Okay, let's open our Bibles to
the Book of James. Oh, goodness. So much fun. I sure do love you all. Book
of James. Today we'll continue our study
in the book of James. Open your Bibles if you would
to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. Now last week
we looked at how James and Paul have the same gospel and Paul
brings forth that our justification before God only comes in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is the only access that
we have to God. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father. but by me, and he
is the Lord our righteousness. His righteousness is the only
thing that makes us acceptable before God, and we're praised
be to God, we're clothed in that perfect spotless righteousness.
Then we looked at James' statement about faith without works is
dead, and this is a statement which the enemies of the gospel
have used to say there are contradictions in scripture. Well, there's no
contradictions in scripture, we know that. James preached
the same gospel as Paul preached. It's very evident as we go through
this epistle. And James, when he says, even
so faith if it have not works is dead being alone. This again,
as we looked at last week, is not speaking of our justification
before God, but it's speaking of our justification before men. And how we're obedient to the
command of Christ. We willingly are obedient servants,
aren't we? We want to have our ears bored,
don't we? Willingly. We're bond slaves
for Christ, and we're willing bond slaves for Christ, because
he's made us willing in the day of his power. And there will be good works
which will accompany salvation. Turn, if you would, again to
Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. but keep your finger there and
James chapter 2 because we'll be coming right back but Ephesians
chapter 2 brings forth that God has ordained for his born-again
blood-washed Saints good works now we don't have any idea what
they are we don't have any idea at all because we will look in
a portion today in Matthew 13 where the Saints of God say when
did we do these things look at this and Ephesians 2, verse 10,
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
These are the works that James is talking about. There are in
no way saving works, not at all, because we're only saved by the
complete, finished, perfect, sin-atoning work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But these works which are spoken
of here They justify us before men. Now let's go back to our
text in James. James chapter 2, we'll read verses
14 to 20, and praise the mighty name of the Lord that we are
not justified by anything we do, because we would be in a
world of trouble. If we were justified before God by anything
we do, we'd be in a heap of trouble. Number one, we couldn't be justified
before God by anything we do, right? Because like I said last
week, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, means not
anything we do, nothing we do, nothing at all. Look at this,
let's read our text for today. We'll read James chapter 2 verses
14 to 20, but our text will be found in verse 19. We'll be on
one verse today. 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, and be ye warmed, and fill. Notwithstanding, ye
give them not those things which are needful to the body. What
doth it profit?" So if your brother or sister have a need, and you
just say, oh, you know, have a good day, you'll be OK. What
does it profit them? It doesn't profit them at all,
does it? Not at all. Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. Now again, These works here spoken
of are the same works we just looked at in Ephesians chapter
2, verse 10. They are in no way, in no way
do they justify us before God. I know I keep saying that, but
I want to make sure that's clear. In no way do they justify us
before God. We're only justified in Christ
before God. 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? Now, I'd like us to consider
verse 19 today. where James is still considering his thoughts
about people who profess Christ, but there's no fruit in their
lives. And I don't want you to go looking for fruit in your
lives, because if we look for fruit in our lives, we're going
to be sorely disappointed. Remember, these are things that
God rots in us, and we don't even know that we're doing them. So don't start looking in your
life and going, oh, I just don't measure up, because you know
what? None of us measure up. So it's
not about that. This is instruction for us. And
James is considering his thoughts about people who profess Christ
in word, but there's no fruit in their lives, no evidence that
the Holy Spirit has done a work. Now, you and I who are born again
only are the real ones who know if God's done a work in us, right?
I can honestly tell you that I am not the same person I was
before the Lord saved me. He's changed me. Now, I still
have this flesh that people look at, even when my friends from
old look and say, oh, it's Boyd. There's Boydy, right? But Boydy's
not the same inside. He's a new creature now. I'm
a new creature in Christ, and so are you, if the Lord saved
you. People look at the outside, and they still see it. Think
of this, our brothers and sisters in the flesh, they look at us
and say, well, it's the same person. No, it's not. No, it's not. Outside, yeah, I'm a little grayer.
But we're new people in Christ, aren't we? Now we have desires
and wants that we want the gospel to go forth all over the world,
don't we? We desire that. Oh, Lord, have it go forth. Did
you ever think that way before the Lord saved you? Didn't even
have a clue about it. Right? No concern. But now that's
what we desire. And these are fruits of the Spirit. Him working in us. Now, these
folks that James is talking about here, they know doctrine, they
can tell you some truths, but there's been no regenerating
work of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ, the master
himself, said, you must be born again. We must be born again. Look at verse 19. Look at this. Look what James brings forth
about these false professors. Thou believest that there is
one God, thou doest well. So we see here, now this belief
is not saving belief. They are assenting to certain
truths. There's whole churches out there
that assent to certain truths, but they're lost, right? They say, well, there's one God,
and Christ was a virgin born, and there's a trinity, but yet
there's been no regeneration done in the people. So they're
ascending to certain truths. They agree with certain truths,
but yet they're not born again. Look what it says here. Well,
thou believest there is one God. Thou doest well. The devils also
believe and tremble. They proclaim that there's one
God, which is true, right? That's a truth. But there's no
fear of God before their eyes. None at all. There's not been
a work of grace done in their hearts. They are still dead in
trespasses and sins. We who have been regenerated,
we know we're alive. We know we were once dead, and
now we're alive. We know we were lost, and now
we're saved, don't we? We know this. And it's not because of anything
we've done. It's all because of what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done for us. and therefore we publish and
proclaim the great work that he's done, saving our souls. Turn if you would to Matthew,
Matthew chapter 13. Now James here is exposing a
deadly error which has been with the true church of God from the
beginning, which is false professors. You know, I was thinking about
this, I was sharing with Vicki yesterday, we were driving in
the car and I said, I said, you know what? Satan doesn't use
anything new. He doesn't use anything new.
There was false professors in the early church. There's false
professors all through the church age. There's false professors
now. He doesn't use anything new. And the same things that he used,
do you know, did you read, just think of what we just read there.
The devils know that there's one true God. They don't believe that there's
multiple gods. They know the truth. They know
for a fact that there's one true God, right? Because he cast them
out of heaven. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, it says, thou believest
that there is one God. One God. Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble.
And they assent to that. We're going to see. And the fact that there's false
professors within the church is brought forth here in Matthew
chapter 13. Let's read verses 24 to 30. And this is brought forth with
the parable of the weeds. Look at verse 24 and we'll read
the 30. Another parable put he forth unto them saying, the kingdom
of heaven is likened unto a man which soweth good seed in his
field. But while the man slept, his enemy came and sowed tares
among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung
up and bought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst
not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath
done this, the servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that
we go and gather them up? So they're saying, do you want
us to go and separate the tares from the wheat? But he said,
Nay, lest ye gather up the tares, ye root out also the wheat with
them. Let both go together until the harvest. In the time of harvest
I will say to the reapers, and this is at the end of the, this
is when it's all over, And the reapers are the angels. They
say to the reapers, go, gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles, and burn them, but gather the wheat
into my barn. Look at that. So we see there,
wheat and tares growing together. So who's the wheat in the parable
before us? Well, it's the gospel church.
It's the gospel church over which Christ is king. He rules and
governs, right? In the hearts of his people.
And it is they who cheerfully and willingly obey him. Right? We desire to be obedient
to what the word of God says. We know we're sinners, but we
still desire it, don't we? And being a sinner doesn't excuse
us. from obeying the Word of God? No, we want to. We desire
it. And you know where that comes
from? That comes from the influences of the Holy Spirit of God. Because think of it. Did we care
what the Word of God said before we were saved? Not really, eh? Not really at all. But now, oh
my, it's a wonderful book now. All who are in the visible gospel
church state are not such. Some are wicked and rebellious.
And see, in the church in general, there's wheat and tares, right?
We don't know who they are, but there definitely is. But they
will not always continue that way. For if they are not removed
while here on this earth by God, they will at last be removed
by the angels who will separate them. from the saints of that
great day. Look a little further down in
Matthew 13, verse 41. It says this. Look at this. The Son of Man shall send forth
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend, and them which do iniquity. You know what John
Gill said about these tares? He said that those who by their
wicked principles and practice give offense, not only to God,
but to the God's people. So they don't only offend God,
but they offend God's people. And listen to what Gil brings
forth. I thought this was amazing. He brings forth, they lay stumbling
blocks in the way of the children of God. And then he says, they
are authors of division and cause offenses among the people of
God. That's what Gil said. I thought,
wow, that's incredible. Let's go back to our text in
James 2, verse 19, with that in our minds. It says here, now
these are folks who, again, they give assent to certain doctrines,
but there's no heart work. They're not born again. They're
not born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And these words, again, are a
continuation of the address of the man who says they have works,
but no faith, or the one who says they have faith, but no
works that justify them before man. They claim to believe there's
one God, but neither, again, is born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. And then James brings forth, this verse is actually
quite remarkable, because it brings forth that there's one
God. And it brings forth that even
the devils know there's one God. They know. They're smarter than
man. Well, they know because they've
seen his awesome power at work, haven't they? They've seen him
cast a third of the angels out of heaven. My. You think of this, too. What would it take for the Lord
to cast them out of heaven? Just a word. Just a word. We're gonna see. He just has
to speak and they're silent. Our God, our Savior is so powerful,
beloved. Think of this, when you get down
and you start doubting, this, the one that we're gonna see,
speak to these demons and silence them with a word, is the one
who saved us. By His power, and by His grace,
and by His mercy. Let's read that verse again.
Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well, the
devils also believe and tremble. So James is bringing forth here
that there's one true God, and that the devils even believe
there's one true God, and they tremble. They tremble. I cannot tell you how many people
I've met since the Lord saved me who have said they believe
in God, and when you say, are you born again, They look at
you if you're somebody out of outer space or something. They
look at you like, what are you talking about? It's foreign to them. It's foreign. I know it was foreign
to me. And it was foreign to you who
believed before the Lord saved us. But the Lord himself said
you must be born again. You must be. It's an imperative. You have to be born from above,
and that's what that means, born from above. Not born from a womb,
which is earthly, but born from above by the Holy Spirit of God. Donny Bell and I were talking
about this very thing, that the gospel is like another language.
It's like another language. And we who are the born-again,
blood-washed saints of God, we understand that language by God's
grace, don't we? And by His mercy. And we say,
amen! It is! We talk to folks and it's like
we're talking another language to them. But that's okay, just
keep talking to them about Christ if He opens the door for you.
Because before we were saved, the gospel meant nothing to us. And we were probably offended.
when someone came and told us about Christ, weren't we? Imagine
that, we were offended by the truth. Oh my, that's a good thing. That's a good thing, isn't it?
It's not a bad thing. Why were we offended by the truth?
Because we didn't understand the gospel. We didn't believe
we were sinners. We didn't know we needed to be
saved. And now we rejoice, don't we? The Lord's given us an understanding
of the gospel. Now when we hear the gospel preached,
we rejoice. We understand the language by
the grace of God. And we're amazed. When we hear
the gospel preached, aren't we amazed that the Lord saved us?
Aren't we in awe that the Lord saved us and he had mercy on
us? You didn't have to, did he? But he chose to. He chose to have mercy on us. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 8, and then put your finger in Mark chapter 1. So
one who merely gives an assent to these truths does not really
believe them. They're deceiving themselves.
They're actually deceiving themselves. Because even the devils believe
in tremble. That's not a saving belief, but they know who God
is. They know who he is, and we can clearly see this in scripture.
We're gonna look at some scriptures here, and we can clearly see
that the devils know exactly who the Lord Jesus Christ is.
Fallen angels know exactly who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and
we're gonna see that right here. It's incredible. Look at this, Matthew chapter
8, verses 28 and 29. Here he is, he's talking to the,
he goes into where the Gadarene demoniac is, and look at this,
verse 28. And when he was come to the other side, into the country
of the Gadarenes, men him too possessed with devils
coming out of the tombs exceedingly fierce so that no man might pass
by that way look what they say and behold they cried out saying
what have we to do with thee Jesus the Son of God art thou
come hither to torment us when before the time but look what they say Jesus
the Son of God They know who he is. Now turn,
if you would, to Mark chapter 1. They know their end is near.
Look at this little Mark chapter 1, verses 21 to 28. And he went
into Capernaum, and straightway on the sabbath day he entered
into the synagogue and taught. Now they were astonished at his
doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and
not as the scribes. Now we're going to see the real
authority and power on display, not only in his words, right,
because he speaks with authority. But look at this. And there was
in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried
out, saying, let us alone. Now this is the demon speaking
through him. Let us alone. What have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
Look at this, though. I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. They know Him. Remember, they were in glory
with Him at one time. Before His incarnation, they
know who He is. They know He's the Son of God.
They know he is the Holy One of God. They said it right there. And then look at what Jesus,
think of this, I was thinking of this too. Our Lord, he's a
man of war too. We know because he appeared to
Joshua as a captain of the Lord's host, right? And a leader, right? A general, not only do they have
the authority to give a command, but the power lies within the
rank that they've assumed. The Lord Jesus Christ, he has
the power, period. He's the captain of the Lord's
house. We saw him in Joshua, he appears as a man of war, and
there's angels all around about his command. And think of what
we read about the Lord commanded the angels to go down and separate
the wheat and tares. He just, out of command, they
go and obey him. Look at this, though. Look at this. What power.
And this is in his humanity. What power. He's God incarnated
in the flesh. And look what he says. And Jesus
rebuked him, saying, hold thy peace and come out of him. Did he say, well, I still want
to talk? No. Silenced at the command of
our king. Did he say, well, I'm not going
to quite come out of him yet. No, he must obey the command
of the king. See, the Lord's sovereign over
all, isn't he? This is our savior. He's sovereign
over all. He says, hold thy peace. It's
like he muzzled him right in the spot. Can't say a word. Come out of him. And when the
unclean spirit, what's the unclean spirit have to do? It has to
come out of him, doesn't it? It has to obey the command of
the king. And when the unclean spirit had
torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And
what's the result? And they were all amazed, and
so much that they questioned among themselves, saying, what
thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For
with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and
they do obey him. They have to. They have no choice. They are at beck and call to
the sovereign God of the universe. And they even thought he'd come
to destroy them at that time. Well, that's coming, isn't it? Not here yet, but it's coming. And immediately his fame spread
abroad throughout all the region. Roundabout Galilee. There's one
God. There's only one God. We've just
seen his power on display. One God. And to believe there's
one true God is not merely to give an assent by our words in
opposition to the polytheism of the Gentiles, which polytheism
is the worship of or belief in multiple deities,
it's not to confess the God of Israel and reject Christ who
is the Messiah, because the Jews did that, right? No, we believe what the scriptures
say about God. We believe what the scriptures
say about Christ, who is God incarnate in the flesh. By grace,
we believe that. We believe what the scriptures
say about God as he's revealed in the scriptures. And there's
so much we don't know about him. He just chooses to reveal a little
bit of himself in the scriptures. I was reading a commentator this
week, and he said if God had revealed himself to Moses, he'd
have killed him. Because of his glory. He's amazing! He's incredible! True God-given faith believes
that there are three persons, right? The Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit of God. And true faith believes that
these three are one God. And this includes everything
relating to God. as God the Father, his being,
and his perfections, so as to Christ as God, and the Son of
God, the Messiah, and to the Holy Spirit, who is fully God
and regenerates us by his almighty sovereign power. And to believe
all this is right. And before we were saved, we
thought wrong of who God was. Right? Our thoughts of God before
the Lord saved us were not true thoughts about who God really
is. And we're still learning who God truly is. We're learning
how absolutely sovereign He is, aren't we? We're learning that
in our lives. Start to notice little things
that happen in your lives. Doesn't happen by chance. There's
no such thing as chance. Little things. Providence works
in your lives daily, beloved. Daily we're loaded down with
benefits. Daily. When you sip that cup
of coffee in the morning, think of where that coffee was harvested
by a farmer in another country. It was roasted somewhere. It
was trucked to the coffee place where they bagged it. Then it
was trucked to the local grocery store, and all of a sudden, it
appears in your coffee cup. Isn't that amazing? It's all
by the providence of God. And it blesses you. If you're
a coffee drinker, you take that cup of coffee, you drink that,
it's a blessing, isn't it? It is. I'm a tea guy, so I think
the same thing with tea. It's a blessing. Ah, it is. It's amazing. Let's go back to
our text here, it says again, Thou believest that there is
one God, thou doest well, the devils also believe and tremble.
So we see there in our text, the devils likewise so believe. Now this is not a saving faith,
not at all. But they truly know who God is.
They know who he is. They're fallen angels. They know
who the Lord Jesus Christ is. We saw that in the text, didn't
we? They know who he is. They know that he is the Holy
One of God. They know there's only one true God. They know
that. They know that all these other little Gs that people worship
are false gods. They know that. They know that. They know that the God of Israel
is Christ. They know that the Father, Son,
and the Spirit are one God. They know and believe Christ
to be the Most High, like we saw in the text over there in
the book of Mark. They know that. They know whose
servants and ministers of the gospel are. Think of this, though. Satan is not omnipresent. I was
reading something this week about that Gadarene demoniac, and it
was either Gil or Hawker that said, If Satan had known that
the Lord was going to come and heal that Gadawin demoniac, he
might have hid him away somewhere. But he didn't know! He didn't
know that the Lord, and that legion of demons didn't know
the Lord was going to be there that day. They don't know! They're
not omnipresent. Now, Satan knows how we tick,
right? Because he's studied mankind
for several thousand years now. He knows what trips us up, but
he's not omnipresent, beloved. Our God is absolutely sovereign.
And he crushed Satan at the cross. He crushed him. And we see here that the devils
believe in tremble. They believe in tremble. They
acknowledged him to be their judge, didn't they? They say,
are you coming to destroy us before the time? They acknowledge
that Christ is the judge. And they were filled with fear. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter
4. Luke chapter 4. We'll see this right before our
eyes. Again, one more place in Scripture, we'll see this right
before our eyes. Luke chapter 4, verses 38 to
41. And he arose out of the synagogue
and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was
taken with a great fever, and they besought him for her." Verse
39. And he stood over her and rebuked
the fever, and it left her. Just like that. Just like that. And immediately she arose and
ministered unto them. And look at the Lord's healing. It's perfect.
Right? Now when the sun was setting,
all they that had any sick with divers' diseases brought them
unto him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed
them. And look at this, look at verse
41. And devils came out of many, crying out and saying, Thou art
Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them, suffered
them not to speak. Look at that, muzzled with command. He's got all power, beloved.
And they acknowledged who he was. Man, natural man won't acknowledge
who Christ is, but the devils know. They know who he is. They
know who he was, and he was, he silenced them with one command,
what great power our king has. This is the one who saved us,
beloved. Would it be hard for him to keep
us? Not at all. If he silences a demon with just
a word? If he commands unclean spirits
to come out of people and they come out, they cannot resist?
Is it hard for him to keep us? Not at all. Isn't that wonderful? Not at all. Oh my. Think of this too. Then he who despises and acknowledges
God is much worse than these devils. Think about, and also think about
this, I was thinking about this, I'm gonna close with this. I
was thinking about this this week. As I read that, and the
devils believe and tremble, how depraved were we? We didn't believe in the one
true God. We were just like everybody else,
weren't we? I want us to think this week. What a great deliverance. the
Lord Jesus Christ has done in delivering us from that state. Being dead in trespasses and
sins with no hope, unable to help ourselves, and he delivered
us. And how did he deliver us? All
beloved, by his great power, that same power we saw on exercise
in those scriptures. That's who delivered us. Glory to his name.