OK. The name of the message today
is Justified Before God and Man. Justified Before God and Man. Now, we've seen in our past studies
so far in this wonderful book of James, and this chapter, now
that we're in chapter 2, we've seen that it contains many things
that the enemies of salvation by grace alone through faith
latch onto to bring men and women under the bondage of their supposed
laws and rules. But actually we've seen that
these passages are quite liberating for we who are the people of
God. They're quite freeing for us. And today we're going to
look at some scriptures that again some of the enemies of
God used to heap chains on people and put them in bondage. Look
at verse 27 of chapter 1 We're going to read this verse
because Chapter 2 is not a diversion from that which is taught in
Chapter 1. It's an illumination of what pure religion is, that's
undefiled before God, which is referred to in the last verse
of Chapter 1. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the
Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their
afflictions and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Now we must keep what we're reading
in context. You've heard me stress that through
this study. We must keep what we read in context. Many pull
these verses that we look at in chapter 2 out of context,
and then they just yoke people with bondage. They just yoke
them with bondage. And they preach that you have
to do something to be saved, which we know is another gospel,
right? That's not the true gospel. The true gospel is salvation
in and through Christ alone, period, with nothing else. And those are false teachings
when people go and they yoke people under bondage. And you
know what it is, actually? It's contempt before God, too.
It shows their contempt of their hearts before God when they start
to yoke people under bondage to certain things you have to
do to be saved. And they're real subtle, too. I know I was in
it. It's real subtle. that one person
becomes a superior Christian, supposedly, because they do these
things. And I'll tell you why. I was there. I was a Pharisee.
It just fills you with pride that you do these things. And
oh, other people don't. It's awful. But it happens, because
we are self-righteous beings by nature. And so it feeds into
that. There's, think of this, we're
told in scripture that it's not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to his mercy he has saved us. And
we're saved by Christ and Christ alone. I was talking to a dear
friend in Oregon this week, he is just a wonderful brother.
And I don't, we, Vicki and I visit him when we can, him and his
wife, and we've known him for years, just years, and they're
just so sweet. And they don't believe they're
under the law, and He made this comment to me this week. He says, when it says, not by
works of righteousness which we have done, that means nothing. That means nothing. And he continued,
he says, nothing means not a little bit of something you or I do. It means nothing. He said he's been running into
people that say, oh, it's a little bit. And we were talking about
how, what Jean-Claude said with the balloon, the analogy of the
balloon filled with helium, a little pinprick in that balloon, and
that balloon goes down to nothing. He says, man, I like that analogy.
And I said, yeah, use it, because it's true. It's a pinprick of
works. So nothing means nothing. Not by works of righteousness
means nothing. We do. But according to his mercy, he
saved us. Let's read verses 14 to 26 of
James chapter 2. We're going to just look at a
few verses today, but we'll be in this chapter still for a little
while, but I'm going to read down to the end here. 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 him,
unto them, depart in peace, and be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding
you 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 my faith by my works. Thou believest that
there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble." Look at that. The devils are smarter than natural
man. They believe and tremble. They
know God's will. They don't deny His existence. They know who
He is, and it says there they tremble. We're going to look
at that verse either next week or the week after. 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. See, now people have
taken that. We're gonna see what this means. It's not saving works. That's
not saving works. That's works before man, not
before God. That's why I said justified before
God and man is the title. We're justified before God, in
Christ, in Christ alone. And we're justified before man
by what we do as a fruit of the Spirit. See this, as you said, this is
not a book of legality. This is a book of freedom. And
Paul and James have the same gospel. People take these words
out of context and they say, well look, James is preaching
another gospel. No he's not. James is talking
about being justified before man. That's what he's talking
about. Likewise, also was not Rahab
the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers
and had sent them out another way? For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. So
James brings forth an illustration for us to understand what he's
bringing forth here. And also remember that this is
James' final argument, that faith, God-given faith, true God-given
faith, is a living principle. And it's always followed by works.
Now, these works are not justifying works. They're not justifying works
at all. See, people, like I said, they rip it out of context, and
they say, look, faith without works is dead. And they use that
to yoke people to bondage, that you've got to do something. No,
this is not works that justify us. Because we're only justified
in and through Christ alone, right? There's no other way for
us to be justified before God. So James must be talking about
something else. Right? And as we consider these
last verses, we need to pay attention to the manner in which he sets
forth his argument. These works are those which we
looked at in Ephesians 2.10 last week, which were ordained by
God for us to do. Remember that? When we looked
at that? That those works were ordained for us to do by God. Good works. And again, those
works, they don't justify us before God, they justify us before
man, beloved. Think of this. Do you serve God
now because you love him? Why didn't we serve God before
we were saved? Because we didn't love him. He
loved us. Isn't that amazing? even when
we were in that state. But we didn't serve him then,
because we didn't love him. We weren't born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, were we? Now we serve him out of love,
don't we? Now we desire to serve him. We
desire to tell others about him. We didn't even want to hear about
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ before he saved us. What changed? Because now all
we want to hear is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we want preachers to tell us how he saved us, right? Who made
the difference? God. It's amazing, isn't it? It's
absolutely amazing. So we're ordained by God to do
good works, but those are the fruit of him working in us. They're
nothing to do with us. They're the fruit of him working
in us. And look at that, we see in verses 14 and 18 that concerns,
part of it is it concerns love and our brother. In verses 14
to 17, James illuminates the principle that faith operates
in mercy and in love. And again, he approaches the
subject from a negative proof and on the basis of profession.
Though a man say, look what it says. What doth it profit my
brethren? Though a man say he hath faith
and have not works. Can faith save him? He does not say brethren if you
say because the brethren are not the subject being addressed
here. Faith is the subject being addressed here. And this scenario here before
us is about the general truth of what faith produces. What
true God-given faith produces. That's what's being taught us
here, beloved. It's not to yoke us under bondage. We're being taught that these
things come about as a result of regeneration, of being born
again by the Holy Spirit of God. Look at verse 15. Does that show
love for the brethren? Not at all, does it? Be you warmed. Where are they
going to be warmed? They don't even got a fire to
go to. Right? Notwithstanding, you give them
not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so, faith, if it had not
works, is dead. Being alone. See, he's focusing
on faith, isn't he? That's the topic that's being
brought forth here. What faith does. In no way does it justify
us before God at all. Again, we didn't love God, now
we love God. We didn't love the gospel, now
we love the gospel. We didn't love the brethren before
we were saved, now we love the brethren. See, that's all through
the Spirit. And if we see a brother or sister
that's destitute, we help them, don't we? We help them. If they're in need, we help them. We help them. I remember talking to someone
who professed Christ one time, and I had mentioned that there
was a need within the body of a family,
and they said, well, don't they have sons and daughters? That's
not what I asked. I asked if we could help them. I knew they had sons and daughters.
That wasn't the point. But does that show the love of
God, beloved? Not at all, does it? No, and we had the means
to help them. So we helped them. We helped
them. And that's how it is. My. So James is going to show us,
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, the error of those who
have rested in a false, bare profession. That's what he's
bringing forth here. He's bringing forth here that
those who rest in a false, bare profession, they're going to
go to eternal condemnation. They're resting in something
they've done or said or performed to save them. But it's not anything we do,
is it? It's Christ who saves us. And by God-given faith, true
faith, we cry out to Him. By regeneration of the Holy Spirit
of God, we're new creatures in Christ. And because of that,
there's some things that we're due. And we don't know the good
works that God has ordained. I don't know the good works God
has ordained for me, and you don't know the good works God's ordained
for you. And you know what? When we do them, we don't even
know we do them. Again, because you heard me say
in Matthew there, when it's all over and God's people say, when
did we do these things, Lord? And he said, well, when I was
in prison. And his people, he's in his people. When I was sick, when I was,
you bought me a cup of water. My, it's incredible. So it's not about what we do.
And these folks say, well, I made a decision. I believed in Jesus.
I got saved. You ever hear that one? Oh, I'm
so sick of hearing that one. I get a cold. I get the flu. They just
fluently say, I got saved, like it's, the Lord saved me. Did he save you? Hallelujah. The Lord saved me. You see, it's
not just something that you get. It's something he's done. It's
something he's done. It's magnificent. He saved me. And did you notice when they
say, I made a decision, I believed in Jesus, I got saved, I prayed
a prayer, do you notice the common denominator there? Amen, sister. I. That's the common, what's
the middle letter of sin? I. Isn't that incredible? Common
denominator, the word I. You know I'll send you to hell?
I'll send you to hell without Christ. If one is saved by something
they say or do, that'll send them right to hell.
Unless the Lord saves them. We are saved by the mercy and
the grace of God. There's no I in our profession,
is there? It's the Lord saved me. by His grace and His mercy. I'm
just a receiver, that's all. If we want to say, I, I'm just
a receiver of this gift. But we don't even want to say,
I do. We want to say, the Lord saved us. It's all His work.
Hallelujah. What a great God we have. And
so the believer in Christ proclaims, Christ has saved me. It's He
who has redeemed me. It's He who has made me who I am. I am
what I am by the grace of God and His mercy alone. The word
I is a killer of the soul. The word I is a killer of souls.
Again, out of pinprick of works. I did this or I did that. Pinprick
of works is no longer grace. It's a killer of souls. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done means nothing we do. I like what my buddy said. Nothing means nothing. Nothing
we do. Doesn't mean a little bit of
something you or I do. It means nothing at all. Salvation is what? Of the Lord. Jonah 2.9. Period. We're not even in that verse,
are we? Salvation's of the Lord. Period. There's nothing else
to be done. End of story. It's finished.
It's finished. And in verse 18 here, James uses
the first person singular I And he nowhere in this context points
to himself or his works as proof that faith exists. In fact, the
entire argument of this chapter is spoken in the third person,
beloved. And this is very important because
he's not seeking to prove his faith, but rather he is proving
that faith operates in a very particular way. See, God's preachers and God's
people, we don't bring the emphasis on ourselves, do we? The emphasis is on what Christ
has done for us. You know that James continued
this, or John even continued this principle of not writing
of themselves. In John 20 verse two, James is writing, or John, James,
I'm sorry. John is writing, he says, then
she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter and the other disciple.
That's what John says about himself, the other disciple whom Jesus
loved. And why did he write that? Oh,
he's the one who laid his head on the Lord's breast, right?
I often think he heard the heartbeat of the God man. Isn't that amazing? Heard the heartbeat of the God
man. My goodness. But he never identified
himself as John in the epistle. And James is not identifying
himself here. Writers of the scriptures never
say, look at me. For the simple reason that it
smacks of self-righteousness and a lack of humility. I will
never say, look to me and follow me. Some people say, follow me as
I follow Christ. I won't say that. Because if
you look at me, you're going to find lots of faults. You're going to find lots. Look
to Christ. Look to the God-man. Look to Him alone. He's the one
who needs to be our focus. I remember Gene Harmon telling
me, a preacher out west, and he said, don't look to me, Wayne.
I'll let you down every time." That's what he said. So I've
kind of carried that as my mantle, too. Don't look to me, I'm going
to let you down. Look to Christ, though. He'll
never let you down. He'll never, ever, ever let you
down. And don't forget, we preachers, we're just men. We're just men. We're just sinners saved by the
grace of God. So the writers in the scriptures
never say, look at me, for the simple reason, again, that it
smacks of self-righteousness. Even when Paul pointed to himself
as laboring more than others, he prefaced it. Turn, if you
would, to 1 Corinthians 15.10. He prefaced it and qualified
these words with a double disclaimer. We'll see this in 1 Corinthians
15.10. So as we look at these verses,
don't look to yourself and see if you meet the standard that's
put here. Rather, consider the subject that is faith. And James
would have you understand that where faith is, it's followed
by works. Not works that justify us before
God, but works that justify us before man. It puts a whole different turn
on it, doesn't it? A whole different turn. Look
at this in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10. But by the grace of
God, I am what I am. And then now he's turning. So
that's the only thing he says, I am what I am. Look what he
says now. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not
in vain. But I labored more abundantly
than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God,
which was with me. He says, it's not my labor by
my works, by my flesh. It's by the grace of God in me.
You see how he's turning that eye to be all about God, all
about the Father, all about the Lord Jesus Christ? He's not saying, well, I labored
across Macedonia and all these places, and look what I've done. He didn't say that, did he? No,
he would never say that. He said, I am what I am by the
grace of God. And I labored more abundantly
than all, Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with
me. Only by the grace of God. And
that's why he says, I am what I am by the grace of God, by
his grace. And we can all say that, too,
can't we? Every one of us can say the same thing. So as we
look at these verses again, don't look to yourself to see if you
meet the standard. Rather, consider that the subject
is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And James would have you understand,
again, that where faith is, it's followed by works. Christ saves
us. It's Christ who saved us by His
grace. If we're not saved by the grace of God, we're not saved
at all. That's just the way it is. There's no middle ground. We're either saved by grace and
grace alone, or we're not saved at all. Right? There's no middle ground. All
of grace, or nothing. So we must reconcile James and
Paul Paul writes in Romans 3.28, therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. So that's
very clearly put forth by Paul, right? That nothing that we can
do, right, will justify us before God. Nothing. So people often take James and
they say, well, James, see the enemies of the Bible do this,
the enemies of God, they say, well, James is contradicting
what Paul wrote. Well, meanwhile, they don't even
know what Paul wrote. They read with a natural mind and conclude,
oh, this is a contradiction. There ain't no contradiction
there. Not at all. Not at all. Paul speaks of another sort of
work than James does. Paul speaks of the deeds of the
law. He's speaking of works wrought in obedience to the law of Moses
before before God and works that men do before they embrace the
faith of the gospel, right? Because everyone's trying to
justify themselves by their works before they're saved. We all
did that, didn't we? Whether we were in religion or
not, we did it. Well, I'm a good person. No, you're not. So Paul's speaking of our justification
before God, and James is speaking of our justification before man.
The same gospel! You see? Who's the key to both
sides? Christ! Amen! Christ is the key,
isn't it? He works, what did Paul say?
With the grace of God which was with me. And we know in Colossians,
he says that worked in him. Worked in him. So there's no difference in the
gospel, they're just talking about Paul is talking about being
justified before God, and James is talking about being justified
before man, but they have the same gospel, beloved. Paul is
saying you cannot be justified by the works of the law, and
James is bringing forth that the works which believers do
are wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God. They're a result of our salvation.
They're a result of our regeneration, beloved. And they in no way justify us
before God. In no way. They're fruit of the
Spirit. Think of the love that we have
now for God. Think of the love that we have for the brethren.
Think of the love we even have for lost folks. Praying for them. Begging the Lord to save them.
Our family members and friends, right? We do that because we
love them, beloved. You wouldn't pray for someone
if you didn't love them. We're to love our enemies, aren't we?
Love those who despitefully use us. We're to love them, no matter
what. Whether people are in fellowship
with us or out of fellowship with us, we're to love them. We're to pray for them. Lift
them up. Lift them up. and peace with
God only comes in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're
new creatures in Christ, and it's Christ who's wrought these
changes in us by his almighty power, and he's done it for his
glory and honor and praise, hasn't he? He's done it for his glory,
honor, and praise. And James brings forth that we
will show man our faith by what we do after we embrace the gospel,
after we're born again. Look at verse 14 again. What
does it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have
not works? Can faith save him? So again, he's not talking about
justifying works before God. He's talking about works which
are wrought in us by the Holy Spirit of God after we're saved,
that accompany being born again, such as loving the gospel, such
as loving the scriptures, such as loving your brethren. You
see? It's the same gospel, isn't it? He's just talking about fruit. And think of this, faith which
does not save will not really profit us at all, right? It's
useless. If our faith doesn't save us, then it's useless, isn't
it? But our faith does save us, beloved. Because it's in Christ
and Him alone. And we're not able to save anyone
because we're sinners, and our righteousness then is full of
sin, and God will not accept any righteousness but a pure,
perfect righteousness. Where does that come from? The
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul's talking about.
This only comes, that pure, perfect righteousness only comes by Christ
dying upon the cross as a substitute of his people. And for a man
or woman to have faith and say that To have faith and to say they
have faith are two different things. Lots of people say they
have faith and they don't. Right? Man or woman may boast in their
faith and may think that they have it, but yet be absolutely
destitute of the true faith of God. Look at verses 15 to 17. 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
filled, Notwithstanding, you 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." So love or charity
here is an operative principle in faith, isn't it? He's bringing
forth, a man may pretend to be very charitable and never do
any works of charity, which is love. So a man can boast of faith
without the fruits, We see that in verse 15 to 17. They're boasting
of faith they have, but they don't have faith. It's destitute. So what will such faith avail
him or the poor? That which is spoken of here,
it won't avail any of them, will it? Won't help any of them. Not at all. Mock faith? Or fake faith is as hateful as
mock love or mock charity. They both show a heart dead to
real godliness. And they show a heart in an unregenerate
state still. No matter what the person professes
to believe. That's what James is bringing
forth here. If one is destitute of love for the brethren, they're
not saved. Because true faith will produce
love for the brethren. Do you see? True faith, if one professes
to love Christ and doesn't want to hear the gospel, well, there's
a problem there, right? If one professes to love Christ
and doesn't want to read the scriptures, doesn't want to have
anything to do with the Lord, there's a problem there, isn't
there? That faith is destitute. True
heart faith is that one thing, the only thing that's essential
to eternal life, right? And that true faith has one object,
and that's Christ. He is what is essential to us
and for us for eternal life. It's not faith in baptism. It's
not faith in good works. It's not faith in church membership.
It's not faith in a holy life or faith in anything else that
saves a soul. We're saved by Christ and Christ
alone. So James wrote this epistle primarily
to expose and silence a very grave error that had crept into
the church even during the apostolic age, and you know what? It's
still here. It's a flattering delusion generally
held by religious people even today, but it's a deadly, damning
error. Many suppose that a mere naked
assent to the truths of the gospel is saving faith. I believe that. Just a mere ascent, but it's
just a head knowledge. I know someone who can go toe-to-toe
with what we believe with someone, but they're not born again. I
know someone who's like that. I mean, they can go toe-to-toe,
they can tell people about what the doctrines of grace is straight
down the line, but they're not saved. They know the difference between
Arminianism and grace, and they could expound to you the differences,
and they do not know Christ. So it's not just a mere knowledge
of what we believe, is it? No, it's true saving faith. And
true faith is founded upon the Word of God. It's founded upon
the authority of the testimony that God has given concerning
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an act of regenerated heart
resting upon what the Word says. Resting upon the Savior who's
spoken of in this Word. True heart faith. In true heart, faith is built
upon the knowledge. Where there's faith, there must
be knowledge, and that knowledge comes only by divine revelation. Never forget that. True faith
comes about as a result of divine revelation. And we know that
to be true, don't we? We who are the people of God.
Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I'll
finish the rest next week. Glory be to our great God.