification before God. And we've learned that, haven't
we, in our study through the book of James. Same gospel, right? Salvation's only in and through
Christ and Him alone. But James is bringing forth that
there are certain works that prove our faith. So the context of the question
is not respecting the cause of our justification before God,
because that is only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. James,
again, is bringing forth that a profession of faith without
the works of the Holy Spirit wrought in us is just a false
profession. Those who strive to prove this
passage, that man is justified by works, They're simply yoking
man with the works of false religion. That's all they're doing. James meant no such thing. James
is not bringing forth this passage about works to show that man's
justified before God by works, because that's impossible. Because
none of us can justify ourselves by what we do, right? Not one
of us. And we know that from the scriptures. There must be
a lamb slain. there must be a perfect one who
dies to satisfy the law in our place, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. So the works which James is speaking
of will come about as a result of the Holy Spirit working in
us. If they are not present, Therefore,
where there is a declaration of faith, no work of the Holy
Spirit, there's no real faith. So a person can say, well, yeah,
I know the Lord. I believe all these doctrines
and not know Christ at all. Because there's not been a rebirth.
They've simply made an empty, dead profession. And no one will ever understand what is said in this passage,
nor judge wisely these words, except those who keep in view
the design of what the writer is bringing forth in this text,
that he's speaking of these works which will accompany salvation, which justify us before man but
not before God, as we've looked at in previous studies. And today,
We'll see that a justifying faith, which is only in Christ Jesus
and Him alone, this faith only holds tight to Christ, clings
to Christ. And it's without works that we
have done. It's all what Christ has done. Let's read verses 21
to 24, and we'll see here the first of two examples brought
forth in our text. What's being bought forth here
is Abraham's faith, not Abraham. Now, remember this, too. This
is not about Abraham. This is about his faith. It's
about his faith. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works which he had offered Isaac 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 unto him for righteousness, and he was called
the friend of God. Ye see then how that by works
a man is justified, and not by faith only? Now again, works-based
religion grabs hold of verse 21, and they say, see, see, You're
saved by what you do. But again, they're ripping that
verse out of context, beloved. They tear that verse out of context. James is not speaking about works
that justify us before God. Again, he's speaking about works
that justify us before man. Huge difference. Night and day. Night and day. Look at verse
21 again. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Again, context, context, context. So important. We should always
seek out a right interpretation of verse within the context of
where it's placed. One commentator brings forth
that the The general drift of this whole passage is James is
showing that there will be certain works which will accompany salvation. And again, it's the works of
the Holy Spirit of God. We can't work these things even
in ourselves. The love of the brethren. Do
you know one thing Satan can't counterfeit is the love God's
people have for each other. He can counterfeit a lot of things.
But he cannot counterfeit that love we have for one another.
He can't do it. He can't. And false professors,
if you notice, they don't have a love for the brethren. And
neither does the world. Neither does the world. So James here. does not speak
of the cause of our justification or the manner of how man obtained
righteousness, because that's only in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ, and that's very clear. James' object here was
only to show that good works are always connected with faith.
And therefore, since he declares that Abraham was justified by
works, he's actually speaking just of the proof of his justification. That's all he's speaking of. Again, I'll read that verse in
Ephesians 2, it's so important, verse 10. That's what James is bringing
forth. Those works that God has ordained
for us do not justify us, but God has ordained good works for
us. We don't even know when we do them. Isn't that wonderful? Let's go back and read verses
21 and 24. We see in verses 21 to 24 that
by what Abraham did, it appeared that he truly believed God. That's what James is bringing
forth here, that his faith was real, it was genuine. You see,
when we truly love God, we'll believe him, won't we? We'll
take him at his word. I ask you this, before the Lord
regenerated you, Did you believe the word of God? Not the way we do now, right? Did you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ was the only way to heaven? The only means that a sinner
can be saved? Did you believe that or did you think, well,
I'm not a bad person? That's how I thought. Surely God won't throw me into
hell, because I ain't an axe murderer or something like that.
Well, then you find out you're worse than the axe murderer. And by God's grace, he saved
us, didn't he? Oh, my. My. This faith that Abraham had was
a working faith. Again, not to be justified before
God, but to be justified before man. Look at verses 22 to 24. 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 unto him for righteousness, and he was called
the friend of God. Ye see then how that by works
a man is justified, and not by faith only. Now in verse 23,
turn if you would to Genesis chapter 15, very important for
us to look at this. Because verse 23 there, when
it says, and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham
believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and
he was called the friend of God. Here's a way to absolutely destroy
works mongers who say that this passage of scripture proves that
you're saved by your works. And we'll see why. That's a direct
quote from Genesis chapter 15. That verse 23 there is a quote
from Genesis 15, verse 6. Look what it says here. And he
believed in the Lord, speaking of Abraham, and he counted it
to him for righteousness. You know why this verse is so
important? Because the imputation that's mentioned there in Genesis
15, 6 was more than 30 years before he offered Isaac upon
the altar. 15 years before the birth of
Isaac, God tells Abraham, or the scriptures tell us that Abraham
believed in the Lord, that's Jehovah, and he counted it to
him for righteousness. He was saved by grace there. This is what gets people into
a pickle when they try to use James 2, verses 21 to 24 to prove
works-based salvation. They have, like Brother Tim James
says, an impossible knot to untie. They really do. They really do. Why? Well, because of that scripture
we just looked at. Abraham was justified by God
before he even offered Isaac up. And what does our scripture here
tell us? Well, look what it says. Verse 21, was not Abraham our
father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son
upon the altar? Abraham was already justified
before God, wasn't he? We saw that in Genesis 15, verse
six. And that justification there,
that's in Christ. So this verse, Couldn't possibly
then be speaking of something that Abraham did to justify himself
before God, could it? It's impossible. Do you see the
knot they put themselves into? My, no. This works here, works before
man. Abraham had a faith that was
productive of good works, and he proved it with Isaac. He was
willing. He was willing. to be obedient
to the Lord to the point of giving up his own son. So this is the first example
we see that James gives us, and remember that the subject is
not Abraham, but rather Abraham's faith. It's an example of faith
being dead without works. Abraham, our father, justified
by works? Turn, if you would, to Romans
chapter 4. Here's another good section to look at when folks
try to use these verses to prove the false, damning error of works-based
salvation. It's impossible for a man or
woman who's the son or daughter of Adam, which is all of us,
to be justified by anything we do. So this passage definitely
is not speaking about Abraham's justification before God, not
the justification of his soul, because here in Romans chapter
4, verses 1 to 12, this passage brings forth clearly that we're
only justified in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not by our works,
but by his works. 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. Not one of us can glory before
God in anything we do. For what sayeth the scripture,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. There's the same thing we looked
at in Genesis chapter 15, verse 6, right there before us. Now
to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned a grace, but a debt.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Well, hallelujah,
right? Not by anything we do. Even as
David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed
righteousness without works. That's another hallelujah verse,
isn't it? It gets better. Look at verse six and seven. Even as David also described
the blessedness of a man with whom God imputed righteousness
without works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. That's all who are in Christ
Jesus. Isn't that wonderful? You see how clear it's brought
forth here that our justification before God is only in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ, not by anything we do at all? Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now that's a
verse just to sit upon and think about. We are most blessed, overwhelmingly
blessed that God does not impute our sin to us. It fell upon Christ, beloved.
Hallelujah, what a Savior. What a Savior is Jesus Christ
our Lord. Cometh this blessedness then
upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also?
For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.
How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or
in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. The Lord saved Abraham before
he was even circumcised. Which was a proof in the seal
of the covenant, right? And he received the sign of circumcision,
the seal of righteousness of the faith, which he had yet been
uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that
believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed
unto them also. Isn't that wonderful? It's not
by anything we do. And the father of circumcision
to them who are not of the circumcision only. And this is just showing
you the difference between the Jew and the Gentile, that's all.
but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham
when he had been yet uncircumcised. He was saved by grace alone,
beloved, just like us. Isn't that wonderful? Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy, mercy, mercy, oh, great mercy, he has saved us. Great mercy. We have much to
rejoice in, don't we, beloved? Abraham's faith was justified
before man by him taking up his son. By his works, that way. His faith
was proven genuine. That's what James is bringing
forth here, that his faith was proven genuine. Showing that faith without works
is dead. Now, look again, verse 23 of James, chapter two. In
the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was reputed unto him for righteousness. And he
was called the friend of God. Abraham was himself justified
before God by faith in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed
God. How are we justified? We believe
God. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why we preachers say,
look and live. Look and live, look to Christ and live. Abraham was himself justified
before God by faith. Faith in who, one might ask.
Well, turn, if you would, to Romans chapter 5. It's very clear
here. Very clear here. Romans chapter
5. Verses 1 and 2. Look at this. And remember, this
faith is God given, right? He gives us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us faith to believe
what the scriptures say. We may talk to someone and they
don't believe what the scriptures say because they haven't been
given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's wonderful. It's wonderful that he shows
us. And remember, when you're talking to someone who is in
that state, we were there too. Just remember that. Don't get
angry with them. Just show them Christ and leave
them alone. Let the Holy Spirit do the work.
Let them do the work. Look at this, Romans chapter
five, verses one and two. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God, how? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. There's our justification before
God, right there. Peace. We are at war with the
Lord because we have enmity against him. and yet he still loves us. Oh my, we need to be reconciled
to God. He doesn't need us to be reconciled
to him, we need to be reconciled to God. That's why we preachers
say, be ye reconciled to God in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look at this, by whom also we have access by faith.
Well, who do we have access to? Into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have access
now to the Father. In and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. See, he is the conduit. There is no salvation in any
other. Not in myself or yourself. Not in anything anybody else
does or says. Salvation is only in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Believest thou this? Oh, may God give you faith to
believe, just to trust. Look at this, it says, through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And that God-given faith in Romans
1 has one object, and that's Christ. That's Christ in him
alone. So we see in our text this prime
example of true faith. That true faith without works
is dead. Abraham believed God. That was wrought in him by the
Holy Spirit of God. There was a time when we did
not believe God. We did not take him at his word.
And now, we love the word of God. And we believe the word of God,
don't we? Even the parts we don't understand,
which is a whole lot, right? And when something comes that
kind of goes, you know, hits us a certain way, kind of We
go, oh, we bow to it still, don't we? Because it's the word of
God. And you know how the scripture
says all things work out for good? I'll tell you something.
We cannot see that inside the situation. When we're going through it,
we cannot see it. But whenever we look back, we
go look what the Lord's done. Look at what he's done. And our
prayer is God just give me grace, strength, and mercy to make it
through that situation. And then we look back and go,
oh my goodness. What a merciful God. What a wonderful
Savior. So Abraham's works did not make
him righteous, but Christ made him righteous. and his faith
is in Christ, which we saw in Romans chapter five, verse one.
And if he had not willingly offered up Isaac, his faith would have
been dead then, right? He was already justified before
God, but his faith would have proven to be dead if he hadn't
been obedient to what the Lord said, right? But because he was
truly born again, he willingly did that. He willingly did that. My oh my. Paul brings forth, as we saw
there in Romans, that we're only justified before God in Christ. And James brings forth that God-given
faith will be proved or manifested by good works, which again we
looked at in Ephesians 2, verse 10. Now we see Rahab here. Rahab, her faith was justified,
shown to be true faith. when she took in the messengers
which Joshua had sent to spy out the city. Joshua sent some
spies to Jericho to spy out the city, to see what their defenses
were. And it says here in James 2,
verse 25, likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by
works when she had received the messengers and had sent them
out another way? So what a contrast we have here
before us. We have a man who lived by faith,
and his faith is spoken of highly in the scriptures, and then we
have a harlot, a sinner. Rahab was known for her sin,
wasn't she? That's what she was known for. But that which proved their faith
was that which was to be a hazard to her life. Turn if you would
to Joshua chapter 2. Now I love the fact that God
saved Rahab. He saved a sinner like me. He saved a sinner like you if
you're one of his people. We're no better than Rahab or
Abraham. He had mercy upon us. Mercy upon
us, beloved. Look at this in Joshua chapter
2. Now Rehoboam was already justified because she believed God. And that was proved out by what
she did for these two spies. Look at Joshua chapter 2, we're
starting verse 15. Then she let them down by a cord
through the window. Now she, what she did was she,
they were looking all over town, the soldiers were looking all
over town for these spies and she hit them up in her attic. And then they came into her house
and she took them up top to a roof and let them down by a thin scarlet
cord. Oh, what a picture of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ, eh? Oh, it's wonderful. Look at this.
Then she let them down by a cord through the window, for her house
was upon the town wall, and she dwelt upon the wall. And she
said unto them, get ye to the mountains, lest the pursuers
meet you, and hide yourself there three days, until the pursuers
be returned. And afterwards, may ye go your
way. She didn't just send them on
away. She gave them instruction, didn't she? And the man said
unto her, we will be blameless of this thine oath. which thou
hast made us swear. Behold, when we come into the
land, thou shalt bind the line of scarlet thread in the window,
which thou didst let us down by." Oh, that scarlet thread. Again, it pitches the blood of
Christ. Deliverance through the blood
of Christ. And thou shalt bring thy father
and thy mother and thy brethren and all thy household home unto
thee. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the doors of thy house in the street, his
blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And
whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall
be on our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this
our business, then we will be quit of thine oath, which thou
has made us to swear. And she said, according unto
your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they
departed. And she bound the scarlet line
in the window. And you know what? All that were
with her in that house were saved. Were saved. Oh, the scarlet thread. Oh, my. So, beloved of God, like
Rahab, we're great sinners, aren't we, to our shame? We have a great
Savior, don't we? We have a great Savior who's
forgiven us of all our sins. Oh, and when one has all their
sins forgiven, there'd be great acts of self-denial. We're not
living for ourselves anymore, are we? We're living for Christ
now. We're living for Him. We desire
His gospel to go forth. And Rahab's former course was
left behind. And she gave proof and evidence
of that. The greatest proof is to go forth
and tell others of Christ, even at the hazard of her life or
our life. You know, if a wasp finds a deposit
of honey, I didn't know this, but if a wasp finds a deposit
of honey, he will hasten back to tell the good news to the
rest, and then they all go and partake. We're like that little wasp,
aren't we? We found honey. Oh, we found honey for our souls,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, right? And now we go back and
tell others. Now we go back and tell others,
come, partake of this. It's free. And it's full salvation. Oh, it's incredible. We found
honey in the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we'd be like the
Samaritan woman then. What happened to that Samaritan
woman? Remember, the Lord said, I must go through Samaria. Why? Because
one of her sheep there, we find out later, there's a whole bunch
of them in that city. But he goes right to that Samaritan
woman, doesn't he? And he tells her, I'm the Messiah.
And she believes him. by the grace of God. And then
what does she go? She goes and tells the whole
city. And they came out, and the Lord
had more sheep in there, too, that we find out later on in
that narrative. It's wonderful. Oh, my. And she was ordained to meet
the Lord, wasn't she? He said, I must need to go through
Samaria. He was ordained to meet her. And every one of God's people
have a time, a time that was ordained, that God granted us
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can therefore
conclude that Rahab had true faith because she acted upon
that faith by letting those spies get away. Abraham and Rahab are evidence
of God-given faith in contrast to a mere profession. Listen
to what it says in the Hall of Faith about Rahab. By faith,
the harlot ray had perished, not with them that believe not,
when she received the spies with peace. She believed. She believed
on Elohim. She believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And she was saved. Praise be to God. Praise be to
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior